Critically Acclaimed Network

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is such an enormous motion picture, for better or worse, that we have to save it for last! This week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review the baffling new big budget musical CATS, the ambitious new World War I thriller 1917, Greta Gerwig's superlative new adaptation of LITTLE WOMEN, and - in a spoiler-free review, fol...

Just imagine you're watching TV in 1990, and suddenly, right in the middle of primetime, you find yourself watching a "wacky" sitcom about Adolf Hitler! It really happened, and the legend of HEIL HONEY I'M HOME!, which lasted only one episode, was born. But was HEIL HONEY I'M HOME really the most offensive television series in history, or was it a scathing political satire in t...

It's an all-new episode of WE'VE GOT MAIL, the podcast where film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold answer YOUR letters! This week, Bibbs and Witney consider if John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN is overrated, debate time travel movie paradoxes, pick a side between Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and reveal what a typical day for a film critic is like! Email us at letters@critical...

There are SO MANY movies coming out in December, we had to do at least one mega-sized episode! (Maybe even two, but we'll get to that.)  This week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review the new blockbuster JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL, Adam Sandler's best movie in over a decade UNCUT GEMS, Clint Eastwood's latest biopic RICHARD JEWELL, Terrence Mali...

Every month on THE IRON LIST, the Patrons of the Critically Acclaimed Network get to pick a topic for a giant-sized episode! And this month, since it's December, they picked THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER! Join film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold as they highlight some of the most beloved holiday movies ever made and a bunch of films that don't get nearly enough love every hol...

Emma Stone is an Academy Award-winning superstar, but before she was world famous, she was a reality tv contestant who won her first acting gig on THE NEW PARTRIDGE FAMILY! It was a VH1 reboot of the beloved 1970s musical sitcom, and even though it had a huge build-up it only lasted one episode. Was THE NEW PARTRIDGE FAMILY... canceled too soon? Film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold cov...

It's an all-new episode of WE'VE GOT MAIL, the podcast where film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold answer YOUR letters! This week, Bibbs and Witney talk about whether the remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is actually as bad as its reputation, their favorite and least favorite romantic movie tropes, the difference between dubbing and subtitles, and a heck of a lot more! Email u...

It's the first week of December and that means a bunch of eccentric movies are coming out! This week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review the new releases THE AERONAUTS, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, IN FABRIC, LITTLE JOE and A CHRISTMAS PRINCE: THE ROYAL BABY! One of those films is one of the best movies of the decade! The others... less so.  Plus, Wi...

And you thought YOUR high school was bad? You're lucky you didn't have DEADLY CLASS, a school for assassins run by Benedict Wong (DOCTOR STRANGE), populated by adolescent murderers and future criminal overlords! This ultraviolent series aired on SyFy and was based on a comic book by Rick Remender and Wesley Craig, and even though it was produced by Joe and Anthony Russo (the directors of A...

It's an all-new episode of WE'VE GOT MAIL, the podcast where film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold answer YOUR letters! This week, Bibbs and Witney talk about why THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA should be a movie, the best teen movies of the 2000s, the best movie beards and why streaming isn't such a bad thing after all. And more, more, MORE! Email us at letters@criticallyacc...

Our knives are out, but we're not complaining! This week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review the new releases KNIVES OUT, I LOST MY BODY, ATLANTICS and THE TWO POPES! Also this week, Bibbs and Witney catch up on some big movies one or both of them missed earlier in 2019, including BOOKSMART, ROCKETMAN, MARRIAGE STORY, THE REPORT and DORA AND THE LOS...

It's an all-new episode of WE'VE GOT MAIL, the podcast where film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold answer YOUR letters! And this week it's a doozy. You asked us to talk about big criticism concepts like style vs. substance, the perilous future of physical media, how to be a good film snob, and how cinematic storytelling has changed as we enter a hitherto unimaginable digital...

If you stuck around after the Oscars in 2019 you might have seen the series premiere of WHISKEY CAVALIER, an ambitious and expensive spy series about two sexy espionage agents who are totally different and will probably NEVER want to kiss each other, right? Right? It's flashy, it's action-packed, it's adorable, and it's all about emotional availability. Was WHISKEY CAVALIER... canc...

