Afterthoughts

Ryan's gone missing, but John and Dixon are holding down the fort with two new movies each. John discusses the latest Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman (2023), as well as Mike Flanagan's new Netflix project The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). Dixon delves into some Nicolas Cage schlock with The Old Way (2023) and marvels at the tragic beauty of Lakota Nation vs. United States (2023).

This episode could have been and should have been about an entirely different film; however, fate didn't permit the discussion of our initial pick. While the decision of what to watch and discuss was left to Ryan, he went MIA somewhere on a flight over the fictional country of Parmistan. We're sure he'll be fine, but just in case we're sending in our two remaining co-hosts --Dixon and John-- to discuss their way through this totally unique and original foreign nation, all while wielding the wisdom and insights granted by the ancient, 1985 fighting techniques of Gymkata (1985). Join them as they talk about one of John's top picks from Schlocktober, the differences between contemporary action and '80s action, and mix in some Gymnastic conspiracy theories along the way.

On this round of Recommend or Refute, we've got another eclectic sampling for your consideration. Dixon talks journalism and classic Hollywood with His Girl Friday (1940), John is #SorryNotSorry for bringing a narcissistically made piece of indie schlock known as  Honorable Men (2004), and Ryan brings another animated limited series about cyberpunk dystopia in the form of Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix (2023).

In the second episode of our mini-spotlight series on anime cinema, the Afterthoughts crew is jumping from the fantastical fairytale world of Hayao Miyazaki. We're catching the next interstellar transport ship out to Shin'ichirô Watanabe's jazzy sci-fi western film (and related series) as we discuss Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001). Is it able to stand on its own if you don't know anything about the show? Does it appease followers of the series? These and many more questions will asked and answered (to some extent) as we go Knockin' on Heavens Door with the bounty hunters of the Bebop.

This week on Recommend or Refute, Ryan follows up on our Scott Pilgrim episode and dives into the new Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023), Dixon gets uncharacteristically nostalgic talking about The Simpsons Movie (2007), and John scrapes the bottom of the trash heap with Neil Breen's latest dumpster fire Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023).

With the impending release of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and The Heron (2023), we've decided to kick off a short series of anime film discussions to ready ourselves for the visual feast Studio Ghibli is sure to serve up. What better way to start that than with a Hayao Miyazaki joint? Join Dixon, Ryan, and John as journey into the waste and the war-torn lands of Howl's Moving Castle (2004) to discuss and discover the motifs and meaning in this fantastical love story. What's up with the wizard war? Does a pretty girl's heart just taste better than other hearts? Why is everyone able to cast spells without knowing the means to break them? The Afterthoughts crew is going to do their best to answer these questions and more as they cobble together the core reasons Howl's Moving Castle may still be roaming around in the minds of film lovers today.

We're talkin' about some shiny new movies this week. Ryan breaks down the latest and greatest comic book green screen extravaganza with The Marvels (2023), Dixon struggles to articulate the emotional experience of Godfrey Reggio's new film Once Within a Time (2023), and John double dips with the heartbreaking documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) and the John Carpenter horror film In the Mouth of Madness (1995).

Travel forward one hour, eight minutes, and fifteen seconds with the Afterthoughts crew as Dixon, Ryan, and John discuss Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2020). Aside from this film being a charming, grounded, and oddly cohesive story about time travel --Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) is also our first ever Listener Request episode. We're excited to set our vocal time dilation devices (microphones) opposite of each other and see what topics our future and past selves interweave. You have two options, give this episode a listen or risk a time paradox and a subsequent run in with the time police. We think the choice is obvious, but we'll leave it up to you --even though we know you're gonna listen to it because future you sent us a carrier pigeon saying you would. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hot off the heels of Schlocktober and the Austin Film Festival, the Afterthoughts crew is bringing a balanced mix of recommends and refutes to the table. John talks the end of Schlocktober with Deathrow Gameshow (1987), Ryan has a radical time talking about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated movie, and Dixon brings an Austin Film Festival pick. Plus some bonus recommends from the Austin Film Festival selection.

This week we watched a nostalgic film for John and Ryan. We're fighting off our seven evil ex-podcasts as we break down Edgar Wright's visually bold adaptation of the graphic novel Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).