Filmspotting

From the writer/directors of Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Apple TV’s Cold War comedy Mayday was a promising title on the 2026 streaming movie calendar. Unfortunately, Matt and Jordan agree that the film isn’t the equal to those earlier films (no thanks to a phoned-in performance from Ryan Reynolds), despite a clever premise and the presence of Kenneth Branagh, who is having the time of his life. Matt digs into Branagh’s strange career in the Rec Seg, suggesting an early Branagh effort (as both director and star) as an alternative, and Jordan answers with a film that finds Christian Bale as a fighter pilot caught behind enemy lines. Plus, Bran-agh Flakes!, a Jordan-hosted game.
(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)
Intro (00:00:00–00:05:43)
Mayday (00:05:44–00:26:32)
Rec Seg! (00:26:33–00:44:40)
Game: Bran-agh Flakes (00:44:41–01:02:24)
New to Streaming / Credits (01:02:25–01:11:29)
Show Notes
Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive⁠ https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/⁠
Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th):⁠ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/⁠
Feedback: Email us at feedback@filmspottingSVU.com
Follow Matt on Blue Sky: @mattsinger.bsky.social
Follow Jordan on Blue Sky: @jhoffman.bsky.social
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Chris Klimek convenes a battle of the bands between two of the most acclaimed concert films ever made: Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense and Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz.
One is a lean, propulsive document of Talking Heads at the height of their powers, transforming a live performance into something theatrical and strangely transcendent. The other is a star-studded farewell to The Band that expands beyond a single concert into a sweeping elegy for an era of rock and roll itself.
Arguing for The Last Waltz is Steven Hyden (Is This It: The Never-Ending Rise and Fall of The Strokes and Rock and Roll), who contends that Scorsese's film is more than a concert movie: it's the definitive cinematic statement on rock music and its mythology. Representing Stop Making Sense is Elizabeth Cantwell (Bright Wall/Dark Room), who makes the case that Demme's film remains the more immersive, inventive, and enduring work of cinema.
Is the greatest concert film about a band, or about rock and roll itself? Which movie best captures the power of live music on screen? Choose your winner at moviedeathmatch.com.
CHAPTERS
Intro / Meet the Advocates (00:00:00-00:09:55)
Rd. 1 The Movies in Their Time (00:09:56-00:45:03)
Rd. 2 The Movies in Our Time (00:45:04-01:14:53)
Rd. 3 The Movies for All Time (01:14:54-01:29:55)
The Verdict / Credits (01:29:56-01:35:42)
More From Elizabeth:
-One Must Imagine Talking Heads Happy
https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/07/11/stop-making-sense-one-must-imagine-talking-heads-happy/
-Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast
https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/podcast/
-Assault on Precinct 13 and Schrödinger's Cat
https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2026/06/15/assault-on-precinct-13-john-carpenter-schrodingers-cat/
More From Steven:
-Indiecast
https://art19.com/shows/indiecast
-Evil Speakers | Substack
https://stevenhyden.substack.com/
-There Was Nothing You Could Do
https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/steven-hyden/there-was-nothing-you-could-do/9780306832062/
-Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/steven-hyden/your-favorite-band-is-killing-me/9780316259156/
More From Chris:
Reviewing the opening of David Byrne’s 2008-9 Everything That Happens Will Happen Today tour for the Washington Post
Pop Culture Happy Hour: David Byrne’s American Utopia
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SUBURBAKNIGHT: Act Three
Walter Knope has spent most of his life avoiding confrontation.
That is about to become difficult.
Walter, Samantha and Bobby Joe cross the street armed with a sword, a crossbow, a mace, a revolver and one deeply impractical suit of medieval armor.
Richard is waiting.
So is the rest of the neighborhood.
Inside Richard's house they discover the party has evolved into something considerably less HOA-approved. Music. Neon. Blood. An orgy full of succubi. Richard sitting above it all like Satan's sexiest homeowners association president.
Samantha asks where her daughter is.
Then shoots Richard through the eye with a crossbow.
