The veil has thinned. The leaves have fallen. The pumpkin guts line the garbage bins streetside, where swarms of masked adolescents march in unison in pursuit of sweet confections. The Twin Geeks, now aged 7, continues our annual tradition of Halloween specials with Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) — an inflection point where the now long-running series must either find a new direction or face imminent cancelation. As Fall sets in, the skies fill with darker clouds, and the rain...

Felicia Maroni (Seeing Faces in Movies) joins the show to discuss the first half of John Cassavetes' filmography: Shadows (1958); Too Late Blues (1961); A Child is Waiting (1963); Faces (1968); Husbands (1970); and Minnie & Moskowicz (1971). When we talk about John Cassavetes, we're talking about the history of American independent movies, from what preceded and influenced the movement, to how the format adapted and was deeply influenced by the style of indie auteurs like Cassavetes. By...

Paul Thomas Anderson's exquisite Phantom Thread (2017) is our New Year's movie of choice, as our friend Renee (follow on LB: Pixie_Bomber) sits in for a discussion that weaves discussions of terrific costume design with subjects who are driven to become experts in their field. Phantom Thread is one of the reasons this site came to exist and we'll always have time for PTA's tightly-wound precision. Meanwhile, George Clooney has directed The Boys in the Boat, the story of the UW rowing team who...

Your Christmas friends Calvin & Perla (follow on LB: pxcaballero) discuss cinema's weightiest Christmas film, Todd Haynes' exceptional Carol (2015). How do we perceive each other, Carol asks, at a perfect remove, characters stand back and observe one another. They take each other in. There is a boldness to let the movie happen, to always place the camera in the right place, having all the costumes right, having the right script, the right actors, the right everything, that goes right all...

It's a Thanksgiving special with... The Vvitch, perhaps our best American pilgrim cinema, as we're joined by our friend Warren Cantrell (Scene Stealers & The Playlist). This week, the whole feast is on the table, from comforting to deeply discomforting holiday movies, centering on Robert Eggers' modern classic. All this and reviews of some new films, like Rustin & The Holdovers, with a discussion about Alexander Payne's career and cancelation. There's nothing like Thanksgiving to...

Our friend Caless (BlackNerdMagic) joins us for a momentous entry in online cinema discourse: Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). We explore the rich themes of the flagship mob text, everything from the use of light and darkness to the film's systemic exploration of what draws its characters into lives of crime, and never lets go. One of the most storied movies ever made, we explore the dense text of the film, the context of its release, and how Coppola has shaped the future of crime...

The Twin Geeks Editor Vaughn, our resident Enthusiast of All Things, joins the show in promotion of his terrific new action cinema podcast, co-hosted with resident Musician for All of Our Theme Songs Jack. Their new show is called Throw Down, so-named after the excellent action film of the same name, which gives an idea of what kind of high-octane movies they will get up to on the show. You can already listen to the first two episodes! In this program, we take on an action-thriller classic in...

The night the Kentucky Gentleman came home! Our friend Jesse returns for our yearly tradition of exploiting the Halloween franchise for content. At this point, the series has received a genre-defining first film, a normal slasher sequel, a strange outlier sequel, a comeback movie, and now, a normal sequel to a comeback movie. That's how it goes with horror franchises, as we discuss exactly what has changed and what each change in the journey of the Halloween franchise means, as well as the...

Nicole Kidman makes movies better: which ones? Your friends at thetwingeeks.com rank all of them with a metric inspired by her best work, her We Make Movies Better ad for AMC. From Eyes Wide Shut to BMX Bandits, we cover all the significant works of a singular performer who has captured the widespread attention of the internet, and nearly everyone who has set foot in an American multiplex over the last several years. Nicole Kidman's career is as rich as it is varied and we're here to discuss...

Familycast resumes as Ezra joins the show to talk about her favorite things: Bluey, Nintendo Live, her cat, and everything else a six-year-old cares about. Thing about Bluey is that it's endlessly sweet, full of life lessons, beautiful character moments, and like Fast and Furious, it's about family. Likewise, Nintendo is for families, and we discuss our venture into the inaugural US edition of Nintendo Live at PAX West 2023. We also talk about other videogames, as Ezra endures a couple of...

Dear friend Perla sits in with us to discuss Todd Haynes' Safe. In this striking psychological horror film, Julianne Moore's character develops environmental sickness and an allergy to the conditions of the 20th Century. We frame the film in the context of movies about the lives of women in society and how hard it is to live in it. As we discuss their working relationship, Julianne Moore becomes something like a muse for Todd Haynes. We explore their work together and the importance of...

