The Rolling Tape

We tried to get Guy Pearce on the phone to see if he’d like to appear on today’s episode. He said he was game, but when we called back to give him a rundown of everything, he acted like he had no memory of our conversation and no idea who I was. Very unprofessional. RETRO//RANKED is a Rolling Tape network series ranking the individual entries of beloved franchises and filmographies, timed to major...

Consider this a first for The Awards Tape as we decided to backtrack and provide an update on a little movie you may have heard of called Obsession . Yes, the $750,000 micro-budgeted horror film has taken over the box office as after three weeks in wide release, it's accumulated over $170 million worldwide, becoming the first film from Focus Features to cross $100 million in the North America...

Meet Famous Eddie Plein – the biggest fashion icon you never heard of. Eddie was the visionary behind grillz, the culture-changing dental jewelry that came to dominate the zeitgeist — celebrities, rappers, athletes, models, anyone who is anybody wears grillz. In his feature documentary, Mouth Full of Golds , Lyle Lindgren showcases the rise and fall of Famous Eddie’s Gold Teeth and the players sur...

Sara Ciplickas sits down with Michelle Visage , Executive Producer and Judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race . The two discussed season eighteen, her role in front of and behind the camera, and the progression of Queer television.  RuPaul’s Drag Race is a reality competition show hosted by world-famous drag performer and eight-time Emmy award-winning host, RuPaul . Contestants compete in design, comedy, dan...

Today we are officially closing the book on one of the biggest, most talked about, and complicated television shows of the last decade, HBO's Euphoria . Over the last few months, we've gone all the way back to Season One, revisited Season Two, and finally caught up with the third and final season of the series. Created by Sam Levinson and starring Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Sydney Sweeney,...

By the power of Grayskull, I unite fans of sword and sorcery, 1980s nostalgia, and homoerotic relationships between hero and villain because today we are discussing Masters of the Universe based on the media franchise by Mattel and the second live-action film adaptation after the 1987 film.  A new live-action film was announced in 2009 by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Following multiple writer, dir...

We're launching a brand new episode format: a recurring spotlight series dedicated to celebrating singular women in film, their work, their lives, their legacies, and what they mean to us. There's no more fitting way to kick things off than with Agnès Varda , whose birthday was recently on May 30th. Happy birthday, Agnès! Belgian-born French filmmaker Agnès Varda is widely known as the G...

It's only June but Awards season here at The Awards Tape just got a whole lot more complicated. This week we analyze the aftermath of the Cannes Film Festival lineup to break down the early Oscar frontrunners and discuss which titles generated the buzz to possibly translate to Academy recognition.  Then we turn to the bad news: a handful of titles we drafted earlier this season have officiall...

We are finally talking about the cult classic show, AMC's Interview With The Vampire . The AMC series first premiered in 2022 and is based on the beloved novels by Ann Rice. Over two seasons, it becomes one of the most acclaimed genre shows on television.  Thanks to standout performances from Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and Asad Zaman, and an incredible supporting cast with the Vampire Lestat r...

If you're not careful and noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in this podcast, but fret not we don’t have moist carpet, mono-yellow walls or endless fluorescent lights. What we do have is a review of Kane Parsons’ breakout horror hit with A24, Backrooms , and a watchalong of the original video that inspired the film in 2022.  Backrooms is directed by Kane Parsons in h...

Founded in 2013 by Sarah Mueller , cinéSPEAK has built a reputation in Philadelphia through public screenings, artist support, and accessible film events across the city. That mission returns to Clark Park this summer with the organization’s annual festival, Under The Stars .  Running every Friday from May 29 through June 19 in West Philly, the free festival combines live music and outdoor screeni...

It is time for our May READ RECEIPTS , a big screen book club from The Rolling Tape led by Kasey Dunifer ! Every month, we read a book that’s been adapted for the screen, then we share our receipts.  So if you like movies, or books, or movies AND books, you’re in the right place — and welcome to the club!  Today we are talking about something a bit different. Instead of a film adaptation, it is a...

