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Home to The Playlist Podcast Network and all its affiliated shows, including The Playlist Podcast, The Discourse, Be Reel, The Fourth Wall, and more. The Playlist is the obsessive's guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, and more.
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![‘A House of Dynamite’: Noah Oppenheim On Real-Time Nuclear Horror, Collaborating With Kathryn Bigelow, His ‘Jack Ryan’ Film and More [The Discourse Podcast]](https://s3.castbox.fm/d4/61/dc/312c4e80137a692358cde60b95ebe2214c_scaled_v1_400.jpg "‘A House of Dynamite’: Noah Oppenheim On Real-Time Nuclear Horror, Collaborating With Kathryn Bigelow, His ‘Jack Ryan’ Film and More [The Discourse Podcast]")
What would you do with 18 minutes left before the end of the world? That question ignites "A House of Dynamite," a pulse-pounding new thriller from director Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Noah Oppenheim that dramatizes the unthinkable: the countdown between nuclear launch and annihilation. Told in real time, the film locks viewers inside the corridors of power as a U.S. president, military advisors, and intelligence officials face the impossible decision to retaliate or die trying. The result is an unbearably tense and disturbingly plausible experience that plays less like Hollywood fiction and more like a documentary from the edge of civilization. The film hits Netflix on October 24.On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo sits down with Noah Oppenheim, who discusses crafting the film’s chilling realism, his creative partnership with Kathryn Bigelow, and how his background as a journalist and former NBC News president informed his approach to humanizing institutions we normally only see as faceless power structures.READ MORE: ‘A House Of Dynamite’ Review: Kathryn Bigelow Returns With Another Explosive Political Thriller [Venice]
Everyone knows Rodgers and Hammerstein and the legacy that comes with their collaborations, but many forget the brilliance and heartbreak of Rodgers and Hart. The applause roars for one man while another slips quietly into the shadows. Fame and failure share the same stage tonight, divided only by a curtain call. That’s the haunting pulse of “Blue Moon,” a story of creative partners colliding at the peak of one’s success and the edge of the other’s undoing. Over one fateful Broadway night, a composer stands in the light of his newest triumph while his lyricist drowns in the darkness just beyond the spotlight. It’s a breakup told in music, memory, and smoke.On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo pairs conversations with Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater and Andrew Scott, weaving their perspectives together on collaboration, rehearsal, and the human math of loving someone you can’t fix.READ MORE: ‘Blue Moon’ Review: Another Precious Pearl In Richard Linklater’s Chronicles Of The Human Condition [Berlin]Nine collaborations deep, Hawke and Linklater’s shorthand remains less code than continuum. Hawke said, "The changes are pretty invisible to me. It feels like one long collaboration, one long conversation." Linklater added, "I met Ethan in 1992. We went out later that night, we were at a bar, and we talked all night. We’re still talking. That's what it feels like." Scott, reflecting on their dynamic, noted that the film itself “is about two people who’ve been through so much together that their chemistry almost becomes a language.”
![‘Chad Powers’: Michael Waldron On His & Glen Powell’s Sports Comedy, The Show’s ‘Ted Lasso’ DNA, & His Pick For Marvel’s Nova [Bingeworthy Podcast]](https://s3.castbox.fm/4c/df/74/32ad393f145b054b1b91a2453fa1e4672b_scaled_v1_400.jpg "‘Chad Powers’: Michael Waldron On His & Glen Powell’s Sports Comedy, The Show’s ‘Ted Lasso’ DNA, & His Pick For Marvel’s Nova [Bingeworthy Podcast]")
You don’t have to know a damn thing about football to get swept up in “Chad Powers.” The new Hulu comedy from Michael Waldron and Glen Powell takes an absurd premise, a fallen quarterback disguising himself as a walk-on to reclaim his dream, and builds it into one of the funniest, sharpest, and most heartfelt sports stories of the year. Adapted from Eli Manning’s viral sketch, the show follows Russell, a disgraced, washed-up pretty-boy QB who reinvents himself as the mustachioed, mulleted Chad Powers to chase glory once more. It’s “Mrs. Doubtfire” meets “Rudy” meets "Ted Lasso," with Powell delivering a tour-de-force of charm, cringe, and full-body commitment.Joining the Bingeworthy podcast, Michael Waldron, the writer and co-creator behind “Loki,” “Heels,” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” discussed shaping the series, collaborating with Powell, and finding its balance between satire and sincerity.
