Episode 595 – Pressure / Mortal Kombat 2 / Tuner / Boy George & Culture Club

Podcast

This week on Moviewallas, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi are finally back together and tackling a packed slate of movies and music documentaries.

First up is Mortal Kombat 2, the latest entry in the long-running video game franchise. Does it deliver the over-the-top action fans are hoping for, or is it another missed opportunity?

Next, the team discusses Pressure, a tense historical drama set around the D-Day invasion that explores the enormous responsibility placed on the meteorologists whose forecasts helped shape the course of history.

Then it’s time for Tuner, an intimate character-driven drama that sparks a lively discussion about performance, relationships, and the choices we make when our lives begin to drift out of tune.

Finally, the hosts dive into Boy George and Culture Club, a fascinating documentary chronicling the rise, fall, and enduring legacy of one of the most distinctive bands of the 1980s. From the New Romantic movement to personal relationships within the band, it’s a revealing look at the people behind the music.

As always, expect plenty of movie banter, strong opinions, and a few unexpected tangents along the way.

🎙️ Hosted by Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi
🌐 www.moviewallas.com

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Start
04:49 – Mortal Kombat 2
16:02 – Pressure
24:07 – Tuner
35:25 – Boy George and Culture Club

#Moviewallas #MortalKombat2 #PressureMovie #Tuner #BoyGeorge #CultureClub #MoviePodcast #FilmReview #Cinema #MovieReviews #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:05 — 38.8MB)

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Episode 594 – The Devil Wears Prada 2 / Mother Mary

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Moviewallas is on YouTube!

Welcome back to Moviewallas, your weekly dose of film reviews, movie news, and general banter – in theatres, on streaming, or in the back of an airplane. This week, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi keep things focused with two very Anne Hathaway-heavy releases: David Lowery’s strange and ambitious Mother Mary and the long-awaited sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2.

📺 Streaming Picks – Anne Hathaway Edition

🏢 WeCrashed – Apple TV+ / Peacock
Rashmi recommends this limited series about Adam and Rebekah Neumann and the rise and fall of WeWork, with Anne Hathaway giving a standout performance as Rebekah.

💍 Rachel Getting Married
Yazdi picks one of Hathaway’s boldest performances – Jonathan Demme’s raw, intimate family drama about addiction, grief, and a wedding weekend on the verge of implosion.

🐈‍⬛ The Dark Knight Rises / Interstellar
Joe goes full Nolan, spotlighting Hathaway’s sharp, playful turn as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, while also giving a nod to her strong work in Interstellar.

🎤 Mother Mary
David Lowery’s latest is a strange, gorgeous, deeply abstract two-hander starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel. Yazdi was the only one to see it, and he makes the case for its committed weirdness, its A24 boldness, and Hathaway’s fearless performance as a pop star on the edge of a comeback. Not for everyone – but absolutely for viewers who like their cinema ambitious, metaphorical, and beautifully shot.

👠 The Devil Wears Prada 2
Twenty years after the original, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci return to the world of Runway. The team debates whether this sequel earns its return, whether nostalgia is enough, and why the original remains such a classic. Glossy, fashionable, fun, and a little too lightweight, this one still offers the pleasure of spending time with old friends.

💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy smart, spoiler-light film discussions with strong opinions, movie love, and the occasional tea-fueled tangent.

🎙️ Hosted by: Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi
📺 Watch on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts
📍 Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @moviewallas
🌐 www.moviewallas.com

🕰 Timestamps
00:00 – Start
01:26 – Anne Hathaway Streaming Picks
01:36 – WeCrashed
02:29 – Rachel Getting Married
04:13 – The Dark Knight Rises / Interstellar
06:05 – Mother Mary
14:22 – The Devil Wears Prada 2

#Moviewallas #MoviePodcast #MotherMary #TheDevilWearsPrada2 #AnneHathaway #MerylStreep #EmilyBlunt #StanleyTucci #DavidLowery #MichaelaCoel #StreamingPicks #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:13 — 30.7MB)

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Episode 593 – The Drama / I Swear / Michael

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Moviewallas is on YouTube!

