From Under The Rock

Are you stressed out over current events? Is the state of the world making it hard for you to relax lately? Then join us for an as-promised episode of PURE escapism. Starring The Lonely Island's Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, among many of your favorite SNL legends, "Popstar" is an absolutely rambunctious romp of a mockumentary that pokes fun at the music industry, the stars that inhabit it, and the media circus that follows it all around and feeds into itself in a never-ending loop of gossip and larger-than-life personalities. Whether you love music industry celebrities or hate them, we promise this is a movie that will have everyone laughing along to the ridiculous lyrics of the iconic ~Style Boyz~

...ANYWAY! This week we found ourselves in need of a palette cleanser and so we found one in the guise of 1993's "The Three Musketeers," starring Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt, Chris O'Donnell, and last but almost certainly most importantly, Tim Curry. Come for the muskets! Stay for the tea enthusiasts!! Hang around in relative confusion once you realize this movie is about neither of those things but we're here for you and love you for listening nonetheless!!! Lovingly stay even longer once you realize this episode is very possibly more entertaining than the movie itself!!!! (if these jokes aren't funny now, they will be after a COMPLETE listen of this episode, just trust me >.>)

Prisoners of the moment? Perhaps. But anyways, happy birthday america, this week we covered one of the biggest films of 2024 so far, Alex Garland's "Civil War." Starring Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura, this dystopian portrayal of a potential worst case not-too-distant-future takes a surprisingly non-partisan look at such a situation, focusing instead on perhaps reminding us that regardless of what side you're on, war is hell.

What can we say, we just liked Ray Liotta so much, we wanted more. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Enter, Goodfellas, one of the most iconic mob movies of all time. From master filmmaker Martin Scorsese, this 1990 based-on-a-true-story film portraying every last piece of the nitty-gritty of the organized crime life gave us a real glimpse into all of the glorious excesses of a life lived outside of the law... and all of the horrifying realities and consequences faced by those who fall into that world. It also gave us the iconic Ray Liotta laughing meme so... that's not nothing.

This week we further peel back the curtain on our recording schedule - today's episode was recorded on Father's Day, this past Sunday, so to help celebrate that we covered one of the most iconic sports/daddy issues movies of all time - Field of Dreams. Starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan, and Ray Liotta, this 1989 film takes us on an incredibly intimate, emotional journey of a middle-aged man coming to terms with his own aging and trying to reconcile having left some things unsaid to his late father; all wonderfully disguised in the glory of bringing some of baseball's greatest players of all time back to life in a lonely cornfield in Iowa. Show this movie to your dad, then when he won't tell you why he's crying, listen to our podcast to get the inside scoop.

This week on From Under The Rock we watched District 9, a Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson film from 2009 that takes a pretty unflattering look at mankind's imperialist tendencies and how we've historically treated "othered" groups, in this case - aliens. Starring Sharlto Copley and Jason Cope, this movie paints an uncomfortably realistic picture of what it might look like if aliens suddenly appeared at our doorstep. These folks really could've used Amy Adams' help. (Arrival, anyone?)

You can take the boys out of Boston, but not the Boston out of the boys, huh? This week we're looking back to our beloved home away from home for a gripping and emotional story that we spent quite a lot of our childhoods hearing about seemingly nonstop - Spotlight, the true story of the Boston Globe investigative team that unmasked one of the most enormous, horrible scandals in history: the systemic abuse existing and being covered up within the Catholic Church. A beautifully well acted film, from an absolutely stacked cast, this is definitely not one you're going to want to miss.

It was never likely to take long for us to make Ben cry, but we finally got there, dear listeners. The subject of this week's deep dive, "A Man Called Otto," is an incredibly poignant and emotional story of a man wrestling with a life he no longer wants to live, but time after time finds himself finding just one more reason to stick around. Until eventually coming to the realization that the universe - and perhaps someone from his past - is telling him that he should keep on living. Definitely a heavy, emotional watch from start to finish. We hope you'll join us for this one. Bring your tissues.

What's more fun than a heist movie? If done well, the answer is not a single solitary thing. And so this week we bring you one of the greatest, most quintessential heist films of all time, "Ocean's Eleven." This Rat Pack remake starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon, and SO MANY OTHERS is constant fun from start to finish and, if you haven't seen it before, you will never see the big twist coming. This one was just a bit of genuine, fairly low stakes fun, and honestly I think we needed that. Here's hoping that if you do too, we can sit back and enjoy this top-tier escapism together. Join us!

This week we have a look at one of the most iconic films of the 20th century; a film that gave birth to an entire genre of films about lost, lovelorn youths; and the movie that launched the career of one of the most prolific and polarizing actors of the past century: Dustin Hoffman. This week, it's 1967's "The Graduate." Have you ever felt uncertain? Unsure?? Hopelessly crippled by the disappointing imbalance of your own ambitions versus the weight of expectations??? No? Well then get out there and have an affair with your friend's mom or something and spice up your life, jeez...