Oh Brother

Message Dan and Mike

We're reviewing Netflix's The Last House, the sci-fi horror thriller starring Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as parents whose family gets mysteriously sealed inside their home with no way out. The premise is strong and the first act hooks us immediately, but a jarring five-year time jump sends the story spiraling into some of the weakest, most unsatisfying territory we've covered on the show. We dig into the film's abandoned plot threads, its unconvincing CGI creatures, the convenient "everyone's an engineer" problem-solving, and why comparisons to A Quiet Place don't do it any...

Message Dan and Mike

We finally sit down to unpack Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth installment in Tom Holland's run as Peter Parker and the first Spidey film from director Destin Daniel Cretton. Picking up four years after No Way Home's spell erased Peter from the world's memory, this is a noticeably darker, more isolated take on the character — Aunt May is gone, his friendships with MJ and Ned are gone, and the arachnid side of his DNA is starting to take over. We dig into how that trauma-driven tone works, and where it doesn't.

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Message Dan and Mike

We're back with part two of our San Diego Comic-Con recap, picking up where we left off on day two and carrying through to our final thoughts on the whole experience. This time we get into the chaos of Hall H, including a wristband standoff that turned into a two-hour, half-mile trek around the building just to get denied entry — twice. We also break down the panels that delivered and the ones that didn't: Lanterns surprised us with how much footage HBO was willing to show, the Spaceballs panel gave us a genuinely fu...

Message Dan and Mike

We're back from our first San Diego Comic-Con with press credentials, and this episode kicks off a two-part recap of the entire experience. Part one covers our arrival, the scramble to find the convention center on San Diego's trolley system, and the reality check that comes with picking up press badges for the first time. We also take a detour to Seaport Village for tacos and a beer with a view of the harbor, then head north to UC San Diego for a surprise highlight of the trip: Shredding the Multiverse, a concert...

Message Dan and Mike

We're reviewing John Cassavetes' Opening Night (1977), starring Gena Rowlands, as part of our dive into the Criterion box set of five Cassavetes films. This is a filmmaker some call the father of independent cinema, and we get into why he had to finance his own work, act in other people's movies to bankroll his next project, and watch this one bomb so badly on release that the studio pulled it from theaters.

We talk through the film's play-within-a-play structure, the way Cassavetes shoots actors slipping in and out of character backstage...

Message Dan and Mike

Rocky turns 50 this December, and Sylvester Stallone just turned 80 — so we're marking both with our very first Stallone review. A broke, unknown actor with bit parts in mob films turned down nearly $400,000 from the studio, wrote the script in three days, and sold his own dog to make the one movie he refused to let anyone else star in.

We get into the guerrilla filmmaking behind it: a budget under a million dollars, a 28-day shoot, no permits, tarps hauled in to fake the Philadelphia skyline in New York, and a tr...

Message Dan and Mike

We saw Supergirl opening weekend and couldn't disagree more. Dan's defending it. Mike thinks it's one of the worst films he's seen in years. No fence-sitting — just a real debate about whether Craig Gillespie's DCU origin story actually works.

We break down Milly Alcock's performance as Kara Zor-El, the galactic revenge story adapted from Tom King's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Jason Momoa's Lobo and what his presence actually adds (or doesn't), villain Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and whether he lands, the late arrival of the suit, the Krypton lore that's already dividing DC...

Message Dan and Mike

Four months ago we did a first look on Project Hail Mary and walked away genuinely excited. Now that we've seen it — Dan nearly three times, Mike once — we're ready to give it a full review.

Ryan Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a molecular biologist moonlighting as a middle school teacher who wakes up alone in deep space, no memory intact, on what amounts to a suicide mission to save Earth from extinction. The film is dense and ambitious, and once it finds its footing — roughly an hour in when Grace meets the al...

Message Dan and Mike

We finally got Dan in front of Cool Hand Luke for the first time, and this one did not disappoint. The 1967 Stuart Rosenberg film stars Paul Newman as Lucas Jackson — a decorated, easygoing war veteran who ends up on a Florida chain gang and absolutely refuses to be broken. It's a simple premise with a whole lot going on underneath it.

We dig into what makes the film work, starting with Paul Newman's performance, which is somehow both understated and completely magnetic. George Kennedy won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor fo...

Message Dan and Mike

We're two episodes into Apple TV+'s new adaptation of Cape Fear, and we have some thoughts. The series, which dropped its first two episodes on June 5th, stars Javier Bardem as Max Cady, Amy Adams as attorney Anna Bowden, and Patrick Wilson as her husband Tom — a family now living under the shadow of a man they may have wronged. Scorsese and Spielberg are both on board as executive producers, which raises the bar considerably.

We came in with full knowledge of the source material. Mike read John D. McDonald's or...

