Stay Through the Credits

We’re leaving the Venice Film Festival with sore feet, full hearts, and 37 films under our belts. In this episode, we break down our final rankings, share our predictions ahead of Saturday’s awards, and talk about the biggest surprises, snubs, and standing ovations. Next stop: Toronto.

We’ve hit film #33 at Venice — and it shook us to the core. Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite is a nerve-shredding, real-time nuclear thriller with Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, and Jared Harris caught in a countdown to potential annihilation. We unpack the chaos, the chilling realism, and why this might be Bigelow’s most urgent film yet.

In our 32nd Venice Film Festival watch, we dive into François Ozon’s hauntingly stylish adaptation of The Stranger. We talk Benjamin Voisin’s icy performance, the film’s lush black-and-white visuals, and how Ozon reframes Camus’ existential classic through a post-colonial lens. Is this version strange enough? Let’s get into it.

In our 30th film from the Venice Film Festival, we dive into The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie’s intimate MMA biopic starring a stripped-down, career-best Dwayne Johnson. Forget The Rock — this is raw, emotional, and unexpectedly tender. We unpack the film’s surprising softness, Emily Blunt’s standout performance, and how Safdie flips the sports genre on its head.

Our 29th film at Venice is a divine surprise: The Testament of Ann Lee, Mona Fastvold’s rapturous, quasi-musical epic starring Amanda Seyfried as a singing, dancing, soul-searching female Christ figure. We break down this bold vision of faith, feminism, and collective purpose — and why it might just be the most ecstatic film of the festival.

In our 24th film from Venice, we dive into Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother — a triptych of tender, fractured family stories told in the quietest tones. From Tom Waits as a reclusive dad to Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps navigating maternal distance, this episode explores how Jarmusch turns silence into poetry. No fireworks, just slow cinema that cuts deep.

Our 23rd film at Venice is Olivier Assayas’ cold and cerebral take on modern Russian power. We unpack The Wizard of the Kremlin, starring Paul Dano as Putin’s fictional spin doctor — a slow-burn descent into political manipulation, media control, and the quiet banality of evil.

In our 18th film at Venice, we dive into Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Frankenstein. A haunting, gorgeous reimagining of the classic tale, this version trades jump scares for deep emotion. We unpack Oscar Isaac’s unhinged Victor, Jacob Elordi’s heartbreaking Creature, and how del Toro turns a horror icon into a story about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be human.

Film #17 at Venice takes a softer turn — we dive into Late Fame, a gently devastating drama about lost potential, identity, and aging in a world obsessed with reinvention. Willem Dafoe is quietly brilliant. Let’s talk about it.

Film #12 at Venice is a brutal banger. We dive into No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook’s darkly hilarious capitalism thriller about a laid-off paper man who literally kills for a job. Violent, absurd, and painfully relatable — this one's got bite. Listen now. Link in bio.