This week we're feeling revolutionary as we discuss Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar darling, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER fom 2025!

We've officially come down with Oscars fever, so this week's episode does double duty as our coverage of the race itself. From OBAA's 13 nominations and SINNERS record-breaking 16, to the joys of ping pong in MARTY SUPREME and the massive snub of our beloved NO OTHER CHOICE, we're covering all of our thoughts on little gold men.

This film sees a lot of first-timers to the pod, so we're talking Leonardo Di Caprio's career, Benicio del Toro's beer, Chase Infiniti's fear, Sean Penn's sneer, and how Madonna's web connects them all. And of course we're going down a rabbit hole on Jonny Greenwood's score and the fascism of Nixon and Reagan evolving into the form found in this film.

Next time we're heading to the blood rave: join us in watching Wesley Snipes as BLADE (1998)!

Gar(t)bage is back with 2024's airport paperback papal political thriller, Edward Berger's CONCLAVE!

We're learning Ralph Fiennes' full name, revisiting 3rd Rock from the Sun, and decide that every character in this film is a Pope, before discussing Catholicism and the Absolute Mysteries, power structures and rotting institutions, and what it means to stand for something instead of against something.

Get ready to hear a lot about specificity becoming universality as we get into each pope's candidacy, the power of presenting alternatives in the face of certainty, and how much you have to screw up to have a sin named after you. And we're here to investigate: is John Lithgow's Father Tremblay Canadian?

We're getting heavily into the ending and varying interpretations, so be warned of heavy spoilers!

Next time, we're getting into Oscar talk with Paul Thomas Anderson's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER!

We're returning after a long unplanned break with the most important awards ceremony in film: the Trashies!

Nick and Erin are running down their favourite performances of 2025, talk instrumental & song scores, and our best theatre-going memories of the year before discussing new-to-us discoveries and our top 5 of the year.

It all leads up to the key questions of the year: how did they make Ethan Hawke just a little guy? Why is Josh O'Connor legally mandated to appear in every film? What's with all the dual roles (looking at you Robert Pattinson, Michael B Jordan, and Wagner Moura)? And just who is Damocles?

But most importantly, who will take home the vaunted Golden Garbage Can Lid? Past winners include Nolan's OPPENHEIMER and Guadagnino's CHALLENGERS.

Movies discussed - light spoilers on all of the below:

BLUE MOON - Richard Linklater

IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU - Mary Bronstein

WAKE UP DEAD MAN - Rian Johnson

BLACK BAG - Steven Soderbergh

SINNERS - Ryan Coogler

THE SECRET AGENT - Kleber Mendonça Filho

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER - Paul Thomas Anderson

NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE - Matt Johnson

NO OTHER CHOICE - Park Chan-wook

THE NAKED GUN - Akiva Schaffer

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE - Matthew Rankin

DEUX FEMMES EN OR (TWO WOMEN) - Chloé Robichaud

MICKEY 17 - Bong Joon Ho

It's beginning to look a lot like Noirvember! This week we're getting steamy with the Wachowski's debut film, BOUND from 1996.

Before getting into the film we're discussing the Wachowskis at large, their graphic novel and Hong Kong cinema influences, and how Bound was their Hollywood guarantor. This unique noir takes the Billy Wilder and Hitchcock influences and makes it the Wachowskis' own - we're breaking down the how's and why's, and how this feeds perfectly into the Matrix.

Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly, and Joe Pantoliano are in the finest forms of their career, with Gershon and Tilly fighting over casting, and Joey Pants fighting to be nude on screen. Plus we learn how the crew became fluent in Wachowski as Susie Bright's proto-intimacy coordinating, Bill Pope's visuals, Zach Staenberg's editing, and Don Davis' music bring the sisters' style to the screen.

Plus: sex, sex, SEX!

Our exploration of the spooky south continues with Neil Jordan's 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE!

We love the insane family dynamics of our vampire trio, and so this episode importantly praises Kirsten Dunst, is okay with Brad Pitt, is in awe of whatever Tom Cruise is doing, and is surprised by least erotic Antonio Banderas performance. We are of course finding a way to make this story about class, Nick compares Rice to Charles Dickens, and we ask the ultimate question: what does this have to do with Cher?

