Spoilerpiece Theatre

On this week’s show, Megan and Dave watched SPEAK NO EVIL (2:29), writer-director James Watkins’ remake of the Danish film from 2022. As with many non-American horror films remade for American audiences, the new SPEAK NO EVIL leaves the original’s first two-thirds relatively unchanged and then kicks the last third in the ass, replacing it with a watered down ending that, while not entirely stupid, ain’t exactly aces. (That being said, the Danish original is extreme. Take a listen to our reactions to it here.) So while we weren’t enamored of this new version, we think leads Mackenzie Davis and James McAvoy (at 100 percent) do excellent work, and the changes do have a few good moments sprinkled in. (And Megan likes Aisling Franciosi’s performance, too.) Then we talk about SEEKING MAVIS BEACON, a documentary by director Jazmin Jones about her attempts, along with producer Olivia McKayla Ross, to find Renée L'Esperance, the Haitian (and original) model for the software program Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. We had varied reactions, with Dave being more forgiving (!!) than Megan and Evan, who feel the film is dragged down by its pacing and all the problems that can come with uneven editing. Over on Patreon, we watched another movie that has a big twist: PRIMAL FEAR with Richard Gere, Laura Linney, and Edward Norton. It was a first-time watch for Evan, and we have fun talking about how the ending and wheether it holds up 28 years later.

It's a big week! Tim Burton's long-awaited BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (2:08) finally arrives after its thirty-six-year gestation — Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara reprise their roles, and Jenna Ortega co-stars — and does it live up to the praise being heaped upon it? Megan lets you know! Next, we all saw HIS THREE DAUGHTERS (18:42), Azazel Jacobs' family drama about three sisters (Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne) grappling with their father's imminent demise. This flick is getting raves, but not from us. Finally, Megan and Dave watched MERCHANT IVORY (39:31), Stephen Soucy's documentary about the legendary director-producer team of James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, partners in filmmaking and life, and all the people who moved in and out of Merchant/Ivory family in front of the camera (Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant, for two) and behind it (in particular, novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala). We liked it, with reservations (some of them big). And over on Patreon, we Spoilerpiece a movie that needs a spoiler warning: The 1987 Kevin Costner thriller NO WAY OUT!

It’s a 50-50 week on Spoilerpiece, as one of the movies we watch is crap, and one is a joy from start to finish. First, the crap, because we didn’t want to end on a sour note: Lee Daniels’ THE DELIVERANCE (2:12), a derivative dumpster fire of a possession story cribbed from better possession stories. What makes it so awful, though? Glad you asked! Every character but one in this movie is an asshole. Like, a serious asshole. Andra Day’s Ebony? Asshole. Glenn Close as her mother, Alberta? Asshole. Mo’Nique as the world’s meanest social worker? Total asshole. We at Spoilerpiece don’t usually need to root for a character, but when you’re watching a movie and hope the demon wins, something is amiss. But then there’s the salve: MOUNTAINS (26:10), director and co-writer Monica Sorelle’s drama about a Haitian immigrant demolition worker living in Miami (Atibon Nazaire), his wife (Sheila Anozier), and their very American son (Chris Renois). All the bad vibes from THE DELIVERANCE are instantly erased! Praise Jesus! (If you have the misfortune of seeing THE DELIVERANCE, you’ll understand.) And over on Patreon, our August poll winner is NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, the non-Eon Bond film featuring Sean Connery’s return as 007.

This week, Evan talks about BETWEEN THE TEMPLES (2:14), Nathan Silver's Jewish comedy starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane about a man's grade-school music teacher who becomes his adult Bat Mitzvah student. Unfortunately, he wasn't a fan of the awkward humor. Then, we (Dave and Megan) review HELL HOLE (13:24), John Adams and Toby Poser's (aka the Adams family) horror film about a fracking crew encountering an 1800s soldier, who's still alive with a parasite inside him. We had mixed reviews: One of us liked it, one hated it. Finally, we all discuss SMOKING TIGERS (34:19), So Young Shelly Yo's moving, sensitive, and insightful coming-of-age drama about a Korean-American teen (Ji-young Yoo) as she navigates attending an elite college prep school amidst her parents' separation. We loved it. And on our Patreon exclusive bonus episode, we cover Jim Jarmusch's NIGHT ON EARTH, in honor of Gena Rowlands, who recently passed away and stars in one of the global anthology's segments.

