Cinemaholics

The 96th Academy Awards have exited the building, but we're just getting started on talking Oscars 2024! We discuss the nominees and pick our own winners, while also recapping the "actual" winners from the "actual" ceremony. Will the Cinemaholics agree with the Academy, or even (gasp) each other?! Don't change the channel if you want to find out!

Our intro music this week is the opening television intro for "Sickle & Ebert: If...

This week, we finally discuss the release and reception of Dune: Part Two, directed by Denis Villeneuve. After a delayed release and somewhat botched streaming strategy with the last film, Warner Bros. gave the sci-fi epic another chance to spice up the box office. But does Dune: Part Two fulfill the prophecy of that last film and Frank Herbert's 1965 novel?

Dune: Part Two opened in theaters on March 1. It was directed by Denis Vi...

It's an unofficial "It Ain't Ogre 'Til It's Ogre" podcast reunion! Special guests Matt Serafini and Chris Sheridan join us this week to discuss Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson. We delve into the broader multiverse of Sony's Spider-Manmovies and its unholy trinity of "villain movies." Who is Madame Web? What's going on with that ADR? How did this movie actually happen? What are we doing with our lives?!

Madame Web opened in the...

This week on Cinemaholics, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton discuss the new dark comedy road film Drive-Away Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen — who co-wrote the film with Tricia Cooke — and starring Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Matt Damon, and Will Ashton. Will is of course excited to talk about the film since he shows up in it as an extra, along with his car. But Jon e...

This week on Cinemaholics, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton discuss the film Argyle, a new spy action comedy directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Henry Cavill, Sofia Boutella, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson. They delve into Vaughn's early career, his style, and the potential setup of a "Kingsman" cinematic universe. They also touch on the ...

This week on Cinemaholics, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton discuss the films Poor Things and The Zone of Interest. Both movies have been expanding in theaters nationwide, with many people debating and analyzing the themes of sexuality and feminism in Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo. As well as the controversial depiction of Aushwitz during the Holocaust in The Zone of In...

Welcome back for Part 2 of our catchup on the winter releases we missed while on vacation. We focus mostly on Ferrari, Michael Mann's first film in eight years. As well as Godzilla Minus One, The Boy and the Heron, American Fiction, The Color Purple, and The Zone of Interest, just to name a few!

Show Notes:

(Might be 30 seconds ahead due to ads!)

• 00:00 – Introduction and Will finished Fingernails
• 03:35 – Anatomy of a Fall
...

And we're back. After the longest hiatus in Cinemaholics history (and unplanned), the movies didn't stop coming out just because we were away. So this week we catch up on some of the releases that came out while we were away. This is Part 1 of our overall conversation, which will continue with even more flicks in the near future (not five weeks from now, don't worry!)

Movies mentioned in this episode include: Priscillla, All Dirt ...

Turns out streaming is a wish Disney's heart makes. That's right, this week we review Wish, the latest film from Walt Disney Animation Studios and part of the company's 100 year anniversary...for better or worse. The directors are Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore. The voice cast includes Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Roth...

We can't say we've been hungering for more YA dystopian prequels, but The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes might just have us singing a new tune. So this week on Cinemaholics, we kick off the winter season with some, well, Snow. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was directed by franchise mainstay Francis Lawrence and written by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt. It's based on Suzanne Collins' 2020 book The Ball...

Execution is everything. This week on Cinemaholics, we review The Killer, a new action thriller directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker — their first collaboration since Seven in 1995 — and based on the eponymous French graphic novels by Alexis "Matz" Nolent and Luc Jacamon. The cast includes Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton. The...

Special guest Alisha Grauso joins the show this week for a review of The Marvels, the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Marvels has been bombing at the box office so far, so we kick off the show by diagnosing some of the problems plaguing the MCU and what they might be cooking up next to right the ship before diving into the review.

Nia DaCosta directed and co-wrote The Marvels alongside Megan McDonnell and Elissa Ka...

Based on the spooky 2014 video game series, Five Nights at Freddy's has taken more than five years just to come out. It was directed by Emma Tammi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Cawthon (creator of the game) and Seth Cuddeback. The cast includes Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo), and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Five Nights at Freddy's is now playing in theaters ...

Special guest Mike Overhulse joins us this week to discuss Killers of the Flower Moon, the latest feature film directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese. And yes, we're talking about the importance of not being Ernest. Killers of the Flower Moon was also co-written by Eric Roth and is based on the eponymous 2017 book by David Grann. Additionally, the ensemble cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse P...

Trick or teen, it's time to review a new(ish) teen slasher comedy movie which premiered at Fantastic Fest and later hit Amazon Prime Video in early October. That's right, we're talking about Totally Killer, which stars Kiernan Shipka of Mad Men fame. Totally Killer was directed by Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe) and written by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D'Angelo. The cast also includes Olivia Holt and Julie Bowen...

This week, we're comparing the most beloved movie ever made by William Friedkin and one of the last movies made by William Friedkin. That's right, The Exorcist: Believer came out recently as a reboot sequel of The Exorcist, which ignores all the subsequent sequels in true Halloween (2018). In addition to our review of that film, we discuss Friedkin's The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, an adaptation of a 50s play (originally a novel an...

This week, we're watching Cry, Robot. Sorry, it's actually called True Love. Nope, Rogue Two. No...that's not it. Ah! Nirmata—WAIT, The Creator, directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One) who co-wrote the film with Chris Weitz. The cast includes John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Allison Janney, and Madeleine Yuna Voyles. It opened in theaters on September 29 through 20th Century Studios and ha...

John Carney — director of Once, Begin Again, and Sing Street — is back with a new music-centered, Irish-based romance, but is he striking the same old chords? That's right, we're reviewing Flora and Son this week, which premiered at the Sundance 2023 Film Festival and is just now hitting streaming. We discuss whether or not the movie fine-tunes the Carney formula, plus we look at the critical reaction and play the Rotten Tomatoes G...

We don't have a clue as to why Kenneth Branagh loves making these Hercule Poirot movies so much, but it looks like A Haunting in Venice is turning heads. How about ours? In addition to reviewing the latest Agatha Christie murder mystery adaptation featuring, we also sneak in some random asides and analysis of The Nun II, the latest Conjuring-verse movie starring Taissa Farmiga.

A Haunting in Venice was directed by Kenneth Branagh,...