Mindframes

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)

Directed by: Jane Schoenbrun Written by: Jane Schoenbrun Starring: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Fix, Jack Haven IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35298123/

Episode Summary

In this Halloween episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026), Jane Schoenbrun's horny, bloody, and surprisingly tender meta-slasher about a young director trying to reboot a long-dead '80s horror franchise by tracking down its original final girl.

The discussion explores Schoenbrun's career and style, the film's 35mm look and painted skies, a score that relieves tension instead of building it, one of the year's great needle drops, and the performances of Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. Along the way the film is compared to I Saw the TV Glow, Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, X, Digger, and Lost Highway.

Thematic Discussion

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma explores the vocabulary horror gives us: the way a movie seen too young can hand us words for parts of ourselves we couldn't name yet.

Kris calls the original Camp Miasma her queer awakening, and Michael and Dave use her story to look at their own. Dave traces his relationship with horror back to a grandmother who dressed as a witch every Halloween, Frankenstein's monster reaching for the sunlight, and a night alone with John Carpenter's Halloween on HBO at 12 years old. Horror became his lingua franca, socially, sexually, and spiritually. Michael wrestles with the film's one paradox: a movie that tells you to get out of your head and feel, while asking you to think the whole time.

Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro & setup 01:48 Jane Schoenbrun: career and style 14:07 Technical analysis: 35mm, painted skies, score, and the needle drop 20:39 The plot and the slasher influences 24:22 Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, and the supporting players 31:45 Reviews 36:56 Pleasure, joy, and sex without shame 39:34 Spoiler section begins 41:50 How horror helps us grow up 43:27 Dave's horror origins: a witch grandmother and Frankenstein 48:46 Dave's Halloween story 52:06 Kris's queer awakening and the final girl run 59:29 Does Kris normalize horror fandom? The Creature Feature Preacher 1:02:56 Is Kris a realistic horror fan? 1:09:17 The film's anachronisms 1:12:52 Final interpretation: "get out of your head" 1:18:39 Closing thoughts Films & Directors Mentioned

• We're All Going to the World's Fair / Jane Schoenbrun
• I Saw the TV Glow / Jane Schoenbrun
• Halloween / John Carpenter
• Friday the 13th / Sean S. Cunningham
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre / Tobe Hooper
• Frankenstein / James Whale
• X / Ti West
• Digger / Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• Hokum
• Lost Highway / David Lynch
• Mulholland Drive / David Lynch
• Apocalypse Now / Francis Ford Coppola
• Amélie / Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• RRR / S. S. Rajamouli
• March of the Penguins
• Other Mommy
• La Bola Negra
• The History of Concrete
• The Social Reckoning
• Obsession
• Jay Kelly
• The Crown (TV)
• The X-Files (TV)

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com Facebook: Mindframes Network: Now Playing Network Email: [email protected]

You Can See Everything (2026)

Directed by: Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim Written by: No writing credit (documentary) Starring: Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder, Billy Evans IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt45368240/

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss You Can See Everything (2026), the A24 documentary in which Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim move in with Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans in the 34 days before she reports to prison.

The discussion explores what Fielder and Oppenheim each bring to the partnership, whether a film this staged still counts as a documentary, how Holmes compares to her portrayal in The Dropout, and whether she is a fraud, delusional, or both. Along the way they compare the film to the work of Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, Primetime, Dick Johnson Is Dead, and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Both hosts give it five stars, though Michael says the fifth was especially hard won.

Thematic Discussion

You Can See Everything explores the gap between access and knowledge: total access, zero knowledge.

The film gives us more of Elizabeth Holmes than anyone has ever had, at home, on the beach, with her kids, inches from the camera, and she only gets harder to read the closer it gets. Michael and Dave ask whether she is unknowable because people always are, or because she has made herself that way, and whether a filmmaker who openly shapes the story can still get any closer to the truth.

Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro & setup 01:26 The synopsis and the Elizabeth Holmes story so far 05:32 The central question: how do you ever really know a person? 07:10 Directors: Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim 13:58 Is there a cast in a documentary? Errol Morris, Herzog, and the blurred line 26:02 Technical analysis: the close-ups, the light, and the pacing 34:14 Spoiler-free reviews 45:31 Spoiler section begins 47:24 The Dropout, Dr. Phyllis Gardner, and fraud vs. delusion 56:26 The re-creations and what dramatization owes the truth 1:10:25 Malice, denial, and following the money 1:17:20 The beach, the kids, and the "you can see everything" text 1:21:06 Saw a lady in half: David Fear's magic-trick metaphor 1:22:06 Is this a "pure" documentary? Honesty vs. objectivity 1:28:29 When re-creations work: Naza and The Voice of Hind Rajab 1:32:51 Final interpretation 1:36:25 Closing thoughts Films & Directors Mentioned

• Primetime (Lance Oppenheim, 2026)
• Some Kind of Heaven (Lance Oppenheim)
• Ren Faire (Lance Oppenheim)
• Nathan for You, The Rehearsal, The Curse (Nathan Fielder)
• The Dropout (Hulu)
• Bad Blood (John Carreyrou's book)
• Errol Morris, Standard Operating Procedure
• Werner Herzog
• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun, 2026)
• Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
• Naza (2026)
• The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania)
• Dick Johnson Is Dead (Kirsten Johnson)
• John Candy: I Like Me
• Ken Burns, The Civil War
• Michael Moore
• Tiger King
• Trainwreck: Poop Cruise
• Fyre

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com Facebook: Mindframes Network: Now Playing Network Email: [email protected]

Digger (2026)

Directed by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu Written by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Sabina Berman Starring: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31450459/

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss Digger (2026), Alejandro G. Iñárritu's satirical black comedy starring Tom Cruise as an oil tycoon racing to prove he's humanity's savior before the disaster he caused destroys everything.

The discussion explores Cruise's prosthetics-heavy turn against type, Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki's bleached, stage-like VistaVision look, Riz Ahmed's grounded performance, and the film's sharply divided reception, before the spoiler section digs into how a culture retells its catastrophes to itself. Along the way they compare the film to Birdman, Dr. Strangelove, Network, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Producers.

Thematic Discussion

Digger explores what we carry: how art turns a shared catastrophe into shared memory, and whether that memory needs to be accurate to do its work.

The film suggests that coming together to remember, laugh and grieve is its own kind of healing, even when it can't undo the damage, and even when the version we remember is simpler than the truth.

Timestamps

Time

Segment

03:03

Intro & setup

07:20

Expectations: Tom Cruise against type

08:54

Iñárritu's themes and visual style

15:44

VistaVision, Lubezki and the gray palette

17:55

Who is Digger? The premise and the cast

23:46

Spoiler-free reviews

34:43

Spoiler section begins

35:07

A divided reception: critics vs. audiences

43:22

What We Carry: the play within the film

50:56

The falling tree

53:57

Kenny's speech: accuracy vs. the story

59:40

Building cultural memory

1:04:40

Final interpretation debate: do shared memories need to be accurate?

1:20:06

Closing thoughts

Films & Directors Mentioned

• Birdman / Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• The Revenant / Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• 21 Grams / Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• Babel / Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• Biutiful / Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• Amores perros / Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• Dr. Strangelove / Stanley Kubrick

• Network / Sidney Lumet

• Magnolia / Paul Thomas Anderson

• Tropic Thunder / Ben Stiller

• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / John Ford

• The Producers / Mel Brooks

• Synecdoche, New York / Charlie Kaufman

• Don't Look Up / Adam McKay

• Asteroid City / Wes Anderson

• Megalopolis / Francis Ford Coppola

• Schindler's List / Steven Spielberg

• To Kill a Mockingbird / Robert Mulligan

• The Lord of the Rings / Peter Jackson

• Talk to Me / Danny and Michael Philippou

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com Facebook: Mindframes Network: Now Playing Network Email: [email protected]

Primetime (2026)

Directed by: Lance Oppenheim Written by: Ajon Singh Starring: Robert Pattinson, Skyler Gisondo, Merritt Wever, Creed Bratton, Alex Winter, Anna Faris, Phoebe Bridgers IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34206385/

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss Primetime (2026), Lance Oppenheim's first fiction feature. Robert Pattinson plays To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen in a dark comedy that slowly turns into a gothic horror film.

The discussion covers what it was like to watch To Catch a Predator when it first aired, Oppenheim's recurring interest in performed reality, and Pattinson's performance, which the film frames like a horror villain. Michael and Dave also talk about the network machinery that rewarded the show, and the decoy actor who acts as the audience's conscience. Along the way they compare the film to Elvis, Network, Moby-Dick and Nosferatu.

Thematic Discussion

Primetime asks whether Chris Hansen is a man or a monster: a person caught in a ratings machine, or a creature feeding on the darkness he claims to hunt.

