Movie HighLow
Movie HighLow is a podcast that discusses the best—and worst—that cinema has to offer. Each episode, the hosts go either HIGH or LOW and break down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and what went completely off the rails. From iconic classics to fascinating disasters, they explore why some movies are great, some are terrible, and some are both. The show features film analysis, movie breakdowns, and reviews.
Episodes
DREAMCATCHER (2003) | A Stephen King Mixtape Gone Wrong (Low)
We went Low on Dreamcatcher, but this is a very particular kind of Low. This is not a boring bad movie. This is a wildly overstuffed, deeply strange, completely unfiltered bad movie that somehow has talented actors, a major Stephen King source, Lawrence Kasdan directing, William Goldman on the screenplay, a reported $68 million budget, and an alien that crawls out of somebody’s ass before Jason Le
THE BABADOOK (2014) | The Monster You Keep In The Basement (High)
We went High on The Babadook, because this is the kind of horror movie that gets scarier the more you sit with it. Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) is not just about a monster in a top hat with long fingers and a creepy children’s book. It is about the thing you lock in the basement, the thing you refuse to name, and the thing that gets stronger the longer you deny it.
That is the central argu
VIRTUOSITY (1995) | Denzel vs. Russell Crowe in Cyber Hell (Low)
We went Low on Virtuosity, but this is one of those Lows where the movie is bad in ways that are still weirdly entertaining. Virtuosity (1995) is mid-’90s techno-thriller anxiety blasted through a Windows 95 screensaver: virtual reality, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, serial killer databases, cyber gobbledygook, regenerative glass skin, and Russell Crowe grinning like he has decided to p
NINE DAYS (2021) | The Masterpiece Nobody Saw (High)
We went High on Nine Days, but this is a very different kind of High for us. This is not a massive cultural touchstone, a blockbuster, or one of those movies everyone already agrees is a classic. Nine Days (2021) is a small, quiet, underseen film with an enormous idea: what if, before you were born, you had to interview for the chance to live?
That premise could have turned into something overly a
THE PRESTIGE (2006) | Nolan's Secret Hiding in Plain Sight (High)
We went High on The Prestige, and this is one of those Highs where the movie almost feels built for this podcast. Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (2006) is not just a movie about magic. It is a movie constructed like a magic trick, and the more you watch it, the more you realize Nolan has been showing you the secret from the beginning. He tells you what the trick is, puts the evidence in front of
DISTURBING BEHAVIOR (1998) | Fisher-Price Clockwork Orange (Low)
We went Low on Disturbing Behavior, but this is exactly the kind of Low we like having around. Disturbing Behavior (1998) is not a great movie, but it is absolutely a late ’90s guilty pleasure: brainwashed preppies, creepy adults, Pacific Northwest fog, alternative rock needle drops, weird cafeteria tribes, mind control surgery, and James Marsden drinking a carton of milk like the world’s oldest h
PSYCHO (1998) | Copied Hitchcock Shot For Shot. What Went Wrong? (Low)
We went Low on Psycho (1998), and not in a fun, “this is secretly fascinating” way. This might be the most frustrating Low we have covered, because Gus Van Sant’s Psycho is not just a bad remake. It is a remake that keeps copying the body of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho while missing the soul. The problem is not that remakes are automatically inferior. Some of the best genre movies ever made are rema
PSYCHO (1960) | The Movie That Knows What's Wrong With You (High)
We went High on Psycho, because this is one of those movies that is not just important because film history tells us it is important. Psycho (1960) still has teeth. It still feels dangerous. It still knows how to get under your skin, not just by scaring you, but by making you question where your sympathy is going while you watch it.
