The Rolling Tape

How many hours has it been since you've been scrolling on your phone or tablet? Did you forget that the toys you once played with are now collecting dust and feeling neglected? It's one of the pressing themes we'll discuss with today's review of Toy Story 5, the 31st feature-length film from Pixar Animation released by Disney on June 19th. It's been seven years since we've hung out with the Toy Story gang since Toy Story 4. Toy Story 5 is co-written and co-directed by Andrew Stanton and McKenna Harris.

We review Pixar's latest...

Taking a break from the silver screen, we look back on the TV shows that made us and the progression of Queer representation in television. Looking back on our childhood watches, teen dramas, and what’s hot right now, we break down the best and worst of Queer television and what we are looking for next. 

Follow along as we continue to celebrate Queer Cinema with discussions on international and person-of-color representation next week! 

On this episode:
Sara Ciplickas
Claire May Lewis
Red Broadwell
Mariana Fabian
Jake Fittipaldi 

Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. Let’s dive into the films.

RETRO//RANKED is a Rolling Tape network series ranking the individual entries of beloved franchises and filmographies, timed to major new releases. For season 7, we're diving into the complete filmography of Christopher Nolan, building episode by episode, two films at a time, toward the release of his latest film, The Odyssey.

Insomnia is the third feature film from director Christopher Nolan. It was released on May 24, 2002. As of today, this is th...

Steven Spielberg — you know the name. He's one of our greatest living filmmakers on the planet. The man has created cinematic classics and enduring masterpieces that have and will stand the test of time. Yet early on in his career, he had a fascinating relationship with the Academy Awards, starting with his infamous home video in which he sarcastically reacts to not receiving a Best Director nomination for Jaws during the announcement of the 48th Academy Award nominations. "I got beaten out by Fellini," he joked. 

This rocky relationship continued even as he made blockbusters and...

RETRO//RECAP is the spin-off of RETRO//RANKED where we hit pause on the rankings and rewind the tape to catch you up on everything that’s happened in a franchise or filmography before the next entry hits theaters. 

Previously, we’ve recapped the Scream Franchise and The Devil Wears Prada, and this time we’re recapping Pixar’s most successful franchise that dates back to 1995 and includes four primary film entries, two spin-offs, and a television series. The first Toy Story was the first feature-length film to be mad...

Christian Sprenger has spent eighteen years in television, but his collaboration with director Hiro Murai is in a category of its own. Together they have built a creative language across more than fifty episodes of television, from Atlanta to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and now to Widow's Bay, the Apple TV+ comedy horror series created by Katie Dippold that has become one of the most talked-about shows of 2026. On Widow's Bay, Sprenger serves not only as cinematographer alongside co-DP Cody Jacobs, but also as a producer, a role he first stepped into during season three of Atlanta. 

D...

If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? That is one of many questions we approach today while discussing Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day which has been theatrically released by Universal as of June 11. We’ve been in eager anticipation of the film which is directed by Spielberg and written by David Koepp since April of 2024 when news first hit that Spielberg’s next film would be a UFO movie. 

The world stands poised on the brink of World War III, cybersecurity specialist Daniel Kellner...

Following the North American premiere of Just Look Up at the Tribeca Festival, Jeremy Strong moderated a panel discussion with journalist and author David Wallace-Wells (“The Uninhabitable Earth”), psychologist and Climate Emergency Fund Board Chair Margaret Klein Salamon, Climate Defiance Founder Michael Greenberg, and Climate Defiance activist Cheyenne. What followed was a conversation about the state of climate activism under the second Trump administration, the gap between public alarm and political action, and what it means to act in proportion to the scale of an emergency. 

The film had its North American Premiere at the Tribeca Festival on Ju...

Happy Pride! We are back with year two of our Pride Mini-series, celebrating Queer artists in Film and Media. After tracking the progression of Queer Cinema last year, the team is back to discuss various topics and give you new recommendations in this four-part series.

This week, the team discusses ‘Queer Bending,’ inspired by Hedda (2025), and what it means to tell a known story from a Queer perspective. They also break down ‘Queer Baiting’ and what that means in 2026. On top of it all, they give their recs, hot takes, and rants as we dive deeper into Queer me...

In his debut feature documentary, Director Eddie Sánchez paints a vulnerable portrait of his family and their experience as immigrants in the U.S. Mexicanamerican introduces us to his parents, Lalo and Beby Sánchez who, like many immigrants and refugees, came to the U.S. in hope of opportunity and a better future. Sánchez joins The Rolling Tape to discuss his experience creating this independent documentary, his relationship to his family, and how the film acts as a love letter to his parents and a reclamation of his Mexican heritage. 

The film employs a mix...

We tried to get Guy Pearce on the phone to see if he’d like to appear on today’s episode. He said he was game, but when we called back to give him a rundown of everything, he acted like he had no memory of our conversation and no idea who I was. Very unprofessional.

