Afterthoughts

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...

We've got a stacked Recommend or Refute episode this week. Ryan talks about his family's experience watching the David Bowie puppet movie Labyrinth (1986) , Dixon stays in the western genre with John Ford's epic masterpiece The Searchers (1956) , and John finally dives back into the wild world of David Lynch with Twin Peaks (1990) .

On this week's episode, John, Dixon, and Ryan are riding through your town to fuck shit up and rain down unholy vengeance upon your sinful head as they discuss Clint Eastwood's classic dark western HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973) and the evolution of the western genre that began so innocently once upon a time.

We're talking about BARBENHEIMER: the phenomenon that's sweeping the nation and making the movies relevant again for the first time since the pandemic. (And we're also talking about some weird shit John watched.)

Damn... They Cloned Tyrone (2023) is out. It's got a hook so solid that they laid it out clear as day in the title, but does its bold tactic of giving away a would-be twist sacrifice any of the drama, thrills, and chills explored by its ensemble cast? What is this movie about beyond the clones of Tyrone? Who the hell even is Tyrone? Dixon, Ryan, and John are digging into this fresh new contemporar...

It's time for an eclectic, mainstream Recommend or Refute episode! Dixon could eat a peach for hours while he talks about Face/Off, but he'll have to settle for the time we give him in this ep. John investigates whether Hollywood's scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could add post-process 3D that they never stopped to think if they should. And Ryan brings us another Classic Ry...

In celebration of John's birthday this year, we're allowing John to wreck our Blockbuster movie streak with a big flop, so we're talking about The Astrologer (1976) . It's a passion project from director/star Craig Denney that paints Astrology and tangential practices under the confusing tone of a crime drama. Once thought lost for nearly 40 years, it somehow found its way into our resident trash...

Our special guest Mark Garcia is back to dissect the trauma induced by his son watching Sing (2016) on repeat. Dixon breaks down the shockingly awful Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023) , and John finally watches a Francis Ford Coppola film but for some reason settles on Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) .

This week we're continuing the summer blockbuster theme with the greatest Pixar movie of all time, Toy Story 4 (2019) . Has Dixon lost his mind (almost certainly), or is there a beautiful, indie soul to this franchise installment that raises it above typical studio fare?

We fell back into our usual roles this week and delivered the kind of varied Recommend or Refute episode you've come to expect from the Afterthoughts crew. Join us as Ryan analyzes the new Netflix animated movie Nimona (2023) , John breaks down the alien sex shlockumentary Love and Saucers (2017) , and Dixon puts aside his Tom Hanks hate to finally watch A League of Their Own (1992) .

On a belated 4th of July episode, Dixon, John, and Ryan dive head first into the dangerous waters of Jaws (1975) . It's a cultural touchstone that might be single-handedly responsible for modern Blockbusters, an entire week dedicated to fearing sharks, and Steven Spielbergs illustrious career, but in the cinematic world of ever-growing big shark movies how does it hold up? Join the Afterthoughts c...

This week's Recommend or Refute is 2/3rds science fiction, 1/3rd comedy, and definitely contains some more of John's usual schlock. Join us as Dixon takes us to the top of cinematic achievements with 2001: A Space Odyssey , John takes us to the bottom with Spanish knock-off of ET by the name of The Extraterrestrial Visitors, and Ryan talks about the upcoming comedy Theater Camp he saw at a mystery...

Seems like every week there's new evidence of alien life and elaborate government cover-ups, so we decided to watch the most whimsical alien movie of all time, Wes Anderson's latest creation Asteroid City (2023) .

This RoR is the most layered of our recent roundtable reviews. Join Ryan as he talks through Adam Sandler's filmography and highlights his first and worst feature Going Overboard (1989) , Dixon dissects the differences between a century of reimagined War of the Worlds adaptations, and John brings a mystery title and his most recent regrets to the discussion.

We did it, folks. Dixon finally got us to talk about the inimitable Robert Bresson. Join the Afterthoughts crew as we discuss his biggest commercial success, the thrilling prison break masterpiece A Man Escaped (1956) . We dive into Bresson's one-of-a-kind filmmaking style, his technical mastery, and his ability to build tension like no director before or since.

On this episode of Recommend or Refute, John wants to talk about some weird stuff he saw in the The Stuff (1985), Ryan moseys on through the retro-future dystopian western of Trigun Stampede (2023) , and Dixon throws us a curveball as he talks about the home run television comedy that is Brockmire (2017-2020) .