Watch This Tonight

You ever refuse to watch something everyone says is good? I did that with the Apple+ television series Severance, until TV writer Kendall Lampkin (who has worked on JJ Abrams and Dean Devlin TV shows) passionately advocated for Severance on a previous episode. I watched it, I was blown away, I stood up like I was watching a live sporting event by the finale, and we discuss it on this episode. Kend...

The Menu (now on HBOMax) uses brutal satire to bring to the surface the thematic ideas about class we’ve seen recently in other films and TV series like White Lotus, The Glass Onion, and Severance. A rare instance of a wild high concept contained movie that has a great cast (Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor Joy, John Leguizamo, Nicholas Hoult), miles of plot to spare, goes for gonzo twists without hesit...

Some people like taking a walk on the wild side. That's where this sub-genre comes in, the most f'd up movies imaginable. This is the last in our "in the mood for" series. Supremely f'd up movies discussed include The Empty Man (one of the great cult movies, literally and figuratively, of the last 5 years, which announces a stellar new filmmaker in David Prior), Annihilation (the incredibly freaky...

Continuing our series of sub-genres of movies you're in the mood for, on this episode we're discussing sci-fi gems, science fiction films you might not have seen. Sci-fi has a legacy of movies that are interesting, unique, with overqualified casts, and out-there ideas that just get lost for whatever reason. Films discussed include Underwater, the Kirsten Stewart film (that I'll stand on the table...

Part of a new series, sub-genres of films you're in the mood for - this episode centers on disreputable crime films, scuzzy, sleazy, crime movies that put you into a dark, amoral world. Films discussed include Wrath Of Man (Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham, with an unheralded fantastic Scott Eastwood performance), The Tax Collector (David Ayer and Shia LaBeouf) and Sicario: Day of The Soldado (Stefan...

A 3-hour raw nerve ending, Magnolia is considered a divisive film, but looking back at it now, it has gained in power over the years since it was released (especially depending on what age you are when you watched it). Every minute of this movie is an intense, screaming, crying, nervous breakdown - and yet it's ultimately an upbeat message in the end. Bonus points for me sharing an extremely embar...

My biggest surprise of the year, since I'm on record as not being a fan of the first film. James Cameron's movie event of the year, Avatar: The Way of Water is a massive improvement over the first film. The themes of environmentalism and spirituality are better integrated into the plot and characters, the villain (all hail the great Stephen Lang) is now nuanced and complex, it's better written top...

Rian Johnson's follow-up to Knives Out, this film has a killer cast (Ed Norton, Daniel Craig, Janelle Monae, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., and Kathryn Hahn), impeccably sharp, impish, clever writing, and beautiful locations populated by clueless rich jerks set against a murder mystery (it's White Lotus Season 3 in movie form). A straight up winter delight, I expect this film to beco...

A guarantee: you will not predict the number one selection. As much a dissection of top films of the year as a referundum on the state of cinema in 2022 vs. prior years. I'd really love to know YOUR favorite film of 2022, your number one selection - email me at dan@voyagemedia.com, or reach out on social media @BenamorDan (Twitter), watch_this_tonight (Instagram) or @watchthistonightpodcast (TikTo...

I last saw this film as a naive, innocent college student. Watching it again, 15 years later, I discovered that Daniel Day Lewis' character does have an actual arc, and real human emotions, as opposed to being a straight up sociopath, if you watch the film closely. The father-son material hits me very differently now. Time has also made this Paul Thomas Anderson film even better, in comparison to...

Television writer Kendall Lampkin (who has worked on TV series produced by JJ Abrams and Dean Devlin) joins the podcast and we rank our top three favorite TV series of the year, as well as our honorable mentions. We floored each other with some of our choices, which we did not discuss beforehand, and we may have finally convinced each other to press play on some shows we had been refusing to watch...

Martin McDonagh's new film starring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, running back the same central trio from In Bruges. But this movie is very different from In Bruges. It's beautiful and often funny but also melancholy, philosphical and exisential. Now available on HBOMax, this is absolutely worth watching, but you may want to alter your expectations going in. A memorable, surprisingly emotiona...

