Maximum Film!

Olivia Colman is a rude yet disarming fisherwoman. Alexander Skarsgård is a man made out of wicker, at her request. By Peter Dinklage. If you need more reasons to consider the new "fable" movie, WICKER, we're considering it this week with Reading Smut and Reading Glasses co-host Brea Grant. Then, we'll talk about other fables we think would make great films. Plus, another Christmas Movie Minute in the books! 

What’s Good
Alonso - Old Halloween ads on YouTube (for example…)
Drea - Covid and Flu Boosters
Brea - Burbank, CA, Horror Mecca??
Kevin - Redshirts by John Scalzi

ITIDIC
Heated Rivalry Coming to Movie Theaters
Cheyenne Jackson Champions Actors Who Are Close to Saving their SAG Insurance

Staff Picks
Drea - Border
Alonso - Wildwood
Brea - Your Monster
Kevin - You Can See Everything

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Did we need another Sense & Sensibility? Turns out, maybe yes. Romance novelist (and cultural anthropologist!) Nikki Payne joins us to weigh the merits of director Georgia Oakley’s new adaptation, and separate the Willoughbys from the Bradleys. Then we read a hotline email about esoteric movie insights and subject Alonso to the first Christmas Movie Minute of the year!

What’s Good?
Alonso - I’ll Believe in Anything by Jacob Tierney
Drea - Libby and their addition of an AI opt-out
Nikki - Take Charge of My Heart on Netflix
Kevin - Casey Abrams concert

ITIDIC
Netflix Reports Box Office for the First Time for La Bola Negra’s Big Success
Soderbergh to Step in to Finish The Batman 2

Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson on Graham Norton

Staff Picks 
Drea - Wildwood
Alonso - Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Nikki - Rye Lane (hey, we did an episode!)
Kevin - Carrie (1976)

Alonso’s Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Years ago, Mahershala Ali announced that he was working with Marvel to develop a new feature Blade with himself as the titular vampire slayer. The first director attached to the project was Bassam Tariq. Blade ended up in project hell, never quite able to get off the ground, despite Ali getting in great shape and training with swordplay. Eventually Ali and Tariq took advantage of Marvel’s delinquency (and Ali's training) to develop Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother. It’s a film that centers on the American Muslim experience, but is by turns dramatic and action-packed. The team discusses the film and uses the opportunity to talk about some of their favorite films with MacGuffins.

What’s Good

Alonso - Carrie on Amazon Prime

Drea - Her friend is cancer free!

Kevin - It’s finally cold (by Southern California standards)

ITIDIC

Indiewire Editorial: Are There Too Many Horror Movies?

Crazy Rich Asians to Be Adapted Into a Series, With Same Cast and Filmmakers

After Years of Concern, TCM Looks Like It’s Sticking Around at Skydance

Staff Picks

Drea - Tenzing

Alonso - The Devils

Kevin - The Book of Eli

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinmaxfilm

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Just the gang today to talk about a movie that has divided critics and moviegoers alike...at least, those moviegoers who actually took the very secretive bait that DIGGER's ad campaign was offering. Tom Cruise and Riz Ahmed star in this latest film from Alejandra G. Iñárritu. Then, we've got a different kind of movie quiz about films set in their not-so-distant future.

What’s Good
Alonso - Every Time a Bell Rings by Emily St. James and Lauren Theisen
Drea - Luna Wants Tuna
Kevin - Returning to GBBO 

ITIDIC
WB Watertower Already Repainted to Reflect Merger
Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay Might Be Making the Next Transformers Movie

Staff Picks
Alonso - The Social Reckoning
Drea - Fjord, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, and Dr. Strangelove
Kevin - Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Director Lance Oppenheim's debut feature, Primetime has a sales pitch that's hard to deny: Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen. So does the movie live up to that enticing promise? We have true crime buff, former Dateline devotee, and co-host of All Things Cozy, Gillian Walters, with us to discuss the film as both a work of fiction and a portrait of real (if complicated) man and moment in TV history. Then we'll talk about some of our most memorable morally ambiguous movies

What's Good
Alonso - Magazine Break
Drea - Lili Reinhart's wig in The Love Hypothesis
Gillian - Spooky Kitty Soap Holder from Bath & Body Works
Kevin - The Sixty-Year Mission screening

ITIDIC
Viral Lesbian Bar Article From Boston Globe Is Piquing Hollywood’s Interest
An Indie Filmmaker Is Distributing His Movie Via One Traveling Copy of a DVD

Staff Picks
Drea - Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Alonso - No Sleep Till
Gillian - The DUFF
Kevin - Hope (kinda) & Avengers: Endgame (still)
 

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

This week we've got expert musical improvisors Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino with us to discuss a movie about a middle school musical gone way off course, at the hands of a drama teacher pushed to the edge. Part comedy, part film noir, it's the feature debut of director Giselle Bonilla, and it was a Sundance premiere. THE MUSICAL! Then we talk about other films that use film noir tropes to comedic ends, and pitch some actually-pretty-genius new movies in that genre too.

