The Strange Harbors Podcast

This week, we herald the return of Steven Spielberg and one more foray into the alien sci-fi genre with Disclosure Day. Those expecting blockbuster thrills might be a little thrown to instead receive a talky, late-style plea for empathy and the transformative power of truth. The question, however, is if it's too late. We discuss Spielberg, his recent oeuvre, and the million things he has on his mind with Disclosure Day.

This week, we review this summer's OTHER horror movie phenomenon: 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons' Backrooms. Based off a viral 2022 YouTube series depicting the exploration of the titular liminal space, Backrooms adapts the creepypasta into full-blown Hollywood spectacle. As the great YouTuber-to-filmmaker war of 2026 draws to a close, we crown a victor in the arena of Obsession vs. Backrooms.

This week, we review Boots Riley's sophomore feature, I Love Boosters, an absurdist comedy skewering capitalist rot at the center of the fashion industry. An enthusiastic reflection of Riley's own politics, I Love Boosters features an infectious display of surrealist humor, eye-popping visuals, and labor-of-love practical effects; but is it enough to cover its everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach? We discuss the movie, go on a Star Wars tangent, and give an update on our Summer Box Office Wager.

This week, we review the horror sensation of the summer, Curry Barker's sleeper hit: Obsession. A graduate of the sketch comedy to cinema pipeline, Barker shares much of his pedigree with other breakout filmmakers such as Zach Cregger, the Philippou Brothers, and Chris Stuckmann, but does he have what it takes to break out of the habits of his contemporaries? We talk about Obsession's streamlined power, its wild turns, and the film's undeniable superstar: Inde Navarette.

Mortal Kombat gets a second chance as the sequel to 2021's forgotten pandemic-era reboot attempts to right the wrongs of its predecessor. For one, thing, this Mortal Kombat actually has Mortal Kombat in it. We discuss the history of the franchise, the ills of the first film, and our split-down-the-middle opinion of the new sequel. Do we have another good video game adaptation in the books? Or is this one another one to chuck into the acid pits?

Clearly unmotivated by our Summer Box Office Wager episode and totally unbiased, this week we review The Devil Wears Prada 2. Reuniting its director and cast 20 years later once again at Runway Magazine, this much-anticipated sequel hit the ground running a week ago, but does it fall victim to your typical legacy sequel traps? What do Hannibal Lecter, clickbait, and the current media hellscape have to do with The Devil Wears Prada 2? Find out by tuning in.

After failing to dethrone Amir for three years running, Derek and Jeff will attempt again to take the crown of box office champ in our annual wager. Once again, the pod comes together to pick their top 10 lists of the biggest movies of the summer. Tune in as we predict the winners, losers, and wild cards of the season.

This week, we review director Kristoffer Borgli's latest film, The Drama. A romantic dramedy that finds a devastating secret upending a young couple's upcoming nuptials, this Robert Pattinson and Zendaya vehicle navigates a complicated landscape of forgiveness, empathy, and the performance of compassion — not to mention, it's funny as hell.

This week, we review Project Hail Mary, the second adaptation of an Andy Weird novel following 2015's The Martian. Teaming up with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a conscripted schoolteacher-turned-astronaut on a mission to save the Earth and its dying sun. There's no denying that Project Hail Mary is the moviegoing event of the year so far, but does it have the craft and performances to elevate it above its crowd-pleasing station? Listen and find out.

The 98th Academy Awards have now come and gone in a largely uncontentious ceremony. We discuss the final awards season showdown between Ryan Coogler's Sinners with its record-breaking nominations and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, along with this year's many deserved — and maybe a few undeserved — wins. We also run down some surprises in the telecast, its beautiful In Memoriam segment, and the Timothée Chalamet of it all.

Everyone's favorite medical drama — The Pitt — is back. A new day in the emergency room brings new challenges for the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, and we discuss — with our own in-house medical professional, Dr. Amir Touray — how the new season is progressing, specifically, the first nine episodes. Does The Pitt continue its winning run? Was the first season just lightning in a bottle? Will Dr. Robby survive this season? We talk about it all right before the other shoe drops in the last stretch of episodes.

HBO's Game of Thrones is back with yet another spinoff, this time based on George R.R. Martin's Dunk and Egg novellas. A departure from the palace intrigue and massive scale of both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms digs into more lighthearted slice-of-life drama, at least until its explosive climax. We discuss the short first season, its pitch-perfect casting, and its memorable roster of Westerosi characters.

Gore Verbinski returns with his first film in nine years with his time travel comedy "anthology" film: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. This time around, he tries his hand at satire and topicality — a movie about our obsession with screens, our inability to cope with tragedy-filled modernity, and the encroaching threat of AI. Is he successful? Tune in and find out.

