Marco Noyola Archives -

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: LIFE’S STILL UNFAIR As the They Might Be Giants performed theme goes for the 2000-2006 sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, “You’re not the boss of me now and you’re not so big.” Twenty years later, the dysfunctional family and their boy genius returns on Hulu and Disney Plus with a 4 […]

STRANGER THINGS: TALES FROM ’85 SERIES REVIEW Just when you thought it was safe to cancel your Netflix subscription, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 is back to deliver another shot of 80s nostalgia, or at least nostalgia for a streaming series that ended less than five months ago. Set between the events of seasons two […]

THE CHRISTOPHERS MOVIE REVIEW From prolific filmmaker Steven Soderbergh comes a dramatic comedy about elderly artist, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellan) and his newly hired assistant Lori Butler (Michaela Coel). Unbeknownst to Julian, his greedy children Barnaby and Sallie (James Corden and Jessica Gunning) hired Lori not because of her experience as a personal assistant, but […]

SHRINKING SEASON 3 REVIEW From prolific creator and showrunner Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ted Lasso) comes the third season of Apple TV‘s hit Shrinking. When we first met licensed therapist Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) he was a grief-stricken widower and single father spiraling out of control, lost in a haze of substance abuse and […]

DTF ST. LOUIS SERIES REVIEW Henry David Thoreau famously said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” One can only imagine what he would think of the sex lives of lonely, middle-aged suburbanites suspected of murder. Jason Bateman and David Harbour play Clark and Floyd, two friends who are sexually unsatisfied in their […]

MOTHER MARY MOVIE REVIEW Nothing is as passionate as a hate that was once love. This is the simmering tension between mega-popstar Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) and famous fashion designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel). Arriving unannounced at Sam’s giant English countryside mansion in the middle of a huge thunderstorm at night, the stage is set […]

THE DRAMA MOVIE REVIEW Don’t let the title fool you, The Drama is a comedy, albeit a very dark, pitch-black comedy; the kind where the laughs offer a welcome and much needed respite from the discomfort you’ll feel as its narrative unfolds. In a classic rom-com set-up, the movie begins with a meet-cute in a […]

SHE DANCES MOVIE REVIEW She Dances stars Steve Zahn as Jason, a divorced father who owns a successful whiskey distillery with his best friend and business partner, Brian (Ethan Hawke). They’re in the middle of negotiations to sell their company for a lot of money, when Jason receives a call from his ex-wife Deb, (Rosemarie […]

THE MORTUARY ASSISTANT MOVIE REVIEW Based on the video game of the same name, The Mortuary Assistant stars Willa Holland as Rebecca, a young woman with a troubled past who has just completed her training as a mortician. One night, her boss, the mysterious Mr. Delver (Paul Sparks), asks her in to come in and […]

STARFLEET ACADEMY SERIES REVIEW It’s the 32nd century and in an effort to restore themselves to their former glory, a shattered Starfleet relaunches Starfleet Academy, which had been replaced by the more bellicose War College. Former Starfleet Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) has been appointed Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, which will operate alongside the still […]

GHOST TRAIN MOVIE REVIEW Just when you thought it was safe to use public transportation, here comes Ghost Train, a South Korean horror anthology film about a cursed subway station. Da-kyung (Joo Hyun-young) calls herself the Horror Queen of YouTube, and hosts a once popular channel about ghost sightings and other paranormal events. Desperate to […]

FALLOUT SEASON 2 REVIEW Who needs a nuclear armageddon to turn America into a barren wasteland when water-hungry AI data centers belonging to Amazon and other tech giants can do the job just as well? It’s an irony befitting the world of Fallout, the long running video games series and now critically acclaimed TV show… […]

DEAD MAN’S WIRE MOVIE REVIEW From director Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting) comes Dead Man’s Wire, based on the true story of businessman turned kidnapper, Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård). In 1977, Kiritsis walked into the Indianapolis office of mortgage broker Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) and took him hostage by wiring the trigger […]

