Filmspotting

Film critic and author Alonso Duralde joins Michael Phillips to explore a piece of filmmaking wisdom from Vincente Minnelli: that a picture which stays with an audience is built from “a hundred or more hidden things.” Drawing on films ranging from Meet Me in St. Louis , Some Came Running , If Beale Street Could Talk , and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma , they consider how product...

PV & FRANNY A girl with a glockenspiel. A boy with a guitar. A high school full of weirdos, mascots who may or may not be unhinged, and a mystery that isn’t what anyone thinks it is. A dead-serious love story… that refuses to behave like one. One flier turns into a band. One band turns into obsession. And before they ever play a real set, everything is already ridiculous. ACT TWO...

As David Lynch's Blue Velvet turns 40, Adam and Josh revisit the film that shocked audiences and helped define modern American cinema. Is it Lynch's masterpiece? Plus: Massacre Theatre and Josh’s thoughts on Practical Magic 2 and Paul Greengrass's The Uprising .  This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just t...

Blue Velvet turns 40 this month—Adam and Josh have a Sacred Cow review coming later this week—so we're going back to 2014 for our Top 5 David Lynch Scenes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alexander Ullom's It Ends is a daring little piece of microbudget drama about four friends at transition points in their lives, who find themselves in a place where life and death no longer hold any meaning. Whether it’s a film about despair, about the afterlife, about the human condition, or all of the above, is up for discussion this week, as well as how It Ends fits into this current mome...

For a few days in the summer of 2024, the world’s attention was focused on Dr. Rachel Gunn — and not for anything good. Gunn, aka “Raygun”, was representing Australia at the Paris Olympics in the inaugural breakdancing competition, when her infamous performance became the subject of mockery, outrage, and even conspiracy theories. That’s the subject of the new Netflix...

Film noir expert Rachel Walther joins Michael Phillips to test a quote commonly attributed to Jean-Luc Godard. But whether it belongs to Godard, Howard Hawks, or someone else entirely, it points to a persistent question about what audiences really want from movies. From Gun Crazy and Double Indemnity to Jackie Brown , No Country for Old Men , and the James Bond franchise, they consider the endurin...

PV & FRANNY A girl with a glockenspiel. A boy with a guitar. A high school full of weirdos, mascots who may or may not be unhinged, and a mystery that isn’t what anyone thinks it is. A dead-serious love story… that refuses to behave like one. One flier turns into a band. One band turns into obsession. And before they ever play a real set, everything is already ridiculous.   A...

When  Coyote vs. Acme was shelved in 2023 for a corporate tax write-off, the response from film fans was as swift as a roadrunner and as explosive as a pile of TNT. When it was picked up by another distributor (Ketchup Entertainment), the outrage turned to anticipation – justifiably so, say Adam and Josh. Plus, they honor the late Tim Curry with a review of The Rocky Horror Picture Show...

With the new Oasis doc Don't Look Back in Anger coming soon to theaters—and inspiring this month's ⁠Movie Death Match⁠ ( The Last Waltz vs. Stop Making Sense )—we're sharing Adam and Josh's Top 5 Music Docs from 2023. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the writer/directors of Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , Apple TV’s Cold War comedy Mayday was a promising title on the 2026 streaming movie calendar. Unfortunately, Matt and Jordan agree that the film isn’t the equal to those earlier films (no thanks to a phoned-in performance from Ryan Reynolds), despite a clever premise and the presence of Kenneth Br...

Alexander Ullom’s feature debut,  It Ends , has been billed as a horror movie, but it’s more of an existential exercise wrapped inside a genre premise. That same description could be applied to  Solaris , though Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 science-fiction classic takes nearly twice as long to ponder the nature of life in a situation where death has no meaning anymore. So th...

Chris Klimek convenes a battle of the bands between two of the most acclaimed concert films ever made: Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense and Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz . One is a lean, propulsive document of Talking Heads at the height of their powers, transforming a live performance into something theatrical and strangely transcendent. The other is a star-studded farewell to The Band that...

