Nobody Movie Review Nobody doesn’t break new ground for the action genre, but director Ilya Naishuller’s fight sequences and stunt choreography are so good— and Bob Odenkirk’s performance is so great— it’s essential viewing for any fan of action cinema. This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast we review the bloody, crowd-pleasing, brutal, and never dull film, and debate if we would want to see a sequel or not. All this and more! Links: LinkTree Amazon Spotify iTunes Podbean YouTube Listen...

The Book of Boba Fett Season One Review This week on After Dark, Marc Kariloff of The Nintendo NEXpress Podcast joined to talk about The Book of Boba Fett.   With a lot of sand and a bit of pathos, Star Wars is finally telling the story of Boba Fett’s days after falling in the Sarlacc pit… at least for the first few episodes of Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett. Created by Jon Favreau and featuring episodes directed by Robert Rodriguez and Bryce Dallas Howard, The Book of Boba Fett is an...

After an 11-year gap, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s megabuck meta-slasher Scream franchise came back with the fourth installment in 2011, and to mark the occasion, Ricky D, Justine Smith and Simon Howell went back and dissect the original trilogy (in complete and spoiler-filled detail) before tackling Scream 4, which was reviewed in both non-spoiler and very, very spoiler-y format. This recording comes from episode 268 of the Sordid Cinema Podcast (formerly known as Sound On...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Following up from our epic Lord of the Rings ‘cast, Ricky D and Simon Howell had to find a way to keep the ante high to discuss The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. They could think of nothing better than to rope in one of their very favorite critics – and first-time guest – Nick Schager (Slant Magazine, Time Out NY, The Village Voice) to dissect the movie and its attendant technological advances in detail. Discussed: dwarf psychology, videogame aesthetics, 48...

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Review With The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey looming, we faced a problem: how do we tackle Peter Jackson’s epic, 11-hour (if we go by Extended Editions) Lord of the Rings saga without going insane? Ricky D and Simon Howell decided the best course of action was to double down. In this episode, they’re joined by Tolkien fiend Kate Fulzick of the Televerse podcast and Steve Prokopy a.k.a. Capone of Ain’t It Cool News to consider the entire trilogy as a unified...

Heels Season One Podcast Review This week on After Dark, we invited Mariko McDonald of the Talk AEW Podcast to discuss Heels! You don’t have to be a professional wrestling fan to fall head over heels in love with the new STARZ series starring Stephen Amell. Created by Michael Waldron (Loki) with Mike O’Malley serving as showrunner, Heels centers on a family-owned wrestling promotion (the Duffy Wrestling League) and follows brothers Jack (Amell) and Ace (Alexander Ludwig) Spade as they...

Yellowjackets Season One Podcast Review Welcome to Sordid Cinema After Dark, a series of bonus episodes in which we break down our favourite shows, past and present. Join Randy Dankievitch, Ricky D, and rotating guests as they discuss the current state of television and why they love the shows they love! In our inaugural episode, we review the first season of Yellowjackets, the new series from Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson that became the sleeper hit of 2021. For the...

The Matrix: Down the Rabbit Hole The Matrix is a movie made of groundbreaking special effects, superb martial arts combat, and mind-bending science fiction. It’s a movie that was not only ahead of its time but has stood the test of time and a movie that is still debated, decades later. It’s a film full of ideas, pulling from several influences ranging from Spaghetti Westerns, Hong Kong action cinema Japanese anime, Philip K. Dick, Alice in Wonderland, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and so much...

Censor Review The act of censorship cuts deep into the heart of Censor, a slick first feature from Welsh writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond. Censor is a nostalgic treat for anyone old enough to remember the infamous “video nasties” scare of the early eighties but it’s also a film about the power of editing, memory, and dealing with traumatic events from your past. In other words, it’s a movie about the grieving process and how deep-lying emotional trauma can cloud one’s identity and judgment—...

James Wan’s impact on contemporary horror is undeniable. The Malaysian-born Australian filmmaker is not only the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises but he’s also the creator of The Conjuring Universe, the second highest-grossing horror franchise of all time. Marking his return to horror after a detour into family-friendly blockbuster filmmaking, James Wan’s Malignant once again proves that the producer/director still knows a thing or two about making good horror...

The Beta Test Review Writer-director-actor Jim Cummings’ made a splash with Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow, two independently produced films that were both very well received on the American indie circuit. His latest, The Beta Test, co-written and directed with its co-star PJ McCabe was 100% crowdfunded and made specifically in a way to avoid the traditional old-school corporate model of moviemaking to have complete control of the final product. The Beta Test is many things: a...