The film never settles whether Hansen has an arc, and the camera treats him both ways. Sometimes it shoots him like a horror monster stalking prey, and sometimes like an ordinary man unwinding over a drink. As the story moves toward its tragic Texas sting, the film gets literally darker and turns into gothic horror. That shift suggests the hunt didn't create the monster so much as reveal it.

Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro & setup: growing up with To Catch a Predator 02:59 Lance Oppenheim and the film's premise 04:39 What To Catch a Predator actually was 07:50 "Pilloried": performed reality in Oppenheim's work 10:00 Shot like a documentary 11:01 Robert Pattinson and quiet intensity 18:30 A fever dream: Primetime and Elvis 20:50 The network meeting and Network 22:38 Look and feel: the monster close-up 25:31 Decoy Dan's crossroads 26:41 Cinematographer David Bolen and the 16mm texture 27:43 Structure, score and the creeping horror 30:12 Spoiler-free reviews 39:15 Spoiler section begins: Man or Monster? 43:08 Chasing the whale: Hansen as Ahab 44:52 Destiny: the producer, Decoy Dan and the SAG card 48:00 The Bill Conradt tragedy 49:53 Three readings: human, monster, or human turned monster 51:48 The film turns to gothic horror 53:59 Creed Bratton on the plane: "different definitions" of right 58:36 Final interpretation: how a man turns into a monster 1:00:46 The bangle, and a look ahead to You Can See Everything 1:02:04 Closing thoughts Films & Directors Mentioned

• Primetime (2026) / Lance Oppenheim
• You Can See Everything (2026) / Lance Oppenheim & Nathan Fielder
• Some Kind of Heaven (2020) / Lance Oppenheim
• Ren Faire (2024) / Lance Oppenheim
• The Python Hunt (2025)
• Predators (2025) / David Osit
• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) / Jane Schoenbrun
• Elvis (2022) / Baz Luhrmann
• Priscilla (2023) / Sofia Coppola
• Network (1976) / Sidney Lumet
• Nosferatu (2024) / Robert Eggers
• The Lighthouse (2019) / Robert Eggers
• The Drama (2026) / Kristoffer Borgli
• Mickey 17 (2025) / Bong Joon Ho
• Twilight (2008) / Catherine Hardwicke
• One Hour Photo (2002) / Mark Romanek
• Insomnia (2002) / Christopher Nolan
• Aladdin (1992) / Ron Clements & John Musker
• The Social Reckoning (2026)
• Moby-Dick / Herman Melville (novel)

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton Written by: Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers (based on the Marvel comic by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko) Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo, Liza Colón-Zayas, Florence Pugh IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22084616/

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), a soft-reboot superhero film that finds Peter Parker fighting crime full-time in a New York that no longer remembers he exists.

The discussion explores whether the film's quieter, more introspective first act successfully re-energizes a fatigued genre, the wisdom of internalizing Spider-Man's central struggle as his own spider-DNA begins to take over ("spider puberty"), and a plot the hosts agree is overstuffed with characters and motivations. Along the way: Jon Bernthal's softened Punisher, Sadie Sink's tangential villain, an unnecessary Hulk, and some of the most aggressive BMW product placement either host can remember. Reference points include Sam Raimi, The Empire Strikes Back, and the boring-superhero cautionary tales of Superman Returns and Man of Steel.

On-air verdicts: Dave — 4/5. Michael — 3/5. (Dave really enjoyed it; Michael landed mixed — "10% greatness, 90% mid" — praising the third act while faulting the loaded first two.)

Thematic Discussion

Spider-Man: Brand New Day explores loneliness, and the idea that community is vulnerability.

The film suggests that even with superhuman strength, no one gets through isolation alone — that reaching out, being earnest, and letting people back in is the actual work, and the only real cure. Peter erased himself from everyone he loved to keep them safe; the film argues that choice was the wound, not the protection. Both hosts landed on the thematic point being earned: the melancholy is felt, the reconnection with Ned and MJ is left meaningfully ambiguous rather than reset, and Sadie Sink's character works as a dark-mirror counterpoint — the same loss, but a person who pushes everyone away instead.

Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro & setup 02:59 The soft reboot: smart move or gimmick? 07:28 Jon Bernthal's Punisher 10:55 The cast: Ned, the villains, a Benedict Wong tangent 14:36 Technical analysis: look, sound, pacing & product placement 24:02 An overstuffed plot and thin villain motivation 25:43 Director context: Raimi, Empire, and Cretton's roots 27:27 Spoiler-free verdicts 35:18 Spoiler section begins 35:29 Thematic deep dive: loneliness & connection as vulnerability 39:16 Is the ending earned? The Ned handshake debate 43:51 Set design, Jean Grey as counterpoint, "I'm both" 48:34 The banya scene: playing with vulnerability 53:41 Closing thoughts & what's next Films & Directors Mentioned

• Sam Raimi / the Raimi Spider-Man films
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Destin Daniel Cretton — Short Term 12, Just Mercy, Shang-Chi
• Superman Returns, Man of Steel, Godzilla (the "boring superhero" cautionary tales)
• Bryan Singer — X-Men, X2, Apt Pupil
• Supergirl, Fantastic Four
• Iron Man & Watchmen (iconic mask removals)
• Doctor Strange (Benedict Wong)
• Baby Driver, The Odyssey, Weapons, Marco Polo, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com Facebook: Mindframes Network: Now Playing Network Email: [email protected]

The Odyssey (2026)

Directed by: Christopher Nolan Written by: Christopher Nolan Starring: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong'o, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, Bill Irwin, Travis Scott IMDB: [IMDB LINK]

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss The Odyssey (2026), Christopher Nolan's three-hour adaptation of Homer — a $250 million epic and the first narrative feature shot entirely on IMAX 70mm.

The discussion covers Nolan as an auteur and whether the "never made a bad movie" claim holds up, the practical-effects approach to the Cyclops and Circe, the deliberately cold Northern palette imposed on the Mediterranean, Ludwig Göransson's score, and an ensemble so large the hosts concede they can't get to everyone. After the ratings, the spoiler section turns to the film's central choice: the Olympian gods have been removed while the monsters remain, and what that does to Odysseus' moral agency.

Comparisons range across Nolan's own filmography, Troy, The Northman, and the sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s and '60s.

Reviews

Michael: 4.5 / 5 — came out thinking four, and it has only grown in his esteem since. Praises the baseline of visual and musical quality, Damon working better as a lead than expected, and a supporting cast that carries every stop on the journey. Docks it for a cast so crowded it distracts, and for an ending too in love with its own moralism.

Dave: 4.5 / 5 — would watch it again in a heartbeat. Calls it a film that grabs hold of empire, heroism, reverence, and humility all at once, and rates the separation of gods from monsters as pitch perfect. His one dent in the fender: the film plays a little episodic, a series of very large encounters rather than a single build.

Thematic Discussion

The Odyssey removes the Olympians but keeps the monsters. Circe, the Sirens, and the Cyclops are all simply part of the natural world here; it's Athena and Zeus who stay shadowy and inferred. Michael's reading is that this absence exists to hand moral agency back to Odysseus — if the gods were visibly steering, his guilt over the Trojan Horse wouldn't be his to carry.

That guilt is framed through xenia, the Greek code of hospitality. Odysseus offered a gift that turned out to be murder, and comes to believe that breaking that norm is what set his civilization's collapse in motion. The hosts draw the parallel to the erosion of political and social norms in contemporary America, and to the film's closing turn — the Bronze Age is ending because of the Sea Peoples, and the Greeks realize they are the Sea Peoples.

The episode's central disagreement is over Athena. Dave reads her as constructed: she wears the face of a priestess Odysseus watched his own men murder in her temple, and the film is showing how humans build gods out of guilt and the sense that something is sacred. Michael pushes back that the film sustains a genuine ambiguity — the idea that gods appear in human form is planted repeatedly, and the priestess is decapitated at the exact moment Athena's statue is, which leaves open that Odysseus may believe they killed a god. He points to the same ambiguity in the Cyclops' cry to Poseidon, which some of the crew claim to hear and neither Odysseus nor the audience does.

Neither host resolves it, and both prefer it that way. Michael's position is that the ambiguity is the answer rather than the absence of one — something underpins their world that they don't fully see and are damaging anyway, whether that's Zeus and Poseidon or simply decency and the value of human life. Dave, arriving from a position of religious faith, says he likes that Odysseus has to live in the same uncertain world the rest of us do.

The structural evidence they land on: Homer ends with a deus ex machina, Athena descending to stop the cycle of revenge. Nolan cuts it. Nobody intervenes, so Odysseus abdicates, gives the throne to Telemachus, and sails west with Penelope — a change that hands the ending's moral weight entirely to the man.

Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro & setup 05:08 Nolan's filmography — is he an auteur? 08:51 Practical filmmaking and visual style 09:37 IMAX 70mm and the limits of the format 14:40 Hoyte van Hoytema 17:16 Why the Mediterranean looks cold 19:39 Ludwig Göransson's score 25:20 Travis Scott, the bard, and the casting discourse 28:56 The ensemble 39:39 Reviews & ratings 49:56 Spoiler section begins 52:18 Xenia and the collapse of norms 54:50 The gods and moral agency 56:12 The Athena reveal 1:01:46 The case for ambiguity 1:05:03 "We're the Sea Peoples" 1:09:02 The ending Nolan changed 1:19:36 Final interpretation debate — are the gods there? 1:26:49 Closing thoughts Films & Directors Mentioned

• Memento — Christopher Nolan
• Inception — Christopher Nolan
• The Prestige — Christopher Nolan
• Interstellar — Christopher Nolan
• Dunkirk — Christopher Nolan
• Tenet — Christopher Nolan
• Oppenheimer — Christopher Nolan
• Troy
• The Northman
• Dune
• Saving Private Ryan
• Fruitvale Station — Ryan Coogler
• Creed — Ryan Coogler
• Black Panther — Ryan Coogler
• Sinners — Ryan Coogler
• Minority Report
• The Whale
• Anemone
• Disclosure Day — Steven Spielberg
• Barbie
• Michael
• John Ford and Monument Valley
• Hans Zimmer
• The sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s and '60s

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com Facebook: Mindframes Network: Now Playing Network Email: [email protected]

Mindframes Show Notes Episode 121 — Disclosure Day (2026)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg Written by: David Koepp Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15047880/

Special guest: Tarek Fayoumi (movieswithtarek.com), director of the Chicago Independent Film Critics.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave — joined by returning guest Tarek Fayoumi — discuss Disclosure Day (2026), Steven Spielberg's return to the alien genre and his first big sci-fi swing since War of the Worlds.

The conversation works through Spielberg's recurring obsessions (renegade heroes, shadowy government forces, ordinary people swept into something enormous), Janusz Kamiński's return to the diffused-light, lens-flare look, and John Williams' 30th collaboration with the director — before splitting hard over whether the film's hopeful thesis actually lands. Comparisons run from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., and War of the Worlds to Contact, Minority Report, and Coppola's Megalopolis as a fellow "late master with something to say."

Verdicts split three ways: Michael 2.5/5, Dave 3/5, Tarek 4/4.

Thematic Discussion

Disclosure Day asks whether an undeniable, truthful image can still unite people in a cynical age — Brian Tallerico's "undeniable image" framing, run through the show's central question: not is there proof? but does proof still work on us?

Michael argues the truthful image isn't wounded but dead — a shared reality the film is nostalgic for, but one that no longer functions when people deny what they're shown. Dave counters that the film's real hope is empathy and human-to-human connection replacing the broken image, while conceding Spielberg doesn't earn that buy-in the way his early work did. The film ends not on a revelation but on Margaret turning to the camera, saying "Listen," and cutting to black — proof getting humanity to the threshold, with faith and empathy left to carry it the rest of the way.

Timestamps

Note: recording was split into two files; Part 2 times below assume the parts run continuously (Part 2 offset by ~50:03). Verify against the stitched audio.

Time Segment 00:15 Intro & setup; welcoming guest Tarek Fayoumi 02:33 Spielberg as a director — recurring themes 03:21 Premise & the Wardex setup (spoiler-free) 08:43 Return to the alien genre vs. his recent dramas 10:01 Cinematography — Kamiński, lens flares, the "awe" look 28:12 John Williams' 30th collaboration; film & score preservation 31:17 Spoiler-free reviews begin 31:47 Michael's review (2.5/5) 38:47 Dave's review (3/5) 43:02 Tarek's review (4/4) ~45:10 Spoiler section begins ~45:42 The alien reveal & the decades of "disclosure" footage ~55:27 Thematic debate: empathy vs. the image ~56:08 "The truthful image is dead" — Michael's core position ~60:17 The ending: "Listen" and the cut to black ~74:31 Closing thoughts — can we still believe in a unifying image? ~74:56 Next episode tease Films & Directors Mentioned

