This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel return to the world of cinema with Fritz Lang‘s classic police procedural (and a prototype of the genre), M (1931), a film from Weimar Germany which hits a bit differently today, but no less powerfully. And then we venture into Brady Corbet‘s towering and inventive immigrant story (featuring an Oscar-winning performance from Adrian Brody, The Brutalist (1:07:37).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (M): 10 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (The Brutalist): 8.5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:50] Review: M
• [27:07] Review: The Brutalist
• [46:20] Spoilers: The Brutalist

Listen above, or download: M, The Brutalist (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel check out two very different takes on thirtysomething nostalgia for your teenage years, first with My Old Ass, starring Aubrey Plaza and feature newcomer Maisy Stella as the older and younger versions of the same person, meeting through the magic of psylocibin. And then we catch up with Luca Guadagnino‘s fraught and sexy tennis triad, Challengers (1:01:26).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (My Old Ass): 8/10 (Glenn), 8.5/10 (Daniel)
FilmWonk rating (Challengers): 8/10 (Glenn), 6/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [02:13] Review: My Old Ass
• [22:40] Spoilers: My Old Ass
• [36:23] Review: Challengers
• [52:58] Spoilers: Challengers

Listen above, or download: My Old Ass, Challengers (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel check in on the latest from director Yorgos Lanthimos and his Poor Things collaborators Emma Stone and co-screenwriter Efthimis Filippou (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Dogtooth), whose presence announces in advance that this is gonna be one of the weird ones. Additional weird ones include Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe, and everyone who ventures out to catch this one in theaters (36:34).

May contain NSFW language.
[CW: Self-harm, pregnancy loss]

FilmWonk rating: 8 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:44] Review: Kinds of Kindness
• [23:07] Spoilers: Kinds of Kindness
• We slightly misstated Stone’s awards history, which includes Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress in Birdman and The Favourite (both eventual #1 Glennies selections), and wins for Best Actress for Poor Things and La La Land.
• Yorgos Stefanakos, who appears in the film as R.M.F., did not appear in Dogtooth, but did appear in Poor Things, and is in fact a notary public and an old friend of the screenwriters of this film.

Listen above, or download: Kinds of Kindness (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel reunite with long-time friend of the pod Erika to review Furiosa, a return to the Mad Max saga which absolutely refused to rest on its laurels conceptually or thematically. Then, at Daniel’s behest, we “see what Jerry Seinfeld is up to” with Unfrosted, new on Netflix. And then we venture back to a gem of a crime dramedy from 2019, Lorene Scafaria‘s Hustlers (1:17:55).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Unfrosted): 7/10 (Daniel, Erika), 4/10 (Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (Furiosa): 9.5/10 (Erika), 9/10 (Glenn, Daniel)
FilmWonk rating (Hustlers): 8/10 (Glenn), 9/10 (Erika), 7.5/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [03:01] Review: Unfrosted
• [18:19] Review: Furiosa
• [41:38] Spoilers: Furiosa
• [55:38] Review: Hustlers

Listen above, or download: Unfrosted, Furiosa, Hustlers (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel check out Doug Liman‘s faithful and surprisingly enjoyable Road House remake, a film which somehow finds its feet with a western premise that was dated in the 80s, transplanted here into the Florida Keys, where that decade never ended. And then we reach back into 2023 for an epic of Biblical apocrypha by The Harder They Fall director Jeymes Samuel, The Book of Clarence, a mixed bag of religious satire which somehow manages to give The Life of Brian a run for its money. Exvangelicals should not miss this one (1:05:48).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Road House): 7/10 (Glenn), 7.5/10 (Daniel)
FilmWonk rating (The Book of Clarence): 7.5/10 (Glenn), 6.5/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [02:17] Review: Road House
• [27:17] Review: The Book of Clarence
• [53:13] Spoilers: The Book of Clarence

