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Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Grave of the Fireflies... Ben threatened us for years with this movie, and we’ve finally done it! Ben isn't on an island, per say, but Zac and Lauren pushback on his ranking and level of greatness on this one. Still, a spirited discussion about an important film in anime history. This release is part of animation month, as we clear out a bunch of animated films from the backlog! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts…, Ghibli Chat, Why Ben? (0:01:00) Digging In, Filmmaking Highlights (0:13:00) A Child’s Mind, History Lessons (0:22:00) Star Ratings and Re-watching Movies (0:34:00) @middleofrow #nothe Want some more Middle of the Row in your life? Follow the site @MiddleofRow, Zac @ZacOldenburg, Lauren @BewareOfTrees, & Ben @WeirdestWizard

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Suzume… Some more anime this week, with another film from Makoto Shinkai. Ben and Lauren aren’t as high on this one, but Zac is a lot more enamored with this effort! We talk about where it missteps, how we wish it might have been better, and the Chair. This release is part of animation month, as we clear out a bunch of animated films from the backlog! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts…, Weird Choices (0:01:00) Spoilers for Suzume, Why it Falls Short for Your Name. Fans (0:13:00) The Chair and Last Thoughts (0:23:00) @middleofrow #nothe Want some more Middle of the Row in your life? Follow the site @MiddleofRow, Zac @ZacOldenburg, Lauren @BewareOfTrees, & Ben @WeirdestWizard

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Your Name… Zac is fairly new to the anime of it all, makes his quibbles, but mostly lets the folks who love this movie do the talking. Body swaps, craters, creepy origins, we cover it all! This release is part of animation month, as we clear out a bunch of animated films from the backlog! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts…, Zac is an Anime Dummy, Some Spoiler Free Debate (0:01:00) Lauren & Ben Dive Deeper Into Their Feelings (0:13:00) Star Ratings & Spoilers for Your Name (0:21:00) What Don't You Like, Craters and Characters (0:25:00) Ending Chat (0:40:00) @middleofrow #nothe Want some more Middle of the Row in your life? Follow the site @MiddleofRow, Zac @ZacOldenburg, Lauren @BewareOfTrees, & Ben @WeirdestWizard

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Scream VI... Zac is still not too won over by this franchise, and Ben and Lauren are both a bit down from V, but they have a nice conversation about what is, or isn’t, working in this long in the tooth franchise. Plus, plenty debate about the finale and the paths not traveled in this film. This release marks the end of a Scream week, as we’ve cleared out all our episodes on the franchise from the backlog! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts, Requels, and Sequel Talk... (0:01:00) Star Ratings & Spoilers for Scream VI (0:24:00) Justice for Samara Weaving & Ending Chat (0:34:00) Some Final Appreciations (0:50:00) @middleofrow #nothe Want some more Middle of the Row in your life? Follow the site @MiddleofRow, Zac @ZacOldenburg, Lauren @BewareOfTrees, & Ben @WeirdestWizard.

We now dive into Scream, not the OG, but number 5. This was recorded before last weeks Scream 3 episode and before any of the subsequent sequels. A lot of talking about the franchise between Ben & Lauren, as Zac tries to not come in and poo poo it all, and we wonder how many movies will include Mikey Madison dying by flame. This was, again, pulled from the archive of episodes we have recorded, and the second film of a Scream week of the episodes we've recorded on the franchise, but haven't released! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) 8 Words or Less, The Elevator Pitch, Why So & So, General Thoughts, Star Ratings (0:01:00) Spoiler Specifics, Let’s Talk About That Ending… and Diving In Deep (0:21:00) You Gotta See This, Performance Piece (0:38:00) Repeat After Me, But, Why?, The Hot Take Theater, Expert Opinions, The Upgradeables, To Infinity & Beyond?, Bonus Rounds/Catch All, One Last Pitch… (0:55:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Scream 3... Zac comes in as a virgin with a couple of Scream superfans in Ben & Lauren. We discuss the franchise at large, the changes made to this film, nitpick the nitpickers and more! This was again pulled from the archive of episodes we have recorded, and starts off a Scream week of the episodes we've recorded on the franchise, but haven't released! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts… (0:01:00) Scream Tropes (0:06:00) The Parker Posey Thing About… (0:13:00) Nitpicking & Scream Franchise Talk (0:17:00) The Unfortunate Thing About… (0:21:30) The Entertaining Thing About… (0:26:00) Star Ratings & Scream Rankings (0:36:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Pennie From Heaven... This Steve Martin picture was him cashing in on his blank check from The Jerk and Ben and Lauren aren’t happy! Regardless, we have a very spirited, fun and honest conversation about the film! Good stuff! This was again pulled from the archive of episodes we have recorded, and caps off a Musical Week as we bring the podcast back! Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts (80’s movie tangent)... (0:01:00) Zac Tries to Defend His Pick (0:06:00) Lauren Goes Off (0:11:00) Zac Tries to Find Some Unity (0:14:00) Third Rails Galore (0:20:00) Art References and Wrapping Up (0:30:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About La La Land... The best picture winner for three minutes was a first time watch and pick by Lauren and I think we all agree this movie is pretty great! We talk about some great chemistry, some sad love stories, and heap the praise on Stone and Gosling. This is the second archival episode in a bit of a Musical Week of bringing the podcast back! Download. Listen. Enjoy! General Thoughts... (0:01:00) Star Ratings for La La Land (0:38:00) Categories: Zac: The Crushing Thing About… (0:23:00) Ben: The Chemistry Thing About... (0:15:00) Lauren: The Fading Thing About... (???) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About All That Jazz! Bob Fosse’s masterpiece was a first time viewing for Lauren and Ben, and I was happy to get them to watch one of my favorite movies! Come for lots of appreciation, some boredom, and one of the best puns Lauren has ever delivered on the podcast! This release was a holdover from the archives, I hope to start pumping more out! Download. Listen. Enjoy! General Thoughts... (0:01:00) Spoilers for All That Jazz (0:07:00) Star Ratings for All That Jazz (0:28:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Today’s episode features Ben and Nick of A Place for Owls. A Place for Owls are a Denver emo band that play quote “music that makes you feel sad, but in a good way”. Following their breakout self-titled album from 2022, they have gone on to play shows with rock heavyweights Switchfoot and Mae. We discussed those shows and their DIY approach to promotion, as well as how they went about writing and creating their upcoming second full length album, "How We Dig in the Earth", which will be self-released on November 1st. We also had our second pet appearance on the podcast with an appearance of Nick's cat, Tilly!

