Critical Darlings

Wake up sheeple, it’s The Sheep Detectives! This week we’re joined by our very own executive sheepherder Griffin Newman to discuss the new cozy mystery for families. After the mysterious death of their shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman, his band of sheep team up to solve the mystery in a picturesque British countryside. Surprisingly, it’s very good! Knitting together themes of memory and grief, tied up in a wooly bow.

We discuss the plot and characters, our histories with upsetting kid’s movies, the exceptional voice performance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more. We get into Amazon and MGM’s current play for the box office, fall down a He-Man rabbit hole, and also talk about some other cozy mysteries.

Next week, we look back at the year so far, and look forward with a Summer movie preview. 
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Description: “…You think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the podcast industry when, in fact, you're listening to a podcast that was selected for you by the people in the room…and Who? Weekly!” This week on the show, we’re joined by the hosts of ⁠Who? Weekly⁠, Lindsey Webber and Bobby Finger, to discuss The Devil Wears Prada 2, starring a list of all-star Thems: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci.

20 years on, much has changed in the worlds of Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs; amidst the cratering value of traditional media, Miranda and Andy reconnect to save Runway Magazine from bad billionaires. Despite its depressing subject matter, the movie is still breezy, funny, and surprisingly well observed. As veterans in the NYC media wars, we get into our histories with the original, recount our encounters with billionaire magazine owners, do a Meryl performance review, discuss the film’s elegy for tastemakers like Anna Wintour, and why we all still want (and need) publications like Vogue and Runway.

Next week we’re talking about sheep and cozy mysteries with The Sheep Detectives!
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Michael is many things: a box-office triumph, a savvy piece of IP management, and a Frankenstein stitched together from a movie we’ll never get to see. Today on the show, we’re joined by two journalists who have reported on Michael Jackson for the Think Twice: Michael Jackson podcast: our own producer Benjamin Frisch, and Danielle Hewitt, to try and make sense of a deeply flawed film that also features some of the best pop music of all time.  

We get into the drawn-out trajectory of the movie, its legal woes and reshoots, the casting of Michael’s nephew Jaafar in the lead role, and the film’s rose-colored view of its main subject. We also dip into Jackson family history to think about how a more effective Jackson biopic might work, and get into the story of Michael’s career and the legacy of the now-impossible-to-stream Leaving Neverland.

Next week, we’re off to fashion week with The Devil Wears Prada 2, with Who Weekly! 
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This week, we’re holding a seance in a Dress Barn™ with Mother Mary! Directed by David Lowery and starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole, this two-hander sees a pop singer and her former designer revisiting the rift that severed their early creative partnership, with spooky results.

The film goes wide on April 24th, so with extra spoiler guard rails, we’ll discuss the film, its heightened language, and the unusually depicted supernatural elements. We’ll also discuss Lowery’s filmography, contemporary Hathaway, and Michaela Cole’s trajectory.

Finally, we’ll discuss fictional pop singers on screen. From Vox Lux to Spice World, A Star is Born, and Kpop Demon Hunters, why are they so tricky to depict?

Next week, we will be discussing a film about a literal angel named Michael. Not the Nora Ephron film, unfortunately.
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This week, we’re confessing the worst thing we’ve ever done with Zendaya and Batman himself with The Drama. The twist premise of A24’s newest hit throws a grenade into the idyllic romance of a beautiful couple in Boston in the days before their wedding. The movie hinges on the question of whether we can really know the people we love, but the premise, the worst thing Zendaya’s character has ever done, is what audiences are talking about. Is it a purposeful provocation or an empty one?

We discuss the movie’s masterful marketing campaign and how it harnesses its premise as an extension of A24’s edgy branding. Beyond the marketing, much of the movie’s success must also be credited to Zendaya’s stardom. We go deep on her career and her big 2026 lineup before digging into director Kristoffer Borgli’s work as a provocateur, and ponder the current state of provocation in Hollywood today, before giving our recommendations for the week.

Next week, we’re off to the English countryside, discussing Mother Mary.
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