2 Cents Critic

Tune in as Vanessa Ondi ( Best Week Ever Podcast ) returns to 2CC for a dive into One of the Good Guys, the 2024 thriller novel by Araminta Hall that follows the secrets rising to the surface when a man searches for a fresh start in the wake of his broken marriage by moving to a tranquil place out on the coast, where he befriends an intriguing artist and then gets drawn into the mystery of two you...

Tune in as Andy ( Fat Dude Digs Flicks Movie Podcasts ) returns to the podcast as it rolls out the 2026 Oscars recap! Another awards season has passed us by, and it's fitting to say that this year was relatively enjoyable compared to all the messy toxicity from last year (remember Emilia Pérez?) Timothée Chalamet’s comment on ballet and opera, contrasting opinions towards F1, Diane Warren’s pe...

Tune in as several friends of 2 Cents Critic jump back onto the podcast and celebrate it turning five years old! Guy Bradford ( Jesters of Ravenloft: A D&D Podcast ), Hannah and Rebecca ( Can I Spoil Something? ), Jessica Hart ( Totally Bombed ), Robert “Stew” Stewart ( Stew World Order ), Rolo Tony ( These Guys Got Juice ), and Seth Vargas ( Movie Friends ) are all teaming up with Arthur for...

Tune in as Hannah, Rebecca, and Sarah ( Can I Spoil Something? ) head back to the program in order to unpack The Summer Hikaru Died, the 2025 coming-of-age cosmic horror anime series that follows a pair of teenage boys as one of them realizes that his friend isn’t quite here anymore, having been possessed by an eldritch being. The queerness that’s written all over this show, the sexy tree, compari...

Tune in as Andrew ( @_theinsomniaclibrary_ ) collaborates with the podcast for a discussion on Heated Rivalry, the 2019 queer sports romance novel by Rachel Reid that follows star hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov as their eponymous rivalry quickly and secretly turns into a years-long dynamic of spice and then love. Shane being autism-coded up the wazoo, comparisons between this book...

Tune in as Betsy Gorham ( Never Seen It with Betsy and Trent ) jumps back onto the program for a dive into The Beekeeper, the 2024 action movie about a beekeeper who dishes out his secret capacity for stepping outside of the law and enforcing justice to take revenge on behalf of a close friend who got swindled by a phishing scam. The effort that this invests into supporting elderly people while po...

Tune in as Rolo Tony ( @PoorOldRoloTony  and  These Guys Got Juice ) regains his seat at the 2CC table for a breakdown of Better Man, the 2024 jukebox musical biopic that recounts the tumultuous life of former Take That member Robbie Williams while reimagining him as a chimpanzee. The hollowness and the parasocial terror of fame, “Come Undone” and “She’s the One” standing out as particularly splen...

Tune in as Kate Hergott ( Bookwild ) circles back around to the program in order to explore The Paradox Hotel, the 2022 sci-fi mystery-thriller novel by Rob Hart that follows an ill and grief-stricken head of security for a luxury time-travel hotel, which becomes the site for a bloody corpse that’s present and yet isn’t at the same time. The cheerful sort of nihilism, sympathizing with January in...

Tune in as Gizmo ( @basedgizmo ) joins in for a plunge right into Last Night in Soho, the 2021 horror film about a fashion design student who’s just moved to present-day London and gets all wrapped up in what appear to be initially glamorous and increasingly terrifying visions revolving around a young woman in the Swinging Sixties. The heavy inspiration that this draws from giallo, how this portra...

Tune in as Rolo Tony ( @PoorOldRoloTony ) hops back into his guest chair for a review and recap of Shoot ‘Em Up, the 2007 action movie about a carrot-munching drifter who puts his mastery of gun fu to good use by going on a mission to protect a newborn baby from an assassin and his many goons. Comparing this bonkers ride to flicks like John Wick and Falling Down, the spanking gag and other moments...

Tune in as Jessica Hart ( Opinionated Lushes ) jumps back onto the show for a breakdown of Despicable Me, the 2010 animated movie about a super-villain who pursues a dastardly mission to prove that he’s the best bad guy around by stealing the moon, all while having to deal with taking care of three orphaned girls. Gru standing out as a subversive antihero, dysfunctional family baggage, trying to l...

Tune in as Rolo Tony ( @PoorOldRoloTony ), who’s a Vegas-Residency cohost on  These Guys Got Juice , rejoins the podcast in order to navigate Predestination, the 2014 timey-wimey thriller about a time-traveling operative’s efforts to defeat a terrorist and the repercussions that this mission ends up having in its own intricate fashion. Drawing connections from this film to Looper and Tenet, the wa...