This week on Moviewallas, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi return from a whirlwind UK trip and jump straight back into movie mode with a packed episode covering three wildly different films. First up is I Swear, the emotionally powerful true story of a Scottish man living with Tourette’s syndrome. Then the hosts dive into The Drama, a provocative and sharply written relationship thriller starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson that sparks one of the podcast’s most fascinating discussions of the year. Finally, they tackle Michael, Antoine Fuqua’s glossy and highly controversial Michael Jackson biopic.

Along the way, there are streaming recommendations ranging from Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant empire to the one-take kitchen thriller Boiling Point, plus conversations about morality, celebrity, art versus artist, and whether audiences can ever truly know the people they idolize.

📺 Streaming Picks – “I Can’t Find Anything to Watch…”

👨‍🍳 Being Gordon Ramsay – Netflix
Rashmi recommends this entertaining behind-the-scenes docuseries following Gordon Ramsay as he prepares to launch his enormous new London restaurant venture at Bishopsgate.

🔥 Boiling Point – Tubi
Yazdi highlights Stephen Graham’s intense single-take restaurant drama – a technical filmmaking achievement capturing one disastrous night inside a London kitchen.

🆘 Send Help – Hulu / Disney+
Joe revisits one of the team’s favorite films of the year so far, now arriving on streaming platforms after its theatrical run.

🎭 I Swear
Based on the true story of Scottish Tourette’s advocate John Davidson, this heartfelt drama explores misunderstanding, kindness, resilience, and the importance of empathy. Yazdi calls it “the movie we need right now.”

💍 The Drama
Starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, this provocative relationship thriller takes a single uncomfortable revelation and spirals it into emotional chaos during wedding week. Funny, tense, morally messy, and one of the strongest films of the year according to all three hosts.

🕺 Michael
Antoine Fuqua’s officially sanctioned Michael Jackson biopic delivers nostalgia, iconic music, and fan service in equal measure. The hosts discuss the film’s strengths, its deliberate omissions, and the challenge of separating artistic brilliance from personal controversy.

🎙️ Hosted by: Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi
📺 Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts
🌐 www.moviewallas.com

🕰 Timestamps

00:00 – Start
01:43 – Streaming Picks
02:03 – Being Gordon Ramsay
04:11 – Boiling Point
06:32 – Send Help
08:52 – I Swear
18:43 – The Drama
34:04 – Michael

#Moviewallas #MoviePodcast #TheDrama #ISwear #MichaelJackson #MichaelMovie #Zendaya #RobertPattinson #GordonRamsay #BoilingPoint #MovieReviews #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:13 — 46.3MB)

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Episode 592 – Project Hail Mary / How To Make A Killing

Podcast

Moviewallas is on YouTube!

Welcome back to Moviewallas, your weekly dose of film reviews, movie news, and general banter – in theatres, on streaming, or in the back of an airplane. This week, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi take on two very different movies: the darkly comedic How to Make a Killing and the hugely anticipated, surprisingly emotional Project Hail Mary.

☕ Tea check: No new snacks this time – just a fresh round of tea, a little British supermarket hierarchy, and enough energy to power one very enthusiastic space-movie conversation.

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📺 Streaming Picks – “I Can’t Find Anything to Watch…”

👠 Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model – Netflix Rashmi revisits the world of America’s Next Top Model through this docuseries, and the group reflects on how wildly our perspective on reality TV, exploitation, and “empowerment” has changed over the last 20 years.

💘 Crazy, Stupid, Love – Netflix Yazdi goes with this slick, star-packed romantic dramedy starring Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, and Josh Groban. Contrived? Sure. Still a fun watch? Also yes.

🧢 Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man – Netflix (coming March 20) Joe makes a rare future-facing pick, getting excited for the return of Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders universe. Here’s hoping the movie has a story worthy of the comeback.

💸 How to Make a Killing John Patton Ford follows up Emily the Criminal with this dark comedy about inheritance, murder, and family dysfunction. Starring Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, and Ed Harris, the film gave the hosts plenty to chew on.

🚀 Project Hail Mary This one gets a full-throated reaction. Based on the Andy Weir novel and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling as a man waking up alone on a spaceship with Earth’s future in his hands. Joe and Yazdi came in with serious affection for the book – and plenty of fear about how hard it would be to adapt – while Rashmi went in fresh. The result? A big, emotional, funny, visually inventive sci-fi movie that gave all three hosts a lot to talk about.

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💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy spoiler-light movie conversations with strong opinions, good humor, and the occasional tea-fueled tangent.

🎙️ Hosted by: Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi

📺 Watch on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts

📍 Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @moviewallas

🌐 www.moviewallas.com

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🕰 Timestamps

00:00 – Start

01:53 – Streaming Picks

02:08 – Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model

04:55 – Crazy, Stupid, Love

06:42 – Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

09:00 – How to Make a Killing 1

8:14 – Project Hail Mary

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#Moviewallas #MoviePodcast #ProjectHailMary #HowToMakeAKilling #RyanGosling #AndyWeir #GlenPowell #MargaretQualley #PhilLordAndChrisMiller #StreamingPicks #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:58 — 37.8MB)

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Episode 591 – The Bride / Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

Podcast

Moviewallas is on YouTube!

Welcome back to Moviewallas, your weekly dose of film reviews, movie news, and general banter – in theatres, on streaming, or in the back of an airplane.

This week, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi tackle two very different kinds of cinematic reanimation: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ambitious The Bride and Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.

🍬 Snack check: Lunar New Year rice treats, German gummies, chocolate rolls, ginger jelly sweets, and a fresh round of tea power this episode. Sugar levels are high. Opinions are too.

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📺 Streaming Picks – “I Can’t Find Anything to Watch…”

👵 Eleanor the Great – Netflix Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut is a warm, funny, bittersweet character piece led by the wonderful June Squibb. A small film with a big heart.

🔫 The Killer – Tubi Yazdi’s John Woo deep dive leads to this Hong Kong classic – stylish, influential, and a reminder that Tubi has some serious gems if you’re willing to dig.

⏳ In Time – Tubi Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, and one of the great high-concept sci-fi premises of the 2010s. Yazdi also makes the case for Tubi as an underrated free streaming treasure chest.

⚖️ Nuremberg – Netflix Joe revisits this awards-season historical drama and highlights the performances of Rami Malek and Russell Crowe, along with the film’s fascinating take on the postwar trials.

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⚡ The Bride Maggie Gyllenhaal reimagines the Frankenstein myth through a steampunk, gangster-inflected, fiercely stylized lens. With Jesse Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, and Penélope Cruz in the mix, this one gave the hosts a lot to wrestle with – from its bold visual ambition to the sheer amount it tries to do at once. A movie to admire, argue with, and maybe be a little baffled by.

🗡️ Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair Tarantino’s long-rumored unified cut of Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 is finally here. The team discusses how the combined version plays, what’s changed, and whether seeing it as one four-hour experience makes it even better – or simply different. Either way, it’s a chance to revisit one of modern cinema’s great revenge sagas in all its blood-soaked glory.

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💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy smart, spoiler-light film discussions with strong opinions, movie love, and occasional ginger-induced chaos.

🎙️ Hosted by: Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi

📺 Watch on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts

📍 Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @moviewallas 🌐 www.moviewallas.com

⸻

🕰 Timestamps

00:00 – Start

04:48 – Streaming Picks

05:26 – Eleanor The Great

07:54 – The Killer

09:24 – In Time

11:33 – Nuremberg

13:50 – The Bride

28:02 – Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

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#Moviewallas #MoviePodcast #TheBride #KillBill #KillBillTheWholeBloodyAffair #MaggieGyllenhaal #JesseBuckley #ChristianBale #QuentinTarantino #StreamingPicks #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:03 — 37.0MB)

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Yazdi’s List of the Better Films of 2025

Moviewallas Muggies

List making is a uniquely personal endeavor. When I make my list of the top films of the year, I never want it to fully align with someone else’s. Because I do not want to live in a world where we all love the very same films, and frown upon the same others.  Life would then be awfully boring.

