Martini Giant

For decades, John Wayne's westerns created a vast mythology of America's early days that papered over historical truth in favor of heroic white male ego-fantasies. But towards the end of his career, two films stand out wherein he questions these narratives and his role in them - join us as we take a look at his masterpiece The Searchers, as well the Coen Brother's reinterpretation of his classic True Grit!

Disney spent 350 million making the pretty-fun Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and 288 million making the downright awful Black Widow. But even though the combined budget of tonight's double feature wouldn't have covered craft service for those movies, each packed to the brim with incredible concepts and beautiful images. Join us as we talk about Gareth Edwards' Monsters and Brit Marling's Another Earth!

Happy Halloween from MG! Tonight, pour yourself a nice pumpkin spice martini and cozy up to our Exorcist double bill! First up is William Friedkin's 1973 masterful original, featuring a decade-best performance from Ellen Burstyn as a possessed kid's beleaguered mom - then we follow it up with the film's second (and darkly comedic) sequel, Exorcist III - directed by the book's author, William Peter Blatty!

Every now and then, a film critic puts their money where their mouth is and makes a movie for themselves - and sometimes they even prove to be true masters of the craft: Paul Schrader and Francois Truffaut, for example. But MG argues that one of the most impressive debuts of all time is someone who is now a bit forgotten - film historian and Orson Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich - whose incredible one-two punch of The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon made him the toast of the town in the early 70s!

The list of Hollywood movies that roast Hollywood excess is a long one, with bona fide classics like Sunset Boulevard at the top of many critics all-time lists, and scrappy indies like The Big Picture throwing tomatoes from the cheap seats. But for our money, you'd be hard-pressed to find a one-two punch better than tonight's double feature: the Coen Brothers' love letter Hail Caesar! and Robert Altman's poison-penned The Player!