Peak Viewing

Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is… kind of amazing? We’re not exactly shocked that culture has spent the past 30 years ignoring this movie, but we’re certainly disappointed. This loud, melodramatic adaptation of the monster story is not only the most faithful in terms of plot, but also in terms of tone. As a result, we’re big fans! Just don’t ask us what was going on with those eels...

Two years ago, we watched Hammer’s rendition of The Mummy, and we were not impressed. One year ago, we watched Hammer’s rendition of Dracula , and we were blown away! This week, we watched Hammer’s rendition of Frankenstein, and we were, uh, somewhere in the middle? Between the frankly bad monster makeup, the lazy storylines, and the incredible mad scientist lab, it’s safe to say we have mixed fee...

Bride of Frankenstein is a solid contender for the most unhinged sequel of all time. It’s a marvelous blend of humor, horror, whimsy, and sadness that keeps you on your toes every minute. There’s little lab-grown people in jars, interesting reinterpretations of scenes from the novel, a picnic in a tomb, and almost five minutes of screen time for the titular character! We get into it all, including...

Monsters are back on the menu! After we had a grand time covering Dracula and Nosferatu films last year, this year we’re talking about Frankenstein to coincide with Guillermo Del Toro’s new spin on the old classic. We’re starting with 1931’s Frankenstein, the James Whale film that arguably set the standard for what Frankenstein would mean more so than the original novel. You better believe we’ve g...

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World might be the most underseen movie we’ve covered on this show (well, maybe the most underseen this century ). Part of that obscurity is due to the Islamophobic times in which it was created, and part of it is that it’s simply just okay at best. Some of the questions we do our best to answer this week include: Could we write a 500-page report? How well did this...

Is Albert Brooks losing his edge? It’s the question posited by 1999’s The Muse, in which Brooks plays a screenwriter who feels left behind in a frustrating and absurd Hollywood. As he tells a story that would seem to be inspired by his own life, we find ourselves more disinterested than in previous films. Naturally, we take that feeling and channel it into several off-topic tangents! Mobile games...

Brooks follow-up to Defending Your Life is a smaller, simpler movie about what gets passed on from mother to son. As two sons of two mothers, we have some takes! While this is ultimately perhaps the least-relatable to us of this miniseries, we still discuss Albert Brooks and Debbie Reynolds’ chemistry, the multiple references to movies we’ve covered on this show, off-brand Snickers, document stora...

As Ari Aster put it, Defending Your Life is “the feel-good movie for people who identify as feeling routinely bad.” Albert Brooks vision of the afterlife may be fully realized and wondrous, but it’s what it has to say about our own plane of existence that is really profound. We discuss everything about it, along with what clips would play at our own trials, the one or two poorly aged jokes, and ho...

This week we talk about Lost in America, the mid-life crisis movie to end all mid-life crisis movies. Albert Brooks is skewering baby boomers who watched Easy Rider one too many times, and we’re asking the big questions. What age do you have to be to consider it a “mid-life” crisis? How much is the nest egg in 2025 dollars? What’s the deal with New York, New York? Could you live in a Winnebago lon...

Picture a man. Now give him all of the worst, most awful (non-violent) possessive traits you can imagine. Now picture a movie all about this man, and you might have something approximating Albert Brooks’ sophomore feature, Modern Romance. This damning indictment of the modern dating man was written decades before terms like “toxic masculinity” entered our everyday vocabulary, and for that reason i...

Today we embark on a journey through the comedies of Albert Brooks. His first film, 1979’s Real Life, is a wonderful send up of reality TV, a genre of entertainment that effectively didn’t even exist yet! We discuss the myriad of ways this movie was ahead of it’s time, the interconnected web of alt comedians in this time period, a few embarrassing film blinds spots we still have, and of course, th...

We’re taking one last dip into the Coens filmography with Ethan and Tricia’s new film Honey Don’t! This may not exactly be a "great" movie, but it’s enough of a step-up from Drive-Away Dolls that we both walked away somewhat impressed. We share our observations on audience reactions, IMDb plot keyword sickos, the hottest new addictive mobile game, and how we can no longer trust our own moviegoing...

