Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film and wonder aloud what kind of installments of Star Wars we might have gotten had David Fincher or Steven Soderbergh directed them. Oh, you may mock — but the gatekeepers of the Star Wars franchise pondered that very same question. Schedules were set, dinners eaten, drinks drunk, and concepts hashed out before the producers opted for other aesthetes.
Out (and Proud):


* Black Phone 2 (dir Scott Derrickson, starr Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and Demián Bichir).
* Good Fortune (dir Aziz Ansari, starr AA, Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, and Sandra Oh).
* Truth and Treason (dir Matt Whitaker, starr Ewan Horrocks, Ferdinand McKay, Daf Thomas, Nye Occomore, and Rupert Evans).
* Daniela Miller’s five-part Amazon docuseries Mr Scorcese.

Previews:

* Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (dir Scott Cooper, starr Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, and Odessa Young).
* Regretting You (dir Josh Boone, starr Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco, Mason Thames, Sam Morelos, Scott Eastwood, Willa Fitzgerald, and Clancy Brown.)
* Shelby Oaks (dir Chris Stuckmann, starr Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Robin Bartlett, and Michael Beach).
* Blue Moon (dir Richard Linklater, starr Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Jonah Lees).

A House of Dynamite (dir Kathryn Bigelow, starr Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, and Tracy Letts).
“Black Phone 2,” “Good Fortune,” and “After the Hunt”

Back after their successful world tour last week, Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film.
The here:


* The Smashing Machine (dir Benny Safdie, starr Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Oleksandr Usyk).


* Anemone (dir Ronan Day-Lewis, starr Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, and Safia Oakley-Green).
* Good Boy (dir Ben Leonberg, starr Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, and Larry Fessenden).
*  Tron Ares (dir Joachim Rønning, starr Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges).
* Roofman (dir Derek Cianfrance, starr Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Lily Collias, Jimmy O Yang, and Peter Dinklage).
* Kiss of the Spider Woman (dir Bill Condon, starr Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, and Jennifer Lopez).
* Colin Hanks’s documentary John Candy: I Like Me, available currently on Amazon.

The forthcoming:

* Black Phone 2 (dir Scott Derrickson, starr Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and Demián Bichir).
* Good Fortune (dir Aziz Ansari, starr AA, Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, and Sandra Oh).
* Truth and Treason (dir Matt Whitaker, starr Ewan Horrocks, Ferdinand McKay, Daf Thomas, Nye Occomore, and Rupert Evans).

“The Smashing Machine,” “Anemone,” “Good Boy”
“Tron: Ares,” “Roofman,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and “John Candy: I Like Me”

Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film. They will be taking holiday next week, so no new talk until 16 October.
What’s in the theaters:


* One Battle After Another (dir Paul Thomas Anderson, starr Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti).
* The Strangers — Chapter 2 (dir Renny Harlin, starr Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, and Ema Horvath).
* Dead of Winter (dir Brian Kirk, starr Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Laurel Marsden, and Brían F O’Byrne).
* Eleanor the Great (dir Scarlett Johansson, starr June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, and Chiwetel Ejiofor).

What’s on its way:

* The Smashing Machine (dir Benny Safdie, starr Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Oleksandr Usyk).
* Good Boy (dir Ben Leonberg, starr Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, and Larry Fessenden).
* Anemone (dir Ronan Day-Lewis, starr Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, and Safia Oakley-Green).

“One Battle After Another,” “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” “Dead of Winter,” and “Eleanor the Great”

Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz discuss film in their own inimitable idiomatic fashion.
The here:


* A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir Kogonada, starr Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Kevin Kline, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge).


* Him (dir Justin Tipping, starr Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, and Tim Heidecker).
* The Senior (dir Rod Lurie, starr Michael Chiklis, Mary Stuart Masterson, Brandon Flynn, James Badge Dale, and Rob Corddry).
* The History of Sound (dir Oliver Hermanus, starr Paul Mescal, Chris Cooper, Josh O’Connor, Molly Price, Raphael Sbarge, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning, Emily Bergl, Briana Middleton, Gary Raymond, Alison Bartlett, and Michael Schantz).