Welcome Jack Davenport to the show as he sits in for our long overdue retrospective of Guy Maddin's poem of home, My Winnipeg. Famed The Twin Geeks composer, co-founder, and the ACK of The Stacks, excellent musician 10secondbeats on Spotify, and popular Letterboxd member, Jack wears many hats, and puts on another one, analyzing a great work of docufiction, for our latest program. My Winnipeg does not have many / any other films that are exactly like it. It is most like a silent film, despite...

Friend of the show, professional podcast guest, and den mother to podcasts everywhere, Perla sits in with us for a wide-ranging discussion of David Lynch's full filmography, especially focused on the new restoration of The Elephant Man & SIFF's Dreams & Nightmares: The Films of David Lynch festival. We collect our shared passions for Lynch to give an incisive look at how the entire filmography informs one of his earliest works and how such a stylist can still find a clean fit with a...

Matt Farley (of Motern Media notoriety — see: Local Legends (2013) & Magic Spot (2022)) joins the show to discuss Richard Linklater's seminal 2016 hangout movie Everybody Wants Some!! We discuss the great and varied career of Linklater and his unmatched ability to find the in-between moments of life while also allowing the audience to live with his characters for a while. You can catch up with all of Matt Farley's movies on our podcast dedicated to his filmography, Don't Let the...

It's a double header with friend of the show Seth Vargas (Movie Friends Podcast). Seth sits in while we explore two rule-breaking essentials. First up is the rarely-seen Canadian film Crime Wave (1985) which is a totally different movie from Sam Raimi's Crimewave (1985). This one is a surrealist comedy written, directed, produced, and acted by Winnipeger John Paizs. There's something in the water, or snow, over there. It's like nothing you've ever seen before. On the other end of the...

Watching classic films on nitrate is one of the rarest opportunities in filmgoing and our friend Matt has attended an entire festival that works in this old tradition. Every time a nitrate picture is shown, the film degrades, and so herein presents a unique opportunity, to see these physical copies as they are now, how they will only be this once. A range of classic films is explored, centering on festival headliner Black Narcissus. We also explore the context and performance of the nitrate...

A very special guest joins the show! My daughter helps us rank all of the Pixar movies released ahead of Elemental and the takes are extreme. Please enjoy our father-daughter content and for the visual tier list, you can watch us rank 'em all on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewuc1mks5dw

Good for Health. Bad for Education. The Twin Geeks Editor Vaughn Swearingen joins the show to discuss Akira (1988) and why it has earned and maintained its title as The Definitive Anime. We use Akira as a launching point to discuss our month of Ani-May watches, our history with the medium, and the plethora of other great content that also deserves broad and international audiences.

All good things come to an end. Succession, as it stands, might be the best television program of a generation. As it draws to a close, it marks a distinct end of an era for HBO shows and the future of television. What does Succession tell us about the state of television, the future of prestige appointment television, and the shaky future ahead for Warner Bros. Discovery and their latest rebranding exercise? Friend of the show and The Twin Geeks television correspondent Tyler Harford joins...

If it's a podcast ya want, yer in one. Aaron White of Feelin' Film joins the show to discuss the spirited Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. From top-to-bottom, we trace the lineage of the Disneyland ride that inspired the franchise, the great Gore Verbinski action vehicles that defined the movies, those other two entries, and even a rarely-covered short film. Within our discourse, we discover a great love for the nautical adventuring series and lament the end of a certain kind of...

Dad & daughter join forces as a podcasting duo for the first time ever to record their thoughts after seeing Illumination's Mario film in theaters. Ezra shares her favorite videogames, movies, thoughts about the Mario Universe, Dreamlight Valley, and our shared favorite movie experiences. It's a special show about how families connect over movies and videogames. Let's-a go.

There’s no crying in baseball, as friend of the show Renee Marie joins for a wide-ranging discussion of the iconic A League of Their Own, which remains the pinnacle of Women’s Sports Movies. Films that live with us are our bread and butter. This is especially true for this episode, as Renee has a close personal relationship with the film, informed by hosting trivia nights, meeting one of the film’s stars, creating cosplay for conventions, modeling her cosplay for the film in magazines, and...

Our friend JD Duran from InSession Film joins the show to discuss the complete works of James Cameron’s filmography, why he is the king of sequels, and how his career as a foremost technician has advanced the course of filmmaking.

Every Best Picture winner in Oscars history enters and all are ranked according to your hosts, Calvin and Matt, organized into tidy tiers for your viewing and listening pleasure. Every movie has been watched, evaluated, and slotted into careful placement in our lists, including all but this year's eventual winner.