We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

It’s the matchup of a century (that they have done two times before, but ignore those). Monster vs. monster, WHO WILL WIN?! Ideally us as viewers, because we get to watch it. But, in this version. Not so much. At some times, yes. When monsters are fighting as promised this movie is a good time. But so much of this movie is trying to achieve buy into the Titan Universe through Hollow Earth Theory and four over-complicated human subplots that try to give agency to the monsters and pose them as both heroes and villains at the same time.

This version is fine if you are half watching, but also each franchise has made better versions of this movie. When I saw “Godzilla vs. Kong,” I saw it as an opportunity to go through each series as a whole, from their first movies until now, and decide a winner. 

So on this episode of Cinebuds, not only do we discuss “Godzilla vs. Kong” the movie, we decide a winner on Godzilla vs. Kong as a franchise. 

In both series there are highs. We pick a particular Godzilla movie as the height of both franchises. And there are lows, too. We pick yet another Godzilla movie with interesting casting choices and a “subplot” that supersedes any Godzilla action as either series franchise low. And we pick a winner of Godzilla vs. Kong.

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is the new Lee Daniels biopic/historical drama that follows the career and life of Billie Holiday and the long pursuit by the U.S. government to take her down by any means necessary because of the ideas that the song “Strange Fruit” put in listeners’ heads. It’s part of a larger conversation on race that the entertainment industry and our culture as a whole is having. It follows similar reviews of historical events and figures like “Judas and the Black Messiah” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” series. 

Singer Andra Day plays Billie Holiday. A lot of time when a successful singer tuns to acting it can be a roll of the dice, but Day is excellent and she has been rewarded for it. She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. And she’s nominated for an Academy Award for the role, too. 

But, is the movie any good? That’s what we talk about. 

Also, I watched “Tenet.” And I’ve got some thoughts. No everyone is going to be happy about them. Sorry in advance. And, after I tried so hard to get Kpolly to agree to watch the Snyder Cut of “Justice League” he watched it by himself the very day after he refused to do it for this show. His review and more in the pod.

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

Kpolly here. This week on Cinebuds we’re taking a look at the Oscar-nominated film “Promising Young Woman,” starring Carey Mulligan. She stars as a cunning and intelligent woman who seeks justice for a horrible encounter from her past.  

The film has a ton of Oscar nominations, as well as Golden Globe acknowledgements and some from our friends across the pond, the BAFTAs. Even with all this critical acclaim, do WE like the film? That’s the real question. The question that almost NO ONE is asking!

(Spoiler: We may disagree on this one. That’s always fun.)

And I get a little overexcited about sharing what else I’ve been watching and lose my decorum a little bit. Truly uncivilized!

Remember to like, share, and subscribe!

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

Kpolly here. Along with Christmas, Thanksgiving and National Hug a Puppy Day, this podcast celebrates an annual event that brings the world a little closer together: The Cinebuds Weird Movies episode. 

Each year we celebrate movies that aren’t beholden to awards season, or any sense of good taste, sense or familiarity. Weird. Of course, “weird” can run the gamut from a simply irreverent and stylish all the way to washing your eyes of the sink. We’ll talk about a few of them today.

In this episode, we discuss:

32 Short Film About Glenn Gould
Barbarella
Borgman
The Last Days of Emma Blank
and more

We’ll also give our knee-jerk reactions to this year’s Oscar nominations. No reasoned or rational reactions. Knee-jerk only!!

Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

This week we watched the new “Tom & Jerry” movie on HBO. It was not great. But not just because it was silly slapstick humor meant for kids, it didn’t work on a number of levels that other movies have done successfully. So, we thought we would talk about the genre that “Tom & Jerry” falls into. It’s category is live action animation. So animated characters interact with the real world. Sometimes this is done really well! Like, weirdly in the new Sonic movie, which was way better than everyone gave it credit for. 

So we go through the history of live action animation, the triumphs, the pit falls, what makes for a great one, and what just flat doesn’t work. 

In What Else We Are Watching, I cover the new Disney movie, “Raya and the Last Dragon” and Kpolly benefits from low expectations with another movie that came out this week.