Producer Garrick Dion (Whiplash, Nightcrawler) joins the podcast to discuss John Patton Ford's excellent independent film Emily The Criminal, starring Aubrey Plaza (having a hell of a year between this and The White Lotus). This is exactly the kind of movie we do this show for. Was under the radar, just popped up on Netflix, and has consistently gotten great reviews. Deservedly so, because this is...

I told you this motherf**ker was gonna come back with some kind of non-electrical camera! Shane Rogers from the podcast Midnight Facts For Insomniacs joins the podcast to discuss his controversial favorite Jordan Peele film (Us), how Eddie Murphy's stand-up comedy relates to Nope, and our mutual enthusiasm for the pure cinema moments of this film starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, now stream...

An innovative White Lous episode that will eat its own tail. If you listen PRIOR to the release of the Season 2 finale of White Lotus, you'll hear my predictions for the finale. If you listen on Monday night or later AFTER the Season 2 finale of White Lotus airs, you'll hear my predictions AND my report card on how I did, what I got right and wrong about the finale. Would love to hear your thought...

Ignore the weak title and marketing that tells you nothing about this new TV show on FX/Hulu - the show is really good. It's a difficult show to market - because what's great about it is really in the details of the execution. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, the pilot is directed by the directing team from Little Miss Sunshine, and features a witty, funny, modern take on re-entering the dating world as...

Apple+ brings their usual carte blanche budget production value and stellar ensemble of actors to this new military thriller series starring Michiel Huisman and Luke Evans, from Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty, Triple Frontier). Well-written, well-acted, well-directed, this is familiar genre material executed at a high level. Recommended for fans of the genre. Come back to Watch This Tonight as your p...

An under-the-radar gem for those with off-kilter taste, the sci-fi film Dual is currently streaming on Hulu. Karen Gillan stars as a woman who commissions a clone of herself she must later try to kill when the clone threatens to take over her life. Riley Stearns has been making critically acclaimed indie movies for years now (Faults, The Art of Self-Defense) and this film clearly demonstrates a un...

To give you something you can't get elsewhere, I tracked down the screenplay for Training Day, and this episode, I bring you the most interesting things in the script for Training Day that were not in the final film. Did you know Jake was from Santa Clarita? And that his parents were junkies? And that there was an alternate ending, at Jake's house? Training Day is an all-time classic, and I found...

A worthy successor to Lost. It only took 18 years. Seriously, 1899 is that rare combination of a great, spooky, intriguing premise, with a diverse, complex, ensemble cast, and an anything-goes sensibility that makes every turn of the plot more deliciously exciting. I love this show. Shout it from the rooftops (it's already #1 on Netflix). This is your new binge-worthy TV series.

A guest? On this show? Yes, for the first time in Watch This Tonight history, I’ve brought on a guest, Forbes writer and novelist Andy Frye (Ninety Days in The 90s), who joins the show to discuss his Watch This Tonight All-Star movie, Ice Cube and F. Gary Gray’s Friday. Andy first watched this film with a 40 in hand, smoking a joint… and now he’s about to show it to his 16-year-old son. We discuss...

The gateway drug to Korea cinema. One of my favorite films of all time. By one of the leaders of Korea cinema (Park Chan-Wook) and starring one of its most accomplished actors (Choi Min-Sik). Includes incredible displays of cinematography, a haunting score, and one of the all-time WTF endings in film history. If you enjoy this film, check out the other films of Park Chan-Wook and other Korean supe...

Continuing their winning streak, Hulu has another really funny half-hour comedy series, with This Fool. A simple but winning premise (straight-laced man who works in ex-con rehabilitation takes in his ex-con cousin), clever writing, and good-natured humor incorporating Latino culture. This and Reboot are two winners in half-hour comedy, and both are available now on Hulu. Come back to Watch This T...

There was no way I wasn't going to do an episode on Tulsa King. I have been excitedly awaiting this show since it was announced - Terry Winter (The Sopranos) and Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown) working together on a show about a mobster starting over in Tulsa, starring Sylvester Stallone? How could this NOT work? Well... it breaks my heart to say, there are some issues....

Recent events in California gambling have shown that the film Casino is not out of date. This movie, an unlikely cable TV all-star (how many times did this air on TNT? 10,000 times?) is one I understand more as I get older, particularly in regard to DeNiro's terrible bet on Sharon Stone's character (justice for Ginger? I find myself empathizing with her more and more on revisiting of the film). Pe...