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg)
• War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg)
• Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
• Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
• Schindler's List / Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
• The Terminal / Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
• The Fabelmans / West Side Story (Steven Spielberg)
• Jurassic Park / Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (David Koepp & Spielberg)
• Contact (Robert Zemeckis / Carl Sagan)
• Explorers (Joe Dante)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
• Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)
• Super 8 (J.J. Abrams)
• Watching the Skies (Norwegian sci-fi)
• Poltergeist / Gremlins (Spielberg-produced, 1980s)
• The Outer Limits — "The Architects of Fear"

Contact

Web: https://mindframesfilm.com Facebook: Mindframes Network: Now Playing Network Email: [email protected]

Mindframes Show Notes Obsession (2026)

Directed by: Curry Barker Written by: Curry Barker Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37287335/

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave dig into Obsession (2026), Curry Barker's micro-budget feature debut that turned into one of the biggest horror phenomenons in years — a $750K film bought for $15 million out of TIFF that went on to gross well over $148 million worldwide, growing at the box office in consecutive weekends rather than declining.

The discussion explores the film's monkey's-paw premise, its working-class Gen Z setting, the moral architecture of Bear's wish, and the central question of whether Bear is the film's actual villain — while comparing the film to Weapons, Pearl, Get Out, The Witch, and Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire.

Thematic Discussion

Obsession explores consent and agency — what happens when desire is granted without consent.

The film suggests that Bear doesn't earn or deserve Nikki's love; he eliminates her will and replaces it with his own. As Curry Barker has put it, "love is earned, not demanded," and "any time you wish for something, it's probably going to be selfish." The true engine of the horror isn't the curse twisting the wish — it's that the wish works exactly as asked.

On-air verdict — Is Bear the villain? Both hosts landed on no. He's flawed, selfish, and prolongs the harm once he knows better, but he's the story's antagonist rather than its villain — if anyone is the "real" villain, it's the cursed object itself. Michael's framing: not every flawed person is a villain, and the film is more interesting because its characters are layered rather than purely good or evil.

On-air verdict — the ending. Dave correctly intuited that Nikki originally killed herself in an earlier draft — that actually was Barker's original Romeo-and-Juliet mutual-suicide ending, before his playwright father pushed him toward the survival cut used in the final film. Michael argued the survival ending is more thematically persuasive: if the theme is one person's coercion of another's agency, the resolution should be Nikki's, not a mutual destruction that treats the harm as shared. Bear's selfishness has to die for Nikki to live.

A live reference worth flagging for listeners: Michael cited Naomi Serpell's New Yorker piece "The New Literalism" (March 2025) as a framework for questioning how intentionally — and how literally — modern horror handles its themes of trauma and control.

⏱️ Timestamps Time Segment 00:01 Intro & setup 00:03 Director background — Curry Barker, box office story 00:09 Cinematography & cast discussion 00:30 Reviews & ratings 00:41 ⚠️ Spoiler section begins — "What would you wish for?" 00:44 Thematic discussion: consent and agency 00:45 Is Bear the villain? 01:01 The ending — survival vs. the original Romeo & Juliet cut 01:13 The New Literalism / intentionality debate 01:22 Closing thoughts & next episode 🎞️ Films & Directors Mentioned

• Weapons / Barbarian (Zach Cregger)
• Pearl (Ti West / Mia Goth) — Barker has cited this as a major influence
• Get Out (Jordan Peele)
• The Witch (Robert Eggers)
• Backrooms (Kane Parsons)
• Hurry Up Tomorrow (Jenna Ortega)
• Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire

📬 Contact

🌐 https://mindframesfilm.com 📘 Facebook: Mindframes 🎧 Now Playing Network ✉️ [email protected]

Backrooms (2026)

Directed by: Kane Parsons Written by: Will Sudick Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell IMDB: Backrooms (2026)

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss Backrooms (2026), an A24 horror film directed by 20-year-old YouTube filmmaker and wunderkind Kane Parsons — believed to be the youngest person to ever direct a widely released feature film.

The discussion covers the film's expansion of the internet liminal space phenomenon into a feature-length narrative, its Tarkovsky-esque atmosphere, and the remarkable work of cinematographer Jeremy Cox and production designer Danny Vermette in bringing 30,000 square feet of meticulously constructed sets to life. The conversation digs deep into why liminal spaces resonate so powerfully with contemporary audiences — and with Gen Z in particular — framing the backrooms not just as a horror setting but as a cultural symptom of a society in uneasy transition.

Both hosts award the film five stars, with Michael calling it the best film he's seen this year.