Spider-Man: No Way Home Podcast Review Not even the pandemic can stop millions of people from flocking to theatres to watch the third installment of John Watt’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland as everyone’s favourite neighborhood Spider-man! Spider-Man: No Way Home unwrapped the best Holiday gift of all, becoming the first pandemic-era movie to cross $1 billion at the global box office. The numbers that Spider-Man: No Way Home is pulling in are nothing short of incredible and now that...

Scream (1996) Review Wes Craven’s Scream was an unexpected smash hit in 1996, revitalizing the horror genre and inspiring a new generation of self-knowing teen slasher films. For a generation of kids, Scream provided a gateway to horror movies, but how does it hold up 25 years later? In this episode of the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we revisit Craven’s canny, witty, and surprisingly effective slasher film and explain why it not only holds up but remains one of the greatest scary films ever made....

Succession Podcast Special! Fans already buying what Succession is selling won’t need us to convince them why they should be watching the show but in this episode of the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we do our best to convince everyone else why they should be watching the popular HBO series by showrunner Jesse Armstrong. And for those who have watched all three seasons of Succession, we break down season three towards the end of the episode and speculate about what could happen moving forward....

One False Move Spoiler Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we explain why we agree with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel that Carl Franklin’s low-budget crime pic One False Move, is one of the best films of 1992. Scripted by Thom Epperson and Billy Bob Thornton, the neo-noir is hard-hitting, skillfully performed, well shot, and perfectly paced. And while the film might not be a masterpiece, it sure is better than your average thriller and also features a breakthrough performance by the...

Anyone who’s even remotely familiar with Quebec cinema will know his name: Xavier Dolan is currently Canada’s chief prestige cinematic export, for better or worse. On episode 398 of the Sordid Cinema Podcast (then known as Sound On Sight), Kate Rennebohm and Justine Smith joined Simon Howell to debate the merits of his sixth feature, Mommy, for which he shared the Best Director prize at Cannes with none other than Jean-Luc Godard. Links: LinkTree Amazon Spotify iTunes Podbean YouTube Listen...

Dune 2021 Review There’s a lot to like about Denis Villeneuve’s version of Frank Herbert’s Dune and this week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast we discuss what we admire about the Montreal filmmakers’ adaptation of the complex, weighty sci-fi novel and how it compares to David Lynch’s 1984 vision. We’ll tell you why Dune is a feminist film even if it revolves around a very masculine world and explain why it has some of the best sound design of any blockbuster film in recent memory. We also examine...

Cube (1997) Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we revisit Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 science-fiction horror film Cube; a low-budget, high-concept, mind-bending, sci-fi-thriller that revolves around people trying to escape a giant cube made of 17,576 different rooms, some of which feature inescapable deadly traps. We debate if Cube was ahead of its time and discuss why we feel the film was so influential to other movies and TV shows like Squid Game, Battle Royale and Saw, to name just...

Squid Game Podcast Review You might think we’re late with our review of Squid Game, but we swear, it was all by design. Now that the hype has whittled down, we decided to sit back and discuss the Netflix phenomenon and why we think Squid Game— despite its many flaws— is one of the best shows of 2021. Squid Game has all the characteristics we love about Korean dramas including unexpected plot twists, over-the-top characters, and a story that grapples with economic anxieties and class...

No Time To Die Podcast Review With the help of certified Bond nut and ex-co-host Edgar Chaput, Ricky and Simon take a look at the gargantuan newest entry in the venerable (or at least very, very old) action series, which provides a definitive sendoff for its current star, Daniel Craig. Yes folks, this is our much-anticipated review of No Time To Die! Discussed: what Craig’s tenure says about the state of the character in the new century; the series’ specific and hit-or-miss style of...

David Lynch Special Part 1: Mulholland Drive Review In what turned out to be one of the most epic conversations in our podcast’s history, Ricky, Simon, and Edgar Chaput were joined by David Lynch superfan and friend of the show Kate Rennebohm for a two-part dissection of David Lynch’s films: 2001’s Mulholland Drive and 2006’s Inland Empire. Discussed: rabbits, the Lincoln assassination, the significance of doorknobs, yelling at Laura Dern, and many, many more odd tangents. Here is the first...

Midnight Mass Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we discuss Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass, the Netflix series which some critics are calling one of the best shows of 2021. The seven-episode creature feature smartly weaves together vampire tropes with biblical texts, blending horror with profound questions about spirituality, religion, and faith— and like Mike Flanagan’s best work, the show prioritizes characters and emotions over cheap scares and shock value. As long as...

Nosferatu the Vampyre Review This week, we take a look back at Nosferatu – no, not that one! Werner Herzog’s 1979 stab at the Dracula mythos, Nosferatu the Vampyre, complete with the great and terrible Klaus Kinski as the titular ghoul, is the one we’re taking a look at this time, inspired by recent news that Robert Eggers will be making a run at the same material for his next feature. Discussed: mass rat murder, the weirdnesses of the German/English dual release, and the eternal appeal of...