Peak Viewing

This week we talk about Lost in America, the mid-life crisis movie to end all mid-life crisis movies. Albert Brooks is skewering baby boomers who watched Easy Rider one too many times, and we’re asking the big questions. What age do you have to be to consider it a “mid-life” crisis? How much is the nest egg in 2025 dollars? What’s the deal with New York, New York? Could you live in a Winnebago long-term? And what’s the right age to watch Airplane?

Picture a man. Now give him all of the worst, most awful (non-violent) possessive traits you can imagine. Now picture a movie all about this man, and you might have something approximating Albert Brooks’ sophomore feature, Modern Romance. This damning indictment of the modern dating man was written decades before terms like “toxic masculinity” entered our everyday vocabulary, and for that reason it has an almost timeless quality to its satire. In between groaning over this man, we also discuss the fun meta filmmaking scenes, the terrible DVD cover, and how much Henry’s couch looks like the one in the movie.

Today we embark on a journey through the comedies of Albert Brooks. His first film, 1979’s Real Life, is a wonderful send up of reality TV, a genre of entertainment that effectively didn’t even exist yet! We discuss the myriad of ways this movie was ahead of it’s time, the interconnected web of alt comedians in this time period, a few embarrassing film blinds spots we still have, and of course, the Jumbotron CEO.

We’re taking one last dip into the Coens filmography with Ethan and Tricia’s new film Honey Don’t! This may not exactly be a "great" movie, but it’s enough of a step-up from Drive-Away Dolls that we both walked away somewhat impressed. We share our observations on audience reactions, IMDb plot keyword sickos, the hottest new addictive mobile game, and how we can no longer trust our own moviegoing opinions.

Tony Scott’s 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 is unfortunately the kind of remake that has all the edges sanded off. What was once a story about corruption and scorn in the hearts of all men has been retooled into a tale of just two men, one on a righteous path and the other tumbling down the crime-ridden ravine. Are they different? Are they the same? What was Henry’s secret agenda from last week? Why did Bill Clinton endorse Cuomo? And what the hell is MovieIQ?!

Our shortest miniseries to date focuses on two films, the original from the 1970s and the remake in the late aughts. This week we’re talking about 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, the original story of criminals hijacking a New York subway car. Samuel read the book, and he’s disturbed! Henry heard the dialogue, and he’s delighted! We discuss the flavorful style of this movie, from the performances to the music, and tease a secret agenda behind this miniseries…

Now that we’re done with the movies Joel and Ethan Coen made together, we move on to the “solo” projects. We already covered The Tragedy of Macbeth last year as part of our Denzel Washington miniseries, so it’s on to Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, a lesbian road comedy made with his wife Tricia Cooke. This movie (which we both found to be equal parts strange, funny, and bad) has its fair share of topic starters, so please enjoy our unhinged discussion on character actor cameos, southern accents, lesbian bars, and, of course, dildos. Way more dildo discussion than you would probably expect.

This week we discuss the final (?) film Joel and Ethan Coen made together, a western anthology that is tonally all over the place. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs may not be our favorite movie from the two brothers, but there is something remarkable about seeing all their styles and themes blended into six particular stories. In this tangent-filled episode we also discuss Detroit: Become Human, the origins of Samuel’s caffeine addictions, if Kevin Costner and James Cameron will ever get to finish their passion projects, an update to our Coens Tonal Alignment Chart, and our final rankings of their entire collaborative filmography.

As far as Hollywood send-ups go, Hail, Caesar! is pretty good. As far as Coen brothers movies go, Hail, Caesar! is… well, it’s near the bottom of our rankings. That’s not to say that this star-studded satire isn’t worth your time, it’s just, eh… we haven’t an opinion. On this episode we also get into Henry’s secret undercover job, Spielberg’s forgotten WWII film, and Hobie’s failure to keep it so simple.

This week we need no carpet on our floor. Come along and follow us as we talk about Inside Llewyn Davis, a love letter to the early 60s folk scene that is also one of the Coens most well-crafted stories. So don’t miss the train we’re on, don’t know that we’re gone, listen on as we discuss the film and go on tangents about what the best desserts are, Samuel’s hot (or not hot!) takes on leftovers, the eternal battle of Beyonce vs. Taylor Swift, and of course, Shachtmanism.

