Middle of the Row

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Grave of the Fireflies... Ben threatened us for years with this movie, and we’ve finally done it! Ben isn't on an island, per say, but Zac and Lauren pushback on his ranking and level of greatness on this one. Still, a spirited discussion about an important film in anime history. This release is part of animation month, as we clear out a bunch...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Suzume… Some more anime this week, with another film from Makoto Shinkai. Ben and Lauren aren’t as high on this one, but Zac is a lot more enamored with this effort! We talk about where it missteps, how we wish it might have been better, and the Chair. This release is part of animation month, as we clear out a bunch of animated films from the...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Your Name… Zac is fairly new to the anime of it all, makes his quibbles, but mostly lets the folks who love this movie do the talking. Body swaps, craters, creepy origins, we cover it all! This release is part of animation month, as we clear out a bunch of animated films from the backlog! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) Gener...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Scream VI... Zac is still not too won over by this franchise, and Ben and Lauren are both a bit down from V, but they have a nice conversation about what is, or isn’t, working in this long in the tooth franchise. Plus, plenty debate about the finale and the paths not traveled in this film. This release marks the end of a Scream week, as we’ve...

We now dive into Scream, not the OG, but number 5. This was recorded before last weeks Scream 3 episode and before any of the subsequent sequels. A lot of talking about the franchise between Ben & Lauren, as Zac tries to not come in and poo poo it all, and we wonder how many movies will include Mikey Madison dying by flame. This was, again, pulled from the archive of episodes we have recorded, and...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Scream 3... Zac comes in as a virgin with a couple of Scream superfans in Ben & Lauren. We discuss the franchise at large, the changes made to this film, nitpick the nitpickers and more! This was again pulled from the archive of episodes we have recorded, and starts off a Scream week of the episodes we've recorded on the franchise, but haven't...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Pennie From Heaven... This Steve Martin picture was him cashing in on his blank check from The Jerk and Ben and Lauren aren’t happy! Regardless, we have a very spirited, fun and honest conversation about the film! Good stuff! This was again pulled from the archive of episodes we have recorded, and caps off a Musical Week as we bring the podcas...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About La La Land... The best picture winner for three minutes was a first time watch and pick by Lauren and I think we all agree this movie is pretty great! We talk about some great chemistry, some sad love stories, and heap the praise on Stone and Gosling. This is the second archival episode in a bit of a Musical Week of bringing the podcast back!...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About All That Jazz! Bob Fosse’s masterpiece was a first time viewing for Lauren and Ben, and I was happy to get them to watch one of my favorite movies! Come for lots of appreciation, some boredom, and one of the best puns Lauren has ever delivered on the podcast! This release was a holdover from the archives, I hope to start pumping more out! Down...

Today’s episode features Ben and Nick of A Place for Owls. A Place for Owls are a Denver emo band that play quote “music that makes you feel sad, but in a good way”. Following their breakout self-titled album from 2022, they have gone on to play shows with rock heavyweights Switchfoot and Mae. We discussed those shows and their DIY approach to promotion, as well as how they went about writing and...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Knock at the Cabin... With some new M. Night out with Trap, I’m putting out our episode of his last film that’s been sitting around in the unreleased archives. I think we are on the high end of appreciation for this one (I also think I was sick?), but we talk about greater meaning, great performances and how Night’s strengths and weaknesses co...

