Listen Now

| Review | Another year, another smugly tone-deaf circlejerk of the cultural elite… but we just can’t look away. And many questions linger: will there be another era defining slap? Will there be upsets and bad jokes and wildly ostentatious outfits that make it impossible to see the stage if you’re sitting right behind the person in question? Let’s find out together. Get in loser, it’s the 95th Academy Awards.

| Review | Pray for mercy from... Puss in Boots! The swashbuckling feline is back and better than ever for his second “solo” film following up the original Shrek spin-off back in 2011. We catch up with Puss in his later years, as years of adventuring and roguish heroism have left him on the last of his nine lives. Deftly layering heavy themes with wholesome, hilarious fun and spectacular animation to boot, this is a flick everyone can enjoy.

| Review | It’s been almost a decade since Alejandro Iñárritu’s legendary one-two punch of Birdman and The Revenant. His new Netflix production, Bardo, is a meandering and meditative existential wide lens nonlinear dream walk through the director’s own inner self. His fears and insecurities, his loves and passions, his view on family and history and politics and culture - it’s all here, laid bare and put to screen like a surrealist stage play. It’s messy, but life is messy.

| Review | I think it’s nice that we share the same sky. Aftersun is a dreamy and wistful slice of life that tells the story of a father and daughter on holiday at a fading little resort in Turkey. Loosely inspired by writer/director Charlotte Wells’ own childhood experiences with her father, this haunting piece of fiction is a charming coming of age story set against a pervasive and foreboding sense of sadness. But first, a quick review of the new James Gray picture Armageddon Time - another film inspired by a writer/director’s childhood.

| Review | Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. Sarah Polley’s big screen adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel Women Talking is the final Best Picture nomination we’ve yet to cover for this year’s Academy Awards. Described as “an imagined response to real events,” it’s a powerful story with a lot to say about religion, gender roles, power dynamics, institutionalized violence and oppression… you get the idea.

| Review | In November 2020, Donald Glover tweeted that Atlanta seasons 3 and 4 would be some of the best television ever made, on the same level as The Sopranos. Well, the show is over now, and the TCP is here to evaluate. However you feel about it, one thing is for sure: there is really nothing else like it on TV.

| Review | War is hell, always has been - but World War I was a new kind of hell for its time. Originally a novel published in 1928, Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a retelling of that infamous conflict, from the perspective of a group of young German men fighting in it. Initially filled with nationalistic pride and eager to serve their country, the boys are quickly hardened and hollowed by the terror and grim brutality of trench warfare. Joining the cast to break it all down is casual historian and wartime expert Bryce Reif.

| Review | You’d think the dynamic duo of Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins would turn out some kind of spectacular and ambitious movie, especially after their last banger, 1917. But Empire of Light is not a globetrotting thrill ride or wartime epic. It’s about a quiet little theater in a small coastal town in 1980’s England. Outside of the beautiful cinematography and some fantastic performances, this probably isn’t going to be one for the books.

| Analysis | Why choose your body over time? French pop sensation Phoenix has risen from the ashes of the pandemic with their seventh studio LP, Alpha Zulu. Coming in strong with new riffs on their classic sound, this album aims to be as timeless as The Louvre it was recorded in. But is it? Check a listen...

| Review | Adapted from Samuel D. Hunter’s stage play of the same name, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale marks the triumphant return to the big screen for 90’s heartthrob and action star Brendan Fraser. It’s a small but powerful story of love, loss, and that old familiar struggle against the dark void of depression. This is a tough film to swallow.

| Review | Lights, camera, action! Babylon is 2022’s latest and greatest sensationalist love letter to the history of Hollywood and cinema as an art form. It’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood meets La La Land and set in the roaring twenties (with perhaps a little extra coke-fueled craziness thrown in). Whether or not it’s your cup of tea, it’s clear Damien Chazelle is one hell of a director. This is a wild, irreverent, fun movie. And holy smokes, Margot Robbie!

| Review | We are not in Kansas anymore! Avatar: The Way of Water is finally out in theaters after a decade of production, and James Cameron is keen to make a few more billion dollars at the box office. Wait, there's gonna be three more? Bro.

| Analysis | Hop on the band wagon, this train’s leaving. We’re talking Bros, White Noise, Jeremy Render, 1899, Golden Globes, and our top ten films of 2022. You will hear a sneak peek at our feelings on Avatar, Babylon, The Whale, and many more.

| Review | Mike White’s smash HBO hit is back with a new season! The White Lotus is a seasonal anthology series which means we also have a new resort location and ensemble cast as well. (Except for our queen Jennifer Coolidge who is back to kick some ass.) Come watch another group of rich and privileged morons be miserable in paradise. This time, with more sex.

| Review | There’s a deep sense of irony in Luca Guadagnino making a movie about cannibalism after directing Armie Hammer in Call My By Your Name (whose career was recently upended after being exposed for a wild cannibalism kink). Art imitates life. Anyway, based on Camille DeAngelis’ novel, Bones and All is an introspective coming-of-age American road trip story with a great cast. And cannibalism. This one is real gory, folks.

| Review | Everyone knows the classic tale of the wooden boy whose nose grows when he lies, but the original story from the 19th century is quite different from the Disney version we’ve come to love over the years. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio delivers a fresh and yet thematically faithful version of the familiar fable, complete with wonderful little musical numbers and gorgeous stop-motion animation. We’ve got ourselves another home run from Netflix.

| Review | This is what revolution looks like. Let’s call it… war. Produced for Disney by the brilliant Tony Gilroy, Andor is a shocking testament to the true narrative potential of Star Wars. This first installment of a two season series details the brutal beginning of the Rebel Alliance, whose efforts culminate in George Lucas’ original trilogy. While there are familiar hallmarks of the franchise, there’s also rich worldbuilding, intriguing drama, nuanced performances, and an appropriately timed philosophical treatise on the insidious rise of fascism all to the tune of HBO quality writing and production. This is Star Wars like you’ve never seen it. And you should see it.

| Review | An object that seems densely layered, but in reality, the center is in plain sight… that would be Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, the latest entry from the auteur in what will be a series of films inspired by the many novels of Agatha Christie. Returning to center stage is Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, the world’s preeminent detective, back with his definitive southern charm to unravel yet another devious mystery.

| Review | Family, art… it’ll tear you in two. Steven Spielberg is one of the most celebrated and accomplished directors of all time, and The Fablemans is his chance to finally tell his own story. A dramatized account of the master storyteller’s formative years, this movie is just as much a love letter to Spielberg’s own family as it is to the craft and history of cinema.

| Review | The man, the myth, the Green Ranger is gone... and it feels that a great White light in the world has gone with him. We've never met him but he has left an indelible impression on Steven since his youth. We are here to talk about the legacy and passion that JDF left behind.