Peak Viewing

As far as Hollywood send-ups go, Hail, Caesar! is pretty good. As far as Coen brothers movies go, Hail, Caesar! is… well, it’s near the bottom of our rankings. That’s not to say that this star-studded satire isn’t worth your time, it’s just, eh… we haven’t an opinion. On this episode we also get into Henry’s secret undercover job, Spielberg’s forgotten WWII film, and Hobie’s failure to keep it so...

This week we need no carpet on our floor. Come along and follow us as we talk about Inside Llewyn Davis, a love letter to the early 60s folk scene that is also one of the Coens most well-crafted stories. So don’t miss the train we’re on, don’t know that we’re gone, listen on as we discuss the film and go on tangents about what the best desserts are, Samuel’s hot (or not hot!) takes on leftovers, t...

It’s time to go back to the Wild West and discuss the western masterpiece True Grit. The Coen brothers’ second film based on a novel is another grounded no-nonsense work of adaptation, but they still find plenty of avenues to insert their own unique voice. In between comparing this to the (great) Charles Portis novel, we also discuss Hailee Steinfeld’s wonderful performance, Carter Burwell’s effec...

Today’s Coen brothers film is perhaps their most idiosyncratic, an enigmatic and existential nightmare with more questions than answers. And while A Serious Man grapples with the hard-hitting questions as to the nature of our universe, we’re asking the really stupid ones! What’s the optimal office cubicle setup? Why are TV antennas not a solved problem? And what’s that movie where a character is a...

This week we’re getting in a run and talking about the raw intelligence with Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan's zany follow-up to No Country for Old Men that remains a somewhat under-seen gem. Between the dancing gifs, wacky performances, and memorable lines, this is a very iconic movie that’s near and dear to both Henry and Samuel. So buckle up, keep an eye on everyone, and report back to us wh...

Bust out your air guns and lucky quarters, it’s finally time to talk about arguably the most celebrated and beloved Coen brothers film, No Country for Old Men. Based off of the 2005 Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, this film is a wonderful example of how adaptation can be an additive process instead of simply reductive. We get into the comparisons between the two works of art, along with pl...

No film has been more forgotten in the Coens filmography than The Ladykillers, their stab at a 1955 British comedy set in the 21st-century American South. Like many movies we cover on this show, it falls into the realm of peaks and valleys. Everything Tom Hanks is doing? A peak! Joel and Ethan trying to write Black characters? A valley! As we try to untangle our feelings about this macabre and sur...

We are returning to the Coen brothers to finish off the second half of their career after covering the first half last year. Starting off this week is Intolerable Cruelty, the forgotten romcom that came right in the middle of their less-appreciated early 00s run. Despite it’s lackluster central romance, we still find plenty to talk about relating to George Clooney’s teeth, asses getting nailed, wh...

It’s time to trust Tom Cruise one last time in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. This final (?) chapter in cinema’s most consistent action franchise has some of the greatest stunts put to screen. It also has some of the most confusing storytelling choices, and is tonally kind of a disaster. We do our best to untangle this web and answer the most top-of-mind questions. Questions like shoul...

The end is here! Season 2 of Andor is officially in the books, and we’ve got one last batch of episodes to go over. Come for the incredible Kleya/Luthen backstory and cozy Yavin IV vibes, stay for the endless tangents about Jabba the Hutt’s son, morbid physical media thoughts, folding laundry movies, and our existential uncertainty towards the future of Star Wars.

The third batch of episodes is here, and it is the best of season two of Andor. Despite that, this week we have (mostly) come to terms with the fact that this will never quite be the same as season 1. Even though we still really really enjoy it! After that we get into several tangents about the immaculate production design, the introduction of the Force into this show, the prevalence of Jedi knowl...

Spy stuff is happening! Syril is given a job to do! Wilmon is huffing gasoline! The Ghorman spiders are… well, actually we didn’t see as much of the Ghorman spiders as we had hoped, but this second batch of episodes in season two of Andor is still a decidedly fun time. Your co-hosts both had bad weeks in the Real World and were a bit distracted watching their weekly space opera, so please enjoy th...

