the arc.fm

We analyze a single sixty-second silent scene from Crashing (UK, 2016) and argue it contains a masterclass in heightening — and a complete portrait of the whole series. EPISODE SUMMARY Crashing (UK, 2016) is a six-part comedy series created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge — one of her first public-facing works before Fleabag changed everything. On The Arc (thearc.fm), we spend an episode on a single silen...

We argue The Studio Episode 02 is structured as a flawless bookend where basically every line is a Chekhov's Gun that goes off — and that someone couldn't resist turning it from a pistol into a machine gun, which somehow makes it more perfect. EPISODE SUMMARY The Studio, Episode 02 — "The Oner" — is a half-hour of television in which nearly every line is a Chekhov's Gun waiting to fire, and they a...

We suspend our disbelief for two straight hours watching The Rock out-muscle a helicopter — and then completely lose it over one shot of a sunrise — which tells you everything about how precisely David Leitch controls what you see and when you see it. EPISODE SUMMARY Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), directed by David Leitch and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elb...

We argue that "My Life as a Dog" gets sold as the gentlest movie ever made when it's actually a devastating study of a kid coping with his mother's death by barking like a Soviet space dog no one bothered to bring home — and the trick is that it hides the wreckage in something that looks, on the surface, like whimsy. EPISODE SUMMARY We celebrate Virgo season with Robby's favorite film — My Life as...

We take Fantastic Four: First Steps way too seriously — so seriously that it becomes the funniest episode of the year, and we are fully prepared to lose some friends over it. EPISODE SUMMARY What do Marvel movies feel like to people who have never seen one? Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, is the film two of three of us...

The greatest craft of the Princess Bride isn't its superb writing, but is in fact its unwavering sincerity masquerading as a bedtime story. EPISODE SUMMARY The Princess Bride (1987), starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, and Mandy Patinkin, is a fairy tale, a comedy, and — on The Arc (thearc.fm) — an argument about how a film can be technically clumsy (visible dummies, obvious green screen) and still...