Aussie and the Scotsman - Unfiltered Movie Podcast

This week the lads review Anora, the 2024 American romantic comedy-drama written, directed, produced and edited by Sean Baker. The film stars Mikey Madison as Anora “Ani” Mikheeva, a New York lap dancer who impulsively marries the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn. Supporting performances from Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, and Alekse...

This week on Aussie and the Scotsman, the lads take on Brothers (2009), the American psychological thriller directed by Jim Sheridan starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Clifton Collins Jr., and Mare Winningham. SPOILER ALERT - Watch before listening. This is an absolute must watch The film follows Captain Sam Cahill (Maguire), a US Marine. It’s heavy, confronting...

This week the podcast revisits Scarface, the 1983 crime epic directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone. A remake of the 1932 original, it stars Al Pacino as Cuban refugee Tony Montana, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira Hancock and Steven Bauer as Manny Ribera. Arriving in Miami during the Mariel boatlift, Tony claws his way from dishwasher to cocaine kingpin through ambition, viol...

This week we are reviewing Munich, the 2005 thriller directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, starring Eric Bana as Avner Kaufman — a Mossad agent chosen to lead a five-man team tasked with hunting down the eleven men responsible for planning the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush and Mathieu Kassovitz round out a cast in one of Spielberg's mos...

This week the podcast takes on The Florida Project, the quietly devastating 2017 drama from Sean Baker, written with Chris Bergoch and starring Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, and a superb Willem Dafoe. It’s six-year-old Moonee running feral through a budget motel in Kissimmee, Florida — living in the shadow of Walt Disney World while her mum scrambles to keep a roof over their heads. It’s bright...

This week we are reviewing Seabiscuit, the 2003 drama directed by Gary Ross and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper — the true story of a small, overlooked, knock-kneed horse who became a symbol of hope for an entire nation during the Great Depression. And we have a very special guest to help us do it. Brett Ratten is in the studio. Carlton premiership player. Club captain. Three...

This week on Aussie and the Scotsman, the boys review The Founder (2016), the biographical drama directed by John Lee Hancock. Starring Michael Keaton as salesman-turned-mogul Ray Kroc, the film charts the brutal, calculated rise of McDonald's — and how its original founders were ultimately forced aside. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald, with Li...

Welcome back to Doctor Andrew for our third music quiz episode — and this time, we’re diving into the world of musicals. Now, fair warning: it takes a while for the Aussie to warm up… and to be honest, he never really gets there. If musicals were a sport, he’s on the bench, in the wrong uniform, holding a cricket bat. Meanwhile, Doctor Andrew is absolutely on fire. The moment a track starts, he’s...

This week on Aussie and the Scotsman, the lads review Ocean’s Eleven (2001), the American heist comedy directed by Steven Soderbergh. The first instalment in the Ocean’s trilogy, the film is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack classic and boasts one of the most stacked casts of the early 2000s — George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy García, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, El...

This week the boys review the 1996 black comedy crime classic Fargo, written, directed, produced and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell and Peter Stormare, the film follows pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson as she investigates a botched kidnapping plot hatched by a desperate car salesman that spirals wildly out of control....

This week the Aussie and the Scotsman review the 1982 American science-fiction classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. The film follows Elliott, a young boy who befriends a stranded alien and, with the help of his family and friends, tries to get E.T. home. The cast includes Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNa...

This week we are reviewing Michael, the 2026 biographical drama directed by Antoine Fuqua — the man behind Training Day and The Equalizer — starring Jaafar Jackson, the 27-year-old nephew of Michael Jackson as Michael himself, alongside a powerhouse Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson. The film begins in Gary, Indiana in 1966 and follows Michael from his childhood as the lead singer of the Jackson 5 thr...

This week we are reviewing the 2025 American action-thriller film One Battle After Another, co-produced, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti. It follows an ex-revolutionary who’s reluctantly pulled back into conflict when he and h...

This week we are reviewing the 2023 American Christmas comedy-drama The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne, written by David Hemingson, and starring Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa. Set in 1970, the story follows a curmudgeonly classics teacher at a New England boarding school who’s roped into chaperoning a small group of students with nowhere to go over the Christmas br...

This week we are reviewing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction masterpiece — widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. A mysterious black monolith. The dawn of human intelligence. An AI that kills the crew. And a final twenty minutes that nobody fully understands, including the two men reviewing it.   But this episode is something that has never been done bef...

This week we are talking about the 2014 American psychological thriller Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher. It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and marks Carrie Coon’s film debut. The story follows Nick Dunne (Affleck), who becomes the prime suspect after his wife Amy (Pike) mysteriously disappears from their home in Missouri. RATING: The Aussie: 2.8/5 The Scot...

This week the boys review the 2017 action thriller Baby Driver, written and directed by Edgar Wright. The film stars Ansel Elgort as Baby, a gifted getaway driver desperate to escape a criminal life with his girlfriend Debora (Lily James), alongside a supporting cast featuring Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Jon Bernthal and Jamie Foxx. The episode opens on a rare serious note, with the Sco...

This week the lads review the 2018 American biographical drama Beautiful Boy, directed by Felix van Groeningen and adapted from the memoirs of David and Nic Sheff. Starring Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan, the film charts a father–son bond stretched thin by addiction and the desperate attempts to hold a family together. Things unravel early when the Aussie confidently a...

This week we talk about the 2025 dystopian action-thriller The Running Man (2025), produced and directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Michael Bacall. It’s the second adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novel, following the 1987 cult classic. This time, it’s ultra-stylised, packed with energy, and backed by an all-star cast including Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera,...

This week, the lads step away from the usual movie reviews and sit down with Australian actor Jonny Pasvolsky — a career that spans film, television and stage, and one that doesn’t follow the typical Hollywood path. Jonny Pasvolsky is best known for roles in MacLeod’s Daughters, Underbelly, Farscape, Picnic at Hanging Rock and HBO’s Westworld, where he played “Bloody Jimmy.” Over the years, he’s b...

This week we are talking about the 2003 American mystery drama film Mystic River, directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney. This is a great watch. Fantastic cast with lots of twists and turns along the way — we recommend watching this one before you listen. It’s heavy, emotional, and brilli...

This week we are talking about the 2006 American biographical drama film The Pursuit of Happyness, directed by Gabriele Muccino and starring Will Smith as Chris Gardner, a homeless salesman. Smith’s real-life son, Jaden Smith, co-stars in his film debut as Gardner’s son, Christopher Jr. The story is based on Gardner’s nearly year-long struggle with homelessness while raising his child. Set in San...

This week we are talking about the 2018 American drama film Ben is Back, written and directed by Peter Hedges, and starring Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, and Courtney B. Vance. The story centres on a mother trying to help her son through addiction when he unexpectedly returns home from rehab—just in time to turn the whole family’s world upside down. Wow – let’s start off by saying YOU MUST WATCH be...

This week the lads review the 1983 American comedy-drama The Big Chill, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and featuring an iconic ensemble cast including Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and JoBeth Williams. The film follows a group of University of Michigan friends who reunite years later after the death of their friend Alex, forcing them to...

This week the lads tackle a big one — ranking the Best Male Actors of Our Generation, from 1970 through to 2025. Before locking in their Top 10, they work through the heavyweights era by era, covering icons like De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson, Hopkins, Hanks, Denzel, Cruise, DiCaprio, Bale, Phoenix and more. (The women get their turn — just not this week.) There are apologies in advance for the inevit...