Low Key

The nerd nightmare is over: the badgering has paid off, and the Synder Cut of the DC Extended Universe’s  Justice League  will be released as an HBO Max exclusive sometime in 2021. In the latest  Low Key Podcast , we talk about what it all means, and what we want from the Snyder Cut. And great news: This episode features Sam from the Sam Said It! podcast . The corporate overlords ha...

Netflix does not shy away from distributing stories that give voices to the voiceless - the recently released documentary Murder to Mercy is no exception. The doc shares the story of Cyntoia Brown, a woman who was sentenced to prison for life at the age of 16 for killing a man when she was being sex trafficked at the Nashville, Tennessee area in 2004. Brown told police that she feared for her life...

The new documentary  Feels Good Man  explores how racists, trolls and incels turned an innocuous cartoon character named Pepe the Frog into a symbol of hate. On the latest  Low Key  podcast, we talk about how the situation epitomizes many of the problems of the internet, where misinformation and propaganda choke out facts and helpful information.  Feels Good Man , directed...

Netflix's trippy The Midnight Gospel , from comedian Duncan Trussell and animator Pendleton Ward, might be a model for pandemic era TV shows: It asks the big questions in life without requiring any actors to get too close to each other. The series is about a scamp named Clancy Gilroy (voiced by Trussell), who uses a butt-shaped simulator to travel to different worlds and interview people for his "...

Netflix's The Platform has drawn plaudits as the perfect film for the age of hoarding. But is it, really? In one of our most divided episodes, we go deep — Level 333 deep — on whether the main metaphor in the film makes any sense at all. "The Platform," directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, takes place in a multi-level prison where the inmates are fed via a platform that is initially filled with sum...

Memphis is well known mostly for its music and food, rarely getting a chance to branch out beyond that common framing. Netflix’s ‘Uncorked’ is going for something a little different as it follows the story of a young 20-something guy hoping to accomplish his dream of attaining the title of Master Sommelier. His father wants him to stay over the family business, a BBQ joint first started by his gra...

DC Universe’s Harley Quinn doesn’t give a f**k about offending people as the first scene demonstrates by showing a yacht full of billionaires robbed and ripped apart. The show is meant to shock audiences. But it also serves as a great example of how R-rated comic book material can allow for an intelligent subversion of tropes and dark humor that reveals why we connect to these broken characters.&n...

Candyman  has aged very well: The 1992 story of a son of a slave who is murdered for loving a white woman — and reborn as a hook-handed slasher — looks at racism with an unflinching honesty missing from a lot of our racial dialogue today. It skillfully, scarily connects the bigotry of old with the bigotry of what was, at the time of its release, the modern age. Candyman  returns in June...

Zoë Kravitz might be the single best person on earth to star in Hulu's High Fidelity , an update of the John Cusack movie of the same name: Her mom, Lisa Bonet, was one of the stars of that film, based on a Nick Hornby novel, also called High Fidelity . You've probably gathered that High Fidelity lends itself to adaptation. The novel, released in 1995, was set in London, and featured a record stor...

Tyler Perry’s ‘A Fall From Grace’ is the latest film release and his first foray in the profitable Netflix original - did we enjoy it? You’ll have to listen to find out. But it’s fair to spoil that there’s a lot to like - a likable main character with relatable real-world circumstances, an impactful murder sequence, and the impeccable Phylicia Rashad like you’ve never seen her before. Throughout t...

Stephen King disappointed Ava DuVernay earlier this month when he tweeted about casting his Oscar ballot: "I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong." On the latest  Low Key Podcast , your hosts discuss what followed. Should we consider diversity in matters of art? Do we? We also consider Carey Mulligan's modest propos...

Parasite , Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-nominated thriller, challenges our sympathies throughout: Do we sympathize with the destitute Kim family? Or the wealthy Parks?  It may seem obvious to you — but it's probably a given that not everyone sees  Parasite  the way you do. In the latest  Low Key  podcast, we talk about how our sympathies shifted, or didn't, throughout the masterfu...

2020 movies have a lot to live up to—2019's movies were some of the best in years. On the latest Low Key podcast, my fellow co-hosts and I nerd out on the 2020 movies we hope will live up to 2019's high standards, from  Tenet  to  Birds of Prey  to Chris Rock's take on  Saw  to, uh,  Sonic the Hedgehog .  We like all kinds of movies. But on the Low Key, we e...

