Marco Noyola Archives -

OBEX MOVIE REVIEW OBEX, the latest film from multi-hyphenate artist Albert Birney, is set in the pre-internet days of the 1980s. In addition to writing and directing, Birney also stars as Conor, a computer nerd and shut-in who lives alone with his dog Sandy. One day, intrigued by an ad, Conor orders a copy of […]

STRANGER THINGS – SEASON 5 PART 3 REVIEW Released in 2016 to relatively little fanfare, Stranger Things quickly became a word of mouth hit, a pop culture phenomenon, and Netflix‘s flagship show. Now, almost a decade later, the show has completed its final voyage. It’s possible the ship might have suffered some damage along the […]

BEST OF 2025 PART ONE We always try to do something a little different every year with our Best Of The Year shows. This year, we decided to get together just the Austin-based folks for a sorta mini-Gathering series of podcasts to take on the best of TV, Film, and Videogames of 2025. The conceit […]

IS THIS THING ON? MOVIE REVIEW Comedy can be good for a lot of things but personal healing is not one you hear as much about. Writer/Director Bradley Cooper offers this year in an unusually low-key release his take on the subject, Is This Thing On? Loosely inspired by the life of British comedian John […]

STRANGER THINGS – SEASON 5 VOLUME 2 REVIEW Once again, Netflix has dropped another volume of Stranger Things Season 5 episodes on a major holiday, and once again our reviewers took a break from their vacation plans to binge these three new episodes and record their thoughts ahead of the feature-length finale scheduled to drop […]

LEFT-HANDED GIRL MOVIE REVIEW Director Shih-Ching Tsou once said “I fell in love with my own city again. I spent 23 years of my life in Taipei. That’s home. That’s where my family is. I can never remove that from my brain or my body, and I notice every little detail of the city now. […]

HAMNET MOVIE REVIEW It’s important to remember when looking at biopics about real people that we actually know very little about, that being queeny about the historical details is entirely besides the fact. Guarantee that director Chloé Zhao knew that when she signed up to make the film Hamnet and it was never intended to […]

STRANGER THINGS – SEASON 5 VOLUME 1 REVIEW The fifth and final season of Stranger Things might leave you feeling nostalgic, not for the 1980s, but for the halcyon days of 2016; back when a streaming series with no pre-release buzz could become a surprise word-of-mouth hit, when unknown child actors were actually the same […]

NOUVELLE VAGUE MOVIE REVIEW In 1959, film critic Jean-Luc Godard set out to direct his first feature, “À bout de souffle” or Breathless as it is known in English. Following Godard’s oft quoted dictum that ‘All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun’, Breathless tells the story of a louche […]

SENTIMENTAL VALUE MOVIE REVIEW After his critical success from 2021’s The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier’s new film Sentimental Value dives right back into the complex “feels” pool. The film follows Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her deeply fraught relationship with her father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), who is a celebrated film director on his […]

SLOW HORSES SEASON 5 REVIEW Slow Horses Season 5 wastes no time setting up the stakes, starting with a brutal mass shooting in the heart of London. This kicks off a series of terrorist attacks in a politically divided city during the midst of a fraught mayoral campaign. Ordinarily, this would be a job for […]

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING SEASON 5 REVIEW After four seasons of murders in the building, you would think the titular building would be the least desirable apartment complex in all of Manhattan. Fortunately for fans of Only Murders in the Building, people are still dying to move into The Arconia, home of true crime […]

MR. SCORSESE SERIES REVIEW Martin Scorsese has been one of our most acclaimed filmmakers for so long, that it’s easy to forget his reputation and career weren’t always as secure as they are now. Scorsese has been the subject of many articles, books, and documentaries before, so it’s hard to imagine anything that hasn’t been […]

PEACEMAKER SEASON 2 REVIEW Who would have guessed that a D list superhero like Chris Smith AKA Peacemaker would be the cornerstone of DC Comics latest cinematic universe, or that the role would offer former wrestler turned actor John Cena the meatiest role of his career, thus far? Nobody, that’s who. And yet here we […]

