Happy holidays, listeners! Every year, we take on an unconventional Christmas movie around the Yuletide season, and this time we (along with returning guest Mark Soloff of Blastropodcast) dip back to investigate Tim Burton's deeply strange, fascinatingly weird superhero flick Batman Returns! After Burton's first Batman revitalized the superhero mov…

Every year, the Alcohollywood podcast takes the week before Christmas to celebrate the life and works of Sir Harry Connick Jr. - actor, musician, Renaissance Man. Harry Connickuh, listeners! For this episode, we take our appreciation for Harry Connick Jr. all the way to the beginning - his breakout film debut in the 1990 WWII drama Memphis Belle. C…

We only had time for one episode last month, so we're double-dipping this week by extending 00-vember into 00-cember! We move from Timothy Dalton to Pierce Brosnan with the 1997 007 flick Tomorrow Never Dies! Sure, Goldeneye revitalized the Bond franchise, introduced a stellar new Bond in Pierce Brosnan, and updated the secret agent to reflect more…

As a busy Thanksgiving month winds down, we realized that we haven't talked about a James Bond film for literally 200 episodes. To that end, we decided to get in a little 00-vember action with the severely underappreciated James Bond film The Living Daylights! The first of Timothy Dalton's two films as 007 (a criminally short tenure), The Living Da…

As we continue to wrap up our coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival, it's important to take a look at some of the smaller stuff that came out of the fest, especially those set in the city the festival calls home. Gregory Dixon's vibrant, energetic indie coming-of-age dramedy Olympia is a rather fun breath of fresh air - the tale of a …

Howdy, listeners! Today we're saddling up and sucking back some moonshine to an old Western classic, 1969's True Grit! (NOTE: I have used my pun quota for this episode; the rest of this post is safe for consumption). Along with guest panelist Gavin, Jared and Clint tackle the impertinence of Mattie Ross, a little history of Oklahoma, and the nuance…

Happy Alcohol-loween! We close out our Seven Deadly Sins edition of Horror Octorbor by going old-school for Wrath - the vengeance-filled slasher Friday the 13th! Sure, this is the one that doesn't have Jason in it - see our Freddy vs. Jason episode for our thoughts on the hockey-mashed butcher - but Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) still has some blood…

While dysfunctional family dramas are arguably a dime a dozen, Elizabeth Chomko's Chicago-centric debut What They Had stands out substantially from the pack. A touching, heartfelt tale of a woman (Hilary Swank) who returns home to help her brother (Michael Shannon) and father (Robert Forster) care for her Alzheimer's-afflicted mother (Blythe Danner…

The world of contemporary art is a wild, wild thing - millionaires bidding incredible amounts of money to collect works from modern artists based on reputation, potential future valuation, or even (on occasion) the actual aesthetic value of the piece. In his upcoming HBO documentary The Price of Everything, filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn (My Architect) t…

Horror Octorbor keeps a-chuggin' along this month, as we continue to break down the seven deadly sins! This week, we take a look at Envy in the context of 1992's erotic psychological thriller Single White Female! In the vein of other 90s domestic horror films like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Unlawful Entry, Single White Female explores the k…

Beautiful Boy is the latest brick in Amazon Studios' foundation of establishing itself as the new Miramax - the home of middlebrow American indies featuring sad white people going about their lives. Sometimes they're great, like Jim Jarmusch's Paterson; other times, well, it's Woody Allen's latest thing or Life Itself. Beautiful Boy is closer to th…

Horror Octorbor keeps on chugging, as we keep exploring the seven deadly sins with our entry for Lust, Species! This 1995 sexy-alien chiller (courtesy of Dante's Peak and The November Man's Roger Donaldson) features Ghosts of Mars' Natasha Henstridge as Sil, a sultry alien-human hybrid from outer space who escapes Ben Kingsley's government facility…

Novelist, screenwriter and Pulitzer-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck is a woman of many hats - the latest of which is the director of the independent ensemble comedy Trouble. A film with modest ambitions but no small amount of charm, its tale of a small-town sibling rivalry is bolstered by tremendous performances from a more-than-qualified cast …

