2 Cents Critic

Tune in as Arthur’s Mom returns to 2CC for a discussion on Home Alone, the 1990 Christmas classic whose third act could have expanded into its own feature-length home invasion thriller. The hosts also touch on the state of airport security pre-9/11, the possibility of magic granting Kevin’s wish, and never being too old to be afraid. Directed by Chris Columbus (Harry Potter), Home Alone stars Maca...

Tune in for Arthur’s thoughts on The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo🌠, the 2017 fiction novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & the Six) that follows 79-year-old Hollywood superstar Evelyn Hugo as she bares to amateur magazine reporter Monique Grant the joys, the agonies, and all the shades of gray in between that constitute her long and complicated life. Monique’s job is to memorialize all...

This isn’t any regular old review, listeners. Nope, 2CC is presenting its first ever author interview (albeit one that kicked off with a technical blunder)! Arthur has brought on historical romance author Manda Collins, whose work includes A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem, the Studies in Scandal series, and the Ugly Ducklings series, with her latest release being An Heiress’s Guide to Decepti...

Tune in for Arthur’s two cents on Netflix’s Red Notice, the high-flying heist flick that cost a whopping $200 million, making it the Big Red N’s most expensive original production to date. Additional side topics include the application of Last Action Hero logic to Red Notice, the ruthlessness of strangulation as a murder method, and the surprising number of times that Arthur brings up 2015’s Ant-M...

Tune in for Arthur’s breakdown of the well-constructed flashbacks, the memorable fight scenes, the fleshed-out villainy, and more in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the 25th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the superhero franchise’s first entry to star a predominantly East Asian cast. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy), Shang-Chi stars Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er...

Tune in as Liam Gareau (Deep Feels podcast) hangs out on the program to discuss Finch, the Apple TV+ flick that launches Tom Hanks, a dog, and a robot on a buddy road trip through a solar flare-ravaged world. Plus, the episode includes bonus bits like Arthur failing to recall that Hanks is a two-time Oscar winner, the hosts’ shared admiration for Jeffrey Wright, and a Garbage Town deep cut. D...

Due to a slight alteration in the schedule, 2CC is launching Off the Cuff, an experimental bonus series that may or may not continue in the future. Arthur’s mom makes her guest-hosting debut to chat with her son about Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, the cast of Christopher Nolan’s J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic, the Baroness in The Sound of Music, the bottle of spoiled milk that is Chris Pratt, whethe...

Tune in for Arthur’s opinions on It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover, author of numerous books like November 9, Ugly Love, and Verity. Following 23-year-old protagonist Lily Bloom as she falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, Hoover’s 2016 New Adult contemporary romance is an empathetic and heart-wrenching navigation of the cycle of domestic violence and the reasons why someone would stay wit...

Tune in for Arthur’s breakdown of The Push by debut author Ashley Audrain. Having been advertised as a psychological thriller, this much-hyped novel about chillingly dysfunctional mother-daughter dyads is actually much more of a psychological drama. But don’t think that diminishes any of the slow-burn shudders and anguish that you’re sure to experience over the course of the novel. TW: child negle...

Tune in for Arthur’s thoughts on Steelstriker, the second and final entry in the Skyhunter Duology by Marie Lu (Legend, Warcross). Like the first book, this sequel brings out the dystopian YA tropes: “special rebel youngsters lead an insurrection against a dictatorial government,” “post-apocalyptic world built on the ashes of a technologically advanced civilization,” and “psychic bond romance.” Is...

Tune in for Arthur’s two cents on What If…?, the Disney+ nine-episode animated anthology series that takes the various characters and events we’ve followed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and shows us the divergent paths they head down throughout the parallel realities of the multiverse. In addition, Arthur declares that T’Challa and Chadwick Boseman are cinnamon rolls, does a Megamind impression...

Tune in as Judith and Roxana (Books n Things Podcast) drop by to discuss The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch, the sci-fi thriller that follows NCIS Special Agent Shannon Moss’s twisty and grim journey through space and time to solve a murder investigation that might be linked to the impending doom of everything we know and love. Ah yes, terrifying, isn’t it? The hosts also touch on topics like the...

Tune in for Arthur’s take on Under the Whispering Door, the contemporary queer fantasy novel by TJ Klune (The House in the Cerulean Sea) that follows selfish and heartless lawyer Wallace Price as his soul embarks on a posthumous journey of kindness, empathy, and self-transformation. What Arthur felt for THCS🌅 is too precious to put into words, so it isn’t a surprise that UWD🚪 leaves him feeling...

