This week on the Sordid Cinema podcast we discuss Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, a thought-provoking, albeit disturbing vision that may be too unwieldy for mainstream tastes. mother! is everything we should expect from a good horror film, a film that gets a rise out of you and makes your palms sweat – your hands tightly grip onto the armrest – your eyes widen and your jaw drop. It’s a film that grabs your attention and dares you not to look away. mother! does all that and more – it offers the WTF disbelief and while we wouldn’t call it Aronofsky’s best movie, it sure left an impression.

There just aren’t enough movies about crazy killer clowns these days, so it’s with open arms that we welcome Pennywise back onto the screen. He’s grown up a bit, as this latest adaptation of Stephen King’s IT is the first to release theatrically, but not a step has been lost in the process when it comes to terrorizing dorky kids. This week Simon, Rick, and Patrick immerse themselves in a frightening world of town curses, freaky paintings, New Kids on the Block, and tighty whities. How does the new version of IT compare to the 1990 miniseries? Who’s the coolest Loser in the Loser’s Club? Is that one scene from the book really unfilmable? And most importantly, will IT make audiences remember what it’s like to be afraid of slide projectors?

This week on the Sordid Cinema podcast, Thomas O’Connor joins Patrick Murphy and Simon Howell to discuss Steven Soderbergh's out-of-retirement heist flick, Logan Lucky. In the second half of the show, we dig into M. Night Shyamalan’s Split.

This week on the Sordid Cinema podcast, Victor Stiff joins Ricky, Patrick, and Simon to discuss Good Time and Atomic Blonde.

This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, Rick, Patrick and special guest Thomas O'Connor sit down to discuss the best films of the Fantasia Film Festival. 

This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, Simon and Patrick are once again joined by guest Bill Mesce, author of The Rules of Screenwriting, to discuss Christopher Nolan’s latest experiment in complex timelines and blockbuster filmmaking, Dunkirk. This war film is of a different ilk, ditching narrative for a more sensory experience. While at least one of us absolutely gushed over the virtuoso filmmaking, perhaps others weren’t so enthralled by yet another Nolan puzzle box. Join us as we muse over the poetic style, debate the intrusiveness of the unconventional structure, compare Dunkirk with Nolan’s own repertoire as well as past war films, and wonder whether the writer-director could have pushed the limits of big-budget movies still further. For all this and more, have a listen!

This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, Simon, Patrick and guest Molly Faust review Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. 

This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we review War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, directed by Matt Reeves. Some of us believe this is the best summer blockbuster in years, a smart, thoughtful, confrontational war pic. A few of us, however, believe the film is burdened by a problematic screenplay. Joining us to discuss the latest installment in the Planet of the Apes series is former co-host Edgar Chaput of Cut Print Film, who recently wrote an epic retrospective of the franchise which you can find here. Also joining us is our former colleague Bill Mesce, author of The Rules of Screenwriting, an insider’s look at the craft and business of screenwriting that explores some of the popular myths while demonstrating how little relevance these rules have to actual filmmaking. All this and more.

Coming after three spectacular films directed by Sam Raimi, and two disappointing films directed by Marc Webb, director John Watts (Cop Car) takes a stab at bringing everyone’s favourite Marvel character back to the big screen one more time. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this new solo outing is what our friendly neighborhood web-slinger deserves or is just another by-the-numbers superhero film? Joining us this week to discuss Spider-Man: Homecoming is Goomba Stomp’s Xbox Editor, Tim Maison.

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Like every Edgar Wright movie, the director’s sixth feature, Baby Driver, takes a wild concept and turns it into a brilliant exercise in high style. This time around, the director’s latest film is a wildly successful romantic-heist-musical-comedy, propelled from scene to scene with a lively soundtrack. One thing Baby Driver has going for it is its crowd-pleasing ability. Yes, folks, Baby Driver has it all: thrills, romance, suspense, dark comedy, nonstop action, a killer soundtrack and a star-making performance from Ansel Elgort. The question is, do we all like it? This week special guest Josh Slater-Williams joins us to discuss Wright’s most ambitious work to date as well as his recent interview with Wright himself. All this and more.