Seeing and Believing

The Matrix has you (again) Neo...

Lana Wachowski, Keanu Reeves, and Carrie-Anne Moss return to the Matrix franchise for a remix of a beloved story. But does the remix work? Kevin discusses with Sarah Welch-Larson. Plus, an exciting announcement about the future of the podcast!

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Kevin and critic/author Sarah Welch-Larson reconvene to discuss their favorite movies of 2021. Along the way, they contemplate the state of the movie industry and of criticism at the end of a very strange year.

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Seeing & Believing sends 2021 out with a bang by reviewing one of the biggest movie musicals of all time, remade by one of the biggest American directors of all time. Kevin is joined once again by Sarah Welch-Larson to talk about the new version of West Side Story, releasing 50 years after the original film brought the Sondheim/Bernstein/Laurents stage musical to the big screen. Steven Spielberg—at long last getting to fulfill his dream of directing a musical—has some new tricks on this go-round to make the story his own; Kevin and Sarah explore how successful he is. Get ready to rumble!

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Kevin is joined this week by critic/author Sarah Welch-Larson to chat about a film that is on both of their most-anticipated lists for the year: Mike Mills's C'mon C'mon. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as a radio journalist who finds himself unexpectedly charged with taking care of his precocious nephew (Woody Norman) when the mother has an unexpected emergency. Naturally, life lessons are learned and Phoenix and Norman have the chance to turn in some interesting performances, but how interesting are the results? Kevin and Sarah discuss!

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How do you imprint a memory onto celluloid? Kenneth Branagh attempts to answer that question with his latest film, Belfast, based on his own memories of growing up as a young boy during the Troubles in 1960s Northern Ireland. Kevin is joined once again by Chris Williams of We're Watching Here to examine whether Branagh succeeds. Together they discuss the performances from heavyweights like Judy Dench and Ciaran Hinds, the black-and-white cinematography, and the religious undercurrents of the film's conflict. Are the Oscar aspirations for Belfast justified?

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Put on your dapper clothes and be seated in the geometrically perfect room of your choice, because we're looking at a Wes Anderson film this week! Delayed due to COVID, Anderson's The French Dispatch is finally enjoying its theatrical release, and Kevin is joined by See/Hear Brother cohost and critic Joshua Wilson to talk about it. Framed as a series of stories in a fictional magazine modeled after The New Yorker, Anderson's latest explores art's place in our lives as it revels in the visually striking compositions that have come to define Anderson's aesthetic. Kevin and Joshua take a look to see how it fits into Anderson's career as a whole. Don't miss it!

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Halloween is receding into the mists of the past, but it's never too late to enjoy a spooky movie, and this week's episode offers a doozy: Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho. Thomasin Mackenzie (Leave No Trace, Jojo Rabbit) stars as a young woman nostalgic for the bygone era of the 1960s, who allows herself to be transported in her dreams back to that time only to find that the past has its share of darkness and horror. Allow yourself to be transported back into spooky season this week, as Kevin is joined by film critic Chris Williams to chat about Wright's foray into straight-faced genre filmmaking and what it has to say about violence, gender, and nostalgia!

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After myriad COVID-related delays, it's finally here: the long-awaited adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi opus, Dune. Director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) returns once again to the sci-fi genre with this new film starring Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, and Rebecca Ferguson as the leaders of House Atreides, the noble house that vows to tame the desert planet of Arrakis and control the most valuable natural resource in the galaxy. If that sounds complicated, buckle up, as Villeneuve has his work cut out for him in adapting Herbert's famously dense epic. Is the final product worth the wait, or is it the real mind-killer? Listen to find out!

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takes some time out to review another Patron Pick, the newly released indie drama Mass. The Cabin in the Woods star Fran Kranz makes his writing and directing debut with this film, which takes place almost entirely inside a single room in a small community church. As four grieving parents sit down in this room to sift through the wreckage left behind by a tragedy that affected them all, the film explores themes of grief, forgiveness, and the struggle to find meaning in the midst of pain and evil. Kevin is joined by special guest Steve Norton of Screenfish to sort through the questions raised by this modest film and discuss whether it will be counted among this year's best films.

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