The director of 2014's "Phoenix" returns with a boldly enigmatic thriller. German director Christian Petzold’s “Phoenix” was a “Vertigo”-inspired thriller set in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It received some of the best reviews of 2014. For his latest, TRANSIT, Petzold evokes Kafka, Orwell and Kielslowski for another wartime thriller that is ...…

Marvel's first female-led feature is also one its best. Indie duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ("Half Nelson," "Sugar") were a surprising choice to lead a Marvel movie, especially one with so much riding on its success. But Adam and Josh agree that the pair's CAPTAIN MARVEL is a mostly effective marriage of effects-driven action, empathetic charac ...…

64 films. Only one survives. Welcome to the Madness. In the 2018 edition of Filmspotting Madness – Best of the 90s – the championship round had "Fargo" facing off against "Pulp Fiction." The Coen Brothers' "Fargo" pulled out a surprise victory over Tarantino's decade-defining masterpiece. So what surprises await us in this year's contest? The C ...…

Worse than a coven of witches? The 'Burbs. "Suspiria" star Jessica Harper has appeared in over 20 films since the mid-'70s, but she's also had a career as a singer-songwriter and children's book author. Her latest venture has her turning to memoir in the form of a 10-part podcast called "Winnetka," named for the Chicago suburb where she and her ...…

Taking the red pill 20 years later. For the second film in their "9 From '99" series, Adam and Josh reconsider the Wachowski Sisters' seminal sci-fi film, which, while a popular and critical success in its release year, has only grown in estimation both as a film and as a way of thinking and talking about reality. Plus: Christopher Nolan, Todd ...…

Jokes and gender politics in the new Lego sequel. "The Lego Movie" was Josh's #1 film of 2014. Dan Gilroy's "Nightcrawler" made Adam's Top 10 of the same year. Five years later, Emmet Brickowski and the rest of the master builders return for THE LEGO MOVIE 2 - and Gilroy is back, too, with the art scene satire VELVET BUZZSAW, another darkly sat ...…

That thing where your superpower is seeing dead people. On this week's show, a double-dose of divisive auteur M. Night Shyamalan, whose new film GLASS is either "profoundly dumb" or "like opening a brand new comic book for the first time and not knowing what you're going to get." And then later, Adam and Josh kick off their "9 from '99" series ...…

The new movie year is all promise and possibility. Adam and Josh pose their Top 5 Questions About 2019. Plus the good, the bad and the bewildering of this week's Oscar nominations. 0:00-1:13 - Billboard 1:13-13:57 - 2019 Movie Preview King Princess, "1950" 14:48-15:42 - Donations 15:42-33:15 - Oscar Nominations 33:15-38:53 - Next Week / "9 From ...…

The laughs, the tears, the rhapsodies and the shallows that made 2018 such a memorable movie year. Michael Phillips and Tasha Robinson - and a full house at Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts - join Adam and Josh for the Live 2018 Wrap Party, celebrating the 2018 movie year with their favorite moments from the last twelve months. 0:00-0:43 - I ...…

Two of our favorite 2018 conversations. Adam talks to Ethan Hawke about parenting, raising daughters, falling in love, the illusion of fear - oh, and his very good 2018 film BLAZE, about Texas singer-songwriter Blaze Foley. Plus, Adam's interview with EIGHTH GRADE director Bo Burnham, who reflects on what makes star Elsie Fisher so great and wh ...…

You can't have consensus without a little misguided dissent. True of climate change research - and of the films discussed on part two of Filmspotting's Top 10 of 2018 roundtable. Adam, Josh and guests Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune) and Tasha Robinson (The Next Picture Show) debate Paul Schrader's FIRST REFORMED (three yays, one hard nay), A ...…

Indie horror, broad comedy and, yes, Marvel, all among the "outlier" picks in part one. With guests Michael Phillips and Tasha Robinson filling out the roundtable, Adam and Josh start their conversation about the best films of 2018 with their "outlier" picks - films that, for the most part, only made one of their lists. Plus, Best of '18 voicem ...…

