Are You Screening? Podcast

Now the fun begins listeners! Sure, the Golden Globes have happened, and other awards are coming up - tune in to Critics' Choice on March 7th - but this week we're headed in the other direction. The worst movies can be as hard to put on a list as the best, but we make ourselves do it. Did your most hated film make the cut, or are you not putting in the same sort of effort we are and thus didn't even see any of these? Tune in and find out what we just couldn't stand this year.

It's that time, and now that awards are right around the corner, we're giving you our Best Movies of the Year lists. There are a few surprises, and we aren't as moon-eyed over some of the things jockeying for position on everyone else's lists. Find out what we loved this year, what you need to see, and how we figure our take on things may give some insight into what is going to win Best Picture.

This week, with the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice nominations out, we take a look at the nominations and run through some movies we need to at least mention before awards shows start hitting. Some of the nominations are a little crazy, some are obvious, and we also wanted to cover a few more of the movies getting a lot of attention before we hit you with our Best of the Year lists. It's a wild ride, tune in and find out what movies you better be aware of, and which ones we don't actually think are that great despite everyone talking them up.

This week we're reviewing Nomadland and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but we couldn't let an episode this close to various awards go by without some commentary on the crazy world that is this year in film.  I'll also give some hints on what I'm nominating for the Critics' Choice Awards (nominations revealed on the 8th)... and what I'm not.

We're catching up a little this week, and we're covering The Little Things, but also Wonder Woman, The Midnight Sky, and the Critics Choice Super Awards. We're actually particularly interested in what people though of the Super Awards, especially with the bigger awards season on the horizon.

We've got some quick reviews of recent and upcoming releases this week, but a listener email sent us down the rabbit hole of revisiting our picks for the best films of last year. That's always a scary trip, but it worked out well.  We tackle Mank, briefly, and Soul, The Midnight Sky, and more.

We're taking a look at Freaky this week as theaters slow to a grinding halt, but we'll also give you a quick review of Hillbilly Elegy before we fully cover it, and we'll be looking at other things you can watch while you wait for films to decide their fates.

We check in this week with Honest Thief and wonder at the extent to which Liam Neeson can pull this one together. A somewhat interesting premise isn't given the script it deserves, but with little available in theaters... well, we'll let you know if this is worth your time. We're also giving a rundown of some of your non-theater options, including some great films and shows that are hitting on streaming services. There's a lot of good stuff out now or on the way.

As more and more movies get pushed back, options that aren't streaming are harder to come by, leading to the infinite cycle of reasons people aren't in theaters. With that, two titles from Netflix are among the biggest possibilities. Enola Holmes and Hubie Halloween offer very different fare, but at least they're options, and one of them is actually quite good.

As the movie world puts everyone in a strange limbo of theater openings mixed with release date pushback, we head to New Mutants to let you know if daring theaters is worth your time. A strange, underhyped film that isn't getting a lot of attention post-release, but is it any good?

Tenet finally shows up, but the film that doesn't want you to know what it's about hasn't managed to get people swarming against the pandemic. Is it worth heading to the theater? You can catch the curious case of Bill&Ted returning to the screen decades later at home or in the theater, but is it worth either option? We'll let you know where to put your money.

This week we're reviewing Project Power, talking industry news, and steeling ourselves for a return to theaters.

We're finally back and trying to catch up. Even a pandemic can only keep us away so long, and we're looking at Eurovision, Palm Springs, and The Old Guard this week, with special bonus ratings for Greyhound.   Spoiler - We recommend them all... except Shane doesn't love Eurovision... because he hates elves.

As the lack of theatrical releases really starts to take a toll on us, we'll be going over some great television that's available, and we'll review Sonic the Hedgehog and The Jesus Rolls. As we head into the summer, we are going to try to expand our coverage of TV here, while continuing to get you reviews of as many movies as possible.

Our latest social distancing episode covers Extraction, which is pretty surprising, the AMC vs Universal controversy, and a lot more.

We're finally back at it and reviewing Onward, but we're also going to share our experiences with social distancing and the streaming opportunities available to us all these days.

It was a challenge, and between the two of us it probably covers 200 films, but we've made our lists of the Top 20 Movies of the Decade. In our originally live episode, we take you through our lists, let you know where we think we're crazy, and give you a lot of insights we learned in boiling down a decade into the best on offer. Among other things, we'll let you know some of the most forgotten movies, surprises other people have on their lists, and the movies that we're not putting on ours, no matter how many other people do.

Awards season isn't quite over until we share our own. The "Can't Win" Awards are our own effort to highlight some of the films that aren't getting the attention they deserve. Whether a movie is too niche, too indie, or otherwise just isn't going to get a "real" award, we honor those efforts that go overlooked to one degree or another... well, except Shane, who picks things that got nominated... As usual, we each pick a winner in the big five - Movie, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. Tune in to find some great movies that a lot of people missed last year. Also, tune in Tuesday for a live show where we tell you our picks for Best Movies of the Decade

Once Oscar season ends, there's usually a lot of room for backlash, but this year a lot of the awards were foregone conclusions... except for Parasite making history. Still, we give you a quick rundown on the winners. We're also reviewing Birds of Prey, and it's one that, perhaps surprisingly, made for quite a gap in our ratings. Screwball fun, or just hopelessly screwball? We'll let you know.

It could only last so long, and though we tried to draw out talking about good movies as much as possible, at some point we had to get here.  It's a weird year for us, and while that seems true of every year, the worst list left us spoiled for choice. Not only the worst of the worst, but our lists diverged a fair amount this time around. And, we have a fair number of movies that are on people's best lists.