Each person sitting down in a theater seat to watch a film brings something different to it, their life’s experiences, their implicit biases, their previous conditioning to a particular type of film, heck even what kind of day they are having then.

That is a lot of highfaluting text to say that we should celebrate all reactions to a film. All opinions on film are valid. We feel what we feel when we watch a film, and I have learned to not be too quick to toss my reaction to a film just because it runs contrary to mainstream thinking.

So here is my own list of the better films from 2025. They all, in some way or another switched on something within my emotional circuitry. I hope you, reader, can also make a similar list. And that it is nothing like mine.

It was a good year for cinema

 

  1. SINNERS – Pound for pound, this was the most ambitious, original, accomplished and genre-bending film of the year. It resists categorization, and so easily straddles incisive commentary (racism is literally a vampire sucking the blood out of minority culture!) and outrageous entertainment.
  2. TWINLESS – This film is not on anyone’s year-end list, but I believe no film in 2025 had a better script: sly, acerbic, funny, and deviously adept at pulling the rug from under your feet. The film begins with two individuals who develop a friendship after meeting at a support group for siblings who have recently lost their twin. And then that marvelous script starts its alchemy.
  3. BUGONIA – Yorgos Lanthimos was precariously at a point of becoming a parody of himself. But he is back in fine form with this film, coming back to his hallmark giddily weird ways. Two men kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, convinced that she is an alien wreaking havoc. And thus starts a cat and mouse game between captors and prey. Which goes marvelously off page.
  4. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – Very well the most topically relevant film for our current time, the simple structure of this film belies how masterfully it has been constructed. If in the real world, you saw your torturer from the time when the government wrongfully imprisoned you, what action on your part is justified. Exacting revenge? Letting the past not ruin the present? What is the moral imperative.
  5. ROOFMAN / THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND / A NICE INDIAN BOY – while most films trying to elbow for attention at this of the year tend to be serious and weighed down by so many tough issues, one learns to appreciate films that are kind and sweet and have a big heart, standing in relief to heavier cinema. And the three films here were the equivalent of a great big hug to me. ROOFMAN is based on the mostly true story of a man who escaped prison and for months slept in the local Toys R Us at night; Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst bring their considerable charms to a surprisingly wholesome movie-watching experience. THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND is about a popular musician brought to an island to perform a concert for a rich client only to find that the truth may be a little further from what he was told. And finally, A NICE INDIAN BOY reminds us that there is still juice remaining in the age-old story of bringing your love to meet the parents.
  6. MARTY SUPREME: Let’s face it, Marty is a selfish jerk and elicits chaos in the lives of every single person he encounters. The obsession to get to his championship dreams is absolute. And he will remove everyone in his way. Why should a film about this character be worthy of anyone’s time? It is because of how this film is made, with all guns firing, and with a pace that is determined to have you forget to breathe. The bravura filmmaking is the reason to get to know Marty.
  7. A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE: How much have we missed you, Kathryn Bigelow. No one does nail-biting tension as well as her. This film is on nobody’s list. For one and only one reason: it is the way the film ends. The film’s shrewd decision to withhold the final outcome of this story has frustrated most, who feel betrayed. But I see it as Bigelow asking the audience to ponder on how we may see this end in the real world; I found this rich for introspection especially in our current world where nuclear annihilation seems that much more likely. P.S. Someone please compensate Rebecca Ferguson for the Best Supporting Female Actor Oscar nomination that she was robbed out of.
  8. THE SECRET AGENT: This film is alchemy. A glorious immersion into 1970s Brazil when the government was clamping down on dissenters, the film tells the story of a teacher forced to go into hiding as adversaries are close on his heels. Of course, the film is an indictment of authoritarianism, but it is also time-travel to another time and place. It is also playful and mischievous, while being tragic yet unsentimental. It is also rich with so many fully realized side characters. And it is blessed by a lead performance for the ages by Wagner Moura, at once so soulful and quietly human.
  9. SENTIMENTAL VALUE: What is this film about? Ostensibly about a father trying to make amends with his grown daughters who he ignored while pursuing his career as a filmmaker. But this movie is about so much more. About how so much of what we settle down with in life, is often a pale imitation of what we really want. About how a brick-and-mortar house can come to measure our life and provide a definition of home. About sibling dynamics. About the hungry demands of tough careers. And about seeking redemption despite our crusty, hardened, imperfect selves.
  10. ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU: If the Best International Feature category at this year’s Oscar were not already chockful of marvelous films, this film from Jordan would have a place of pride within the nominations. Tracking three generations of a Jaffa family dealing with merciless displacement, war and questioned alliances, the film, directed by its leading lady, feels like a self-contained epic. That is deeply contemptuous of ordinary people paying the price for generations for the whims of the powerful who call upon war.
  11. RESURRECTION: Any true lover of cinema needs to do whatever they can to watch this Bi Gan film. Few movies can claim to further the language of cinema itself, through invention, and jaw-dropping bravado. RESURRECTION is that film. It looks back on a hundred years of cinema with awe and glee, while telling three stories filmed in the style and format of moviemaking that was prevalent during the time period in which that story is set. As icing on the cake, the last story is a single unbroken shot of bravura filmmaking. Seek this one out.
  12. MICKEY 17 / COMPANION: Both films are goofy yet smart. Ambitious yet playful. And,entertaining yet worthy of discourse. MICKEY 17 tells the story of the 17th version of a synthetic in a future world in need of ‘dispensables’ for its experimental warfare. Robert Pattinson proves again how game and supple a performer he can be, especially when paired with gifted filmmakers such as the director of PARASITE here. And COMPANION is a film that is …..best left undescribed and enjoyed for the all the sleights of hand it has in store for the viewer.
  13. SOVEREIGN / RELAY: These are two films that deserved better at the box-office. Both are exceptionally sturdy, hard-working thrillers. SOVEREIGN, based on a true story, sheds light – and this is key, without judgment – on those who are convinced of conspiracies. Jacob Tremblay plays a teen going through the initial germs of recognition that the father he admires so much could be at violent odds with how everyone else sees the world. RELAY is reminiscent of the pressure-cooker spy thrillers from the seventies that hold up so well even today. Both films need wider exposure.
  14. WAKE UP DEAD MAN: The third installment in Rian Johnson’s KNIVES OUT films reminds us that this franchise has a lot remaining to say still. And to delight us with. More solemn that the prior two outings – the murder in question here after all happens right in a church in the middle of an active service – the liturgical setting allows Johnson to comment on so many things, the least of which is the nature of faith. Lest anyone worry though, the film doesn’t hold back on the usual labyrinthine plotting leading to the reveal of whodunit.
  15. BLACK BAG: Delightfully old fashioned as an impossibly clever spy-thriller, and yet gleamingly modern in its sensibility and slick visuals, BLACK BAG is a throwback to times when we all enjoyed a cerebral, smart, cat-and-mouse caper. With a cast that is a gift to cinephiles, Steven Soderbergh gives us a film to consume while smacking our lips at our good fortunes to have him as a prolific filmmaker in our midst.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Even with some ties in my top fifteen films, many others also deserve recognition.  These are films could have proudly taken a top spot in another year, but here they are listed as honorable mentions: THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE, ONE OF THOSE DAYS, HEDDA, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, IF I HAD LEGS I WOULD KICK YOU, MAGELLAN, HAMNET, LEFT HANDED GIRL, FROM GROUND ZERO, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE, FANTASTIC FOUR, CAUGHT STEALING, HIGHEST TO LOWEST, PREDATOR: BADLANDS and  THE HOUSEMAID.