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

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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.

Episode 590 – Best Movies of 2025 / Oscars Reactions

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

In this episode, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi dive into their favorite movies of 2025, comparing personal Top 10 lists and highlighting the films that surprised, moved, and stuck with them throughout the year. From bold international cinema and indie discoveries to major studio releases and festival favorites, the conversation covers a wide range of standout films from the past year.

Along the way the team discusses everything from emotional storytelling and memorable performances to unexpected genre hits and films that sparked passionate debate.

In the final segment, the Moviewallas turn their attention to the 2025 Oscar nominations, sharing reactions to the biggest categories — including Best Picture, Best Director, the acting races, and International Feature — and talking through what surprised them, what made sense, and what they’ll be watching closely on awards night.

If you’re looking for great movie recommendations or want to hear a lively discussion about the year in film, this is the episode for you.

💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy smart film conversations with a bit of humor and strong opinions.

🎙️ 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:

00:00:00 – Start

00:02:45 – Personal Top Tens

00:03:24 – Resurrection

00:05:15 – The Perfect Neighbor

00:06:44 – F1: The Movie

00:08:41 – Sentimental Value

00:11:53 – Zootopia 2

00:13:02 – Bugonia

00:16:23 – The Secret Agent

00:18:21 – The Voice of Hind Rajab

00:20:16 – One Battle After Another

00:22:27 – A House of Dynamite

00:24:55 – All That’s Left of You

00:27:39 – Sovereign

00:31:04 – Marty Supreme

00:33:12 – No Other Choice

00:35:03 – Black Bag

00:36:58 – Roof Man / A Nice Indian Boy / The Ballad of Wallis Island

00:38:03 – The Materialists

00:40:57 – It Was Just An Accident

00:41:54 – The Left Handed Girl

00:42:46 – M3GAN 2.0

00:45:16 – Sinners

00:51:28 – Predator: Badlands

00:54:16 – Twinless

01:02:59 – Moviewallas Discuss the Oscar Nominations

01:03:48 – Best Picture

01:05:06 – Best Director

01:07:13 – Best Actor

01:09:18 – Best Actress

01:10:59 – Best Supporting Actor

01:11:31 – Best Supporting Actress

01:12:54 – Best Foreign Language Film

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#MovieReviews

#FilmDiscussion

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#IndieFilms

#InternationalCinema

#PredatorBadlands

#M3GAN2

#Zootopia2

#TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:28 — 73.1MB)

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Episode 589 – “Wuthering Heights” / Pillion

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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 wildly different cinematic experiences: the provocative indie Pillion and Emerald Fennell’s lush, divisive adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

🍫 Snack check: Mango-chili dark chocolate straight from Mexico City sets the tone – bold, unexpected, and a little dangerous. Much like the films we’re reviewing.

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

🌊 Undercurrent (Ullozhukku) – Netflix

A flood traps a grieving family in this intense Malayalam drama we first saw at IFFLA. Claustrophobic, emotionally charged, and unforgettable.

🛥️ Triangle of Sadness – Netflix (Feb 21)

Ruben Östlund’s razor-sharp satire finally lands on Netflix. Gender politics, class warfare, and one dinner scene you’ll never forget.

👑 Bridgerton Season 4 (Part 1) – Netflix

Lavish, romantic, and gloriously anachronistic. If you’re in the mood for swooning and scandal, Netflix has you covered.

🏍️ Pillion

This one sparked serious conversation. A shy young man is pulled into the world of a dominant biker, and what unfolds is funny, uncomfortable, emotional, and surprisingly layered. Anchored by fearless performances from Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard, Pillion is bold filmmaking that refuses to play it safe. It’s not for everyone – but it’s undeniably memorable.

🌪️ “Wuthering Heights” (2026)

Emerald Fennell brings maximalist style to Emily Brontë’s classic tale of destructive love. Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, this adaptation leans heavily into mood, sensuality, and striking visuals. We debate whether the passion translates, whether the characters earn their tragedy, and whether style can carry a story this iconic.

 

💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy smart, spoiler-light film discussions with strong opinions and zero pretension.

🎙️ 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

03:44 – Streaming Picks

04:07 – Undercurrent (Ullozhukku)

06:02 – Triangle of Sadness

09:35 – Bridgerton Season 4

11:25 – Pillion

25:39 – Wuthering Heights

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:37 — 47.6MB)

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Episode 588 – Scarlet / The Moment

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Welcome back to Moviewallas – your weekly dose of film reviews, movie news, and general banter (in theaters, on streaming, or in the back of an airplane). This week Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi are fueled by Costco mango cakes, working through a few new mic-setup quirks, and diving into two very different watches: Scarlet and The Moment. Plus, we’re back with “I Can’t Find Anything to Watch on Video On Demand” – three non-Netflix picks to rescue your queue.