Dipping back into the MCU one more time this week, for the film that feels closest to Deadpool & Wolverine, Spider-Man: No Way Home. This 2021 film was the first big dip into the multi-verse in the MCU and stands as the best version of it still, I think. We are all pretty big fans of this one and I was the highest on it when we recorded (probably still as well?). Anyways, it was fun to revisit our...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About The Marvels... The most recent MCU entry, all the reworking of The Marvels might make even more sense to the MCU as it was probably re-jiggered along with the plans for Deadpool & Wolverine. We are all much bigger fans of The Marvels than its reputation that quickly set in at its release; that I think you can safely say was carried out by some...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Logan... We are back again and we are getting hyped for Deadpool & Wolverine by digging into the unreleased archives (a lot of those) to bring out the episodes related to this film. Logan is the last proper appearance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, in what was supposed to be his send off with the character, and the fact that he’s coming back gi...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Mad Max: Fury Road.... As we get ready for Furiosa this week, we decided to go back to the film it’s a prequel to! Two of us think this is a 5 star classic, but that doesn’t mean we spend the whole time gushing and raving about the incredible filmmaking. We discuss some shortcomings, how it feels like it could have gone deeper and I compare Ge...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.... We recorded this awhile ago, but with director Jane Schoenbrun’s latest I Saw the TV Glow just going wide this weekend, now seemed like the time to release it in this catch up phase! We have a really lively discussion on this film, a movie none of liked above it being OK, but we do talk about a lot of re...

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Poor Things… The podcast might be coming back? IDK, we have tons of backlog, and hopefully this is the first of many more episodes to start rolling back onto this feed. We are back with Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, his latest film and one of the better films of 2023 from where I’m sitting. We discuss Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo greatness, th...

Song Trader, Episode 2 featuring: Caleb, Lindsay, and Meg Follow Caleb on Twitter: @CKPNW Follow Lindsay on Twitter: @lindsayfickas Follow Meg on Twitter: @megannnkoontz Follow me on Twitter: @anotherRahulJ @middleofrow #nothe

Hello. We are still a podcast. And this is yet another attempt to get these things out of the pipeline again. We have Middle of the Row & The Greatest Thing About... for days, and I hope this fall to get more to you all. This release is for The Mitchells vs. The Machines, which I’m timing with TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, as they share a director/writer in this film’s co-director/writer Jeff Rowe. Let’s c...

Another Flashback episode from the time when we still did those on the OG feed. Catching up with Fright Night from 2011, a movie I soured on since I last saw it, but the rest of the pod is standing up for it! Is Charlie a shitty lead character, is Colin Farrell the dreamiest vampire ever, where is the justice for Poots? Download. Listen. Enjoy. The Categories: (Time:Stamp) 8 Words or Less, The Ele...

One of many from the archives, essentially, even though this is the first release of the podcast! The Black Phone, I thought was a bad movie, and I think I brought Lauren and Ben down with me along the way? Take a listen for yourself, as we ask a lot of questions about this quite weird, silly and not that scary movie! General Thoughts, Star Ratings, crapping on Peacock (it’s gotten better) (0:01:0...

What’s this, it’s our podcast! Starting off 2023 (shut up, it’s still January!) Trying to make this a regular thing again (we have been recording), and I’m trying to find the time to get these out. But, as we say goodbye to 2022, it’s time for our Time Capsule episode! Let’s throw some stuff into the dirt for the future... Our Picks! Ben: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (3:30) Lauren: A Plague Tale: Requie...

Today I am talking with Aisha Sultan. Aisha is a syndicated columnist based at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where they’ve been writing for more than 20 years. Her work focusing on education and parenting has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, CNN, and The Washington Post. "Education, Interrupted" is her second documentary, and follows the experience of a mother of three young children...

We head back to Netflix to review Jamie Foxx’s latest, Day Shift! No one is terribly bowled over by this vampire flick/John Wick mashup, but we had quite a bit of fun picking it apart. Come for the praise of the fight choreography, stay longer as we try and figure out if this movie makes any damn sense. Download. Listen. Enjoy! The General Thoughts (01:00) Categories: The Draining Thing About... (...

The week we are discussing The Greatest Thing About... Prey! This Predator prequel has nothing to do with previous films outside a couple nods and a Predator showing up, but it’s a fresh take on the format that is overcoming the stink of its previous entry. Taking the film back to the 18th century and giving the film a female lead are a great start, while director Dan Trachtenberg gets to show off...