Barry Jenkins' follow-up to "Moonlight" has the lush romanticism of "In the Mood for Love." In the absurd rush to catch up with the best of the year before the end of the year, it's nice when a film forces you into its own patient rhythm. Even better when it looks and sounds as good as IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, the latest from director Barry ...…

Seeing the Fellini in Cuarón and the Kubrick in Lanthimos. Adam and Josh break out the high praise for their reviews of Alfonso Cuarón's ROMA and Yorgos Lanthimos's THE FAVOURITE – both films in the conversation for the best of 2018, and both departures of sorts for the directors. For "Roma," Cuarón returns to his native Mexico for the first ti ...…

The 15th best film the Coens have ever made. Or maybe the 12th best. Possibly higher. When news first broke about the new Coen brothers project for Netflix, it looked like it was going to be a limited-run series and not a proper film. This was all perfectly well and good, but how would that work with existing rankings of the Coens' filmography? ...…

With year-end fast approaching, Adam and Josh talk through the current crop of nominees for the show's Golden Brick Award, which goes to the overlooked or underseen film of the year. Also on the show, Adam's conversation with Bing Liu, Joshua Altman and Diane Moy Quon – the director, editor and one of the producers – of one of those Brick nomin ...…

Queen Viola. Queen Carey. And... Queen. Oscar-winner Viola Davis heads the ace ensemble for Steve McQueen's ("12 Years A Slave") new Chicago-set heist thriller WIDOWS, writer Gillian Flynn's adaptation of a BBC miniseries from the 80s. Adam and Josh dig McQueen's take on a corrupt Chi-town, but debate his handling of some of the performances. T ...…

This episode is sponsored by the color red. For his remake of the Dario Argento cult horror classic SUSPIRIA, Luca Guadagnino ("Call Me By Your Name") keeps the '70s German dance academy setting, but adds a lot of real-world political upheaval to the original's bloody witches' brew. Adam and Josh debate the effectiveness of Guadagnino and compa ...…

With his thoughtful takes on the revenge and violent thriller genres, "Blue Ruin" and "Green Room" director Jeremy Saulnier has emerged as one of most exciting young directors of the last decade. His latest, HOLD THE DARK, is an enigmatic thriller set in a remote Alaskan village. Skipping theaters entirely, it debuted on Netflix in September. L ...…

For their Sacred Cow review of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, Adam and Josh took another look at a film about which they're both already on record: there's Josh's 2007 first encounter, which resulted in one of only four negative reviews logged on Rotten Tomatoes. And then there's Adam's 2005 watch, which was part of the second ever Filmspotting Ma ...…

Wunderkind director Damien Chazelle follows up his Oscar-winning "La La Land" with FIRST MAN, a Neil Armstrong biopic that avoids easy mythologizing to tell the story of an obsessive, grieving everyman who made history. This week on the show, Adam and Josh have a review of Chazelle's film and share their Top 5 Movie Flights - scenes that captur ...…

Bradley Cooper's A STAR IS BORN is the fourth adaptation of the tale - fifth if you count 1932's George Cukor-directed "What Price Hollywood." The story of a hard-drinking industry veteran discovering and grooming a young starlet (or singer) also has a strong awards pedigree, with those previous incarnations accumulating a total of 19 Oscar nom ...…

In 2003, Sofia Coppola's sophomore effort was a surprise box office hit, making over $119 million worldwide. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, and won Coppola a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. By criteria that are more difficult to measure, Bob and Charlotte's platonic Tokyo romance is just really meaningful to a lot of peopl ...…

A new 70mm print of David Lean's 1963 Best Picture-winning epic just wrapped up a run at Chicago's Music Box Theatre. Having survived their recent "4D" screening (temperamental A/C on a blisteringly hot late-summer day), Adam and Josh return from Lean's "Arabia" in awe of the director's widescreen compositions, his revelatory transitions and th ...…

