Film Reviews

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss a big-screen feature titled “Origin” and a Hulu streamer titled “Self Reliance,” and also give a quick preview of the coming Spokane International Film Festival.

“Origin” is a look at the roots of cultural dysfunction that supersedes simple theories of racism, Dan Webster says in his review.

The musical remake of the classic comedy “Mean Girls” has been a box office champ for the last few weeks. But Nathan Weinbender says you’re better off waiting for the Broadway tour to come back through town—or putting on your old DVD copy of the original film.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss three movies, each of which tackles some variation on the theme of endurance. “All of Us Strangers” stars Andrew Scott as a man haunted by a tragedy he suffered as a pre-teen, “Society of the Snow” is another retelling of the 1972 Andes airplane crash, and “Remembering Gene Wilder” is an exploration of the late comic actor’s life—which at one point involved the loss of a beloved partner and at another was challenged by a crippling disease.

“Society of the Snow” is a graphic, Spanish-language portrayal of the 1972 Andes airplane crash, Dan Webster says in his review.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss three films from last year: the social commentary “American Fiction,” the study of dysfunctional family and professional wrestling titled “The Iron Claw” and the Tunisian documentary “Four Daughters.”

“American Fiction” takes aim at race, publishing and cultural pandering, Dan Webster says in his review.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss three late releases from 2023. First up is “Poor Things," a bizarre blend of feminism and—as Leslie Kelly terms it—“arty soft-core porn.” Next, the biopic of the late carmaker Enzo Ferrari, titled succinctly “Ferrari,” and then a Finnish study of an off-again, on-again would-be love affair called “Fallen Leaves.”

“Ferrari” is Michael Mann’s intimate look at the Italian carmaker Enzo Ferrari, Dan Webster says in his review.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss one of those projects, the Bradley Cooper film “Maestro,” which Cooper didn’t just direct and co-write, but which he also stars in the title role as the late Leonard Bernstein. They discuss, too, a Netflix release, “Leave the World Behind,” that stars not just one, but two past Oscar winners, Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali.