PODCAST · tv
Reviews And Otherwise
by Terry McCarty
Film and tv reviews plus commentary.
Episodes
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THE DIGGER EXPERIENCE
The auteur of BABEL, BIRDMAN and THE REVENANT and the megastar who did a few episodes of voiceover for Ted Turner’s CAPTAIN PLANET cartoon series combine their talents for an apocalyptic climate change satire. Like the earlier pre-Trump episodes of SOUTH PARK where Trey and Matt would snicker at...
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ZACH CREGGER’S RESIDENT EVIL in under 7 minutes
Discussing Zach Cregger’s reboot of the RESIDENT EVIL franchise with Everydude Austin Abrams doing his very best to deliver precious cargo to horrific creature-populated Raccoon City.
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NEW TO ME: THE HOLE IN THE WALL/AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY/SING SINNER SING/RECKLESS
Discussing THE HOLE IN THE WALL (1929, Robert Florey) with Edward G. Robinson and Claudette Colbert, plus films likely to be referenced on the new The Bisexuals season of YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (1931, Josef von Sternberg) with Phillips Holmes (one of Libby Holman’s male…
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EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC/BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL
Examining John Boorman’s uneven, excoriated on original release, follow-up to THE EXORCIST and a 49-years-later documentary trying hard to convince today’s audiences of its merits and absolve Boorman of any lingering regrets.
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MY SUPERGIRL POST-MORTEM
Adaptations of DC’s SUPERGIRL tend to be underwhelming (didn’t see the TV series with Melissa Benoist). The 1984 campy Salkind production had Helen Slater upstaged by post-MOMMIE DEAREST Faye Dunaway. This one has been overly firebombed by misogynistic fanboys, for which the casting of Jason…
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NEW TO ME: A MAN BETRAYED/ROMANCE
Deep cuts from the filmographies of John Wayne and Greta Garbo. A MAN BETRAYED is Republic Pictures doing a knockoff of Frank Capra’s virtuous small town citizen confronting Big City corruption formula. Wayne plays Gary Cooper here and has some romantic chemistry with Frances Dee (daughter of...
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DISCLOSURE DAY
Discussing Steven Spielberg’s full-circle return to his chase thriller 70s roots plus side orders of UFO files paranoia and Hitchcock homages.
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BACKROOMS/THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU/TOW
Reviews of a feature version of a YouTube series, a feature version of a Disney+ series and an original, non IP movie you’re probably unaware of.
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THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 IN UNDER 7 MINUTES
Discussing the 20 years on follow-up to the glossy fashion magazine comedy—plus some musing on why most celebs wouldn’t quit this year’s Jeff and Lauren Met Gala.
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MICHAEL JACKSON ACCORDING TO ANTOINE FUQUA AND DAN REED
Discussing real Michael Jackson plus Antoine Fuqua and the estate’s sinned against angelic version—and Dan Reed’s view of Michael escaping accountability for his alleged sexual misbehavior with children.
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LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY IN UNDER FOUR MINUTES
Irish horror director with his take on the nine-decades-plus unearthed and undead horror concept—which apparently collided with James Wan’s hopes to give WB/New Line a movie that was CONJURING-adjacent. Has its moments, mainly in the final third, but definitely a hodgepodge.
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THE DRAMA/IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU
Discussing two of the shiny object cringe comedy/dramas from the boutique portion of A24. Spoilers included for THE DRAMA.
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CRITERION CHANNEL: RONALD HAVER’S KING KONG LASERDISC COMMENTARY TRACK
Discussing the debut commentary track—Ronald Haver’s discussion of the original KING KONG for a 1990s Criterion laserdisc. Also, some context as to Haver’s career as programmer at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, plus his restoration of George Cukor’s A STAR IS BORN and authorship of DAVID O....
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NEW TO ME: STREET PEOPLE/A WOMAN’S SECRET/THOMPSON’S LAST RUN
Reviewing a 1976 actioner with mob lawyer and BFF race driver Stacy Keach keeping heroin off the streets of San Francisco, Nicholas Ray’s 1949 woman’s picture/mystery/noir with Maureen O’Hara and Gloria Grahame and a 1986 TV-movie with the one-off pairing of Robert Mitchum and Wilford Brimley.
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GOODBYE 2025: COVER-UP/MARTY SUPREME/AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH/THE HOUSEMAID
Reviewing the new documentary COVER-UP (co-directed by Laura Poitras) on investigative journalism legend Seymour Hersh, Josh Safdie’s MARTY SUPREME, James Cameron’s AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH and Paul Feig’s THE HOUSEMAID.
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JAY KELLY IN UNDER 3 MINUTES
A few brief comments on Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer crafting what they hoped to be an Awards Season crowd pleaser with George Clooney as Nowhere Man movie star who glides through life until self-examination happens almost too late.
