205 - Can THE APPRENTICE Make Movies Great Again?

Ewan reports back from the Zurich Film Festival with reviews for A Real Pain, Memoir of a Snail, Conclave, We Live in Time, Blitz, The End, and the award-winning Black Box Diaries. Lachlan finished Stalker and continued his deep dive into Andrei Tarkovsky's filmography with Solaris. They discuss the historic flop of Joker: Folie à Deux, a potential second season of Obi-Wan with Ewan McGregor and Christopher Nolan's next movie. Finally, they review The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi starring Sebastian Stan & Jeremy Strong.

I SAW THE TV GLOW Is a Work of Art

Ewan and Lachlan are back - well Ewan is at least as Lachlan suffers from an expected audio & video issue for the first 30 minutes of the podcast. While we stare at Lachlan's enraged face mad at his external drive, they chat about the Nintendo Direct that announced new games for The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mario & Luigi, Mario Party, and Metroid. They discuss the recent success of Inside Out at the box office, a new Richard Linklater film, and a $300 Mio film from the Russo Brothers. After discussing the trailer for Smile 2, A Real Pain, The Front Room, and The Penguin they talk about the ongoing disappointment of The Acolyte and the successful start of the fourth season of The Boys and the second season of House of the Dragon. Finally, after Ewan shares his thoughts on I Used to Be Funny, Fancy Dance, and The Beast, the two discuss Jane Schoenbrun's sophomore feature film I Saw the TV Glow.

Oscar Nominations, Sundance & Fallen Leaves

IT'S LACHLAN'S BIRTHDAY! This week we discuss the Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards. What were the Snubs and Surprises? One of the films that unfortunately did not make the Final 5 for the Internation Feature Category is Aki Kaurismäki's Fallen Leaves, which is the film we are going to review in detail. The Sundance Film Festival has wrapped and Ewan caught some films virtually that he'll tell you about and Lachlan started True Detective: Night Country.