Listen above, or download: Road House, The Book of Clarence (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel check out The Beekeeper, an enjoyably uncomplicated John Wick retread which is heavy on bee metaphor and light on everything else. And then they check out The Kitchen, the near-future dystopian sci-fi film on Netflix, set in London’s last remaining social housing unit, and featuring the feature debut of actor Daniel Kaluuya as co-writer/co-director (53:59).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (The Beekeeper): 6/10 (Glenn), 5/10 (Daniel)
FilmWonk rating (The Kitchen): 7.5/10 (Glenn), 6.5/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [02:26] Review: The Beekeeper
• [21:04] Review: The Kitchen
• [45:11] Spoilers: The Kitchen
• The audiobook production of Vladimir Nabokov‘s Lolita that Daniel referred to was indeed narrated by actor Jeremy Irons, and is available on all audiobook platforms.

Listen above, or download: The Beekeeper, The Kitchen (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

CW: Discussion of abuse

This week, Glenn and Daniel follow the western genre into the oil-rich 20th century and the terror of white supremacy in the Osage Nation with Killers of the Flower Moon (55:22).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 10 out of 10

Show notes:

• [00:23] Review: Killers of the Flower Moon
• [39:33] Spoilers: Killers of the Flower Moon
• Native perspectives on Killers of the Flower Moon:
  • Gangsters are the villains in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ but the biggest thief of Native American wealth was the US government by Torivio Fodder at The Conversation
  • Joel (@trythebuffer)’s review on Letterboxd (via Twitter)
  • After “Killers of the Flower Moon,” There Are Many More Indigenous Stories to Be Told by Stephen Carr Hampton at Native News Online.
  • Indigenous ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ actors talk about their experiences during world premiere by Allison Herrera at KOSU (NPR).
  • A profile of Sundown, a 1934 novel by an Osage writer, John Joseph Matthews, written by Brian Phillips at The Ringer.
• The film features Fox News newsreel footage of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, and Daniel referenced another terrorist attack two years later in rural Levy County, Florida, the Rosewood massacre.

Listen above, or download: Killers of the Flower Moon (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, we do a #Barbenheimer (Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer), then split the difference of pastel colors, artifice, and nuclear testing with one we missed from June, Wes Anderson‘s Asteroid City. (1:05:52).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Barbie): 8 out of 10 (Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (Oppenheimer): 8/10 (Daniel), 7.5/10 (Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (Asteroid City): 8 out of 10

Show notes:

• [02:11] Review: Barbie
• [10:14] Review: Oppenheimer
• [55:56] Review: Asteroid City
• Check out Glenn’s 8/10 written review of Barbie:
  • “Barbie” (dir. Greta Gerwig) – Life in plastic
• We referred back to our podcast review of Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch:
  • FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #189 – “The French Dispatch” (dir. Wes Anderson), “Last Year at Marienbad” (1961) (dir. Alain Resnais)
• Thank you for listening.

Listen above, or download: Barbie, Oppenheimer, Asteroid City (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel face the destiny of Harrison Ford, who returns for his third and presumably final legacy sequel to a blockbuster franchise (barring any eventual return to Jack Ryan), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. But first, we check out the upcoming raunchy road trip comedy from Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim, Joy Ride, in theaters this Friday (1:10:24).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Joy Ride): 7.5/10 (Glenn), 7/10 (Daniel)
FilmWonk rating (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny): 4/10 (Glenn), 5/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [01:53] Review: Joy Ride
• [22:42] Spoilers: Joy Ride
• [34:53] Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• [54:35] Spoilers: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• I did indeed misremember – Daniel did not like Crazy Rich Asians as much as I did.
• Thank you for listening.