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DIE MY LOVE/CHRISTY/SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
Reviews of films rejected by mainstream audiences: DIE MY LOVE (which will be an awards contender regardless), CHRISTY (Sydney Sweeney again showing serious acting credentials) and SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (a Bruce Springsteen biopic daring to be more analytical than triumphant…
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ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER/AFTER THE HUNT/BLACK PHONE 2
Discussing, briefly, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, and where I think it should be placed in the Paul Thomas Anderson pantheon. Then, it’s on to AFTER THE HUNT, which wants to provoke in a lazy right-tilting fashion where #MeToo is treated like a Mark of Cain inconvenience for successful people asked…
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NEW TO ME: THE LIBERATION OF L.B. JONES/BLUEBEARD’S EIGHTH WIFE
Reviewing William Wyler’s final film, a bleak statement about irresolvable racism in the American South, plus Ernst Lubitsch’s final film at Paramount, a screwball comedy in which Claudette Colbert teaches seven times wed playboy businessman Gary Cooper how to value the institution of marriage.
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BALLERINA/MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING
Films from the Action Couple of the moment: Ana De Armas enters the John Wick universe as Tom Cruise finishes an almost three-decade run as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.
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NEW TO ME: THE WAGONS ROLL AT NIGHT/CALIFORNIA 1947/IMPULSE 1974
Reviewing a lesser-known Humphrey Bogart circus/carnival film, John Farrow’s teaming of Ray Milland and Barbara Stanwyck—and Willian Shatner going Full Shatner as a grifter/gigolo who also is a psychopathic killer in early 1970S Tampa.
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THE SHROUDS/THE SURFER
New David Cronenberg film about death (and other obsessions) reviewed, plus Nicolas Cage going Down Under and not fitting in with a quite territorial clique of surfers.
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EMILIA PEREZ/CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS/MICKEY 17
A few words on the thankfully under-rewarded EMILIA PEREZ, plus reviews of Errol Morris’s return to true crime and Bong Joon-Ho’s return to science fiction that satirizes egocentric humans callously exploiting other humans in their employ.
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JANUARY EPISODE: I’M STILL HERE/THE BRUTALIST/OH, CANADA/THE ROOM NEXT DOOR/A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Awards Season episode featuring films celebrated (I’M STILL HERE, THE BRUTALIST and A COMPLETE UNKNOWN) and ignored (THE ROOM NEXT DOOR and OH, CANADA).
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DECEMBER LIGHTNING ROUND: WICKED/SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY/THE OUTRUN/BOGART
Quick opinions of the first half of WICKED, the slept-on THE OUTRUN and estate-approved documentaries on Christopher Reeve and Humphrey Bogart.
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EVEN MORE BIG SWINGS: HERE/MEGALOPOLIS
Veterans Robert Zemeckis and Francis Ford Coppola emerge with technically audacious films which have generally been received with indifference/disdain.
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HEARTBREAKERS BEACH PARTY/WOMAN OF THE HOUR
Reviewing the debut films of Cameron Crowe (1983) and Anna Kendrick (2023).
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THE SUBSTANCE
Reviewing the film du jour by Coralie Fageat which, somehow, fails to confront the epidemic of Botoxed facelifting forced on most women working in show business, as well as enabling by other women in executive positions. At the beginning, Demi Moore’s 1996 film STRIPTEASE is mentioned to contrast...
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ALIEN: ROMULUS/MOTHERS’ INSTINCT/YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA
Reviewing the fast-paced distillation of the ALIEN franchise, plus the dumped-by-Neon teaming of Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway and, finally, Daisy Ridley going full Hillary Swank as champion 1920s swimmer Gertrude Ederle.
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DOCUMENTARIES: ELIZABETH TAYLOR, POWELL AND PRESSBURGER
Reviewing Nanette Burstein’s simplifying overview of Elizabeth Taylor, favoring iconic star status over in-depth career insights. Also, some comments on Martin Scorsese’s tribute to the legendary British filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
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FAYE: THE FAYE DUNAWAY STORY
A few words about Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary of Faye Dunaway, which makes a case for her best screen performances, while trying to downplay or rationalize her irritability as part of getting the job done.
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MORE BIG SWINGS: KINDS OF KINDNESS/HORIZON PLUS FIREBRAND
Examining Yorgos Lanthimos’s trifecta of thematic overlap smothered in cleverness, currently favored over Kevin Costner’s more thematically challenging epic Western. Also: Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr stands her ground against Jude Law’s Henry VIII in the uneven but worthwhile FIREBRAND.
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EXPLAINING THE FALL GUY
Offering context as to how HOOPER, a 1978 Burt Reynolds/Hal Needham ode to stuntpeople, and THE FALL GUY, a Lee Majors/Glen Larson 1980s TV series about a crime-solving stuntman, gave birth to an “original” would-be blockbuster.
