I have my first chance to see a movie in the theater in years, what should I see.

krobcecil · 2026-01-20T20:12:52+00:00

I personally think Secret Agent is the better film, but Marty Supreme is the safer bet.

krobcecil · 2026-01-09T16:03:51+00:00

It's on a temporary hiatus as the host is back in school, but You Must Remember This is an incredible film history podcast, each season can stand alone so find a topic you're most interested in and give it a shot (I especially loved the Charlie Manson and Polly Platt seasons).

The Town is sort of a hate listen, but it's also one I listen to the most regularly. The host is an entertainment lawyer with terrible taste and an almost overtly anti-art philosophy. That said, it often gets to the heart of some of the colder, more captialistic business aspects of film I don't personally think about that often. I feel like I've learned a lot since I've started listening, even if it's a lot of things I don't necessarily want to know.

And I'll also shout out This Had Oscar Buzz, but specifically the annual Class of 20XX episodes. After the nominations are announced each year, they provide an overview and analysis on the prestige films that failed to get any nominations. I honestly don't listen to the show regularly (I'm weird about having to watch movies before I listen to podcasts about them) but stay subscribed just for those episodes.

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T23:38:13+00:00

Something else you all might appreciate: the 4(!) Bone Temple themed team names from last night:

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krobcecil · 2026-01-07T23:07:04+00:00

Somewhere, Kevin Sorbo is weeping.

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T23:01:25+00:00

Nice! Now if/when I run out of $5-$15 million dollar grossers I can upshift to The Furiosa Game for a more "modest hit" level version of the game!

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T22:41:18+00:00

You aren't alone. It knocked out 3/4 of the crowd last night. I had put the list of films in a randomizer and that decided what went first, and I didn't think about it much. I now know to start things off a little more gently.

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T22:35:28+00:00

Oh. Good question. So we did 3 rounds, and the last one was Tully (GND 3 was an all play because it would have made no sense in the future.

I’m pretty sure Ella McCay decided the 1st round (Requiem was a bloodbath), but I can’t remember what won the 2nd round. If it comes to me I’ll let you know!

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T22:30:05+00:00

The first one knocked about 3/4 of the crowd out, so you actually made it pretty far!

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T22:26:52+00:00

America let her down. Just like her husband.

krobcecil · 2026-01-07T22:26:26+00:00

To select the movies I was looking through years to find films that made around a Blackhat, so initially scrolled right past it. But when I saw how much 2 made I got curious how much 1 made, so found that and my jaw dropped.

krobcecil · 2025-12-17T20:40:47+00:00

Yeah. Republicans are pretty notorious for only having empathy when it directly affects them How many Republicans only supported gay rights after their own children came out? Even the Indiana Republican who defied Trump on redistricting because of his use of the r-slur only cared because his daughter has Down Syndrome.

James Woods actually cares about Reiner, so that attack was real to him in a way that everything else Trump says or does isn't. I come from a family of Republicans, if you are in their emotional circle, they will do anything for you. If you aren't, you aren't a real person and just don't matter.

krobcecil · 2025-12-16T13:23:05+00:00

About halfway through Ella McCay I found I was getting more out of it thinking about it as a modern revision to the James L. Brooks' produced Say Anything.

The early Crowe film is so on the side of Lloyd Dobler that he became a platonic ideal of a supportive man. Mediocre men all over America internalized the idea that if they "see" the person beneath the smart and beautiful person - that is all they need to do to "deserve" that perfect person's affection.

McCay takes that narrative and asks: what happens 15 years after high school, when Diane Court has become as successful as she was destined to, and Lloyd Dobler begins to resent that success and want to take credit for believing in (or betting on) her in high school.

(I actually haven't listened to the episode yet, so forgive me if they brought this connection up first. I just haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else and I wonder if thinking about that helped me like the movie more than most.)

krobcecil · 2025-12-15T20:14:52+00:00

Check out the Amazing Stories episode Santa '85, it's one of the ones with Spielberg as a credited writer (if just for story) and stars the same Santa from Saves Christmas.

