Blog
November 6, 2026
12 Angry Men: a five-star classic that still lost Best Picture
Sidney Lumet's jury-room drama earned a five out of five from both of us, and we can't quite believe it went home empty-handed at the Oscars.
November 4, 2026
Heat: a perfect score, and De Niro's code pushed past its limit
Michael Mann's 1995 crime epic earned a five out of five from both of us, thanks to a stacked cast, the bank-robbery shootout, and Neil McCauley's thirty-second rule finally catching up with him.
November 2, 2026
Our top 5 male actors of the 2020s: one name on both lists
We each picked the actors defining this decade in film without comparing notes, and only Timothée Chalamet made both lists, for completely different movies.
October 28, 2026
Sense and Sensibility: a remake we didn't think we needed, landing at the same 4.5
Georgia Oakley's 2026 retelling of the Jane Austen novel got the exact same 4.5 out of 5 from both of us, thirty-one years after a version Matt remembers struggling through as a kid.
October 26, 2026
Tenzing: we both wanted more mountain, less flashback
Jennifer Peedom's Hillary-Tenzing film landed a four from Jeff and a three and a half from Matt, and we both wished it had spent less time on backstory and more time on the climb.
October 23, 2026
Our top 5 romantic comedies (You've Got Mail made both lists, in different spots)
We each ranked five romantic comedies without comparing notes. You've Got Mail is the only film on both lists, but we didn't rank it the same.
October 21, 2026
Sunset Boulevard: still big, even if the pictures got small
Billy Wilder's 1950 Hollywood noir landed a five from Matt and a four and a half from Jeff, and its most famous line pulled us into talking about Ben Affleck and Gene Hackman.
October 15, 2026
Our top 5 Christopher Nolan movies: the same top three, in the same order
We ranked all thirteen Christopher Nolan films independently and landed on the exact same top three, in the exact same order, for the first time.
October 12, 2026
Lawrence of Arabia: a four-hour epic, a half-star gap
David Lean's Best Picture winner about T.E. Lawrence's rise and unraveling got a five from Matt and a four from Jeff, and we both came away more struck by how it was made than we expected.
October 9, 2026
Our top 5 sports films: Moneyball strikes at #4 again
We each ranked five sports films without comparing notes. Moneyball matched at number four for both of us, the same spot Far and Away landed on our Tom Cruise list.
October 7, 2026
Forgotten Island: a five from one of us, a three from the other
DreamWorks' new animated adventure into Filipino culture landed a perfect score with Jeff and a solid-but-skippable one with Matt, and we can't fully agree on why.
October 5, 2026
Hamnet: a five-star gut punch for two dads
Chloé Zhao's unofficial imagining of Shakespeare's family hit both of us for five stars, and being fathers ourselves made it hit harder.
October 2, 2026
Our top 5 Tom Cruise movies (we both picked Far and Away)
We each ranked five Tom Cruise movies without comparing notes first. Far and Away landed at number four on both lists; nothing else lined up that cleanly.
September 30, 2026
Toy Story 5 and the screen time problem
We caught up with Toy Story 5, new to streaming, and landed on the same rank on our all-time Toy Story list even though our scores were half a star apart.
September 28, 2026
Kubrick's Paths of Glory: dark satire with real teeth
We went back to 1957 for Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and both landed on 4.5 stars, for very different reasons.
September 25, 2026
Our top 5 Pixar movies: thirty-one films, one match
We each ranked our five favorite Pixar movies. With thirty-one films to pick from, WALL-E was the only one that made both lists.
September 25, 2026
Our top 5 Spielberg films: two brothers, one Schindler's List
We each ranked the five best films Steven Spielberg directed. Jurassic Park and Schindler's List made both lists, and Indiana Jones started an argument.
September 19, 2026
Why Arrival still gets five stars from both of us
A decade later, Denis Villeneuve's language-first sci-fi drama holds up, and it might be even better the second time.
September 12, 2026
Ten Best Picture winners, zero overlap
We each picked our top five Best Picture winners without comparing notes. We didn't agree on a single one.