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Marshall Shaffer (Slant Magazine, Decider, /Film, Marshall and the Movie Substack) and Rafa Sales Ross (Sight & Sound, i_D, BFI, Total Film, Little White Lies) return to Flixwatcher to review Marshall’s choice Widows. Widows (2018) is a heist thriller from director Steve (12 Years A Slave) McQueen and screenplay by Gillian (Gone Girl) Flynn, based on a Lynda La Plante TV series. The ‘widows’ are Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki). Left to deal with the $2,000,000 debt left by a heist gone wrong, led by Veronica’s husband, Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson), the group decide to carry out a elaborate heist themselves to pay back Jamal and Jatemme Manning (Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya). Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Jacki Weaver, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, Jon Bernthal, Garret Dillahunt and Lukas Haas also star. Recommendability scores for Widows were very high, not only does it deliver on plot twists and heist tension but it is also a commentary on gentrification. It also scores highly across other Flixwatcher categories to score a very high 4.52 overall. [supsystic-tables id=347]     Episode #334 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #334 Crew of Rafa Sales Ross (@rafiews) and Marshall Shaffer (twitter.com/media_marshall)   You can find their website here https://t.co/zYcTU3VrGF   And at https://www.rafiews.com/     Please make sure you give them some love   More about Widows For more info on Widows can visit Widows IMDB page here or Widows Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma Kathryn and Paul Costello from The Yearbook Committee Podcast join Flixwatcher to review Emma’s choice Spirited Away. Spirited Away (2001) is an animated Japanese fantasy adventure from Studio Ghibli written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Spirited Away tells the story of 10-year-old Chihiro who enters an enormous bathhouse for Japanese spirits (kami) after taking a short cut on her way to her new house. Her parents also take the short cut but are turned into pigs when they feast on the food left out for the spirits. While in the bathhouse Chihiro meets many different spirits, including a polluted river spirit and No-Face, who ends up eating one of the bathhouse workers. There are also lots of other weird and wonderful spirits too complicated to explain here, it is best to just watch and enjoy. Recommendability for Spirited Away was very, very high, it was the also the first Studio Ghibli watch for many UK fans. High scores for the other Flixwatcher categories gives Spirited Away an overall rating of 4.39.   [supsystic-tables id=346] Episode #333 Crew Links Thanks to Episode #333 Crew of Emma Kathryn (@GirlofGotham) and Paul Costello (@PaulCinephile) from (@YearbookPodcast) Find their Websites online at https://linktr.ee/YearbookPodcast And at  https://twitter.com/FatalAttractPod And at https://www.twitch.tv/girlofgotham Please make sure you give them some love More about Spirited Away For more info on Spirited Away, you can visit Spirited Away IMDb page here or Spirited Away Rotten Tomatoes page here.   Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes   If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Natalie Jamieson (Bestsellers podcast, BBC Radio 1 & 2) and Genevieve Hassan (Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did podcast) return to to Flixwatcher to review Natalie’s choice In the Heights. In the Heights (2021) is a musical directed by Jon (Crazy Rich Asians) M. Chu and is based on the stage musical of the same name written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel (Hamilton) Miranda. In the Heights tells the story of a community of Dominican residents of a corner of Washington Heights in New York as they follow their dreams for a better life. Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) owns a bodega and is in love with Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who dreams of being a fashion designer but can’t get an apartment as she doesn’t have credit. Kevin who owns the local taxi firm is selling off his business to fund his daughter Nina’s (Leslie Grace) University education. But Nina has dropped out due to the racism she has experienced and doesn’t want to go back. With a run time of 2 hours and 23 minutes In the Heights is a long film. Recommendations were very mixed, without catchy numbers and a perhaps overly complex amount of characters it is a tricky film to warm to. The runtime negatively affected the repeat viewing and engagement scores to give In the Heights an overall rating of 3.52. [supsystic-tables id=345]     Episode #332 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #332 