Black Men Can't Jump [In Hollywood]

This week, James and Jon are joined by writer and director Shawtane Bowen (Astronomy Club) to cover Get Rich or Die Tryin', written by Terence Winter, directed by Jim Sheridan, and starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Terrence Howard, Joy Bryant, Bill Duke, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Omar Benson Miller, and Viola Davis. Together, they cover the disconnect between the critical and popular consensus around the movie, the Dra...

This week, James and Jon are joined by writer and actor Caroline Martin (Astronomy Club, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) to cover Challengers, written by Justin Kurtizkes, directed by Luca Guadagnino, and starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist. Together, they cover everybody's tennis experiences, what exactly the deal is with Pickleball, the film's complicated timeline, if the sexy tennis movie has enou...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are joined by writer and radio host Mariah Smith (Grown-ish, Smith Sisters Live) to cover Mea Culpa, written by Tyler Perry, directed by Tyler Perry, and starring Kelly Rowland, Trevante Rhodes, Nick Sagar, Sean Sagar, RonReaco Lee, and Shannon Thornton. Together, they cover Tyler Perry's constant output, the movie's cheekage, its tangled web of a plot, mixture of tones, and depiction of col...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering the 2024 remake of Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, screenplay by Chuck Hayward, story by Chuck Hayward, Neil Landau, and Tara Ison, directed by Wade Allain-Marcus, and starring Simone Joy Jones, Patricia "Ms. Pat" Williams, Jermaine Fowler, June Squibb, and Nicole Richie. Together, they cover the film's oddly underwhelming promotion, why it landed an R rating, ...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are joined by writer and actor Rekha Shankhar (Digman, Grand Crew) to cover Monkey Man, screenplay by Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela, and John Collee, directed by Dev Patel, and starring Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, and Adithi Kalkunte. Together, they cover the film's winding road to a theatrical release, just how exciting it is to see Dev Patel debuting as an ac...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Screenplay by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater, story by Terry Rossio, Adam Wingard, and Simon Barrett, directed by Adam Wingard, and starring Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, and Fala Chen. Together, the guys debate whether or not the movies are back, who are/aren't, in fact, the "big two,...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Big Momma's House, the 2000 crime comedy written by Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer, directed by Raja Gosnell, starring Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Paul Giamatti, and Terrence Howard. Together, they cover the importance of Lawrence's career to the podcast, who did and didn't pop in comedy films in the 2000s and 2010s, what still works about the movie, what doesn't, just how...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Blue Beetle, one of the last movies made before DC's James Gunn era. Written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, and starring Xolo Maridueña, Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez, the film released in August of 2023. Together, the guys cover the strong performances, whether or not origin stories can land at this l...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering the 2024 Oscars. Together, they talk about Bray's experience attending in-person, the awards they were surprised by, the awards they weren't, the stage banter that worked, John Cena's naked presenting, what it was like to see certain films pick up momentum while others didn't, their viewing experiences, Wes Anderson the short filmmaker, and more.

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This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Dune: Part Two, the follow-up to 2021's Dune. Written by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaights, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, and Austin Butler, the film came out in March of 2024. Together, the guys cover how this latest installment pairs with the first, Zendaya's role as a lead, upcoming Zendaya projects, the ...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are covering Gran Turismo, a reworking of the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a British Gran Turismo video game player who went on to become a professional race car driver. Written by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin, directed by Neil Blomkamp, and starring David Harbor, Orlando Bloom, Archie Madekwe, and Darren Barnet, the film came out in July of 2023. Together, the guys cover how the script plays wit...

This week, James, Jerah and Jon dive deep on Bob Marley: One Love, written by Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin, and Reinaldo Marcus Green, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, and James Norton. Together, they cover the film's awards prospects despite its February release, its much better-than-projected opening at the box office, the strong performances, where it sits amo...

This week, James and Jon are joined by writer Lo Howard (Grown-ish) to tackle Passing, an adaptation of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Rebecca Hall and starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, and Bill Camp, the film premiered on Netflix in 2021. Together, they talk Hall's adaptation choices, the surprising backstory to her taking on the book, both the practical and story logi...

This week, Jerah and Jon dive deep on the 1993 rap world mockumentary CB4, written by Chris Rock, Nelson George, and Robert LoCash, directed by Tamra Davis, starring Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Deezer D, Charlie Murphy, Khandi Alexander, and Phil Hartman. Together, they cover why CB4 doesn't have the lasting cultural reputation of Spinal Tap, its many great bits, the GRAMMYs, Charlie Murphy, and what has and hasn't aged well a...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon dive deep on the 2023 sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone, written by Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier, directed by Taylor, and starring John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx, and Keifer Sutherland. Together, they cover how the film connected with audiences despite premiering on Netflix, talk through its dense, fun story logic, and dive into the filmmaker's technical approach to the material.

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James, Jerah, and Jon are once again joined by Sasheer Zamata (The First Woman, Home Economics, SNL, @thesheertruth) to discuss The Book of Clarence, written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, starring LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, and Anna Diop. Together, everyone explores whether or not the film might land for Christian audiences, what's going on with its promotion, the notion of Jesus as a superhero, Jeymes Samuel's ...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are diving into 2023 in TV and film—what they loved, what they hated, and everything in between. Together, they go long on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Past Lives, The Flash, The Emmys, and a whole lot more.

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James, Jerah, and Jon are joined by NaTonia Monét (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, PonyBoi) to discuss the 2023 musical adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, directed by Blitz Bazawule from a script by Marcus Gardley. Bazawule's version stars Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., and Halle Bailey. Together, James, Jerah, Jon, and Natonia explore the numbers that resonated, the sta...

This week, James, Jerah, and Jon are diving into the new film from writer/director Cord Jefferson, American Fiction. Adapted from Percival Everett's 2001 novel Erasure, the film tracks the novelist Thelonius 'Monk' Ellison (Jeffrey Wright)'s turn from a struggling writer and academic into an overnight sensation when his latest book, a send up of stereotypical "Black pain" narratives published under a pseudon...