![‘Tulsa King’: Sylvester Stallone, Garrett Hedlund, & Bella Heathcote On Season 3’s Wilder Grind, ‘Nola King,’ Passing The ‘Rambo’ Torch, ‘Tron,’ “& More [Bingeworthy Podcast]](https://s3.castbox.fm/fa/24/a3/2c43d01427cd064686fac5168ad5285bba_scaled_v1_400.jpg "‘Tulsa King’: Sylvester Stallone, Garrett Hedlund, & Bella Heathcote On Season 3’s Wilder Grind, ‘Nola King,’ Passing The ‘Rambo’ Torch, ‘Tron,’ “& More [Bingeworthy Podcast]")
The streets of Tulsa have never looked meaner. With Season 3 of "Tulsa King" now streaming on Paramount+, Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi faces more than just turf wars. He’s surrounded by chaos on all sides, from the FBI and old New York enemies to a new local threat who feels pulled from another century. The scale is bigger, the danger sharper, and the humor darker than ever before."It’s one of the darker ones," Stallone said. "But, you know, the humor comes through. It gets heavy." He admitted that the new season’s grind reflects a changing creative rhythm. "It’s very, very big because you have three forces coming at me. You got the FBI, you got the New York mob, and then you have this maniac from Tulsa who looks like he’s from a hundred years in the past. And then all the other intrigue about the elections and so on. And then we deal, oh, I forgot, the domestic terrorists. So we have a lot going on this year."
The hum in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, isn’t sirens so much as the grind of a garbage truck at dawn and the scrape of a window after dark. “Task” lives there, in a neighborhood that knows its people by what they throw away, where they go or don’t go to church, then shoves them onto a collision course. One side is a scuffed-up task force working out of a seized row house, and the other is a desperate crew that’s invisible until it isn’t. The engine isn’t a whodunit. It’s the slow, sick feeling of when. The series follows an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) who heads a task force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unsuspected family man (Tom Pelphrey).Joining Bingeworthy are creator Brad Ingelsby (“Mare of Easttown”), and stars Emilia Jones (“Coda,” “Locke & Key”), Tom Pelphrey (“Ozark,” “Outer Range”), and Sylvia Dionicio (“FBI: Most Wanted”). During the interviews, Ingelsby smiles at the comparison some fans have been making from the start with Michael Mann’s heist epic, “Heat.” “That’s what we say. It’s like a blue-collar ‘Heat.’ This is very Delco, garbage collectors robbing kind of scuzzy houses, and Tom Brandis is not a very skilled investigator,” Ingelsby says. “The tension is, you want one to get away and you want the other to catch him. Those things can’t coexist. This is a collision-course show.”