(CONTENT WARNING: use of the word 'gypsy') We explain the full context of its usage in the episode, and its ubiquity in the film itself makes it relatively unavoidable as a term. However, we understand its seriousness as a pejorative to the Romani people, and apologize in advance for anyone who might be offended.) Seven years in, and Alcohollywood …

Hey, we're back! Clint's wedding and subsequent marriage has kept us busy, but now we're answering some mailbags (however indirectly) with the 2011 DreamWorks picture Puss in Boots! The Shrek spinoff wisely dispenses with a lot of the obnoxious, dated pop culture references of its parent series, and focuses on the adorably blustering outlaw Puss in…

The Self-Transcendence Race in New York City is a grueling, unrelenting 3,100-mile race held every year around a single block in Queens - 60 miles a day, 52 days. There's no prize money, no corporate endorsements - each of the runners who travel from around the world to participate do it for the higher purpose of self-improvement and spiritual prac…

For the latest On Tap minisode, we air an interview Clint conducted for the new John Cho computer-screen thriller SEARCHING - about a frantic father searching for his missing daughter by going through the clues on her laptop! Clint sits down with SEARCHING director Aneesh Chaganty and producer Sev Ohanian to talk about the origins of the project, t…

This week, we make a triumphant return to the mailbag, taking a listener request to discuss Paolo Sorrentino's ponderous arthouse quirk-fest This Must Be the Place! Consequence of Sound film editor Dominick Suzanne-Mayer joins us in this exploration of one of Sean Penn's stranger performances, as a washed-up Robert Smith-type rock star who returns …

Happy Shark Week everybody! It's the most fin-derful time of the year, and since The Meg is foolishly coming out two weeks after Shark Week, we're celebrating instead with one of the craziest Sci-Fi Original Movie-level shark flicks out there - Shark Attack 3: Megalodon! Starring a pre-fame John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Megalodon sees a P…

Lifechanger is a sneakier, more fascinating thriller than it might seem at first glance - the tale of a man doomed to feed off and inhabit the bodies of those he encounters to survive. His psychology twisted up in the memories of those he impersonates, and his lingering obsession with an old flame (Lora Burke), the protagonist of Lifechanger turns …

The main podcast is back, baby! Since Ant-Man and the Wasp has us thinking about all things shrinking, we decided to look at 1987's fun-sized adventure comedy InnerSpace! Film critic for HollywoodChicago.com (and now Alcohollywood!) Jon Espino joins us to dive into a movie from our 80s-kid childhoods - a Joe Dante romp of the finest order that sees…

(This review and interview originally ran as part of On Tap's previous run as its own separate feed. We're re-running it here in conjunction with All the Queen's Horses' release on Netflix.) This week for our On Tap minisode, Clint discusses the new indie doc from Kartemquin, All the Queen's Horses. Plus an in-studio interview with All the Queen's …

Arthouse queer enfant terrible Bruce LaBruce has crafted an interesting career as an underground director of gory, sexy, splatter-ific screeds on radical topics like terrorism, feminism, and gay liberation. His latest, The Misandrists (read our review here) is no exception; for this latest episode of On Tap, Theo Estes sits down with LaBruce to tal…

Alcohollywood's spinoff mini-cast On Tap returns! Every so often, we'll be providing you with exclusive interviews, reviews and festival coverage alongside the regular podcast. Hope you enjoy! To kick off our (semi-) inaugural installment, Clint reviews Leigh Whannell's upcoming sci-fi thriller Upgrade. After losing his wife and the use of his limb…

For this episode, we crashed Hotel Moxy in downtown Chicago for their inaugural Moxy SoundOff Podcast Series, trapping ourselves in a little glass booth for the entertainment of our live audience. Since this live podcast took place in a hotel, and we've already done The Shining, we decided to tackle the second-greatest movie set in a hotel - Dunsto…

