Back to the movies

Back to the Movies continues the GoodTrash Top 10 2016 film countdown in part two of the three part series., Caleb and Alexandra are joined by Dalton Stuart and Dustin Sells to make our final picks for the best films of 2016.

Don't miss part 1 of our countdown where we covered our number 10,9 and 8 picks of the year. Our Top 10 2016 films continues tomorrow when we move on to our top 3 picks of 2016.  Stay tuned!

Honorable Mentions - Part 2

• Biggest waste of a Brand or Nostalgia
• Strangest film of 2016

TOP 10 2016 FILMS BY HOST

Alex

10. 10 Cloverfield Lane

9. Hell or High Water

8. Green Room

7. Shin Godzilla

6. The Neon Demon

5. Arrival

4. Jackie

Dalton

10. Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping

9. The Edge of Seventeen

8. The Lobster

7.  Sing Street

6.  Loving

5.  Hell or High Water

4. OJ: Made In America

Dustin

10. The Neon Demon

9.  Dheepan

8.  American Honey

7. The Whaling

6. Elle

5. Homosapiens

4. Cemetery of Splendor

Caleb

10. The Edge of Seventeen

9. The Nice Guys

8. Sing Street

7.  The Handmaiden

6.  Manchester by the Sea

5.  Kubo and the Two Strings

4. Hell or High Water

Before Back to the Movies kicks off the 2017 new releases, Caleb and Alexandra are joined by Dalton Stuart and Dustin Sells to look back at our top 10 2016 films. We all have a lot to say about all of the movies we loved, hated or were puzzled by so today's episode will be the first in a trilogy of Back to the Movies podcasts.

e open the discussion by remember several of the lives we lost in the entertainment industry. Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds--the list goes on and on. It was a heavy year, but with so many passing, we take a moment to discuss their impace.

In part one of our Top 10 2016 films countdown, we will look at our choices for our numbers 10, 9, and 8 movies. To sprinkle in some of our honorable mentions, we take a look at some of the year's more dubious honors throughout the show. 

Our Top 10 2016 films continues tomorrow when we move on to our 7, 6, 5, and 4 picks. Stay tuned!

Honorable Mentions - Part 1

• The film that made us laugh the hardest
• The best film everyone forgot game out in 2016
• Favorite 2016 Action Scene
• The most successful movie you hated
• 2016 Guilty Pleasure
• The biggest disappointment of 2016
• Favorite movie nobody saw

Welcome to the first Back to the Movies of 2017, listeners! In anticipation for the upcoming Oscar season, we're spending the month of January looking back at some of last year's biggest prestige films that are well on their way to the big nominations. We're kicking things off with a look at Kenneth Lonergan's critically acclaimed Manchester By the Sea starring Casey Affleck.

Before taking a look at the movie, Alex and Caleb kick off a new segment of the show by making a couple of movie New Year's Resolutions for the year. Nothing says a clean slate like a new challenge and accountability from co-hosts and listeners.

In our what we've been watching section of the show, Alex talks about her recent sick-day-in marathon of Stranger Things and Caleb describes his recent IMAX Dome Rogue One experience which included a sneak peak of Christopher Nolan's upcoming film, Dunkirk.

Manchester by the Sea is a low-key character drama set in the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea that follows a janitor named Lee Chandler(Casy Affleck) who must return to his home town after the passing of his older brother to sort out his affairs and figure out what to do with his nephew Patrick(Lucas Hedges). The film also stars Michelle Williams and Kyle Chandler. The story at hand is one of loss, grief and hometown history. Affleck has already being included in the conversation for an Oscar nod in the Lead Actor category, but doe his performance really deliver? Tune in for more. 

Make sure to tune in to next week's show where Alex and Caleb are joined by a couple of other members of the GoodTrash crew to do our 2016 Year-End review which includes our top 10 movies countdown. 