(CW: Discussion of the sexual assault scene occurs at 1:26:00 - 1:31:00.) Andor season 2 is finally here, and we’re here to say: it seems good? Between the myriad of harvests, weddings, and WWII-esque meetings, the first three episodes of season two seem to be a drastic shift in terms of the storytelling structure, so this week we unpack all of our thoughts on that. We also find lots to say about...

Jason Bourne marks the end of the Jason Bourne franchise for now (or maybe forever?), and what a bummer to go out on. Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon return to completely annex The Bourne Legacy, and give you everything you already know and love about Bourne. It seems like every time we find something to like about this film, we take two steps back and find another thing that doesn’t work at all. W...

The legacy of The Bourne Legacy is that it’s not so good, and oh no, those rumors are mostly true! Tony Gilroy’s return to the franchise was a clear attempt by the studio to expand this into its own cinematic universe, and as a result the movie we got is bogged down by a lot of setup that goes nowhere. But that doesn’t mean we can’t ask the hard hitting questions: Why wasn’t Oscar Isaac the lead i...

They said it couldn’t be done, but here we are this week with not one, but two movies to talk about! We’re taking a quick detour away from Bourne to talk about the two films that Tony Gilroy directed before The Bourne Legacy, the quintessential legal masterpiece Michael Clayton and the regrettably befuddling Duplicity. Join us as we talk about too many loaves of bread, miracle hair creams, Realm a...

The Bourne Ultimatum was once the end of the franchise, and it is the epitome of going out on a high note. This action-packed thriller has got something to say, which is why we spend nearly two hours trying to figure out what exactly is it saying! Whether it’s mid-2000s American geopolitics, Bourne’s relationship to water, the perils of a multi-billion dollar entity operating with no oversight, or...

Paul Greengrass has entered the Bourne franchise, which can mean only one thing: it’s time to activate the shaky cam! The Bourne Supremacy may not achieve the same highs as The Bourne Identity, but this follow-up gives us two instances of perhaps Bourne’s most iconic move: calling people on the phone while staring at them through a window! Come for the convoluted web of conspiracies that is the pl...

In preparation for the second season of Andor, we’re diving headfirst into Bourne, the early-to-mid-2000s action franchise written for the screen (mostly) by Tony Gilroy. This efficient thriller holds up surprisingly well given the time period, and it’s making us ask lots of questions. Questions like: How much of Bourne’s amnesia is a parallel for the PTSD veterans experience? What does the color...

After a release date that has changed damn near seventeen times, Mickey 17 is finally here! Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning Parasite is a big-budget sci-fi romp that carries over several themes from his previous work. But we’re left wondering: why does it feel so unserious? Are we really in a good place to receive Mark Ruffalo’s performance? Why are there ten more Mickeys than the bo...

This week we are finally jumping on a bus bound for New York City to talk about the definitive film from the 7th Academy Awards: It Happened One Night. This wildly successful film became the template for practically all romcoms for the ensuing 90 years, but we’ve got some questions. Questions like: Have the Oscars ever been good about rewarding the best films? What should you eat with this movie,...

We cannot stress this enough: if you have not watched any of the movies in this miniseries, you owe it to yourself to check out Manhattan Melodrama. This crime drama about two brothers is easily the best written (it did win Best Original Story at the 7th Academy Awards, after all) of the bunch, and as a result it holds up remarkably well. We discuss some of our favorite shots from old “one take Wo...

The third and final musical of this miniseries gets covered this week with One Night of Love. Is this the most forgettable one from the bunch? Maybe. However, by this point we come to some genuine insights around how prolific musicals were at this time in Hollywood, as well as how much the gender dynamics of these films has to say about the 1930s. Also we have a revolutionary idea for pizza boxes...

Cleopatra is the last of the “unstreamables” in our miniseries on the 7th Academy Awards, and despite its costume designs it was actually released after the Code was being enforced. This historical epic from Cecil B DeMille might be historically inaccurate and say more about 1930s society than it does the fall of the Roman Republic, but at least it features an opulent seduction sequence on a barge...

(CW: There are brief discussions of sexual assault from about 48:00 to 54:00. There is also discussion throughout of a wolf being killed with someone’s bare hands, a real thing that really happens in this movie. Maybe skip this week if you don’t want to hear about either of those topics!) This week’s film walks a very fine line between racist caricature of Inuit people, and empathetic portrayal of...