Film and TV Reviews and Podcasts
In this episode, I welcome my friend Sam Watermeier (Midwest Film Journal) back to the show to review The Matrix Resurrections! I also share the podcast’s and my writing stats for 2021 and countdown my Honorable Mentions.
It’s been two and a half decades since Scream (1996) revitalized the slasher genre and changed the game for mainstream horror with a clever, meta script from Kevin Williamson brought to life by Wes Craven’s masterful direction. Scream ’96 was as much a twisted love letter to the horror genre as it was a slasher in its own right. And it garnered three sequels of varying (though all solid) quality. Now, the directing team behind 2019’s Ready or Not, Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett), have brought the Scream franchise back with Scream (2022), an endlessly clever and violent “re-quel” that honors Wes Craven’s legacy and shows reverence for the franchise he created with writer Kevin Williamson.
Happy New Year and welcome to The Obsessive Viewer’s 2021 Year in Review episode! It’s our annual episode where Tiny, Mike, and I share our movie viewing stats for the year and our top ten favorite movies lists. So join us as we reflect on another odd pandemic year and hope for a better year in 2022.
See for Me is a home invasion thriller with a unique spin. The lead character is blind and relies on a service app called See for Me, where an operator guides the user through their phone’s camera. It’s a fine enough hook for the film to start with but See for Me quickly shoves the concept aside for a more formulaic thriller. Sadly, what could have been an interesting entry in a tired subgenre turns into a dull limp to its expected finish line.
In this episode, Fekkes and I catch up and review Spider-Man: No Way Home. I was originally going to double up and pair this with a review of The Matrix Resurrections, but we went long enough to make this it’s own standalone episode!
Eighteen years have passed since the Wachowskis concluded The Matrix trilogy and were met with varying degrees of disdain and disappointment from the fan base. Now, Lana Wachowski (sans sister Lilly) has brought audiences back into the Matrix with The Matrix Resurrections. With this installment, Wachowski reintroduces us to Neo and Trinity and some familiar (and not so familiar) faces as they find themselves once again at the whim of machine overlords who’ve imprisoned humanity in a simulated world.
The Indiana Film Journalists Association has named “Mass,” an intimate and harrowing drama about two sets of parents facing off over a shared tragedy, as Best Film of the Year. It won four awards total, including Best Original Screenplay for Fran Kranz, the first-time writer/director who also was named Breakout of the Year, and Best Ensemble Acting for the cast of Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton.
In this episode, Tiny and I discuss the IFJA nominations and the news of a Villeneuve adaptation of Rendezvous with Rama before diving into some Extended Potpourri! We then round out the episode with special post-screening recordings discussing West Side Story and Nightmare Alley.
In this episode, Ben and I discuss several 2021 releases we have watched in preparation for the IFJA end of year awards voting.
A tricky biography of one of America’s most singular voices.
IIn this episode, Mike and I catch up and chat about our Shocktober horror movie viewings for this year.
An eight-week long car crash of human proportions.
Though it should be commendable and refreshing anytime new players are introduced to the MCU, the storytelling issues within Eternals (and the greater MCU formula itself) are oftentimes not enough to delay the inevitable. The truth is, Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought with it an undeniable sense of franchise fatigue.
The thinking man’s MCU film.
A masterful exploration of memory and grief.
The Obsessive Viewer 