The coming:

* One Battle After Another (dir Paul Thomas Anderson, starr Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti).
* The Strangers — Chapter 2 (dir Renny Harlin, starr Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, and Ema Horvath).
* Eleanor the Great (dir Scarlett Johansson, starr June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, and Chiwetel Ejiofor).
* Dead of Winter (dir Brian Kirk, starr Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Laurel Marsden, and Brían F O’Byrne).

“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” “Him,” “The Senior,” and “The History of Sound”

Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz chit the chat over film — in particular, both generations of Spinal Tap.
The reviewed:


* Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (dir Simon Curtis, starr Paul Giamatti, Dominic West, Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, and Arty Froushan).
* The Long Walk (dir Francis Lawrence, starr Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill).
* Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (dir Rob Reiner, starr Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fran Drescher, Don Lake, John Michael Higgins, Jason Acuña, Nina Conti, Griffin Matthews, Kerry Godliman, Chris Addison, Brad Williams, Paul Shaffer, Kathreen Khavari, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks, Questlove, Trisha Yearwood, Chad Smith, and Lars Ulrich).

The forthcoming:

* A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir Kogonada, starr Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Kevin Kline, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
* Him (dir Justin Tipping, starr Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, and Tim Heidecker).
* The Senior (dir Rod Lurie, starr Michael Chiklis, Mary Stuart Masterson, Brandon Flynn, James Badge Dale, and Rob Corddry).
* Afterburn (dir J J Perry, starr Dave Bautista, Samuel L. Jackson, Olga Kurylenko and Kristofer Hivju).

“Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” and “The Long Walk”

Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film. Schulz talks about The War of the Gargantuas, the 1966 kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, which does sound very enjoyable — perhaps even more than what we’ve seen of late.
What’s on:


* The Conjuring: Last Rites (dir Michael Chaves, starr Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, Molly Cartwright, Tilly Walker, Peter Wight, and Kate Fahy).
* Highest 2 Lowest (dir Spike Lee, starr Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, John Douglas Thompson, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Princess Nokia, and Ice Spice).
* Twinless (dir James Sweeney, starr Sweeney, Dylan O’Brien, Aisling Franciosi, Lauren Graham, Tasha Smith, Chris Perfetti, François Arnaud, Susan Park, and Cree Cicchino).

What’s on presently:

* Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (dir Simon Curtis, starr Paul Giamatti, Dominic West, Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, and Arty Froushan).
* The Long Walk (dir Francis Lawrence, starr Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill).
* Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (dir Rob Reiner, starr Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fran Drescher, Don Lake, John Michael Higgins, Jason Acuña, Nina Conti, Griffin Matthews, Kerry Godliman, Chris Addison, Brad Williams, Paul Shaffer, Kathreen Khavari, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks, Questlove, Trisha Yearwood, Chad Smith, and Lars Ulrich).

“The Conjuring: Last Rites,” “Highest 2 Lowest,” and “Twinless”

Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz have reunited, and it feels so good. So good, it seems, that they can brook any amount of disappointment, so long as it’s baked into a given film’s story, and not the natural product of a crappy directorial execution.
The latest releases:


* The Roses (dir Jay Roach, starr Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, and Kate McKinnon).
* Caught Stealing (dir Darren Aronofsky, starr Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Live Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Bad Bunny, Griffin Dunne, and Carol Kane).
* The 2023 remake of 1984’s The Toxic Avenger (dir Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon).
* Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club (dir Chris Columbus, starr Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Richard E Grant, Tom Ellis, Geoff Bell, Paul Freeman, Sarah Niles, and Ingrid Oliver).

Those that are en route:

* The Conjuring: Last Rites (dir Michael Chaves, starr Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, Molly Cartwright, Tilly Walker, Peter Wight, and Kate Fahy).
* Highest 2 Lowest (dir Spike Lee, starr Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, John Douglas Thompson, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Princess Nokia, and Ice Spice).
* The tenth-anniversary re-release of the Disney+ cinematic adaptation of the highly-rated biographical musical Hamilton (dir Thomas Kail, starr Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr, Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Jonathan Groff).
* Twinless (dir James Sweeney, starr Sweeney, Dylan O’Brien, Aisling Franciosi, Lauren Graham, Tasha Smith, Chris Perfetti, François Arnaud, Susan Park, and Cree Cicchino).
* The Cut (dir Sean Ellis, starr Orlando Bloom, Caitríona Balfe, and John Turturro).
* Lurker (dir Alex Russell, starr Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Wale Onayemi, Daniel Zolghadri, and Sunny Suljic).