SUBURBAKNIGHT: Act Three Walter Knope has spent most of his life avoiding confrontation. That is about to become difficult. Walter, Samantha and Bobby Joe cross the street armed with a sword, a crossbow, a mace, a revolver and one deeply impractical suit of medieval armor. Richard is waiting. So is the rest of the neighborhood. Inside Richard's house they discover the party has evolved into someth...

With The Dog Stars  in theaters, Adam and Josh invited Vulture’s Roxana Hadadi to the show for a Ridley Scott Draft. Picks one and two are easy: Alien or Blade Runner . But what about the third pick? And will divisive Scott films like  Prometheus and Kingdom of Heaven get any love? Plus, a Golden Brick nomination for the new  Filipiñana, thoughts on the passing of...

With Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars in theaters and our own Ridley Scott Draft (with Vulture's Roxana  Hadadi) coming Friday, we're sharing this 2017 Sacred Cow review of Scott's sci-fi classic. Michael Phillips joined Adam and Josh. Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠ .  See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

When the story of a movie’s financing and troubled post-production are more compelling than the movie itself, you’ve got problems. And in this case, you’ve got Desert Warrior , a 7th-century, Saudi Arabia-set — and financed — epic starring Anthony Mackie along with Sir Ben Kingsley and Sharlto Copley. Matt and Jordan review the Rupert Wyatt-directed curiosity, and use...

The Platt family is barely surviving, and that’s before their neighborhood is inexplicably dropped millions of years into the past and overrun by hungry dinosaurs.  The End of Oak Street  isn’t nearly as concerned with explaining that premise or exploring its characters as it is with facilitating dino mayhem and nostalgia for the films of writer-director David Robert Mitchell...

Film critic Robert Daniels ( ⁠RogerEbert.com⁠ , The New York Times ) joins Michael Phillips to test one of Hollywood's most enduring bits of studio wisdom, attributed to producer Samuel Goldwyn: "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union." From I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang , High Noon , and The Best Years of Our Lives to Origin , Don't Look Up , and Triangl...

Adam and Josh return with guest Rico Gagliano ( MUBI Podcast ) for Part 2 of their Top 5 Needle Drops. This episode brought to you by Anderson, Linklater, Fincher, and Scorsese.  Notes: -The Sigur Rós song “Starálfur” means "staring elf," not "little elf." Josh harmar mistökin. Feedback: -Email us at feedback@filmspotting.net⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠- ⁠Ask Us Anything⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠ and w...

Rico Gagliano ( MUBI Podcast ) joins Adam and Josh for the Top 5 Needle Drops, a conversation so robust we split it in half. Plus, the new  It Ends earns a Golden Brick nomination, and listeners tell us the best third feature since 2020. This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits.  Use code FILMSP...

David Robert Mitchell’s  The End of Oak Street  drops an ordinary family into extraordinary circumstances, forcing them to focus all their energy on surviving— and maybe, just maybe, learning to understand each other along the way. That structure, combined with  Oak Street ’s Spielbergian spectacle, pointed us toward 2005’s  War of the Worlds,  whic...

In 2023, Adam and Josh took another look at 1988's Midnight Run for its 35th anniversary. The Robert De Niro/Charles Grodin action comedy was an early and somewhat controversial inductee in the Filmspotting Pantheon, a decision they use their conversation to defend.   Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠...

Happy Madison Productions is now cranking out movies starring two generations of Sandlers: paterfamilias Adam and daughters Sadie and Sunny. Earlier this year, Sadie starred in Netflix’s college-set Roommates , and now it’s Sunny’s turn in Don’t Say Good Luck , a tear-jerker that pairs family drama with high school musical drama. And it’s a pairing that Matt and Jorda...

Film music historian and journalist ⁠Tim Greiving⁠ , author of John Williams: A Composer's Life , joins Michael Phillips to explore one of the foundational dilemmas of movie music, courtesy of legendary composer Max Steiner: "The hardest thing in scoring is to know when to start and when to stop." From King Kong and The Adventures of Robin Hood to Jaws and Star Wars , Michael and Tim trace the his...