ANEMONE MOVIE REVIEW Nepotism is alive and well! Daniel Day-Lewis has come out of retirement to co-write and star in his son’s (Ronan Day-Lewis) feature film debut with Anemone. The film follows Jem Stoker (Sean Bean) as he travels far and wide to find his estranged brother Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) who’s become a hermit over […]

TWINLESS MOVIE REVIEW It’s hard to imagine as a non-twin what it would be like to have a twin sibling and then to lose them, especially unexpectedly. For Roman (Dylan O’Brien) it’s shattering. While his brother Rocky couldn’t be more different than him, they still had an indescribable bond. Roman is a heterosexual introvert. Rocky […]

CAUGHT STEALING MOVIE REVIEW Director/writer Darren Aronofsky is known for making really intense and usually very surreal films, like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and Mother!. Sometimes he chills a bit to focus on telling a great character based story like in The Wrestler. Caught Stealing is a bit of an oddball choice for […]

THE NAKED GUN MOVIE REVIEW There’s a handful at best of good absurdist spoof comedies after the early reign of the Zucker/Abrahams films (Airplane, Airplane 2, Top Secret, The Naked Gun series). There’s a LOT of terrible ones. So, the relaunch of the beloved Naked Gun series without the involvement of the original team, and […]

POKER FACE SEASON 2 REVIEW Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne are back with another season of Poker Face, their acclaimed murder-of-the-week mystery series. Charlie Cale (Lyonne) has an unusual talent, she’s a human bullshit detector who instantly knows whenever someone is lying. When her gift gets her into trouble with a Las Vegas crime family, […]

SORRY, BABY MOVIE REVIEW Most films that deal with overcoming trauma do it either as it being represented as a growing black gulf of evil (see at least half the horror films made in the last 5-10 years), or with a good deal of saccharine. The debut film from writer/director/star Eva Victor is something new. […]

MATERIALISTS MOVIE REVIEW Take one professional matchmaker for the rich and superficial (Dakota Johnson), one ex-boyfriend with all the looks and personality but no money (Chris Evans), and one absurdly rich dude who is that rare one that doesn’t seem to be a total schmuck (Pedro Pascal), and you get the love triangle that makes […]

THE LIFE OF CHUCK MOVIE REVIEW The latest Stephen King adaptation isn’t a horror movie, although there is an apocalypse underway and a LOT of existential dread in the first (or third, as marked) act. No, it’s a feel-good, tear-jerker, ‘enjoy your life because it doesn’t last forever’ inspirational film. It’s also told in reverse […]

BRING HER BACK MOVIE REVIEW The Philippou brothers, who brought us one of the biggest horror surprises of 2023 with their debut film Talk to Me, return with a considerably more sinister and mature second film. Bring Her Back follows step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and his mostly blind sister Piper (Sora Wong). Their father suddenly […]

STAR WARS: TALES OF THE UNDERWORLD REVIEW Continuing their annual May 4th tradition, LucasFilms has released another 6-episode Star Wars miniseries, adding a new set of animated adventures to their “Tales Of” series. We’ve seen the Jedi and the Empire. This time we follow the galaxy’s criminal underworld – or rather two such characters who […]

ANDOR SEASON 2 PART 3 REVIEW The One Of Us Rebels are getting closer and closer to the Battle of Yavin and the end of the Empire. T.C., Lewayne, Marco, Melina, and Drew gather to discuss the third block of episodes in this acclaimed series as it races toward its inevitable and harrowing crescendo. Cassian […]

ANDOR SEASON 2 – PART TWO The One Of Us Rebellion gathers once more under the cover of darkness to dive into the second triptych of episodes for the final season of the prestige Star Wars series. The Empire has begun to upset the Ghorman population, Cassian evaluates the growing totally not French/German mashup resistance, […]

ANDOR SEASON 2 – PART ONE After the events of Season 1 and the first true sparks of the rebellion, Andor Season 2 begins one year later. Cassian is on an undercover mission that goes south fast. Bix, Brasso, and Wilmon’s sanctuary is threatened, Mon Mothma prepares a Chandrilan wedding as Luthen keeps his grand […]

THE LEGEND OF OCHI MOVIE REVIEW While A24’s latest release The Legend of Ochi may be a film directed at children, the review Chris, Wright, and Marco did for it is decidedly not (despite Marco’s best efforts to keep it on track). While discussing this little injured cryptid creature the film centers around, it was […]