As long as there are people to remember Burt Reynolds, they're most likely to recall the goofy, charismatic, hard-driving star of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Cannonball Run," and the benevolent despot of the late-'70s porn scene in his Oscar-nominated role in "Boogie Nights." But it's possible that none of those Reynolds performanc ...…

With the critical reappraisal of Ethan Hawke in full swing after a career-best performance in Paul Schrader's "First Reformed," Adam and Josh commemorate "The Hawkessance" with a consideration of the actor's long and varied career, from Todd Anderson's "sweaty-toothed madman" to Rev. Toller's existential despair (and all those Sunrises and Suns ...…

With a lull in the late-summer movie schedule, Adam and Josh play catch-up on a few acclaimed new indie features - and Filmspotting Golden Brick candidates - including the Kartemquin Films-produced doc MINDING THE GAP, director Josephine Decker's Sundance hit MADELINE'S MADELINE and the experimental sports doc JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERF ...…

In anticipation of the show's 700th episode, Adam and Josh - and fellow podcast veteran Dave Chen from the /Filmcast - consider what a decade-plus podcasting about movies has taught them. (In short: gratitude, humility, and getting by on less sleep.) Dave also joins the conversation about the new CRAZY RICH ASIANS, a hit at the box office and t ...…

Master filmmaker, trickster, provocateur, Spike Lee has been making bold and timely films for over three decades now. And with his latest, BLACKkKLANSMAN, he's also made one of his best. On this week's show, Adam and Josh give Lee the career retrospective treatment with the Filmspotting Top 5: Spike Lee Shots, along with a review of the outstan ...…

THE DARK KNIGHT turns ten this summer, and in the years since it won critical raves and dominated the 2008 box office, its reputation, influence and iconic status have only grown. But what does it look like after a decade of superhero movies made in its shadow? Adam and Josh give the Sacred Cow treatment to Christopher Nolan's film and - with t ...…

The "M:I" franchise is over 20 years old, with its sixth installment - MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - currently in theaters. But ageless star Tom Cruise and his collaborators show no signs of slowing down when it comes to being a reliable source for action movie spectacle. Adam and Josh consider the near maniacal insistence on verisimilitude o ...…

At the halfway point of the year in movies, Adam and Josh agree on their two favorite movies, but share some surprising and diverse picks to round out their Top 5 Films of 2018 (So Far). Plus, listeners weigh in with their picks for the best of the year so far, and the new Filmspotting poll gives you just two options for best superhero movie... ...…

When Bo Burnham's EIGHTH GRADE debuted at Sundance in January, the response was mostly ecstatic - but also a little perplexed. How had a 27 year-old male stand up comic pulled off such a sincere and moving depiction of a teenage girl's middle school anxiety? How - and why? This week on the show, Adam gets to ask that very question in his interv ...…

Comedy, social satire, dystopian nightmare: rapper, producer, political activist Boots Riley's debut film SORRY TO BOTHER YOU has a lot on its mind. And that's a good thing. Adam and guest Michael Phillips have a review of Riley's film, including some spoiler talk on the movie's divisive ending. Plus, Michael's thoughts on ANT MAN AND THE WASP, ...…

1984 was a banner year for crane kicks, mogwais and bustin' ghosts, but it also saw the debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800, better known as THE TERMINATOR. On this episode from May 2017, Adam and Josh give James Cameron's seminal sci-fi thriller the Sacred Cow treatment, resulting in a heated split review. Plus, the Top 5 Films of 1984. 0:0 ...…

Sure, movie westerns are mostly about dudes on horseback quick-drawing pistols in small, dusty cow-towns, but some of the best films in the genre feature memorable turns by actresses in key roles, like Grace Kelly and Katy Jurado in "High Noon," Angie Dickinson in "Rio Bravo" - and Madeline Kahn in "Blazing Saddles." This week on the show, Josh ...…

It isn't enough that we've been blessed with four hunky dudes named Chris, all with solid acting chops and charisma to spare - we had to go ahead and rank them. On this week's show, Adam and Josh battle over the relative merits of Evans, Hemsworth, Pine and Pratt - and welcome another age-appropriate Chris to the club - as they offer a very spe ...…