Listen above, or download: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Joy Ride (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel meet a Cocaine Bear (28:43).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 6 out of 10

Show notes:

• CORRECTION: We misstated Elizabeth Banks‘ involvement with the Pitch Perfect franchise – she directed Pitch Perfect 2, and was initially signed to direct Pitch Perfect 3, but exited the project as director in 2016, reprising her acting role only.
• “The pirate shanty movie” starring Margo Martindale from early in the pandemic was Blow the Man Down, which we reviewed in early 2020:
  • FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #164 – “Blow the Man Down” (dir. Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy), “Lady Macbeth” (dir. William Oldroyd)
• We referenced a tweet by Ben Crew (@BenjaminCrew1) on Twitter:

Listen above, or download: Cocaine Bear (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

CW: Mental health issues

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel find themselves in another February streaming season, as a trope-subverting rom-com drops on Prime Video with Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s new film, Somebody I Used to Know. But first, we check out a 2022 selection we missed, Aftersun, a father-daughter drama from director Charlotte Wells, making her feature debut to great acclaim (including several Best Director awards, and the DGA nomination for best first-time feature film) (58:50).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Aftersun): 9 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Somebody I Used to Know): 6 out of 10

Show notes:

• [02:01] Review: Aftersun
• [18:59] Spoilers: Aftersun
• [24:51] Review: Somebody I Used to Know
• [42:50] Spoilers: Somebody I Used to Know
• Cloudy With a Chance of Christmas is actually not on Hulu; it was a Lifetime film, and is available on Lifetime’s standalone streaming subscription, or as a paid rental.
• As promised, here is a list of the rom-coms Daniel watched over the holidays:
  • Puppy Love for Christmas -8.5
  • Merry Textmas – 5.5
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Christmas – 7
  • Mistletoe in Montana – 4
  • Hanukkah on Rye – 9
  • Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas – 6.5
• Thank you for listening.

Listen above, or download: Aftersun, Somebody I Used to Know (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Daniel is out sick, and Glenn makes a solo journey (and a bite-sized review) of Knock at the Cabin, the latest dire and sincere world of director M. Night Shyamalan, as an adaptation of a Paul G. Tremblay novel. Tune in next week when Daniel will be back to review Aftersun and a new streaming selection (10:55).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 6.5 out of 10 (Glenn)

Show notes:

• Check out our previous reviews of Shyamalan films:
  • FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #78 – “The Visit” (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
  • FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #97 – “Split” (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
  • FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #186 – “Old” (dir. M. Night Shyamalan), “Mosquita y Mari” (2012) (dir. Aurora Guerrero)

Listen above, or download: Knock at the Cabin (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week on the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel venture back to into the vast natural and technological ecosystem that is James Cameron‘s imagination, with Avatar: The Way of Water, a film we could hardly believe we were watching until the first frame actually appeared. Glenn also shares his spoiler-free thoughts on the myriad delights of Todd Field‘s Tár, a film which only feels impenetrable from the outside, and by design. And then we return to Force Majeure director Ruben Östlund‘s satirical Triangle of Sadness, which perhaps sails slightly off course but largely maintains its focus on razor-sharp satire of the privileged few (01:38:22).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Triangle of Sadness): 7 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Avatar: The Way of Water): 8 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:57] Intro: Tár (Glenn only)
• [13:21] Review: Triangle of Sadness
• [33:31] Spoilers: Triangle of Sadness
• [57:10] Review: Avatar: The Way of Water
• [01:25:38] Spoilers: Avatar: The Way of Water
• Assuming Twitter still exists by the time this episode drops, here is the tweet in which I mistook an old post from a fan account for Neytiri for an official account because it had one of Elon’s dumb little fake blue-checks. We regret and are amused by the error.
  https://twitter.com/legotrillermoth/status/1597438701751017472
• We cannot have the same experience as anyone else watching this film, nor is that experience monolithic. And we’ll be the first to admit we were unprepared when it came to the discussion of Avatar: The Way of Water‘s depictions of Indigenous tribes and tropes. Elevating Indigenous voices when it comes to a discussion of this film is both the right thing to do and makes us better film viewers. Here is some reading on the subject. If you find more, please send it our way. Each of these stories reference the same 2010 comments about the Lakota Sioux by Cameron, but they each interview a variety of other voices on the subject.
  • Indigenous People React to Director Comments, Cultural Appropriation in New ‘Avatar’ Movie by Darren Thompson (Native News Online)
  • Indigenous people slam Avatar (again) for tropes and inaccuracies by Samantha Chery (Washington Post)
  • James Cameron’s old comments prompt Native American boycott of new ‘Avatar’ sequel by Jonah Valdez (Los Angeles Times)
• We’ve talked a lot about Avatar:
  • 2009: James Cameron’s “Avatar” – A savage and gorgeous Eden
  • 2012: FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #19: “Titanic” (dir. James Cameron), Avatar, and the State of 3D Cinema
  • 2019: James Cameron’s “Avatar” (presented by 10 Years Ago: Films in Retrospective)
• We referred to a video on cruise ship economics – it was not from Wendover Productions (although that is an excellent channel) – it was actually from PolyMatter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY1BFv8qEeM
• Thank you for listening.

