The Cold Open Podcast

In the Cold Open #60, Robert Sickels and special guests Kalani Buchl and Tallulah Sickels have a spoiler heavy conversation about writer/director James Gunn’s new Superman film, his first as the Co-Chairman and CEO of DC Studios. They discuss his updating of Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor for our contemporary moment, his characteristic use of humor and color, the fine line he walks betw...

In the Cold Open #59, Robert Sickels and special guests Alicia Nevarez and Tallulah Sickels discuss Celine Song’s second feature, Materialists. Over the course of their conversation, they cover the film’s intentionally deceptive marketing campaign, the casting and performances of the film’s respective players, Song’s emerging authorial touches, and a deep dive into the ways...

In the Cold Open #58, Kynde Kiefel & Robert Sickels dissect Wes Anderson’s 12th feature film, The Phoenician Scheme, about which they are unexpectedly divided. The intro and outro for this edition are snippets of “The Trans-Mountain Locomotive Tunnel,” from Alexandre Desplat’s Phoenician Scheme Original Score. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcas...

In the Cold Open #57, Robert Sickels and special guest star Lee Ackerman begin with a spoiler heavy deep dive into two new mid-budget films, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag and writer/director Alex Scharfman’s debut feature, Death of a Unicorn. They then veer into a discussion on Gen Z’s movie consumption habits. Our intro and outro are David Holmes’ “Black Bag” a...

In the Cold Open #56, Kynde Kiefel, Robert Sickels , and Matt Reynolds discuss their wildly disparate responses to Mickey 17, Bong Joon-Ho’s new film. Our intro and outro are “Set Off” and “Bon Appetit with Strings” from Jung Jaeil’s Mickey 17 soundtrack. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please subscribe!

In the Cold Open #55, Robert Sickels and Matt Reynolds discuss the (mostly) reviled Megalopolis, the likely swan song of Francis Ford Coppola’s wildly fascinating career. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please subscribe!

In the Cold Open #54, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels survey the summer and early fall film and television landscape before diving into a detailed discussion of HBO’s The Penguin. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please subscribe!

In the Cold Open #53, Kynde Kiefel, Robert Sickels , and returning champion Matt Reynolds discuss the state of contemporary horror in the context of two buzzy summer horror films, MaXXXine and Longlegs. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please subscribe!

In the Cold Open # 52, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels contemplate the general malaise currently gripping the entertainment industry as it pumps out meh movies in too many theaters and B minus TV shows on too many streaming services. Along the way, they discuss a few choice texts that they think have qualitatively separated themselves from the bland pack: Furiosa, Inside Out 2, Shōgun, and the new...

In the Cold Open # 51, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels wax poetic about the many reasons they both adore Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. Our intro and outro this week are Spectrum’s “How You Satisfy Me” and Dan Deacon’s “The Crystal Cat” from the Priscilla (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ...

In the Cold Open # 50, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels dissect the four Wes Anderson short film adaptations of Roald Dahl’s short stories now playing on Netflix: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Rat Catcher, Poison, and The Swan. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please subscribe!

In The Cold Open #49, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels discuss all things Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Our intro and outro this week are Ludwig Göransson’s “Meeting Kitty” from the Oppenheimer Soundtrack and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie The Album. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Po...

In The Cold Open #48, Kynde Kiefel, Robert Sickels, and special guest star Zac Bentz dissect Wes Anderson’s 11th feature film: Asteroid City. Our intro and outro this week are Tex Ritter’s “Jingle Jangle Jingle” and Burl Ives’ “Cowboy’s Lament” from the Asteroid City Original Soundtrack. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts&...

In The Cold Open #47, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels discuss all things Avatar: The Way of Water. One of us quite liked it. One of us really, really didn’t. Our intro and outro this week are Simon Franglen’s “From Darkness to Light” and The Weeknd’s “Nothing is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” from the Avatar: The Way of Water Soundtrack. The Cold Open Podcas...

In The Cold Open #46, Kynde Kiefel, Robert Sickels, and Matt Reynolds, in his triumphant podcasting return, do a spoiler heavy deep dive into writer/director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. Our intro and outro this week are “Welcome” and “Voodoo Mama” from Justin Hurwitz’s Babylon score. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spo...

In The Cold Open #45, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels each name the top three things they love and the top three things they don’t in 2022 popular culture to date. Making the respective lists are the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Reservation Dogs, Industry, House of the Dragon, Pearl, Station Eleven, Andor, The Sandman, Movies, and live-in-person events of all kinds. Which lists? Whose lists? L...

In The Cold Open #44, The Batman Edition, Robert Sickels and Kathryn Frank offer wildly diverging opinions on Matt Reeves’ new movie, The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz headlining an all around stellar cast. We discuss it not only in the context of the many, many other Batman movies, but also in light of its relationship to particular storylines from the comics, especially...

In The Cold Open #43, The Licorice Pizza Edition, Robert Sickels and Kynde Kiefel discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s electrifying new film at length. Our intro and outro this week are Sonny & Cher’s “But You’re Mine” and Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Let Me Roll It,” both from The Licorice Pizza Soundtrack. The Cold Open Podcast is available on App...

In The Cold Open #42, The French Dispatch Edition, Robert Sickels and Kathryn Frank discuss Wes Anderson’s delightful new film at length. Our intro and outro this week are Jarvis Cocker’s “Aline” and Alexandre Desplat’s “A Multi-Pronged Battle Plan,” both from The French Dispatch Original Soundtrack. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcast...

In the Cold Open #41, The Dune Edition, Robert Sickels and long sought after special guest Tarik Elseewi discuss Denis Villeneuve’s new take on the first novel of Frank Herbert’s classic series. Our intro and outro are Hans Zimmer’s “Ripples in The Sand” and “Holy War,” from the Dune soundtrack. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and...

In the Cold Open Mini #40, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels discuss Zack Snyder’s redemptive Netflix zombie/heist movie Army of the Dead, which might be the most Zack Snyder film ever made–and also his best film by a long shot. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

In the Cold Open Mini #39, the last of our seven pods dissecting Director Zack Snyder’s 4 hour (re)cut version of DC’s The Justice League, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels examine the film’s seventh and final part: Epilogue–A Father Twice Over. In this episode we address the looming cumulative questions: Is the Snyder Cut better than the original (yes, by a long shot)? But e...

In the Cold Open Mini #38, the sixth of our seven pods dissecting each of part of Director Zack Snyder’s 4 hour (re)cut version of DC’s The Justice League, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels delve into Part 6: “Something Darker.” We discuss a variety of issues, including the movie’s ongoing Superman problems, Snyder’s skill with action sequences and infatuation wit...

In the Cold Open Mini #37, the fifth of our seven pods dissecting each of part of Director Zack Snyder’s 4 hour (re)cut version of DC’s The Justice League, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels delve into Part 5: All the King’s Horses. We discuss a variety of issues, the major ones being the hard, cold fact that the combination of Superman’s unyielding goodness and near invincibi...

In the Cold Open Mini #36, the fourth of our seven pods dissecting each of part of Director Zack Snyder’s 4 hour (re)cut version of DC’s The Justice League, Kynde Kiefel and Robert Sickels examine Part 4: “Change Machine.” We discuss a variety of things, including our thoughts about the ways heavy exposition can slow a movie’s narrative pace to a crawl, our questions...