Best Film Ever

“I’m not a one-man woman.”

Join Ian & Megs for our 343rd episode as we head to Brooklyn for Spike Lee’s audacious, provocative, micro-budget debut She’s Gotta Have It (1986). It’s sex, independence, competing egos, and three men absolutely convinced they should be the answer to a question Nola Darling never asked. Liam isn’t with us this week — Nola told him she wasn’t interested in exclusivity and he’s been drafting a rebuttal ever since. Kev? He heard Mars Blackmon say “Please, baby, please” and has disappeared to practise his technique.

This week we discuss:

Who exactly are we supposed to like in this film? Nola, Jamie, Greer, Mars — everyone gets their moments, but are there actually any genuinely likeable characters in She’s Gotta Have It?

Tracy Camilla Johns as Nola Darling — independent, sexually confident, complicated and occasionally deeply frustrating. How radical was this protagonist in 1986, and how does she play almost forty years later?

That Thanksgiving dinner. Inviting all three men you're sleeping with to the same Thanksgiving meal is certainly a choice — but is Nola being liberated, honest and refusing to hide, or is she actually being unnecessarily cruel?

The acting is... a moving target. From genuinely effective performances to line readings that wouldn't survive an amateur theatre rehearsal, the quality fluctuates wildly — so why does the film somehow remain completely compelling?

Spike Lee’s extraordinary debut — made with virtually no money and enormous ambition. Does the roughness actually become part of the film's charm rather than something we need to forgive?

Jamie, Greer and Mars — three wildly different approaches to masculinity, yet all three ultimately want Nola to change for them. Does any one of them actually understand her?

Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon — annoying, hilarious, insecure, endlessly quotable and somehow destined to become bigger than the film itself.

Megs explores Nola’s agency — is the film genuinely celebrating a woman refusing to conform to expectations, or can Nola's independence occasionally become an excuse for treating other people badly?

Ian questions the film’s internal logic — particularly that ending. Nola and Jamie's final scene seems constructed exactly like the climax of a romantic comedy: she's lost the guy, walks away, he calls her back and gives her another chance. Everything about the cinematic language tells us this is the outcome we're supposed to want... until the film suddenly tells us it wasn't.

The final confessional — previous confessionals lead into events that we actually witness. So why does the most important one simply tell us that everything went differently without ever showing it?

And what about Nola's vow of celibacy? Is it genuine growth, or such a rejection of her defining characteristic that it feels like the film suddenly lost confidence in its own ending?

Does the finale feel rewritten? There's no smoking gun proving that it was, but Ian makes the case that the internal logic, characterisation and sudden reliance on “tell, don't show” make those final minutes feel suspiciously like a late attempt to change what the audience takes away from the film.

The film’s sexual politics in 2026 — what's still strikingly progressive, what's become considerably more complicated, and how does one deeply troubling sequence change our relationship with Jamie and everything that follows?

The black-and-white photography and that sudden explosion of colour — necessity becoming aesthetic, and the first signs of the extraordinarily confident visual filmmaker Spike Lee would become.

And finally, whether She’s Gotta Have It is the Best Film Ever — or a messy, inconsistent, sometimes infuriating debut that somehow shines brighter than many considerably more polished films.

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Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

FIRST 54:00: Spoiler-Free Review with our See It/Skip It Verdict
AFTER 54:00: Full Spoiler Review

It’s another edition of See It or Skip It and this time Ian is joined by JDG, Juleen and Hermes as they swing headfirst into Spider-Man: Brand New Day — Tom Holland’s latest outing as Peter Parker and the beginning of a very different chapter for the MCU’s resident wall-crawler.

But can Spider-Man really have a brand new day after No Way Home changed everything? Ian, JDG, Juleen and Hermes suit up to explore whether this fresh start finally gives us the more grounded, street-level Peter Parker fans have been asking for — or if the wider MCU once again proves impossible to escape.

Does Brand New Day make good on the emotional consequences of Peter being forgotten by everyone he loves? Is Tom Holland finally being allowed to stand on his own as Spider-Man, or does a supporting cast featuring Hulk and Punisher threaten to turn his movie into another Marvel crossover?

The gang dig into Holland’s performance, the new status quo, the villains, the action, and whether the film remembers that the best Spider-Man stories aren’t really about saving the world — they’re about Peter Parker desperately trying to hold his own life together.

What should a Spider-Man film look like after multiverses, returning villains and three generations of Spider-Men? Can Marvel genuinely go smaller again, or has the franchise become too big to ever truly return to the neighbourhood?