Watchmen  complicatedly combined falling squid, horrifying racism, a glowing blue man, nuclear panic, fear of sexual humiliation, piles of dead clones, questions about whether we could all be doing more, and an armchair trap door. In the new  Low Key  podcast, we talk about why it worked for us. In every episode of  Low Key,  your co-hosts Aaron Lanton, Keith Dennie, and T...

Now that we've had some time for the hot takes to cool, we discuss Melina Matsoukas' consciousness-raising road movie Queen and Slim , written by Lena Waithe and starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie-Turner Smith. Tim and Keith mostly embrace Queen and Slim , but Aaron says plot issues kept taking him out of the story. He also wonders—and we all discuss—whether the film overgeneralizes in its portraya...

The Mandalorian signaled how sweepingly it plans to embrace the entire Star Wars universe when it stocked its very first references to The Star Wars Holiday Special, a much-despised 1978 TV show that even George Lucas would like to forget.  In our episode, we talk about how charmingly Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian has incorporated not only the things we all agree are cool (Bounty hunters...

HBO's Watchmen touches on reparations, racist vigilantism, and the destruction, 100 years ago, of the African-American business Mecca known as Black Wall Street. But what is the show actually saying about race? That's one of the main questions we try to unpack in the new Low Key podcast. Every week on Low Key , your hosts Aaron Lanton, Keith Dennie and Tim Molloy talk about pop culture moments we...

Eddie Murphy's  Dolemite Is My Name shows how Rudy Ray Moore became a black independent moviemaker—and became a role model for future DIY artists. In the latest "Low Key" podcast, we talk about how Rudy Ray Moore's  Dolemite helped blaze a still-difficult trail for Tyler Perry, Robert Townsend, and other DIY moviemakers who continue to inspire. On every episode of "Low Key," we discuss s...

How well does the CW’s “Batwoman” fit into the network’s other DC shows and the Batman universe? And would we rather see a new standalone heroine with no ties to either? Every week on “Low Key,” your co-hosts Aaron Lanton, Keith Dennie and I talk about pop culture moments we think others may have missed. This week, we revisit “Batwoman,” which we previously discussed over the summer, based only on...

What does "Joker" want to say about poverty, mental illness and other problems society has failed to solve? That's the subject of our latest "Low Key" podcast. Every week on "Low Key," your hosts Aaron Lanton, Keith Dennie and Tim Molloy look into pop culture subtleties you may have missed. Well, except for this week: This week Tim is replaced (quite successfully) by special guest Sam Perrin of th...

How to interpret Amazon's acclaimed animated series "Undone"? The series is about a 28-year-old woman named Alma (Rosa Salazar) who suffers a serious car accident and develops the ability to communicate with her long-dead father Jacob (Bob Odenkirk). She also becomes unstuck in time, and learns to bounce back and forth across decades to try to understand how her father died. The show leaves many q...

Shimmy Shimmy Ya! On the latest episode of the Low Key podcast we talk about “Wu Tang Clan: An American Story,” brought to you by RZA -- the man who brought us “The Man With the Iron Fists.” (Also: We just found out what RZA stands for “Ruler, Zig-Zag-Zig, Allah.” I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds dope. Can you say new X- Box Gamertag?)   The series chronicles the formation a...

Will Todd Phillips' new "Joker" prove the exception to the rule that villains are best left mysterious? And also, did we ever figure out why Garth Brooks' adopted an emo R&B persona named Chris Gaines? These two equally relevant subjects are the focus of our latest "Low Key" podcast. This week on "Low Key," we're joined by special guest Sam Perrin of the  "Sam Said It" podcast . All...

Fae! Pucks! Critches! This week on the "Low Key" podcast, we talk about these and other words we think might be racial slurs in the world of "Carnival Row," Amazon's unique take on bigotry and immigration. The new series examines a star-crossed relationship between a human detective named Philo (Orlando Bloom) and a winged fae named Vignette (Cara Delevigne) that is filled with metaphors we're try...

"Don't Let Go" stars David Oyelowo as an LAPD detective who starts getting phone calls from his niece, played by Storm Reid -- after she and her parents are brutally murdered. Is it about time-travel? Parallel dimensions? God? We talk it out on the new "Low Key." The Blumhouse film, from Jacob Aaron Estes, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival under the original name "Relive." It quickly sets up t...