Plus, more teenaged Erin lore surrounding her experience with this book, how this book and film changed fan fiction forever, and another edition of Graboid Onto These Facts.

Next time on the pod we're getting into Noirvember with the Wachowski sisters' debut, BOUND!

Note: there is a little audio hiccup around 46:00-47:00 -- it is temporary and does not occur throughout the episode.

Hot off SINNERS last week, this week we're tackling a different kind of story about racial tensions in the south: independent filmmaker novelist John Sayles' neo-western mystery, LONE STAR from 1996!

We're talking Sayles' career and how his fingerprints cover Hollywood from Roger Corman to ET the Extraterrestrial before diving into thoughts on the Alamo. And in our discussion of this film's themes and central mystery that deal with the grey areas of borders we all experience, we define once and for all what "politics in movies" means.

The cast is all on fire, and we discuss how Chris Cooper plays subtext to the back walls, how we need to see more Elizabeth Peña & Joe Morton, how Kris Kristofferson is always scary, and how Matthew McConaughey has always been Daddy.

Next time we're squeezing in something spooky just in time -- Tom Cruise goes southern gothic in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE!

Gartbage is back and we're heading south with several Michael B Jordan's for Ryan Coogler's period horror musical SINNERS! As always, we're discussing with full spoilers.

We're tracing Sinners' path from conception to theatre, from Coogler's visit to a cotton plantation outside of Atlanta, to discovering Miles Caton and treating Jack O'Connell like Beyonce, to one of the best theatre experiences of the year.

This film trusts its audiences in ways that recent blockbusters haven't, so we're getting into some of the details that make up this (our?) world: Hoodoo, the Great Migration, Juke Joints, Choctaw vampire hunters, we've got it all.

Plus, Erin breaks down how Ludwig Goransson's blues-based score helps tell this story of racism, colonialism, and vampires. And how did we feel about the big Generations dance scene? The answer may surprise you!

Next week we're taking another look at racial and colonial attitudes in the south with John Sayles' LONE STAR (1996)

We're back! It's a mini-sode to catch us up after a long break, and we're breaking format to discuss our recent visit to the Mobile Criterion Closet! We made new movie folk friends, played some movie trivia for fabulous prizes, and, most importantly, made our Official Criterion Closet picks.

We're also talking about our recent cinematic obsessions, finally getting French New Wave films, guys we made up to get mad at, and lament not getting to participate in TIFF this year.

Join us next time for a return to our typical format with this year's vampire musical, SINNERS!

This week we're getting expended as we wrap up Bong June-ho with Bong Joon-ho's sexy sci-fi farce, MICKEY 17 from this very year of 2025!

Full spoilers ahead as we discuss Bong's version of a feel-good love story, Edward Ashton's original novel MICKEY 7, the inherently boring faces of techno-religious fascism, reconciling your morality with your identity in late-stage capitalism, and how "lower" classes can become a self-exploitative population. Y'know, comedy!

It's the Robert Pattinson show -- his mondo weirdo energy, falling down stairs, underwear modeling, and the DNA his performances share with Jim Carrey. Plus, we're getting into Naomi Ackie's "he said no pickles" performance, Steven Yeun's underrated comedic chops, and Mark Ruffalo's fake teeth and Toni Collette's sauces.

And to wrap up the series, we're giving our top 3 Bongs. We think you'll agree that our choices are very brave.

Malkovich to you and welcome to the second set of Bong June-ho!

This pair of episodes is all about thinking about the concept of a Guy. What if several guys became one guy? What if one guy was several guys? We're here to answer these questions and more, starting with Spike Jonze's 1999 dark comedy headtrip, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.

We get into Spike Jonze's BMX and MTV lifestyle, Charlie Kaufman's sketch comedy origins, our feelings on John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener. And of course the question everyone wants the answer to: why Malkovich?

This movie's prescience lies in its surreal prediction of fan culture, and we are forced to invoke the dreaded phrase: "you couldn't make this today", while dredging up our corporate job histories. We're also drawing parallels between Bong Joon-ho's filmography and why he lists this as one of his favourites!

Next time we wrap up our set of Guys by hanging out with several Robert Pattinsons in MICKEY 17!