Listen above, or download: Tár, Triangle of Sadness, Avatar: The Way of Water (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, on the 200th Episode of the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel venture out into the world to check out a trio of dramas with an accidental common theme of violent revolution. First, we visit Athena (new on Netflix from director Romain Gavras), in which a Parisian tower block is under police siege and burning for answers and justice following the murder of a 13-year-old boy by three unknown men wearing police uniforms. Then we return to the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey world of Iranian director Shahram Mokri (who directed previous FilmWonk favorite Fish & Cat) for a Mobius strip of interconnected timelines all intersecting with the Cinema Rex fire, a real-life arson and disaster which caused hundreds of deaths and led (among other events) to the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 – that film is Careless Crime, and it is newly available for rent. And finally, we head to the watery delta of Saloum for an absolutely raucous African neo-Western (called a “southern” by its Congolese director Jean Luc Herbulot), as a trio of badass, Senegalese mercenaries hide out amid a thwarted escape from a military coup, navigating the strange and violent waters of a mysterious river town (new on Shudder) (01:24:21).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Athena): 7/10 (Daniel), 8/10 (Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (Careless Crime): 6 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Saloum): 8.5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [02:32] Review: Athena
• [25:01] Spoilers: Athena
• [36:02] Review: Careless Crime
• [58:59] Review: Saloum
• [01:12:24] Spoilers: Saloum
• Netflix released an amazing featurette on YouTube about the making of Athena – well worth a watch if you want to see how its many elaborate tracking shots, stunts, and pyrotechnics came together.
• Thank you for listening.

Listen above, or download: Athena, Careless Crime, Saloum (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel check out Prey, a taut new actioner streaming on Hulu featuring the Predator doing what it does best: being hunted on Earth in a film somewhere at the intersection of war, historical drama, and slasher flick. And then we venture into the colorful world of George Miller and much of his team from Mad Max: Fury Road, bringing to life an epic, supernatural romance and an unpretentious look at the nature of humanity (57:35).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Prey): 6.5/10 (Daniel), 7/10 (Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (Three Thousand Years of Longing): 7/10 (Daniel), 8/10 (Glenn)

Show notes:

• [02:08] Review: Prey
• [26:47] Review: Three Thousand Years of Longing
• [43:31] Spoilers: Three Thousand Years of Longing
• The book we mentioned was Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan, and it is an excellent oral history which is well worth a read or a listen (with interviews brought to life by a full cast of voice actors).

