Cole's back and they've learned the secret of the orient: not being that mad anymore. 

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

Gaza Funds

PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

National Networks of Abortion Funds

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

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Fellow Canucks Remember Shuffle join Stu and a hopelessly outnumbered Nicole for a lively and in-depth discussion about Blackberry, and the seething neurotic resentment that comes from living in the Great White North. 

Cole was too busy watching actual basketball, so Nicole and Stu are left to fend for themselves in alien territory as we enter the worlds of shoes and sports with the Affleck/Damon brand-biopic. Is it a fleeting microgenre, or are products the new comic books? We discuss what makes the film hollow and irritating, the limits of slipping 'subversive' messages into hyper-corporate movies, the odd way it handles Michael Jordan as a figure, it's success with xillennials, endless 80s nostalgia, and how the film doubles as a pitch for Affleck and Damon's revenue-sharing based studio 'Artists Equity'. 

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

Gaza Funds

PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

National Networks of Abortion Funds

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

If you enjoy the show please consider:

Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

Before we (Nicole and Cole) fulfill their contractually obligated second Patreon Raffle pick on Trần Anh Hùng's under-appreciated neo-noir I Come With the Rain, we pay our respect to Stu, who at the time caught the hantavirus from that cruise. Remember when that happened?

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An excerpt from our conversation with Jane Altoids about Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, adapted from the novel by Scott Heims. 

Boston Hassle film critic, animation enthusiast, and co-host of Hawke Cast Kyle Amato joins Stu, Nicole, and Cole to dissect the second highest grossing toy commercial of 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It's your stock standard low-effort kiddie fodder reskinned for Nintendo IP and jam packed with as many Easter eggs and Top 40 needledops as algorithmically possible. If animation actually wants to be cinema then Illumination should hire actual some real European perverts for a change.

Follow Kyle on the Projects Substack and read his reviews for Boston Hassle.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, ultimatetotoro, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

Gaza Funds

PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

National Networks of Abortion Funds

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

If you enjoy the show please consider:

Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

As of 2025, Warner Brothers officially lost the rights to make a live action feature film adaptation of Akira, ending over 20 years of a development hell for something nobody wanted or asked for. But god, did they try. Nicole takes Stu on a deep dive through each and every painfully misguided iteration of what thankfully will never be.

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On the eve of having to review The Super Mario Brothers Movie, the gang decides to find reprieve in what is possibly the greatest technical and craft achievement in the history of animation: Akira.

A long, long time ago, in a remote, wild and mystical land called Minnesota, a bunch of nerds with polyhedral dice decided to play-act Lord of the Rings using the rules and miniatures from a medieval war game. That game became a product, that product became a brand, and that brand became popular with women, so they made a pretty decent movie out of it. We watched that movie, and had a nice chat about what sets it a step above its IP franchise film peers.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

Gaza Funds

PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

National Networks of Abortion Funds

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

If you enjoy the show please consider:

Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

At the outset of a nearly 3 hour discussion about mythic cuckoldry and shit looking cool as hell in John Boorman's Excalibur, Cole teaches Nicole and Stu about an even stupider king of ethnonationalist beliefs.