A24 On The Rocks

The Movie Mind Melt crew continues their spooky season journey by reviewing the 2023 film Strange Darling starring Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. In this 70s grindhouse horror film, a serial killer is haunting the Pacific Northwest. Strange Darling unfolds over 6 non-linear chapters, constantly subverting expectations. Written and directed by J.T. Mollner, studios initially didn't like the...

The Humans was originally a Tony award winning play written by Stephen Karam about a Catholic family from Pennsylvania that meets for Thanksgiving in a New York City apartment. The buzz around the play was so huge, that eventually, Karam got the film adaptation greenlit. Although it was one of the most well-reviewed movies of 2021, it ran under the radar during the awards season, why was that? The...

On the latest Movie Mind Melt, we have one more blind ranking for you to kick off spooky season, and that's our top 16 Stephen King films! Ray invites on daughter Alex for this gruesome affair. Where do the schlocky 80s films land? Where do the non-horror King movies land? How have some Stephen King films aged? And, are the best Stephen King movies the ones that diverted from the novel? We deb...

In this 2021 Mike Mills film (director of 20th Century Women), Joaquin Phoenix plays a radio journalist named Johnny who is tasked with looking after his nephew Jesse (portrayed by Woody Norman) due to his sister Viv (portrayed by Gabby Hoffman) taking care of her bipolar husband who is having a manic episode. Jesse quickly breaks boundaries with Johnny and tries to get him out of his shell, while...

On the second ever Movie Mind Melt, these film reviewers attempt to blind rank the top 16 films from the 1960s. It was the decade of counter-culture, the transition from Old Hollywood to New Hollywood, a dead president, and an out of control military industrial complex. Ray invites on an old friend who used to be a movie usher with him in Paul, and it creates a group of four people with widely dif...

This week the A24 Rocks crew reviews the first sequel that A24 ever distributed in The Souvenir Part II. Written and directed by Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir Part II picks up where The Souvenir left off, with Julie reeling from the death of her boyfriend Anthony after he overdosed. Julie is still in film school, though, and quickly decides to turn her pain into art. She doesn't exactly have a plan fo...

In the inaugural episode of Movie Mind Melt, these film reviewers tackle a movie that literally features heavy maze motifs. Prisoners is a 2013 film directed by Denis Villeneuve, and starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gylenhaal, Terrence Howard, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, and Maria Bello. It's about two families whose children are abducted and a detective running through mazes to find them. When a suspe...

Hey there it’s Eric. You may have noticed we’ve changed our name from A24 on the Rocks. As we’ve discussed in a previous announcement, due to A24 investing in AI and taking billions in venture capital money, we’re changing the idea of our podcast so we’re not a walking billboard for A24. We now introduce you to: Movie Mind Melt, a podcast that reviews films that ask deep and perplexing questions a...

The A24 Rocks crew delves into the Icelandic folk horror film (with a little bit of handball) Lamb. Starring Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Lamb is about a couple named Maria and Ingvar living in rural Iceland with a flock of sheep. Come summer, one of the sheep births a creature of curiosity: a half-human, half-lamb. The situation becomes more tense when Maria and Ingvar's brother Pet...

On the last ever A24 vibe discussion (big announcement coming in two weeks), these film reviewers invite on Steven Spielberg super fan Josh Keemig from Keemig Movie Reviews (https://www.instagram.com/keemig.movie.reviews/) to blind rank the top 16 Steven Spielberg films of all time. What Spielberg films will round out the bottom of the list? Will these movie critics choose a blockbuster, or one of...

As Dan and Becky are on vacation, the original cast of A24 Rocks comes back to review one of the most beloved A24 films of all time in The Green Knight. Directed by David Lowery, and starring Dev Patel, The Green Knight is about a nephew of King Arthur playing a Christmas game with a fantasy creature called The Green Knight. The Green Knight challenges someone in King Arthur's court to give hi...

Zodiac is a 2007 film directed by David Fincher and starring Jake Gylenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo. It covers the infamous Zodiac killings in the late 60s and early 70s in the Bay Area, and how a cartoonist named Robert Graysmith became obsessed with the case, and eventually wrote a book about it. The A24 Rocks crew discusses the messages this film sent about media frenzies, conspira...

