Afterthoughts
A casual movie and tv discussion series. Join the Afterthoughts crew --Dixon, John, and Ryan-- and their guests, as they share their afterthoughts on things they've recently watched. Old or new, doesn't matter.
Episodes
AFTERTHOUGHTS ARE DOING THEIR PART, ARE YOU? Their part being the discussion of a film that was divisive at release, now seen as ever-prescient, action packed, and clearly tongue-in-cheek. Join the crew as they enlist to help fight the misconceptions against Paul Verhoeven's satirical adaptation of a military-strong sci-fi story. That's right, this episode we're talking about Starship Troopers (1997). Would you like to kn...
We're back with another Recommend or Refute conversation. John finally decides to watch a good movie and is blown away by Paul Thomas Anderson's epic character piece The Master (2012), Ryan goes dumpster diving with Richard Pryor in The Toy (1982), and Dixon tackles one of cinema's all-time greats with Orson Welles' debut film Citizen Kane (1941). Pull up a chair, grab a drink, and join us.
On the heels of our Disclosure Day (2026) episode, we're taking another slice of the Spielberg pie as we dissect his Kubrick-inspired sci-fi film A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Is it an overlooked masterpiece deserving of reassessment, or is it a fractured mess that doesn't quite work?
We're down a host this week, but we threw in an extra movie to make it up to you. John's in the mood for offbeat indie comedies with A Different Man (2024), Aaron Schimberg's dark exploration of identity and disability, and I Love Boosters (2026), Boots Riley's surreal exposé of capitalism in the fashion industry. Dixon's skewing more mainstream with Toy Story 1-4 (1995-2019), and the Nicolas Cage Marvel ...
It's not often that we bring so many new movies to the podcast for Recommend or Refute or main discussions, but here we are. The new Steven Spielberg film is loose and somehow it's getting positive reviews. Clocking in at almost 2.5 hours, Disclosure Day (2026) is Spielberg's take on what's required to get the truth out into the universe, but is it truly Spielberg's best film in 20 years (according to certain outlets)? Dixon ...
We have quite a contemporary collection of choices to present on this episode of Recommend or Refute. Ryan decided to conjure up a snakes on a plane by watching last year's Anaconda (2025) as his in-flight feature. Dixon ventured into the directorial debut of liminal space aficionado Kane Parsons as he maps out his thoughts on Backrooms (2026), and John shares his impressions of Michael Sarnoski's meditation on myth and legacy with...
You're under podcast arrest! The charge? You know what you did. You tried to skip this episode, that's what you did. Well, you're not getting off that easy. You're now legally obligated to listen to this episode's discussion on The Trial (1962). Upon completion of a listen you will be granted an ostensible acquittal. Upon completion of listening to our backlog of episodes, you'll be granted a definite acquittal until the next episo...
It's recommendin' and refutin' time! Ryan breaks down Don Bluth's animated sci-fi Titan A.E. (2000), John shines a light on the indie television comedy The Dress Up Gang (2019), and Dixon turns the clock back 79 years to discuss Orson Welles' film noir classic The Lady from Shanghai (1947).
If you want to be me, be me. And if you want to be you, be you. Cuz there's a million ways to beeeee. You know that there are. Oh sorry, I didn't see you there. I was just singing along to the soulful folk music of Cat Stevens' score to Harold and Maude (1971). Pull up a chair and join John, Ryan, and Dixon as we discuss this darkly comedic meditation on life, death, and finding joy in the l...
Dixon's back to discuss the Don Hertzfeldt animated short World of Tomorrow (2015), John breaks down the animated feature film Boys Go to Jupiter (2024), and Ryan recounts his experience watching The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) with his family.
Join the Afterthoughts crew as we take a trippy, philosophical, animated journey through time from Adam and Eve to space robots and back again. Marcell Jankovics' ambitious epic twenty-three years in the making tells the story of man's doomed, repeated attempts to attain meaning and immortality in the face of Lucifer's cunning sabotage. I bet you've never seen anything quite like this.
Dixon is still abroad, so in this session Ryan and John attempt to keep things on the rails with a standard Recommend or Refute episode. The only problem is Ryan has a penchant for breaking rules and John is a chronic enabler. Guess we'll see what happens as they each navigate bringing two titles to the table.
Look, I know what the episode title says. Dixon's out of town, John and Ryan are off the rails. This is some serious bullshit and we're gonna have to thank you extra for putting up with it, but none of it has anything to do with the pre-9/11 animated film that has been memed into oblivion --so don't even ask! If you really want to know what it's about, I can tell you... lean in close... closer... okay that's close enough.
...This ep...
On this episode of Recommend or Refute, Dixon continues with his Italy-on-the-mind movie watching recs, Ryan takes the bullet for all of us and talks about the latest Avatar, and John brings two different mainstream touchstones from bygone eras.
Put on your tinfoil hats, pack your economy size antihistamine topical ointment, and take your emotion-suppressant supplements. The Afterthoughts crew is about to dive head first into the misanthropic honey of Yorgos Lanthimos's Bugonia. Whether you fancy yourself a queen bee or just another worker drone, you owe it to yourself to reflect on the health of the colony --what better way to do that than through this discussion on an in...
It's recommendin' and refutin' time. John explores the Madonna starring sexy thriller Body of Evidence (1993), Ryan goes completely off the rails and talks about some fucking video game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025), and Dixon dissects Orson Welles' favorite Fellini film The White Sheik (1952).
Take a journey with us to the small town of Virgil, Texas and meet its many quirky inhabitants. Like Louis Fyne, a big dancin' bear on the hunt for matrimony, Earl Culver, the bigwig in charge of growing tech company Varicorp, and The Lazy Woman, who's too rich to ever leave the comfort of her bed. The influential and unforgettable True Stories (1986) shows Texas at a turning point and David Byrne at the height of his artistic powe...
Freshly waking from the nightmare of Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut, the Afterthoughts crew is back with a more grounded, less rant-filled Recommend or Refute. Join John, Dixon, and Ryan as they try to push the trauma of Zack Snyder's vision from their mind's eye with some more digestible cinematic offerings.
It's a day late to publish, but it was truly the greatest April Fools prank to ever be played on Dixon.
What do you get when you take a groundbreaking comic series (DON'T SAY GRAPHIC NOVEL) and adapt it into a hyper-stylized, bloated, overly simplified late-aughts superhero film? You get Zack Snyder's Watchmen! What happens when John picks this film for his episode? You get quality Dixon rants, passionate Ryan critiques, and an abun...
Ryan's not with us for this episode (he's still alive as far as we know), so John and Dixon are doing our first ever Recommend AND Refute episode, in which they both bring one movie to recommend and one to refute. Can you guess which is which? Dixon discusses Emerald Fennell's new romance Wuthering Heights (2026) and Michael Winterbottom's hangout comedy The Trip to Italy (2014) while John dissects the conflicted VH1 biopic Man in ...
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