All this and more in this week’s See It or Skip It review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day — and of course, Ian, JDG, Juleen and Hermes will let you know if you should SEE IT or SKIP IT.

You know we love our wrestling here at the BFE—or, at least, some of us do.

Join Ian from Best Film Ever and JDG as we once again break the traditional BFE format to review all two nights of WWE SummerSlam 2026.

Did CM Punk and Cody Rhodes deliver in their battle for the Undisputed WWE Championship? Was Roman Reigns versus Seth Rollins a worthy main event—or have we seen these two fight one time too many? Did Oba Femi finally cement himself as WWE’s next great monster by stepping inside Hell in a Cell with Brock Lesnar, and was this really the end of the road for The Beast?

Ian and JDG also discuss whether Liv Morgan and IYO SKY lived up to expectations, the chaotic Interim Women’s Championship ladder match, Kevin Owens’ big return, and the increasingly bizarre world in which Danhausen is competing in a “Human Monies on a Pole” match at one of WWE’s biggest shows of the year.

Which matches stole the weekend? Which results left us scratching our heads? Did SummerSlam justify being stretched across two nights—and, most importantly, was it actually the biggest party of the summer?

All this and more as BFE swaps cinema for suplexes and breaks down WWE SummerSlam 2026.

“Kmart sucks.”

Join Ian, Liam & Megs for our 342nd episode as we hit the road for Ian's Patreon pick, Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning classic Rain Man (1988). It's a journey across America filled with family wounds, unexpected connection, and one of the most celebrated performances in cinema history. Kev isn't with us this week—he insisted Raymond was right about Kmart underwear and is currently somewhere in the American Midwest refusing to buy a different brand.

This week we discuss:

Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance — groundbreaking, influential, and endlessly imitated. How well has Raymond Babbitt's portrayal of autism stood the test of time?

Tom Cruise before he became Tom Cruise — is Charlie Babbitt one of the strongest dramatic performances of his career, and does his character truly earn the emotional destination the film arrives at?

Ian makes the case for a brilliant screenplay — from inherited trauma and forgiveness to what it means to truly communicate and how do we compartmentalise intimacy -  we explore why every major theme reinforces another in one of the tightest character scripts we've reviewed.

The road movie structure — why does Rain Man work because Raymond doesn't fundamentally change... Charlie does?

The elevator scene — one of the film's sweetest moments or one of its most complicated? We unpack how differently that sequence plays in 2026 and whether it's an affirmation of Raymond's humanity, a thoughtful act of kindness, or something more ethically complex.

Las Vegas — does the casino sequence undercut Charlie's character development by rewarding the very instincts he's supposed to be leaving behind, or is it a necessary step in his transformation?

Liam explores the brothers' relationship — does the film ultimately become less about autism than about learning to see another person on their terms rather than your own?

Megs examines the film's emotional honesty — sentimentality, manipulation, and whether Rain Man earns every emotional beat it asks of its audience.

The "show versus tell" balance — how much does the film trust Hoffman's performance to communicate Raymond's world without resorting to unnecessary exposition?

The supporting cast — particularly Susanna. Is she underwritten, or does she quietly become the emotional bridge between Charlie and Raymond?

The ending — understated, bittersweet, and refreshingly restrained. Could there have been any other conclusion that stayed true to these characters?

And finally, whether Rain Man is the Best Film Ever — or one of the finest character-driven dramas ever put to film.

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It’s another edition of See It or Skip It, and this time Ian is joined by JDG as they set sail, face monsters, tempt fate, and begin the long journey home with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

But does The Odyssey turn one of the oldest stories ever told into a genuinely thrilling cinematic epic, or does the weight of history, mythology, and expectation prove too much to carry? Ian and JDG unpack whether Nolan delivers a voyage worthy of Homer’s legendary poem — or gets lost somewhere between spectacle and self-importance.

Is the humanity still there beneath the gods, monsters, and enormous set pieces? Does Odysseus feel like a compelling hero, a deeply flawed survivor, or simply another emotionally distant Nolan protagonist? The pair dig into the performances, the film’s visual ambition, and whether its themes of loyalty, pride, temptation, identity, and homecoming still resonate thousands of years later.

Can a story this ancient still surprise a modern audience? Does Nolan find something new within the myth, or is The Odyssey more impressive as a technical achievement than an emotional experience?

All this and more in this week’s See It or Skip It review of The Odyssey — and, of course, Ian and JDG will let you know whether you should SEE IT or SKIP IT.