We're taking a look at the dawn of the SPUMC as we dig into the romance of Venom!

Join in as we discuss Tom Hardy's double performance, the lobster tank scene, The Brock Report, and surprise good guy performance by Reid Scott.

Plus: How do these Sony movies connect to Spider-Man? Why didn't Riz Ahmed get to use his British accent? And how does Sony keep tricking people into thinking they're joining the MCU by being in these movies?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Elektra (2005)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe (2012)
• "Tom Hardy Says His Son's Love for Venom is Why He Took the Role" (Variety)
• "How Sony Learned to Cede Control to Marvel on Spider-Man: Homecoming" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "Even After Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web, Sony's Marvel Movies aren't Dead" (Variety)
• "Tom Hardy Came up with the Best Scene in Venom on the Spot" (Polygon)
• "The History of Unmade Venom Movies" (ComicBook.com)
• "The Spider-Man 4 that Never Was" (Collider)
• "Sony Sets Spider-Man Spinoffs Venom, Sinister Six with New Franchise 'Brain Trust'" (Deadline)
• "SPUMC?" (Gizmodo)
• "The Post-Disaster Artist" (Polygon)

To herald the release of Fantastic Four: First Steps, we're starting the second half of our Summer of Superheroes with a look at the romance of 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer!

Join in as we discuss the history of FF adaptations, the challenge of writing a super-genius, the flattening of Sue Storm, and our favorite movies of 2025 so far.

Plus: Why are adaptations so scared of Dr. Doom? Why is Galactus a cloud in this movie? What is Doom's plan with the silver surfboard? And how did this movie's promotional campaign break federal law?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Venom (2018)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzalez, and Gavin Edwards (2023)
• All of the Marvels by Douglas Wolk (2021)
• "Inside Move: Surfer May Board Four" (Variety)
• "2007 Preview: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (Wizard Universe)
• "Fantastic Four 2 Set Footage and Comments" (SuperHeroHype)
• "Fishburne Voices Surfer" (Variety)
• "US Mint: Silver Surfer Coin is Breaking the Law" (Fox News)
• "The Fantastic Four Movie You'll Never See" (Wired)
• "A Mania for Marvel" (Variety)
• "Down with Love's Reed Won't Do Fantastic Four" (Entertainment Weekly)
• "Fantastic Four Almost Made Jessica Alba Quit Acting" (PopEater)
• "The Hundred Best Movies of the Twenty-First Century" (New York Times)

We're celebrating our 400th episode with a look at the biggest 400 in cinema, Francois Truffaut's 1959 French New Wave classic, The 400 Blows!

Join in as we discuss the New Wave's place in cinema history, Antoine Doinel's poor fire safety, his conspicuous lack of siblings, and engage in a cinemabration of eight years of podcasting.

Plus: How closely does the film map onto Truffaut's life? What does the title actually mean? Which school subjects are worth learning? And, most importantly, what's the difference between 2017 and 2018?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• "Movie Poster of the Week: Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows" (MUBI)
• "The 400 Blows: Close to Home" (Criterion)
• "The Emoji Movie was the First Film to Publicly Screen in Saudi Arabia after 35-Year Cinema Ban" (IndieWire)
• "Mike White Confronts Rob Cesternino over Emoji Movie" (All Winners Survivor on YouTube)
• "Christopher Nolan Took his Kids to See Phantom Thread and Now They Call Him 'Woodcock' When He's Being Mean" (IndieWire)
• The 2022 Sight & Sound lists

Our Summer of Superheroes reaches its climax with arguably the most important movie in the genre's history: Richard Donner's 1978 film Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and a firmly on-book Marlon Brando.

Join in as we discuss the geophysics of Lex Luthor's evil plot, the other attempts to put Superman in cinemas, the nearly two-year shoot, and our favorite real estate schemes.