This week, Megan fills Evan and Dave in on CLOSE TO YOU (1:31), starring Elliot Page (who also co-wrote the story) in Dominic Savage's tender and emotional indie drama as Sam, who journeys home for his father's birthday, his first trip to his hometown since his transition. We follow that up with SKINCARE (9:18), Austin Peters's thriller starring Elizabeth Banks as Hope, an esthetician with a line of products about to hit the marketplace. Unfortunately, another esthetician opens a location directly across from her, and wouldn’t you know? Someone steals Hope’s identity and messes with her in a way that could tank her product launch. We wish we could say we loved it. (We didn’t.) Finally, Megan and Dave talk about ALIEN: ROMULUS (32:23), the Fede Álvarez-directed sci-fi horror interquel starring Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. It takes the ALIEN series in a different direction, sorta, if not for all the derivative plot conventions and it lifts from just about every other ALIEN film. It has its moments (and it’s better than Ridley Scott’s last two hack jobs), but it’s a mixed bag. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 1989 teen satire HEATHERS, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, in honor of co-star Shannen Doherty.

Because of some truly bizarre audio difficulties this week, Megan was unable to join us. Which is a bummer! Because she had things to say about both movies on the docket. First, Dave talks about DUCHESS (2:35), directed by Neil Marshall and written by Marshall and its star, Charlotte Kirk. And how is it? Well, it's dog shit! Like most of Marshall's movies! Ho ho! Then Evan and Dave talk THE INSTIGATORS (14:41), a Boston crime comedy that goes out of its way to be very Boston-crimey and Boston-funny, but doesn't quite do either well! Just how much charisma do Matt Damon and Casey Affleck have to exude in order to sell this farce? More than they do! More than they do, gang. (At least we get some good scenes with Hong Chau.) And because we had audio difficulties, the Patreon bonus episode didn't turn out (clicking, clacking, and buzzing; it was weird). But we'll figure out what's wrong with it so this kind of thing doesn't happen again. And we're so sorry! But please know we're taking care of it. Thanks for understanding, everyone!

Dave jokes that it’s Megan’s big week on Spoilerpiece: She saw all three movies on the docket! First, she fills Evan and Dave in on DOCTOR JEKYLL (2:27), Joe Stephenson's gothic horror film starring Eddie Izzard as Dr. Nina Jekyll (good) and Rachel Hyde (bad) in a contemporary update of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Then Megan talks about SING SING (14:14), Greg Kwedar's tender and incredibly moving drama starring Colman Domingo and based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. Megan loved Colman Domingo’s and Paul Raci’s performances, and has heaps of praise for the movie. Finally, everyone saw PEAK SEASON (24:48) Steven Kantner and Henry Loevner's poignant comic drama about the bond a burned-out New Yorker (Claudia Restrepo) makes with her fishing guide (Derrick Joseph DeBlasis) on a trip to Wyoming. We all loved it. Over on Patreon, Evan and Dave talk about Robert Altman’s 3 WOMEN, which stars Shelley Duvall, who left us in early July.

Dave is under the weather this week (feel better soon, Dave!), so Megan and Evan cover the week's movies together. First, Megan reviews Agnieszka Holland's vital, yet harrowing drama GREEN BORDER (3:33), which follows a family of refugees from Syria, a border guard, and a group of activists providing aid to refugees, who converge on the Polish-Belarusian border during a humanitarian crisis. Then Evan and Megan dig into Shawn Levy's much-anticipated superhero film DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (26:26), which features Ryan Reynolds/Deadpool teaming up with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine! Thankfully we do a show where spoilers are the name of the game because otherwise, this one would be tough to talk about folks. We delve into the action, the comedy, the cameos, and the MCU at large in the context of the TV shows and the multiverse. Plus, in this week's Patreon exclusive audio, we discuss the winner of our summer heatwave poll, Sidney Lumet's 1957 legal drama 12 ANGRY MEN!

Evan is off this week, so Megan and Dave braved this week’s releases. Actually, Dave didn’t see TWISTERS (2:39) — Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie legacy sequel starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos — so it’s up to Megan to tell you, dear listeners, that it’s kind of crap. She has some positive things say about it (Glen Powell, for example)…but not many. Both Megan and Dave saw WIDOW CLICQUOT (21:52), a period-piece biopic directed by Thomas Napper about Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot who took over her husband's champagne business after his death. French people, chateaus, business? Dave’s all about it (and all about Haley Bennett!). Megan liked it but didn’t love it. Finally, they both saw ODDITY (39:07), Damian Mc Carthy’s eerie horror film about a psychic (Carolyn Bracken) investigating her twin sister's murder, and his follow-up to CAVEAT. And they loved it! No complaints! Four stars! This movie is one creepy bastard! Over on Patreon, Megan and Dave talked about TWISTER, Jan de Bont's 1996 film starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, because apparently the pain of TWISTERS wasn’t enough. (We actually enjoy it!)