They say dogs can sense death, staring at something just beyond our perception. In “Good Boy,” that instinct becomes the engine for an entire film. Directed by Ben Leonberg and produced by Kari Fischer, the story unfolds entirely from the perspective of a golden retriever named Indy, who seems to be the only one aware that a house carries a sinister presence. What begins as a simple “what if” idea blossoms into a chilling, 73-minute haunted-house thriller told through a dog’s eyes.The concept is both ingenious and risky. Leonberg and Fischer spent years refining it, drawing inspiration from Jack London’s animal adventures and the horror tradition of films like “Poltergeist.” Without dialogue to rely on, the filmmakers built the narrative through images, sound, and Indy’s natural behavior, creating a cinematic language where panting, footsteps, and a thousand-yard stare become the keys to suspense. The result is eerie, playful, and surprisingly emotional, inviting viewers to see a ghost story through the gaze of man’s best friend.For Leonberg, the idea had been percolating for over a decade. “I came up with the idea by watching ‘Poltergeist’ and thinking, man, somebody should tell a story entirely from the golden retriever’s perspective,” he explained. “I worked with a co-writer for years, really trying to crack the story…because we’re not using dialogue to tell the story. So how do you have all the narrative plot points that still feel like a story with a beginning, a middle and end and rising tension and conflict?”READ MORE: ‘Play Dirty’: Shane Black On Reinventing Parker, Mark Wahlberg Stepping In For Robert Downey Jr. & Much More [The Discourse Podcast]
The underworld is crowded with thieves, but Parker has always stood apart. Created by Donald Westlake in the early 1960s, the character has been portrayed on screen by actors including Lee Marvin, Mel Gibson, and Jason Statham. He's a blunt-force professional who isn’t Bond, isn’t Batman, but something rougher, hungrier, and coded by his own ruthless blue-collar sense of order. With "Play Dirty," filmmaker Shane Black takes his own crack at Parker, bringing the character to Prime Video on October 1 and casting Mark Wahlberg in the role. The film follows Parker, a ruthless thief, and his expert crew who stumble onto the heist of a lifetime that pits them against the New York mob. The film also stars LaKeith Stanfield, Rosa Salazar, Keegan-Michael Key, Nat Wolff, and more. This version doesn’t come with gadgets or acrobatics. Black describes a Parker who thinks fast, hits harder, and feels closer to the blue-collar world than to the spy fantasy. It’s the kind of material that lets him indulge his taste for pulp grit, sly humor, and the holiday backdrop he’s made famous. But it also opens the door to some bigger questions: what draws audiences to men this uncompromising? How do you make crime fun without sanding off the edges? And what happens when you cast Wahlberg instead of Robert Downey Jr.?READ MORE: ‘All Of You’: Brett Goldstein On Love, The Science of Soulmates, ‘Shrinking’ Surprises, & ‘Ted Lasso’ [The Discourse Podcast]Writer/Director Shane Black joins The Discourse to talk about the journey of bringing his Parker film to the screen, which started all the way back during the making of Black’s first film, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” in 2005. When asked what itch hadn’t been scratched by earlier adaptations, Black pointed to Parker’s uniqueness. “Each one represents the era in which it was produced. 'Point Blank' with Lee Marvin is a very specific film for that time period. And each actor who’s played Parker from there on, like Robert Duvall, Jason Statham, and Mel Gibson in "Payback." There has been a history of incarnations of this powerful, relentless character. But he’s not James Bond, which is why I liked him. He’s sort of blue collar. It’s almost like an American entrepreneur's story. But he happens to be a really awful, bad person and a criminal anti-hero.”