Listen above, or download: Prey, Three Thousand Years of Longing (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel once again return to the streaming world following a months-long, baby-induced hiatus with a film purpose-built to tug at fresh parental heartstrings, Don’t Make Me Go, from director Hannah Marks, new on Prime Video (39:12).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 6.5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [03:32] Review: Don’t Make Me Go
• [19:55] Spoilers: Don’t Make Me Go
• We referred back to one of the very early episodes of the podcast – check it out and see if our critical voices have gained any clarity after 10 years:
  FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #13: Jonathan Levine’s “50/50”

Listen above, or download: Don’t Make Me Go (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel consider watching a fourth-wall prodding, self-aware film in which Nicolas Cage plays dueling versions of himself, gradually crafting a screenplay and over-the-top conclusion to the very film that we’re watching. But enough about Adaptation. On to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. And then we check out an epistemological discourse on the multifaceted foundations of fascist thought, punctuated with fucking, because it’s time to watch a Radu Jude film, which regrettably felt like a pandemic-laden, stream-of-consciousness retread of I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians. (28:11).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent): 7 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn): 5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [00:59] Review: Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
• [17:54] Review: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
• We misstated the number of COVID-19 deaths per capita in Romania, which, as of this writing, is higher than the per-capita rate in the United States. See Statista for comparison. As an absolute rate, the US death rate (which stands at 989,000) is much higher than that of Romania. Not something we’re inclined to brag about in any case.

Listen above, or download: Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel wade into the dark, twisted, and borderline satirical look at marriage from Unfaithful director Adrian Lyne, Deep Water. But first, they follow Swiss Army Man directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan into their multiverse-spanning sci-fi epic/intimate family drama, Everything Everywhere All at Once (54:44).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Everything Everywhere All at Once): 9/10 (Glenn), 6/10 (Daniel)
FilmWonk rating (Deep Water): 7.5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:58] Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once
• [29:03] Review: Deep Water
• [42:10] Spoilers: Deep Water

Listen above, or download: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Deep Water (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel check out director Matt Reeves and lead Robert Pattinson‘s take on the Caped Crusader, the fourth in our jaded millennial lives, and find it largely acceptable. Then we check out a musical take on the fictionalized life of Cyrano de Bergerac, from director Joe Wright, adapted from the stage musical by Erica Schmidt, which Daniel thought was solidly fine, and which changed Glenn’s life forever as musicals sometimes do (1:08:53).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (The Batman): 7.5 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Cyrano): 8.5/10 (Glenn), 6.5/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [02:16] Review: The Batman
• [23:58] Spoilers: The Batman
• [43:34] Review: Cyrano
• The Cyrano soundtrack and score, which Glenn estimated at “probably 90 minutes of music”, clocks in at 1h18m, and has only continued to grow on him since the podcast recording.
• We referred to a blooper edit of the trial of Tyrion Lannister. Remember it?

Listen above, or download: The Batman, Cyrano (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel check out a pair of thrillers, starting with Blacklight, a Liam Neeson thriller currently only in theaters, which provoked rare agreement that it is one of the worst movies we’ve ever reviewed on the podcast. Then we found a breath of fresh air with Steven Soderbergh‘s Seattle-set (and Seattle-shot) thriller, Kimi, a thoroughly modern take on a Hitchcockian thriller set in the modern, tech-infused, poverty-laden corporate surveillance state in which we live, new on HBO Max.

Finally, speaking of Hitchcock, we concluded with the Strangers on a Train of romantic comedies, in which a thoroughly charming Jenny Slate and Charlie Day play a pair of new acquaintances who each conspire to undo the other’s recent breakup, with the messy and enjoyable I Want You Back, new on Prime Video (51:42).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Kimi): 8 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Blacklight): 2 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (I Want You Back): 7.5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [02:41] Review: Kimi/Blacklight
• [33:18] Review: I Want You Back
• Glenn just wrote a 10YA re-evaluation of Liam Neeson in The Grey, a film that improved with age, which made Blacklight even harder to stomach.
• Kimi prompted us to look up what happened to the Arkansas first-degree murder case that hinged on evience obtained from an Amazon Echo device – the case was eventually dropped due to what prosecutors declared was insufficient evidence to support a murder charge.
• Derek DelGaudio has a small and important role in Kimi, which gave us a chance to plug his excellent 2021 Hulu special, “Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself“.