Look out for Jess and Zach's movie, Mock Trial
Listen to Off Book (or see it live!)

What’s Good
Alonso - Get your colonoscopy!
Drea - Bob the Drag Queen even makes the Love Island Reunion show fun
Jess - The Gilded Age on a plane
Zach - The Wolves of Glendale, Go to the Woods
Kevin - seeing the Rams live

ITIDIC
AMC Burbank Pepper-Spray Guy: Villain or Hero?
New California Post Production Tax Credit Becomes Law

Staff Pick
Alonso - You Had to Be There
Jess - Original Cast Album: Company (w/”Co-Op” double feature)
Drea - The Incomer
Zach - The Court Jester
Kevin - Resident Evil

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

The stars of the original Practical Magic stars are back (at least, most of them) and just as cursed as ever. We have Hollywood Reporter TV Critic Angie Han with us to weigh in on whether this film left us feeling charmed, or like we'd been hit by a truck. Then, in honor of a family that has two sisters in every generation, we have a movie quiz about two-sister films! 

What’s Good?
Alonso - Meg Stalter’s Emmys ensemble
Drea - uno spaghetto
Angie - TrüFrü Dark and White Chocolate Covered Freeze Dried Strawberries
Kevin - Movie theater seat snobbery

ITIDIC
‘Woman Unknown’ Wins Venice Film Festival
MPA Projects Proposed Federal Tax Credit would Add 143,000 Film & TV Jobs

Staff Picks
Drea - If I Go Will They Miss Me
Alonso - Now, Voyager
Angie - The History of Concrete
Kevin - Martha Marcy May Marlene

Here's a Letterboxd list of Two- and Three-Sister Movies

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Casper Kelly might be most famous for his this-shouldn't-be-so-creepy comedy short "Too Many Cooks." Now he's got his feature directorial debut on his hands (but don't sleep on Yule Log 2, according to Alonso), and It's Buddy, a comedy horror that owes a debt of gratitude to the insistent cheerfulness of Barney the Dinosaur. We'll get into all that, and then talk about some of our favorite times TV crossed over onto the big screens.

What's Good:
Alonso: kouign amann
Drea: Minnesota State Fair
Kevin: Costco belt

ITIDIC
• Summer U.S. Box Office Hits All-Time $4.76B Record: How Audiences Surrendered To Moviegoing
• Telluride’s Top-Secret Film Was a Documentary and people are abuzz (You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s Elizabeth Holmes doc)

Staff Picks:
Alonso: We Are Pat
Drea: Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger
Kevin: Colony (Gunche)

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Hey, you! Be a buddy and take our listener survey! It'll help us keep the show great and maybe even...make it better?! 
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! - Producer Marissa and the MaxFilm Gang
***

Shelved after completion in 2023, COYOTE VS. ACME has finally detonated onto big screens everywhere. We have director David Kittredge (whose doc BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL is finally making it to theaters as well!) with us to follow this courtroom-drama-by-way-of-Merrie-Melodies. Then we'll talk about the fictional lawsuits that the characters of other films might have on their hands.

What’s Good
Alonso - But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition by Kristen Lopez
Drea - Daisy Chain Fields Festival (link is to non-profit beneficiaries if you want to donate!)
David - Boorman and the Devil on the big screen, and people going back to the cinemas
Kevin - French press coffee

ITIDIC

1. New AMC Theaters Venture Aims to Put Smaller Films on Big Screen
2. Remembering Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, Movie Stars

Staff Picks
Alonso: Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
Drea: Hadestown: the Musical
David: Buffet Infinity and Buddy
Kevin: The End of Oak Street

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinmaxfilm

Follow us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, or Letterboxd

With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher

Hey, you! Be a buddy and take our listener survey! It'll help us keep the show great and maybe even...make it better?! 
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! - Producer Marissa and the MaxFilm Gang

The main character of TONY is Anthony Bourdain, but Matt Johnson’s latest film is not exactly a biopic. We have film critic Katie Walsh with us to discuss Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, and the rest of the kitchen crew in this unusual coming of age movie. Then we’ll think up some other personalities we’d like to see inspire coming-of-age/early-life pics. 

What’s Good

ITIDIC

Staff Picks
Drea: The Cycle of Love
Katie: The Rivals of Amziah King
Kevin: The Conversation

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinmaxfilm

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With
Kevin Avery
Drea Clark
Alonso Duralde

Produced by Marissa Flaxbart
Sr. Producer Laura Swisher