Tune in for Arthur’s review of Cruella, the 2021 Disney prequel that wants to be Joker, The Devil Wears Prada, Maleficent, Ocean’s 11, and a sprinkling of M. Night Shyamalan’s Split for kicks. A diatribe about Paddington 2 losing its 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, befuddlement over dog murder of more than one kind, and a rundown of the numerous times when Disney has bragged about their first openl...

Tune in for Arthur’s thoughts on The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. Her third #ownvoices contemporary romance stars Anna Sun, a violinist who seeks out a one-night stand after her boyfriend Julian announces that they should try an open relationship before making plans to tie the knot, and Quan Diep, the tattooed and motorcycle-riding cousin of Michael Larsen from the author’s debut novel The...

Tune in for a pod crossover as Arthur welcomes Beth and Maddie (Off The Book Podcast) onto the show for a review and recap of The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (The Bride Test, The Heart Principle). If you want to hear them talk about a book that’s essentially a gender-swapped Pretty Woman starring an econometrician with high-functioning autism and a hapa male escort, you’ve come to the right place...

Tune in for Arthur’s two cents on The House in the Cerulean Sea, the contemporary fantasy novel by TJ Klune (The Extraordinaries) that takes the “found family made up of magical children on a remote island” element of the Miss Peregrine series and infuses it with the irresistible whimsy of Roald Dahl and The Mysterious Benedict Society. TW: Child abuse that took place in the past, bigotry that tak...

Tune in for Arthur’s take on CODA, the heartwarming family film that centers around a teenage Child of Deaf Adults (CODA) whose singing ambition clashes with her lifelong charge as the interpreter for her hearing impaired parents and brother. Having made headlines when Apple bought it for $25 million at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the movie is now streaming on Apple TV+. Directed and written...

Tune in to hear what led Arthur to give Hang the Moon, the latest #ownvoices queer romcom by Alexandria Bellefleur (Written in the Stars), the first ever windup score of 100/100 in the 2CC catalog! Lavender-scented Breathe Right nasal strips, linguistics, the Rick Astley Paradox, and more will all be covered on this episode. Spoilers start at 8:00 Good Word: Fresh by Margot Wood Reach out at email...

Tune in for Arthur’s review of The Mysterious Benedict Society, the eight-episode Disney+ TV show adapted from the 2007 children’s book by Trenton Lee Stewart. Co-created by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (co-writers of Aeon Flux and The Invitation), the show stars Mystic Inscho, Seth Carr, Emmy DeOliveira, Marta Wessler, Tony Hale, Kristen Schaal, MaameYaa Boafo, Ryan Hurst, and Gia Sandhu. Spoilers...

Tune in as Arthur teams up with special guests Ryan LaPlante and Tyler Hewitt (Dumb-Dumbs & Dragons, Garbage Town) to discuss the Amazon Original time-travel blockbuster, The Tomorrow War. Just how little training do the draftees get before the military dumps them off in the future? Is Chris Pratt the most boring Chris out of all the Chrises? Are the Whitespikes a ripoff of the aliens in Edge...

Tune in for Arthur’s two cents on Black Widow, the 24th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the superhero franchise’s second female-led picture, and the first title to (finally!) give top billing to Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. It was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on May 1, 2020, but COVID-19 left Disney to delay it to November 6, 2020, then May 7, 2021,...

Tune in for Arthur’s take on Loki, the third Marvel Cinematic Universe show to stream on Disney+. It stars Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer, Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, and Tara Strong as Miss Minutes, with Michael Waldron (Rick and Morty) serving as creator/head writer and Kate Herron (Netflix’s Sex Educati...

Tune in to hear Arthur rhapsodize about Silver Tears by Camilla Läckberg, her spellbinding sequel to The Golden Cage (which I highly recommend you read before listening to the general review, since it spoils major plot points in TGC). Let’s just bow down to the Faye Adelheim supremacy, all right? TW: Domestic abuse, gang rape, incestuous rape, murder, a pedophilic villain, misogyny, suicidal eleme...

Tune in for Arthur’s opinions on Luca, Pixar’s 24th film (but not before he momentarily digresses at the beginning to touch on his faulty Wi-Fi that had most likely been caused by the Pacific Northwest heat wave, followed by the matter of that garbage bag Bill Cosby being released from prison). Directed by Enrico Casarosa (the 2011 Oscar-nominated Pixar short La Luna) in his feature-length directo...