Plus: What ideas did Brando have to reduce his workload? Did Donner have a phone in his bathroom? What was the original plan for the time travel finale? And, most importantly, is Clark Kent more super or more man?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: The 400 Blows (1959)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• Which Lie Did I Tell? More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman (2000)
• The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon (2016)
• Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru (2019)
• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
• Taking Flight: The Development of Superman (2001)
• Making Superman: Filming the Legend (2001)
• Roger Ebert's four-star review of Superman (1978)
• "The Making of Superman" (EMPIRE Magazine)
• Interview with Producer Ilya Salkind by Barry M. Frieman for SupermanHomePage.com
• "Nick Nolte Doesn't Care about Legacy, and Talks Julia Roberts Feud" (Insider)
• "The Superman Story that Set the Ku Klux Klan Back Years is Now a Comic" (Polygon)

We're taking a look at one of the most-maligned superhero movies of the twenty-first century: Martin Campbell's 2011 adaptation of Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.

Join in as we discuss good and bad superhero costumes, the many attempts to adapt this character for film, the dead-on-arrival post-credits scene, and the Reynolds-Lively relationship timeline.

Plus: Does this movie need a Bill Pullman? Why are there xenobiologists? Should Parallax be a guy? And, most importantly, is this movie as bad as its reputation?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Superman (1978)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• "Jack Black Green with Envy over New Lantern" (MTV Movies Blog)
• David Goyer interview with MovieHole.net
• "The Closer Star Wants to Pitch Green Lantern Film" (Newsarama)
• "Marc Guggenheim Drops the Comics that Inspire Green Lantern's Screen Debut" (Splash Page)
• "TV Producer of the Year Greg Berlanti: 'I Still Fight about Everything'" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "Update: Justin Timberlake, Ryan Reynolds, or Bradley Cooper will Star in Green Lantern" (Collider)
• "Ryan Reynolds on his Deadpool Obsession, Meeting Blake Lively, and His New Film, Life" (GQ)
• "Warner Bros.' Green Lantern Marketing Campaign Delayed by Special Effects Work" (LA Times)
• "First Look at the Green Lantern Script" (IESB.net)
• "Warner Bros. Announces 10 DC Movies, Including Wonder Woman" (EW)
• "Bradley Cooper on His Green Lantern Audition" (MTV)
• "Avengers: Doomsday Cast Announced in Marvel Livestream" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Apologize for Plantation Wedding" (NBC News)

The Summer of Superheroes continues as we look at Ivan Reitman's 2006 superpowered rom com My Super Ex-Girlfriend, starring Luke Wilson, Uma Thurman, and Anna Faris!

Join in as we discuss secret identities, the official hierarchy of hair colors, the movie's abysmal gender politics, and the best way to remove a splinter.

Plus: How long has G-Girl been active? Can anyone at this architecture firm speak Mandarin? Does Emma Frost secretly wear crocs? And is this movie somehow pro-sexual harassment?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Green Lantern (2011)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• "A Dream Finally Takes Flight" (LA Times)
• "Regency, Pariah, Sign the 'Ex' for Laffer" (Variety)
• "Anna Faris Says Ivan Reitman 'Humiliated' and 'Slapped' Her on Set" (Vulture)
• "Rainn Wilson on Super and The Office without Steve Carrell" (Vulture)
• "AMC Says It Will Show More Ads before Movies" (New York Times)
• "M&Ms Puts Spokescandies on 'Indefinite Pause' in Wake of Uproar Over Changes to Green M&M" (CBS News)

We're kicking off our summer of superheroes with one of the first theatrical superhero movies: the 1966 Batman movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward!

Join in as we discuss the development of the TV show, the film's relationship to camp, Batman's detective work, and the state of modern superhero cinema.

Plus: Why is this Batman movie set entirely during daylight hours? Why did Burt Ward do almost all of his own stunts? Does Batman work for the government? Can Marc name the Thunderbolts? And, most importantly, who is the most dateable Batman?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise ofNerd Culture by Glen Weldon (2016)

• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hadju (2009)
• "Batman" (Museum of Broadcast Communications)
• "Adam West: Behind the Mask" (The Independent)
• "Batman" (AFI Catalog)
• "Original Design for the Leader in Captain America: Brave New World Revealed" (IGN)
• "Captain America: Brave New World Leader Merchandise Looks Nothing Like the Character in the Movie" (ScreenCrush)\
• "The Comic Artists Who Inspired Roy Lichtenstein Aren't Too Thrilled About It" (Smithsonian Magazine)

We're closing out our D.C. Onscreen series with a look at the interwoven affairs of the 2008 Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading!