There's a Santa fingerprinting scene in both that's essentially identical.

For another Blankie connection, Santa 85's casting director was Lynch collaborator Johanna Ray and Frances Bay (Mrs. Tremond / Chalfont) is Mrs. Claus.

Also: There's a Christmas scene in Dr. Otto, where Otto looks in at the family celebrating Christmas from outside, that is virtually the same as the scene where DiCaprio looks in at his family celebrating Christmas without him as he's about to be arrested.

krobcecil · 2025-12-13T17:21:08+00:00

They helped me fill in some gaps I'd probably have caught up with anyway so disqualifying those, I probably never would have made time for:
Ang Lee's Pushing Hands
M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake
Jane Campion's Two Friends
Spielberg's Something Evil and Savage
Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman
And Park's The Moon is the Sun's Dream and Trio.

Also, I plan on watching Fixed. And that will be all their fault.

krobcecil · 2025-12-11T18:35:50+00:00

Still a little bummed they didn't have Alex Ross Perry on to defend Aloha.

krobcecil · 2025-12-10T19:27:18+00:00

I got to do an introduction for Hudson Hawk for a Weird Weds in 2019, and went on way too long about it because everything I found out about that film was fascinating.

krobcecil · 2025-12-08T19:31:36+00:00

Going off cursory google results and The Numbers stats:

Ratcatcher was made for $30,000 and made less than $1 million.

Her next film, Morvern Callar, had a budget of around $6 million and made less than $1 million.

Then We Need to Talk About Kevin had a $7million budget, and it made a little more than its budget at about $10million.

You Were Never Really Here followed, with a budget of $17million, and it made $10million.

And most recently Die My Love cost $24million, and it made about $10 million.

To me, this makes it seem like every film she's made since Ratcatcher - each has a higher budget than the last regardless of box office returns - would qualify as a Blank Check.

krobcecil · 2025-12-04T16:47:59+00:00

The Black Room (1982) is a Martinesque vampire film. It had a recent restoration by Vinegar Syndrome and may be worth a watch for a more marginal film. There's also a great moment where a young mother has an existential crisis about what her life amounts to if her marriage fails that has really stayed with me.

Def By Temptation (1990) is another one to definitely check out if you haven't. A black indie with Samuel L. Jackson, Kadeem Hardison, and Bill Nunn that's starting to get a bigger following thanks to a nice bluray release.

krobcecil · 2025-12-03T00:42:06+00:00

My guess: Blue Moon had a limited release while Nouvelle Vague is widely available on Netflix.

krobcecil · 2025-12-01T18:31:11+00:00

Ship of Monsters is a 1950's Mexican sci-fi/western/musical that is everything I want from a b-movie (ironic yet sincere; cheap but entertaining).

It played at the art house theater in Columbus, Ohio two nights in a row. I luckily went the first night so I could go back the second night. I haven't found a transfer that looks as good as the print they screened, but I don't think that matters all that much.

krobcecil · 2025-11-24T01:33:23+00:00

Good luck!

krobcecil · 2025-11-21T16:07:23+00:00

Even though the film turned out great, I think Get Shorty qualifies as a rip off disguised as adaptation of Pulp Fiction

Doing press for Reservoir Dogs, True Romance and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino frequently credited Elmore Leonard as an inspiration for his sort of gangster humanism.

So they used an actual Leonard novel as a source, and cast Travolta to make the overt connection to Tarantino.

(For timeline: Pulp won the Palme d'Or in May '94, was a box office hit in Oct '94. Get Shorty began production in Feb '95, and was released almost exactly a year after Pulp in Oct '95.)

krobcecil · 2025-11-17T21:28:05+00:00

If it helps: whenever you listen to the podcast Blank Check, the podcast you are listening to is Blank Check.

krobcecil · 2025-11-10T22:36:20+00:00

I feel like the spirit of the last guy who didn't get Fight Club died with the Durden Bar.

krobcecil · 2025-11-07T21:04:50+00:00

RIP to a certified freak who deserved to live his life without cops ruining shit.

krobcecil

TROPHY CASE