The gang went to see AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER and we all got soaking wet. Fully submerged. Drenched! We’re communing with space whales, chugging coffees with Edie Falco, and learning how to hold our breath for long stretches of time to commemorate the release of James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to the biggest movie of all time. Are we one with Eywa now? How does Kate Winslet’s Na’vi accent stack up against her previous linguistic efforts? Is the Regal Cinemas Agave Aquarita the perfect cocktail to accompany your trip back to Pandora? Will Marie end up buying the Lego “Home Tree” set, or is that too complicated for the crew?

Plus, check out the Slow Xmas 2022 holiday music compilation now on Bandcamp (https://bonesoundinc.bandcamp.com/album/slow-xmas-2)! Please support the bands/artists featured on this album.

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Avatar: The Way of Water with Marie Bardi

Henry Selick waited thirteen years to make his follow-up to CORALINE, and it feels like we’ve been waiting even longer to hear David’s TIFF Airbnb story - a yarn that finally gets unspooled with the help of friend Shirley Li. After that business is taken care of, we try our best to describe Selick’s WENDELL & WILD - a film that ranks among the more convoluted of the movies we’ve covered on the pod. Yet - we still find a lot to love about this tale of demons, hair creme, and private prisons! Stop motion puppets that look just like Key, Peele, AND James Hong! Esteemed British character actor David Harewood as Black Trump! And Ben shines a special spotlight on the film’s killer soundtrack.

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Wendell & Wild

After the smashing success of TRAINSPOTTING, Danny Boyle reteamed with star Ewan McGregor and writer John Hodge to…make a movie where Dan Hedaya plays the Archangel Gabriel, Stanley Tucci plays a cuck dentist, and Ewan has one of the worst haircuts in the history of cinema? Shockingly, 1997’s A LIFE LESS ORDINARY was not a hit. Actress and comedian Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra, “The JV Club”) joins us as we attempt to make sense of this bizarro road trip romance.

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A Life Less Ordinary With Janet Varney

Fast zombies, a deserted London, and potato-quality digital cinematography - 28 DAYS LATER proved to be a genre-defining hit for Danny Boyle after the disappointment of THE BEACH. Humorist and Blankie favorite David Rees returns to the podcast to take us back to the immediate post-9/11 period, a mood and time which this film conjures instantly. Join us for a deep dive into the zombie canon, a tangent on the famed “Young British Artists” of the 1990s, a primer on Canadian anti-capitalist band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and a moment of disbelief when Rees discovers that Brendan Gleeson played Donald Trump in Showtime’s THE COMEY RULE. 

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28 Days Later with David Rees

How did Danny Boyle choose to follow up the ultraviolence of 28 Days Later? With a winsome kid’s movie about morality and currency conversion, of course! Filmspotting’s Adam Kempenaar joins us to revisit 2004’s Millions, which he originally covered in the second episode of Filmspotting back in 2005 (!) Why did Danny Boyle want to make a family-friendly film? Should this have been a musical? Was there ever a point in time where it seemed like Britain would adopt the Euro? Plus, the most important question of all - what would Ben have done with that bag of money?     

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Millions with Adam Kempenaar

Welcome to another installment in the “If This Happened to Ben Hosley, It Wouldn’t Have Gone Down Like That” series of films - it’s 127 HOURS! Hollywood Handbook’s Sean Clements returns to the pod as we all discuss what we would do if, like real-life outdoorsman Aron Ralston, we got literally “stuck between a rock and a hard place.” What is gnarlier - cutting off your own arm, drinking your own pee, or hosting the Oscars the same year you get your first acting nomination and completely self-sabotaging during it? James Franco, we’re looking at you.

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127 Hours With Sean Clements

Probably the only film in history to hinge on the shaving of pubic hair as crucial plot point, Danny Boyle’s 2013 film TRANCE is…certainly something! Filmmaker Nia DaCosta takes a break from post-production on THE MARVELS to return to the podcast as we peel back the layers of this twisty hypnosis thriller. What is this movie actually trying to say? We don’t know. However, we *do* know that Vincent Cassel is wayyyy sexy, and that the film’s notorious electric razor sound effect was an unforgivable mistake.

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Trance with Nia DaCosta

Buster Keaton released two features in 1924 - “Sherlock Jr.”, a film that was considered a commercial disappointment at the time but has grown in stature over the past century, and “The Navigator'', a colossal box office hit that hasn’t aged nearly as well. Actor and lover of old-timey things James Urbaniak makes his long-awaited debut on the pod (originally promised back in our Shyamalan days!) and we’re getting into the billiards bits, boat gags, razor puns, and movie magic that make this double feature so special.

Guest Links: 
See James in The Country Club as well as Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart when they come out.

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Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak

This week’s Keaton double feature sees our unflappable hero chased by two types of terrifying crowds: angry would-be brides, and a herd of cattle. How does he outrun them both? Jamie Loftus joins us to chat about Buster Keaton’s tremendous on-screen running (up there with Tom Cruise), his enduring sex appeal (we love a hot tired guy), and his compassion for animals (giving the bovine star of GO WEST a week off to have sex). Plus, because Jamie is THE Hot Dog Queen, we get into a very involved, very long tangent about the world of competitive Hot Dog Eating.

Guest Links: 
Get Jamie's book Raw Dog (The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs) out 5/23
Listen to The Bechdel Cast
Subscribe to The Bechdel Cast Matreon 

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Seven Chances / Go West with Jamie Loftus

DA MOVIESH ARE BACK, BABY! Film Director Barbie joins the gang to chat about Christopher Nolan’s latest and an historic weekend at the multiplex. What’s the best format for seeing OPPENHEIMER? Which of the many character actors in this film makes the biggest impression? Will David make his sexy Christopher Nolan voice a new recurring bit? Plus - we address the SAG strike (solidarity!), the social media discourse around this film (so dumb!), and Ben admits that science used to seem cool.

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Oppenheimer with Marie Bardi

Who loves Da Finchman? These guys do! MTV Movie Award-losing duo Mitch and Nick of the Doughboys join us to talk about David Fincher’s breakthrough hit - the nasty noir SE7EN. What can you expect from this episode? Lots of talk about “playground rumors” related to what this movie does and doesn’t actually show, a full taxonomy of Kevin Spacey’s on-screen persona, the true identity of the Zodiac killer, and a VERY Doughboys description of the film’s “gluttony” murder.


Guest Links: 
Listen to Doughboys
Join the Doughboys' Golden or Platinum Plate Club

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Se7en with Mike Mitchell & Nick Wiger

Not just another bad movie podcast, Blank Check reviews directors' complete filmographies episode to episode. Specifically, the auteurs whose early successes afforded them the rare ‘blank check’ from Hollywood to produce passion projects. Each new miniseries, hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims delve into the works of film’s most outsized personalities in painstakingly hilarious detail. Produced by Ben Hosley.

28 Days Later with David Rees

Blank Check Podcast

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