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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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The Kicker is a podcast on the media and the world today. It comes out twice a month, hosted by Josh Hersh and produced by Amanda Darrach for the Columbia Journalism Review. It is available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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Sports Podcast based in Denver, Colorado. Brought to you by the whole Movement Squad.
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In its fiftieth year, the nation's leading journalism review brings you a series of conversations with journalists, critics, and contributors to the Columbia Journalism Review magazine and CJR.org. Expect frank discussion, behind-the-scenes stories, and insightful media analysis from all corners of the news industry.
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Carlos Watson Goes Free: A Surprising Coda to the CJR Podcast
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19:55
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Prosecutors weren’t notified in advance, witnesses are in shock—and Watson’s family celebrates his freedom. On the day that Carlos Watson, the founder of the digital media company Ozy Media, was due to turn himself in to prison last week, to begin serving a nearly ten-year sentence for fraud and identity theft, he and his family received some unexp…
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Episode #563: "On Swift Horses" and "Frewaka"
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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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Inside El Salvador’s Dystopian Prison Network
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A few years ago, El Salvador was one of the most violent nations in the world, with gang killings taking the lives of dozens of people every week. Nayib Bukele, elected president in 2019, changed all that—today, violence is way down. But his brute-force approach to the problem has involved mass arrests, secret deals, and forced disappearances into …
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Episode #562: "Sinners," "The Wedding Banquet," and "The Ugly Stepsister"
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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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Kai Ryssdal Was America’s Economic Voice of Reason This Week
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24:31
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Kai Ryssdal has been the host of Marketplace, a leading daily radio show and podcast about the economy, produced by American Public Media, since 2005. He delivers the news—from the bitter latest on our 401(k)s to unexpected interviews about the modern-day resurgence of train robberies—with an affable, direct tone. And when he has something he wants…
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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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Molly White Knows You Don’t Understand Crypto
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If you thought “DOGE” only stood for the “Department of Government Efficiency”—well, you’re not alone. The world of crypto is full of double meanings and inside jokes, making the recent arrival of these alternative currency markets—and their attendant “crypto bros”—into the seat of power in Washington all the more mystifying. Enter Molly White, a l…
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Episode 559: "The Penguin Lessons" and "Bob Trevino Likes It"
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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"
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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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Over the past several months, Donald Trump has mounted a series of legal attacks against the media, including a libel case against ABC, an FCC investigation into CBS, and a lawsuit accusing an Iowa pollster (and the newspaper that publishes her) of “election interference.” The sometimes far-fetched claims in these cases notwithstanding, the maneuve…
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Episode 556: "The Rule of Jenny Pen" and "Starve Acre"
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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"
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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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The Kicker, the Masseuses, and the Price of Doing Sports Journalism
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27:37
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In January, the Baltimore Banner released an investigation into the star kicker of the Baltimore Ravens, in which multiple women accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior during massages, dating back years. (The player denies the accusations.) It was an example of a rare kind of journalism these days: hard-hitting accountability reporting on s…
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Episode 554: "Cleaner" and "The Quiet Ones"
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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"
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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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A Warning from a Hungarian Journalist: ‘Brace Yourself for the Worst’
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András Pethő is a Hungarian journalist and a cofounder of Direkt36, an independent investigative news outlet. Over the past decade, he’s watched as the government of Viktor Orbán—the world leader whom Steve Bannon once praised as “Trump before Trump”—has systematically eroded the freedom of the press in his country, in ways that may feel familiar t…
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Episode 552: "Heart Eyes" and "Love Hurts"
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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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CJR’s Jon Allsop on the Return of the Trump Whirlwind
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Jon Allsop writes and edits The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter. There, he’s closely watched as the American press has struggled to respond to, and cover, the barrage of news that pours out of Donald Trump. As a frenetic new term begins, Jon joins The Kicker to share his thoughts on what the media gets wrong—and how the political press might be…
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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"
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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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Coda’s Natalia Antelava on Meta, Trump, and How Journalism Can Survive 2025
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30:10
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Natalia Antelava spent many years as a correspondent for the BBC, before starting her own media company, Coda Story, in 2016. She’s covered wars in the Middle East and the rise of authoritarianism across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. For the past year, she was a Knight Fellow at Stanford, where she examined how journalism might survive in an era…
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Episode 548: "Get Away" and "Red Rooms"
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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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