For this episode, Nate and Ryan picked from the slate of Best Picture nominees and decided to re-watch Past Lives, their favorite movie from 2023, and a stunning directorial debut from playwright Celine Song. While it’s not a front-runner for any Oscars, Past Lives has been widely recognized as something special, which is saying something, given ho…

Nate and Ryan discuss the Golden Globe winning and Oscar nominated Alexander Payne comedic drama The Holdovers. Much has been made of the reunion of Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne after 20 years. Added to their alchemy are Da’Vine Joy Randolph (in yet another standout performance) and newcomer Dominic Sessa. What results is a throwback comedy th…

For our Gap Year T. Hanksgiving, Nate and Ryan watch The ‘Burbs, the 1989 Tom Hanks cult classic directed by Joe Dante. Featuring a stacked cast, including Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, and Corey Feldman, in addition to the man himself, The ‘Burbs is a horror/comedy that kind of befuddled audiences and critics in the late ’80s, but has developed a gro…

‘Tis the season for our 10th annual Holiday Spooktacular, and as part of our Gap Year, we’re watching Hereditary, Ari Aster’s 2018 hit horror film starring Toni Collette. Hereditary took audiences by storm and continued studio A24’s rise to prominence in the current film conversation. It’s a career-making first feature for Ari Aster, and an electri…

Nate and Ryan watch Bringing out the Dead, a Gap Year movie by one of their favorite directors, Martin Scorsese. Released in 1999, Bringing out the Dead was largely ignored by audiences and remains one of Scorsese’s forgotten works. Listen in as Nate and Ryan dig into the merits of this underappreciated gem. If you haven’t seen Bringing out the Dea…

Nate and Ryan get in the summer blockbuster mood by watching Predator (1987) for the first time. As part of our Gap Year series, we’re catching up on this action classic over 35 years later. As often happens, Predator is now looked at quite differently from when it was first released. Nate and Ryan share their first impressions and whether or not a…

Nate and Ryan watch Under the Tuscan Sun with special guest Rachel Hughes Gates. As we continue to rectify blind spots during this Gap Year, Rachel suggested that we watch Under the Tuscan Sun, a movie that has stuck with her ever since she saw it in theaters 20 years ago. Though the movie didn’t make the biggest splash upon its release, it has mai…

Nate and Ryan watch and discuss Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve. As the beginning to what we’re calling our Gap Year, where we fill in gaps in our viewing history, we’ve chosen to watch Sicario, with an unbelievable cast and crew that includes cinematographer Roger Deakins, and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, not to mention stars Emily Blunt, J…

Really quick announcement: We will NOT be discussing Marcel the Shell with Shoes On for our March episode and will instead be watching and discussing Sicario. Watch it with us!Ryan Ebling and Nate Gass

Nate and Ryan re-watch Everything Everywhere All at Once. In addition to being the top nominated movie at this year’s Oscars (11 nominations), Everything Everywhere All at Once is also one of our favorite movies from last year. Despite, or maybe because of its mind-bending multiversal action, audiences flocked to see it and dared to look into the c…

For their annual Holiday episode, Nate and Ryan re-watch the ultimate Christmas movie: A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s the first TV special on this podcast, and there couldn’t be a more fitting choice. A staple since it’s debut in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas has brought joy and melancholy to generations. Listen in as Nate and Ryan discuss what …

Nate and Ryan discuss You’ve Got Mail to celebrate this year’s annual T. Hanksgiving! Rom-Com Tom Hanks won America’s hearts throughout the ’90s, so listen in as Nate and Ryan take a look at Hanks and Meg Ryan at the peak of their powers. Directed and written by Nora Ephron with her sister Delia, You’ve Got Mail revisits a time when the internet wa…

Nate and Ryan celebrate their 9th Holiday Spooktacular by watching Get Out, Jordan Peele’s 2017 Oscar-winning horror contemporary classic. We’re continuing our Back to School series with another movie that Ryan teaches in his high school class. Listen in as we discuss the philosophical and social implications in Peele’s razor-sharp writing in his d…