OBEX MOVIE REVIEW OBEX, the latest film from multi-hyphenate artist Albert Birney, is set in the pre-internet days of the 1980s. In addition to writing and directing, Birney also stars as Conor, a computer nerd and shut-in who lives alone with his dog Sandy. One day, intrigued by an ad, Conor orders a copy of […]

STRANGER THINGS – SEASON 5 PART 3 REVIEW Released in 2016 to relatively little fanfare, Stranger Things quickly became a word of mouth hit, a pop culture phenomenon, and Netflix‘s flagship show. Now, almost a decade later, the show has completed its final voyage. It’s possible the ship might have suffered some damage along the […]

BEST OF 2025 PART ONE We always try to do something a little different every year with our Best Of The Year shows. This year, we decided to get together just the Austin-based folks for a sorta mini-Gathering series of podcasts to take on the best of TV, Film, and Videogames of 2025. The conceit […]

IS THIS THING ON? MOVIE REVIEW Comedy can be good for a lot of things but personal healing is not one you hear as much about. Writer/Director Bradley Cooper offers this year in an unusually low-key release his take on the subject, Is This Thing On? Loosely inspired by the life of British comedian John […]

STRANGER THINGS – SEASON 5 VOLUME 2 REVIEW Once again, Netflix has dropped another volume of Stranger Things Season 5 episodes on a major holiday, and once again our reviewers took a break from their vacation plans to binge these three new episodes and record their thoughts ahead of the feature-length finale scheduled to drop […]

LEFT-HANDED GIRL MOVIE REVIEW Director Shih-Ching Tsou once said “I fell in love with my own city again. I spent 23 years of my life in Taipei. That’s home. That’s where my family is. I can never remove that from my brain or my body, and I notice every little detail of the city now. […]

HAMNET MOVIE REVIEW It’s important to remember when looking at biopics about real people that we actually know very little about, that being queeny about the historical details is entirely besides the fact. Guarantee that director Chloé Zhao knew that when she signed up to make the film Hamnet and it was never intended to […]

STRANGER THINGS – SEASON 5 VOLUME 1 REVIEW The fifth and final season of Stranger Things might leave you feeling nostalgic, not for the 1980s, but for the halcyon days of 2016; back when a streaming series with no pre-release buzz could become a surprise word-of-mouth hit, when unknown child actors were actually the same […]

NOUVELLE VAGUE MOVIE REVIEW In 1959, film critic Jean-Luc Godard set out to direct his first feature, “À bout de souffle” or Breathless as it is known in English. Following Godard’s oft quoted dictum that ‘All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun’, Breathless tells the story of a louche […]

SENTIMENTAL VALUE MOVIE REVIEW After his critical success from 2021’s The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier’s new film Sentimental Value dives right back into the complex “feels” pool. The film follows Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her deeply fraught relationship with her father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), who is a celebrated film director on his […]

SLOW HORSES SEASON 5 REVIEW Slow Horses Season 5 wastes no time setting up the stakes, starting with a brutal mass shooting in the heart of London. This kicks off a series of terrorist attacks in a politically divided city during the midst of a fraught mayoral campaign. Ordinarily, this would be a job for […]

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING SEASON 5 REVIEW After four seasons of murders in the building, you would think the titular building would be the least desirable apartment complex in all of Manhattan. Fortunately for fans of Only Murders in the Building, people are still dying to move into The Arconia, home of true crime […]

MR. SCORSESE SERIES REVIEW Martin Scorsese has been one of our most acclaimed filmmakers for so long, that it’s easy to forget his reputation and career weren’t always as secure as they are now. Scorsese has been the subject of many articles, books, and documentaries before, so it’s hard to imagine anything that hasn’t been […]

PEACEMAKER SEASON 2 REVIEW Who would have guessed that a D list superhero like Chris Smith AKA Peacemaker would be the cornerstone of DC Comics latest cinematic universe, or that the role would offer former wrestler turned actor John Cena the meatiest role of his career, thus far? Nobody, that’s who. And yet here we […]

