On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I officially dig into the 2019 cinematic release calendar with a chat about “Standoff At Sparrow Creek,” a small but well-made one-location thriller that’s packed with a great bunch of character actors chewing up tough-guy dialogue and spitting it out with verve, but not too much overt stylization.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2018

The Playlist review out of TIFF (where the film premiered as part of the popular Midnight Madness section of the fest) found the film to be just okay, slapping it with a C- grade, but we’d beg to differ.

Continue reading ‘Standoff At Sparrow Creek’ Is A Confident, Strong Debut & An Early 2019 Genre Movie Gem [AYT Podcast] at The Playlist.

“B-movie” shouldn’t be a dirty word, and they deserve screens and your attention at the cinema…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I reunited after a monthlong absence—just not much worth discussing for us lately—and we dig into a topic that’s near and dear: lower-budgeted genre movies that actually get to screen at movie theaters. Believe it or not, movies like “Upgrade,” our main topic of discussion on this episode, we’re easier to find at the cinema not that long ago.

Continue reading ‘Upgrade’ And The Joy Of B-Movies At The Cinema [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast] at The Playlist.

There was a time not long ago when movies like this weren’t just low budget “indie” efforts…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I reflect on a bygone era of cinema when different kinds of movies could more easily land on the radar of the masses. For this discussion, we use new releases “Unsane” and “Gemini” as our launching point and are two main reviews at the top of the show.

Continue reading Yeah, They Have Issues, But We Want More Movies Like ‘Gemini’ & ‘Unsane’ [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast] at The Playlist.

When style becomes the substance…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I bring back a couple of golden oldies from the show’s past. We took this week off from recording to enjoy a long, gluttonous holiday weekend. But that doesn’t mean we’d leave you without something to listen to. And so, from the AYT vaults (which you can find here, if you’d like to explore our old episodes), I’ve put together a crime movie double feature: Mathieu Kassovitz‘ scorching, energetic masterpiece from 1995, “La Haine” and Hype Williams‘ “Belly,” from 1998, a misunderstood movie with insanely beautiful visuals that distills the urban crime thriller into a hallucinogenic orgy of experiential moments and sequences.

Continue reading Revisiting Stylish Crime Films ‘La Haine’ & ‘Belly’ [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast] at The Playlist.

Sometimes a filmmaker just misses the forest for the trees…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I start things off by riffing on problematic filmmakers, especially in the light of the now-it’s-official Louis C.K. sexual harassment allegations, and his subsequent admission to the wrongdoing. I had a chance to see his latest, now-forever-buried “I Love You, Daddy,” and it ain’t pretty.

Continue reading Talking The Good & The Bad In ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast] at The Playlist.

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I dig into the career thus far of Darren Aronofsky, the filmmaker behind last weekend’s “mother!“, a fascinating film that’s swiftly divided audiences and critics even after a less-than-stellar box office haul. It’s undeniably mind-boggling to consider a studio exec reading the script and greenlighting the film, but that’s what happened and now we’ve got the glory or pain (depending on your feelings of the finished result) of “mother!” to relish in and discuss.

Continue reading ‘mother!’ Divides, But There’s So Much To Discuss! [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast] at The Playlist.

Adjust Your Tracking is back to talk about cult movies and the often tepid results from attempting to catch lightning in a bottle again. While the box-office and critical reception for “Blair Witch” was underwhelming, to say the least, we still find other aspects around the film and the franchise to dig into. All of which nicely ties into the latest edition of our special segment HOLD UP: “Donnie Darko.”

READ MORE: ‘Blair Witch’ Can’t Capture The Mystique Of The Original

My co-host Joe von Appen and myself have often championed the work of director Adam Wingard and screenwriter/producer Simon Barrett (we’re big fans of “The Guest” and “You’re Next“).

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Talks Cult Franchises, ‘Blair Witch’ & Looks Back At ‘Donnie Darko’ & ‘Southland Tales’ at The Playlist.

With summer winding down, and movies being in a something of a slow holding pattern before the fall festival and awards seasons kicks off this week, Joe and myself dig into a few recent documentaries that’ve gotten attention recently: “Lo and Behold: Reveries of a Connected World,” “Tickled,” and our main subject for this episode, “O.J.: Made in America.” The last segment features our discussion of Joe’s latest pick for Hold Up: Richard Linklater‘s 1996 mostly-forgotten film, “SubUrbia.”

