This week on the show, I feel convinced that The Rock is trying to actively sap all of my Christmas spirit at the beginning of the holiday month. Another animated movie made me cry, a definite future Oscar nominee, I dig into the first ever Dreamworks film, now available on blu-ray, and I saw the real appeal of Rita Hayworth, all in gorgeous 4K. I also get to give a couple of post mortems on some very polarizing television. All of this plus a cool gift suggestion for all of the horror/sci-fi lovers on your shopping lists!
Call it Glicked, Wickiator or whatever you want, I saw both films and my thoughts on both of them may surprise you as it did me! Martin Scorsese offers up a documentary of a pivotal time in the history of The Beatles, I dug into my 4K of Wes Craven’s greatest gift to horror cinema and I received a hell of an early holiday present. All this plus my House Of The Dragon wrap-up, with the release of season 2 on 4K.
We’ve got a jam-packed episode of great goodies this week as I have nothing but good things to say about Hugh Grant’s new thriller, Heretic, as well as the most fun I’ve had with a film this year, Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a movie that boasts the best cast of the year in my opinion. Warner Bros. has a trio of fantastic classics in the upgraded 4K format, a VIFF premiere gets its Netflix streaming debut, the Dune franchise expands to television and Disney+ has two of the best new shows of 2024 just as the year draws to a close. All this and more on this brand new What The Hell Should I Watch!
The Plague Cast is upon us! Or that’s what I’m calling this week’s episode as it comes at the tail end of me and my family fighting off a vicious flu! I emerge on the other side to give you my fierce thoughts on the new Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks collaboration that I felt done with after ten minutes. I also have two fantastic must-see documentaries and a horror film that every aficionado needs to see before the end of the year. I give a look at two classics from very different eras, now available on Blu-ray and more on this all-new episode! Mask up and dig in!
Chloe is back this week and so are all the production bells and whistles after the last episode’s fun little crash course. This week’s movie has me going outside of my comfort zone into the romantic dramas with We Live In Time but it’s with good company, being two of the best currently working in film today, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. I try to coin the genre name for Liam Neeson as he has a new action film out as well as writer, director and creature guy Steven Kostanski’s follow-up to Psycho Goreman. All this plus we both relive some interesting 2024 cinematic moments in this week’s reminders.
Manning the desk solo again this week with a twist: I’m also editing too so don’t expect any flash stuff! That’s Chloe’s department! This week I give my thoughts on the ending of the Venom trilogy, Venom: The Last Dance, a symbiotic bromance for the ages! I also dug out two of our VIFF films, Conclave and Seeds, for their theatrical releases and finally got to give the well earned praise to Will Ferrell’s new documentary on Netflix. All of this plus I finally finished one of the best shows to stream in the last decade, albeit a few years too late.
Flying without a co-pilot this week as Chloe takes a break and will return next week. I faced my fears on this new episode and took in Parker Finn’s diabolical sequel to his debut film, Smile. I also got a look at Michael Keaton hanging out in his comfortable sweet spot in Goodrich and welcome back the housemates of What We Do In The Shadows for the first three episodes of their final season. All of this plus a few cool additions to my library!
I’m very excited about this week’s episodes as Chloe and I get to bring two Vancouver International Film Festival movies back for full reviews as this year’s best film and the Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, Sean Baker’s Anora, makes its debut in theaters over the next three weeks across Canada! We also get to dig into one of the weirder festival films, Guy Maddin’s political satire, Rumours, a movie that both of us are still trying to make sense of. We give our thoughts on Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow, I had some fun with the new animated prequel Transformers One as well as some new documentaries on Disney+. All this and more, right here!
After an amazing week at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Chloe and I are a little burnt out but ready to give you all the new films we took in, off the festival path. We get to unleash on the Joker sequel, a film that we opted for over an apparently incredible VIFF film and I finally get to gush over my favorite film of 2024 so far, The Substance. I try to make sense of Francis Ford Coppola’s very self indulgent passion project and Sebastian Stan has two new films this week and one of them Chloe and I just saw at the festival. All this and more as we play catch up on a brand new episode!
The Vancouver International Film Festival, this being the 43rd annual, is always my favorite time of the year and has been for the last eight years of my life, especially the majority of them that I was able to attend in person. This year marked a new evolution in the journey as my daughter Chloe joined the show and we got to experience the festival as both her first time and the first in a video coverage sense. Presented here is our breakdown of eighteen of the many films from across the globe that we took in, including possible Oscar contenders in Conclave, Flow and Anora.
Steve Stebbing 