Well. It is a BANNER week on Spoilerpiece, gang. Megan and Dave discuss writer-director Nicole Riegel’s DANDELION (2:54), about a struggling singer-songwriter from Cincinnati (KiKi Layne) taking a shot at winning an opening slot at a biker gathering in South Dakota while also falling into an intense relationship with a semi-retired Scottish guitarist (Thomas Doherty). Then we get to THE BLUE ROSE (26:56). We’ll dispense with a description and leave it all in the audio, but please do buckle up. (And maybe get some popcorn and a burrito. Why the hell not?) Over on Patreon, we talk about CLUE in honor of Martin Mull, who left us in late June.

We just marked a national holiday in the United States, so you know what that means: It’s cash grab season! Megan and Dave talk about said (possible) cash grab, BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F (1:53). Eddie Murphy and cohorts return in the legacy sequel that continues the legacy of shittiness that BEVERLY HILL COP III unleashed on the world 30 years earlier. Ugh. Then Evan joins Megan and Dave to talk about KILL (16:41), a terrifically bloody action film from India that features a commando on a train trying to save his fiancée from bandits. It’s got loads of good killin’, but it’s not for the faint of heart. (It makes COMMANDO look fuggin’ tame.) Finally, Dave and Megan talk MAXXXINE (40:39), the third and possibly not-final chapter in the Ti West/Mia Goth saga that began with X and continued with the X’s prequel, PEARL. Over on Patreon, we talk about KLUTE to commemorate Donald Sutherland, who died on June 20, 2024.

This week Megan saw Yorgos Lanthimos’s KINDS OF KINDNESS (2:28), a whackadoo triptych fable starring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, and Willem Dafoe. It’s getting all kinds of raves but also some drubbings — including Megan’s. Evan, Megan, and Dave watched CONVERSION (15:15), Zach Meiners's documentary about survivors — the film’s director, an ex-Mormon woman, and a famous drag queen — of so-called conversion therapy (programs designed to make queer kids straight, but in reality it’s trauma-inducing psychobabble). We had mixed reactions. Finally, everyone weighed in on A FAMILY AFFAIR (45:45), a rom-com directed by Richard LaGravenese and written by Carrie Solomon starring Joey King, Nicole Kidman, and Zac Efron as three garbage humans apparently more interested in ruining each others’ lives than anything else. Reactions were not mixed. But we had fun taking it apart! And over on Patreon, our Pride Month poll winner is TRICK, a 1999 gay rom-com starring Christian Campbell, J.P. Pitoc, and — that’s right — Tori Spelling.

This week, Megan and Dave check out writer-director Jac Cron’s CHESTNUT (2:19), a low-key (very low-key) queer drama about Annie (Natalia Dyer), who, after graduating college in Philadelphia, falls into a love triangle with Tyler (Rachel Keller) and her maybe-boyfriend Danny (Danny Ramirez). But is Tyler in love with Annie? Or Danny? And is Danny really into Annie? Or Tyler? We have an animated discussion about this one. Then Evan joins Megan and Dave to talk about FANCY DANCE (23:29), Erica Tremblay's Indigenous drama starring Lily Gladstone as Jax, a Seneca-Cayuga woman searching for her missing sister while caring for her niece, Roki (Isabel DeRoy-Olson). Throw into it Jax’s estranged father (Shea Whigham), an impromptu road trip to a powwow, and the missing-persons investigation for Jax’s sister and it’s an emotional 92 minutes. We all liked this one (one of us loved it). Over on Patreon, we watched THE FIRST OMEN, Arkasha Stevenson's horror prequel starring Nell Tiger Free, so check it out!

This week Megan and Dave check out writer-director Daina O. Pusić’s TUESDAY (1:57), starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a mother reckoning with her daughter’s imminent demise when Death arrives - literally - in the form of a size-shifting, talking bird. We had mixed feelings about it, but one of us liked it more than the other. Then Evan joins Megan and Dave for OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION (21:46), a Netflix documentary exploring the history of LGBTQ+ comedy and featuring some of its biggest names, including Lily Tomlin, Tig Notaro, Suzy Eddie Izzard, and Joel Kim Booster (and a lot more). Over on Patreon, we talk about John Carpenter’s CHRISTINE, because why the hell not?

Welcome the wacky world of Spoilerpiece! Why wacky? Because for our first film, Megan and Dave watched Kit Zauhar's THIS CLOSENESS (2:33), one of the most indie films to ever indie, and we’re not sure it’s a good movie…but it’s not bad, either? And the ending is…we’re not sure also? And every character in it is an assbag, but that’s OK? Good sound work, by the way... WTF is this movie, exactly? Hey, if you see it, you tell us. Then Evan, Megan, and Dave watched JIM HENSON IDEA MAN (23:21), Ron Howard’s Disney+ documentary that goes in-depth-ish on Henson, his early partnership with his wife, his early experimental films, and how that experimentation showed up in lots of projects throughout the rest of his career. On Patreon, we talk about Spike Lee’s CROOKLYN, which turned 30 this year.