🧠 Thematic Discussion

Backrooms explores the psychology of liminal space — transitional, empty environments that feel familiar yet deeply wrong — and uses them as an externalization of Clark's inability to move on from divorce, grief, and unresolved anger.

The film suggests that the backrooms are not merely a supernatural threat, but a space that reflects what we bring into it. Clark, living inside his furniture store rather than moving forward with his life, is already inhabiting a kind of liminal space before he ever finds the portal. The backrooms literalize his psychological stasis. The key scene where Mary stops being a detached therapist and tells Clark plainly that the problem is not where he is but that he refuses to move — functions as the film's emotional thesis.

More broadly, the episode argues that our collective fascination with liminal spaces is less allegory or conscious metaphor and more a psychological aesthetic symptom: these spaces — fluorescent-lit, carpeted, emptied of purpose — resonate because they look like the places our society is abandoning, and feel like the threshold we are all standing on. The backrooms are what happens when transitional space becomes permanent home.

⏱️ Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro & welcome ~02:00 Introducing Backrooms and Kane Parsons ~04:00 Plot overview & synopsis ~05:30 The liminal space / backrooms internet phenomenon ~07:30 Cast discussion — Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell ~15:30 Technical analysis — sound design, cinematography, production design ~26:00 ⚠️ Spoiler-free reviews — Michael & Dave both award 5 stars ~35:00 ⚠️ SPOILER SECTION BEGINS ~35:00 Defining liminal spaces — film history, David Lynch, The Shining, Stalker, Annihilation ~43:00 Why liminal spaces scare us — uncanny valley, psychological resonance ~49:00 Why now? Cultural anxiety, societal transition, the doom-scrolling generation ~54:00 Clark's arc — psychological stasis, avoidance, the backrooms as mirror ~60:00 Mary's arc — confronting pain as the path out ~62:00 The scientists / MRI company — and fears for Backrooms 2 ~68:00 A24, Neon, Cannes, and closing tangents ~70:00 Closing thoughts & contact info 🎞️ Films & Directors Mentioned

• Stalker (1979) — Andrei Tarkovsky
• Solaris (1972) — Andrei Tarkovsky
• Annihilation (2018) — Alex Garland
• Men (2022) — Alex Garland
• The Shining (1980) — Stanley Kubrick
• Skinamarink (2022) — Kyle Edward Ball
• Exit 8 — referenced as liminal space film
• Lost Highway (1997) — David Lynch
• Mulholland Drive (2001) — David Lynch
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me / Twin Peaks (series) — David Lynch
• Long Legs (2024) — Oz Perkins
• The Monkey (2025) — Oz Perkins
• Keeper — Oz Perkins
• The Black Coat's Daughter / February (2015) — Oz Perkins
• Hocum — referenced for comparison (sound design and scare level)
• Presence (2025) — referenced for scare level comparison
• Life of Chuck (2024) — referenced
• Creep (2014) — Mark Duplass
• 12 Years a Slave (2013) — referenced re: Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Sentimental Value (2025) — referenced re: Renate Reinsve
• Worst Person in the World (2021) — referenced re: Renate Reinsve
• Fjord (2026) — referenced; won Palme d'Or at Cannes
• Boys Go to Jupiter (2025) — referenced re: young filmmakers
• Pearl (2022) / X / MaXXXine — Ti West trilogy, referenced re: A24 sequels
• Talk to Me 2 — referenced re: A24 sequels
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) — André Øvredal
• The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) — André Øvredal
• Voyage of the Demeter (2023) — André Øvredal

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Mindframes Show Notes I Love Boosters (2026) — Episode 118

Directed by: Boots Riley Written by: Boots Riley Starring: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Demi Moore Cinematography: Natasha Braier Costume Design: Shirley Kurata Score: Tune-Yards Distributor: Neon IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30827810/

Episode Summary

In this episode of Mindframes, Michael and Dave discuss I Love Boosters (2026) — the sophomore feature from writer-director Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You). And they didn't just watch it: Boots Riley was at their screening, making this a particularly special episode.

The film follows the Velvet Gang, a crew of professional shoplifters — or "boosters" — led by Corvette (Keke Palmer), who steal high-end fashion and redistribute it to their community at affordable prices, calling it "fashion-forward philanthropy." Their target: Christie Smith (Demi Moore), a cutthroat fashion maven who has stolen Corvette's own designs and passed them off as her own.