RETRO//RANKED is a Rolling Tape network series ranking the individual entries of beloved franchises and filmographies, timed to major new releases.

Today marks the beginning of what might be our biggest season yet, and for once, we a...

Consider this a first for The Awards Tape as we decided to backtrack and provide an update on a little movie you may have heard of called Obsession. Yes, the $750,000 micro-budgeted horror film has taken over the box office as after three weeks in wide release, it's accumulated over $170 million worldwide, becoming the first film from Focus Features to cross $100 million in the North American box office. It's the first film since E.T. to see its box office increase in its second and third consecutive weekends, even facing stiff competition from horror-adjacent...

Meet Famous Eddie Plein – the biggest fashion icon you never heard of. Eddie was the visionary behind grillz, the culture-changing dental jewelry that came to dominate the zeitgeist — celebrities, rappers, athletes, models, anyone who is anybody wears grillz. In his feature documentary, Mouth Full of Golds, Lyle Lindgren showcases the rise and fall of Famous Eddie’s Gold Teeth and the players surrounding grillz. The documentary expertly utilizes archival footage interpolated with modern interviews and reenactments to envisage this history. Mouth Full of Golds stars Famous Eddie Plein, Goldie, Mike Tyson, A$AP Rocky, Dolly Cohen, Michèle Lamy, Ferg, a...

Today we are officially closing the book on one of the biggest, most talked about, and complicated television shows of the last decade, HBO's Euphoria. Over the last few months, we've gone all the way back to Season One, revisited Season Two, and finally caught up with the third and final season of the series. Created by Sam Levinson and starring Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Colman Domingo, Alexa Demie, and Maude Apatow, Euphoria started in 2019 as a coming-of-age drama about addiction, identity and friendship, and growing up in an increasingly overwhelming digital...

Sara Ciplickas sits down with Michelle Visage, Executive Producer and Judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The two discussed season eighteen, her role in front of and behind the camera, and the progression of Queer television. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race is a reality competition show hosted by world-famous drag performer and eight-time Emmy award-winning host, RuPaul. Contestants compete in design, comedy, dancing, and lip sync challenges while vying for the crown and coveted title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”

Streaming is available on Paramount+.

Follow our interviewee online:
Michelle Visage IMDb...

By the power of Grayskull, I unite fans of sword and sorcery, 1980s nostalgia, and homoerotic relationships between hero and villain because today we are discussing Masters of the Universe based on the media franchise by Mattel and the second live-action film adaptation after the 1987 film. 

A new live-action film was announced in 2009 by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Following multiple writer, director and casting changes, the rights were transferred to Netflix in 2022 and then bought by Amazon MGM Studios in 2024 who delivered the film to theaters this weekend with director Travis Knight. 

We’ll revi...

We're launching a brand new episode format: a recurring spotlight series dedicated to celebrating singular women in film, their work, their lives, their legacies, and what they mean to us. There's no more fitting way to kick things off than with Agnès Varda, whose birthday was recently on May 30th. Happy birthday, Agnès!

Belgian-born French filmmaker Agnès Varda is widely known as the Godmother of the French New Wave, a movement she helped shape before it even had a name, influencing directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais. Her work blurs the lin...

It's only June but Awards season here at The Awards Tape just got a whole lot more complicated. This week we analyze the aftermath of the Cannes Film Festival lineup to break down the early Oscar frontrunners and discuss which titles generated the buzz to possibly translate to Academy recognition. 

Then we turn to the bad news: a handful of titles we drafted earlier this season have officially been pushed to 2027, and we're working through what those delays mean for our rosters. 

Finally, we revise our previous draft teams at the negotiating table by...

We are finally talking about the cult classic show, AMC's Interview With The Vampire. The AMC series first premiered in 2022 and is based on the beloved novels by Ann Rice. Over two seasons, it becomes one of the most acclaimed genre shows on television. 

Thanks to standout performances from Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and Asad Zaman, and an incredible supporting cast with the Vampire Lestat right around the corner. Today we are taking a step back to look at the first two seasons as a whole. What makes this adaptation work? Why has the fandom b...

If you're not careful and noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in this podcast, but fret not we don’t have moist carpet, mono-yellow walls or endless fluorescent lights. What we do have is a review of Kane Parsons’ breakout horror hit with A24, Backrooms, and a watchalong of the original video that inspired the film in 2022. 

Backrooms is directed by Kane Parsons in his feature-length directorial debut and written by Will Soodik. It is based on Parsons's web series and inspired by the "Backrooms" creepypasta that evolved onlin...

Founded in 2013 by Sarah Mueller, cinéSPEAK has built a reputation in Philadelphia through public screenings, artist support, and accessible film events across the city. That mission returns to Clark Park this summer with the organization’s annual festival, Under The Stars. 