Pixar has done a lot of things right over the past 23 years (note the studio's 80% average Metacritic rating), but among its greatest accomplishments is its consistently inspired voice casting. Tom Hanks' Woody works so well not just because of the actor's familiarity, but because Woody also taps into the decency, good humor - and occasional co ...…

Whether used ironically or to provide insight - or just to make characters look really, really cool - classic rock has been memorably employed by some of the best directors of the rock era. Joining Adam and Josh for their Top 5 Classic Rock Moments in Movies is writer and critic Steven Hyden, author of the new book "Twilight of the Gods: A Jour ...…

With rock writer and cultural critic Steven Hyden dropping by to discuss his new book, "Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock," Adam and Josh decided it was as good a time as any to revisit rock-critic-turned-filmmaker Cameron Crowe's ode to '70s rock ALMOST FAMOUS. As a meditation on criticism and the critic's relationship ...…

40 (movie) years after Han Solo first boasted about his 12-parsec Kessel Run, the new SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY finally lets us take the ride. But is it enough to justify the movie's existence? And what if your new Han isn't among the five best things about his own movie? Yes, Adam and Josh have issues with "Solo," but also some praise for the ex ...…

Released in consecutive Decembers beginning in 2001, Peter Jackson’s colossal adaptation of Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy reached its conclusion in 2003 with "The Return of the King" which went on to win 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Despite enjoying the first installment just fine, Adam never made time for "Two Tow ...…

"It's the most terrifying day in your life, the day the first one is born." Bill Murray bringing the truth in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" - just one of the films referenced in this week's Top 5: Too-Real Parenting Moments. As real-life parents of four (Adam) and two (Josh), this week's list has a more confessional quality to it than m ...…

The massive success of "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War" may have made the concept of a “summer” blockbuster season irrelevant, but there will still be summer and there will still be summer movies. And despite Marvel's early box office dominance, big movies await in the form of high profile sequels for "Jurassic World," "Deadpool" an ...…

With the first decade of the MCU coming to a close with AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (and its 2019 sequel), Adam and Josh are forced to reckon with the fact that 19 films into Marvel's uneven series, they've developed some affection for many of its Chrises, er, characters. And, oh my, are there so many characters. And while Josh at various points ref ...…

UK writer-director Andrew Haigh has spent the first part of his career quietly defying expectations. With his feature breakout "Weekend," he crafted an intimate tale about two young gay men spending a weekend getting to know each other. For his 2015 follow-up, "45 Years," Haigh turned his focus to an aging husband and wife haunted by the past. ...…

After working through six films spanning nearly two decades in the career of Vincente Minnelli, Adam, Josh and guest Nathaniel Myers roll out the red carpet for "The Garlands," the best of the marathon awards, including their favorite Supporting and Lead Performances, Scene, "Minnelli Moment" and Picture. For the full Minnelli lineup and conver ...…

It's a little surprising to see nice guy "Office"-alum John Krasinski directing a monster movie, but Adam and guest-host Michael Phillips agree that his A QUIET PLACE is a tense, finely-crafted film that feels a little like a Western and a well-observed family drama – even as it's scaring the pants off you. Krasinksi's movie also exploits its s ...…

Guest-host Michael Phillips says of Minnelli that no one shot better wide-screen Cinemascope compositions and calls the director's SOME CAME RUNNING - based on James Jones's 1957 novel - "one of the great adaptations of a truly lousy book." (RUNNING is based on James Jones's follow-up to "From Here To Eternity.") In the film, which was nominate ...…

Is there a four-hour cut of READY PLAYER ONE? Adam and guest host Tasha Robinson (TheVerge.com, Next Picture Show) have no idea, but it would help explain some of the narrative shortcuts in Spielberg's visually impressive adaptation of the Ernest Cline bestseller. The good news about the story's leap to the big screen is an improvement on the f ...…