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Knock at the Cabin... With some new M. Night out with Trap, I’m putting out our episode of his last film that’s been sitting around in the unreleased archives. I think we are on the high end of appreciation for this one (I also think I was sick?), but we talk about greater meaning, great performances and how Night’s strengths and weaknesses come through in another good entry from him. I’m (Your Name Here) and I want to talk about The ________ thing about.... Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) Talking M. Night, Bautista, & General Thoughts, Star Ratings... (0:01:00) Star Ratings & Start of Spoilers, Real or Not?… (0:22:00) Diving Deeper Into Deeper Meaning… (0:30:00) Finding Tension In The Truth... (0:43:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Dipping back into the MCU one more time this week, for the film that feels closest to Deadpool & Wolverine, Spider-Man: No Way Home. This 2021 film was the first big dip into the multi-verse in the MCU and stands as the best version of it still, I think. We are all pretty big fans of this one and I was the highest on it when we recorded (probably still as well?). Anyways, it was fun to revisit our excitement around this time and wondering where all of this was going to take us, and us being somewhat right and way wrong! Peter 3 forever! Download. Listen. Enjoy. The Categories: (Time:Stamp) 8 Words or Less, The Elevator Pitch, Why So & So, General Thoughts, Star Ratings (0:00:00) Spoiler Specifics and Diving In Deep (0:15:50) You Gotta See This, Let’s Talk About That Ending..., Performance Piece (0:33:30) Repeat After Me, But, Why?, The Hot Take Theater, Expert Opinions, The Upgradeables, To Infinity & Beyond?, Bonus Rounds/Catch All, One Last Pitch... (0:57:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About The Marvels... The most recent MCU entry, all the reworking of The Marvels might make even more sense to the MCU as it was probably re-jiggered along with the plans for Deadpool & Wolverine. We are all much bigger fans of The Marvels than its reputation that quickly set in at its release; that I think you can safely say was carried out by some bad faith actors. So consider this the beginning of the reclamation of The Marvels! Let’s go! Download. Listen. Enjoy! General Thoughts And Context For The Marvels... (0:00:00) Diving Deeper Into What’s Missing... (0:17:30) Star Ratings and MCU Rankings (0:22:00) Spoilers for The Marvels, Diving Into The Ending (0:26:15) The Refreshing Thing About The Marvels and Future Talk... (0:31:30) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Logan... We are back again and we are getting hyped for Deadpool & Wolverine by digging into the unreleased archives (a lot of those) to bring out the episodes related to this film. Logan is the last proper appearance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, in what was supposed to be his send off with the character, and the fact that he’s coming back gives me some hope for that movie! We have a wide range of opinions on this one, so tune in to see who likes it and who doesn’t (spoiler, I bet you’d be right if you guess). Download. Listen. Enjoy! General Thoughts... (0:00:00) Digging Into Our Disagreements... (0:17:30) Talking About X-Men (0:30:00) @middleofrow #nothe

Hello everyone and welcome to The Greatest Thing About Mad Max: Fury Road.... As we get ready for Furiosa this week, we decided to go back to the film it’s a prequel to! Two of us think this is a 5 star classic, but that doesn’t mean we spend the whole time gushing and raving about the incredible filmmaking. We discuss some shortcomings, how it feels like it could have gone deeper and I compare George Miller to Wes Anderson. Come and listen to find out why. Download. Listen. Enjoy! Show Notes: (Time:Stamp) General Thoughts... (0:01:00) Favorite Bits... (0:13:30) Some Frustrations?... (0:32:00) @middleofrow #nothe