Running every Friday from May 29 through June 19 in West Philly, the free festival combines live music and outdoor screenings of acclaimed nonfiction films fresh off the festival circuit. 

Jake Fittipaldi is joined by Sarah to discuss cinéSPEAK's mission, upcoming festival, and more on the horizon for the film, arts, and culture organization.

S...

It is time for our May READ RECEIPTS, a big screen book club from The Rolling Tape led by Kasey Dunifer! Every month, we read a book that’s been adapted for the screen, then we share our receipts. 

So if you like movies, or books, or movies AND books, you’re in the right place — and welcome to the club! 

Today we are talking about something a bit different. Instead of a film adaptation, it is a TV adaptation. We’re discussing MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES, the 2024...

The 79th Cannes Film Festival has come to an end, the Competition awards have been handed out, people have stood and clapped to their heart's content, and some of the most exciting films have debuted on the international scene.

It was a first for The Rolling Tape to be live on the ground at the Palais as our Co-Editor-in-Chief Danny Jarabek and our amazing contributor Nandita Joshi trekked to the festival and consumed cinema like no one else. A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of early morning battle royales for...

The regional spring festivals around the country in late April and early May are a great check-in on a bucket of titles ranging from second screenings of Sundance and SXSW premieres from earlier in the year to undistributed titles from the previous year’s fall festival cycle. The Rolling Tape was in attendance and today we’re road tripping from Philadelphia to Chicago to Seattle to discuss our experiences across three festivals. 

Des attended the Seattle International Film Festival for the first time, Adam Patla attended the Chicago Critics Film Festival for the second time and first joine...

Low-class urban bitches it’s time to boost because after its premiere at SXSW on March 12, 2026, NEON has theatrically released Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters on May 22. We’ll review the San Francisco-adjacent anticapitalist satire before shifting gears through some post-production magic over to a LIVE COMMENTARY of the Cannes closing award ceremony that saw Fjord take home the Palme d'Or. 

I Love Boosters follows a group of shoplifters taking aim at a cutthroat fashion maven by stealing her clothes and reselling them at a lower price. The film st...

For her first feature film, Le Triangle d’or, presented in the Special Screenings section at Cannes 2026, Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz joins Nandita Joshi live from the festival to discuss her work on the film. Going back to her last short, Mambo Queens, Rosselet-Ruiz's often interrogates the intersection of femininity and class struggle, which present themselves as major themes of her first feature.

To make ends meet, Laura takes a job working for Souria in a grand mansion in Paris’s Golden Triangle. Installed there by her lover, a wealthy Saudi prince, Souria lives i...

As the Cannes Film Festival rages on toward the end with premieres and social reactions flooding our feeds, The Awards Tape is shifting gears for a week to a new area of focus for the show, the Emmys. At the time of this recording, there are two weeks left in the window eligibility for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards for 2026. The nominations will be announced on July 8th, with the ceremony taking place on September 14th. 

It's a new chapter for the Awards Tape as Oscar season is in deep slumber before the F...

After her first two features, Relic and Apartment 7A, Natalie Erika James has cemented herself as a regular name to watch within the horror space. James is an Australian filmmaker, and Saccharine is not only her third feature film but also her second to have its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. James often centers her filmmaking in horror around the dread and atmosphere of environments rather than jump scares, making for some incredibly chilling sequences, but Saccharine combines both her strengths in the horror space alongside new elements of body...

Mariana Fabian joins director Jeremy Seifert for the Mountainfilm Festival premiere of Paper Town, a film that follows a paper mill that defined Canton, North Carolina, announcing its sudden closure. Filmed in real time, its is a raw look at a town blindsided by corporate silence and suspicious profit. As shock turns to anger, the people of Canton must navigate the wreckage of an industry that shaped their past and now threatens their future. 

Seifert is an award-winning film director, cinematographer and editor whose documentaries have premiered at Sundance, Berlinale, Hot Docs, Tribeca and AFI D...

In a galaxy far, far away...we started our Star Wars journey long ago. Since then, we have encountered the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, theatrical spin-offs, and now, at last, the final episode to cap off our rankings. We rank the 2 most recent Star Wars theatrical releases: Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. These are two of the more controversial Star Wars entries, which create a fun conversation to close out our Season 6 rankings. 

We’ve made it to another season finale of RETRO//RANKED, The Rol...

Ceniza en la Boca had its World Premiere at Cannes 2026 in the Special Screenings section of the festival. The film is directed by Diego Luna and described as follows: Lucila leaves Mexico with her younger brother to reunite with their mother in Madrid, who had left a few years earlier to chase a better future. When they finally arrive, the bitter, suffocating reality that awaits them proves far harsher than Lucila had imagined. Still, she is determined to make the most of this fragile new life.

We are joined by actresses Adriana Paz & Anna Díaz to d...