Thank God For Movies

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Logo competition: We discuss the contenders!
• 00:09:30 – Review: The Rip
• 00:44:55 – Review: The Testament of Ann Lee

This week on Thank God for Movies, Jon Negroni and Will Ash discuss the Netflix film The Rip, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Joe Carnahan directed and wrote the film. Next, we tackle The Testament of Ann Lee starring Amanda Seyfrie...

This week on Thank God For Movies, Jon and Will review Dead Man's Wire (directed by Gus Van Sant) and No Other Choice (directed by Park Chan-wook). We also kick things off with a game of Film Roulette, covering the highest-grossing films of 2025 at the domestic box office.

We also begin the show discussing the transition to our new name. And we put a big question to all you listeners. What should we name our new flaming film r...

This week on Cinemaholics, Jon and Will review Is This Thing On? This is the third film directed by Bradley Cooper, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern. They also discuss The Plague, an intriguing feature debut from writer-director Charlie Polinger that is one of Jon's favorite movies of the year. In addition to a game of Film Roulette, the show opens with a big announcement about the name "Cinemaholics" changing moving forward, so...

This week on Cinemaholics, Jon and Will review Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet and directed and co-written by Josh Safdie. They also play a game of Film Roulette, doing a rapid lightning round of reviews for some other recent (and not-so-recent) movies this past year.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00 – Film Roulette: Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Testament of Ann Lee, Stranger Things 5, Zootopia 2, The Ugly St...

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00 – Tribute to Rob Reiner
• 00:26:55 – Review: Hamnet
• 01:00:00 – Review: Rental Family

This week on Cinemaholics, Jon and Will review Hamnet, the new drama from Chloé Zhao, adapting Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. We then discuss Rental Family from director HIKARI, which stars Brendan...

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00 – CCA Nominations
• 00:08:00 – Film Roulette: Sirat, The Flintstones (1994), Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Better Man, Blue Moon, The Running Man, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Predator: Killer of Killers, Shelby Oaks, Speed Racer, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
• 00:29:30 – Review: The Voice of Hind Rajab
• 00:49:20 – Review: Jay Ke...

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00 – Film Roulette: Jay Kelly, Wicked: For Good, Bugonia, One Battle After Another, The Perfect Neighbor, After the Hunt, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Eternity, Hamnet, Zootopia 2, Rental Family, Rebuilding, Peter Hujar's Day, Die My Love, Predator: Badlands, Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Baltimorons, The Testament of Ann Lee
• 00:23:25 – Review: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
• 00:44:25 – Re...

Is film criticism dead? On this week’s episode of Cinemaholics, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton kick things off with a timely conversation about the state of movie reviews in a post-Twitter world. With major papers shedding critics and platforms like Substack taking their place, what does the future hold for film discourse?

Then, the guys dig into Weapons, the sophomore horror feature from Barbarian director Z...

Marvel’s First Family is back for a fourth time. On this week’s episode of Cinemaholics, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton unpack The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the latest attempt to reboot Marvel’s unluckiest franchise. With Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach suiting up for a 60s-inspired, retro-futurist take, director Matt Shakman (WandaVision) brings serious style to a ...

Jon Negroni and Will Ashton break down Superman, the bold new reboot from DC Studios and director James Gunn. Starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, the film launches the first chapter of Gunn’s DCU with a surprising blend of warmth, wit, and world-building.

Jon and Will unpack the movie’s heartfelt tone, its standout performances, and whether Gunn’s vision successfully upd...

Special guest Mike Overhulse of the Mad Men Men podcast joins Jon Negroni and Will Ashton to break down Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning, the latest (and possibly final?) installment in the long-running spy franchise starring Tom Cruise as the ever-unbreakable Ethan Hunt. Directed once again by Christopher McQuarrie, the film sends the IMF team on a high-octane collision course with a rogue AI known as The Entity, i...

Will Ashton returns with a solo Instant Take on Another Simple Favor, the Amazon Prime sequel to Paul Feig’s 2018 suburban noir comedy-thriller A Simple Favor. With Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively reprising their roles, this follow-up heads to Italy for a destination wedding filled with secrets, frenemy tension, and stylish intrigue.

Will breaks down what works—and what fizzles—in this second he...

Will Ashton returns with another Instant Take, this time tackling The Amateur, a new action-thriller starring Rami Malek (Mr. Robot, Bohemian Rhapsody) as a surveillance tech expert turned reluctant vigilante. With a vibe that borrows from Death Wish and Jason Bourne, the film delivers slick set pieces, familiar genre beats, and a central performance that’s more restrained than revolutionary.

Wil...

Will Ashton is back with a solo Instant Take on Novocaine, the action-comedy-romance hybrid starring Jack Quaid (The Boys) as a pain-insensitive bank employee who becomes an unlikely action hero. Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (Villains), this film surprised Will with its surprising charm. But also its creative premise, and solid central performances, too.

Based on the real-life condition CIP (congenital insen...

In this spoiler-free instant take, Will Ashton jumps on the mic solo to give you his first impressions of Black Bag, the sleek and sizzling new spy thriller from director Steven Soderbergh. With a star-studded cast led by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, Black Bag is a taut, high-style espionage caper that calls back to the classy, grown-up thrillers of yesteryear.

Will dives into what makes this film click.Iit...

In this week’s episode, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton take a deep dive into Nickel Boys, the latest film from director RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening). An adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film follows two Black teenagers trapped in the harrowing realities of Nickel Academy, a reform school in 1960s Florida that crushes hope as efficiently as it enforces silence. ...

Today on Cinemaholics, we’re joined by two hilarious and incredibly talented filmmakers/actors, Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung, to talk about their new indie film, Extremely Unique Dynamic. This queer Asian meta stoner coming-of-age dramedy takes storytelling to a whole new level—it’s a movie about two guys making a movie about two guys making a movie. Yes, it’s as wonderfully chaotic as it sounds.

Extremel...

Today on Cinemaholics, we’re sitting down with director Tim Fehlbaum and actor John Magaro to talk about their new film, September 5. This gripping drama takes us behind the scenes of the 1972 Munich Olympics, where the ABC newsroom was thrust into the chaos of broadcasting one of the first live terrorist attacks. It’s a high-stakes story about media ethics, personal decisions, and the power of storytelling that feels j...

In this special spoiler-free instant take, host Will Ashton delves into Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the latest installment in the high-speed franchise. He explores the film's dynamic action sequences, the evolving camaraderie among Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog. Will also examines the performances of returning cast members Ben Schwartz and Idris Elba, as well as the film's vibrant visual effects ...