Listen above, or download: Kimi, Blacklight, I Want You Back (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel return to the elaborate moral maze of Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi with A Hero (now streaming on Prime Video). They debate what’s right and wrong, and whether moral complexity that feels calculated can still effectively serve a good story. Then they venture into the rich narrative world of novelist Elena Ferrante, as adapted by first-time director Maggie Gyllenhaal, with The Lost Daughter (now streaming on Netflix), for a different sort of moral complexity, examining the role of women who find themselves unsuited for motherhood (01:13:35).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (A Hero): 7.5 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (The Lost Daughter): 6/10 (Daniel), 8/10 (Glenn)

Show notes:

• [01:37] Review: A Hero
• [17:24] Spoilers: A Hero
• [38:05] Review: The Lost Daughter
• [52:51] Spoilers: The Lost Daughter
• CORRECTION: We misstated a couple of details about A Hero. It was filmed in the Iranian city of Shiraz, not Tehran. And while the film was selected to compete for the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, it actually won the Grand Prix, which is considered the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme D’Or.
• We referred back to a review of a previous festival selection, Glory, a Bulgarian political satire about a character who finds a bag of money on the railroad tracks, which came to mind while watching A Hero. As of this writing, Glory is available for streaming on Tubi.
• We also referenced Foxcatcher, The Green Knight, and A Bigger Splash.
• We referenced film critic Alissa Wilkinson‘s excellent write-up of The Lost Daughter over at Vox – check it out here: “Untangling Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter“.
• At Daniel’s request, I also read Armond White‘s awful review of the film (which has an equally awful headline) at National Review, which I will not link here, but you’re welcome to google if you want to welcome that into your life.

Listen above, or download: A Hero, The Lost Daughter (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel are joined by returning guest Megan to do a Scene Unseen-style review of a sequel we both greatly anticipated, The Matrix Resurrections (which Daniel was unable to see last week). Then Megan – both Japan expert and marvelous wife to Glenn – delivers a brutal reminder of the healthy interplay between fandom and family by disdaining director Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s new adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, Drive My Car, which we both compared to previous #1 Glennie selection Birdman, and which Megan referred to as “pretty far up its own ass”. Glenn agreed, but the movie also made him cry, so we sort that out together, as one does.

This will be our last episode for 2021. Thank you for listening for another year and we wish you well (01:31:17).

CW: Pregnancy loss
May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (The Matrix Resurrections): 7 out of 10 (Megan/Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (Drive My Car): 5/10 (Megan), 7/10 (Daniel), 8.5/10 (Glenn)

Show notes:

• [02:02] Review: The Matrix Resurrections
• [19:17] Spoilers: The Matrix Resurrections
• [45:35] Review: Drive My Car
• [01:03:39] Spoilers: Drive My Car

Listen above, or download: The Matrix Resurrections, Drive My Car (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel welcome back Erika to check out the directorial debut of Halle Berry in Bruised, in which she stars as a disgraced MMA fighter trying to connect with her estranged son. And then we check out Jane Campion‘s gorgeous, but narratively unfocused adaptation on toxic masculinity in the early 20th century American West, The Power of the Dog, which provoked a wide range of reactions on the podcast. Both films are now available on Netflix. (01:24:17).

*CW: This episode contains mentions of suicide, alcoholism, familial and intimate partner violence, and rape, as pertains to the subject matter of each film.
May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Bruised): 5/10 (Erika), 6/10 (Daniel), 7/10 (Glenn)
FilmWonk rating (The Power of the Dog): 3/10 (Daniel), 5/10 (Glenn), 9/10 (Erika)

Show notes:

• [02:01] Review: Bruised
• [26:34] Spoilers: Bruised
• [39:58] Review: The Power of the Dog
• [55:46] Spoilers: The Power of the Dog
• There was a minor technical issue with the remote recording, and it is occasionally possible to hear a brief echo – we edited this out as much as possible, and we do apologize for the disruption.
• CORRECTION: Jane Campion was not the first woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director – she was second (for The Piano, for which she would win the award for Best Original Screenplay). The first woman to be nominated for Best Director was Lina Wertmüller for the 1976 Italian film, Seven Beauties.
• Erika plugged the 1989 TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, which is streaming on StarzPlay as well as for rent on multiple platforms.