Tony Scott’s 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 is unfortunately the kind of remake that has all the edges sanded off. What was once a story about corruption and scorn in the hearts of all men has been retooled into a tale of just two men, one on a righteous path and the other tumbling down the crime-ridden ravine. Are they different? Are they the same? What was Henry’s secret agenda from las...

Our shortest miniseries to date focuses on two films, the original from the 1970s and the remake in the late aughts. This week we’re talking about 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, the original story of criminals hijacking a New York subway car. Samuel read the book, and he’s disturbed! Henry heard the dialogue, and he’s delighted! We discuss the flavorful style of this movie, from the pe...

Now that we’re done with the movies Joel and Ethan Coen made together, we move on to the “solo” projects. We already covered The Tragedy of Macbeth last year as part of our Denzel Washington miniseries , so it’s on to Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, a lesbian road comedy made with his wife Tricia Cooke. This movie (which we both found to be equal parts strange, funny, and bad) has its fair share of...

This week we discuss the final (?) film Joel and Ethan Coen made together, a western anthology that is tonally all over the place. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs may not be our favorite movie from the two brothers, but there is something remarkable about seeing all their styles and themes blended into six particular stories. In this tangent-filled episode we also discuss Detroit: Become Human, the o...

As far as Hollywood send-ups go, Hail, Caesar! is pretty good. As far as Coen brothers movies go, Hail, Caesar! is… well, it’s near the bottom of our rankings. That’s not to say that this star-studded satire isn’t worth your time, it’s just, eh… we haven’t an opinion. On this episode we also get into Henry’s secret undercover job, Spielberg’s forgotten WWII film, and Hobie’s failure to keep it so...

This week we need no carpet on our floor. Come along and follow us as we talk about Inside Llewyn Davis, a love letter to the early 60s folk scene that is also one of the Coens most well-crafted stories. So don’t miss the train we’re on, don’t know that we’re gone, listen on as we discuss the film and go on tangents about what the best desserts are, Samuel’s hot (or not hot!) takes on leftovers, t...

It’s time to go back to the Wild West and discuss the western masterpiece True Grit. The Coen brothers’ second film based on a novel is another grounded no-nonsense work of adaptation, but they still find plenty of avenues to insert their own unique voice. In between comparing this to the (great) Charles Portis novel, we also discuss Hailee Steinfeld’s wonderful performance, Carter Burwell’s effec...

Today’s Coen brothers film is perhaps their most idiosyncratic, an enigmatic and existential nightmare with more questions than answers. And while A Serious Man grapples with the hard-hitting questions as to the nature of our universe, we’re asking the really stupid ones! What’s the optimal office cubicle setup? Why are TV antennas not a solved problem? And what’s that movie where a character is a...

This week we’re getting in a run and talking about the raw intelligence with Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan's zany follow-up to No Country for Old Men that remains a somewhat under-seen gem. Between the dancing gifs, wacky performances, and memorable lines, this is a very iconic movie that’s near and dear to both Henry and Samuel. So buckle up, keep an eye on everyone, and report back to us wh...

Bust out your air guns and lucky quarters, it’s finally time to talk about arguably the most celebrated and beloved Coen brothers film, No Country for Old Men. Based off of the 2005 Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, this film is a wonderful example of how adaptation can be an additive process instead of simply reductive. We get into the comparisons between the two works of art, along with pl...

No film has been more forgotten in the Coens filmography than The Ladykillers, their stab at a 1955 British comedy set in the 21st-century American South. Like many movies we cover on this show, it falls into the realm of peaks and valleys. Everything Tom Hanks is doing? A peak! Joel and Ethan trying to write Black characters? A valley! As we try to untangle our feelings about this macabre and sur...

We are returning to the Coen brothers to finish off the second half of their career after covering the first half last year. Starting off this week is Intolerable Cruelty, the forgotten romcom that came right in the middle of their less-appreciated early 00s run. Despite it’s lackluster central romance, we still find plenty to talk about relating to George Clooney’s teeth, asses getting nailed, wh...

It’s time to trust Tom Cruise one last time in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. This final (?) chapter in cinema’s most consistent action franchise has some of the greatest stunts put to screen. It also has some of the most confusing storytelling choices, and is tonally kind of a disaster. We do our best to untangle this web and answer the most top-of-mind questions. Questions like shoul...