Afterthoughts

In the second episode of our mini-spotlight series on anime cinema, the Afterthoughts crew is jumping from the fantastical fairytale world of Hayao Miyazaki. We're catching the next interstellar transport ship out to Shin'ichirô Watanabe's jazzy sci-fi western film (and related series) as we discuss Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001). Is it able to stand on its own if you don't know anything about the...

This week on Recommend or Refute, Ryan follows up on our Scott Pilgrim episode and dives into the new Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023) , Dixon gets uncharacteristically nostalgic talking about  The Simpsons Movie (2007) , and John scrapes the bottom of the trash heap with Neil Breen's latest dumpster fire  Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023) .

With the impending release of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and The Heron (2023) , we've decided to kick off a short series of anime film discussions to ready ourselves for the visual feast Studio Ghibli is sure to serve up. What better way to start that than with a Hayao Miyazaki joint? Join Dixon, Ryan, and John as journey into the waste and the war-torn lands of Howl's Moving Castle (2004) to discus...

We're talkin' about some shiny new movies this week. Ryan breaks down the latest and greatest comic book green screen extravaganza with  The Marvels (2023) , Dixon struggles to articulate the emotional experience of Godfrey Reggio's new film  Once Within a Time (2023) , and John double dips with the heartbreaking documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) and the John Carpenter horror...

Travel forward one hour , eight minutes , and fifteen seconds with the Afterthoughts crew as Dixon, Ryan, and John discuss Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2020).  Aside from this film being a charming, grounded, and oddly cohesive story about time travel -- Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) is also our first ever Listener Request episode. We're excited to set our vocal time dilation devices...

Hot off the heels of Schlocktober and the Austin Film Festival, the Afterthoughts crew is bringing a balanced mix of recommends and refutes to the table. John talks the end of Schlocktober with Deathrow Gameshow (1987) , Ryan has a radical time talking about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated movie, and Dixon brings an Austin Film Festival pick. Plus some bonus recommends from the Austi...

This week we watched a nostalgic film for John and Ryan. We're fighting off our seven evil ex-podcasts as we break down Edgar Wright's visually bold adaptation of the graphic novel  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) .

Special guest Eric is back for a round of Recommend or Refute with the usual crew. As we ramp down from spooky season (and John makes the final push through Schlocktober), we've brought one last seasonal sampling of horror and schlock for your eager ears. Join us as we talk through an Italian Star Wars knock-off, Robert Rodriguez's latest attempt to make hypnotism thrilling, and two classic horror...

We're capping off Spooky Season with an in-depth discussion of the most upsetting new movie of the year, Martin Scorsese's ambitious epic about family, betrayal, and America's original sin,  Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) .

Join the Afterthoughts crew for another round of Recommend or Refute. On the third and final 2023 Spooky Season edition, John brings us another Schlocktober entry with the redundantly titled Rage of Vengeance (1993) . Ryan goes door to door with the horror anthology Trick 'r Treat (2007). And Dixon counter acts the schlock with Hitchcock as he pulls back the shower curtain on the classic horror th...

We're closing out Spooky Season with a fuckin' doozy, folks. Join us as we break down the beautifully horrifying acid trip that officially launched the Nicolas Cage Renaissance, Panos Cosmatos' uncompromising, neon-soaked nightmare Mandy (2018) .

The spooky season continues with more terrifying recommendations and refutations! Join John as he tries to keep loose cannons Ryan and Dixon in line. How many movies are those two maverick renegades going to sneak into this round of rapid fire reviews? Well if you read the title you already know there are four titles on the table, but the crew is hell bent on smuggling in tangential titles leading...

Enter the depths of Ingmar Bergman's dark, waking nightmares as we discuss his horror masterpiece Hour of the Wolf (1968) , starring two of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen, Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman. This monumental film would go on to influence horror classics like Eraserhead, The Shining, Hereditary, The Lighthouse, and countless others. Today it remains one of the most ch...

We're back at it again. John embarks upon the pointless annual journey he calls Schlocktober with the movie that started it all: John Landis' directorial debut Schlock (1973) . Ryan tackles another horror franchise with The Conjuring (2013) , and Dixon probably gets a little too political with his discussion of Michael Radford's adaptation of the dystopian George Orwell novel 1984 (1984) . Dixon i...

It's Spooky Season and on this episode we rev up the horror factor with Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Does this horror darling deserve the acclaim and infamy, as well as the various disappointing follow-ups? Hop in a van with Dixon, Ryan, and John as they discuss which 25 year old "teenager" annoys them the most (it's Franklin), what meanings could be instilled in the slaughterhouse subtext of t...

It's that time of the week when we recommend or refute things. Dixon fawns over the original live action  Beauty and the Beast (1946)  and compares it to the modern Disney versions.  John breaks down the 70s classic The Amityville Horror (1979) , and Ryan's back on his anime shit with One Piece (2023) .

This week we're talking about a love letter to 1970s blaxploitation cinema, Michael Jai White's Black Dynamite (2009) .  Throw on your leather coat, strut down the street, and give the episode a listen.

It's an anime-heavy Recommend or Refute this week. Ryan breaks down the laboriously titled Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (2022) , Dixon discusses the Robert Altman comedy classic M*A*S*H (1970) , and John talks about the American dub of the Japanese anime Kureyon Shin-chan (2006) .

This week we're embarking on a journey into the subconscious dream space of David Lynch. Join us as we attempt to decipher one of the great cinematic masterworks of the 21st century,  Mulholland Drive (2001) .

We've got the whole crew back in the studio this week. John breaks down  2010: The Year We Make Contact   (1984) , the overlooked sequel to Kubrick's groundbreaking masterpiece. Ryan revisits a controversial childhood movie with Steven Spielberg's  Hook (1991) , and Dixon Kelly Reichardt's latest indie dramedy  Showing Up (2023) .

DISCLAIMER: This episode contains the sound effect used from the film to render tinnitus , it's only used in the opening trailer clip used. If you are sensitive to this sound, skip to timecode 1:46 to bypass it. On this episode of Afterthoughts, Ryan, John, and Dixon talk about the existential dread of loss, grief, and change endured in Sound of Metal (2019). We could make some puns about high not...

John and Ryan are joined again by special guests Jimmy & Erika for an animation heavy Recommend or Refute episode. Do the new animated offerings of 2023 like Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken and Nimona serve up anything worth watching? Has John fallen off the "good movies" wagon this early with his submission of The Bees ? All of these questions and a Nostradamus-inspired recommend from Jimmy are...

After 20 years of production, The Venture Bros. series has been capped off with Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (2023) . Never heard of the Venture Bros.? Wondering if you should watch through the Venture Bros.? John and Ryan --joined by new guests Jimmy and Erika-- celebrate the series, review the new movie, and hopefully give you the itch to dive in yourself and see what it's all about.

On this episode of Recommend or Refute, John tells us a story about the unhinged Little Red Riding Hood movie Freeway (1996) , Ryan admirably manages to make zero in-law jokes during his review of the new comedy The Out-laws (2023) , and Dixon fans the flames of interest around Robert Bresson's  The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962).

This week we're discussing the incredibly timely sci-fi film  The Congress (2013) , in which Robin Wright, playing herself, is faced with the choice of whether to sell her likeness to a Hollywood studio that will use it to make artificially generated movies. Sound familiar? Ari Folman's prescient work also explores drug use, virtual reality, and class division in a society crumbling under late sta...