The Weekly Movie Throwdown

In this week's episode, we take a break from holiday films and dive back into our Rewatch and Reconsider series with a quiet and lovely little story from 2009: City Island . Directed by Raymond De Felitta, this heartfelt dramedy follows a family full of secrets as they discover how to finally live out loud with the help of an ex-con interloper who comes to live with them and shakes everything up....

This week, Offbeat Holiday Film Month continues with 2020's Happiest Season from writer/director Clea Duvall. This modern meet-the-family rom-com is full of the usual Christmas film tropes but puts a unique spin on them through smart writing and great performances. ____________________ STILL TO COME IN OUR OFFBEAT HOLIDAY FILM SERIES: 12/16: Rewatch and Reconsider: City Island (2009) 12/23: ...

It's December, which means a lot of holiday programming. This month, we're discussing Offbeat Holiday Films that are just a little left of the usual classic fare, starting with Shane Black's Christmas-adjacent noir comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from 2005. Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan star in this fun—and funny—thriller that you're going to love if you don't already. __________...

We close out November Noir month this week with another modern-day take on the genre. Rian Johnson's Brick from 2005 is an inventive homage to classic noir that combines its unique language with an updated setting: a 21st-century high school. With great performances across the board and some very creative choices from the production team, this first feature from Johnson is a hell of a calling card...

This week, we delve into the world of neo-noir with 1981's Blow Out . This thriller from filmmaker Brian De Palma has a lot of the hallmarks of classic noir but with a lot of modern-day flair. It's edgy, paranoid, and masterfully made. ____________________ STILL TO COME IN OUR NOVEMBER NOIR SERIES: 11/25: Brick (2005) On Letterboxd? Follow along with this month's movie list here . ________________...

In this week's episode, we delve into the world of Technicolor noir with 1953's Niagara . This story of love and betrayal includes a lot of the classic tropes of the noir genre and includes a fantastic early performance from the great Marilyn Monroe. ____________________ STILL TO COME IN OUR NOVEMBER NOIR SERIES: 11/18: Blow Out (1981) 11/25: Brick (2005) On Letterboxd? Follow along with this mont...

This week, we kick off November Noir month with one of the genre's quintessential titles: 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice . This tale of desire, betrayal, and fate is one of several films adapted from the writing of James M. Cain that set a standard for everything that came after it. ____________________ STILL TO COME IN OUR NOVEMBER NOIR SERIES: 11/11: Niagara (1953) 11/18: Blow Out (1981)...

This week, we wrap up Stephen King Adaptations Month with 1986's Maximum Overdrive . This is the only film that Stephen King has directed to date, and it's quite a ride. The set was plagued by turmoil, and what ends up on-screen shows that it was a difficult shoot. We go deep into the lore around this cocaine-fueled odyssey and, of course, try to figure out how what we watch actually got made. ___...

On this week's episode, Stephen King Screen Adaptations Month continues with the recent remake of Salem's Lot . We welcome Mike's librarian friend and horror aficionado, Andy Remondino, to help us make sense of what we watched. ________________________________ Follow Andy on Instagram here , and check out his Letterboxd profile here . ________________________________ STILL TO COME THIS MONTH: 10/2...

This week Mike and Steven discuss Mike Flanagan's Stephen King-approved adaptation of Doctor Sleep , the 2019 follow-up to The Shining . ________________________________ STILL TO COME THIS MONTH: 10/21: Salem's Lot (2024) 10/28: Maximum Overdrive If you'd like to follow along with what we're doing this month, check out this Letterboxd list: https://boxd.it/zgUKi ________________________________ WE...

This week, we kick off Stephen King Big Screen Adaptation Month with one of the writer's stories that doesn't get as much love as some of the others. 1983's The Dead Zone , directed by David Cronenberg, is a psychic thriller that stars the great Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen. Joining us to break it all down is author Laura Carney, whose literary insights really class up the show and give us...