Crew of Natalie Jamieson (@Nat_Jamieson) and Genevieve Hassan (Genevieve (@JournoGenevieve) / X (twitter.com))   You can find their website here https://www.celebritycatchup.com/ and at https://linktr.ee/bestsellerspodcast   Please make sure you give them some love   More about In the Heights For more info on In the Heights can visit In the Heights IMDB page here or In the Heights Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Becky Darke (The Evolution of Horror, Don’t Point That Horror At Me and Return to Eerie, Indiana podcasts) and Joshua Tonks (actor and screenwriter, The Latent Image (2022)) join Flixwatcher to review Becky’s choice Cam. Cam (2018) is a psychological horror thriller directed by Daniel (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) Goldhaber. It stars Madeline Brewer as Alice, AKA Lola, a cam girl with ambitions of being the number one ranked girl on the website FreeGirlsLive. One day Alice finds herself locked out of her account and discovers a doppelgänger Lola active and performing on livestreams. Unable to access her account, Alice determined to get it back blurs the lines between Alice and Lola to find out who or what is has taken her identity. Cam might start as a standard slasher film but it doesn’t go down the usual route. While the set up doesn’t quite match the ending it is still an interesting and chilling film that looks at identity, isolation and the role technology has on our lives. Recommendability scores for Cam were high and with a runtime of 93 minutes, engagement and repeat viewing scores were also strong to give an overall rating of 3.74. [supsystic-tables id=344]     Episode #331 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #331 Crew of Becky Darke (@bunnydarke) and Joshua Tonks (@JoshuaTonks)   You can find their website here https://t.co/wNsIwbxMs1 and at https://linktr.ee/bunnydarke   Please make sure you give them some love   More about Cam For more info on Cam can visit Cam IMDB page here or Cam Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George Wood and Charlotte Sometimes (freelance film writers) return to Flixwatcher to review Georges’s choice Pom Poko. Pom Poko (1994) is a Studio Ghibli animation written and directed by Isao (Grave of the Fireflies) Takahata. Pom Poko is the story of tanuki, which in Japanese folk lore are magical shape shifting creatures, also referred to as Japanese raccoon dogs which has led to the incorrect translation of ‘raccoons’ to the English version. The film opens in late 1960s Japan, a group of tanuki (raccoon dogs) find their natural habitat threatened by rampant suburban development. Fast forward to the 1990s and the tanuki are facing reduced resources and space and resorting to fighting with each other for survival. A group of elders come up with a strategy to take back their land that involves killing of humans and learning the art of shapeshifting. Testicles are also a prominent feature in tanuki traditions and they feature frequently in Pom Poko, if referred to incorrectly as ‘pouches’ in the English dub. Your enjoyment of Pom Poko rests largely on your tolerance of testicles or your interest in their versatility in battling against environment destruction. Mixed recommendability and low repeat viewing scores, at nearly two hours it is a long animation, give Pom Poko an overall rating of 3.48. [supsystic-tables id=342]     Episode #330 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #330 Crew of George Wood (@g_woody) and Charlotte Sometimes (@sometimesmovies)   You can find their website here https://filmtalkwithme.substack.com/ and at https://t.co/eyhWf8CFqh   Please make sure you give them some love   More about Pom Poko For more info on Pom Poko can visit Pom Poko IMDB page here or Pom Poko Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neel Bhatt (Empire Podcast) and Lizzie Swindells return to Flixwatcher to review Neel’s choice Crazy Stupid Love. Crazy Stupid Love (2011) is a romantic comedy drama written by Dan (This is Us) Fogelman and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. It stars Steve Carell as Cal Weaver. A middle-aged man who suddenly finds himself single after his wife Emily, played by Julianne Moore, says she has had an affair (with Kevin Bacon’s David Lindhagen) and wants a divorce. On one of his nights out he meets serial womaniser Jacob, played by Ryan Gosling in photoshopped perfection. Jacob teaches Cal how to dress and speak to women to up his romantic game. Law school graduate Hannah, (the effervescent Emma Stone) is having her own romantic troubles with her wet drip boyfriend. Crazy Stupid Love succeeds where so many romantic comedies fall in being both romantic and genuinely funny, in this case actually laugh out loud. It also gave us the ‘laughing Ryan Gosling’ GIF. Riffing on popular culture and referencing both Dirty Dancing and The Karate Kid and with a sweetness at its heart recommendability for Crazy Stupid Love was very high. Equally high was repeat viewing and small screen which gives an overall rating of 4.79. This means there is a new top film on the Flixwatcher leaderboard! Congratulations Crazy Stupid Love! [supsystic-tables id=341]     Episode #329 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #329 Crew of Neel Bhatt (@_Neelsreeldeel) and Lizzie Swindells (@lizzie1708)   You can find their website here https://t.co/LMb3WDsDHt     Please make sure you give them some love   More about Crazy Stupid Love For more info on Crazy Stupid Love can visit Crazy Stupid Love IMDB page here or Crazy Stupid Love Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rafa Sales Ross (Sight & Sound, i_D, BFI, Total Film, Little White Lies) and Marshall Shaffer (Slant Magazine, Decider, /Film, Marshall at the Movies Substack) join Flixwatcher to review Rafa’s choice Nine Days. Nine Days (2020) is a fantasy drama written and directed by Edson Oda. It explores themes of the meaning of life, existentialism, morality and spirituality. It stars Winston Duke as Will, a sombre analyst who interviews souls to see if they pass a test to go and become humans. The period of testing lasts nine days, if they are not selected they will cease to exist. Among the souls being interviewed for selection are Zazie Beetz as Emma, Tony Hale as Alexander and Bill Skarsgård as Kane. Will is frequently visited by Benedict Wong’s Kyo, a supervisor but also friend who has never been human. Nine Days was unfortunately a victim of the pandemic, it was partially released in the US and it’s themes of life, death and suicide was a hard sell for the post-pandemic viewing appetites. The character of Will was inspired by Edson’s uncle who died by suicide and one of the one of the selected souls who Will has chosen takes her own life. Recommendability for Nine Days was mixed, mainly due to the themes on life and death, however if you are willing to take a chance you will be richly rewarded with a complex and beautiful film. Strong ratings for engagement and small screen give an impressive overall score of 4.13. [supsystic-tables id=340]     Episode #328 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #328 Crew of Rafa Sales Ross (@rafiews) and Marshall Shaffer (twitter.com/media_marshall)   You can find their website here https://t.co/zYcTU3VrGF   And at https://www.rafiews.com/     Please make sure you give them some love   More about Nine Days For more info on Nine Days can visit Nine Days IMDB page here or Nine Days Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Collier and Meg Waters (Glamour, Stylist and Little White Lies) return to Flixwatcher to review Sarah’s choice Human Traffic. Human Traffic (1999) is a British-Irish coming of age comedy drama set in Cardiff. It revolves around the lives and specifically one big night out for a group of five twenty-somethings. It launched the careers of John Simm and Danny Dyer and was written and directed by Justin Kerrigan. It also featured cameos from DJ Carl Cox, Howard Marks and Andrew (Egg) Lincoln. Jip, Lulu, Koop, Moff and Nina are in need of an escape from the monotony and misery of their jobs and the weekend is here. They are all dealing with their individual insecurities and personal issues but are united by their love of 90s rave music and drugs - including MDMA and weed. As we follow them from the club to the after party to the morning after we experience the hedonistic fun of the 1990s counter-culture. Human Traffic is a unique and funny snapshot into 1990s club culture. Recommendability reflected that a lot of the enjoyment relies on 90s nostalgia and its 99 minute runtime helped with strong engagement scores which gives Human Traffic an overall rating of 3.81. [supsystic-tables id=339] Episode #327 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #327 Crew of Sarah Collier and Meg Waters Please make sure you give them some love   More about Human Traffic For more info on Human Traffic can visit Human Traffic IMDB page here or Human Traffic Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It’s Episode 105! Sam and Louise from the Picturehouse and 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest podcasts return for Sam’s choice The Holiday. The Holiday is a 2006 Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give) romantic drama/comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as pre-Airbnb home swappers and Jude Law and Jack Black as their respective if not wholly convincing love interests. Set at Christmas is it a guaranteed feature on TV over Christmas despite not being particularly Christmassy other than continuing to give an illusion