Cinema Callback

In this episode of Cinema Callback, Andy and Michael dive into Warfare (2025), Alex Garland’s tense, grounded drama built around real-world military events and the political fallout surrounding them. We look at how Garland handles the material, the performances that carry the film, and the film’s commentary on loyalty, power, and the human cost of conflict.

As always, the episode is built around our voice-note conversation format, where we trade messages back and forth and unpack the film’s details, themes, and moments that stood out.

Perfect for anyone looking for deeper context, analysis, and discussion of one of 2025’s most talked-about releases.

Andy and Michael swap voice notes as they explore The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024), the moving documentary about Norwegian gamer Mats Steen — known online as “Ibelin”. Stricken by Duchenne muscular dystrophy and confined to a wheelchair, Mats found escape, purpose and connection within the world of World of Warcraft.

Through interviews, archive footage and animated recreations of his in-game life, the film shows how a community of strangers became something more — a support system, a friendship network, a chosen family.

In this episode, the hosts talk about the film’s emotional power, the importance of online communities, and what it says about isolation, identity and belonging in the digital age.

🎧 Cinema Callback — where movies call you back.

Michael and Andy are back in each other’s voice notes — but this week they’re dodging slow-motion doves, leather jackets, and John Woo explosions as they dive into Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).

In this episode, the lads break down that wild tonal shift, the stunt-heavy insanity, the operatic melodrama, and whether the movie’s style-over-sense approach secretly makes it the most fun entry in the franchise. They debate:

• Did Tom Cruise reinvent Ethan Hunt too hard, too soon?

• Is Woo’s over-the-top action misunderstood or just mental?

• And… is MI2 actually better than people remember?

All discussed through their trademark back-and-forth voice-note format, full of tangents, rants, and accidental comedy as the boys relive the most chaotic film in the series.

Perfect for fans of action cinema, franchise deep-dives, and extremely unserious film analysis.

Andy and Michael return with a new batch of chaotic, cinematic voice notes as Cinema Callback tackles Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025). In this spoiler-filled episode, the lads break down Tom Cruise’s final outing as Ethan Hunt — the stunts, the twists, the emotional beats, and whether the franchise sticks the landing after nearly 30 years.

Told through their signature voicemail-style back-and-forth, the conversation jumps between set-piece highlights, character arcs, production drama, and how this finale compares to the rest of the series. Expect hot takes, surprise opinions, and plenty of “did you see THAT?!” energy.

Listeners can join the chat and leave their own voice messages using the link in the About section. Spoilers throughout!

Andy and Michael return to the line for a charged discussion of Sinners (2025), Ryan Coogler’s long-awaited comeback and one of the year’s most talked-about films. Told through their signature voice note exchanges, the pair unpack Coogler’s daring mix of faith, family, and moral collapse — a film that asks whether redemption is possible in a world built on compromise.

Expect a raw, honest breakdown filled with spoilers, personal tangents, and the kind of late-night film talk that defines Cinema Callback.

Join the chat via the link in our About section to leave your own voicemail message for the show — your take might feature in a future episode.

Andy and Michael leave voice notes across continents to discuss Black ’47 (2018), Lance Daly’s brutal revenge western set during Ireland’s Great Famine.

In this emotionally charged episode, they explore how the film fuses genre grit with historical trauma — from James Frecheville’s haunted performance to Hugo Weaving’s moral complexity. They talk about its striking cinematography, mythic tone, and what it means to tell a story of famine through the language of vengeance.

Andy and Michael swap voice notes about Black Bag (2025), Steven Soderbergh’s sleek return to the spy genre starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender.

In this episode, they unpack its tension, tone, and the director’s obsession with control — asking whether Black Bag feels like a comeback or a cold exercise in style. Along the way, they debate the movie’s surprising restraint, Fassbender’s performance, and Soderbergh’s shifting relationship with genre filmmaking.

Andy and Michael leave each other a string of voice notes about Robot Dreams (2023), the beautifully melancholic animated film from Pablo Berger. Through their conversation, they explore the film’s quiet emotional pull — a wordless story about connection, loss, and how even machines can make us cry.

This week’s episode moves between laughter and reflection as the two hosts unpack how Robot Dreams captures the loneliness of modern life without a single line of dialogue.

In this episode, Andy and Michael swap voice notes about The Final Exit of the Disciples of Ascensia (2023) — a slow-burn cosmic animation that’s part cult study, part existential nightmare.

As always, their conversation unfolds entirely through voicemail-style exchanges, exploring the film’s hypnotic pacing, religious mania, and sense of creeping dread. Is it a hidden gem or an endurance test of meaning and madness?

Andy and Michael return with another surreal entry in their ongoing voice-note discussions — this time exploring the nightmarish, hypnotic world of The Burning Buddha Man (2013).

Told entirely through their real voice messages, the hosts unravel Ujicha’s eerie blend of stop-motion and horror, debating whether this “gekimation” experiment is a lost masterpiece or a fever dream gone too far. Expect unsettling imagery, deep film talk, and plenty of laughs along the way.