It's a double-sized episode of CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED! This week, William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review two weeks worth of movies, including FROZEN 2, KLAUS, A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, DARK WATERS, WAVES, FORD V FERRARI, SCANDALOUS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER, CITIZEN K and THE KNIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Holy heck, that's a lot of movies! Frozen 2 Review - 6:01 Kl...

Get ready for a HUGE episode of WE'VE GOT MAIL, where film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold answer YOUR letters! This week, Bibbs and Witney take requests to review all the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies, debate Alan Moore's controversial statements about the superhero genre, and consider the very real possibility that all the 1980s movies you love... are overrated. Email us at letters@...

What do you get when you combine DC superheroes, disgusting body horror, and swamps? You get SWAMP THING, an expensive and ambitious TV series starring Andy Bean, Crystal Reed, Kevin Durand, Will Patton, Ian Ziering, Jennifer Beals and Virginia Madsen! SWAMP THING is about a swampy thing in a swamp, and it only lasted one season on the new DC Universe streaming service! Was it... CANCELED TOO SOON...

Happy #Noirvember! We're celebrating by introducing a whole new podcast to THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NETWORK, in which every month film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold present their picks for the best movies ever, in genres selected by our Patreon subscribers! And fittingly enough, in #Noirvember, our Patrons chose "Film Noirs" to be the first subject of... THE IRON LIST! Fi...

You wrote us emails, and we're answering them on the air in WE'VE GOT MAIL! This week, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED co-hosts William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold talk about what should qualify as the "Movie of the Year," what "auteur theory" really means, how the MPAA works and more! Email us at letters@criticallyacclaimed.net,  so we can read your correspondence and answer YOUR que...

Surprise! Despite a ton of early buzz and a giant marketing push, DOCTOR SLEEP wasn't the #1 motion picture of the weekend. This week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold debate whether DOCTOR SLEEP is a misunderstood classic or just a weird, contrived movie. Plus, reviews of that unexpected hit MIDWAY, the art house releases MARRIAGE STORY and HONEY BOY, a...

It's that time of year again! CANCELED TOO SOON is back with SUDDENLY LAST SEASON, a whole month where we review nothing but TV shows that failed within the last year, and we're starting with one of the most acclaimed Netflix shows ever made... TUCA AND BERTIE! From the producer of BOJACK HORSEMAN came an animated sitcom about two mismatched birds growing up, and apart, in a surreal world...

You wrote us emails, and we're answering them on the air in WE'VE GOT MAIL! This week, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED co-hosts William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold talk about Steven Spielberg's war movies, the competing cinematic oeuvres of Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, how the Oscars handle international cinema and much, much more! Email us at letters@criticallyacclaimed.net,  so we can read your...

KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER is one of the most important and influential "Canceled Too Soon" shows in TV history. But what about the reboot, NIGHT STALKER, from X-FILES producer Frank Spotnitz, starring Stuart Townsend and Gabrielle Union? Was it a worthy follow-up to a cult TV classic, or a generic early-2000s supernatural detective series with a catastrophically miscast star? You'll h...

It's a HUGE week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED! We've got an overview of the TERMINATOR franchise, leading up to a review of TERMINATOR: DARK FATE, and an in-depth review of Martin Scorsese's ambitious gangster epic THE IRISHMAN! Plus, we've got reviews of the Netflix murder mystery EARTHQUAKE BIRD, the family-friendly talking animal animated movie ARCTIC DOGS, and - because YOU demanded...

You took the time to write us, so we're taking the time to listen! This week on the CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NETWORK's weekly podcast WE'VE GOT MAIL, William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold answer questions about how Darth Vader could ever be redeemed, why mature horror films don't get written about, why film critics get abusive comments, ambitious films that didn't quite hit the mark...

Eddie Murphy is back and in top form with DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, a brand new biopic about comedy trailblazer Rudy Ray Moore and the production of his blaxploitation classic! This week on CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review that new biopic and MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND, a new documentary about motion picture sound design! And if that's not enough for al...