Are You Screening? Podcast

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.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Review Part One Review

The Impossible team is at it again, sort of, and this time they find themselves up against a whole new kind of enemy. The cultural boogeyman of the decade is AI and there's no reason our Impossible heroes shouldn't jump on the bandwagon.
It's no secret that Cruise uses the franchise to... work out some fantasies, and the question has long been whether or not it all comes together to deliver something that holds up to the first couple of films. We'll let you know where this one lands.
We've also got some bonuses for you, running you through some of your other screening options.

Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny Review and More

After a bit of a break we are running full steam into massive, tentpole season, although many of them don't seem to be doing quite as well as we might hope. 
There was a time that Indiana Jones might have made twice as many movies and the all would have killed, but we aren't exactly in those times, and the question of whether or not a new Indy adventure is worth it is... well, a fairly live question.
We'll let you know if this one is worth your time, and we have some bonuses to discuss as well.