Film Reviews

Critical Darlings

Welcome to Critical Darlings: a podcast about the movies everyone is talking about, one new release after another.

Every week, critics Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore cover the latest film driving the conversation—from big summer blockbusters to festival favorites, buzzy streamers, and major awards contenders. New episodes every Thursday.

We’re a Blank Check Production! To catch up on our first miniseries covering the 2026 Oscars season, check out Blank Check on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Stick around on this feed for new episodes going forward.

Produced by Benjamin Frisch

Subscribe to Richard’s newsletter, ⁠⁠Premiere Party,⁠⁠ and read Alison’s work ⁠⁠at Vulture.

Follow @blankcheckpod on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠!

Latest Episodes:

“Primetime” Takes A Seat (With Jessica Kiang) Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

Heads up to listeners, this episode includes sensitive discussions of abuse due to the nature of the film.

It's Primetime! The new Robert Pattinson vehicle is a neon-lit, morally murky movie about ratings and perversions of justice that serves as an astonishing acting showcase for Pattinson and costars Merritt Weaver and Skyler Gisondo . It's also a hit, and yet another feather in Pattinson's cap, after The Drama succeeded earlier this year, and with Dune III on the horizon.

We're joined by the incredibly well-traveled Jessica Kiang of Variety and The Berlin Film Festival to discuss. We discuss the film, its unintended documentary companion piece Predators, the phenomenon of To Catch A Predator, and how all of that is filtered through this very slick film, the first narrative feature from director Lance Oppenheim.

Next week, we'll be having a very measured discussion of the normal-looking film "Digger".

Email us: CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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Bonus: The Festival Circuit Explained, And Our Fall Festival Trip Report Sep 26, 2026

Show notes

In this bonus episode: After a month of festival hopping, we're back in the studio to discuss the fall festival season, its big premieres, and paint a very rough picture of how award season is shaping up. But first, we take a question from the mailbag to demystify the fall festival circuit and how these giant star-studded events actually work.

Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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"Resident Evil" Is How You Adapt A Video Game (With David Sims) Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

Conflict of interest disclosure:

Critical Darlings is a fully owned subsidiary of The Umbrella Corporation. Today we're joined by David Sims of Blank Check and "friend of" one of this film's featured performers (Critical Darlings' Executive Producer) Griffin Newman, to discuss Zach Cregger's adaptation of the Resident Evil video game series. Resident Evil is Cregger's third triumph in a row, after Barbarian and Weapons, and captures the game series' campy but grotesque sensibility in a completely fresh way that's resonating with audiences, critics, and even the vast majority of gamers. We go deep on Resident Evil lore, whether Resident Evil 4 is the greatest game of all time, and how the movie's bullet-counting, rummaging-through-drawers set pieces manage to evoke the series without introducing any classic Resident Evil lore. We also get into the history of the Resident Evil film series, different approaches to video game adaptations, and whether this movie will usher in a new age of less literal game adaptations. Next week, it's lights, camera, Pattinson, with Primetime! Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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A Critical Darlings Mailbag Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

As Richard and Alison are jet-setting across Venice, Europe, and Toronto, North America, we bring to you a special pre-recorded mailbag, featuring your voicemails and questions!

We get into our favorite end-credits songs; the IPs we'd love to see adapted; our imagined Oscar-worthy biopics; the festival circuit; the history of digital media; The Oscars, and much more. We also unlock new Richard and Alison lore, including Rent message boards, Mulder and Scully fanfic listservs, male weepies, and even more discussion of Empire Of Light. Next week, pull out your Umbrellas, because it's raining zombies in Zach Cregger's Resident Evil.

You can still email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” And Video Store Nostalgia Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

Get your dipping sauces ready, it’s Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma!

Starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, this meta horror picture goes to some very strange places that nonetheless right feel at home with Schoenbrun’s dreamy-sexy vision: a haunted summer camp, an underground eldritch video store, and an emotionally moving Counting Crows music video to name just a few.

Though dripping in fountains of blood, the movie is also a sensitive depiction of sex and desire as refracted through Einbinder’s character’s obsession with the in-universe Camp Miasma. Camp Miasma is a past-its-prime, problematic horror franchise whose masters have now employed Einbinder's character, a young director, to create a “woke” reboot. She travels to the Pacific Northwest to meet the mysterious starlet of the first film, played by Anderson, who lives at the old campground, and both women unspool.

Alison recently wrote a profile of Schoenbrun in Vulture, and has been immersed in their work for some time, including their upcoming novel. We’ll get into their trajectory from We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, to I Saw the TV Glow, to Camp Miasma, and discuss its extremely dense themes, it’s incredible centerpiece musical sequence, go long on the mystic veil of childhood video stores, and much more. Plus, five whole minutes of The Dog Stars!

Next week, it’s mailbag time!

Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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“Coyote Vs. Acme” And The Great Ketchup Rescue (With Connor Ratliff) Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

After an absurd and depressing attempt by David Zaslov to bury Coyote Vs. Acme, it’s finally in theaters. What’s more, it’s great, making WB’s attempts to shelve the movie for a tax write-off seem all the feckless.

Rescued by the odd-duck distributor Ketchup Entertainment, the movie is a corporate satire and legal thriller about culpability and justice in a world stacked against the little guy—represented by the character of Wiley Coyote, and Will Forte, as Coyote’s ambulance-chasing attorney. Today we’re joined by Looney Tunes expert Connor Ratliff, of The George Lucas Talk Show, Connor Ratliff’s Presents The Acting Class,⁠ Dead Eyes, and more, to discuss the movie, its rocky history, and a great deal of Looney Tunes lore. We get into a history of Ketchup, the movie’s surprisingly heartfelt center, which Looney Tunes are MAGA, and get into a little behind-the-scenes discussion with the help from Connor, including some of the film’s notable absences, and Senator Elmer Fudd’s official political affiliation. Next week, we’re going to Camp Miasma! See you then. Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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“Tony” Or, Bourdain Begins (With Jaya Saxena) Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

Ey wanna leahn howta shuck an oystah? Jaya Saxena of the new, worker-owned food publication Ravenous, joins us to discuss Tony, the micro-biopic about a pipsqueak version of Anthony Bourdain learning to love food in Provincetown, Mass.

From director Matt Johnson of Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie, and Blackberry, comes a fictionalized take on Bourdain’s early years. The script loosely covers about a chapter and a half from Bourdain’s hallowed Kitchen Confidential: the book that helped turn him from a working chef into one of the most important food writers in America. Bourdain’s reputation precedes him, but Tony largely sidesteps the mythology by downsizing Tony into a wannabe writer in need of a good ass-kicking.

We discuss Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential, the allure of bad boys from greater Massachusetts, what exactly goes into a Lobster Thermidor, refillable ketchup bottles, and the movie’s depiction of drugs and suicide. Finally we get into our favorite food movies (Tampopo! Eat Drink Man Woman! Ratatouille!) and do our recommendations.

Next week, watch for falling anvils, it’s Coyote Vs. Acme.

Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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“The End Of Oak Street” Is Dino-mite (With Matt Singer) Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

Dinosaurs are back in business this week, with The End of Oak Street, an original blockbuster about shooting dinos in the face while getting chomped by various raptors, dactyls, and giant primordial snakes.

We’re joined by Indiewire’s Matt Singer, host of Filmspotting: SVU, and author of the upcoming book Funny Business, to discuss the film, its blend of Amblin-influenced family filmmaking with director David Robert Mitchell’s acidic bite. The movie uses its familiar tropes to lull the audience into a lull before ripping those tropes apart, making the film stranger and darker than the marketing let on. Still, it’s been a hit with critics, if not with audiences at large.

We discuss how the story unfolds, Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway’s performances, the joys of shooting raptors in the face, sad giant snake monsters, The Last House, and break down the ending and what the movie is really about—Climate change, maybe? We also get into JJ Abrams’ trajectory as the head of Bad Robot, which produced the film, the state of puzzle box film and TV, and finally do our recommendations.

Next week, it’s lobster roll season, with the Anthony Bourdain biographical picture, Tony.

Email us: criticaldarlingsmailbag@gmail.com

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“One Night Only” Is The Sex Purge (With Josh Gondelman) Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

In a technofascist parallel reality, singles are only allowed to have sex one night a year: it’s One Night Only, AKA The Sex Purge!

Comedian Josh Gondelman joins us to discuss this deeply strange film which has taken the box office by…not very much. Is that more evidence for the slow fade of theatrical rom coms, or is this just a really, really weird movie?

Directed by Will Gluck, and starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, We’re split on the movie’s charms, but we’re mesmerized by the movie’s vision of fascism + rom-com shenanigans. We discuss the movie’s world building, blacklist scripts, Callum Turner lookalikes, it’s lack of comedian supporting characters, the state of the rom-com, and the movie’s both-sides-ing of its own high concept premise.

Check out Josh’s newsletter That’s Marvelous, to get up to date tour info, and mail us at criticaldarlingsmailbag@gmail.com.

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“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Enters The Money-Verse (with Griffin Newman) Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

Griffin Newman swings back from Spain, Europe, to discuss Spider-Man: Brand New Day! Brand New Day is likely the biggest movie of the year, maybe of all time, depending on how you count. From the seemingly bulletproof Spider-Man formula to the unquestionable star power of Tom Holland and Zendaya, we should have seen this coming!

On this episode, we go long to discuss the special appeal of Spider-Men of today and yesteryear, the Tom Holland phenomenon, his perpetual boyishness, The Punisher Meets Archie, spider puberty, bathhouses, the X-Men and their soon-to-be integration into the MCU, in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, and wonder if the movie is maybe a metaphor for Gen-Z lockdown FOMO. Next week, it’s The Sex Purge, AKA One Night Only! Email us: CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com

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