The 79th Cannes Film Festival has come to an end, the Competition awards have been handed out, people have stood and clapped to their heart's content, and some of the most exciting films have debuted on the international scene. It was a first for The Rolling Tape to be live on the ground at the Palais as our Co-Editor-in-Chief Danny Jarabek and our amazing contributor Nandita Joshi trekked to...

The regional spring festivals around the country in late April and early May are a great check-in on a bucket of titles ranging from second screenings of Sundance and SXSW premieres from earlier in the year to undistributed titles from the previous year’s fall festival cycle. The Rolling Tape was in attendance and today we’re road tripping from Philadelphia to Chicago to Seattle to discuss our exp...

Low-class urban bitches it’s time to boost because after its premiere at SXSW on March 12, 2026, NEON has theatrically released Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters on May 22. We’ll review the San Francisco-adjacent anticapitalist satire before shifting gears through some post-production magic over to a LIVE COMMENTARY of the Cannes closing award ceremony that saw Fjord take home the Palme d'Or.  I...

For her first feature film, Le Triangle d’or , presented in the Special Screenings section at Cannes 2026, Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz joins Nandita Joshi live from the festival to discuss her work on the film. Going back to her last short,  Mambo Queens , Rosselet-Ruiz's often interrogates the intersection of femininity and class struggle, which present themselves as major themes of her first featu...

As the Cannes Film Festival rages on toward the end with premieres and social reactions flooding our feeds, The Awards Tape is shifting gears for a week to a new area of focus for the show, the Emmys. At the time of this recording, there are two weeks left in the window eligibility for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards for 2026. The nominations will be announced on July 8th, with the ceremony taking...

After her first two features, Relic and Apartment 7A , Natalie Erika James has cemented herself as a regular name to watch within the horror space. James is an Australian filmmaker, and Saccharine is not only her third feature film but also her second to have its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. James often centers her filmmaking in horror around the dread and atmosphere of environments rat...

Mariana Fabian joins director Jeremy Seifert for the Mountainfilm Festival premiere of Paper Town , a film that follows a paper mill that defined Canton, North Carolina, announcing its sudden closure. Filmed in real time, its is a raw look at a town blindsided by corporate silence and suspicious profit. As shock turns to anger, the people of Canton must navigate the wreckage of an industry that sh...

In a galaxy far, far away...we started our Star Wars journey long ago. Since then, we have encountered the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, theatrical spin-offs, and now, at last, the final episode to cap off our rankings. We rank the 2 most recent Star Wars theatrical releases: Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. These are two of the more controversial S...

Ceniza en la Boca had its World Premiere at Cannes 2026 in the Special Screenings section of the festival. The film is directed by Diego Luna and described as follows: Lucila leaves Mexico with her younger brother to reunite with their mother in Madrid, who had left a few years earlier to chase a better future. When they finally arrive, the bitter, suffocating reality that awaits them proves far h...

It’s been a horror sensation since it premiered at during Midnight Madness at TIFF in 2025, but Obsession directed by Curry Barker has finally made its way to wide release after Focus Features purchased the film for $15 million. We’ll review the YouTuber-turned-feature filmmaker’s breakout hit and blind rank horror’s history of cursed objects, including the One Wish Willow. Stay with us. Obsession...

The hit HBO series Euphoria is currently in full swing for its third season from creator Sam Levinson, and today we take a look behind the scenes with the full editing team who helped bring the show to life in post-production. The group shares their insights into crafting the tonal shifts of Season 3 and how they have evolved the show over time in reaction to the growing cast who offer a diverse a...

We are continuing with Season 6 of RETRO//RANKED by jumping into two unique entries into the Star Wars universe, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. Rogue One takes place immediately before the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. It is the ninth theatrically released entry in the Star Wars franchise. It hit theaters on December 16, 2016, and was directed by Gareth Edwards....

We are LIVE at the 79th Cannes International Film Festival with our first in-person recording. Danny Jarabek and Nandita Joshi are on the ground in the south of France adorned in couture and black tie for the world's biggest international stage of cinema. The lineup is set, the red carpet is rolled out, and the Palais is ready to go for the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival. We previously disc...