Bald Move Prestige

Jim and I watched an unexpectedly spooky episode of Matthew Weiner's The Romanoffs, "House of Special Purpose". It's a tale that asks us whether we believe in ghosts or if one or perhaps more people are actually losing their minds. Does the spell work, and what is Weiner saying about coercive / abusive directors and set environments? Despite the super serious subject matter, we also find time to p...

Welcome to super serious film fest, our themed series of movie reviews. This season covers the best and the worst of Nic Cage, the summer and winter of his career, in what we're calling "Season of the Cage". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A.Ron and Jim blow all the doors down on the latest episode of HBO's The Deuce, "We're All Beasts". It provokes a lot of meta discussion about progressive politics, America's long lost battle against vice, and offensive analogies. We also talk about Eileen's guerrilla film-making campaign for what looks to be the very watchable Red Hot. Finally, A.Ron reacts to a 70s-era porno! Join the discussion...

It's been three years since Don Draper left our televisions, and now Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is back with something to say? Is it good, is it bad, is it something even worth saying? After seeing 180 minutes of his new series, The Romanoffs, we're still oddly divided on answering those basic questions. It's beautiful, and thoughtful, and at times absorbing, but are the disconnected lives of...

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Jim and A.Ron saw Bad Times at the El Royale and give it mixed reviews. Writer/Director Drew Goddard throws a lot of slow, character and dialog driven set pieces at the audience, mixed up and out of order, until finishing the movie with a spasm of violence and action. Jim enjoyed the performances and the movie held his interest throughout, whereas I thought the ending didn't do enough to justify t...

Jim and A.Ron go cruising for the latest episode, "All You'll Be Eating Is Cannibals". The Deuce has always featured duality; Frankie/Vincent being the parade example. But here we see two raids; one on an underground card game by a professional crew of criminals, another by professional law enforcement on an above ground massage parlor. We also see members of the gay community step out of the shad...

Thanks to Sean Ray for commissioning the classic 1992 western, "Unforgiven". Directed by and starring a perfectly-aged Clint Eastwood, the story has him reconciling the man he was in his drunken youth with the man he wants to be, and more importantly, the man his dead wife would have him be. Where does he come down on it? It's a classic so you probably already know but one of us didn't and the dis...

A.Ron and Jim are down to talk about the latest episode of HBO's The Deuce, "What Big Ideas". The Deuce drops another couple of bodies, which draws the increasing attention of the Public Morals Task Force. Unfortunately, that attention is incompetent, corrupt, or often both. Bobby and Vincent have trouble dealing with their involvement in the flesh trade, even as Abby and Dorothy beat the streets...

Special thanks to Sarah Sugas for commissioning 1944's Laura, a film-noir set around a hard boiled detective attempting to solve the mystery other murder of a remarkable young woman. Thanks once again to Sarah for her support and excellent choice of film! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time since The Young Pope, Jim and Cecily come together to record a podcast, this time on season 2 of Netflix's Ozark. We talk about the many things we liked and the few things we didn't. We also christen the deadliest road in all of the Ozarks, squeeze a baby for all of its juice, and find out just how much Cecily knows about poison. Join the discussion: Email | Forums Follow us: Tw...

HBO's The Deuce moves out the LaLa land in the latest episode, "Seven-Fifty". The title reminds us that even people that we think of as "good" are capable of terrible exploitation in this world, a reminder that Simon and Pecalanos like to give us every 10 minutes or so. Lori gets her time to shine without her pimp clouding her view, Eileen makes some slight headway towards securing the budget for...

Special thanks once again to Sean Ray for commissioning thus podcast for the 1982 John Carpenter sci-fi/horror classic, The Thing. The location, sense of isolation and paranoia, and atmosphere of dread this film is able to generate is incredible. Kurt Russel is iconic in his role as everyman bad*ss. And the gruesome, disturbing practical effects work still effectively sells the horrific alien acti...

