Alternate Ending - Movie Review Podcast

Tim and Brennan fill one of Tim's 2025 horror blind spots by discussing the long-awaited sequel 28 YEARS LATER!   Love the Podcast? Leave us a review! Follow Brennan on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd Follow Tim on Letterboxd Support Alternate Ending and check out our member perks, including voting for the films we cover on this program, via the Alternate Ending Patreon page!

This week sees the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the tenth narrative feature directed by James Cameron, and that seemed like an auspicious enough number to use it as an excuse to celebrate. Alternate Ending's resident Avatar maniac, Tim Brayton, is joined by a trio of fellow Cameron-heads: Zev Burrows, Andrew Milne, and Caleb Wimble. And the four of them dilly-dally for as much time as Ol' Jim himself might do in going over his directorial career, and some of his other interests, culminating in our picks for the best films of his slender but massively popular filmography. As a warm up, the team has an all-2020s movie roundtable this time: Caleb sees Oscar hopeful tearjerker Hamnet, Andrew raises and then crushes our hopes with the samurai drama Tornado, Zev puzzles around with Yorgos Lanthimos's newest weird fiction, Bugonia, and Tim deals with one of the decade's most confusing distribution platforms to see Kurosawa Kiyoshi's 45 minute filmlet Chime, by request of Patreon subscriber... Caleb Wimble. Well

'Tis the season for an viewing diet unhealthily dominated by ugly sweaters, fake snow, and immaculately trimmed prop Christmas trees, and the Alternate Ending gang is celebrating by bringing Tim and Brennan together to discuss something other than horror cinema for a change. They're joined by terrible Christmas movie expert Cameron, and the three of them are sharing their thoughts - or in Tim's cases, confusions - on the omnipresent modern holiday movie genre, slick and cheesy romantic comedies made by Netflix, Hallmark, Lifetime, and other fine purveyors of shameless cinematic comfort food. It's a holly jolly time on this very special episode of Alternate Ending!

For our extremely special December episode, Mandy is joined once again by Andrew Milne, who has assigned her the horror-scifi-absurdist-quasi-Dante-epic Despiser (2003), a movie that is so very many things all at once that it trying to describe it can leave one flailing and floundering like a starving artist who just woke up in purgatory.  Fortunately, Mandy and Andrew have brought another guest along on this wild ride through the digital effects of the late 1990s, and he is probably the most qualified man in the world to talk about Despiser, because he's Philip J. Cook, the writer/director/producer of Despiser. Join Mandy, Andrew, and Phil as they discuss Phil's roller coaster of a filmmaking career, the relative merits of different approaches to special effects, why Phil has a vendetta against troll dolls, and what kinds of magic can happen when filmmakers refuse to be hindered by little inconveniences like having no money. You can back Phil's new project, Echoes of Dread, here. You can snag a copy of Andre

To wrap up November, as is customary, we're looking ahead a month, as Brennan is joined by Cameron Shaw and Brian Fowler for our preview of the films coming out in December 2025. The wintry fun begins with the current and former Midwesterner joining forces to explain to Brennan the hellish phenomenon of "lake-effect snow". And then it's time to look at the very strange offerings of the last month of the year, such as a meta-remake of Anaconda and a Neil Diamond singalong that isn't actually about Neil Diamond. They also try to give the absent editor Tim a heart attack by saying some very mean things about Avatar: Fire and Ash, but there's plenty of other potentially interesting things to dig into. Prior to popping open the release calendar, the team has a movie roundtable, with Brian finally catching up to 2017's The Babysitter, Cameron visiting the highly-anticipated new Frankenstein by Gullermo Del Toro, and Brennan check out the second big Stephen King film of the fall, with the new adaptation of The Runni

Tim and Brennan conclude the Autumn of Blood by making an appointment with 1992's DR. GIGGLES!   Love the Podcast? Leave us a review! Follow Brennan on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd Follow Tim on Letterboxd Support Alternate Ending and check out our member perks, including voting for the films we cover on this program, via the Alternate Ending Patreon page!