What does it take to change the essence of a man? This week, we find out (along with regular guest Derek Jarvis) as we dive into Steven Seagal's eco-friendly auteur explosion-fest, On Deadly Ground! Seagal's sole director credit, On Deadly Ground features He of the Ponytail as oil-fire specialist/secret military badass Forrest Taft, a fixer for evi…

Jared's been zapped into another dimension, so Jon Espino of The Young Folks and HollywoodChicago.com joins Clint to investigate the mysteries of Netflix's Super Bowl-marketed sci-fi disaster The Cloverfield Paradox! A previously-unrelated sci-fi thriller given the J.J. Abrams treatment, The Cloverfield Paradox turns Julius Onah's The God Particle …

Danger, Will Robinson! With Netflix's reboot of Lost in Space coming out today, we (along with Lauren Faits, co-host of She-Ra: Progressive of Power) decided to talk about the first time the classic sci-fi show got revamped: the 1998 film Lost in Space! Reverse-engineering the campy 60s TV show into a four-quadrant CG blockbuster, Lost in Space see…

Somebody once told us to watch the 2001 ensemble road comedy Rat Race - we ain't the sharpest tools in the shed, so we did it (along with our very own all-star, Theo Estes)! The latest in a long tradition of star-studded broad comedies featuring groups of A-list actors on a wacky cross-country race, like It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Cannonba…

Erin go bragh, faithful listeners! This week, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day with our very own St. Patrick MacDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, as we down a pint and fight some beasties with the Irish horror comedy Grabbers! When a sleepy Irish town is beset by extraterrestrial octopods with a thirst for blood, the town must rally around an alcoholic…

It's Oscar season once again, and like we do every year, we do a deep dive into one of the Best Picture nominees! This time around, Michael Snydel of The Film Stage joins Clint (who's a little stuffy this episode, apologies in advance!) and Jared to talk about Guillermo del Toro's nomination-sweeping fantasy love story The Shape of Water! Set in a …

Happy Valentine's Day, sweethearts! Tighten your straps and practice your safe words, because we're getting kinky with 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey! The lovely Katie Rife (The AV Club) joins us to discuss Sam Taylor-Johnson's joyless adaptation of EL James' dangerously unsexy Twilight fanfiction novels detailing the dom/sub love affair between clums…

The Alcohollywood podcast is back after a month hiatus! We're moving to new episodes every two weeks, but we'll still bring you all the goodies you've come to expect. For this episode, we usher in 2018 with the found-footage horror flick Apollo 18, about a group of NASA astronauts at the height of the Cold War launching a clandestine moon mission t…

Now that the holidays are over, it's time for the real reason for the season - Connickuh! Every year, we celebrate the life and works of Sir Harry Connick, Jr., he of the golden voice and chiseled jaw. This year, our old friend Derek Jarvis comes on the show to harken back to the 1940s with the Frankie Muniz boy-and-his-dog movie My Dog Skip! Based…

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone! For this unconventional Yuletide, we bring in our dear friend, actress Alexia Jasmene, to discuss one of Clint's favorite Christmas films - 2015's trans-centric dramedy Tangerine! Directed by Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Tangerine follows trans sex workers Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and …

In anticipation of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jodie Whittaker's imminent ownership of the TARDIS on Doctor Who, we brought on Allison Shoemaker (Debating Doctor Who, Podlander Drunkcast) to talk about the interstellar action-comedy Attack the Block! When a council estate comes under siege from pitch-black beasties from outer space, it's up to gan…

We step into the ring this week with Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man's Movie Reviews to talk about Ryan Coogler's hit 2015 boxing drama Creed! Creed, starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone (in a role that almost won him an acting Oscar - curse you, Mark Rylance!), is one of the most acclaimed and heartfelt sequels of all time. Charting the tr…

This week, we strap on our guitars and talk about the forgotten 1980s musical drama Eddie and the Cruisers! Telling the fictional story of a one-hit wonder band in 1960s New Jersey, Eddie and the Cruisers follows the remaining members of the band (including Tom Berenger) trying to piece together their lives after the untimely death of frontman/visi…

