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2024 Oscar Nomination Reactions (#266) | Contra Zoom
The 2024 Oscar nominations have now been announced with Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie and Maestro leading the pack. We go over the big categories and discuss what we think of the crop of nominees including who our pleasant surprises were and biggest snubs. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, one […]
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Dredd | The LAMBCast
Hear ye, hear ye, all rise for the Honorable Lambcast. Enter and be judged. This week, the guests of the Lambcast are the Law. We decide if the 2012 version of Judge Dread is Dreadful, thus being sent to an iso cube for eternity, or if it is “Not Guilty” and can, therefore, continue to […]
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Sight Unseen Review: New Canadian Detective Show Has A Unique Hook | That Shelf
Every excellent detective show needs a hook. Sometimes, the detective is a rogueish outsider or has a particular personality quirk or compulsion. In Sight Unseen, ace detective Tess Avery (newcomer Dolly Lewis) abruptly loses her ability to see. At first, in denial of this, she puts her partner Jake (Daniel Gillies) in peril and lets […]
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Eileen & Next Goal Wins | Awesome Friday Podcast!
This week on the show, we’re covering the just-released thriller Eileen, starring Thomasin McKenzie and the incomparable Anne Hathaway, which Matthew first saw at Sundance 2023, and then finally follow up with Taika Waititi’s latest sports underdog story Next Goal Wins. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2024/01/podcast-eileen-next-goal-wins/ This week’s bonus episode, available to all paid Patreon supporters, starts with […]
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Echo & Lift | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! Join us this week as we look closer at the new Marvel Cinematic UNvierse series Echo and then the new F Gary Gray heist film Lift, which stars Kevin Hart. We liked one of these things more than the other. Listen to find out which! Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2024/01/podcast-echo-lift/ This week’s bonus conversation is a […]
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Echo Review: Marvel Tries To Answer Criticisms With Mixed Results | That Shelf
The television entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been, to date, mostly pretty good. While not 100% successful, they have each tried new genres and expanded the universe in interesting ways. While they have performed well with most audiences, there are some that have been dissatisfied with them. Aside from claiming they suffer from […]
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes & The Society of the Snow | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! This week, we’re diving into the world of the Hunger Games with the new prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and then taking a look at Span’s entry for the Best International Feature award at this year’s Oscars, The Society of the Snow. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2024/01/the-hunger-games-the-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes-the-society-of-the-snow/ On this week’s Patron Bonus Round, we […]
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Our Favourite Films of 2023 | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! There is no bonus round this week, but our regular episode is double-sized, and we tackle all of our favourites of the year. We each made a list of a dozen films; we tackled all of them, with our absolute favourites coming last. Join us! Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2023/12/our-favourite-films-of-2023/
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The 2023 CFTCA Best Cascadian Film Award Winner: Riceboy Sleeps | Cascadia Critics
This year I co-founded the Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association, and as part of our launch we coordinated our membership to vote for the Best Cascadian Film Award, our premiere award highlighting the films of the region. I’m pleased to announce Riceboy Sleeps by director (and writer, editor, and actor) Anthony Shim as the […]
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The James Bond Draft (#264) | Contra Zoom
To end 2023 we are having another game themed episode! Earlier this year we celebrated the birth of the James Bond film franchise on episode 236: Dr. No at 60 Years. After watching all 25 official Bond films in a calendar year, it was time to make our ultimate spy movie. 10 different categories were […]
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Leave The World Behind & The Holdovers | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! This week, we tackle the latest capital-C content from Netflix in Leave The World Behind and then the first new collaboration between Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne in nearly twenty years, the 1970s and Christmas set The Holdovers. Join us! Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2023/12/podcast-leave-the-world-behind-the-holdovers/ This week, our Patreon supporters can hear us talk about our favourite background jokes […]
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Cascadia Film & TV Critics Association 10 Best Films of 2023 | Cascadia Critics
This year’s inaugural Top Ten films list from the Cascadia Critics is full of excellent picks, including a few I don’t think you’ll see coming. I had the privilege of writing out our number five pick: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. …it turned out that Barbie was the best kind: fun, funny, and heartfelt whilst also investigating and illuminating […]
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Killers of the Flower Moon & Godzilla Minus One | Awesome Friday Podcast!
This week on the show we’re finally catching up with Martin Scorsese’s epic meditation on American sin, Killers of the Flower Moon, and the latest entry in the 70-year-strong giant monster franchise, Godzilla Minus One. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2023/12/podcast-killer-of-the-flower-moon-godzilla-minus-one/ This week’s Patreon bonus episode has Simon asking for our dream Star Wars pitches and Matthew asking about which […]
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Exclaim!’s 20 Best Films of 2023 | Exclaim!
This year I contributed to Exclaim.ca’s top twenty films of the year both with my vote and by writing up David Fincher’s The Killer, which took the #19 spot on the list. No matter how you slice it, this film is meticulously crafted, dryly funny, appropriately brutal, and features a killer performance from Michael Fassbender […]
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Exclaim!’s 10 Best TV Series of 2023 | Exclaim!
This year, I contributed to Exclaim.ca’s Best 10 TV series of the year list with both my vote and by writing up Mike Flanagan’s excellent The Fall of the House of Usher miniseries, which took the #8 spot. Mike Flanagan returns with another project that proves he is the master of the adaptation, remixing the […]
I am a Rotten Tomatoes-approved, freelance film & television critic and podcast host from Vancouver, Canada! I am a co-founder of the Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association and a voting member of the International Film Society Critics, Pandora International Critics, and the Online Film & Television Association.
I maintain bylines at Exclaim!, Awesome Friday!, That Shelf, ForReel, Movies We Texted About, KeithLovesMovies, and I can be heard regularly on the Contra Zoom Podcast and The LAMBCast.