In this episode, we put a bow on Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month with Wolfs , the streaming double-team they put out this week through Apple TV+. This is our first film in the series that features both of the stars, for better or worse. Does it reach the high bar we set last week with Michael Clayton? Listen to find out. But be warned: this is spoiler-adjacent, so if you don't want to hear any of the act...

This week, friend of the show Gerik Gooch joins us to discuss the much beloved George Clooney fixer film Michael Clayton . It's director Tony Gilroy's debut in the director's chair, though the film's note-perfect script is far from his first. We discuss that and a whole lot more. __________________________ You can find everything we're discussing this month at this fun Letterboxd list page . _____...

This week we take a break from Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month to return to our Rewatch & Reconsider series where we make a case for a film that's generally considered to be "bad," but at least one of us thinks is still a lot of fun. We're discussing Nicolas Cage's 2007 entry into the Marvel world, Ghost Rider . __________________________ You can find everything we've discussed in our Rewatch & R...

Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month continues this week with the Coen Brothers' 2016 Hollywood satire Hail, Caesar! There's a lot to love about this film, but it's also easy to get lost in the details. We discuss its pros and cons, and one of us nerds out over the on-screen typography a bit. __________________________ You can find everything we're discussing this month at this fun Letterboxd list page . ____...

This week we kick off Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month with Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly from 2012. It's one of only 22 films to ever get an F rating from Cinemascore, and in the episode we try to get to the bottom of what made audiences dislike it so much. __________________________ You can find everything we're discussing this month at this fun Letterboxd list page . __________________________ S...

This week we wrap up M. Night Shyamalan month with Old , his tale of a mysterious beach that affects its visitors' aging speed. We also look back on the entire month of films and discuss what we learned about the writer/director and his approach to filmmaking. __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this month on our Letterbo...

This week we continue M. Night Shyamalan month with his latest film, TRAP. It's more of the same from the writer/director, but with some fun new ideas (at least according to one of our hosts). __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this month on our Letterboxd list page here . __________________________________________ Still...

M. Night Shyamalan month continues with UNBREAKABLE, the film many consider his best work to date. In the episode we discuss the comic book aspects of it, how it’s photographed so beautifully, the great performances, and much more. __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this month on our Letterboxd list page here . _________...

It’s M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN MONTH! We’re kicking things off with one of the director’s more recent films, KNOCK AT THE CABIN, which we hope might be one of the titles that prove he’s settled into being the director we hoped he could be. There’s no twist, but there are still a lot of the better hallmarks of his filmmaking.  __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you...

In this episode, we wrap up Summer Blockbusters month with Twisters, the tentpole studio film of 2024. Currently, it's grossed north of $200 million, making it an undeniable candidate for our theme. Mike and Steven break down the expectations of the film, its highs and lows, and there's some big-time tornado talk. __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you ca...

This week Steven and Mike welcome a special guest onto the show. Gerik Gooch is a filmmaker and cinephile who brings with him the holy grail of modern summer blockbusters: 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day . This contemporary classic from director James Cameron was the first film with a $100 million budget and the first to break $300 million at the international box office, so its status as a smas...

This week we're doing something a little different on the Weekly Movie Throwdown. When there are five-week months we'll post four films inside our topic for that month, and then we're going to offer up a bonus episode where either Mike or Steven brings a bad film to the show that they love and it's discussed . . . for better or worse. The series is called Rewatch & Reconsider , and it kicks of...

In a world where action and comedy ruled the summer, one film defied all expectations. 1990's Ghost —a romance/thriller/comedy—took the box office not only through the summer, but it was the highest-grossing film of the year. It won Oscars, it revived classic songs, it relaunched the pixie haircut. And despite a lot of hurdles to getting made, it came out with the exact ingredients it needed to be...

This week Mike and Steven kick off Summer Blockbuster month with 1989's Batman . This Tim Burton classic had a huge impact on Mike as a kid, and he wasn't alone. The film started a craze of Batmania due to its marketing and merchandising. With Michael Keaton in the title role and Jack Nicholson as The Joker, it became beloved and set the bar for just how big summer blockbusters in the nineties cou...