Black Men Can't Jump [In Hollywood]

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering One Battle After Another, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti. Together, they discuss this not being a political podcast, daddy daughter games, the complexities of the Perfidia Beverly Hills character, what was going on with Jun...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Him, directed by Justin Tipping, written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, and Justin Tipping, starring Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, and Tim Heidecker. Together, they discuss the setup everyone expected, how well Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle’s doing at the box office, the bait-and-switch feel of Him’s marketing campaign leaning so heavily on Jordan ...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Back in Action, directed by Seth Gordon, written by Seth Gordon and Brendan O’Brien, starring Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Andrew Scott, Jamie Demetriou, Kyle Chandler, and Glenn Close. Together, they discuss The Emmys, how much of the film they actually remember, James’ feeling about a good IP, who’s using Facebook nowadays, elder Gen-Xers, just how famous Kyle Chandler is, why a person m...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Highest 2 Lowest, the latest film directed by Spike Lee, from a screenplay by Alan Fox, based on Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, starring Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and ASAP Rocky. Together, they discuss how Patreon episodes work, being peanut butter and jealous, what James drank this morning, the film’s oddball theatrical/streaming release, Spike Lee’s recen...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering The Longshots (2008), directed by Fred Durst, written by Nick Santora and Doug Atchison, starring Ice Cube, Keke Palmer, Dash Mihock, Tasha Smith, Jill Marie Jones, and Matt Craven. Together, they discuss the ways The Longshots is like King Richard, Fred Durst’s directing career, which disaster movie Jerah’s never seen, what should’ve been in The Longshots based on the true story that w...

This week, James and Jon are covering The Pickup, directed by Tim Story, written by Matt Miner and Kevin Burrows, starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Eva Longoria, and Keke Palmer. Together, they discuss Jerah not being on to hate on Bray’s intro, other titles that might have worked for the film, what’s available behind the paywall, how many stand-up specials Eddie Murphy's done, the critical/audience agreement on the film, a...

This week, actor and writer Kobi Omenaka (The Wire Stripped podcast, Flixwatcher) joins Jerah and Jon to cover War of the Worlds, directed by Rich Lee, screenplay by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman, story by Kenneth A. Golde, starring Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Iman Benson, Henry Hunter Hall, Devon Bostick, Michael O’Neill, and Andrea Savage. Together, they discuss the length of animated shows’ production timelines, the f...

This week, James and Jerah are covering 40 Acres (2024), directed by R.T. Thorne, story by R.T. Thorne and Lora Campbell, screenplay by R.T. Thorne and Glenn Taylor, starring Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O’Connor, Michael Greyeyes, Milcania Diaz-Rojas, and Leenah Robinson. Together, they discuss the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, just how many of Danielle Deadwyler’s roles have been in extremely stressful movies, things they’ve been t...

This week, Jerah and Jon are covering Crash (2004), directed by Paul Haggis, screenplay by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Thandiwe Newton, Ryan Phillippe, and Larenz Tate. Together, they discuss just how much so things have gotten worse since the film came out, the arc Crash’s reputatio...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering KPop Demon Hunters, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, screenplay by Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang, and Chris Appelhans, story by Maggie Kang, starring Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and Lee Byung-hun. Together, they discuss K-Pop generally, where they know the film’s voice cast from, Bray seeing demons on ...

This week, actor and writer Moni Odeyepo (Who All Gon’ Be There?, Peacock) joins James and Jon to cover Opus, written and directed by Mark Anthony Green, starring Ayo Edibiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Tatanka Means, Young Mazino, Stephanie Suganami, Tamera Tomakili, and Tony Hale. Together, they discuss getting obsessed with a musician, when the film came out, Opus' hair and makeup depa...

This week, James and Jon are covering Heads of State, directed by Ilya Naishuller, screenplay by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Harrison Query, story by Harrison Query, starring Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra, Carla Gugino, Jack Quaid, Stephen Root, and Paddy Considine. Together, they discuss what their wives both thought of the trailer, liking cinematic bickering, the discrepancy in Rotten Tomatoes scores between Heads o...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards, written by David Koepp, starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Ed Skrein. Together, they discuss who’s to blame for only one movie in the Jurassic Park franchise completely working, who’s reincarnating what kind of animal, whether or not we’re ready to accept hybrid dinosau...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Elio, directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee She, and Adrian Molina, screenplay by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones, story by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee She, and Julia Cho, starring Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, and Jameela Jamil. Together, they discuss Pixar’s recent rough creative patch, where the word of mouth on this movie w...

CORRECTION: In the discussion this week, we erroneously referred to Andre Braugher being gay. He was not, and we apologize for the mistake.

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Get on the Bus (1996), directed by Spike Lee, written by Reggie Rock Bythewood, starring De'aundre Bonds, Andre Braugher, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Gabriel Casseus, Albert Hall, Hill Harper, Harry Lennix, Bernie Mac, Wendell Pierce, Roger Guenve...

This week, actor and writer Carl Tart (SNL, Grand Crew) joins James and Jerah to cover 1992 (2024), directed by Ariel Vroman, screenplay by Sascha Penn and Ariel Vroman, story by Sascha Penn, starring Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, and Ray Liotta. Together, they discuss getting more cautious on podcast appearances over time, not believing in Rotten Tomatoes scores, when the movie was, in fact, released, who they all know from LA, a...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Heart Eyes, directed by Josh Ruben, written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy, starring Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, Yoson An, and Jordana Brewster. Together, they discuss Slasher Summer, horror films serving as the hot way to introduce new actors to wide audiences, having excitement for love, Mason Gooding's charac...

This week, actor Lucy Dolly Claires (Billions, @lucydshoes on YouTube) joins James, Jerah, and Jon to cover Lilo & Stitch (2025), directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, screenplay by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, starring Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Hannah Waddingham, Chris Sanders, Courtney B. Vance, Zach Galifianakis, and Maia Kealoha. Together, they discuss the live action Disney remakes they liked, ...

This week, James and Jon are covering The Karate Kid (2010), directed by Harald Zwart, screenplay by Christopher Murphey, story by Robert Mark Kamen, starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, and Taraji P. Henson. Together, they discuss their personal experiences with karate, the way the Karate Kid franchise resembles the Child's Play franchise's continuity, whether or not John Voight's going to save Hollywood, where this film...