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Boston film critics Evan Crean, Megan Kearns, and David Riedel help you decide what to watch by sharing spoiler-filled reviews of the latest blockbusters and independent films, across genres, including films by women, nonbinary, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC filmmakers. Opening music: "My Life as a God" by Augean Stables. Closing music: "Pants Party" by Oilhead. Show edited by Otto Klammer. Logo design by Rita Csizmadia.
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Episode #563: "On Swift Horses" and "Frewaka"
59:35
59:35
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Dave returns! But Evan can't make it this week. So Dave and Megan discuss FREWAKA (2:31), Aislinn Clarke's Irish folk horror film about a home care aide (Clare Monnelly) dealing with haunting disorientation after taking a job caring for an agoraphobic older woman (Bríd Ní Neachtain). One of us really liked the film for the performances and eerie, u…
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Episode #562: "Sinners," "The Wedding Banquet," and "The Ugly Stepsister"
53:40
53:40
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Megan is flying solo this week, as Dave and Evan couldn't make it (I miss you two!). First, Megan reviews THE UGLY STEPSISTER (1:54), Emilie Blichfeldt's Norwegian fairy-tale horror film starring Lea Myren and Thea Sofie Loch Næss, which played at this year's Boston Underground Film Festival. With lush costumes and production design, it's a compell…
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Unfortunately, Dave can't make it this week (we miss you), but we (Evan and Megan) carry on in his stead. First we cover Michael Angarano's dramedy SACREMENTO (2:14), where a free-spirited guy (Angarano) cons his anxiety-ridden best friend (Michael Cera) into taking a road trip to, you guessed it, Sacramento. The movie, which co-stars the vastly un…
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This week Evan and Megan watched (and Dave partly watched) the micro budget thriller GAZER (2:22), directed by Ryan J. Sloan, and written by Sloan and star Ariella Mastroianni. Frankie (Mastroianni) has dyschronometria, a neurological condition where an individual struggles to perceive and track the duration of time. So when Frankie accepts a high-…
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Episode 559: "The Penguin Lessons" and "Bob Trevino Likes It"
53:28
53:28
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Sometimes we accidentally stumble into a theme at Spoilerpiece, and this week's theme is movies that make us dissolve into choking sobs. First, Megan and Dave weigh in on THE PENGUIN LESSONS, a movie that should be slight; a high school English teacher in politically fraught 1972 Argentina (Steve Coogan) rescues a pengiun and then everyone learns s…
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Evan, Megan, and Dave take in two derivative films this week: ASH (2:37), a horror/sci-fi hodgepodge headed up by Eiza González and Aaron Paul about an astronaut who wakes up to find her crew killed, features just about every horror/sci-fi trope since ALIEN hit screens in 1979. Then there's LOCKED (25:17), a thriller starring Bill Skarsgård as a pe…
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Episode 557: "The Electric State" and "Novocaine"
58:52
58:52
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This week Evan, Megan, and Dave watched one dud and one banger. The dud: THE ELECTRIC STATE (1:55), the latest crap-fest from the Russo brothers. This unfunny sci-fi comedy stars Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan. The banger: NOVOCAINE (26:00). Assistant bank manager Jack Quaid has a genetic condition in which he can't feel pain. So …
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Episode 556: "The Rule of Jenny Pen" and "Starve Acre"
52:22
52:22
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It's a week for horror on Spoilerpiece. Megan and Dave talk about THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (2:10), featuring Geoffrey Rush as a judge recovering from a stroke, John Lithgow as a sadist, and Jenny Pen as Lithgow's evil puppet cohort. Then Evan joins in for STARVE ACRE (20:59), in which two grieving parents find a mummified oak tree and tend to a reanim…
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Episode 555: "Captain America: Brave New World," "The Monkey," and "My Dead Friend Zoe"
1:05:08
1:05:08
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This week we catch up on two current releases and a new film. Megan and Evan talk about CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (2:28), and Megan and Dave discuss THE MONKEY (26:02). Then we all talk about the new film MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE (41:03), a dark comedy/drama about an Afghanistan war veteran (Sonequa Martin-Green) dealing with the trauma of losing …
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Episode 554: "Cleaner" and "The Quiet Ones"
57:31
57:31
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This week Dave is under the weather, so Megan and Evan tackle the two films as a duo. First, we review Frederik Louis Hviid's true crime heist film, THE QUIET ONES (2:59), which recounts the largest robbery in Denmark's history. Next, we discuss Martin Campbell's action thriller CLEANER (28:09), which features Daisy Ridley as an ex-soldier turned w…
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Episode 553: "Rounding" and "The Gorge"
1:05:46
1:05:46
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This week Megan, Evan, and Dave discuss ROUNDING (1:59), about an ambitious medical resident who relocates to a rural hospital after an elderly patient dies in his care. He soon becomes obsessed with saving a young asthma patient while suffering from horrific visions brought on by sleep deprivation and his previous trauma. Then we talk about THE GO…
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Episode 552: "Heart Eyes" and "Love Hurts"
49:42
49:42
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This week Dave spoils director Josh Ruben’s latest, the horror comedy HEART EYES (2:11), about a serial killer who targets couples on and around Valentine’s Day. Then Evan and Megan join him to discuss LOVE HURTS (18:09), which stars Ke Huy Quan in his first leading role. Over on Patreon, we talk about Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BOULEVARD in honor of it…