SINNERS MOVIE REVIEW Up until now, Ryan Coogler has written and directed several successful films based on either a true story, or pre-existing IP, but Sinners marks his first time crafting a completely original work on his own terms. Michael B. Jordan, in a dual role, plays Smoke and Stack, identical twin brothers from the […]

DROP MOVIE REVIEW Remember when everything was “Die Hard on a _____”? No? Ok, you may have been too young for that but trust me, it was incessant. With the streaming success of Carry-On when seeing what the plot of Drop was, I couldn’t help but think “Carry-On but in a restaurant”. Violet (Meghann Fahy) […]

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA MOVIE REVIEW In 1984, an unemployed ice cream truck driver named Michael Larson went on the game show Press Your Luck and broke the record for most money won on an American game show. That true story is the basis for The Luckiest Man in America starring Paul Walter Hauser […]

WARFARE MOVIE REVIEW While working on his previous film Civil War, Alex Garland got to be friends with the military advisor on it, Ray Mendoza. They decided to write a script together based on an experience Ray had gone through in his experiences in the Iraq War. Initially Garland was going to be sole director […]

THE BALLAD OF WALLACE ISLAND MOVIE REVIEW Imagine you had more money than you knew what to do with that came upon you like unexpected manna from heaven. After you had traveled the world, bought your perfect house on your perfect island, what then? If you’re Charles (Tim Key) you make an offer to your […]

A WORKING MAN REVIEW Say what you will about this new found collaboration between David Ayer and Jason Statham, but they really know how to turn b-movie action plots into ridiculous and eccentric flicks. Jason Statham stars as Levon Cade who works as a foreman on a construction site run by mild mannered Michael Pena. […]

PADDINGTON IN PERU MOVIE REVIEW If you’re slow to catch this train, Paddington 1 and 2 rank among the best children’s films ever made. If even Pedro Pascal and Nic Cage cry together about how wonderful they are, you can give them a shot. So, when the most adorable bear ever returns for a third […]

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD MOVIE REVIEW Here we are at the 35th film in the MCU and the 4th Captain America film, albeit with a notable change. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) once a partner to Steve Rogers, was chosen by him specifically to take on the mantle of Captain America, after the events of […]

LOVE HURTS MOVIE REVIEW It was so great to see the return of actor Ke Huy Quan in the sublime Everything Everywhere All At Once in 2022. Having retired from acting for a very long time, Quan is known to Americans for his roles as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom […]

STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW SERIES REVIEW The One Of Us Jedi Counsel of Melina, Marco, and T.C. gather to discuss the newest entry into the Star Wars franchise and are gleefully pleased to see that building an entire series around the Amblin Entertainment model that gave us The Goonies, E.T., and the entire kids on […]

HEART EYES MOVIE REVIEW In continuing the ever-meta-ning of the horror-comedy genre, as we go deeper into the rabbit-hole of self-referentialism and winking at the audience, some of the entries have become absurdly lazy. Fortunately, one of the brightest lights in the field, Christopher Landon, is one of the writers of Heart Eyes and if […]

PRESENCE MOVIE REVIEW Certainly writer David Koepp seems like a safe bet for a haunted house film (if you’ve never seen it, Stir of Echoes is great) but Steven Soderbergh as director? As one of our critics put it, “He just wanted to shoot an entire movie like his buddy Spike Jonze shot Beastie Boys […]

WOLF MAN MOVIE REVIEW The early excitement over the new Wolf Man movie had less to do with there being a new reboot of the Universal classic monster, The Wolf Man, and more with the writer/director Leigh Whannell. As a writer he created the Saw and Insidious franchises with James Wan. As a director, he […]

THE BEST FILMS OF 2024 PART TWO Our best of 2024 film list continues with double the speed and that many more films for us to gush about. Come sit around the round table with the One Of Us Austin crew and see if we can turn you on to some stuff you may have […]

THE BEST FILMS OF 2024 PART ONE This more accurately should be titled, the best films of 2024 that we haven’t already talked about (largely). Because we are not talking about Anora, The Brutalist, or The Substance here. We did those reviews. We’re primarily talking about the other greatest films that we didn’t get to […]