We've been sitting on this idea for a while, but with Chloe Zhao's Oscar hopeful Hamnet opening this month, it seemed like as good a time as any to finally move forward with one of the biggest topics a film podcast can tackle: big-screen adaptations of the work of Elizabethen/Jacobean playwright William Shakespeare, the most-adapted writer in film history on top of being the most famous name in the history of both English drama and English literature. Such a grand subject deserves a bigger crowd, so this week, Tim is joined by no fewer than three Alternate Ending regulars: Gavin McDowell, Brian Fowler, and Caleb Wimble. Together they discuss what makes a good Shakespeare movie, what we should do with adaptations that discard the original text, and why there are such a disproportionately high number of good Macbeths. Before the main event, our regular movie roundtable covers a wide range of movies, as wide as the number of genres good old Billy S. touched on his career: Brian has caught up with Black Phone 2,

Welcome to Your Movie Rocks, an Alternate Ending podcast hosted by Mandy Albert. For every episode, Mandy will watch a movie assigned by her guest host, followed by a lively discussion. There's only one rule: no matter what the movie does to her, Mandy is only allowed to love it. For November's episode, Mandy invites her colleague Inara on to discuss a subject about which Mandy knows practically nothing: cube-based videogame Minecraft. And more importantly, what happens when filmmakers try to convert those cubes into characters for the feature-length A Minecraft Movie, which remains at the start of November the highest-grossing film of 2025 at the U.S. box office. Come for Mandy's bafflement at what there is to this universe beyond "cubes", stay for her emerging theory of good stupid vs bad stupid in art.

The last Tuesday of the month means it's time for our previews of coming attractions, and to greet the first month with actual for-real blockbusters in a long time, Brennan is joined by Andrew Milne and Gavin McDowell. And while Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 are destined to be two of 2025's biggest box office successes, what the team really wants to do is go long on Hamnet, and the nature of making films about William Shakespeare's life and art. Those and other November releases are all covered in the episode, but before that happens, the trio shares their catastrophic picks for a movie roundtable: Gavin with the racist, sexist, and homophobic 1968 crime picture The Detective, Andrew with both parts of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon in their extra-length director's cut form, and Brennan with the brand-new comic disappointment Good Fortune.

As the Autumn of Blood continues, Tim and Brennan munch on 1991's POPCORN! Donate to Brian Fowler's GoFundMe here! Love the Podcast? Leave us a review! Follow Brennan on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd Follow Tim on Letterboxd Support Alternate Ending and check out our member perks, including voting for the films we cover on this program, via the Alternate Ending Patreon page!

October 13, 2025 marked the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the Oscar-winning classic All About Eve, which the Alternate Ending crew decided made for a perfect excuse to revisit one of the most remarkable face-offs between two evenly-matched masterpieces in cinema history. In this corner: Eve, the caustically witty dark comedy about backstabbing and ageism in the world of legitimate theater. In the far corner: Sunset Blvd., the lacerating film noir about madness and ageism in the world of motion pictures. Two of the medium's most iconic female lead performances, top-tier screenplays by two of Hollywood's most celebrated writers... even if the team can't pick a favorite, it's a pleasure just to get to luxuriate in the presence of these two icons. To discuss the highs and... higher highs of these two classics, Tim is joined by Cameron, and Brian, and not least Zev, whose idea this was in the first place. Before getting to the main showdown, Cameron shares her thoughts on the new must-see cinephile bait, Pa

For this bonus episode of the Alternate Ending podcast, Tim is once again joined by film scholar Will Quade, author of the recent article "We Accuse: Antisemitism and Historical Remembrance in the Films of the Dreyfus Affair" published in The International Journal of the Image. They're here to discuss the remarkable path to distribution of the controversial 2019 Roman Polanski film An Officer and a Spy, which has only just received a North American release in the fall of 2025. Together, they explore questions of the conflicting politics driving the film's delayed release, the conflicting politics within the film itself, and the reasons why the film itself forces a reckoning with the complicated and unpleasant questions it raises.

Welcome to Your Movie Rocks, an Alternate Ending podcast hosted by Mandy Albert. For every episode, Mandy will watch a movie assigned by her guest host, followed by a lively discussion. There’s only one rule: no matter what the movie does to her, Mandy is only allowed to love it. For October's episode, Mandy is watching a movie about a bunch of people in funky costumes haunted by the specter of death: no, not a horror movie, the notorious 1967 Beatles fiasco Magical Mystery Tour, thanks to Beatles fan and regular Alternate Ending podcast guest Cameron Shaw. Together, Mandy and Cameron try to figure out what the hell was going on with this shoot, what the hell was going on with the Beatles, and really just what the hell was going on with the 1960s, while also contemplating the ineffable beauty of 16mm semi-professional cinematography. And Cameron finds time to share some deep lore about Tim's prehistory. Roll up, step right this way, and give it a listen!