This week, playwright Dusty Wilson joins us for one of the most poorly-timed movies of all time, 1986's Space Camp! A Spielberg pastiche that's equal parts E.T., Apollo 13 and Porky's, Space Camp follows a group of teen misfits (including Tate Donovan, Kelly Preston, Lea Thompson and a young Joaquin Phoenix) and their teacher (Kate Capshaw) as they…

This week, Jared and Clint strap on their eyepatches and impractically-sized Uzis for John Carpenter's sci-fi action flick Escape from New York! When the President (Donald Pleasance) crash-lands on the island prison of Manhattan, only one (inexplicably famous) prisoner can save him - Snake Plissken! Equipped with nothing but his wits and a bomb in …

This week, Jared and Clint go it solo after their stint at the Chicago Podcast festival to talk about 1977's psychedelic animated flick Wizards! Directed by 70s animation guru Ralph Bakshi, Wizards launches you into a classic tale of post-apocalyptic good vs. evil: the diminutive Avatar (voiced by a guy doing a hell of a Peter Falk impression) agai…

This week, we bring you a LIVE episode of the podcast, talking about the short horror anthology film Trick 'r Treat with special guest Ele Matelan (WildClaw Theatre)! Recorded at Chicago Theater Works as part of the 2nd Annual Chicago Podcast Festival, we take advantage of our 30-minute time slot to blitz our way through Trick 'r Treat's surprising…

This week, we close out Horror Octorbor 666 with our final piece of Satanic cinema - 1977's bizarre sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic! Journeyman film critic extraordinaire Jacob Oller joins us as we break down John Boorman's out-there followup to the William Friedkin classic, as young Regan (Linda Blair) teams up with a disgraced priest (Richard Bur…

HORROR OCTORBOR 666 continues apace with a look at the mid-90s Christopher Walken angel drama The Prophecy! Written and directed by Gregory Widen (known for writing all the Highlander and Prophecy movies, and well, that's it), The Prophecy tells the convoluted story of an angelic civil war, the little girl who might hold the key to some evil spirit…

HORROR OCTORBOR 666 continues, as we move down our list of devil-themed horror movies with the schlocky legal drama The Devil's Advocate! Jon Espino of HollywoodChicago.com and The Young Folks partners with us again to tell the story of Kevin Lomax (a ridiculously Southern Keanu Reeves), an unscrupulous Florida lawyer brought up to New York with hi…

Greetings, mortals! We drag back Some Kind of Goblin this year for our sixth horror theme month, HORROR OCTORBOR 666! It's all devil movies all month, baby! To start off, Scott Bufis of The Butter Hours joins us to talk about the crazy late-period Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle End of Days. Ever wanted to see Arnie fight Satan, all while secretly pl…

Are you ready to rumble?! This week, we're bringing you the recording of our LIVE episode from PodSlam '17, a wrestling-themed charity podcast marathon dedicated to Connor's Cure! Recorded at iO Chicago on September 23rd, Jared and Clint (along with special guest Randall Colburn of Consequence of Sound, The AV Club and elsewhere) break down the abj…

This week, Grant of Chip and Ironicus, Sex Archie and History Honeys joins us for the 2003 semi-cartoon comedy Looney Tunes: Back in Action! In this Joe Dante-directed mix of live action and animation, Daffy Duck gets fired from the WB lot because he's tired of playing second fiddle to Bugs Bunny. Before long, they (along with hapless human co-star…

This week, Theo of Twin Cinema (who covered this film on their show as well) joins us to talk about the classic 1944 psychological thriller Gaslight! When a young newlywed (Ingrid Bergman, in an Oscar-winning performance) moves in with her controlling new beau Anton (Charles Boyer) into her late aunt's home, she finds herself the victim of psycholo…

This week, we go do some crimes with regular guest (and director of The Plagiarist's latest show, Ubu II) Nick Freed as we talk about the 1984 punk cult classic Repo Man! Alex Cox's deliberately weird, anarchic joyride follows an aimless young punk (Emilio Estevez) who finds himself employed at an unscrupulous auto repossession company. Learning th…