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 episode is published.

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 little things.

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 episode is about an hour and a half of nothing related to shrek.

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 intimate, conspiracy-propelled dark comedy laced with biting social commentary.

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).