Manchester By the Sea Timestamps

0:40 - Intro

1:40 - Looking forward to 2017 Movies

5:46 - New Year's Resolutions

17:20 - What We've Been Watching

30:52 - Manchester By the Sea Review

54:27 - *Spoilers Discussion*

To wrap our 2016's run of Back to the Movies, your hosts Caleb and Alex have set sail to the Pacific to review Disney Animation's recent smash hit, Moana. It wouldn't be a proper beach vacation without a friend, which means we're bringing along first time Back to the Movies guest, Matt Lane. 

Matt brings his wrestling expertise from The B Show to Disney's latest film starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson along with Auli'i Cravalho in her first screen appearance. Moana follows the titular Princess as she follows the ocean and leaves her island in order to free the demi-god Maui and bring prosperity back to her home island. 

Before diving into our review of the film, we discuss our history with Disney animated films and Disney Princess films. We talk about a few of our favorites along with their very best musical numbers. Disney's animation studio has been on a roll with critical and box office hits like Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, but we have to ask; does Moana continue the trend?

Our conversation gets deep when we talk about the film's legitimacy as a feminist film in comparison to other recent animated films. 

Keep your eyes peeled to our Facebook, Twitter and iTunes pages for our upcoming 2016 year-end review show. 

It's that time of the year when Back to the Movies travels to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away for our review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This week Alexandra and I are joined by the founder of the Graphomania Podcast Network and co-host of Hamilton: The Podcast, Vinton Bayne.

The podcast review skips over our normal What We've Been Watching segment in order to get right to the Star Wars talk we've all been waiting for. In our spoiler free review, we kick things off by reflecting on our thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens a year later. We discuss our initial reactions to Rogue One including the big changes that come along with being the first Star Wars spin-off film. Between the movie's controversial special effects, it's notable dogfights and talented cast, we talk about whether or not this film lives up to the franchise legacy. Does the Gareth Edwards directed Rogue One succeed in establishing new characters and bringing a fresh spin to the universe? We discuss the gory details, midi-chlorians and all--actually, drop that last part.

In our spoiler section we go in depth and discuss every detail of the film you would ever want to hear about as we do a sequence by sequence breakdown and dive even further into the extended Star Wars lore and our feelings on the film's ending.

Every Star Wars talk is special and we're glad you're joining us on this week's show. Share your thoughts on the GoodTrash Facebook, Twitter or in the comments below.

Rogue One: A Star War Story Time Stamps

0:36 - Intros

6:30 - Spoiler Free Review

1:03 - Recommendations

1:08 - Rogue One *Spoilers*

Stay in touch with Guest Host Vinton Bayne

Check out his website Graphocast.com

Follow him on Twitter @FleshEater

Follow his movie watching on Letterboxd @Vinton

In the latest episode of Back to the Movies, Caleb and Alex are taking into American history on this week's review of the film Jackie starring Natalie Portman.

Before we jump into our review and analysis this historical biopic, we take a look at the recent Golden Globe nominations. It's an especially strange year when Deadpool and La La Land are both competing for the same prizes. We're joined by recurring guest Zachary Burns from Planet Thunder to break down the nominees in the categories of Best Actor/Actress in a Drama/Musical, Best Animated Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Director.

The table is divided in our review of Jackie. Alex makes a case for the film as one of the most powerful of the year while Caleb finds the film to be a little less thrilling. Zachary also chimes in with a few of his other observations about the techniques used in the film to convey Jackie's memories throughout the film. This review is packed with a number of nuanced critiques and analysis from everyone involved. Before moving into the show recommendations, the table discusses the film's relevance and importance in 2016.

This review is a very spirited discussion to kick off what will undoubtably be a couple of months long award season discussion.

In this week's Back to the Movies Caleb and Alexandra take a through the big screen to the not always whimsical world of Los Angeles to review the Damien Chazelle's latest film, La La Land. The film reunites one of the iconic Hollywood power-couples twenty-first century Hollywood, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

This week we're joined by special guest host, the writer/director of the upcoming film You People, Laron Chapman. Laron tells us more about film that stars a young black protagonist who plays into more traditional white stereotypes. The film is also being joined by our very own Alexandra Bohannon who will be working on the film as an Associate Producer. 