ANEMONE MOVIE REVIEW Nepotism is alive and well! Daniel Day-Lewis has come out of retirement to co-write and star in his son’s (Ronan Day-Lewis) feature film debut with Anemone. The film follows Jem Stoker (Sean Bean) as he travels far and wide to find his estranged brother Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) who’s become a hermit over […]

TWINLESS MOVIE REVIEW It’s hard to imagine as a non-twin what it would be like to have a twin sibling and then to lose them, especially unexpectedly. For Roman (Dylan O’Brien) it’s shattering. While his brother Rocky couldn’t be more different than him, they still had an indescribable bond. Roman is a heterosexual introvert. Rocky […]

CAUGHT STEALING MOVIE REVIEW Director/writer Darren Aronofsky is known for making really intense and usually very surreal films, like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and Mother!. Sometimes he chills a bit to focus on telling a great character based story like in The Wrestler. Caught Stealing is a bit of an oddball choice for […]

THE NAKED GUN MOVIE REVIEW There’s a handful at best of good absurdist spoof comedies after the early reign of the Zucker/Abrahams films (Airplane, Airplane 2, Top Secret, The Naked Gun series). There’s a LOT of terrible ones. So, the relaunch of the beloved Naked Gun series without the involvement of the original team, and […]

POKER FACE SEASON 2 REVIEW Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne are back with another season of Poker Face, their acclaimed murder-of-the-week mystery series. Charlie Cale (Lyonne) has an unusual talent, she’s a human bullshit detector who instantly knows whenever someone is lying. When her gift gets her into trouble with a Las Vegas crime family, […]

SORRY, BABY MOVIE REVIEW Most films that deal with overcoming trauma do it either as it being represented as a growing black gulf of evil (see at least half the horror films made in the last 5-10 years), or with a good deal of saccharine. The debut film from writer/director/star Eva Victor is something new. […]

MATERIALISTS MOVIE REVIEW Take one professional matchmaker for the rich and superficial (Dakota Johnson), one ex-boyfriend with all the looks and personality but no money (Chris Evans), and one absurdly rich dude who is that rare one that doesn’t seem to be a total schmuck (Pedro Pascal), and you get the love triangle that makes […]

THE LIFE OF CHUCK MOVIE REVIEW The latest Stephen King adaptation isn’t a horror movie, although there is an apocalypse underway and a LOT of existential dread in the first (or third, as marked) act. No, it’s a feel-good, tear-jerker, ‘enjoy your life because it doesn’t last forever’ inspirational film. It’s also told in reverse […]

BRING HER BACK MOVIE REVIEW The Philippou brothers, who brought us one of the biggest horror surprises of 2023 with their debut film Talk to Me, return with a considerably more sinister and mature second film. Bring Her Back follows step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and his mostly blind sister Piper (Sora Wong). Their father suddenly […]

STAR WARS: TALES OF THE UNDERWORLD REVIEW Continuing their annual May 4th tradition, LucasFilms has released another 6-episode Star Wars miniseries, adding a new set of animated adventures to their “Tales Of” series. We’ve seen the Jedi and the Empire. This time we follow the galaxy’s criminal underworld – or rather two such characters who […]

ANDOR SEASON 2 PART 3 REVIEW The One Of Us Rebels are getting closer and closer to the Battle of Yavin and the end of the Empire. T.C., Lewayne, Marco, Melina, and Drew gather to discuss the third block of episodes in this acclaimed series as it races toward its inevitable and harrowing crescendo. Cassian […]

ANDOR SEASON 2 – PART TWO The One Of Us Rebellion gathers once more under the cover of darkness to dive into the second triptych of episodes for the final season of the prestige Star Wars series. The Empire has begun to upset the Ghorman population, Cassian evaluates the growing totally not French/German mashup resistance, […]

ANDOR SEASON 2 – PART ONE After the events of Season 1 and the first true sparks of the rebellion, Andor Season 2 begins one year later. Cassian is on an undercover mission that goes south fast. Bix, Brasso, and Wilmon’s sanctuary is threatened, Mon Mothma prepares a Chandrilan wedding as Luthen keeps his grand […]