Listen above, or download: Bruised, The Power of the Dog (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel once again had a busy week as a Marvel film came out for us to review by itself, and we promise that’s a coincidence. Academy Award-winning director Chloé Zhao tries to tell a tale as old as time and bring a new superhero team to life. Tune in as we give Eternals more credit for ambition than execution, in that good, Chronicles of Riddick sort of way (49:43).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 6 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:36] Review: Eternals
• [25:53] Review: Eternals

Listen above, or download: Eternals (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel check out a French Dispatch, and a series of meandering vignettes which may or may not coalesce into a coherent narrative. And it’s up to our intrepid podcasters (with special guest and friend of the show Jason) to determine which is which. First, we check out Wes Anderson’s vision of The New Yorker as a star-studded anthology film, then venture back to the 1961 French Left Bank film, Last Year at Marienbad, a bizarre and experimental film that mesmerized us (01:01:03).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (The French Dispatch): 5 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Last Year at Marienbad): 7.5 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:09] Review: The French Dispatch
• [25:35] Review: Last Year at Marienbad
• Connect with Kanopy via your local library, and you too can watch Last Year at Marienbad!
• Daniel referenced an extremely self-aware Wes Anderson interview in The New Yorker:
  “How Wes Anderson Turned The New Yorker into ‘The French Dispatch’“.
• Daniel referred to a real-life incident not depicted in the film which occurred during the May ’68 protests: student protestors temporarily occupied (and attempted to set fire to) the Bourse (the Paris Stock Exchange). The building did not burn down (it is largely built of stone), and still exists today as Euronext Paris.
• The matchstick game in Last Year at Marienbad is Nim, which features a variety of mathematical strategies you can read all about on Wikipedia.
• We mentioned a few previous review selections that came to mind while reviewing Marienbad, including Holy Motors, Under the Shadow, Fish & Cat.

Listen above, or download: The French Dispatch, Last Year at Marienbad (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

*CW: This episode contains mentions of suicide, substance abuse, familial and intimate partner violence, pregnancy loss, and rape, as pertains to the subject matter of each film.

This week, Glenn and Daniel check out the misfiring adaptation of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, whose narrative problems stem as much from its original book as from its later casting decisions, then differ sharply on James Wan‘s ’80s VHS bargain bin throwback, Malignant, whose “Seattle”-set monster antics charmed one and perplexed the other (1:11:05).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Dear Evan Hansen): 4 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Malignant): 7/10 (Glenn), 2/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [02:27] Review: Dear Evan Hansen
• [32:28] Review: Malignant
• [43:51] Spoilers: Malignant
• Daniel went all the way back to the early days of the FilmWonk Podcast by referencing the 2010 film from writer/director Adam Green, Frozen (not that one), a survival horror flick that takes place entirely on a stalled ski lift with three skiers trapped aboard, which we reviewed all the way back on Episode #5.

Listen above, or download: Dear Evan Hansen, Malignant (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel gaze back into last week, when Glenn wrote 2,000 glowing words about writer/director David Lowery‘s rich, gorgeous, legendary tone poem The Green Knight, which captured both of our imaginations. And then we venture into James Gunn‘s post-Super return to R-rated comic book storytelling, in a American intervention tale straight out of the Cold War (not in a good way), which is never quite sure whether it’s doing the thing or satirizing the thing. But The Suicide Squad is a hoot-and-a-half nonetheless, and we really can’t blame the film for pretending its precursors don’t exist (1:12:15).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (The Green Knight): 9 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (The Suicide Squad): 7 out of 10

Show notes:

