The First Run

Let’s try and break into the algorithm and go viral. At the Grammy’s this past Sunday, Tay-tay herself, MISS Taylor Swift announced her new album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, dropping April 19th.  Throughout the show, Matt and I will be dropping tidbits about the new album with a full discussion its production and an early listen to the first single, her cover of Tracy Chapman’s Turn Rig...

This week on the First Run, Chris and Matt take a leisurely trip to the bucolic Polish countryside where everything is totally normal and nothing is out of place with The Zone of Interest. Then they shift gears to take in some mom-tainment for a change with the swimming biopic Nyad. They run down the big releases on physical media, give you their straight-to-DVD and streaming picks of the wee...

This week on The First Run, it’s primary night! Can Nikki Haley topple Donald Trump and steal a primary win?  Can Joe Biden win the state without even being on the ballot? Will Ron DeSantis now feel comfortable removing the lifts from his cowboy rasslin’ boots?  And after that Chris and Matt are going to discuss Cord Jefferson’s ‘American Fiction’, nominated for 5 Oscars, including Best...

This week on The First Run, it’s all A24 all the time. First up is the tragic story of the Von Erich wrestling family in Sean Durkin’s ‘The Iron Claw’. Then the Matt and Chris delve into the relationship between two friends as their lives diverge across the decades with Celine Song’s ‘Past Lives’. As always, they bring you the big releases on Physical Media, featuring the Straight to DVD and Strea...

This week on The First Run, it’s a Matt Howell special!  It’s biopic week!  We’re only missing horror comedies or plays to push Matt over the top. First up, Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari’, featuring Adam Driver as the titular spaghetti loving talking car, Ferrari. Then Bradley Cooper’s passion project, ‘Maestro’, featuring the life and times of potentially America’s greatest composer, Leonard...

This week on The First Run, Matt and Chris review three films for you! Lord help us. First up is the difficult to describe critical darling ‘Poor Things’, starring Emma Stone. Is it delightfully weird, a little too self-satisfied with its indulgences, or maybe it’s both? Then we check out ‘Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom’, the death rattle of the often disappointing DCEU. Finally, we’ll visit our ol...

Sadly, Chris is on the injured list with a bad head cold and no voice.  So enjoy this brand new opening from Matt and a re-broadcast of our 2023 Preview featuring the 10 films Chris and Matt were most excited about.  How did that end up shaking out…?  Don’t worry, the guys will be back next week with an extra super-sized gorgeous episode featuring ‘Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom’, ‘Po...

This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt fire up the ol’ Netflix engine to discuss a pair of…interesting films. First up, the Obama’s produced ‘Leave The World Behind’. Sam Esmail’s adaptation of the book brings together a great cast as they deal with something kind of potentially cataclysmic event. Or not? Maybe? Then it’s on to Todd Haynes’ latest, ‘May December’, featuring Natalie Portman and...

This week on the First Run, Chris and Matt check out the latest and supposedly last film by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, ‘The Boy And The Heron’. Then it’s time to check in on winter break with Alexander Payne’s reunion with Paul Giamatti in, ‘The Holdovers’. There’s the non-denominational review of the big releases on Physical Media, featuring the Straight to DVD and Streaming Picks of the Week....

This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt rejoice in the return of the OG Kaiju, it’s ‘Godzilla: Minus One’! We’re back in post-war Japan, and Big G’s ready to tear stuff up. But instead of being an allegory for post atom bomb destruction, now we’re focusing on the people at ground level.  Expanding the human side of the story is a gamble.  Is there enough Godzilla smash though…? Then t...

This week on the First Run, Chris and Matt catch up with Sir Ridley Scott and his irrepressible English hatred of the French with the historical spectacle, ‘Napoleon’. Then they check out the love child of Call Me by Your Name and The Talented Mr Ripley with ‘Saltburn’, the latest from writer/director Emerald Fennell of ‘Promising Young Woman’ fame and the reason Chris was so insistent to see it....

We’re early! Happy Thanksgiving!  This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt fire up the oven, mash the potatoes, un-can the cranberries, and whatever else has to be done to prepare for Eli Roth’s ‘Thanksgiving’. How does the latest expansion of the Grindhouse trailers hold up?  Then it’s the latest (and greatest?) film in the MCU, this time it’s ‘The Marvels’!  Captain Marvel, Capt...

This week on the First Run, Chris and Matt discuss David Fincher’s latest cinematic tryst with Netflix as he returns to his roots with his latest, ‘The Killer. Then Matt gives into Chris and checks out ‘Bottoms’, which attempts to answer the question “Can movie teenage lesbians be creepy hornballs too?” They’re sure you’ll be shocked by the answer. They run down the big Physical Media releases of...

