Have a Good Movie

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCATCHER We’ve seen the movies, now it’s time to get the picks in before the awards! One of us is straight up guessing, the other is playing the odds, but which is which is a new wrinkle. And moreover, we can reflect on a unique set of films showcasing the smaller side of filmmaking this year. We’re getting out Oscar picks in today on Have a Good Movie! You ca...

It’s been a bit since we had an old-fashioned movie disagreement but this one was a bit polarizing. Likely because this was a real curveball from two of our faves, Scorsese and De Niro. The intensity and emotional weight is there, but it’s wrapped in a truly bizarre, sinister comedy that’s just as haunting as it is funny. This movie became much more important after its release, and it sticks with...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of child abuse. Something was in the air in 1973 where people wanted nostalgia and con artists in their films. But while George Roy Hill teamed up with Redford and Newman for the utter perfection of the genre, Peter Bogdanovich followed up one classic film with another underrated gem. Nothing about this movie is particularly remarkable, save the outstanding performance...

In a decade of darker, boundary-crossing films, this week’s film is just under the rader for having some of the darkest undertones of all. And that’s beyond the fact that it might be one of the best portrayals of sex workers on screen, refusing to judge its subject on anything but her actual character. I mean, yes she is being stalked by a violent powerful man to get murdered, but it has nothing t...

Communism! A menace to all god-fearing Americans in the 1960s, a real travesty against society. At least that was the background that this novel and film dropped into to make a much larger point about the horrors of war and trauma. But even more than a knotty, complicated conspiracy thriller, this is a really unique film from an underrated director and shockingly talented cast…for the most part. F...

It's that time of year - to debate Oscar nominations! Except we haven't seen most of these movies so we have gut reactions to a bunch of things we have little to no business reacting to! Yet! We're talking Oscar nominations this week on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?! You can email us with feedback at macintoshandmaud@gmail.com, or you can connect with us on BlueSky! If you like the podca...

1957 came hard for us with the ever-menacing presence of…Andy Griffith? This one is a real underrated gem, a heady brew of media stardom, political power and ego that makes an aimless narcissistic drifter into a king drunk on his sway. Everyone is fantastic in this movie and it has absolutely zero hardware to show for it - a fact that would be utterly shocking if not for the notes we get into with...

We're coming in this week like a flying saucer into Earth's atmosphere with a movie that's both way ahead of its time and also incredibly dated. Flying saucer movies could be a dime a dozen in the atomic age, but only a few managed to capture the public's imagination like this week's movie. This is the template for a lot of sci-fi to come, even though it suffers from some haphazard execution and s...

Next up in the Oscar Snubs is the paragon of fast-talking screwball comedies. Except that this movie might be too fast. That's right, when you tell five jokes in 30 seconds, and they're all dated back to the late 30's, at some point you're no longer funny, you're exhausting. It's impeccably executed, but utterly meaningless, and by the end you're just happy to turn the movie off. Lock up your roll...

We've got a new series to talk through movies that were snubbed for or didn't win major Oscars as we lead into awards season! We start off with a living Looney Tunes cartoon, which makes sense given that Looney Tunes based itself off these movies. The Marx Brothers were already comedy legends when this film came along, but director Leo Carey brings a dash of satire that makes for an incredible fil...

We close out our Westerns series with a review of dueling Wyatt Earps. On one side, we have an absolute shitshow of a production saved at the last moment by two powerhouse actors and some absolute perfect melodrama. On the other side, we have Kevin Costner giving the most soulless performance of his life. This is a real contrast, one destined for cable classic status and one that really could just...

It's rare to have two 80s movies back to back that encapsulate the entirety of the 80s, but boy does this get there. Take the best of the Brat Pack, throw them in a shockingly historically accurate western, sprinkle with some truly wild accents, and you get a rootin' tootin' good time. They're not good movies, but they are enjoyable to watch. Round up, Regulators, as we watch Young Guns and Young...

