Thank God For Movies

This week on the podcast, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton have a seat with Primetime, Lance Oppenheim’s unsettling narrative feature debut about To Catch a Predator's Chris Hansen. Robert Pattinson stars as a heavily fictionalized Hansen alongside Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Anna Faris, and an impressive ensemble. We discuss our own thoughts on the film and get into some of the critical and audience consensus building since its release this past weekend. And we finish off the show with a look ahead at some movies we hope to cover next.

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton dive headfirst into Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey! We unpack why it's so quickly become the theatrical event of the year and what its massive box office success says about the future of blockbuster filmmaking. Then we discuss Nolan’s evolution from The Dark Knight through Oppenheimer and why audiences continue to show up for original event movies. Plus, does The Odyssey represent a turning point for studios chasing spectacle instead of disposable content?

We also kick things off by examining the summer box office so far. Including Toy Story 5, Backrooms, Obsession, Supergirl, The Mandalorian & Grogu, and more. And longtime listeners will certainly hear a couple of familiar voices at the very beginning of the episode...

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Cobb and Cooper Horse Around
• 00:03:15 – Intro & Box office talk
• 00:22:15 – Review: The Odyssey

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Thank God for Movies, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton catch up on a packed stretch of the 2026 summer movie season with reviews of Toy Story 5, The Furious, and Disclosure Day. But first, we run through the state of the box office, from the live-action Moana stumbling out of the gate to Evil Dead Burn, The Invite, Minions and Monsters, Supergirl, Jackass: Best and Last, Girls Like Girls, The Death of Robin Hood, and Leviticus.

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Intro: New movies on our radar, plus a summer box office breakdown!
• 00:31:30 – Review: Toy Story 5
• 00:50:25 – Review: The Furious
• 01:05:20 – Review: Disclosure Day

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this bonus episode of Thank God for Movies, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton reunite to review the new Scary Movie! It's the long-awaited return of the spoof franchise that helped define early-2000s parody comedy, of course. With the Wayans brothers back, Anna Faris returning as Cindy Campbell, Regina Hall back as Brenda Meeks, and a whole new batch of horror movies to reference, the question is simple. Does Scary Movie (2026) revive the franchise, or just remind us why this kind of comedy disappeared?

Jon and Will dig into why the movie’s “no safe spaces” marketing feels more like a hollow grift than an actual comic philosophy, how its jokes stack up against the earlier Scary Movie films, and why Scary Movie 3 might still be the franchise’s high point. We also talk about the difference between real parody and simply naming recent movies, from Scream (2022), Halloween, M3GAN, Longlegs, The Substance, Get Out, Weapons, Sinners, Nosferatu, and KPop Demon Hunters to the missed opportunity of satirizing elevated horror, A24 dread, and modern “requel” culture.

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Intro: New movies on our radar
• 00:11:20 – Review: Scary Movie (2026)

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Thank God for Movies, special guest Brogan Luke Bouwhuis joins the show with Jon Negroni! Brogan is an InBetweenDrafts film writer, film programmer, and co-host of Franchise Fiends. And he's here to talk about Masters of the Universe, the 2026 live-action He-Man reboot starring Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Alison Brie, and Jared Leto as Skeletor.

With Will Ashton sitting this one out due to what can only be described as a dark personal history with Eternia, we dig into why this long-delayed Mattel blockbuster feels stranded between decades. In fact, we discuss the movie’s troubled development history, Travis Knight’s role as director, the odd timing of He-Man nostalgia, and why a film based on such a knowingly silly toy-line mythology keeps apologizing for being a Masters of the Universe movie.

Lastly, check out Jon's review of Masters of the Universe here, Brogan's review here, and Brogan's piece about Mattel blockbusters here.

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Intro: Welcoming back Brogan!
• 00:05:40 – Review: Masters of the Universe (2026)

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Thank God for Movies, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton dive into Backrooms, the surprise A24 horror sensation from 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons. But first, we unpack the bigger story around the movie... How have Backrooms and Obsession, two low-budget horror films from extremely young directors, been outpacing Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu? Are they signaling a possible shift in what younger moviegoers actually want from theaters?

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Intro: A new horror film wave?!
• 00:16:25 – Review: Backrooms

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this bonus episode of Thank God for Movies, Jon Negroni welcomes back longtime friend of the show Cory Woodroof, writer for For the Win/USA Today. And yes, this is Cory's first appearance since our TGFM rebrand! The mission: unpack Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, Disney’s big-screen continuation of the Disney+ series and the first theatrical Star Wars movie in seven years.

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Summer Movie Preview
• 00:09:05 – Review: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Jon Negroni and Will Ashton review two new films: Curry Barker's 'Obsession' and Sophy Romvari's 'Blue Heron.'

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Intro
• 00:04:45 – Have you seen it: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, I Love Boosters, Passenger, Tuner, Corporate Retreat, Saccharine, In the Grey, Is God Is, The Wizard of the Kremlin, Mortal Kombat II, Silent Friend, The Sheep Detectives, Billie Elish: Hit Me Hard and Soft.
• 00:25:45 – Review: Obsession
• 00:58:40 – Review: Blue Heron

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a longer-than-usual break, Jon and Will return with a catch-up episode on The Devil Wears Prada 2, plus a wide-ranging conversation about the strange state of the summer movie season and what we've missed lately, from studio blockbusters and horror releases to indie films that may have slipped through the cracks.

SHOW NOTES:

• 00:00:00 – Have you seen it: Hokum, Michael, Animal Farm, Deep Water, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure, RZA's One Spoon of Chocolate, Our Hero Balthazar, Lee Cronin's The Mummy, Desert Warrior, Over Your Dead Body, Normal
• 00:35:45 – Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon and Will dive into Pixar’s Hoppers, a funny, weird, surprisingly dark original that feels like a real test case for the studio’s future beyond sequels. They talk Bobby Moynihan stealing the movie, Jon Hamm’s silly-guy energy, Pixar’s recent slump, and whether Hoppers is a true return to form or just a charming anomaly. Also in this episode: Film Roulette, the naming of the new show logo mascot, and a brief but inevitable detour into Pixar Theory.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00 – Intro: Winner of our logo competition
• 00:07:05 – Film Roulette: Wuthering Heights, 10 Things I Hate About You, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, Joe's College Road Trip, The Lost Bus, Pillion, A Mighty Win (2003), Retirement Plan, Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie
• 00:17:15 – Review: Hoppers

LINKS:

• Email your feedback for the show to cinemaholicspodcast [at] gmail.com
• Join our Discord and chat with us! We have a TGFM channel here.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.