It’s time to go back to the Wild West and discuss the western masterpiece True Grit. The Coen brothers’ second film based on a novel is another grounded no-nonsense work of adaptation, but they still find plenty of avenues to insert their own unique voice. In between comparing this to the (great) Charles Portis novel, we also discuss Hailee Steinfeld’s wonderful performance, Carter Burwell’s effective score, leaf blowers, the unconditional affection of snakes, and how much you have to drink before you can call yourself an alcoholic.

Today’s Coen brothers film is perhaps their most idiosyncratic, an enigmatic and existential nightmare with more questions than answers. And while A Serious Man grapples with the hard-hitting questions as to the nature of our universe, we’re asking the really stupid ones! What’s the optimal office cubicle setup? Why are TV antennas not a solved problem? And what’s that movie where a character is a secretary but they actually call it something else and that’s part of it?

This week we’re getting in a run and talking about the raw intelligence with Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan's zany follow-up to No Country for Old Men that remains a somewhat under-seen gem. Between the dancing gifs, wacky performances, and memorable lines, this is a very iconic movie that’s near and dear to both Henry and Samuel. So buckle up, keep an eye on everyone, and report back to us when it makes sense. After all, we’re not set up to mold hard rubber.

Bust out your air guns and lucky quarters, it’s finally time to talk about arguably the most celebrated and beloved Coen brothers film, No Country for Old Men. Based off of the 2005 Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, this film is a wonderful example of how adaptation can be an additive process instead of simply reductive. We get into the comparisons between the two works of art, along with plenty of tangents about why 2007 was an amazing year for film, the peak ways of viewing this movie, our own semi-forgettable first-time watching experiences, Ed’s grandiose soliloquies, Kelly Macdonald’s underrated performance, and of course, the hair.

No film has been more forgotten in the Coens filmography than The Ladykillers, their stab at a 1955 British comedy set in the 21st-century American South. Like many movies we cover on this show, it falls into the realm of peaks and valleys. Everything Tom Hanks is doing? A peak! Joel and Ethan trying to write Black characters? A valley! As we try to untangle our feelings about this macabre and surreal film we also discuss Roderick Jaynes’ disdain for it, Irma P. Hall making Cannes Film Festival history, and exciting new theories about body odor. Plus: we mispronounce Apichatpong Weerasethakul!

We are returning to the Coen brothers to finish off the second half of their career after covering the first half last year. Starting off this week is Intolerable Cruelty, the forgotten romcom that came right in the middle of their less-appreciated early 00s run. Despite it’s lackluster central romance, we still find plenty to talk about relating to George Clooney’s teeth, asses getting nailed, why you shouldn’t do your taxes before watching this film, and of course, the legal ramifications of physically destroying a prenuptial agreement.

It’s time to trust Tom Cruise one last time in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. This final (?) chapter in cinema’s most consistent action franchise has some of the greatest stunts put to screen. It also has some of the most confusing storytelling choices, and is tonally kind of a disaster. We do our best to untangle this web and answer the most top-of-mind questions. Questions like should we allow Tom Cruise to die for our entertainment? Is The Entity fun anymore? Was Bill Clinton president in this universe? And why is Tom Cruise in his underwear for so much of this movie?

The end is here! Season 2 of Andor is officially in the books, and we’ve got one last batch of episodes to go over. Come for the incredible Kleya/Luthen backstory and cozy Yavin IV vibes, stay for the endless tangents about Jabba the Hutt’s son, morbid physical media thoughts, folding laundry movies, and our existential uncertainty towards the future of Star Wars.

The third batch of episodes is here, and it is the best of season two of Andor. Despite that, this week we have (mostly) come to terms with the fact that this will never quite be the same as season 1. Even though we still really really enjoy it! After that we get into several tangents about the immaculate production design, the introduction of the Force into this show, the prevalence of Jedi knowledge, and far and away the greatest death sequence in this show. But perhaps most importantly: what’s the correct umbrella term for spies/assassins/conmen? Liars? Deceivers? Decepters?

Spy stuff is happening! Syril is given a job to do! Wilmon is huffing gasoline! The Ghorman spiders are… well, actually we didn’t see as much of the Ghorman spiders as we had hoped, but this second batch of episodes in season two of Andor is still a decidedly fun time. Your co-hosts both had bad weeks in the Real World and were a bit distracted watching their weekly space opera, so please enjoy this exceedingly unhinged episode from two people who desperately need to turn out the light and sleep.