A movie with this reputation and this level of talent should be expected to at least be a competent film. But somehow Clint Eastwood chose the most tepid, non-committal way to tell a story that has more in common with great existential novels than Westerns. And that might be interesting, if it weren’t for the fact that this movie is also convinced it’s a western. Gene Hackman is acting his ass off...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, . Mel Brooks’ now-classic Western spoof is as controversial as it is well-regarded. Mel pulled absolutely no punches making this movie, and assembled a writer’s room that was willing to push the envelope. The only problem is that Mel is too focused on landing the joke and less attentive to the story. It’s funny, because that same year he’d release what may ha...

We’ve been on a run of serious films, so it was time to mix in a Western comedy. At least, that’s what this movie is supposed to be, but this is a comedy without a whole lot of jokes. We have some diverging opinions on this one, mostly coming down to the script, because this should be a much better movie than it is. But you can bet we both agree that James Garner is one of the most charming cutie-...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sex work, sexual assault. Spaghetti westerns are their own unique style, their own flavor, and one of the key issues is the dialogue is almost always sloppy and cheesy. Yet Sergio Leone, a true master of filmmaking, took that to a different artistic height, and really made it perfect with this film. This film is impeccably shot, with spans of John Ford’s favorite loc...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of brownface. If this movie is the rebirth of the Western, it'd be hard to tell because it's a real mess. It's a classic, and it absolutely makes sense why, but it's also a total mess of a film. No one knows what movie they're supposed to be in, the script is missing a ton of connective tissue, and Steve McQueen has the audacity to be bad at acting and an insufferable t...

Our next film should, by all rights, be one of the greatest all-time Westerns even made. Instead, it's a mealy-mouthed, boring, limp noodle of a movie that's stuck trying too hard to be a Big Deal instead of being the allegory for McCarthyism it was written to be. Fred Zinneman has shots for days, but he can't get convincing performances from his actors, and nobody in the cast can convincingly por...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism against Natives, bullying, animal cruelty. Grab your six shooters and your saddles, we're kicking off our first-ever Westerns series! There's a lot in the genre for us to catch up on, and we start this week with a seminal film, one whose importance is unfortunately the only thing it's really got going for it. John Ford practically created the Western as we kno...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. While no explicit mentions are made of actions or abuse, listener discretion is advised. This one has been on our must watch list since it came out, and somehow it lingered for 10 years. In fact, you might suspect we did this series just to watch this movie, and you'd be at least a little bit right. Fortunately, the film doesn't disa...

CONTENT WARNING: occupation, assassination, Israel & Palestine. We try not to be too political on this show, but sometimes a movie forces our hand. Still, Spielberg’s third labor of love isn’t a mess because of its subject matter. Instead, it’s a messy rush job that has little to no historical value and also fails at being an entertaining movie. Nothing about this story passes the smell test,...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of homophobia, sexual assault, spousal abuse. This week's movie may not be the gayest movie ever but it's certainly one of the most famous. The star power here is off the charts, with two absolute bona fide movie stars and a perfect up and comer as our three gorgeous, fabulous, out of this world drag queens. Unfortunately the movie seems to think that ultimately we need...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation. While presented in a lighthearted manner, listener discretion is advised. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call or text 988 for help. Savage Steve Holland probably never contemplated his cartoons and wacky sense of humor would result in him making a true cult teen classic, but that...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of gaslighting, spousal abuse, spousal murder, murder, misogyny. We're getting a little spooky this week with a slow-burn cult horror classic that dares to make its female characters complex and unique and its male characters thoroughly one-dimensional. Somehow it's the men that are utterly unbelievable for a change. That said, there's a pretty great movie to be found i...

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of gambling. One would think that with the steely blue eyes of Steve McQueen and the highest-stakes poker game ever concocted, we'd be cooking with fire with this next film. Instead, we get one of the most boring 100-minute movies committed to celluloid. Nearly an hour of this movie is preamble and exposition and when we finally get to the poker game we might as well ha...