Are You Screening? Podcast

Oppenheimer, May December, American Fiction & More

As we run headlong toward our Best of the Year list, and the Can't Win Awards, we're trying like hell to get through as many films as possible... and it only works so well.
This week we finally get to Oppenheimer, which hit us pretty much as we expected... tune into to find out what that means. We're also looking at two real gems of the year, even if we didn't rate one of them that highly, May December and American Fiction.

Killers of the Flower Moon Review - Plus Award Drama & TV "Special Note"

This week we finally look at Killers of the Flower Moon as we head into our wrap up of as many movies we didn't get to as possible before our Best of the Year list and our "Can't Win" Awards.
Killers didn't really impress us, as is perhaps the case with several of the biggest titles this year, and we'll let you know exactly why.
Also, in a bit of a strange move as we waste time when we have better things to do, we talk about the Oscar snubs and how I unfortunately caused them, or predicted them, or something.
Finally, we're briefly revisiting The Night Agent and only because I mentioned it previously on the show after only watching three episodes.

Critics Choice Awards Winners Plus The Holdovers & Saltburn

The Critics Choice Awards happened and it was a great show once again. This week we look over the winners and let you know how we feel about them (and sometimes what I actually voted for), and we review (though rather quickly) The Holdovers and Saltburn.
The Holdovers got Paul Giamatti the win, and as we mentioned in a previous episode, he deserved it, and it was a year with some serious competition.
Saltburn hasn't managed a lot of love, and is becoming famous simply for the talk surrounding a couple of... well, odd, scenes, but the follow up to Promising Young Woman is still quite good... if odd.

Critics’ Choice Awards Noms & Leave the World Behind Review

You may be expecting our usual, end of year shotgun blast of reviews where we try to hit as many movies as possible each episode, but because this year threw off our ability to get a couple of episodes out - even as we prepare to add video to the mix - we've decided to run through some of the major categories of the Critics' Choice Awards nominations in order to highlight and discuss said nominees that way.
We will get you our take on several of the most noteworthy films that way, and review them "better" later, so at least you have some ideas going into award season.
We are also covering Leave the World Behind this week, though briefly, and mostly for a quick laugh.

Poor Things Review

In a wildly rare move... sort of, we are only covering one film this week, Poor Things. As usual for the pre-award rush, we've been hyping the fact that we would need to share several movies per episode, but this week... accidentally, we are laser-focused on Yorgos Lanthimos' latest, and this treat with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Defoe is certainly worthy of our attention... even if it isn't quite the 10/10 I was expecting. It is close though.

The Marvels & The Killer Reviews

This week we are really gearing up for awards season, which seems crazy. Before we get too close to four or five films a week territory, we have a couple of big titles to tackle, and neither of them impressed us much.
The Marvels is getting a wild world of pro and con commentary, but where does it really land, and why? The Killer, which is weirdly, The K__.ller, owing to the graphic novel, is a lot of potential that doesn't really amount to anything as cool as it should have been.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Review And More

This week we are taking a look at what turns out to be a truly special movie, Five Nights at Freddy's, at least in terms of messing with our ratings.
We're also covering a couple of other films, including Totally Killer.
As much as it may seem absolutely crazy, because we are very serious film critics, Five Nights played havoc with our thoughts about rating movies. So much so that we have been inspired to revisit our show from ages ago where we dive deep into how we come to our ratings. Look for that somewhere around the new year with our yearly lists and awards.

A Haunting in Venice Review

We're avoiding a lot of Halloween this week, but there's still "Haunting" in the title. While horror, or at least horror-ish, titles are moving around the box office rankings, we're looking at A Haunting in Venice, the third effort of a semi-vanity project.... just like in our last show.
Is this one worth your time, or has this gone on too long?

Equalizer 3 Review and more

This week, as we move from stellar box office, to the curious case of a winning holiday weekend... to the box office black hole, we're looking at the third installment in the increasingly curious Equalizer franchise.
This one is a vanity project that won't die, and while the first one was... fair enough, it's becoming hard to tell why we ever picked the name in the first place.
Does this one hold up? Is it worth your time? We'll let you know, and we're going to jump into a few other things as well.

Barbie Review

The shocking blockbuster that is Barbie has taken the year's box office by storm, and it is at the center of intense debate and... unusual awards talk.
So where does the film land when not merely analyzing the feminist debate within, and how does the film showcase Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and Ryan Gosling, apart from making a lot of money?
We'll let you know how well this one delivers.
Apologies for the a massive technical failure throwing things off a bit in the episode.