This week on The First Run, it’s people falling out of buildings to their doom week on the big show. First up, Chris and Matt discuss this year’s Palm d’Or winner, ‘Anatomy Of A Fall’, a court room drama that is praised for its standout performance by Sandra Hüller as a woman accused of killing her husband. Did she? Didn’t she? Does it matter? Then Chris gets his Poirot itch scratched as Branagh r...

This week on The First Run, your ancient hosts, Chris and Matt, attempt connect with their inner Zoomer child and answer the question “What if Chuck E. Cheese was a homicidal maniac?” when they check out ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’. Then the guys fill the gaping raunchy sex comedy hole in their lives with Jennifer Lawrence and ‘No Hard Feelings’. As always there’s the stuffed crust pizza level of aw...

This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt buckle in for Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’. Do you enjoy sprawling epics revealing truths about our country’s past, and perhaps ourselves? Or are you complaining about its three and half hour run time? Do you consider Scorsese’s films like going to the DMV? Are you a jerk? Do you wonder if you’re a jerk? By the end of the show, you’ll kn...

This week on The First Run, dem bois resist the siren song of our future pop overlord and her brainwashed horde by skipping the theater this week. That’s right…Chris and Matt stayed home…and it was glorious. The guys keep spooky season rolling with the latest installment from the V/H/S found footage horror anthology with Shudder’s ‘V/H/S/85’. Then they take a hard right turn into a completely diff...

This week on The First Run, William Friedkin spins so hard in his grave that he’s able to power the entire eastern seaboard as Chris and Matt discuss David Gordon Green’s latest horror hijacking with ‘The Exorcist: Believer’. Does the legacy sequel possess us all once again with fear and dread? And is that fear and dread more about having to watch the next 2 films in this planned trilogy?  Th...

This week on the First Run, Chris and Matt face one of the great questions of our time…why is sci-fi usually such a bummer? Who knows but they get served up another heaping helping of it via Gareth Edward’s with The Creator. Then, because Chris likes to push Matt ever closer to the edge, the guys burn away another couple hours of their lives with Saw X. Matt refuses to call it Saw 10. They give yo...

This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt take on a couple of horrific nightmares and cut a rug. First out of the gate is an Indian demon tormenting your soul so it’s nice and ripe for consumption in, ‘It Lives Inside’. Then Hulu brings us the gray alien monsters we’ve been waiting for, maybe, with, ‘No One Will Save You’. But it doesn’t end there, oh no! Matt and Chris react to the IMAX 4k Remas...

This week on the First Run, the Chris and Matt call an audible and abandon Agatha Christie for Michael Jai White in ‘The Outlaw Johnny Black’. When one of the most anticipated films of a podcast host becomes an option to cover on said podcast, one takes the opportunity. Then the show slips on down to Chile, eats some hearts, and dusts just a nudge of Wes Anderson whimsy and twee onto the vampire g...

On this episode of The First Run, it’s sequel week! First out of the gate, The Conjuring expanded universe continues with, ‘The Nun II’. Taissa Farmiga returns as the nun on a mission to bring justice to church, exposing its greed, abuses, and hypocrisy…No, that’s not right.  Valak the demon returns. Not to be confused with Valek, the Vampire. Taissa is dispatched to end the horrors once agai...

This week on the First Run, your favorite movie bros try to answer the eternal question…”Can Antoine Fuqua make a worthwhile film?” The latest attempt brings Denzel Washington up to bat yet again with ‘The Equalizer 3’. Then Chris and Matt slum it on Netflix with the sci-fi satire ‘They Cloned Tyrone’. There’s the subtly awesome rundown of the big releases on Physical Media, featuring the Straight...

This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt finally catch up with Ari Aster’s ‘Beau Is Afraid’.  It’s a sprawling tale of one man’s journey to visit his mother, with all the accompanying insanity, violence, humor, and just a dusting of an Elektra Complex, all led my Joaquin Phoenix. Clocking in at a meager 3 hours, is it the (Insert genre here) we’ve been waiting for? Or a bloated mess? Then a...

This week on The First Run, Matt and Chris bear witness to the last desperate gasps before the death rattle of the DCEU with ‘Blue Beetle’. Is this the definitive entry of the DCEU, the yardstick in which all the other entries are measured against? Maybe, maybe not, who gives a shit at this point. As always, they run down the big releases on physical media, give you their straight to dvd and strea...