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For nearly a decade, superhero movies have found themselves in something of an identity crisis. Some have become increasingly dark and self-serious. Others have tried to deconstruct the genre or expand sprawling cinematic universes until individual stories became secondary to future installments. Somewhere along the way, many forgot one simple truth: These movies are supposed to be fun. Supergirl...

Full disclosure, this movie is in need of higher intelligence. For nearly fifty years, few filmmakers have shaped our collective vision of extraterrestrial life more than Steven Spielberg. From Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Spielberg helped define what alien stories could be. Sometimes they were wondrous. Sometimes they were frightening. But they almost always p...

When we think of D-Day, we tend to think of the beaches. We think of Omaha. Utah. The landing craft. The paratroopers. The extraordinary courage displayed by thousands of Allied troops on June 6, 1944. What we rarely think about is the weather. Yet one of the most consequential decisions of World War II had nothing to do with troop movements or battlefield tactics. It involved a forecast. Before t...

One of the most fascinating developments in modern filmmaking is the rise of directors whose careers began not in film school or the studio system, but on YouTube. Armed with digital cameras, editing software, and a direct connection to audiences, a new generation of filmmakers has emerged—many of whom possess remarkable technical skill. They understand pacing, editing, visual composition, and how...

On this episode of ReelTalk, we are reviewing Mortal Kombat II. Video game movies have come a long way. For years, adaptations of beloved games struggled to capture what made their source material work in the first place. Filmmakers often seemed embarrassed by the games themselves—stripping away mythology, simplifying characters, or attempting to reinvent stories that audiences already loved. But...

On this episode of ReelTalk...Twenty years after the original film became a cultural touchstone, the characters of Runway magazine return to a very different world—one defined not by glossy covers and editorial authority, but by layoffs, algorithms, and the steady erosion of traditional media. The Devil Wears Prada 2 attempts to grapple with that reality. The story places Miranda Priestly and her...

On this episode of ReelTalk, we’re discussing a movie that arrives with enormous expectations, enormous talent, and—perhaps inevitably—enormous debate. Michael is, at its best, a spectacle. At its worst, it is a sequence of moments searching for a story to connect them. There is no question that the film delivers visually. The concert and music-video sequences are dazzling, meticulously staged rec...

Seventy-five years ago, audiences walked into movie theaters expecting a monster movie—What they got instead was something far more unsettling. In 1951, The Thing from Another World arrived at a moment when the world itself felt uncertain. The Second World War had ended, the Cold War was beginning, and humanity was staring into the unknown—into the atomic age, into the skies above, and into the po...

After technical difficulties on the 17th of March prevented the Sound Sessions St. Patrick's Day episode from broadcasting, host Tom Hoots got the entire crew back together this week to bring to you what you should have heard on the 17th. 

It isn’t often anymore that we experience a movie that reminds us why we fell in love with the movies in the first place. Not because it reinvents the wheel… but because it understands how the wheel works. Project Hail Mary is that kind of film. It’s big, bold science fiction—filled with cosmic stakes and dazzling visuals—but at its core, it’s built on something far simpler and far more enduring:...

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots features singer/songwriter Steve Monce.

There’s a good movie somewhere inside The Bride!—perhaps several. The irony is that Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ambitious reimagining of the Frankenstein mythos feels almost as stitched together as the monster at its center. The film clearly springs from a place of imagination and artistic ambition, drawing inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and James Whale’s immortal Bride of Frankenstein from...

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots invites Mitch Pierson and Alex Napier into Studio 314 to delight you with a tiny desk concert and talk about their careers in music. 

There is a difference between resurrecting a franchise and reviving its pulse. Scream 7 understands that distinction. This latest installment does not attempt to eclipse the peerless 1996 original, nor does it double down on the tonal divergence introduced in entries five and six. Instead, it recalibrates. It restores the whodunit spine. It re-centers Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and a classica...

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots invited Haunted Like Human into Studio 314 to entertain you with a tiny desk concert and talk about what's going on in their music journeys.

How to Make a Killing is ostensibly a crime drama about financial ambition and ethical compromise, but what lingers after the credits is less a plot and more a portrait—a character study of how obsession can warp morality and justify itself in the believer’s own mind. Films about money are rarely just about money. They are about desire, identity, and the narratives we tell ourselves to rationalize...

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots is joined by the bank Lucky Mud to play some of their latest songs in a tiny desk concert and talk about updates in their musical career.

Is Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights a bold, thoughtful reinterpretation of a literary classic—or a grotesquely self-indulgent fever dream? You be the judge. That question may sound hyperbolic, but it feels unavoidable. Fennell is undeniably a visionary director. Her eye for composition, texture, and tonal immersion is extraordinary. The production design, cinematography, and costuming are exqui...

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots welcomes back singer-songwriter Todd Sparks into the studio for a tiny desk concert adn conversation about what's going on in his performance career. From Florida's panhandle to the Tampa Bay region, he is all over the place.

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots and his zany crew have Kathryn Roberts & Sarah Whitehead in studio for a tiny desk concert and to talk about what they're up to in their music careers. 

On this episode of ReelTalk, we review Sam Raimi’s newest movie Send Help followed by a countdown of top three Raimi movies. Ever so often, scheduling—or simple reality—forces you to rethink how you talk about a movie. This episode is one of those occasions. Send Help is a film I’ve seen, but my guest hasn’t—so instead of a traditional review, we’re flipping the format. I’ll be responding to quest...

On this episode of ReelTalk, we take a deep dive into the history, present state, and future of The Oscars, which held its first ceremony in 1929,  and has recently made waves with its announcement that its moving the broadcast of the ceremony to YouTube in 2029. For nearly a century, the Academy Awards have functioned as Hollywood’s grand mirror—reflecting not only what the industry celebrates, b...

On this episode of Sound Sessions, join host Tom Hoots and his crew as they welcome back Tim Parish to the studio for a tiny desk concert and to talk about the latest in his musical career. 

Ever so often, a genre film comes along that knows exactly what it is—and more importantly, what it is not trying to be. Primate is not interested in prestige horror, elevated allegory, or winking irony. It is an unapologetic “when nature attacks” movie, and refreshingly, it commits to that premise with confidence, craft, and conviction. To my surprise, I liked Primate quite a lot. It delivers spi...

Fifty years ago this November, Network arrived in theaters as a blistering satire—a provocation aimed squarely at television news, corporate power, and a culture increasingly addicted to spectacle. Today, it no longer plays as satire at all. It plays as documentation. Sidney Lumet’s Network didn’t just predict the future of media—it diagnosed the mechanics of our present. A world where outrage is...