Val is a documentary about the Top Gun and Batman star, and late Hollywood heartthrob Val Kilmer. Many knew him from his blockbuster films, but didn't know the more personal aspects of his life, and his struggle with throat cancer. The A24 Rocks crew reviews this autobiographical documentary, and the host sparks some heated debate: was this a poignant autobiography or did it whitewash the more tro...

On this week's A24 Vibe Discussion, the A24 Rocks crew goes back to the 2010 Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan. Natalie Portman won an Academy Award for her role as Nina in this psychological-horror movie about a ballerina who wins the prima ballerina role in the Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake. Nina is groomed and taken advantage of by her teacher Thomas (portrayed by Vincent Cassel), while she has h...

Based on a 148 tweet thread (that is partially based on a true story), Zola is a film about a Detroit stripper named Zola (portrayed by Taylour Paige) who meets a woman named Stefani (portrayed by Riley Keough) and decides to take a road trip down to Florida to dance in a club down south. Things quickly go awry when Zola realizes X (portrayed by Colman Domingo), the man driving the car, has other...

Tommy likey, Tommy want a top 20 90s comedy blind ranking! This is what happens when five dude's get together and try to blind rank their favorite 90s comedies. It's chaotic, it's slapstick, it disregards cinematic taste, and it creates debates about if Fargo belongs on the list. How many Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Jim Carrey movies can they fit on here? It is a true race to the b...

False Positive is a 2021 psychological horror film starring Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, and Pierce Brosnan. It's about a woman named Lucy who's having trouble conceiving with her husband Adrian. They go to a fertility doctor named Dr. John Hindle who promises Lucy that she will become pregnant. Little does she know, this will turn into the pregnancy from hell. The A24 Rocks crew debates...

From the A24 on the Rocks podcast- in light of A24’s recent AI research partnership with Google Deepmind where they’ll be taking a $75 million investment from Google to develop AI powered filmmaking tools, we have decided that we’re going to finish out reviewing the 2021 year of A24, then we will pivot to a different podcast idea. This podcast idea will keep the same spirit of the podcast, where w...

On this A24 vibe discussion, Eric's sister Amy (a Hans Zimmer fanatic) joins the A24 Rocks crew in blind ranking the top 16 best original film scores of all time. This doesn't include soundtracks, or musicals, just original film scores. Ludwig Goransson, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Bernard Hermann, Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross... all the best film composers will duke it out to nudge their way...

The A24 Rocks crew reviews another "American Dream" story in Minari, a film about a Korean family that moves to rural Arkansas while Jacob (the dad, portrayed by Steven Yeun) tries to make it as a farmer growing Korean vegetables. The family adjusts to this new life in Arkansas while Jacob and his wife Monica struggle with their relationship. When Grandma Soonja moves in, she brings pieces of home...

The much anticipated Euphoria Season 3 was finally released this year, after four years of waiting. Much has happened since season two was released back in 2022. The production of season three seemed plagued from the start with scheduling conflicts, Sam Levinson taking a break to direct The Idol with The Weeknd, and rumors of Zendaya nixing scripts for poor writing. Meanwhile, Sydney Sweeney went...

Recordings made in November of 1990.

We have officially reviewed and watched 100 A24 films! Hooray! On this long, strange journey, we meet a familiar foe: a horror film about a woman with mental health issues. Saint Maud is about a Roman Catholic woman named Maud (portrayed by Morfydd Clark) with a traumatic past who comes to nurse for a woman named Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). Maud has hallucinations and constantly feels the presence of...

On this A24 vibe discussion: Eric, Ray, and romance authors Tana Jenkins and Beth Gelman blind rank the top 16 romantic comedies of all time. Kevin sadly got hit in the head with a baseball at a Brewers game and spent the night in the emergency room. Sappy, screwball, seductive, serendipitous... what direction will these four take, and how will their own personal experiences effect the overall rom...

The A24 Rocks crew finally gets to the namesake of their podcast, Sofia Coppola's On The Rocks (said in a whisper) starring Rashida Jones, Bill Murray, and Marlon Wayans. Rashida Jones plays Laura, a new mom and author with an eccentric dad named Felix, and a husband named Dean who is getting his start-up off the ground. One strange move by Dean leads Laura down a path of suspecting Dean is cheati...