‘The Man In My Basement’: Nadia Latif & Willem Dafoe On Their Visceral and Poignant Thriller, Powerful Themes Staying with You, Robert Eggers’ ‘Werewolf’ & More [The Discourse Podcast]
![‘All Of You’: Brett Goldstein On Love, The Science of Soulmates, ‘Shrinking’ Surprises, & ‘Ted Lasso’ [The Discourse Podcast]](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode/2006249/2006249-1758725198180-745ef94dbf323.jpg "‘All Of You’: Brett Goldstein On Love, The Science of Soulmates, ‘Shrinking’ Surprises, & ‘Ted Lasso’ [The Discourse Podcast]")
Love stories are rarely clean, and in “All of You,” the mess is the point. The new drama follows Simon and Laura, lifelong friends played by Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots, as they drift in and out of each other’s lives while a soulmate test promises definitive answers to the question of “the one.” Instead of neat bows and easy catharsis, the film leans into questioning love, heartbreak, longing, and the choices that cut both ways. It arrives on Apple TV+ on September 26 as a romance that challenges more than it comforts, leaving audiences to wrestle with what they believe about love itself.Goldstein, best known for his Emmy-winning turn as Roy Kent on “Ted Lasso,” makes a deliberate rejection of formula here with a deliberate rejection of formula. By refusing to turn the story’s love triangle into a moral shortcut, he forces every character to stand on equal ground. Laura’s husband isn’t a villain but a caring, funny, and decent man, which makes the decision at the film’s core sting much more. Time jumps and fragmented glimpses of Simon and Laura together invite the audience to fill in the missing years with their own experience, blurring the line between fiction and memory.READ MORE: ‘All Of You’ Review: Brett Goldstein & Imogen Poots Heat Up Decade-Spanning Sci-Fi Romance [TIFF]In this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo sits down with Goldstein to discuss building a romance that resists tidy resolution, cutting dialogue in favor of subtext, and finding an improvised final line that changes the ending. He also opens up about his upcoming hard-R rom-com with Jennifer Lopez, new surprises in “Shrinking,” filming the next chapter of “Ted Lasso,” and his dreams of joining the Muppets on screen.
Secrets in the family have a way of festering, and in Alex Winter’s new thriller “Adulthood,” that rot takes the form of a literal body. The film thrusts estranged siblings Megan and Noah, played by Kaya Scodelario and Josh Gad, into a spiral where responsibility can no longer be avoided, and every choice risks compounding into catastrophe. The film arrives on digital on demand platforms on September 23; it is a chaotic blend of dark comedy and moral unease, where adulthood itself feels like the cruelest trap of all.Director Alex Winter, still beloved for cult staples like “Bill & Ted” and “The Lost Boys,” proves here that his filmmaking instincts are as sharp as his screen presence ever was. He keeps the story teetering between farce and tragedy, never letting the characters or the audience escape the consequences of a bad decision. Surrounding Scodelario and Gad are Billie Lourd, Anthony Carrigan, and Winter himself, rounding out an ensemble built to bounce between biting humor and raw tension.On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo talks with the stars of the film, Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario, about building sibling chemistry, working with Winter as he evolves from cult icon to confident filmmaker, and unpacking the movie’s central metaphor. Gad also shares updates on his upcoming Chris Farley biopic starring Paul Walter Hauser and the long-gestating “Spaceballs 2,” while Scodelario clears up speculation about a potential return in “Crawl 2.”
![‘HIM’: Justin Tipping On Mashing Horror & Sports, Marlon Wayans’ Career-Best Performance, & Building A New Mythology [The Discourse Podcast]](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode/2006249/2006249-1758226934851-66b0aadee0aa9.jpg "‘HIM’: Justin Tipping On Mashing Horror & Sports, Marlon Wayans’ Career-Best Performance, & Building A New Mythology [The Discourse Podcast]")
The drive to be the best has always carried a cost, but in Justin Tipping’s new film “HIM,” that cost curdles into something nightmarish. Opening September 19 through Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Universal Pictures, the story takes the familiar arc of athletic ambition and twists it into a surreal descent where glory and terror run side by side. As one of the rare entries in the sports horror genre, it pushes the language of both forms into strange, unsettling territory.In the film, Tyriq Withers plays Cam, a rising football star whose career is derailed after a brutal assault leaves him with brain trauma. Salvation seems to arrive when his idol, legendary QB Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), offers to train him at a remote desert compound. But mentorship quickly warps into manipulation, and the pursuit of greatness becomes a sinister crucible threatening to consume him entirely. The ensemble also features Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies, and more.READ MORE: ‘Alien: Earth’: Noah Hawley On Creature Design, Transhumanism & Proving The Show Belongs In The ‘Alien’ Canon [Bingeworthy Podcast]Director Justin Tipping joined The Playlist’s Bingeworthy Podcast to discuss the film, and during the conversation, explained why the script instantly felt like his. “I was an athlete, played all the sports, and my father was a quarterback and like a pole-vaulting champion. I understood the drive and the passion and the agony of defeat and ecstasy of victory and the locker room aspects of it,” he said. “And then the sheer mashup with this horror genre — I cannot point to another comp. The opportunities here were to create a new language and combine languages to create something new.”