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

Kpolly here. On this week’s Cinebuds, we are discussing the Golden Globe-winning film “Minari.” Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the film is a semi-autobiographical story of a Korean family starting over in rural Arkansas in the 1980s. Steven Yeun (“Walking Dead,” “Burning”) plays Jacob, who — along with his wife and two children, and eventually his mother-in-law — creates a small farm while living in a trailer home. They struggle not only with the burgeoning farmland, but with connecting to their community, and each other.

The film is the story of the American Dream at its core, working hard and building a piece for yourself and your family. We can forget that this dream, this story, comes with a vast variety of obstacles, details and perspectives.  It’s as varied as our country is.  

In the podcast we’ll talk about the film and the controversy surrounding the Golden Globe nomination (and subsequent win). We’ll also talk about what else we’ve been watching.  

Thanks for listening.  Don’t forget to rate, share, and subscribe!

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

“Nomadland” is the film based on the non-fiction book “Nomadland” by Jessica Bruder. The movie follows Fern, played by Frances McDormand. She lost everything in the Great Recession after the mine in her town of Empire, Nevada closed down and took the whole city with it. “Nomadland” catches Fern navigating the life that she chooses after all of this, one as a nomad. 

Playing with the fictional aspects of the movie and the non-fiction aspects of the book, Frances McDormand and David Strathairn are the only two actors. The film depicts everyone else as they are and on location in seven states over the course of four months. 

The plot is loose and ambling and plays like a documentary. It’s been immediately acclaimed across the board, getting lots of nominations and ending at the top of a lot of year end lists. 

We had more to say than we even knew. I almost cut us off a couple times to keep moving along but Kpolly said that we should keep going if we had more to say, and I think this is one of the truest conversations we had to date. “Nomadland” is that kind of movie. Come for the take, stay for the conversation. 

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

“Judas and the Black Messiah” is the new film on HBO about the assassination of Fred Hampton at the hands of the FBI. 

Usually, for events that are moments in time, with plenty of real life footage and people who are still around to talk about it, I think, “Why wasn’t this a documentary?” Movies tend to over dramatize the events and paint of picture of truth that isn’t exactly quite truth. BUT, I think this one passes the bar. It contextualizes the movement of the Black Panther Party in Chicago at the time. Performances by Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield are extraordinary. And maybe, more than anything, it is the right movie at the right moment. Kpolly offers some great insight into that. 

For a movie where you know exactly what is going to happen from the title of the movie, when it happens you’re still shocked and appalled. It hit the mark.

In the podcast Kpolly offers more insight into other movies you might like to accompany it and we get way into terrible/wonderful 1980s sci-fi like “Hell Comes to Frogtown” and “Solarbabies” and Kpolly posits a theory on why he loves them so much.

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

On this week’s episode, we’re discussing Netflix’s acclaimed film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which is likely to attract some Oscar nominations. One thing you’ll want to know about it is that it’s based on a play, and the staging definitely pays homage to those origins.

On the surface, the play (and the film) is about a day in the life of Ma Rainey, who is the mother of blues music. But underneath that, there’s a lot of conversations about the Black experience. The script includes lots of long, philosophical conversations between members of her band.

Kpolly absolutely loved the movie, and says it should win all the awards this year (even Best Pickup Truck, if it’s eligible). But if you’re not prepared for its theatrical staging, you might have a hard time adjusting. And in truth I didn’t think that all the acting was uniformly fantastic in this. Some of the beats that were supposed to come through ended up falling flat.

Hear Kpolly and I have a spirited argument about it on this week’s episode.

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.

We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.

“The Little Things” is a new crime drama featuring Denzel Washington playing the old veteran who’s had a tough and mysterious past, playing second fiddle to young hot shot, and least likable character in the history of film, Rami Malek. Together, but also not together, they butt heads, and kind of come together to take down the perpetually greasy, vacant eyed, never-been-anyone-who-looks-more-like-a-serial-killer Jared Leto. 

Look, I suggested this movie. So this one’s on me. It had the star power and I had actually heard a positive review. But half way though I felt bad that I made Kpolly watch this whole movie. We both hated it, but, it was so hateable that we actually hated it for different reasons. That’s how much there was to not like about this movie. 

If you have seen this, listen to the podcast to revel in the camaraderie of having watched a terrible movie, and if you haven’t, listen and maybe the bar will be so low that you actually think it’s not that bad.

Like what you hear? Subscribe!

Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “By Every Measure,” a six-part examination of systemic racism in Milwaukee.