Before diving discussing La La Land, your hosts discuss a few of the films they've been watching. Laron talks about his experience with Disney's Moana and Robert Zemeckis's latest film Allied starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Alex talks about her experience of watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for the first time before immediately re-watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Caleb talks about his recent viewing of on of 2016's critical sleeper hit Moonlight, a truly unique coming of age story about a black youth from Miami. He also talks about his experience hunting down the uncut version of The Muppet Christmas Carol for the next episode of the GoodTrash Genrecast.

In our review of La La Land, we discuss the spectacular performances and Damien Chazelle's uncompromising vision delivers one of our favorite movies of the year. The question in this review isn do we like it, but rather how much do you we love it? To hear you'll want to tune in for our full review!

In this week's Back to the Movies, we mount our broomsticks for our first review in J.K. Rowling's World of Wizardry. This week we're reviewing the curious Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  

To kick things off, Alexandra and I talk about our experiences with the Harry Potter book series after discussing what we've been watching. Alex talks about the new Netflix original series The Crown starring Matt Smith and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill. She also talks about the films she's looking forward to catching over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Edge of Seventeen and Moonlight. I talk a little bit about HBO's hit show Westworld and the buzz around the most recent episode. 

We start our review by talking about the somewhat anti-climactic release before giving our initial thoughts on the film. It's been just over five years since The Deathly Hallows Part 2 concluded the original series and almost 10 years since the books concluded. Is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them something fans wanted? In our spoiler section, we discuss our theories on the future of the spin-off franchise. 

The discussion is magical! We hope you'll join by giving us your thoughts in the comments below. 

In this week's Back to the Movies, your hosts Caleb and Alexandra sit down to talk with the children of Cthulhu in this week's review of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival. The low key sci-fi film is based on the Nebula award winning short story, The Best Day of My Life by Ted Chiang. It has been a hit with critics and audiences, but does it live up to the hype?

In our discussion of Arrival, we are joined by Electric Nostalgia writer/director Jacob Burns and producer Zachary Burns to discuss the film's strengths as a genre film. Before delving into the movie, we all talk about what we've been watching. Jacob and Zach burns talk about the films of the Austin Film Festival including the upcoming La La Land and Found Footage 3D. Alexandra gets all of us talking about the recent Fathom release of Shin Godzilla. I talk a bit about my thoughts on Birth of a Nation before we close out the segment by discussing our epic one one movie Harry Potter marathon in preparation for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Our review talks about the very relevant themes of communication and the power of empathy. We take a moment to discuss how the themes relate to the 2016 U.S. election before reflecting on the power of film to inspire. This is an especially touchy talk, but we hope you'll all stick around and join the conversation in the comments below or on social media. 

In this week's Back to the Movies, the the GoodTrashers Caleb Masters and Alexandra Bohannon return with a couple of special guests to review Marvel's latest film Doctor Strange starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, B.D. Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton. Doctor Strange follows a neurosurgeon named Stephen Strange who goes soul searching after a tragic car accident only to discover the "mystic arts."

This week we're joined by returning special guests Kenneth "Dr. Comics" Kimbrough and the star of Electric Nostalgia and Heroes of the Realm, Stephen Goodman.

Before talking about Doctor Strange, we discuss our most recent watches during our break. Alexandra and Stephen both talk about their Austin Film Festival experiences including the screenings of the upcoming La La Land and Jackie. Stephen talks about a couple of upcoming projects and Alex also mentions her recent criterion purchase of the 1942 classic Cat People. Kenneth talks a little bit about the sitcoms, I Love Lucy and 30 Rock, he has been teaching in class. I talk about Guilermo Del Toro's Trilogia de Guillermo del Toro criterion release and the latest season of the BBC gone Netflix sci-fi series, Black Mirror. 

In our review, we give our intial reactions of the film before breaking down some of the film's orientalsitic ideas and the issue of white washing. Does the mindbending spectacle shine through the controversy surrounding Marvel's 14 film?

Tune in!