On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss a pair of streaming films. The first is a Belgian film by the Dardenne brothers titled “Young Mothers.” The other is a U.S.-based documentary about a Southern city titled “Natchez.”

Film festivals typically, but not always, feature films that will hardly ever play at your local metroplex. Yet is possible, though again not always, to be fans of both mainstream and festival films. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss the latest Hollywood wannabe blockbuster, “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” and then reveal what they expect from the 52nd Seattle International Film Festival, which kicks off May 7th.

One common source of drama involves putting characters in difficult situations. How they react can, and often does, result in powerful individual acting performances. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss two films that put characters in difficult situations. The first is “I Swear,” the based-on-real-events story of a man with Tourette’s Syndrome. The other is “Mother Mary,” a film starring Anne Hathaway as a pop star attempting a comeback who is forced to face secrets from her past.

Among the several filmmakers whose work demands to be seen, Steven Soderbergh—for many of us—ranks somewhere in the Top Ten. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss Soderbergh’s newest film, “The Christophers,” which stars the great stage actor Ian McKellen. They follow that with a look at the latest film by the Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis titled “All That’s Left of You.”

It’s no secret that the success or failure of a movie depends largely on how well we can relate to its central characters. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss a pair of films boasting protagonists with wildly diverse appeals. The films are the theatrical release “Fantasy Life” and the streaming feature “Outcome.”

Intensity and tension are important aspects of art. And this is especially true in cinematic art. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss two films that explore the meaning of tension in two different ways. The first is “The Drama,” a study of a couple about to be married who begin to obsess over something from the past. The other is “Crime 101,” an exploration of the lives of several desperate characters, one of whom embarks on a plan to get rich quick.

Some people find foreign films intolerable. Others of us seek them out simply because they tend to offer something different from the usual Hollywood fare. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss two foreign films that are radically unique: the Oscar-nominated Spanish-French film “Sirāt” and the French film “Alpha.”

Though the possibility, not to mention practicality, of interstellar space travel remains in doubt, that hasn’t stopped moviemakers from exploiting the idea. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss the latest sci-fi space venture, “Project Hail Mary,” a Ryan Gosling vehicle based on Andy Weir’s best-selling novel. They also share their choices for, as they like to say, “their favorite space-travel movies that aren’t ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’”

The Motion Picture Academy has had its say, and that means that we can now have ours. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss the 98th Oscars broadcast, the wins and the shoulda-beens. Then they discusss another music-themed documentary, this one featuring the former Beatle Paul McCartney, Amazon Studio’s “Paul McCartney: Man on the Run.”

Forget the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs or the SAG awards, it’s the Oscars broadcast that movie fans care most about. On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss the 98th Academy Awards, who is nominated, who has the best chances of winning and who they each think should win.