198: A "Prestige" Pod featuring THE HANDMAIDEN, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, MOONLIGHT, and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

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There's an embarrassment of riches out there at the multiplexes these days (God bless the holiday/award season!). But "limited release" schedules often get in the way of our ability to stay current with everything that's generating "buzz" (curse you, Seattle and your big city/small market conundrum). That being said, we're endeavoring to catch up this week with in-depth dissections of 4 "prestige"
films that are currently in theaters and vying for your holiday movie-going buck:

00:15:04 - THE HANDMAIDEN
00:24:45 - NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
00:42:01 - MOONLIGHT
00:56:01 - MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

We're confident in our reactions and we're proud of this pod. Hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed chattin'.

197: AFI #89 - THE SIXTH SENSE

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The first legitimate turkey on AFI's revised top 100 list materializes in the form of M. Night Shyamalan's "game-changer" psychological thriller THE SIXTH SENSE. The film that changed the way popular culture handles spoilers, foisted a catchphrase-whispering Haley Joel Osment upon the masses, and tried to sell us on one of Bruce Willis's least convincing hairpieces, gets the WLM treatment this week. We're tough... but fair!
Listen in. We're more critical this time around but it makes for some incisive pod. Truly!

196: FANTASTIC BEASTS brings the wizarding world stateside and ARRIVAL proves to be an unexpected sci-fi tearjerker

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We've waited long enough for the "prestige season" to save us from a criminally underwhelming 2016 cinematic slate. The arrival of ARRIVAL signals that good things are to [finally] come. We gush over that instant classic science fiction game-changer, wax affectionate (if briefly) about the charming Marvel slam-dunk DOCTOR STRANGE, and perform a deliberate, simultaneous shrug in response to the newest film in the extended "Potterverse"- FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. It's good to be back. Let's settle in for this holiday season rollercoaster that is sure to give us much to discuss.

195: Discussing INFERNO and the cinematic legacy of Dan Brown

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After an extended foray into AFI territory during the dregs of the early fall movie season we return to you now with a real, honest to goodness review of something that's actually, legitimately currently in movie theaters!
The bad news is that we chose to hitch our wagon to a supremely mediocre star. The good news is that our reaction to the movie INFERNO and our reflection on Dan Brown's cinematic trilogy as a whole lays the groundwork for a rousing discussion and dissection. We even find the time to talk Halloween, holidays, and the complicated politics of "facebook birthday wishes". Good stuff. Good pod.

194: AFI #90 - SWING TIME

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SWING TIME is a film of modest narrative ambitions but vast musical and choreographic pleasures. On this week's episode we take the sour with the sweet as we break down the film's charm, substance, and shortcomings. This is a nice, tight convo with very little filibustering. We're proud of this one. Thanks for listening. 

191: Bemoaning THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and stroking Netflix (again)

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Westerns are back en vogue but unfortunately the new remake of the THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN doesn't look primed to achieve the classic status of its predecessor. On this week's episode we do our best to try and break down what went wrong with this clunky oater and also spend at least 15 minutes counting the ways we adore Netflix.
Because we do. So hard.

190: Catching up with CASSIDY RED delivery news, Telluride, Venice, and TIFF responses, plus a preview of potential awards season contenders

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We're catching up on everything!

-Matt's feature debut- CASSIDY RED is delivering this week...
-The Telluride, Venice, and Toronto film festivals have anointed movies like ARRIVAL and LA LA LAND and NOCTURNAL ANIMALS and MOONLIGHT as award season heavyweights, so there's a lot to discuss there...
-SULLY and SNOWDEN give us a reason to discuss "recent", ripped-from-the-headline, titular character-monikered "biopics" that curiously both start with the letter "S"... 
-Non movie related BS and small talk...

We're so happy to be back. Hope you've missed us as much as we've missed you....

189: Closing out the dog days with some STRANGER THINGS chat, TIFF previews, and a HELL OR HIGH WATER review

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We're gettin' a lot off our chests this week as a spirited discussion veers wildly from James Bond geekery to our belated reactions to Netflix's summer hit STRANGER THINGS. We dance through a rundown of the most high profile films recently announced to unspool at the Toronto International Film Festival, can hardly summon the energy to champion the low-hanging comedic fruit of SAUSAGE PARTY, and finally land on a HELL OR HIGH WATER gush-o-thon (Why bother playing the cards close? We absolutely loved it.) that begins at 00:41:25 and runs until the end of the podcast. We've got a lot to say and we're looking to say it to YOU.
Editor's note: Please excuse the sporadically ugly audio on this episode. We were experiencing a bad Skype connection and the pops and drops come and go. It's a little rough at times but we hope you tough it out because we're extremely proud of this conversation.