• [02:04] Review: The Green Knight
• [12:18] Spoilers: The Green Knight
• [30:40] Review: The Suicide Squad
• [52:35] Spoilers: The Suicide Squad
• CORRECTION: In my eagerness to draw parallels between A Ghost Story and The Green Knight, I carried forward an error from my original review by stating that the films shared a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is not correct. AGS was indeed 4:3, but TGK was actually 1.85:1.
• As promised, here is my debate with Somebody on Twitter about whether The Green Knight is “too dark” – a criticism I found legitimately baffling at the time. They clarified that this was a s pecific aversion to the use of natural lighting, which they felt was a poor fit for this specific story. I still don’t agree, but they did do a very good job of clarifying their position, and we can always use more nice, friendly interactions on Twitter.
• [Minor spoiler] We mentioned Gawain’s “supernatural side-quest” involving a ghostly maiden who asks him to retrieve her decapitated head from the bottom of a marsh. We didn’t know at recording time that this was a representation of Saint Winifred, whose biography makes her reaction to Gawain’s vague proposition of a quid pro quo even more understandable.
• Check out this excellent interview by Carlos Aguilar of Variety with the makeup and prosthetic team at BGFX that helped transform actor Ralph Ineson into the Green Knight.
• The Film Twitter argument I (rather poorly) alluded to was inspired by RS Benedict‘s seminal article on the avoidant sexuality of the modern American blockbuster, “Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny,” as well as Caroline Siede‘s excellent write-up of the long-neglected romantic adventure film genre, “Long before Jungle Cruise, Hollywood mastered the adventure romance genre.”
• Polka-Dot Man’s mom was played by Lynne Ashe, previously seen in I, Tonya.

Listen above, or download: The Green Knight, The Suicide Squad (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel see what’s new from the twisted mind of M. Night Shyamalan, who now has a body of work that we actively look forward to, however we end up reacting to each film. And then we go back to 2012, to check out an overlooked indie coming-of-age LGBT teen romance from that year’s Sundance Film Festival, Mosquita Y Mari, from director Aurora Guerrero (49:18).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (Mosquita y Mari): 8 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Old): 7 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:26] Review: Mosquita y Mari
• [16:46] Review: Old
• [27:28] Spoilers: Old
• Daniel first heard about Mosquita y Mari from a plug on the Twitter feed of Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev), an excellent political writer and scholar of online right-wing extremism – her book, Culture Warlords, is definitely worth a read if you’d like some insight into how the United States got into the mess we’re currently in as a country.
• Glenn declined to re-litigate Moonlight on today’s episode, in which Daniel chose violence by casually referring to it as a “depressing slog” – check out our Moonlight review on our 100th episode.
• The movie starring Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando was The Missouri Breaks, a 1976 western directed by Arthur Penn. Probably not worth a stabbing or a cartoon portrayal of schizophrenia.

Listen above, or download: Mosquita Y Mari, Old (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel check out ScarJo‘s MCU swansong, and perhaps the start of an action blockbuster career for director Cate Shortland (40:17).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 7 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:30] Review: Black Widow
• [25:33] Spoilers: Black Widow

Listen above, or download: Black Widow (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)

This week, Glenn and Daniel return to the car play franchise where the F stands for Fast, Furious, Family, and Fhysics. And then we venture back to 1959 to review Look Back in Anger, a play adaptation starring Richard Burton as a working class bloke in post-war Britain who hates his life and his wife (played by Mary Ure) nearly as much as he hates himself. We explore whether the film/play which spawned both kitchen-sink realism and the “angry young man” trope can still resonate even 60 years on (01:05:55).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating (F9): 6 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Look Back in Anger): 8 out of 10

Show notes:

• [01:52] Review: F9
• [29:42] Review: Look Back in Anger
• [46:28] Spoilers: Look Back in Anger
• On the subject of Dom’s signature Dodge Chargers, check out this excellent piece of journalistic film writing from Priscilla Page, who has behind-the-scenes details on every one of Dom’s cars from 20 years of the Fast franchise.

Listen above, or download: F9, Look Back in Anger (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play)