What a week for movies! Megan and Dave watched writer/director/composer/co-star Viggo Mortensen’s THE DEAD DON’T HURT (2:30), a bittersweet drama set in the 1860s. Viggo (the only actor Dave permits being called by first name, because it’s fun to say “Viggo”) is Olsen, a Dane, and Vicky Krieps is Vivienne, a French-Canadian, who meet in San Francisco, fall in love, and make a life together in a tiny Nevada town. TDDH is Vivienne’s movie, as it traces her tough, tender, and resilient character from childhood to adulthood. It’s a dense story with lots of twists and turns (and too much to get into in this description) and superior performances by Viggo and especially Krieps, and Megan and Dave loved it. Then Evan, Megan, and Dave talk director D.W. Waterson's BACKSPOT (28:56), a drama about a high school cheerleading team with a cutthroat coach (Evan Rachel Wood) and a squad that will do almost anything to prove themselves. Riley (Devery Jacobs), the squad’s backspotter, thirsts for the coach’s approval, putting a strain on all of her relationships, especially with her girlfriend, Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo), who’s also a teammate. We had divergent opinions on this one. And over on Patreon, Ang Lee’s THE WEDDING BANQUET won our May poll! If you’re a patron, you can listen here (and if you’re not a patron, you can become one!).

Dave, after initially going to the wrong theater, made it to the FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (3:21) screening. He yaps about it, and then Megan and Evan join him for Jennifer Lopez’s new sci-fi flick, ATLAS (11:32), about A.I. that’s - natch - trying to wipe out humanity. A.I. is on everyone’s minds lately, right? Too bad there wasn’t some originality on the writers’ minds when they wrote the fuckin’ thing. Then everyone talks about Richard Linklater’s new comedy, HIT MAN (29:53), starring Glen Powell as a fake hit man and Adria Arjona as the woman he falls in love with, who may just be planning on killing her rotten husband. Over on Patreon, we talk about Kubrick’s DR. STRANGELOVE in honor of its 60th anniversary.

What happens when all three critics on Spoilerpiece have problems with both movies on the docket? Listen and you’ll find out! First up is director/co-writer Michelle Schumacher’s YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER (2:26), a wannabe thriller starring Schumacher’s husband J.K. Simmons, Schumacher’s daughter Olivia Simmons, and a bunch of people who apparently didn’t know better than to get involved in this thing. (You *can* avoid this shit.) Then there’s BABES (23:55), the new comedy (in air quotes) from director Pamela Adlon, starring and co-written by Ilana Glazer. This thing is getting glowing reviews absolutely everywhere, but not from us. (We saw a different movie, maybe?) Over on Patreon, we yap about a movie we really enjoy: RUN LOLA RUN.

This week there’s a music documentary, an eco-fable set in Japan, and Dave’s favorite cinematic subgenre: Australian detective stories starring Eric Bana! To start things, Dave fills Megan and Evan in on Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s remastered LET IT BE, which crawled so Peter Jackson’s GET BACK could fuggin’ sprint. Megan watched EVIL DOES NOT EXIST, said eco-fable, which focuses on a village near Tokyo and a clamping site being developed nearby. This is Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to the much-lauded DRIVE MY CAR. Finally, everyone saw FORCE OF NATURE: THE DRY 2, which features Bana reprising the role of Aaron Falk from THE DRY. (Aside: (Dave and Evan’s alternate title: THE WET, as this story is set almost entirely in a rain forest.) Of course, Dave can’t resist doing his bad Australian accent and giggling uncontrollably. But is THE DRY 2 good? We let you know! Over on Patreon we talk about the 1979 comedy THE FRISCO KID starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford.

This week Megan fills Dave and Evan in on the Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt-starring THE FALL GUY (2:03), which is an update of the TV series "The Fall Guy" (bet you didn't see that one coming). Is it good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Then Megan and Dave talk about the genre hyphenate NEW LIFE (12:56), which seems to be one thing (suspense thriller) and then becomes quite another (sci-fi/horror!). And Evan joins Dave and Megan to talk about Jerry Seinfeld's UNFROSTED, the almost entirely untrue story of the creation of Pop Tarts. Over on Patreon we talk about one of Dave's favorites, THREE COLORS: RED, a first-time watch for both Megan and Evan.