Not being a Quentin Tarantino movie isn’t a mortal sin, and there’s a wide range of quality when it comes to Tarantino wannabes anyway - not that we’re sure THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU’RE DEAD is trying to be one. But if you remove the QT factor (or lack thereof), how does this Andy Garcia vehicle come across? Can 90s nostalgia work wonders in our cynical hearts? Do we find its end-of-the-millennium mannerisms charming or insufferable? The answers lie in this Real Talk segment!

Pity any gangster movie that came out in the post-Pulp-Fiction 90s. THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU’RE DEAD couldn’t escape the comparisons to beloved Tarantino fare, and critics decided that was enough to turn their backs on Andy Garcia and his band of chatty criminals. Listen to Alex & Julio as they go to bat for Scott Rosenberg’s tale of redemption and acceptance of your inevitable doom. Boat drinks, on the house!

Okay, Ari Aster. This is where we give you a fair shake. It’s been established throughout the run of this show that neither Alex nor Julio care for Hereditary or Midsommar. But this Real Talk segment forces The Contrarians to articulate their feelings beyond snarky jokes, and consider that maybe they haven’t been giving Mr. Aster and his fans enough credit. Could it be? Was Contrarians Corner one of our most deceiving performances? Listen and find out!

To hear critics tell it, Ari Aster reimagined the horror genre with HEREDITARY, his Tomatometer fresh debut. It doesn’t matter that the movie abandons its exploration of grief halfway through its runtime, and it doesn’t matter that the third act requires a character to drop a phonebook’s worth of exposition for it to make sense. Sometimes, people just fall hard for something new. Listen to Alex & Julio pick apart the most harrowing Toni Collette vehicle: the rise of Paimon!

While Alex dropped little bits of pro wrestling trivia during Contrarians Corner, he saved all the heavy stuff for the second half of the episode. Is it possible to enjoy a mainstream biopic when you are quite familiar with the subject being explored? Is it a blessing in disguise to be ignorant of Saraya’s real life journey while watching Fighting With My Family? Can The Rock’s pet project co-exist with grimmer fare that doesn’t portray wrestling through rose-tinted glasses? All this and more in this Real Talk segment!

Leave it to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to take Saraya “Paige” Bevis’ story and make it all about himself. FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY celebrates how cool The Rock thinks he is while also trying to portray pro wrestling as the most wholesome sport in the world. The problem? We’ve already watched movies like The Wrestler and The Iron Claw, which pulled back the curtain and exposed the lack of fairy tale endings in this world. Listen to Alex & Julio as they pick apart this shockingly celebrated piece of WWE propaganda!

Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that Quentin Tarantino was forced to split KILL BILL in two, since it’s hard to imagine both volumes holding together as a single movie - and some would argue they barely hold together as a two-parter. Is that an actual concern when it comes to appreciating Volume 2? Alex, Julio, and Chas have different experiences (with overlaps) when it comes to the second half of The Bride’s journey, and you get to hear all about them here. Who likes Esteban? Who hates Esteban? The answers lie in this Real Talk segment! Oh yeah, and happy 200th to us!

It took us almost ten years to make it to 200 (numbered) episodes. It feels like it took The Bride almost as long to finally get to Bill. KILL BILL VOLUME 2 presents Tarantino fans with a conundrum: if you liked Volume 1, you’re out of luck because this one is nothing like it. And if you liked Tarantino’s more “traditional” work, this isn’t as good as his first three movies. But it’s still fresh on the Tomatometer, so it’s time to nitpick it to death! Listen to Alex & Julio, joined once again by Draft Zero’s Chas Fisher, as they overanalyze Uma Thurman’s toxic relationship with David Carradine!

It’s quite a different experience, appreciating KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 as the most recent Quentin Tarantino outing, versus watching it as the fourth of nine movies in his filmography. Has time and an expanded context softened Alex’s stance when it comes to The Bride’s adventures? Has Julio been overrating the first Kill Bill for almost twenty years? Has Chas’ unexpected clash with Tarantino over his writing in Volume 1 soured his take on the movie? Listen to Real Talk to find out!

The fourth film from Quentin Tarantino was a left turn in a career that so far had given us verbose bank robbers, verbose gangsters, and verbose, um, flight attendants turned money launderers? QT zigged by giving us wall-to-wall soulless Uma Thurman action in a homage to the kung-fu movies he watched instead of going to film school. Critics loved it, not caring that it didn’t even have a proper ending. Listen to Alex & Julio, joined by Chas Fisher from Draft Zero, as they give The Contrarians Treatment to KILL BILL: VOLUME 1!