Nate and Ryan revisit No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers’ 2007 Best Picture Oscar winner. No Country for Old Men is one of the movies Ryan teaches in his high school class, so for our September episode, Nate wanted to go back to school and hear what Mr. Ebling has to say. While No Country for Old Men is one of the Coens’ most successful film…

Nate and Ryan invite long-time friend Andrew Johnson in to discuss 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats, a flop when it was released 21 years ago, but now a film that many are rethinking as its lasting impact is more apparent. Andrew has championed Josie ever since he first saw it in college, and has now brought his campaign to us. From the music, to the…

Nate and Ryan invite Kris Hiew in to talk about Top Gun, the 1986 hit whose recent hit sequel has Tom Cruise wowing audiences again. Kris and Nate have a long history with Top Gun and bring all that childlike wonder into the conversation. With the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick proving to be one of the biggest movies of the year, listen in as we discuss…

For their first volume of underappreciated movies, Ryan and Nate discuss Spencer and Happy Go-Lucky. Listen in as they discuss two powerhouse performances that are criminally underrated. While quite different in tone, both movies feature women who are trying to navigate worlds that don’t know what to do with their unique personalities. Ryan and Nat…

For this episode, Nate and Ryan watch the most recent Best Picture winner, CODA. Its story of a deaf family portrayed by deaf actors is an important step in diverse representation and storytelling. Even before its historic Oscar win for Troy Kotsur – the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar, CODA was making waves at Sundance when Apple TV+ paid 25…

Nate and Ryan talk about Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning masterpiece, Spirited Away. Miyazaki is undoubtedly a legend of cinema, and with Spirited Away celebrating the 20th anniversary of its US release, the time is perfect to revisit one of the most iconic animated films of all time. Whether it’s the first time or you’ve seen it before, watch with …

For their 100th episode, Nate and Ryan name the movies that have defined them as people and as movie-watchers. After a century of episodes over 8 years, Nate and Ryan haven’t really talked about how certain movies have shaped them over the course of their lives. With the help from some listeners who share their own lists, Nate and Ryan talk about t…

As Nate and Ryan prepare to share the five movies that define them in their 100th episode, they check in to share a few of their favorites from 2021. We also invite you to share the movies that define you (however you define that). Give us all 5 or just name a few definitive movies and you might find yourself featured in our 100th episode! Call and…

For this year’s holiday celebration, Nate and Ryan watch a staple from their childhood, Home Alone, the 1990 smash hit directed by Chris Columbus and written by John Hughes. An annual tradition for many people, is Home Alone a movie people can even talk about objectively? Listen in as they discuss what has made Home Alone endure for more than 30 ye…

For this year’s T. Hanksgiving, Nate and Ryan watch Tom Hanks’ writing and directing debut That Thing You Do! Dripping in ’60s nostalgia, That Thing You Do! tells the story of The Wonders a fictional rock band who rise to the top of the charts with the titular song. Even though That Thing You Do! isn’t necessarily one of his major hits, it’s quinte…

It’s our 8th annual Holiday Spooktacular and this year, Nate and Ryan are talking about a true horror classic: The Silence of the Lambs, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. One of the rare horror movies to be nominated for Best Picture, The Silence of the Lambs is in even rarer company as one of only three movies to win “the big 5” of Best …

Nate and Ryan welcome Watson Jones III to discuss The King’s Speech, 2010 winner of the Best Picture Oscar directed by Tom Hooper. The King’s Speech was a somewhat improbable winner in an especially strong movie year. It was in that backlash-filled atmosphere that many people watched Colin Firth act his way to a long-deserved Oscar. But what is it …