On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo heads into ‘Chief of War’, Apple TV+’s bruising, beautiful, and epic historical saga told largely in the native Hawaiian language and anchored by Jason Momoa as Ka‘iana. The series reframes Hawai‘i’s unification through a warrior-exile (Momoa) who’s seen the outside world and returns warning that their internal conflict is nothing compared to what’s coming. The Season 1 finale arrives September 19th only on Apple TV+ and also stars Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis, Luciane Buchanan, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, and more. The series is a decade-in-the-making passion project for Momoa, which he also directs, writes, and produces. When asked about the film language he brought as a filmmaker, he doesn’t hesitate to admit that he's more comfortable behind the camera. “I’m 100% on the cinematic side of things. As an actor, I’d rather strip away dialogue and tell it with images. Both of my parents were painters. The version of me as a director is completely different than the version of me as an actor.”
On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by writer, director, and showrunner Noah Hawley ("Fargo," "Legion") to discuss his new FX series, "Alien: Earth." The highly anticipated prequel series debuted August 12th and runs through September 23rd, delivering a bold new chapter in the iconic sci-fi horror franchise. Set in a future Earth, the story follows a young woman and a band of tactical hybrid misfits who uncover a terrifying secret after a mysterious spacecraft crash-lands in their corporate territory, forcing them into direct conflict with everyone's favorite killer, acid-blooded alien species and much more. The series stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, and Timothy Olyphant.READ MORE: ‘Alien: Earth’ Review: Noah Hawley Matches Ridley Scott’s Classic In A Terrifically Smart, Engaging & Terrifying Sci-Fi Horror SeriesThe show takes place only two years prior to the events of "Alien," and Hawley made doubly sure his series felt instantly familiar to fans of the original. “People have to watch it in the first five minutes and go, this is Alien,” Hawley said. That meant using the actual Nostromo blueprints to design the Maginot ship and opening the series just like Scott’s 1979 film—with the crew waking up, smoking, eating, and overlapping their conversations. “It has to feel authentic,” Hawley stressed.
n this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by comedy icons Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne, along with creators Nicholas Stoller & Francesca Delbanco, to discuss Season 2 of "Platonic." The hit Apple TV+ comedy series returned August 6th and runs through October with new episodes that double down on codependency, middle-aged mayhem, and Rogen’s uncanny ability to brutalize delivery robots & bird scooters.The show once again follows Will (Rogen) and Sylvia (Byrne), two long-time friends navigating the messiness of middle age through their unhealthy platonic relationship. Season 2 digs deeper into their toxic but undeniably hilarious bond while still delivering the mix of sharp dialogue and outrageous physical gags that made the first season a hit.
![‘Relay’: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, & David Mackenzie On Paranoid Thrillers, Whistleblowers, Building Chemistry Through Distance, ‘Fuze’ & More [The Discourse Podcast]](https://s3.castbox.fm/fc/a3/c9/51f6e3da2c8a12e3e82a4ae99e6f5faa3a_scaled_v1_400.jpg "‘Relay’: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, & David Mackenzie On Paranoid Thrillers, Whistleblowers, Building Chemistry Through Distance, ‘Fuze’ & More [The Discourse Podcast]")
On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and director David Mackenzie to talk about ‘Relay’, a paranoid thriller set in New York City that follows a world-class “fixer” (Riz Ahmed) who brokers lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He keeps his identity a secret through meticulous planning and always follows an exacting set of rules. When a new message arrives from a potential client (Lily James) needing his protection to stay alive, the rules quickly start to change. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald, Matthew Maher, and more.For Ahmed, the attraction was as much about who he was working with as the story itself. “The thing that’s always one of the most important things is your director,” he said. “You’re going to be in their hands. You’ve got to kind of vibe with them. So David was a big pull. And then it’s also who else are you going to be doing this with? When I heard it was Lily, I was absolutely thrilled.”