188: Reminiscing on the Summer of 1996 and Bemoaning SUICIDE SQUAD

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After some technical hiccups and unexpected disagreements over a couple of polarizing films during the last few episodes, we're back in lockstep and firmly on the same side of the aisle regarding the last "big" tentpole of the summer of 2016- the already infamous SUICIDE SQUAD. That conversation kicks in at about 00:24:40 but before that, we amuse ourselves with further GHOSTBUSTERS dissection as well as a brief, nostalgic look back at the summer movies of 1996. We're amped, we're opinionated, we're ready for primetime. Listen in and we'll love you for it.

187: AFI #93 - THE FRENCH CONNECTION

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The second best picture winner of the AFI Top 100 Countdown comes to the WLM Podcast this week and it brings with it a whole lot of early 1970s, "New Hollywood" pedigree. We're talkin' drugs, sex, needles, junkies, R&B, garbage fires, porkpie hats, racial epithets, cars chasing subways, Americans chasing Frenchman, and a whole lot of scenes of people sitting in cars, waiting for someone to come out of a nightclub or hotel. It's time for THE FRENCH CONNECTION, dear listeners. And what a glorious time that is.

186: Comic Con Trailer roundup and STAR TREK BEYOND disagreement

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As the mercury rises and the pages fall off the calendar, the We Like Movies podcast keeps fighting the good fight and trekking (get it?), ever vigilantly, back to the multiplex to screen product and proffer opinion. On this week's episode we talk San Diego Comic Con, break down all of the new trailers, muse about the recent, encouraging onslaught of  western genre exercises (who knew? It's coming back!), and even carve out 25 minutes to disagree about the newest installment of the rebooted STAR TREk series. We've been disagreeing more and more these days... This might be the beginning of an exciting trend....

185: The Contentious GHOSTBUSTERS Dissection

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After an extended, mid-summer hiatus we return to you now with one of the most terse, impassioned, argumentative conversations we've ever recorded. The pod starts off with a lot of good-natured catch-up before descending into a full-on rift regarding Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS reboot.
We back, we're heated, we're answering your call for a podcast with teeth.

184: The CLIFF MARTINEZ Countdown

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Oscar's been out of town but Matt was itching to create some content so he rolled up his sleeves and got busy with a mellow and self-indulgent stroll through the career and creative resume of the master of cinematic ambience- Mr. Cliff Martinez.
In honor of his newest masterpiece, the soundtrack for THE NEON DEMON, Matt has cobbled together a countdown of Martinez's finest film forays. It's gonna get synthey up in here. And how.

182: The 2016 Fantasy Film Draft and the attempted defense of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

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There have been high peaks and deep artistic valleys over the 9 films in 16 years covered by the X-MEN franchise. The newest entry "APOCALYPSE" sits smack dab at sea level which makes it a fertile topic for dissection and disagreement. Listen in as we break it all the way down to the brassiest of tacks.
We also discuss the none too subtle schadenfreude stance taken by certain tabloid click-baters in the way they report the "news" of successful film franchises and we even find time to reflect on the the most recent draft of the "Fantasy Film League".
We might just be getting the hang of this "coming in around an hour" thing, 175 episodes in. 

181: NEIGHBORS 2, THE NICE GUYS, and The Shane Black Sensation

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We're getting back to basics with a thrift, semi-contentious conversation about the two films that opened last weekend but failed to top THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE at the box office: The little-loved sequel NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING and Shane Black's winking, period, neo-noir THE NICE GUYS.
We manage to wrap it up in under an hour- spoiler alert.

180: AFI #95 - THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

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It’s AFI time again and this week we’re chattin’ about Peter Bogdanovich’s beloved coming-of-age downer THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. It took us 5 films to get to a place of quasi-disagreement but there is more sparring than usual in this episode. Things get a little heated? Guess you’ll have to listen in to find out.

179: CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and the unstoppable Marvel freight train

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The summer of 2016 threatens to peak early as the 13th installment into the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes roaring into multiplexes on a wave of critical acclaim and financial expectation. 
Join us for a gush-fest tempered by moments of constructive nit-pickery .

***Spoilers abound!