A.Ron and Jim check out another funky episode of HBO’s The Deuce. Lori and Eileen’s careers heat up as the pimps are left out in the cold! Vincent gets nostalgic with Abby, while Paul and Bobby do their best to fight off rivals to their trades. Join the discussion: Email | Forums Follow us: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Leave Us A Review on Apple Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

This edition is intended to be the definitive version. The interesting thing is, Jim and I have always been a bit “meh” on the classic Blade Runner experience. Sure, we always saw how influential it is, and could understand why it was highly regarded “for it’s day”. We both felt like we saw the film with fresh eyes on this cut. There are problems with world building and pacing here and there, but...

Mandy is a film by Panos Cosmatos starring Nick Cage. It is both a slow burn, 70’s style horror film dipped in acid, and a gonzo Nick Cage action film. It continually suffers from being torn in these two very different directions. A.Ron dug it, Jim wants nothing to do with it. This film boasts near universal acclaim on Rotten Tomatoes and yet is a tough one to wholeheartedly recommend. If you want...

Jim and A.Ron are happy to be back into the swinging 70’s with HBO’s The Deuce, with it’s return episode, “Our Raison D’être”. This time and setting are so colorful, fun, and alive that it’s easy to forget the layer of decay and menace that lurks just beneath each scene. Whether it’s pimps losing their grip on the game or mobsters that have grown fat and lazy from politicians looking the other way...

Special thanks to commissioner Jaimie T. for having us check out the classic 1946 British film classic, “A Matter of Life and Death”. Featuring a story that pits love against the cosmic law of death, it explores post World War 2 tensions between the England and the Unites States. Both of us see the film’s obvious charm; lavish and colorful visuals, inventive special effects and set design, and app...

Jim and A.Ron put on their brown pants tonight to go out and see The Nun, the latest installment in The Conjuring universe, but only one of us needed to. The film’s getting mixed reviews; and Jim worries that co-writer James Wan’s bag of tricks are getting played out and the movie suffers from inconsistent internal logic. Perhaps I’m the biggest wuss alive, but the movie got my hair standing up on...

We’re back to finish up (?) our coverage of HBO’s Sharp Objects, and discuss our thoughts on Hulu’s Castle Rock through S01E08 (00:26:04). Next week we’ll be back to start our coverage of the second season of HBO’s The Deuce. Join the discussion: Email | Forums Follow us: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Leave Us A Review on Apple Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

Jim and I had high hopes for The Little Stranger, thinking it would be an ultra atmospheric mash up of The Witch with Downton Abbey. Instead, we got a commentary on upper class angst during the 1940’s as their fortunes crumbled alongside their estates masquerading as a dull, drab little ghost story. At no point does the film ever manage to generate anything but mild disquiet and malaise. Which is...

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching Sharp Objects these past few months. We found the finale to be of a piece with the whole. Maybe there weren’t satisfying answers to every single element or question raised by the series, but isn’t that the way life goes? We feel we got enough through Camille’s point of view to understand what motivated Adora and Amma, and liked that the show left so...

Special thanks to our commissioner for today’s podcast, Sean Ray. Today he selects the great A Few Good Men, where a gruff Colonel in the US Marine Corps takes issue with the USMC’s kinder, more gentler ways of discipline and organization, leading to the death of one of the men under his command. Tom Cruise and Demi Moore are effective as the counsel for the defense, and are given a lot of juicy m...

Today we discuss the penultimate episode of HBO’s Sharp Objects, “Falling”, as well as our thoughts on the first six episodes of Hulu’s Castle Rock. Sharp was an especially wild hour, chock full of stomach churning child abuse and problematic sex scenes between damaged and self-destructive people, before promising a truly epic conclusion from the setup of a five way collision between Camille, Amma...

We’re back to talk HBO’s Sharp Objects and a preliminary spoiler-free discussion of Hulu’s spooky Castle Rock! Here are some time stamps to help you navigate the podcast… 00:00:52 – Castle Rock 00:12:18 – Sharp Objects Join the discussion: Email | Forums Follow us: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Leave Us A Review on Apple Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices