Filmspotting

Jane Schoenbrun’s uncategorizable third feature, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, marks the director as among the most assured and provocative filmmakers of their generation. Adam and Josh agree that it’s the film of the year so far. Plus, other notable third features this decade, listeners pick their favorite Spider-Man movie, and Adam reviews The Brink of War. This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off. (Timecodes will not be precise with ads.) Intro (00:00:00-00:02:38) Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (00:02:39-00:45:20) Filmspotting Family (00:45:21-00:51:21) The Brink of War (00:51:22-01:01:11) Polls (01:01:12-01:11:25) Credits / Releases (01:11:26-01:15:26) Feedback: -Email us at feedback@filmspotting.net⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠Ask Us Anything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we might answer your question in bonus content. Support: -Join the Filmspotting Family for bonus episodes and complete a

Anthony Bourdain, whose early experience working in a restaurant kitchen is chronicled in the new biopic Tony, once singled out Ratatouille as Hollywood’s best depiction of working in a restaurant kitchen, which is all the invitation we need to revisit Brad Bird’s 2007 Pixar classic. So this week, with the help of Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi, we consider how Ratatouille trusts its viewers to accept an audacious premise, and rewards them in emotional payoff; parse the nuances and contradictions of its “anyone can cook” mantra; and lament that its lone female character of consequence falls victim to Trinity Syndrome. And yes, of course this group of critics has some thoughts on Anton Ego and the film’s take on criticism. Then in Feedback, we discuss a short excerpt from a much longer, in-depth analysis we received in response to our O Brother Where Art Thou? episode. Please share your thoughts about Ratatouille, Tony, or anything e

In 2015, Adam and Josh welcomed poster designer Sam Smith (Criterion Collection editions of House, Modern Times, and others) on the show to talk shop, then shared their Top 5 Movies Posters. Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠. Promo code: summer for 20% off through August 31st https://filmspotting.supportingcast.fm/join?sc_promo=summer  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When the author of “Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular” is the co-host of your show, you don’t avoid talking about the new Spidey movie Brand New Day just because it’s not streaming. So Matt and Jordan use the release of the movie to theorize about its massive box office, and to share some related steaming recommendations. Plus, listener requests for an unsentimental Italian film and a film that offers the same unique pleasures as Leos Carax’s uncategorizable 2012 film Holy Motors. And Producer Sam tests Matt and Jordan’s knowledge of Spider-Man villains with a game called “A Vile Menagerie.”       Matt’s Spider-Man Bona Fides + Brand New Day (00:00:00–00:25:27) Rec Seg! Brand New Day-inspired recommendations (00:25:28–00:38:45) Listener Requests: Italian Films, Movies like Holy Motors (00:38:46–00:50:16) Game: A Vile Menagerie (00:50:17–01:08:45) New to Streaming / Credits (01:08:46

What can your body tell you about a movie? According to legendary Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, everything.This week's Movie Racket explores Cohn's infamous rule for separating hits from flops. Joining Michael Phillips is Slate film critic Dana Stevens (Camera Man), who helps unpack what that deceptively simple dictum reveals about audiences, critics, attention spans, and streaming culture. Along the way, they cover The Odyssey, Jeanne Dielman, Citizen Kane, and whether laughter, tears, gasps, or simple restlessness can ever be trusted as measures of a film's success.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the final film in the Dissident Cinema Marathon, Adam and Josh discuss Jafar Panahi’s formally ingenious 2000 film THE CIRCLE, an unflinching chronicle of Iran’s oppressive treatment of women.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a five-year hiatus, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is back on the big screen with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this time battling anonymity, a host of nemeses, and some arachnid-related changes. Adam and Josh have a review. Plus thoughts on the new doc Everybody to Kenmure Street and the latest from Pulse and Cloud director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, The Samurai and the Prisoner.     This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off. (Timecodes will not be precise with ads.) Intro (00:00:00-00:02:22) Spider-Man: Brand New Day (00:02:23-00:44:22) Filmspotting Family (00:44:23-00:48:35) Everybody to Kenmure Street (00:48:36-01:08:32) The Samurai and the Prisoner (01:08:33-01:12:39) Massacre Theatre (01:12:40-01:20:03) Credits / Releases (01:20:04-01:24:02) Feedback: -Email us at feedback@filmspotting.net⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠Ask Us Anything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we might answer your question in bonus

It's been eight years since Adam and Josh did the Top 5 Superhero-Director Combos (We'd Like To See) and still somehow none of their pitches have been given the green light. Maybe that will change with this Archive edition. Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠. Promo code: summer for 20% off through August 31st https://filmspotting.supportingcast.fm/join?sc_promo=summerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the world’s Spidey sense activated by the latest Spider-Man installment (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day), Adam and Josh look back at the webslinger’s first 25 years on the screen with their Top 5 Spider-Man Scenes. Yes, even Andrew Garfield gets some love.  This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off. Intro (00:00:00-00:02:35) Top 5 Spider-Man Scenes (00:02:36-00:41:30) Filmspotting Family: ‘20s/’30s Madness — Round 2 (00:41:31-00:49:34) Notes / Poll: Best Spidey Movie (00:49:35-01:03:38) Top 5 Spider-Man Scenes, cont. (01:03:39-01:34:44) Credits / Releases (01:34:45-01:37:59) Links: “When Mary Jane Kissed Spider-Man” | The Ringer https://www.theringer.com/2022/05/03/movies/spider-man-kiss-tobey-maguire-kirsten-dunst "Goodbye to the Lake Street Screening Room" | RogerEbert.com⁠https://www.rogerebert.com/features/a-hom

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey approaches Homer’s epic from a much more literal vantage point than O Brother Where Art Thou, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dutiful, beat-by-beat adaptation. So this week we’re talking through the ways in which Nolan put his personal stamp on one of the most well-known stories in all of literature, from the film’s non-linear structure and preoccupation with time, to the physicality and humanity Nolan brings to this big-screen spectacle about a time of apparent magic. Then in Connections, we look at how these two very different films approach their shared source material, not just in direct character and narrative parallels, but also their interest in the oral tradition and eras coming to an end. Then in Your Next Picture we return to the subject of O Brother ’s music with a recommendation for the 2000 concert film Down From the Mountain.   Please share your thoughts about O Brother, Where

Back in 2022, Adam and Josh gave Sam Raimi's Spider-Man the 20th anniversary Sacred Cow treatment.  Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jordan and Matt break format - and Zeus’s Law? - for an Odyssey-themed episode, including thoughts on the new blockbuster film, favorite Christopher Nolan films, and streaming recommendations inspired by the Homeric epic. And then a game, which Jordan dubs "My Big Fat Greek Filmspotting Game."    The Odyssey (00:00:00–00:23:33) #1 Nolans (00:23:34–00:47:08) Rec Seg: Odyssey-inspired recommendations (00:47:09–01:04:23) Game: My Big Fat Greek Filmspotting Game (01:04:24–01:24:05) New to Streaming / Credits (01:24:05–01:31:47) Show Notes Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive⁠ https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/⁠ Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th):⁠ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/⁠ Feedback: Email us at feedback@filmspottingSVU.com Follow Matt on B

Story analyst Billy Mernit joins Michael Phillips to test one of Hollywood’s most enduring (and slippery) unofficial rules: Howard Hawks’ idea that a good movie is three good scenes and no bad ones.Mernit, an instructor and writer known as the “guru of rom-com,” brings nearly three decades of reading studio scripts and a working knowledge of how films get evaluated before they ever reach the screen. Together, they dig into what makes a “good scene” in the first place.Is Hawks’ dictum still useful? Or, like so many Hollywood rules, is it less a law of motion pictures than a reflection of how we choose to remember them?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey a cinematic gift, or is it a Trojan Horse filled with the director’s narrative obsessions? Maybe both. In their review, Adam and Josh talk about the ways Nolan diverges from Homer’s epic tale, and which of the director’s previous films offer the best insight into his latest. This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off. Feedback: -Email us at feedback@filmspotting.net⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠Ask Us Anything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we might answer your question in bonus content. Support: -Join the Filmspotting Family for bonus episodes and complete archive access. http://filmspottingfamily.com -Filmspotting Shop for T-shirts and more.⁠ ⁠ ⁠https://www.filmspotting.net/shop⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow: -Watch Filmspotting on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/filmspotting⁠ -Adam/Filmspotting: ⁠Letterboxd⁠ |⁠ Instagram⁠ |⁠ Facebook⁠ | ⁠Bluesky⁠ -Josh/LarsenOnFilm: ⁠Letterboxd⁠ | ⁠In

As part of 2020’s Christopher Nolan Oeuvre-view, Adam and Josh revisited The Prestige (2006), which – alongside his current The Odyssey – is among the rare Nolans adapted from existing material. Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Jordan give Hulu’s new multiverse revenge thriller Redux Redux a spin, crediting Kevin and Matthew McManus’s film for its low-budget stylishness and its central performance (by another McManus, sister Michaela). Then some Redux-inspired streaming recommendations, answers to a listener request for off-the-grid heist movies, and a game (“Multi-Box Letter-Verse”) hosted by Producer Sam. Intro / The Odyssey (00:00:00–00:11:36) Redux Redux (0:11:37–00:28:27) Rec Seg (00:28:28–00:45:35) Listener Request Recs: Off-the-Grid Heist Movies (00:45:36–01:02:42) Game: Multi-box Letter-verse (01:02:43–01:29:32) New to Streaming / Credits (01:29:33–01:38:12) Show Notes Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive⁠ https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/⁠ Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th):⁠ htt

Considering The Odyssey is one of the most famous and influential stories of all time, there had been relatively few attempts to directly translate Homer’s epic poem to the big screen until Christopher Nolan came along to do it at a blockbuster scale. It’s been more common for filmmakers, such as Joel and Ethan Coen, to use it as the loose framework for a flawed hero’s journey home, such as the one undertaken by Ulysses Everett McGill in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a Depression-era musical comedy that maps on to Homer’s version only in the broadest of strokes. But revisiting O Brother through the lens of its stated source material, as we’re doing this week, is a revealing lesson in the malleability of adaptation, as well as the Coens’ ability to make even one of the most familiar tales in all of storytelling uniquely theirs. Then in Feedback, we finally break our silence on the indie-horror phenomenon that is Obsession. Please share your t

Film critic Amy Nicholson joins host Michael Phillips to test a set of unofficial Hollywood axioms: Preston Sturges’ 11 Rules for Box Office Appeal.Written (or so the story goes) in the early 1940s, the list is equal parts joke and provocation, a series of blunt, sometimes baffling claims about what makes movies work. But taken together, the rules point toward something more coherent: a theory of cinema built on movement, rhythm, and the constant opening of possibilities.Amy and Michael dig into what still holds up and what these rules reveal about the way comedy — and movies — create momentum. Is Sturges simply being playful? Or is there real wisdom hiding inside the punchlines?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Dissident Cinema Marathon continues with Marcel Ophuls’s towering 1969 documentary The Sorrow and the Pity, which challenged the so-called “Gaullist myth” that the French people had largely resisted Nazi occupation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.