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DOCUMENTARIES: STEVE MARTIN/PAUL SIMON/JERRY LEE LEWIS + CURRENT THEATRICAL RELEASES
Mammoth victory lap documentaries usurped by modest Jerry Lee Lewis chronicles dumped by A24. Plus THE BEEKEEPER/WICKED LITTLE LETTERS/THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE.
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CIVIL WAR/GODZILLA X KONG THE NEW EMPIRE/LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
Alex Garland’s opaque on purpose Divided America epic, plus easier to grasp monster and demonic fare.
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DUNE PART TWO/DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS
Reviewing this year’s first surefire blockbuster plus Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s lesbians on the road comedy, which will likely find a larger audience via streaming.
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MORE UNDERSEEN FILMS NOIR AND GODZILLA MINUS ONE MINUS COLOR
Discussing 50s noir films including I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES, PICKUP and ROADBLOCK. Also, a few words about the black-and-white version of GODZILLA MINUS ONE, which complements its 1954 ancestor GOJIRA.
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MAESTRO
Bradley Cooper takes a technical leap forward in his biopic of Leonard Bernstein, but it’s Carey Mulligan’s performance as wife/partner Felicia that saves this from being merely awards aspirant.
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WONKA
Paul King of PADDINGTON fame combines with the Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts production team to give viewers Timothee Chalamet as young Willy Wonka in a not-magical-enough origin story.
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BEST FILMS OF 2023 SO FAR
Discussing what, as of mid-December, are the best 2023 releases I’ve seen—along with honorable mentions and one watchable underachiever.
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THE STONES AND BRIAN JONES/SALTBURN
Nick Broomfield’s Brian Jones documentary and Emerald Fennell’s satirical comedy/drama have this in common: English estates where people come to premature ends.
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THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER/KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON/THE HOLDOVERS
Reviewing David Gordon Green’s flawed but not bad addition to the EXORCIST franchise, the latest Scorsese (very good, but too soon to know where it will stand in his canon) and Alexander Payne’s return to form after the misfire of DOWNSIZING.
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SQUARING THE CIRCLE (THE STORY OF HIPGNOSIS)/COBWEB
Anton Corbijn’s documentary about the record cover photo/design company which, in its lifespan, proceeded from the psychedelic 60s to the careless Imperial Rock Star period of the late 70s before punk, synthpop and music videos hurried its demise. Also, the understandably dumped by Lionsgate...
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BLUE BEETLE/DOWNWIND
Reviewing the DC Latinx superhero film which is a big budget homage to mediocre Cannon Films 80s fare, plus a new documentary about people irradiated by nuclear weapons tests ranging from the 1950s to 1992.
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NEARLY 20 MINUTES ON WILLIAM FRIEDKIN
Eulogizing William Friedkin’s career, with attention paid to THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH and the dual versions of RAMPAGE (plus sidebar on J. Lee Thompson’s 10 TO MIDNIGHT).
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TOM, WES AND HARRISON
Reviews of three movies which demand theatrical viewing: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, ASTEROID CITY and INDIANA JONES AND THE. DIAL OF DESTINY.
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THE FLASH: A POST-MORTEM
At this writing, audiences are actively avoiding seeing Andy Muschietti’s THE FLASH during its theatrical release. Here are a few thoughts about the serpentine, tone-shifting route of the pre-James Gunn DCEU (not counting the Christopher Nolan/Matt Reeves BATMAN quartet), multiverse mania, what...
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THE BOOGEYMAN/DALILAND/R.I.P. GLENDA JACKSON
Reviewing the new Stephen King adaptation, Mary Harron’s conventional, cliched take on Salvador Dali’s 1970s and contextualizing Glenda Jackson’s British and American successes.
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THE LITTLE MERMAID 2023/YOU HURT MY FEELINGS
Reviewing the latest example of Disney remaking its classics and the new comedy of manners from Nicole Holofcener.
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THE POPE’S EXORCIST/THE LOST WEEKEND: A LOVE STORY
Russell Crowe, last seen by me as a killer road rage driver, classes up a new entry into the almost five-decade exorcism religious horror genre. Also, May Pang, John Lennon’s lover and working companion from 1973 to 1975. states her case for being a positive influence on Lennon during a period...
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How many episodes does Reviews And Otherwise have?
Reviews And Otherwise currently has 125 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Reviews And Otherwise about?
Film and tv reviews plus commentary.
How often does Reviews And Otherwise release new episodes?
Reviews And Otherwise publishes regularly with 125 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Who hosts Reviews And Otherwise?
Reviews And Otherwise is created and hosted by Terry McCarty.
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