Nate and Ryan are back with a brief update for the next episode and a response to a listener question about our 2014 episode about The Avengers. Listen in as they revisit their predictions and reactions from 7 years ago and reflect on how their ideas hold up now that the initial phases of Marvel’s grand plan have come to pass. Join us for our Septe…

Nate and Ryan welcome Ryan’s long-time friend Dr. Bradley Rettler to discuss Hamilton, the 2015 Broadway hit that made its film debut on Disney+ in 2020. Listen in as they discuss what there is to love about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s complex musical, what is different about watching the show 6 years later, and what the show’s legacy might be. So how big…

Nate and Ryan welcome Phil Vickers back to talk about Labyrinth, one of Phil’s favorite childhood movies, that also happens to be a Jim Henson classic that is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Nate and Ryan don’t have the long history with the movie that Phil does, so they discuss what the movie has to offer to people of all ages. Of cour…

Photo by Sai Kiran Anagani on Unsplash Nate and Ryan share that they took a small break and discuss what they’ve been watching so far this summer. Don’t forget to watch Labyrinth with us as we prepare for our next episode with special guest Phil Vickers! Labyrinth is available to stream on HBOMax or check your local library.…

Nate and Ryan welcome very special guest Kelsey Ebling (Ryan’s wife) to discuss The Tree of Life, Kelsey’s most recent favorite movie. In 2011, The Tree of Life was Terrence Malick’s long-awaited return after more than a decade, and his semi-autobiographical mediation on grief, God, and grace was highly praised by critics. It also made a strong imp…

Nate and Ryan welcome Andrew Milam and Nate Cox from the Two Beards Please podcast to discuss MASH and Pollock. Andrew and Nate each picked a movie that has been influential on their lives, and we give them the Can We Still Be Friends treatment. We help the Beards dig into the ways the movies have influenced them and how their thoughts on the movie…

Nate and Ryan discuss the 1988 Eddie Murphy classic Coming to America and its 2021 sequel, Coming 2 America. The original is held in high regard, but the sequel has received mixed reviews, even by ardent fans of the 1988 smash hit that cemented Eddie Murphy’s place as a comedy superstar. Eddie Murphy brings back as many of those in the original cas…

Nate and Ryan presented an hour-long talk on the best movies available on the free streaming services Kanopy and Hoopla, which many people can access through their public libraries. The presentation was hosted virtually by Wauconda Area Library in Wauconda, IL. It was an honor to be asked to present and we wanted to share it (the audio at least) wi…

Nate and Ryan discuss Steve McQueen’s ground-breaking anthology series Small Axe. In a Can We Still Be Friends first, we watch and discuss 5 movies as one, and only a masterpiece like Steve McQueen’s Golden Globe nominated series could compel us to attempt something so monumental. Listen in as we break down each movie and discuss the impact of the …

Nate and Ryan pick out their 5 favorite movies of 2020 and take time to dig deeper into I’m Thinking of Ending Things written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and Time, a moving documentary directed by Garrett Bradley. For this episode, Nate and Ryan each picked a movie from 2020 that they wanted to talk more about. Listen in as they discuss the st…

The holiday season winds down as Nate and Ryan discuss The Holiday, the 2006 romantic-comedy from writer/director Nancy Meyers. Listen in as we discuss the highs and lows of all that star power, what this movie gets right, and how much we’ve missed Jude Law. Is The Holiday in your holiday movie rotation? How much do you love Jack Black, romantic-co…

For the second annual T. Hanksgiving, a celebration of all things Tom Hanks, Nate and Ryan are watching A League of Their Own, the 1992 hit directed by the late, great Penny Marshall. Listen in as we discuss Hanks as not quite leading man, praise the strength and brilliance of Geena Davis, and really knock it out of the park with our baseball knowl…

Nate and Ryan celebrate the most wonderful fright of the year by re-watching The Babadook, written and directed by Jennifer Kent. We wish you and yours a very merry (and scary) 7th annual Holiday Spooktacular! As usual, we’re celebrating by watching a horror movie, and this year’s choice might be a little bit too on-the-nose for 2020 and the time o…