Join in as we discuss our favorite Coen Brothers movies, the perplexed reception the film got from critics, and possibly the worst street in all of D.C.

Plus: What's the best blind date spot in D.C.? Is anyone in this movie not an idiot? Does 2008 comedy sensation Tropic Thunder hold up? And, most importantly, what's the worst picture book in the current market?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Batman (1966)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• 2008 interview with Joel and Ethan Coen at TIFF (SpoutBlog)
• Composer Carter Burwell's notes on the Burn After Reading score
• "Coens Dumb it Down with Burn" (USA Today)
• "Venice Opens with Pitt and Clooney in Madcap Comedy" (Reuters)
• "Movie Preview: Burn After Reading" (EW)
• "Jeremy Renner Turned Down Hawkeye Season 2 Because He Was Offered 'Half' His Season 1 Salary: 'Did You Think I'm Half the Jeremy Renner Because I Got Run Over?'" (Variety)
• "Tropic Thunder R-Word Use Draws Ire" (CBS News)

Hollywood couldn't figure out how to sell a historical fiction political comedy about teenagers set twenty-five years in the past, but we're big fans of Andrew Fleming's 1999 film Dick and we're here to talk about it!

Join in as we discuss teenage celebrity crushes, child stardom, an odd choice for weed storage, and a deep cast of sketch performers.

Plus: Why does Nixon White House Counsel John Dean have a "special thanks" in the credits? Why is the New York Times review so fixated on connecting this movie to Monica Lewinsky? And, most importantly, why does this dog look nothing like Checkers??

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Burn After Reading (2008)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• Stephen Holden's review in the New York Times
• Michael O'Sullivan's review in the Washington Post
• "Generation X's Tricky Dick" (Washington Post)
• "Dick Director on the Challenges of Making a Watergate Comedy and Whether it Could be Done Today" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "9 Things You Never Really Knew about Dick" (Huffington Post)
• "Dick at 25: The Watergate Satire's Writer and Director on Putting Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst in Nixon's White House" (IndieWire)
• "Michelle Williams Bares All for Her Art" (Entertainment Weekly)
• "Michelle Williams, Naked Angel" (Paper Magazine)
• "Some Like Her Hot" (2012 GQ cover story on Michelle Williams)
• "How Did Two Elite Students Fall for the Zizians Cult?" (The Cut)
• "Stalkers, Disease, and Doubt: A Gymnast's Hard Road Back to the Games" (New York Times piece on Suni Lee's adjustment to fame and adult life)
• Dear Hollywood - Alyson Stoner's podcast on child acting
• "Jason Bateman" (Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend)
• "The Reveal of Emo Kylo Ren's Parentage is Tearing Twitter Apart" (AV Club)
• "The Story of the Really Weird Night Richard Nixon Hung out with Hippies at the Lincoln Memorial" (Washingtonian Magazine)

Our D.C. Onscreen series takes us to Georgetown as we look at the reincarnation romance of Emile Ardolino's 1989 film Chances Are!

Join in as we discuss our favorite afterlife bureaucracies, Yale's draconian library fees, and the performances by Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan O'Neal, and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Plus: Why didn't the mobster just kill Louie (Christopher Macdonald)? Has Alex (Downey) ever been to a doctor? How long does Corinne (Shepherd) leave out food for her dead husband? And, most importantly, what should you do with baby teeth?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next episode: Dick (1999)

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Key sources and links for this episode:

• Desson Howe's review in the Washington Post
• Rita Kempley's review in the Washington Post
• Roger Ebert's 3.5-star review
• Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times
• "Movie Motors: Four-Wheeled Actors Set the Scene in these D.C. Films" (Washington Post)
• "Inside Anthony Michael Hall's Relationship with Robert Downey Jr." (The List)