That is the real genius of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. It does not
MADAME WEB (2024) | Franchise Homework Disguised As A Movie (Low)
We went LOW on Madame Web, and this is not one of those sneaky affectionate Lows where we secretly want to defend the movie. This is a real LOW. Madame Web (2024) has psychic spiders, future Spider-Women, a villain trying to prevent his own death, a 2003 setting, Pepsi product placement, Uncle Ben, Peter Parker’s birth, and Dakota Johnson as a clairvoyant paramedic who can see time fold in on itse
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018) | Understands Spider-Man Better Than Any Other Movie (High)
We went High on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and honestly, this might be the easiest High we have done in a while. Not because there is nothing to talk about, but because the movie knows exactly what it is doing. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) is not just a great animated superhero movie. It is the best Spider-Man movie because it understands Spider-Man as an idea: anyone can wear
GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) | IP Karaoke (Low)
We went Low on Ghostbusters (2016), but not for the reason the internet spent a decade screaming about. The problem was never that women were the Ghostbusters. Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are all funny performers, and there is absolutely a version of this cast that could have worked. The problem is that this movie never feels like it has a strong reason to exist
BRIDESMAIDS (2011) | Friendship, Failure, and Food Poisoning (High)
We went High on Bridesmaids, because this is the kind of studio comedy we just do not get enough of anymore. It is loud, gross, awkward, emotional, over-the-top, and built around the kind of female friendship that movies still do not explore as often as they should. Bridesmaids (2011) is not just “women doing a Hangover.” That undersells what makes it work. This is a movie about watching your best
HOOK (1991) | Spielberg at Sentimentality Overload (Low)
On this week's Movie HighLow, we went Low on Hook, but this is one of those Lows that comes with a lot of affection. We love so much of this movie. We love Robin Williams as Peter Banning slowly finding his way back to Peter Pan. We love Dustin Hoffman chewing through every syllable as Captain Hook. We love Rufio, Smee, the Lost Boys, the practical Neverland sets, the John Williams score, and the
JAWS (1975) | Less Is More (High)
We went High on Jaws, because of course we did. But the reason Jaws (1975) still works is not just “the shark is scary.” The shark is barely in the first half of the movie. What makes Steven Spielberg’s Jaws an American classic is restraint: character, geography, patience, silence, dread, and the confidence to let the audience imagine more than the movie actually shows.
That is the whole argument
SUPER MARIO BROS. (1993) | Never Deserved The Hate (Low)
On this week's Movie HighLow, we went Low on Super Mario Bros., but with a pretty major asterisk: this movie never deserved the hate it got. We won't argue that Super Mario Bros. (1993) is a great adaptation, or that it cleanly captures the spirit of the Nintendo games, or that the story makes sense in any normal way. It is messy, compromised, weird, overdesigned, and occasionally completely insan
WHIPLASH (2014) | In Spite Of Fletcher? Or, Because Of Him? (High)
On this week's Movie HighLow, we go High on Whiplash because it is one of the rare movies about greatness that does not let greatness off the hook. It looks like an inspirational story about a young jazz drummer pushing past his limits, but the more we talk about it, the darker it gets. Whiplash (2014) is not just asking whether Andrew Neiman becomes great. It is asking what he has to cut out of h
THE HAPPENING (2008) | Be Scientific, Douchebag (Low)
The Happening is a bad movie with a genuinely good idea trapped inside it, which might be the most frustrating kind of bad movie. On paper, M. Night Shyamalan making an R-rated eco-horror film about nature turning against humanity should at least be creepy. The planet mounting a defense against us? Plants communicating through airborne neurotoxins? Mass panic spreading through the Northeast? There
TAXI DRIVER (1976) | Martin Scorsese’s Most Disturbing Masterpiece (High)
Taxi Driver is not great because Travis Bickle is cool, misunderstood, or secretly right. It is great because Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Robert De Niro, and Bernard Herrmann drag us close enough to understand him without ever letting us feel safe around him. That is the central tension of this Movie HighLow episode: Taxi Driver (1976) still feels disturbingly alive because the movie understan
Movie HighLow Returns June 5th!
Movie HighLow is back.
After a very reasonable, not-at-all-concerning multi-year pause, Dom and Dee return June 5 with new episodes about the best and worst that cinema has to offer.
Some episodes are HIGH episodes: classics, masterpieces, and movies worth revisiting. Some episodes are LOW episodes: disasters, trainwrecks, and movies where you start wondering if anyone on set knew they were making
THE FANATIC (2019) | A Complete Tonal Mess (Low)
This movie never decides what it wants to be.
In The Fanatic, you’ve got a character study, a thriller, and a dark comedy all fighting each other… and none of them really win.
And somehow, that’s what makes it so... fascinating?
We break down:
Why the tone is completely all over the place
The strange (but committed) performance from John Travolta
How the movie keeps undercutting its own serious
GIGLI (2003) | A Hollywood Disaster That Embarrasses Everyone (Low)
GIGLI is more than a notorious flop. In this episode, we get into why it feels so uniquely humiliating: a tabloid-era Bennifer vehicle, a studio-mangled gangster movie turned awkward rom-com, and a cast stranded inside material that never finds the right tone.
We talk about the film’s broken kidnapping plot, Ben Affleck’s bizarre performance choices, Jennifer Lopez’s underwritten “tough” character
BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) | Why It Still Feels Like Movie Magic (High)
BACK TO THE FUTURE is one of those movies that can feel endlessly familiar and still hit like the first time. In this episode, we get into why Robert Zemeckis’ classic still feels so alive: the perfect Marty McFly and Doc Brown pairing, the airtight script, the escalating stakes, the DeLorean as an all-time great movie image, and a finale that still plays like pure cinematic adrenaline.