of picturesque snow in a (fake) English village, rather than the slush fest it is in reality. Diaz swaps her massive LA home for Winslet’s tiny village cottage and encounters a drunk and charming Law. Winslet is depressingly obsessed with a complete slimeball at work and trying to wean herself off him meets an old man and for no romantic reasons ends up with Black. If you can buy Jack Black as a romantic lead and that Winslet would ever be rejected by anyone ever you’ll probably enjoy this. If you haven’t seen it before, it might have something to with the terrible film posters, it isn’t as bad as you might expect it to be. It is too long - over two hours - it could easily be 90 minutes. Scores[supsystic-tables id=110]The runtime definitely loses The Holiday points on repeat viewing and engagement - it doesn’t need the full two hours and fifteen minutes - however it still manages 3.78 overall. What do you guys think? Have you seen The Holiday? What did you think? Please let us know in the comments below! Episode #105 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #105 Crew of Louise and Sam Clements (@sam_clements) from 90 Minute or Less Film Fest. @90minfilmfest Find their website here: https://ninetyminfilmfest.podbean.com/ Please make sure you give them some love Flixwatcher Spotify PlaylistIt has to be Putting on the Ritz, but there is no Gene Wilder version so we have added the Mel Torme Version! More about The HolidayFor more info on The Holiday, you can visit The Holiday IMDB page here or  The Holiday Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunesIf you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Carty (BBC Radio Scotland, Radio Times, Empire Magazine) and Simon Williams (You’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat film quiz) return to Flixwatcher to review Stephen’s choice Extraction 2. ​ Extraction 2 (2023) is the sequel to the Netflix 2020 film Extraction. Directed by Sam (Extraction) Hargrave and based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Fernando León González and Eric Skillman. Spoiler, after surviving (just) a previous mission, Tyler (Chris Hemswoth) Rake retires to Austria but his retirement is short-lived. A mysterious stranger (Idris Elba) arrives with a rescue mission involving Tyler’s ex-wife’s Mia’s (Olga Kurylenko) sister Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) and her children. Her husband,Davit Radiani, just happens to be one of the co-leaders of the largest crime syndicate of Georgia and much violence and destruction follows the rescue. Chances are if you enjoyed Extraction, you’ll enjoy Extraction 2. Unlikely to make the top ten list of films of the year but it knows what kind of film it is and plays to those strengths - ridiculous levels of violent action. Scores for recommendability reflected this and scores across the other categories give an overall rating of 3.66. [supsystic-tables id=338]   Episode #326 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #326 Crew of Stephen Carty (@TheNakedPun) and Simon Williams (@film_quiz) You can find their website here https://t.co/IZQR5womlD and at https://t.co/lQqzTwGysr   Please make sure you give them some love   More about Extraction 2 For more info on Extraction 2 can visit Extraction 2 IMDB page here or Extration 2 Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Genevieve Hassan (Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did podcast) and Natalie Jamieson (Bestsellers podcast, BBC Radio 1 & 2) join Flixwatcher to review Genevieve’s choice Bros: After the Screaming Stops. Bros: After the Screaming Stops (2018) documents the rehearsals for their 2017 reunion shows, 28 years after their last performance. It also gives an insight into their relationship and lives after their success in the 1980s. Forget what you know about documentaries and Bros, some of the one liners could have come straight from Christopher Guest. There are also moments where they reflect on the pressures of finding fame at a very early age. Despite no one experiencing fanny flutter levels of Bros fandom, the recommendability scores for Bros: After the Screaming Stops were very high. That will high scores across small screen and engagement gives an overall rating of 4.04.   [supsystic-tables id=338]   Episode #325 Crew Links Thanks to the Episode #325 Crew of Genevieve Hassan (@JournoGenevieve) and Natalie Jamieson (@Nat_Jamieson) You can find their website here Please make sure you give them some love   More about Bros: After the Screaming Stops For more info on Bros: After the Screaming Stops can visit Bros: After the Screaming Stops IMDB page here orAfter the Screaming Stops - Rotten Tomatoes page here. Final Plug! Subscribe, Share and Review us on iTunes If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices