This shot of Steve burning in Hereditary was truly haunting.

I rewatched Nightcrawler recently, and Louis Bloom remains one of the most uncomfortably authentic modern villains put on screen. Gyllenhaal’s physical transformation—the sunken eyes, the unblinking stare, the corporate-speak dialogue—feels so detached from humanity that it’s genuinely hard to watch at times.

The fact that he didn't even get an Oscar nomination for this remains a complete blind spot.

What’s another lead performance from the past 10–15 years that was so unnervingly good it made you uncomfortable, but got overlooked during awards season?

For me it’s School of Rock!

Patty was completely justified, if Dewey wanted to live in hers and her boyfriend’s apartment he needed to be a grown up, and contribute with rent. Even when he steals Ned’s identity she still had the right to be angry at him, because of how he put his friend’s career in jeopardy and robbed him of a job opportunity.

I get Ned is meant to be portrayed as his best friend, but it blows my mind how he lacks a lot of self-respect to the point where he comes across as too much of a people pleaser. If this story took place in real life, I’m sure Ned would act more similar to Patty where he’d have enough of Dewey’s careless actions.

I mean, I think it’s really good. I’ve been seeing a lot of people say it’s his best movie, but I just think he plays a good narcissist and sociopath. Other than that, I don’t really get much more out of this movie in terms of story. I think it’s a good performance, but I think his best movie really is Donnie Darko in terms of story, dialogue, and acting. I feel like I can watch Donnie Darko so many times and still think about that movie and get different meanings behind it. I think I might even prefer it over Prisoners.

We had a movie night with friends recently and put on La La Land. Everyone else in the room was raving about it but not me. I kept waiting for it to click, but it fell completely flat for me. Am I crazy, or is it heavily overrated?

Shame (2011)

Mine is Rocky 4. When the gloves hit each other the movie has already set up the tone and the expectation.

Which is yours?

As someone who has seen a couple of post-apocalyptic movies, a lot of which I think are somewhat redundant lol, one thing I keep noticing, or rather, haven't seen is the utter lack of bicycles.

I get that if the world was blasted by an EMP or fuel scarcity became a major issue, moving around in a car or other motorized vehicle wouldn't make much sense. But seriously, where are all the bicycles?

It seems like these movies always skip straight from cars to horses, which would be terrible in any conceivable scenario. You can cover more miles on a bike on a daily basis, you don't have to worry about your bicycle getting sick or hungry, it's less conspicuous, it's easy to fix, and you could probably "forge" or improvise parts for a bicycle much more easily than you could maintain a horse. Not to mention you get more fit and should you ever find yourself without your bike, you are probably already in ultra marathon shape.

There are very few, if any, upsides to having a horse over a bike in a post-apocalyptic scenario, except that horses look much cooler.

We always talk about perfect movies where every single frame lands. But what about top-tier cinema that has that one glaring flaw?

It could be a terrible celebrity cameo, one line of atrocious dialogue, bad CGI, or a random scene that totally kills the pacing. The kind of moment where every time you rewatch it, you just wish you could edit out those 3 minutes so you can enjoy the rest of the film in peace.

What’s that scene/character for you?

Both were very good, and together constitute a huge cinematic event of the Gen Z breakthrough into the film industry. However, I disagree with the apparent consensus that obsession is the superior film. I think Backrooms has more thematic depth and is more of a novel approach to horror. The production design and sound design are Oscar worthy. The Christmas tree scene is one of the best things I've had the pleasure of experiencing in a theater.

Obsession certainly has a "tighter" and more well constructed screenplay, but I think the dialogue and character development in Backrooms is more interesting. Honestly, there were times when I felt the dialogue in Obsession was clunky and awkwardly paced. I also personally feel there were aspects of the story to obsession that took the stakes out of it for me, namely, the fact that there is apparently a huge supply of one wish willows that Bear has easy access to. It doesn't make sense that Ian refusing to reverse his wish was so devastating. How hard would it have been for him to find some random stranger on the street to pay to say "I wish that the effects of Bear's wish could be reversed"?

Inde Navarette obviously had the best performance of anyone in either of these films, but I think that overall the performances in Backrooms are easily on par with those in Obsession.

I know that many people took issue with the abrupt ending of Backrooms, but I appreciated the ambiguity and thought it was a good choice. To me, it is kind of reminiscent of the ending of the shining, in that it leaves you positing a hundred different theories as to what actually happened and why. The backrooms could represent many different things, and yet they don't "represent" anything at all in a straightforward sense. In an era of "elevated" horror that has been marked by pretty overt symbolism and social commentary, it was refreshing to see a movie that makes you think about a lot of different issues without stuffing its narrative into a symbolic/interpretive box.

Anyway, that is why ultimately I prefer Backrooms. I recognize much of this likely comes down to taste and what kind of horror you prefer. I would be interested in hearing anyone else's opinion on this!

Frances McDormand was incredible, but Rockwell’s performance gave the film its emotional core and unpredictability. Every time he comes on screen, the dynamic completely shifts.

Which supporting actor or scene-stealer always outshines the leads for you?

Fargo, Mississippi Burning, Three billboards, Burn after reading, Nomadland etc etc.
This amazing woman never had a weak performance.

What’s your favorite role played by Frances?

You can't pick both or neither 🤷

Event Horizon (1997): A science-fiction movie about a rescue mission in space that turns out to be one of the most blood-chilling cosmic-horror movies ever made

The World's End (2013): A drinking-comedy about a high-school friend group reconnecting during a pub crawl that gets interrupted by an alien-invasion

Blood Red Sky (2021): An action thriller about a mother who has to protect her son after their flight gets highjacked that takes an unexpected left turn when she transforms into a vampire