Michael and Dave dig into Riley's political vision and whether the film preaches or persuades, Keke Palmer's career-best performance, the stunning visual craft from cinematographer Natasha Braier and costume designer Shirley Kurata, and the film's surrealist escalation into sci-fi territory. The spoiler section tackles the film's central question head-on: can style — and collective action — actually be a revolutionary act?

Michael gives the film 4 stars. Dave gives it 4.5 stars.

🧠 Thematic Discussion

I Love Boosters is a Robin Hood story on the surface, but underneath it's a film about who gets to own beauty, creativity, and style — and who gets locked out.

The villain Christie Smith isn't just a rich corporate tyrant. She's a creative thief: she literally steals Corvette's designs and passes them off as her vision. And the fashion brand Metro operates on the logic of planned obsolescence — last season's color is this season's shame — a system the film directly compares to Apple.

The boosters respond not by rejecting fashion, but by redistributing it. They love clothes. Corvette loves making things. The film argues that the problem isn't beauty or style — it's that the mechanisms of capitalism have turned both into instruments of exclusion and control.

By the end, it's collective action — not individual heroism — that carries the day. The Velvet Gang, workers inside the company, and protesters in China all have to come together. The teleportation device, Michael argues, is less a narrative shortcut and more a statement of hope: you never know how things are going to accelerate, so don't stop believing the impossible is possible. Maybe the film itself is the teleporter.

Dave's read: the whimsy isn't just sugar coating the medicine. The wonder is the medicine. Corvette doesn't become cynical. She keeps making art in a broken world. And that refusal to give up is the film's most radical argument.

⏱️ Timestamps Time Segment 00:00:19 Intro & film overview — premise, genre, first impressions 00:00:55 Director discussion — Boots Riley's career, Sorry to Bother You, I'm a Virgo; Riley's politics 00:10:01 "This is a very, very funny, weird movie" — pivoting from politics to the experience 00:11:10 Cast discussion — Keke Palmer as Corvette; the film's female-centered story 00:12:33 Supporting cast — Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, LaKeith Stanfield 00:14:26 Demi Moore — stunt casting or not? Christie Smith vs. The Substance 00:16:39 Cinematography — Natasha Braier, Zola, The Neon Demon, custom lenses, color palette 00:20:35 Production design — the tilting building, deliberate lo-fi effects, the chicken shack hideout 00:24:35 Costume design — Shirley Kurata (Everything Everywhere All at Once); fashion as political argument 00:29:36 ⭐ Spoiler-free reviews — Michael: 4 stars / Dave: 4.5 stars 00:41:49 ⚠️ SPOILER SECTION — comparison to One Battle After Another; Christie Smith vs. the "Trump surrogate" villain 00:44:38 Thematic deep dive — fashion as class warfare; planned obsolescence; Apple logic; Corvette's Robin Hood motive 00:46:40 Dave on physical media collecting — the empty fashion show of steel books and embossed slipcovers 00:53:05 The big reveal — Christie stole Corvette's design; creative extraction as the film's true villain 00:53:56 The teleportation machine — deus ex machina, or something else? China, collective struggle, worldwide solidarity 01:01:47 The ending — optimistic or bittersweet? Does Boots believe his own hope? 01:06:24 Closing thoughts & next episode tease ⭐ Ratings

Michael: 4 / 5 stars Funny, visually original, Keke Palmer is extraordinary. The third-act plot device lands awkwardly but the politics work because they're felt rather than lectured. Possibly gains a half star on rewatch.

Dave: 4.5 / 5 stars A better film than Sorry to Bother You in key ways. The whimsy is the point, not just the wrapper. The most important kind of film for right now.

🎞️ Films & Directors Mentioned

• Sorry to Bother You (2018) — Boots Riley
• I'm a Virgo (2023 series) — Boots Riley
• Zola (2020) — Janicza Bravo (also shot by Natasha Braier)
• The Neon Demon (2016) — Nicolas Winding Refn (also shot by Natasha Braier)
• Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) — costumes by Shirley Kurata
• The Substance (2024) — Coralie Fargeat (Demi Moore)
• Nope (2022) — Jordan Peele (Keke Palmer)
• One Battle After Another (2025) — compared/contrasted with Boosters on political filmmaking
• The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026) — mentioned as next episode consideration
• The Stranger (Camus adaptation) — mentioned as potential future episode
• Obsession — mentioned as potential future episode
• Caligula (1979) — brief tangent; Dave once interviewed Malcolm McDowell

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