Today on the site, we're running one of our most ambitious Dissolve Canon lists to date, The 50 Most Daring Film Roles For Women Since Ripley. The process behind making the list was unusual: On this week's podcast, we go behind the scenes to talk about our rationale for the list, the balances we were hoping to strike, and what constitutes a “daring role.” Then we reveal our uncomfortable viewing experiences, supplemented by some great stories from listeners via voicemail, email, and Twitter. The game this week, inspired by the hero dog movie Max—which will no doubt inspire us right back—tests our panelists' knowledge of dog movies, from the Benji vehicle that ignited one of Siskel and Ebert's most famous blow-ups to the actors that took over the Beethoven series after Charles Grodin departed. Then Tasha and Genevieve throw down in our quick-fire recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.

This week, the vocal online dubiousness about Crystal Moselle’s debut feature documentary The Wolfpack started us talking about the difference between cynicism and skepticism, how both reactions help us select and react to movies, and when they become problems. Then the latest iteration of the “character suddenly smashed by an unexpected vehicle” trope has us discussing our least and most favorite movie tropes, from characters who inexplicably have sex while wearing underwear to the various proper reactions to massive explosions. Our game this week dredges up some of the lesser dinosaurs of filmdom, pre-Jurassic Park, and we wrap it up with an unusually polished edition of 30 Seconds To Sell. On our next podcast, we’re going to talk about uncomfortable viewing experiences. If you have any you’d like to share, leave us a message at 773-234-9730 or write us an email at [email protected] Time codes Segment 1: Cynicism vs. skepticism (00:46) Segment 2: Good tropes vs. bad tropes (15:22) Segment 3: I’m Dino-sorry Game (36:44) Segment 4: 30 Seconds To Sell (58:01)    

Two different kinds of disaster movies enter theaters this week: San Andreas, which imagines the long-dreaded earthquake that will turn California to rubble, and Aloha, a Cameron Crowe project that’s been hobbled by bad buzz and low expectations. On this week’s podcast, we example our strange attraction to disaster movies. What do we find so entertaining about plausible mass catastrophe? We also explore the rise and fall of Crowe’s reputation, which has hit the skids since Elizabethtown and shows no signs of turning around. The game this week is “Double Vision,” featuring the long-promised duo of Sliver and Jade, two hard-to-distinguish (and, apparently, to hard-to-pronounce) sexy thrillers written by Basic Instinct scribe Joe Eszterhas. Then we wrap it up with our quickfire recommendation segment 30 Seconds To Sell. 

This week, the guy puttin' on the dots and prancin' around with us is Chicago critic and podcaster Josh Larsen, of Larsen On Film and the Filmspotting podcast and NPR show. He dropped by our office to talk about how much action movies have evolved between George Miller's 1979 film debut Mad Max and Miller's startling new sequel Mad Max: Fury Road, for better and for worse. Josh re-watched the first two Mad Max films to prep for the new one, which prompted our second segment, on how films play differently for us a second, third, or umpteenth time, especially with years or even decades between repeat viewings. Pitch Perfect 2 gives us a perfect excuse to bust out a cappella versions of some famous movie themes for our game segment, and then we find out how much home-team advantage counts in our competitive recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell. To hear the full versions of the a cappella songs in this week’s game, head over to our YouTube playlist. Time Codes Segment 1: Action movie craft (01:06) Segment 2: Rewatching movies (19:40) Segment 3: Mmmmmovie themes game (36:33) Segment 4: 30 Seconds To Sell (51:48)  

Bees’ll buzz and kids’ll blow dandelion fuzz, and we’ll be doing whatever cinephiles do in summer. (Going to the movies, in an air-conditioned theater.) With The Avengers: Age Of Ultron kicking off the summer movie season in earnest, this week’s podcast is entirely devoted to the subject, starting with three Dissolvers presenting their case for the best summer movie year ever. Then we invite special guest Oliver Sava into the studio to talk about how the rise of comic-book movies has affected the trajectory of popular comics, for better or worse. The good news for contestants in this episode’s game: The word “summer” is correct in any answer; bad news: The words around it keep changing. And we wrap it up as always with our recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.  Time Codes Segment 1: Best blockbuster summer (01:06) Segment 2: Comics/movies symbiosis (17:02) Segment 3: Endless summer game (34:01) Segment 4: 30 Seconds To Sell (39:21)