Tune in as Cory McCullough, AKA Gory Cory ( ⁠gorycory.net⁠ ), re-collaborates with the program to review You’re Next, the 2011 horror movie about a family reunion that seems like it will simply be a regular old gathering for this dysfunctional bunch… until a few homicidal home invaders wearing animal masks suddenly ambush the place. Comparing this flick to Ready or Not and Companion, filmmakers wo...

Tune in as Katrina ( @katrinaslibrary ) circles back around to 2CC so that she and Arthur can roll out their top ten books of 2025. Hoping that the growing subgenre of romantasy moves away from the likes of Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas, the importance of supporting armed resistance (including that which comes from Palestine), the deep flaws of Western liberalism, and the pervasive bigotry of a...

Jumping onboard the program today is Katherine Wela Bogen, who has just become a debut author by publishing  Queering Him , a novel that takes you through the intense and messy relationship between Avra and Kieran. In addition, Katie is a clinical psychology PhD student and cohost of the political podcast  SuperHumanizer , concentrating her energy on queerness, sexuality, sexual trauma, supporting...

Tune in as Andy ( Fat Dude Digs Flicks Movie Podcasts ) regains his comfy old guest seat in order to unpack Dead Again, the 1991 neo-noir romantic thriller about a private investigator’s mission to help an amnesiac and nonverbal woman recover her memories—a path that ends up uncovering a strange connection between her and a murder from several decades ago. Thoughts on Kenneth Branagh as a director...

Tune in as Anna ( @banananna024 / @formergleek ) jumps back into their guest seat so that she and Arthur can lay out their rankings of the top ten TV shows of 2025. Hollywood’s campaign to blacklist Melissa Barrera, the relatability of Carol Sturka, defending Trinity Santos, and rejecting the incorrect opinion that Heated Rivalry is merely “yaoi slop” land as some of the discussion matter for this...

Tune in as Kate Hergott ( Bookwild ) jumps onboard the program for a breakdown of Ace of Spades, the 2021 YA mystery-thriller book by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé that follows two Black students at a private school as they endure dogged harassment from an anonymous threat who’s looking to expose their secrets and sabotage all the hard work they’ve put into creating a good life for themselves. Chiamaka be...

Tune in as Rolo Tony ( @PoorOldRoloTony ) hops back into his guest seat so that he and Arthur can dish out their rankings of the top ten movies of 2025. The hosts’ honorable mentions, encouraging audiences to listen to Black people and Black women’s perspectives on One Battle After Another, the punk rock nature of kindness and hope, and comparing If I Had Legs I’d Kick You to The Babadook and Nigh...

Happy New Year! Tune in as Guy Bradford ( Jesters of Ravenloft: A D&D Podcast ) hops back onto the podcast for this first episode of 2026 in order to break down The Truman Show, the 1998 psychological comedy-drama film about an insurance salesman who comes to realize he’s been the unwitting star of a reality TV program that uses instruments like hidden cameras and paid actors to manufacture an...

Tune in as the Christmas season comes to a close on 2CC! For this fifth and final episode of December (as well as the final episode of 2025), Anna ( @banananna024 / @formergleek ) is hopping back onto the program for a breakdown of Eyes Wide Shut, the 1999 psychosexual drama film about a Manhattan doctor who, after learning his wife had fantasized about sleeping with another man, embarks on a drea...

Tune in as the Christmas fun stays strong on 2CC! For this fourth episode of December, Karyn Raynor ( Chick-Lit ) is jumping back into their guest chair to unpack Black Christmas, the 2006 remake of the 1974 Christmas slasher horror movie in which a house full of sorority sisters face off against a stalker who terrorizes them with unnerving prank phone calls and a thirst for murder. The difference...

Tune in as this program plunges deeper into the holiday season! For this third episode of December, Clayton Jones II and Shawn Murphy ( Men Who Like Men Who Like Movies! ) are circling back around to review Love Hard, the 2021 Netflix Christmas rom-com about the fake-dating and matchmaking antics that ensue after a dating column writer travels across the country for a seemingly charming guy and th...

Tune in as the Christmas season keeps rolling forward on the podcast! For this second episode of December, Hannah, Rebecca, and Sarah ( Can I Spoil Something? ) are rejoining 2CC for a dive into Krampus: The Yule Lord, the 2012 holiday horror novel by Brom that takes you on a grisly and festive journey alongside a struggling singer who gets dragged into a mission that the horned folkloric figure K...

Tune in as the Christmas season launches on 2CC! For this first episode of December, Rolo Tony ( @PoorOldRoloTony ) is jumping back onto the podcast to cover Black Christmas, the 1974 Christmas slasher horror film about a group of sorority sisters who are dealing with menacing prank phone calls and the dogged pursuit of a homicidal and sexually perverse stalker. The surprisingly feminist politics...