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Evan and Dave are a duo this week. Dave took his children to see the ridiculous animated movie DOG MAN, which he - surprisingly? - liked. And both Evan and Dave took in LOVE ME, a romantic drama in which Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun play a buoy and a satellite falling in love long after every lifeform on Earth has gone extinct. Over on Patreon, …
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This week we watch two films, the indie comedy-drama ROCKY’S (2:26), about five friends in their mid-20s who come together for a funeral, but first regroup in the parking lot of the 24-hour deli they loitered around in high school. Then it’s INHERITANCE (23:11), a spy thriller with Phoebe Dynevor and Rhys Ifans as an estranged daughter and father c…
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Episode 549: "Wolf Man," "Night Call," and "Back in Action"
1:08:57
1:08:57
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This week Megan saw WOLF MAN (2:20), director and co-writer Leigh Whannell’s latest trip down the horror highway, starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. Megan likes this new take on Universal’s legendary Wolf Man…until she doesn’t. A good start, a meh finish. Then Evan and Dave join in when the conversation turns to NIGHT CALL (16:17), Michi…
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Episode 548: "Get Away" and "Red Rooms"
1:03:20
1:03:20
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This week Evan, Megan, and Dave take in the new Nick Frost-written-and-starring horror comedy GET AWAY (2:50), about a family that goes to a remote Swedish island for a holiday weekend, only to be trapped as a killer is on the loose. Zoinks! Blood and guts ensue! But do the laughs follow? DO THEY?!! Two-thirds of us felt one way, and one-third of u…
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Episode 547: "I Saw the TV Glow" and "The Seed of the Sacred Fig"
56:54
56:54
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Welcome to 2025! Evan is off this week, but Megan and Dave are here to talk about I SAW THE TV GLOW (2:26), writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s horror-fantasy about Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), two teens obsessed with a TV show called “The Pink Opaque,” with airs on Saturday nights past Owen’s bedtime. This was Megan’s top m…
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Episode 546: Our Top 10 Movies of the Year (All Three of Us)
1:15:53
1:15:53
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It's the end of the year, and that means it's time for our top 10 lists. As members of the Boston Online Film Critics Association, we vote for what we consider the best films of the year (ya know, like critics do). Megan (4:28) goes first, followed by Dave (28:45), and finally Evan (51:51). We have some overlap, but not much! And we have a good tim…
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Episode 545: "The Brutalist" and "Nosferatu"
1:06:17
1:06:17
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Ladies and gentleman, pray forgive Dave in his capacity as host this week: His rhythm was off, as he was interrupted during the Patreon segment by a restless 9-year-old. (Speaking of Patreon, we cover the Shane Black-written, Geena Davis-starring THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT. It's a fun conversation!) This week we all watched THE BRUTALIST (3:44), Brady…
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Episode 544: "Chasing Chasing Amy," "Conclave," and "Nickel Boys"
1:09:53
1:09:53
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We start with CHASING CHASING AMY (1:44), trans filmmaker Sav Rodgers’ documentary about his relationship with Kevin Smith’s CHASING AMY, and an exploration of Rodgers’ reverence for Kevin Smith’s at-the-time groundbreaking but now much-more-questioned-about-its-narrative-ideas lesbian-falls-for-a-straight-man rom-com. Over the course of six years,…
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Episode 543: "Queer," "Flow," and "Nightbitch"
1:08:45
1:08:45
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This week Megan and Dave talk about director Luca Guadagnino’s QUEER (2:28), an adaptation of William S. Burroughs 1985 novel (with a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes). Starring Daniel Craig as William Lee (a Burroughs stand-in), this movie left both Megan and Dave a little bewildered, as there were things they liked (the shooting-up scene, the color…
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Episode 542: "Know Your Place" and "The Black Sea"
58:59
58:59
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Evan is off this week (doubtless watching PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES), so Megan and Dave take on KNOW YOUR PLACE (2:19) and THE BLACK SEA (35:29) as a duo. And as with many weeks, the movies we choose are linked thematically (often accidentally). In this case, both films tackle characters with feelings of being outsiders. In KNOW YOUR PLACE, R…
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Episode 541: "Wicked," "Gladiator II," and "Blitz"
1:02:06
1:02:06
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This week, we start things off at Shiz University, as Megan saw WICKED (2:22), the film adaptation of the stage musical, which is an adaptation of the novel by Gregory Maguire. Does Jon M. Chu's film hold up under scrutiny? And how are Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as, respectively, Elphaba and Glinda? Next, Dave joins Megan to talk about GLADIAT…
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Episode 540: "Blink Twice" and "My Old Ass"
1:01:20
1:01:20
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This week, we took a gander at two films in current release: Megan and Evan watched BLINK TWICE (2:32), Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut starring Naomi Ackie as a woman who goes to a private island with a tech-bro (Channing Tatum) and parties with his friends, but things aren't what they seem to be. We were divided on this thriller. Then Dave joined…
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Episode 539: "Heretic," "Black Cab," and "Small Things Like These"
58:07
58:07
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This week Megan talks about the psychological horror thriller HERETIC (2:18), starring a possibly career-best Hugh Grant. Then Evan, Megan, and Dave discuss the Nick Frost-starring horror flick BLACK CAB (11:34), and the excellent SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE (28:56), with Cillian Murphy as an empathetic man slowly uncovering the ugly secrets of a local…
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