On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo heads back into Peacock’s wildest ride, ‘Twisted Metal.’ Season one surprised audiences with its mix of brutal action, absurdist comedy, and unexpected heart. Now, season two takes things even further, upping the stakes with bigger stunts, more elaborate effects, a larger cast, and cosmic weirdness creeping in around the edges. This season finds John Doe (Anthony Mackie) and Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) thrown into a high-stakes tournament run by the unpredictable Calypso (Anthony Carrigan), with returning chaos from Sweet Tooth (Samoa Joe/Will Arnett) and a roster of new eccentric competitors. Joining the podcast for two separate interviews are Michael Jonathan Smith, the series’ showrunner, and actor Anthony Carrigan, who makes his debut as the chaotic wish-granting figure at the center of the tournament.
On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo heads back into the burning world of Apple TV+’s ‘Smoke’, a gripping slow-burn crime drama based on the true story of a serial arsonist and the investigator determined to stop him. The series follows arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton), a small-town arson investigator who appears to be a dependable family man. But as the series progresses, a darker truth is revealed - SPOILER ALERT for Episode 2: Dave is secretly setting fires and unraveling psychologically at a dangerous pace. Investigators team up to take Dave down once and for all. The series also stars Greg Kinnear, Jurnee Smollett, Rafe Spall, John Leguizamo, Anna Chlumsky, and more.John Leguizamo joins the podcast to discuss his role on the show. Showrunner Dennis Lehane actually wrote the role of Ezra Esposito, Dave's disgraced former partner, for Leguizamo, which was both flattering and a little eyebrow-raising.
On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by Tony Hale and D’Arcy Carden to talk about “Sketch,” a new family-friendly fantasy comedy-drama from first-time director Seth Worley. The film follows a grieving family whose emotional baggage literally comes to life in the form of magical, terrifying creatures after a child’s sketchbook falls into an enchanted pool.Tony Hale (“Veep,” “Arrested Development”) stars as Taylor Wyatt, a widowed father trying to help his two children navigate loss while also battling monsters made of crayon wax and chalk dust. D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place,” “Barry”) plays Liz, Taylor’s sister and the family’s voice of reason.
On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by Director Chris Weaver and Wrestling Superstar Bianca Belair to talk about “WWE Unreal,” Netflix’s new docu-series that finally takes fans inside the machine behind professional wrestling. For the first time, WWE allows cameras into its most sacred spaces, including the writer’s room, backstage before matches, and the constantly shifting road to WrestleMania, showing the creative chaos and real emotional toll that powers one of the most watched weekly dramas in the world.The series comes from NFL Films (“Quarterback,” “Receiver”), with Chris Weaver serving as director. Weaver didn’t consider himself a die-hard wrestling fan going in, but that distance became part of the creative advantage. “I wasn’t this huge fan dropping in and trying to overdo it, but our other showrunner Erik Powers is an encyclopedic fan,” Weaver said. “It was a good dynamic. I could be the outsider voice, and he could be in the weeds.”
On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by Michael C. Hall and Krysten Ritter, stars of “Dexter: Resurrection” - Paramount+ with Showtime’s gritty revival that continues the twisted journey of serial killer Dexter Morgan - yes, he lives! The new series picks up shortly after the events of “Dexter: New Blood”, with Dexter waking from a coma, presumed dead, and setting out across New York City in search of his estranged son Harrison. He instead finds a smorgasbord of "like-minded" individuals and a mountain of killer trouble. The show also stars Peter Dinklage, David Dastmalchian, Uma Thurman, Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Stonestreet, and Krysten Ritter.
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what an AWESOME discussion of the film. I enjoyed it so much! love both of your perspectives.
😅😂