2026 has blessed us with a new Sam Raimi original in the form of Send Help, a deserted island survival thriller. Do Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien have what it takes to return Raimi to his roots? After years in the IP game — Oz, Doctor Strange — has the Drag Me to Hell and Evil Dead mastermind retained his horror chops?

Keeping with tradition, we follow up our best of 2025 episode with its natural companion: our episode on the most anticipated films of 2026. After an odd 2025 where many of our most exciting picks turned out to fall short of expectations, we can only hope that 2026 might fare better. Indie gems, huge blockbusters in Nolan's The Odyssey and Dune: Messiah, and other new projects from beloved auteurs, 2026 is shaping up to pack quite a punch. Tune in and find out our individual picks!

Hot off a placement of 28 Years Later on all of our 2025 top ten lists last week, its sequel — The Bone Temple — has quite large shoes to fill. Can Nia Dacosta capture the same humanist magic of one of last year's best movies? We discuss the villainous Jimmies, Ralph Fiennes continuing barn burner performance as Dr. Kelson, and yet another surprising ending in the 28 franchise.

It's that time of year again. We're counting down Derek, Jeff, and Amir's favorite movies of last year. 2025 was a year of great movies but also a year of crushing disappointments: many films we were looking forward to the most fizzled out. Fortunately that makes room for plenty of big surprises and dark horses in our top ten lists. What made the cut? What were some of the honorable mentions? Tune in and find out!

For our first TV review of 2026, we discuss Vince Gilligan's Apple TV smash hit, Pluribus, which just wrapped its first season on Christmas Eve of last year. We dive deep into Gilligan's illustrious pedigree, the state of streaming and TV, and the many ways in which Pluribus is bucking convention.

Happy New Year from The Strange Harbors Podcast! For the first episode of 2026, we review Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, a 1950s sports comedy-drama in the world of professional table tennis. We discuss Timothée Chalamet's barn burner performance, his Marty Mauser marketing persona, and what makes a Safdie movie a Safdie movie. Is Marty Supreme just Uncut Gems or Good Time with $50 million tacked onto its budget? Or is there much, much more under the hood?

The Strange Harbors Podcast returns to Pandora as we review the third installment of the mega-blockbuster sci-fi epic, Avatar. We once again catch up with the Sully clan in their quest to liberate their world from human colonization, this time with the added wrinkle of a new Na'vi threat. The gang is all here: Jake, Neytiri, their kids, Quaritch, and our boy Payakan, but is Fire and Ash a worthy successor to The Way of Water? Or is it just treading the Pandoran seas? Tune in and find out.

This week, we review the third film in the whodunnit series of Benoit Blanc mysteries: Wake Up Dead Man. After Knives Out and Glass Onion, director Rian Johnson returns to the reins of his favorite genre. We discuss the franchise's increasingly charismatic roster of secondary protagonists, the year of Josh O'Connor, and whether or not Johnson's penchant for heavy-handed topicality once again derails a Benoit Blanc tale.

Last year's Wicked: Part One, despite its shortcomings, was bolstered by infectious energy, powerhouse performances, and bop-worthy songs. Can this year's followup, For Good, pull off the same magic trick again? Once again, our resident Wicked fan faces off with the two laymen of the podcast to review the second half of the hit adaptation.

Two of our hosts watch their first Lynne Ramsay film with Die My Love, a relationship thriller that tests the boundaries of expression with its D+ CinemaScore and divisive reactions. In Die My Love, new mother Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) molds away at home while her aloof husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson) is at work. With only her baby, a barking dog, and her own thoughts to keep her company, she begins to unravel. We discuss its mixed reception, the economics of auteurism, and dive deeper into our fractured consensus on the film.

Guillermo del Toro's long-gestating passion project, Frankenstein, is here. Perhaps one of the famed Mexican filmmaker's greatest influences, Mary Shelley's horrifying creature once again graces the big screen, this time with del Toro's signature, gothic sensibilities. We discuss the monster's history, its many adaptations, and review its latest incarnation.

After our Luca Guadagnino episode, we are continuing our coverage of director in their "pump 'em out" phase with Yorgos Lanthimos' third film in as many years — Bugonia. Once again re-teaming with his muse Emma Stone, Lanthimos delivers an uproarious, mean-spirited conspiracy thriller. We discuss director jail, an updated rundown of Lanthimos' filmography, and a review of the film.

Luca Guadagnino directs his third movie in two years with After the Hunt. A "cancel culture" drama set in 2019, Guadagnino's latest collides academia with an attempted snapshot of the #MeToo era. Will it complete a barn burner trifecta after Challengers and Queer last year? Or is 2025 too late to put the finger on the pulse of 2019? Tune in and find out.

As we head into a jam-packed end of 2025, we give a refreshed list of what we're looking forward to, plus a little rundown of what we've been watching on both the big and small screens. Some topics from our lowkey hangout episode: HBO's Peacemaker, Alien: Earth, The Smashing Machine, and a rundown of New York Film Festival.