🍰 Snack check + production note Yazdi brings individually wrapped mango cakes (dangerously addictive), and Joe shares a quick update on the podcast audio setup as the team tweaks the new recording gear.

📺 Streaming Picks –

• Just Like Heaven (Paramount+) – Rashmi revisits this warm, early-2000s comfort watch with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo – “like a hug,” and it still holds up.

• The Librarians (KPBS on YouTube) – Yazdi recommends this timely documentary about banned books and the librarians caught in the middle, including the very real threats some have faced.    • Banned Books and the Librarians Caught in …  

• Die My Love (MUBI) – Joe champions Lynne Ramsay’s polarizing, visceral fever-dream starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson – a film that’s less about plot and more about impact. (Even if you don’t love it, the performances are the reason to watch.)

🎬 Scarlet A new animated feature from Mamoru Hosoda (director of Mirai), Scarlet delivers absolutely stunning visuals – the kind you want to pause and frame – with a story that sparked debate. The group agrees the animation is breathtaking, but wrestles with pacing, mythology, and how well the emotional beats translate. If you love ambitious animation (and don’t mind a little chaos in the world-building), you’ll want to hear where everyone lands.

🎬 The Moment A mockumentary-style satire set in the pop-music machine, The Moment wins the room with its humor, self-awareness, and industry-side-eye. Even coming in with mixed familiarity on Charli XCX, all three hosts get pulled into the absurdity – with major shout-outs for the comedic timing, the supporting cast, and how sharply it skewers the push-pull between “art” and “commerce.” This one surprised us, and we break down why it works even if you don’t know the pop world it’s playing in.

💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy spoiler-light film talk with strong opinions, snack tangents, and the occasional tech gremlin.

🎙️ 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

03:11 – Streaming Picks

04:41 – Just Like Heaven

05:58 – The Librarians

07:52 – Die My Love

12:42 – Scarlet

23:17 – The Moment

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#Moviewallas #MoviePodcast #Scarlet #TheMoment #StreamingPicks #JustLikeHeaven #TheLibrarians #DieMyLove #MamoruHosoda #CharliXCX #FilmPodcast #MovieReviews #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:42 — 34.8MB)

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Episode 587 – Shelter / 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

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🎧 This week on Moviewallas, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi dive into survival, rivalry, obsession, and bone-crunching dystopia. From intimate indie drama to franchise horror spectacle, Episode 587 covers it all — plus a few streaming picks you won’t want to miss.

🍪 Snack check: We kick off with Spanish olive-oil tortas (cookie-meets-cracker perfection) and some very questionable peanut-butter choices by Joe.

📺 Streaming Picks

🏒 Heated Rivalry (HBO) – Yazdi brings the steamy Canadian hockey romance that somehow evolves from “wait, what is this?” into genuinely moving TV. He makes the case that the third (and especially the fifth) episode is elite-level television – if the sauciness doesn’t scare you off.

🇮🇳 Dhurandhar (Netflix) – Rashmi recommends this sprawling, hyper-violent underworld saga with a killer soundtrack and a serious macho streak. The group discusses its intensity, and why a 3.5-hour runtime may be best tackled across two nights.

🧗 Skyscraper Live / Free Solo (Netflix) – Joe explains why the live Alex Honnold Taipei 101 climb is perhaps more stressful than enjoyable, then re-recommends the actual classic: Free Solo.

This week’s Movies:

🎥 Shelter A remote Scottish island, a rescue that changes everything, and Jason Statham in full lone-wolf mode. Shelter is exactly the kind of tense, brooding action-thriller premise that sounds like perfect weekend viewing – and it sparked a fun debate for us about what works, what doesn’t, and what we wish the movie leaned into more. If you like Statham, isolated settings, and movies that invite “wait… hang on” moments, you’ll want to hear where we landed.

🧟 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple The rage-virus universe expands again – this time with a different directorial voice and a very specific kind of intensity. Only one of us saw The Bone Temple, which made for a great, spoiler-light breakdown: what the sequel is aiming for, how it shifts the tone from the previous film, and why it’s clearly going to be a big conversation-starter for fans of the franchise. If you’ve been following this series, the podcast chat is the safest way to decide if it’s your kind of entry.

🎙️ Plus: Oscar-season confusion (as always), travel colds that won’t quit, and the tease of an upcoming special on the 2025-2026 awards season and your annual “Muggies.” ⸻

🕰 Timestamps

00:00 – Start

04:27 – Streaming Picks

04:37 – Heated Rivalry

08:45 – Dhurandhar

13:58 – Skyscraper Live / Free Solo

18:15 – Shelter

29:33 – 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

#Moviewallas #MoviePodcast #Shelter #28YearsLater #BoneTemple #HeatedRivalry #Dhurandhar #FreeSolo #FilmReview #StreamingPicks #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:22 — 36.3MB)

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