It's the fifth Tuesday of September, which means it's time for a special episode. And a dose of nostalgia, this time around, as we proudly announce our first Spoiler Alert episode in four years. If you listened to our September Preview, you know that Mandy, Brian, and Caleb were all very excited for the new Stephen King adaptation, The Long Walk. So the three of them decided to return to discuss that movie now that it's out and they've had a chance to see it. And not just that movie - they also have a great many thoughts on the novel it's based on, as well as the whole business of adapting King to film. Tread lightly if you haven't seen the movie or read the book, but this epic-length conversation - The Long Talk, if you will - covers a lot more ground than just this one story.

As awards season revs up, we're faced with even more movies to talk about than usual, so in this episode, Tim, Brian, and Caleb have a lot of work ahead of them as they try to cover everything noteworthy opening in October. And there's even more to talk about than usual, since all three have quite a few movies they're genuinely excited to see, in a huge reverse from the previous nine months of the year. Along with some pessimism for some of the dodgier-looking Oscarbait, to even things out. Before the preview starts, Brian is amazed to see his corner of the word onscreen in the Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, Caleb catches up with one of his previous most-anticipated titles, Twinless, and Tim takes an assignment from Patreon supporter Christophe Romain to finally track down 1999's Away with Words, the directorial debut of the great cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

To kick off the Autumn of Blood, in which they discuss pre-Scream 1990s slashers, Tim and Brennan drill into the 1996 Brian Yuzna joint THE DENTIST! Love the Podcast? Leave us a review! Follow Brennan on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd Follow Tim on Letterboxd Support Alternate Ending and check out our member perks, including voting for the films we cover on this program, via the Alternate Ending Patreon page!

Everybody loves to argue about a list, which is why this week's episode finds Brennan, Cameron, and Andrew digging into the recent list of the 100 best movies of the 21st Century published by The New York Times. What films made us mad? What films mad us happy? What's conspicuously missing? Check out the episode for the team's answers to these questions and more, as well as their individual ballots for the ten best films of the last 25 years. And before we get to that, three wildly different films come to the movie roundtable: Andrew watched Andrzej Żuławski's 1972 The Devil, Cameron checks out the biographical documentary It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, and Brennan shrugs his way through Darren Aronofsky's uncharacteristic new film Caught Stealing.

For September’s episode, Mandy welcomes back Sects, Lies, and Videotape maven Gavin McDowell, who decided to take a very different approach from his last visit and assign Mandy a movie he was pretty sure (but not positive) she’d like: David Lean’s 222-minute epic and perennial greatest-film-ever candidate Lawrence of Arabia. Tune in to hear the struggles of a parent trying to find three hours and forty-two minutes for a movie night, many musings on camel sartoriality, and whether Mandy did, in fact, enjoy watching two unbelievably gorgeous men make goo-goo eyes at each other for such a long time. There may also be discussion of the film.

September might be one of the most notorious dumping grounds on the cinematic calendar, but the Alternate Ending crew is still excited enough to talk about it that Brennan has been joined by no fewer than three guests this time. Caleb, Brian, and Mandy are on hand to see if there are any silk purses to be made out of this sow's ear of a month, and as it turns out, there's one title in particular that has everybody on the panel genuinely excited. Even beyond that, a few of our brave guests try to make the case that there might be something to remain hopeful for as autumn comes along to shove summer to the side. For the movie roundtable, we have four new releases to talk about: Caleb catches up with the buzzy Netflix original KPop Demon Hunters, Mandy grimaces through the body horror relationship drama Together, and Brennan checks in on the last smash hit of the summer, Weapons. And Brian felt duty-bound to check out an icon's return to motion pictures in Sweet Revenge, and boy does everybody end up having some

To honor the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tim and Brennan review a classic movie referenced in “Science Fiction, Double Feature,” namely 1963’s THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS!   Love the Podcast? Leave us a review! Follow Brennan on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd Follow Tim on Letterboxd Support Alternate Ending and check out our member perks, including voting for the films we cover on this program, via the Alternate Ending Patreon page!