We also ta
TITANIC (1997) | Overrated… or a Masterpiece? (High)
James Cameron’s TITANIC is one of those movies that became so huge it almost invited backlash, but revisiting it now, the real story is why it still lands. In this episode, we talk about the film as both a massive technical achievement and an unapologetically emotional crowd-pleaser, with a romance that can feel corny and deeply effective at the same time.
We get into James Horner’s haunting score
12 MONKEYS (1995) | Time Travel, Madness, and the End of the World (High)
Why do Terry Gilliam’s movies always feel just a little… off?
In this episode, we get into why the film still feels so unsettling and alive, from its warped visual language to the way it turns time travel into something tragic, paranoid, and psychologically unstable.
We talk about Gilliam’s direction and why his surreal style is such a perfect fit for James Cole’s fractured point of view, the fil
JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987) | The Shark Franchise Breaking Point (Low)
Jaws: The Revenge is where one of the greatest blockbusters ever made finally turns into pure franchise absurdity. In this episode, we talk about how the movie turns shark terror into family vendetta nonsense, and why that makes it both embarrassing and weirdly entertaining.
We get into the movie’s wildest choices, from the idea of a shark personally targeting the Brody family to Ellen Brody’s nea
BIG (1988) | This Movie Hits WAY Different as an Adult (High)
You ever watch Big as an adult and realize… it’s not the same movie?
This week on Movie HighLow, we revisit Big—the classic Tom Hanks film that somehow hits even harder the older you get. What starts as a fun “kid becomes an adult overnight” story turns into something way deeper.
🎡 A wish gone wrong
🧸 A dream job at a toy company
💔 And a reminder that growing up isn’t always what you think
KNIVES OUT (2019) | The Most FUN Murder Mystery in Years (High)
This is how you do a modern murder mystery.
This week on Movie HighLow, we break down Knives Out—the insanely fun, layered whodunit from Rian Johnson that surprised us way more than we expected.
🕵️♂️ A dead mystery novelist
🏡 A house full of suspects
🎭 And a detective with a very questionable accent
At first, it feels like a classic whodunit… …but then the movie flips the formula on its he
JACOB’S LADDER (2019) | This Remake Shouldn’t Exist… (Low)
Did this remake need to happen at all?
This week on Movie HighLow, we’re diving into Jacob’s Ladder (2019)—a remake of a cult classic that… doesn’t quite justify its existence.
🪖 A war medic haunted by trauma
🧠 Hallucinations that blur reality
😈 And a story that never quite lands
At first, it feels like it might work…
…but the deeper it goes, the more it falls apart.
We get into:
Why t
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004) | The Most Honest Love Story Ever (High)
If you could erase someone you loved… would you?
This week on Movie HighLow, we’re diving into Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—a film that’s as heartbreaking as it is brilliant.
💔 A relationship falling apart
🧠 Memories being erased
❄️ And two people who can’t seem to stay away from each other
This isn’t your typical love story. It’s messy. Honest. Painful. …and uncomfortably real.
W
THE IRISHMAN (2019) | Scorsese’s Final Word on the Mob (High)
What if the gangster story… doesn’t end in glory?
This week on Movie HighLow, we’re diving into The Irishman—Martin Scorsese’s long, quiet, and brutally honest look at the cost of a life in the mob.
🧓 Aging hitmen
🤝 Loyalty vs betrayal
⚰️ And a life that ends not with violence… but loneliness
This isn’t Goodfellas. It’s what comes after.
We get into:
Why this feels like Scorsese’s “final wo
THE WICKER MAN (2006) | So Bad It’s Iconic (Low)
How does a movie this bad become this entertaining?
This week on Movie HighLow, we’re diving into The Wicker Man (2006) — a movie that somehow failed as a thriller… and accidentally became a comedy classic.
🐝 Nicolas Cage vs. bees
🐻 A bear suit for no reason
👊 Punching his way through an entire island
What was supposed to be a dark, psychological remake turns into something completely diffe
BATTLEFIELD EARTH (2000) | This Was Hard to Finish (Low)
This isn’t just a bad movie… it’s an endurance test.
This week on Movie HighLow, we take on Battlefield Earth (2000) — a sci-fi epic that somehow became one of the most infamous flops of all time.
👽 Psychlos
🐀 Man-animals
📉 9 Razzies (yes, NINE)
What was supposed to be a massive sci-fi franchise starter turns into a confusing, overlong, and honestly exhausting experience.
We get into:
Why
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) | The Best Superhero Movie Ever? (High)
Is The Dark Knight still the greatest superhero movie ever made?
On the very first episode of Movie HighLow, we start with a HIGH—and it doesn’t get much higher than The Dark Knight.
🃏 A Joker with no rules
🦇 A hero pushed to the edge
⚖️ And a city forced to choose what it stands for
This isn’t just a comic book movie.
It’s a crime story.
A character study.
And a film that completely chang
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