“The Roses,” “Caught Stealing,” “The Toxic Avenger,” and “The Thursday Murder Club”

Dave Levora and Mike Schulz sit around wondering, “Where’s Darren?” (Chicago, concert) and “Does Jaws still hold up?” (seeing how it’s been re-released on its fiftieth anniversary, it’s still an aesthetic judgment, but c’mon):
Under review:


* Honey, Don’t! (dir Ethan Coen, starr Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Kristen Connolly, Gabby Beans, and Talia Ryder).


* Eden (dir Ron Howard, starr Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, and Richard Roxburgh).
* Relay (dir David Mackenzie, starr Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington).
* The documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (dir Amy Berg).

Forthcoming:

* Caught Stealing (dir Darren Aronofsky, starr Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Bad Bunny, Griffin Dunne, and Carol Kane).
* The Roses (dir Jay Roach, starr Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, and Kate McKinnon).
* The 2023 remake of 1984’s The Toxic Avenger (dir Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon).

Honey Funny Runny Money: “Honey Don’t!,” “Eden,” “Relay,” and “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”

Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz are looking forward to weeks to come, as the balance of previews to available films is hopelessly lopsided this time around.
The stuff that’s here:


* Nobody 2 (dir Timo Tjahjanto, starr Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, RZA, Colin Salmon, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath, Christopher Lloyd, John Ortiz, Colin Hanks, and Sharon Stone).
* The re-release of Shin Godzilla (dirs Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, starr Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, and Satomi Ishihara).
* Americana (dir Tony Tost, starr Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon, and Simon Rex).

The stuff that’s coming:

* Primitive War (dir Luke Sparke, starr Ryan Kwanten, Tricia Helfer, Nick Wechsler, and Jeremy Piven).
* Eden (dir Ron Howard, starr Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, and Richard Roxburgh).
* Trust (dir Carlson Young, starr Sophie Turner, Rhys Coiro, Billy Campbell, and Peter Mensah).
* Relay (dir David Mackenzie, starr Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington).
* Honey, Don’t! (dir Ethan Coen, starr Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Kristen Connolly, Gabby Beans, and Talia Ryder).
* The animated fantasy adventure comedy Ne Zha II (dir Jiaozi, voice [English] Crystal Lee, Aleks Le, Michelle Yeoh, Vincent Rodriguez III, Rick Zeiff, Damien Haas, and Griffin Puatu).
* The documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (dir Amy Berg).
* The animated urban fantasy sing-along KPop Demon Hunters (dir Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, voice Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and Lee Byung-hun
* The thirty-fifth anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (dir Steve Barron, starr Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas, and the voices of Brian Tochi, Josh Pais, Corey Feldman, and Robbie Rist).

“Nobody 2,” “Americana,” and “Shin Godzilla”

Dave Levora and Darren Pitra debate the merits of Jamie Lee Curtis while Mike Schulz can only sit nearby and wonder, Who else can I throw into this Verdun of fandom, this Somme of celebrity?
What’s here:


* Weapons (dir Zach Cregger, starr Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan).
* Sketch (dir Seth Worley, starr Tony Hale, D’Arcy Carden, Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence, Kalon Cox, Jaxen Kenner, Genesis Rose Brown, Randa Newman, Allie McCulloch, Nadia Benavides, Dajanae Cole, Josh Inocalla, Tamiko Robinson Steele, Mitch Miller, Arielle Prepetit, Jesse Santoyo, and Leigha Hancock).
* Freakier Friday (dir Nisha Ganatra, starr Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon, Chad Michael Murray, Rosalind Chao, Ryan Malgarini, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Haley Hudson, Stephen Tobolowsky, Lucille Soong, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, and Manny Jacinto).

What’s coming:

* Nobody 2 (dir Timo Tjahjanto, starr Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, RZA, Colin Salmon, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath, Christopher Lloyd, John Ortiz, Colin Hanks, and Sharon Stone).
* The re-release of Shin Godzilla (dirs Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, starr Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, and Satomi Ishihara).
* Eli Roth Presents: Jimmy and Stiggs (dir Joe Begos, starr Begos and Matt Mercer).
* Americana (dir Tony Tost, starr Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon, and Simon Rex).

“Weapons,” “Freakier Friday,” and “Sketch”