 Given that you’re almost certainly accessing this website and this podcast with some form of complimacated electronic whosis, you probably don’t think technology is an unremitting, soulless terror that’s out to end humanity. But that’s the attitude of a lot of the technophobia films we discuss in this week’s podcast, in honor of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina and its queasy look at artificial intelligence, and Unfriended’s spooooky version of online socializing. Our reconsiderations of Kristen Stewart and Vin Diesel opened a conversation about career zigzags for unpredictable actors, specifically zigzags we like. Then we playtest the hot-off-the-presses movie party game Double Feature, co-designed and illustrated by indie-game superstar John Kovalic. And we wrap by finding a way to mechanize 30 Seconds To Sell—at the risk of humanity’s safety, but in the interest of pleasing our eventual computer overlords.

Hollywood is in love with sequels and franchises, but what happens when those sequels start to approach double digits and beyond? With Furious 7 looking certain to carry that series forward indefinitely, we look at how long-running franchises have tried to keep things fresh, deal with a pile-on of mythology, and satisfy different generations of moviegoers. Dick Miller has been satisfying generations of cinephiles for decades as a character actor, and the release of That Guy Dick Miller gives us the chance to talk about our favorite “that guy” and “that gal” actors. The game this week, “Vin-spiration,” explores the amusingly thin line between Vin Diesel the actor and Vin Diesel the armchair philosopher. And we wrap it up with a fierce battle for 30 Seconds To Sell supremacy.  Time Codes Segment 1: Long-running franchises (00:47) Segment 2: “That Guy” actors (17:20) Segment 3: Vin-spiration Game (31:25) Segment 4: 30 Seconds To Sell (36:46)

This week's podcast does a lot of “checking in on the state of”: A special guest, sci-fi (and sci-sci) fan Chris Klimek, joins us to check in on the state of science-fiction movies in the wake of a long string of box-office failures for anything not connected to a franchise, a YA novel, or a superhero. Noel and Scott return from the True/False festival with thoughts on the state of documentaries and non-fiction cinema. After that—spoiler alert!—we play a game called Spoiler Alert, where panelists try to identify movies from spoiler loglines. And we wrap by trying to take the personal back out of 30 Seconds To Sell. Time Codes Segment 1: State of science-fiction (00:47) Segment 2: True/False and documentary filmmaking (18:40) Segment 3: Spoiler Alert Game (34:55) Segment 4: 30 Seconds To Sell (42:25)

AARP members (or the old at heart): This is the podcast episode for you. Former he-seems-like-a-nice-young-man Will Smith is now dealing with his mid-40s the same way many aging stars have in the past: By pairing up with an on-screen partner (Margot Robbie in Focus) two decades his junior. In our first segment, we wonder how the man who once owned the July 4th holiday will survive in Hollywood now that he can no longer trade on his youth. From there, we make a smooth transition into “senior cinema,” and consider the ways independents and studios are appealing to Baby Boomers with films like The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The game this week is inspired by A.O. Scott’s pithy ratings descriptions, and we wrap it up with a fiercely contested 30 Seconds To Sell.  Time codes: Segment 1: Will Smith (01:06) Segment 2: Senior Cinema (17:20) Segment 3: MPA.O. Scott Game (33:27) Segment 4: 30 Seconds to Sell (40:35)

Still hungover after Oscar night, The Dissolve staff gathered in the Chicago studio for this special podcast mini-episode about a dramatic and fascinating ceremony—even if the evening didn’t end the way we’d hoped. Topics on the table include Neil Patrick Harris’ struggles as host, the activist bent of the speeches, the engaging musical numbers, and odd, meme-able moments galore. We also come to terms with the fact that many people outside the office appear to like the movie Birdman.