Are You Screening? Podcast

Best Movies of 2017

We usually come pretty close in our ratings, but our lists often end up very different. This year, much to my surprise, things surprised me. As our long-time listeners know, Shane limits himself (mostly) to things we cover on the show, whereas I'm open to everything. Even that didn't make much difference to our lists this year, except that I had a couple I had to throw in the mix.
In the end, we might have put things in different positions, but one movie had our number this year.

The Darkest Hour, The Post & Bright Reviews

As we try to catch up to awards season, we get into stranger and stranger combinations. Darkest Hour has seen Gary Oldman finally getting his due as we head to the Academy Awards, and The Post has turned the award season into one for the books as the paint-by-numbers awards darling has been pretty well shut out.
Meanwhile, since Netflix has turned bonkers fantasy into something everyone is talking about, we threw Bright into the mix as well.

Lady Bird & The Man Who Invented Christmas Reviews

The end of the year makes for odd mixes and you could hardly find two movies that fit worse in a double feature. On the other hand, despite the lack of attention Christmas fare managed this year, The Man Who Invented Christmas is a film that may well catch continued life for years to come. 
Meanwhile, Lady Bird has a Golden Globe and it certainly deserves it. 
As we catch up with everything this year and prepare for our Best Lists extravaganza, we'll let you know what's still to come for award season and which films need your attention.

The Disaster Artist & I, Tonya Reviews

It's a weird week of pseudo-biopic films and as award season heats up, these two films are getting attention that you couldn't have predicted six months ago. Both The Disaster Artist and I, Tonya are not only managing a lot of attention for their performances, but they are avoiding a lot of attention you might have expected when it comes to the odd treatment of their respective subjects.
We'll let you know if these need to make it to your list of films you need to see and offer up some more general opinions on the award season this year.

The Shape of Water & 3 Billboards Reviews

You could hardly have two movies getting award attention that are more different than The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. A wild, sci-fi fairy tale about a mute who befriends a mer-creature, and the story of a woman who is tortured by her daughter's murder and the inability of the local police to provide her with any closure.
Both films are making serious plays as awards season approaches, and both are deserving.
But, are they as good as everyone says, and do you need to get to them as fast as you can? We'll let you know.

Justice League and Wonder Reviews

Justice League managed to bounce back in its intro in a way that few movies can, but it doesn't seem like it's enough to truly turn the sentiment of the public at large. Wonder Woman won over audiences tremendously, but it seems as though DC still has a problem with where it left Batman and Superman.
Does it up the game, or has much the DC comic effort become the lost wanderings aiming at piles of money that much of the public seems to suspect? We'll let you know, but you probably won't be very surprised.
We're also covering Wonder, a film that turns out to be quite a surprise, even if only in the extent to which it isn't a giant pile of syrup.

Murder on the Orient Express Review

Apart from avoiding news at all costs, we're reviewing Murder on the Orient Express this week, and it's a more interesting adventure than you might imagine. The review, that is.
Not simply a time-honored classic, but also a film that seems to defy being remade, Orient Express is a film that has to make you wonder what exactly Branagh has in his bonnet. Of course, we all know that he just wanted to get the money to do Death on the Nile.
At any rate, the movie is a strange feature for many reasons, not least of which is the curious case of no one talking about it for awards. What happened here? We'll let you know.

Thor Ragnarok, Suburbicon & The Foreigner Reviews

In a year that has ultimately been rather disappointing, a comic-book hero film that doesn't take itself seriously won over audiences, but is it really any good, or is it just better than the last few months of offerings?
We'll let you in on everything you need to know about Thor: Ragnarok, and the huge surprises that came from Suburbicon and The Foreigner. Two films would be hard-pressed to have a wider gap of expectations and the results probably shocked us more than anything else this year.

Blade Runner 2049 Review

Blade Runner 2049 was nerve-wracking for us, and not just because at least one of us love the original. The box-office doesn't reflect the cult status of a film that was truly a game-changer for the sci-fi genre, but the critical response was pretty positive leading up to this one.
Listen in and we'll let you know where this one falls compared to the original, and whether or not it's going to ultimately achieve the same kind of zeitgeist success.

American Made Review

American Made had so much going for it that we found ourselves chomping at the bit, which is somewhat unusual for this kind of "true story" effort, and a lot of what the film delivers should have won us over. Unfortunately, it didn't quite come together in the way we expected and it ultimately left us wanting something more to show up.
We'll let you know if this is the right film for you and whether or not you need to add it to your list, and we'll give you the scoop on industry news and more.