Message Dan and Mike

We're back with our eighth installment of the Oh Brother Criterion Collection reviews, and this one is our fourth Coen Brothers entry — the 2001 neo-noir masterpiece, The Man Who Wasn't There, celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Ed Crane, a laconic small-town barber who speaks little but observes everything. When he discovers his wife Doris is having an affair with her boss Big Dave, Ed hatches a blackmail scheme to fund an investment in a dry cleaning operation — setting off a chain of events that spirals far beyond his control. It's...

Message Dan and Mike

The first Star Wars film in seven years is finally here, and we're breaking down The Mandalorian and Grogu with a mostly spoiler-free review. Dan saw it opening night, Mike saw it the night before we recorded, and we are not on the same page — which makes for one of our most honest conversations yet.

We cover everything: the opening weekend box office, whether the film delivers on years of buildup, how it connects (or doesn't) to the Mandalorian series, the new villain Rotta the Hutt, Sigourney Weaver's role, Pedro Pascal's pr...

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We finally got around to Outcome, the new Apple TV+ dark comedy directed by Jonah Hill and starring Keanu Reeves as a sober Hollywood star forced onto an apology tour after a blackmailer threatens to tank his career. On paper, it has everything — a great cast, a sharp premise, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer. In practice, it just doesn't work.

We dig into why the film falls short despite its ingredients: the tonal whiplash between its quieter character moments and Jonah Hill's grating lawyer performance, the writing that mistakes shallow self-awareness for de...

Message Dan and Mike

We finally saw Michael — Antoine Fuqua's long-awaited biopic about the King of Pop — and we have thoughts. Dan and Mike break down Jaafar Jackson's performance as his legendary uncle, the film's decision to sidestep the 1993 allegations entirely, and whether the finished product does justice to one of the most complicated legacies in music history.

We get into what Fuqua gets right — the recreation of Thriller, the Jackson 5 years, the raw energy of Michael on stage — and what the film conspicuously leaves out. With a 97% audience score and only a 38% from critics on Rotte...

Message Dan and Mike

This week we're reviewing At Close Range, James Foley's 1986 rural noir crime film — newly available in a 4K restoration from Cinematographe. It's the kind of release that makes you wonder why it took this long. Based on the true story of the Johnston Gang, a Pennsylvania crime family whose reign ended in betrayal and murder, the film stars Sean Penn as Brad Whitewood Jr., a young man who seeks out his estranged father only to find someone far more dangerous than he bargained for. Christopher Walken plays Brad Sr. — and it's one of his...

Message Dan and Mike

We're diving deep into Alex Proyas' 1998 neo-noir sci-fi thriller Dark City — and we came out the other side completely won over. This one is a full recommendation from both of us, and if you've been sleeping on it, this episode is your sign to finally watch it.

We start at the beginning with a conversation about the film's complicated theatrical release, including the infamous studio-mandated voiceover that opens the original cut and how the Director's Cut restores Proyas' intended vision. It's a fascinating case study in how test screenings and studio in...

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We're back with a full review of Marty Supreme, one of the most talked-about Oscar-nominated films of the year — and honestly, one we'd been looking forward to digging into since the nominations dropped. We break down everything: Timothée Chalamet's career-redefining performance, the Safdie Brothers' meticulous directorial vision, the stunning period authenticity of the set design, and what makes this film feel like something genuinely different in the current landscape of hustle-driven storytelling.

The conversation covers the real-life influences behind the film, the themes of ambition and dreaming big that run thr...

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We're reviewing Hamnet, the 2025 historical drama directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. The film is based on Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling novel and tells the story of William Shakespeare's family — specifically his wife Agnes and their 11-year-old son Hamnet, whose death from plague in 1596 is widely believed to have inspired the creation of Hamlet.

It's a film about grief, marriage, and what it costs to make art while the people around you are suffering. Buckley won the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her...

Message Dan and Mike

We sit down to review The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto), the Brazilian political thriller that earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and had Wagner Moura — best known for playing Pablo Escobar in Narcos — winning awards on the international circuit for his performance.

Set in 1977 in Recife, Brazil, the film follows a tech expert with a shadowy past who returns to his hometown hoping to find refuge, only to discover the corruption there runs too deep to hide from. It's a slow-burn, character-driven thriller that draws comparisons to films like The...

Message Dan and Mike

We're breaking down the 98th Academy Awards — every major winner, the biggest upsets, and the snubs that had everyone talking. From Best Picture to the moments that had Hollywood buzzing, we're sharing our unfiltered takes on the biggest night in film. Whether you watched every minute or just want the highlights, this is your complete Oscars 2026 recap.

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Message Dan and Mike

Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value swept awards season with a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 19-minute standing ovation at Cannes — but does it live up to the hype? This week we dig into this intimate Norwegian drama about estrangement, art, and the complicated love between fathers and daughters. Starring Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, and Elle Fanning, it's the kind of film that lingers long after the credits roll. We break down what works, what doesn't, and why this might be one of the best films of 2025.

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