It barely slows him down.
Written by Nick Bannister, SUBURBAKNIGHT reaches its gloriously unhinged conclusion as Walter's fight to save his family becomes a full-scale supernatural war over everything he thought he had already lost.
Richard separates them.
Walter gets beaten nearly unconscious. Samantha is pulled into a seductive nightmare built from everything she thinks she wants. And Bobby Joe does what any legendary demon hunter would do when confronted with actual demons.
He runs.
Unfortunately, Richard isn't finished with him either.
Bobby Joe finds himself inside the greatest fantasy of his life: back on the set of Terror Vision, surrounded by beautiful women telling him he's brilliant.
Even Bobby Joe eventually realizes something is wrong.
When the illusion breaks, he finds Mia.
Or at least something wearing Mia.
One conveniently placed antique mirror later, Bobby Joe finally discovers that some of his monster-movie bullshit may actually be useful.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Bobby Joe Williams earns the title:
Demon Hunter.
Mia is safe.
Her parents aren't.
So Bobby Joe locks her in his van and goes back inside.
Walter and Bobby Joe reunite, fight their way through Richard's newly demonic neighbors and discover something hidden beneath the perfect suburban house.
A passageway.
An underground chamber.
And portraits proving Richard has been doing this for centuries.
At the end of the tunnel, Walter finds Samantha.
Richard has already gotten to her.
Now Walter has to do something harder than fighting a demon.
He has to remind his wife why she loved him in the first place.
College. Their first night together. Bringing Mia home. Losing his father. Twenty years of marriage, mistakes, resentment, forgiveness and everything that somehow survived underneath it.
For once, Walter gets the words right.
And Richard discovers that a disappointing middle-aged husband with an antique sword, a pissed-off wife and a washed-up horror host can be surprisingly difficult to kill.
What follows involves swords, guns, fire, a full-size demon, one extremely unfortunate anatomical injury and Bobby Joe's panel van.
Because sometimes saving your marriage takes work.
Sometimes it takes therapy.
And sometimes it takes blowing up an incubus.
Starring Darin Toonder, Jim O'Heir, Jade Tailor, Jack Daniel, Rob Fitzgerald, Logan Laurel, Emily Brolin, Ashley Platz, and Zeke Alton.
Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.
Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.
Find The Show : Table Read Podcast
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With The Dog Stars in theaters, Adam and Josh invited Vulture’s Roxana Hadadi to the show for a Ridley Scott Draft. Picks one and two are easy: Alien or Blade Runner. But what about the third pick? And will divisive Scott films like Prometheus and Kingdom of Heaven get any love? Plus, a Golden Brick nomination for the new Filipiñana, thoughts on the passing of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, and Massacre Theatre.
This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off.
(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)
Intro (00:00:00-00:02:08)
Ridley Scott Draft, Pt. 1 (00:02:09-01:05:14)
Filmspotting Family (01:05:15-01:11:14)
Ridley Scott Draft, Pt. 2 (01:11:15-01:42:50)
Brickspotting: Filipiñana (01:42:51-01:46:50)
RIP Dolly Parton, Tim Curry (01:46:51-01:53:04)
Massacre Theatre (01:53:05-01:59:42)
Credits / Releases (01:59:43-1:48:48)
Notes:
-Who won the Ridley Scott Draft?
https://www.filmspotting.net/top-5-lists-archive/1079-ridley-scott-draft
-"Eva Green rules the much longer, much better director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven"
https://www.avclub.com/eva-green-rules-the-much-longer-much-better-director-s-1846466625
-"Alexander Siddig Answers Every Question We Have About Kingdom of Heaven"
https://www.vulture.com/article/alexander-siddig-tells-us-everything-about-kingdom-of-heaven.html
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With Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars in theaters and our own Ridley Scott Draft (with Vulture's Roxana Hadadi) coming Friday, we're sharing this 2017 Sacred Cow review of Scott's sci-fi classic. Michael Phillips joined Adam and Josh.
Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠.
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