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Mike Schulz talks with Dave and Darren jaw about the dubious-sounding merits of Chantal Akerman’s celebrated 1975 Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, and The Fireplace, an Adult Swim Yule Log that’s reminiscent of “Too Many Cooks” — in a good way — before segueing into the dramedy Spoiler Alert, based on an end-of-life memoir where the focal character is “aggressively irritating” — but the film’s “pleasant, at best” nonetheless; Emancipation, Will Smith’s “attempt to reclaim the Oscar’s glory,” but which probably won’t happen, despite his portrayal of Whipped Peter, a real-life slave who gets his own back; and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, whose stop-motion-animated charms are lost on Mike, in spite of (or because of) the critical adoration it’s received. . .

“Spoiler Alert,” “Emancipation,” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”

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Mike, Dave, and Darren suss out the forthcoming Avatar sequel, which needs to make approx $2 billion in order to break even, before getting down to Violent Night (David Harbour as a pissed-off Santa and a “transcendent” scene that acts as a hilarious corrective to the Home Alone house-defense sequence); RRR (an Indian action musical that’s “really over-the-top and well-staged,” with musical numbers that are “insanely good, insanely well-choreographed and fast and fun”); Sr (a Netflix documentary about Robert Downey Jr getting to know Robert Downey Sr, who died in 2021); Stutz (doc about Jonah Hill’s therapy with Dr Phil Stutz — better than it sounds); Causeway (an Aghan War vet played by Jennifer Lawrence which ”could have been better”); and All Quiet on the Western Front (an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel about a German soldier’s experience in the First World War — “talk about ‘Violent Night’!” — that may well be an Oscar-winner when that hallowed event finally rolls around).

“Violent Night,” “RRR,” “Sr,” “Stutz,” “Causeway,” and “All Quiet on the Western Front”

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Mike gives lightning hot takes to Dave and Darren on the myriad of film he managed to watch since the previous week. Just look at that list.

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Devotion,” “Bones & All,” “Good Night Oppy,” “Strange World,” “The Menu,” “She Said,” “The Wonder,” and “Spirited”

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Mike discusses with Dave, and Darren how real-world events (read: Chadwick Boseman’s death) have made “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” “a bit of a bummer,” especially when paired with “dumb jokes” that don’t land — are you sick of Marvel movies yet? Well, then, “Aftersun,” set in the present, reflects upon a character’s “beautiful, sad” family history, and it does grief considerably better than “Black Panther”’s director Ryan Coogler; and “The Good Nurse,” a drama concerning Jessica Chastain’s efforts to neutralize Eddie Redmayne, a suspected serial killer. While Chastain shines, Redmayne’s general dislikeability prevents audience-interaction with his character beyond sheer irritation. And who wants to go to the movies to be irritated?

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Aftersun,” and “The Good Nurse”

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Mike discusses with Dave, and Darren how The Banshees of Inisherin could have been darker, considering the subject is loneliness in late middle-age and digit-removal in early-1920s Ireland, but is fine with its likability; how Armageddon Time is a little bit “afterschool-special-ly” for a film with a title like Armageddon Time, but, since it’s set in mid-Eighties Manhattan grade school, he “quite liked it” anyway; and how Decision to Leave, “a Korean take on Vertigo,” is playful, scary, and funny, with an “innocent-ish” ingénue — like a Hitchcock film (whether Korean or not left unspoken).

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Armageddon Time,” and “Decision to Leave”

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Dave and Darren discuss with Mike Schulz re Cate Blanchett getting #MeToo’d in TÁR; the power of Danielle Deadwyler’s performance of Emmett Till’s mother in Till; how unfortunate Call Jane is for being well-meaning, despite the worthiness of its subject matter (the late-Sixties/early-Seventies Jane Collective, the group of Chicago women who, with considerable personal risk, arranged for other women to have safe, illegal abortions until the 1973 Roe v Wade decision); and a “cruddy PG-rated Exorcist rip-off” that is Prey for the Devil.

Code of Conductor: “TÁR,” “Till,” “Call Jane,” and “Prey for the Devil”

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Mike, Dave, and Darren discuss “one of the most remedial” hits of late (Black Adam); Ticket to Paradise, which is somehow worse than Black Adam (might be the lack of capes); and Triangle of Sadness, the Palm D’Or film where the cast is as loathsome as Ticket to Paradise, but the laughs at their loathsomeness actually land.

“Black Adam,” “Ticket to Paradise,” and “Triangle of Sadness”