READ MORE: Werner Herzog’s ‘Lo And Behold: Reveries of the Connected World’ Is A Curious, Awe-struck & Terrified Look At The Web [Review]

We only talk briefly, though, about ‘Lo and Behold,’ the latest nonfiction work from Werner Herzog, who’s without doubt at his most Herzogian with this lean but entertaining look at the internet and its pros and cons, and “Tickled,” a bizarre story about a New Zealand reporter who stumbles onto a much stranger, unsettling mystery after discovering the world of competitive tickling competitions.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Talks Docs With ‘O.J.: Made In America’ & ‘Lo And Behold’ at The Playlist.

Sure, the summer movie season has been rough. But there’s no need to belabor the point when the likes of Netflix are capturing the zeitgeist with shows like “Stranger Things,” the streaming service’s much discussed, massively popular homage to Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, John Carpenter and so much more.

That’s what myself and co-host Joe von Appen talk about on most of this latest episode of Adjust Your Tracking.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Takes A Big Hit Of Nostalgia With ‘Stranger Things’ at The Playlist.

On this latest episode of Adjust Your Tracking, my co-host, Joe von Appen, and myself bring down the shades, look through our telescopes and stare endlessly at the lurid, surreal and dreamy filmic universe of Brian De Palma. Of course, this is in honor of the theatrical release for “De Palma,” the new documentary by the filmmaker’s friends and colleagues Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow that features the titular director dishing out one fascinating and deeply entertaining anecdote after another on a whirlwind tour through all his filmography.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Dives Into ‘De Palma’ at The Playlist.

On this latest episode of Adjust Your Tracking, my co-host Joe von Appen, who’s something of a Shane Black scholar, gets to impart his vast knowledge of the “The Nice Guys” writer/director’s oeuvre. Before we dive into his career and our review of his latest film, which came out last week and sadly underperformed at the box office, we start with a reminder to that the release of Yorgos Lanthimos‘ latest film “The Lobster,” which we discussed on last week’s episode, is expanding to more cities this weekend (I also interviewed Lanthimos on a recent Playlist Podcast episode).

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Hangs Out With Shane Black’s ‘The Nice Guys’ at The Playlist.

This episode of Adjust Your Tracking is made up of two reviews, opens with Joe von Appen and myself briefly reminiscing about the podcast’s origins and then quickly spinning off into the films at hand. We split over Ben Wheatley‘s new apocalyptic class war picture “High-Rise” but nothing can stop us both from gushing over Yorgos Lanthimos‘ brilliant “The Lobster,” an dystopian sci-fi film with a hilarious sense of deadpan humor.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Discusses The Dystopian Worlds Of ‘High-Rise’ & ‘The Lobster’ at The Playlist.

Adjust Your Tracking returns and opens this episode with a reminder to you dear listeners that “Green Room,” the film we talked about on our last episode, is now in wider release. There’s no excuse, go see it at a theater near you! (And after you see it, give a spin to my podcast interview with director Jeremy Saulnier and star Anton Yelchin.)

READ MORE: Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Examines Both Ends Of The Modern Exploitation Spectrum With ‘Green Room’ & ‘Hardcore Henry’

The bulk of the show sees myself and co-host Joe von Appen contend with our mutual disappointment having seen “Keanu,” the first big film from Key & Peele after they ended their often-brilliant sketch show on Comedy Central.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Loves ‘Keanu’ The Cat, But The Movie Not So Much at The Playlist.

On the previous episode of Adjust Your Tracking, myself and co-host Joe von Appen gushed about Jeff Nichols‘ “Midnight Special,” and we open this latest episode of the podcast with a followup on its scary box office possibilities (or lack thereof). But the main section of the show is dedicated toRichard Linklater‘s latest film, “Everybody Wants Some!!,” and beyond our review, we dive into a deeper discussion about the film’s specific, mostly-white male perspective and what that means in an era of #OscarSoWhitemovie culture.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Rocks Out With Richard Linklater’s ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ at The Playlist.