Short and sweet episode this week as Derek is on a much-deserved vacation. Jeff and Amir give a quick review of The Long Walk, the latest Stephen King adaptation. A movie that grew with its buzz, it features some of the best performances of the year in Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, but is it enough to carry its relatively simple premise for 108 minutes? Plus, an in-depth discussion of a long history of Stephen King movies.

"No fear. Like Tom f---ing Cruise." One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson like you've never seen him before. Gripping you from the first second of its barnburner opening montage, Anderson synthesizes his typical mastery of emotional stakes with the very unexpected: action chops. We discuss his love for Terminator 2, another all-timer Leonardo DiCaprio performance, and the star turn of one Chase Infiniti. Even middle-of-the-road PTA is good enough for a spot in the best of the decade. Hell, make it two decades.

This week we review Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee's brazen remake of the 1963 black and white Akira Kurosawa classic, High and Low. A divisive movie with its own modern mind apart from its predecessor, Highest 2 Lowest split audiences at Cannes this year and has now split us on the podcast as well. Akira Kurosawa at the height of his power or Spike Lee's late style curio? We talk about aging masters, baffling scores, and Lee's storied oeuvre as a whole.

It's that time of year again where we reveal the winner of our annual summer box office wager. Amir has taken the crown since the 2023 inception of this standing contest among hosts. Will he do it again this year? Or can Derek or Jeff finally win one? We discuss the movies of the summer: surprise hits, dark horse picks, and the biggest disappointments. Plus, a brief recap of the Emmys.

It's that time of year again where we reveal the winner of our annual summer box office wager. Amir has taken the crown since the 2023 inception of this standing contest among hosts. Will he do it again this year? Or can Derek or Jeff finally win one? We discuss the movies of the summer: surprise hits, dark horse picks, and the biggest disappointments. Plus, a brief recap of the Emmys.

Darren Aronofsky follows up his divisive Oscar-winner, The Whale, with a throwback to 90s capers. Caught Stealing is an After Hours pastiche without any ego and a studio potboiler aimed right down the middle of the road, it just happens to star one of the most charismatic casts assembled in 2025. Jeff and Derek discuss the star power of Austin Butler, the few surprises the film has in store, and this strange departure from Aronofsky's typical auteurism. Tune in!

Xenomorphs get the prestige television treatment with Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth. Mashing up extraterrestrial horror with corpo-palace intrigue, the eight-episode first season looks to expand the world of the Ridley Scott classic. Does Hawley's acclaimed pedigree with Legion and Fargo hold promise for his new series? We review the first five episodes.

Zach Cregger follows up his 2022 surprise hit Barbarian with another bout of sneaky horror with Weapons. Centered around a town grappling with a singular classroom of missing children, Cregger's sophomore feature-length film turns a microscope into a Fresnel lens to heat up the rot of an empathy-starved community: safety, routine, and comfort crumbling into dust amidst hidden dangers and inexplicable tragedy. The question is, does it stick the landing? Tune in to our review to find out.

Leaving Cannes critics perplexed and polarized this spring, Ari Aster's Eddington takes aim at the fabric of the American zeitgeist. Is it the defining finger on the pulse of COVID-abetted brain rot? Or is it as groan-worthy as an "Ari Aster COVID movie" sounds? We discuss the film, Aster's filmography, and the prospect of assembling a political perspective through a fractured, dogshit Internet.

New Earth. Fresh start. The MCU's latest brings Marvel's First Family to the big screen in a retro-futuristic, sci-fi epic. Will a red-hot, A-list cast and a heavy-hitting, non-cloud Galactus finally give The Fantastic Four the movie it deserves? Or will a flagging franchise's recent pain points once again prove that Marvel is running out of steam? Tune in as we review The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

As Jeff calls it on his Letterboxd review: "A movie of surprisingly gentle compassion but also dudes getting their entire spinal columns hauled out of their neck holes." This week we review the reunion of Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and Anthony Dod Mantle for 28 Years Later, over two decades after 28 Days Later changed the zombie genre forever. We talk about the film's emotional surprises, its misleading trailer, and its franchise future. Tune in!

James Gunn stewards a new DC Cinematic Universe with the hotly anticipated Superman. Starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Fillion, and Edi Gathegi, this new version of the Big Blue Boy Scout attempts to turn over a new leaf for a floundering franchise by taking pages from a rich tapestry of comics. Is it successful? We review the film, rank the silver screen Supermen, and talk about the future of DC at the movies.

Jeff is on vacation this week, so it's up to Derek and Amir to pull off the rare double feature episode. In a week of dueling popcorn blockbusters, which crowdpleaser — John Wick spinoff Ballerina or racing drama F1 — will reign supreme? We talk Ana De Armas, Brad Pitt, and the highs and lows of both movies.