For the first time, Nate and Ryan review a movie from this year, breaking our routine for the one and only Spike Lee and his 2020 film Da 5 Bloods streaming on Netflix. Nate and Ryan chose this movie before the heartbreaking news of Chadwick Boseman’s death, but as anyone who has watched Da 5 Bloods knows, his death puts his performance as Stormin’…

Reflecting on their own history with learning about racism, Nate and Ryan re-watch American History X. As it was for so many people (especially white men) their age, American History X served as one of the first visceral looks at racism in modern America. However, the rhetoric of Edward Norton’s Derek Vineyard which seemed so shocking 22 years ago …

Nate and Ryan talk about what they’ve been watching with all this time on their hands. Listen in as they share recommendations and explore what makes them gravitate to a certain sort of movie during these uncertain times. We apologize for the change in our plans to watch Bend it Like Beckham, but we hope to be back on some sort of schedule soon. Wh…

Nate and Ryan watch an under-seen gem in Elaine May’s curve ball of a gangster movie, Mikey and Nicky. The story of the making of the movie is almost as quietly legendary as the film itself, as May shot an unbelievable 1 million feet of film and took 3 years editing the movie while her studio waited impatiently. The resulting movie is unlike anythi…

Nate and Ryan watch Bridget Jones’s Diary and discuss their feelings about it, until they turn their critical eyes on themselves. The episode ends up being quite a departure for CWSBF as we realize just how problematic it is that we feel the need to weigh in on movies that aren’t for us. For many people, Bridget Jones’s Diary teaches them to like t…

Nate and Ryan rewatch Mary Harron’s 2000 horror satire American Psycho and discuss how frighteningly timeless her vision of greedy late ’80s masculinity is. Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman has become iconic, but is he iconic for the right reasons? Listen in as Nate and Ryan talk about the humor and the horror of Patrick Bateman and the interchange…

In a CWSBF first, Nate and Ryan talk about their favorite ten movies of the last decade. On top of the list of movies, listen in as Nate and Ryan reflect on the last ten years in movies and make new-decade resolutions for the next ten years of movie watching. Settle in for a wide-ranging discussion of the last ten years and stick around for some in…

This month, Nate and Ryan celebrate T. Hanksgiving by re-watching Cast Away. In what may be a new tradition, this November Nate and Ryan give thanks for Tom Hanks by discussing his performance as Chuck Noland in Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 film about a man lost on a deserted island with nothing but a makeshift loincloth and a volleyball that apparently s…

Nate and Ryan re-watch Tim Burton’s 1994 homage to the world’s worst director, Ed Wood, to celebrate the 6th annual Holiday Spooktacular! Tim Burton and Johnny Depp teamed up to bring the life and work of Ed Wood to new audiences, and in the process, offered a celebration of underdogs and outsiders and earned Martin Landau an Oscar for best-support…

Nate and Ryan watch Roger & Me (1989), Michael Moore’s groundbreaking documentary about the rapid decline of Flint, MI after the shuttering of several GM plants. 30 years later, the plight of Flint and the struggles of the United Auto Workers continue to be in the news. Listen in as Nate and Ryan discuss the relevance and reliability of Michael Moo…

Nate and Ryan are back from a brief break to discuss Spike Lee’s masterpiece Do the Right Thing. In celebration of the film’s 30th anniversary, Nate and Ryan are doing an appreciation episode to give a much deserved re-watch to a movie that has proven to be more timely and prescient with each passing year. Listen as they discuss what they think mak…

Nate and Ryan discuss Bob Fosse’s 1979 semi-autobiographical fever dream, All That Jazz. Listen in as they plumb the depths of their knowledge of dance, compare Bob Fosse with Kanye West, and try to figure out what’s going on in those damn hospital scenes. What are your thoughts on All That Jazz? Is this Roy Scheider’s best role? How are your jazz …