Filmspotting

What can your body tell you about a movie? According to legendary Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, everything.

This week's Movie Racket explores Cohn's infamous rule for separating hits from flops. Joining Michael Phillips is Slate film critic Dana Stevens (Camera Man: Buster Keaton), who helps unpack what that deceptively simple dictum reveals about audiences, critics, attention spans, and streaming culture. Along the way, they cover The Odyssey, Jeanne Dielman, Citizen Kane, and whether laughter, tears, gasps, or simple restlessness can ever be trusted as measures of a film's success.
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For the final film in the Dissident Cinema Marathon, Adam and Josh discuss Jafar Panahi’s formally ingenious 2000 film THE CIRCLE, an unflinching chronicle of Iran’s oppressive treatment of women.
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After a five-year hiatus, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is back on the big screen with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this time battling anonymity, a host of nemeses, and some arachnid-related changes. Adam and Josh have a review. Plus thoughts on the new doc Everybody to Kenmure Street and the latest from Pulse and Cloud director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, The Samurai and the Prisoner.
This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off.
(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)
Intro (00:00:00-00:02:22)
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (00:02:23-00:44:22)
Filmspotting Family (00:44:23-00:48:35)
Everybody to Kenmure Street (00:48:36-01:08:32)
The Samurai and the Prisoner (01:08:33-01:12:39)
Massacre Theatre (01:12:40-01:20:03)
Credits / Releases (01:20:04-01:24:02)
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It's been eight years since Adam and Josh did the Top 5 Superhero-Director Combos (We'd Like To See) and still somehow none of their pitches have been given the green light. Maybe that will change with this Archive edition.
Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠. Promo code: summer for 20% off through August 31st https://filmspotting.supportingcast.fm/join?sc_promo=summer
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Chris Klimek presides over a multiversal showdown between two of the most beloved Spider-Man films: Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 and the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
One is a live-action, early-2000s studio blockbuster that crystallized the modern superhero movie — grounded in practical effects, emotional melodrama, and a deeply human Peter Parker torn between responsibility and desire. The other is a radically stylized animated film that reimagines what superhero storytelling can look like, embracing comic book form itself as its visual language.
Arguing for Spider-Man 2 is Matt Singer (Marvel's Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular), who makes the case that Raimi’s film remains the definitive Peter Parker story. Arguing for Spider-Verse is Daisy Rosario, who contends that the film not only updates but expands the Spider-Man mythos.
Which one better captures the essence of Spider-Man — and why does that question remain so difficult to answer? Choose your winner at moviedeathmatch.com.
More From Matt
Official Site | ScreenCrush | “Funny Business”
More From Daisy
Death, Sex & Money | ICYMI
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