THE BRUTALIST MOVIE REVIEW Who knew a nearly 4 hour sweeping historical epic could move at a breakneck pace? Brady Corbet’s newest feature, The Brutalist, achieves that in spades and very well could be one of the best films of the year. Adrien Brody stars as László Tóth, a Hungarian holocaust survivor emigrating to America […]

BETTER MAN MOVIE REVIEW Let’s go through our musical biopic checklist, shall we? Talented kid from a broken home dreams of becoming a pop star? Check. Serious daddy issues? Check. Fame and overwork leads to exhaustion, addiction, and self-destructive behavior? Check, check, and check. Protagonist is depicted as a CGI singing, dancing monkey voiced by […]

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN MOVIE REVIEW Director James Mangold more or less made the film that defined all the tropes of the musical biopic with his 2005 film about Johnny Cash, Walk The Line. Said tropes than thoroughly and perfectly satirized in 2007’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Naturally, many were wary when Mangold was […]

JUROR #2 MOVIE REVIEW Whenever a jury duty summons comes in, I’m annoyed, aren’t we all, but definitely not mad about it either. However, if I received this notice while my wife was enduring a second pregnancy in the third trimester, I’d be quite angry. Enter our protagonist Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult). A recovering alcoholic, […]

QUEER MOVIE REVIEW Director Luca Guadagnino dives into the world of transgressive author William S Burroughs with his latest film, Queer. The story follows Burroughs, as his literary stand-in William Lee (Daniel Craig). The writer drinks his way through his days, living in Mexico, and looking for love. Well, sex anyway. He forms an irresistible […]

GLADIATOR II MOVIE REVIEW After 24 years, Ridley Scott decided to dust off the old Gladiator garb and make a sequel to his 2000 epic that won the gold at the Oscars. Does Gladiator II have the same chances at becoming the best film of the year? Highly unlikely. Paul Mescal takes on the titular […]

RED ONE MOVIE REVIEW The influx of Xmas movies has begun. With a big cast and with director Jake Kasdan (The Jumanji movies) at the helm, Red One inserts a Marvel movie feel to the proceedings. Dwayne Johnson is Callum Drift, a top agent at E.L.F. who protects Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) and other mythological […]

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL MOVIE REVIEW There are some filmmakers out there that appear to have an agenda to make the audience feel utter despair and sadness. Much like his previous film Mary & Max, Adam Elliot’s newest picture, Memoir of a Snail, drives home how truly terrible it can be to just exist in […]

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING SEASON 4 REVIEW They say the first rule of real estate is “location, location, location”. While that’s mostly true for Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building, the showrunners seem to have embraced the second rule of sitcom television: “guest stars, guest stars, guest stars”. Considering the number of […]

HERETIC MOVIE REVIEW Just because Halloween is over, that doesn’t mean random young people won’t come knocking on your door; only this time they aren’t asking for candy, they’re asking if you have a moment to talk about their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s right, we’re talking about Mormon missionaries. When Sister Barnes (Sophie […]

Saturday Night Movie Review In the midst of its 50th season on television, Saturday Night Live is without question a staple in American comedy. It’s hard to imagine that the comedy juggernaut was almost an impressive disaster right up until it aired on October 11th, 1975. Saturday Night, directed by Jason Reitman, tells the story […]

MEGALOPOLIS MOVIE REVIEW Once heralded as one of the most gifted filmmakers of all time, Francis Ford Coppola has finally achieved his nearly 40 year dream in releasing his epic vision, Megalopolis. The film is jam packed full of incredible actors and some problematic ones. It is led by Adam Driver who plays Cesar Catilina, […]

THE SUBSTANCE MOVIE REVIEW We’ve never seen Demi Moore like this before. Coralie Fargeat’s, director of Revenge, second feature film The Substance is a wild combination of David Cronenberg’s body-horror and Frank Henenlotter’s exploitation sensibilities. Demi Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, whose stardom has faded from Hollywood icon to hosting a tv workout show ala Jane […]

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE MOVIE REVIEW After many, many, MANY, many many attempts to get a sequel to 1988’s smash cult hit Beetlejuice off the ground, Tim Burton finally got somebody to pony up the dough all these decades later. Everyone is back (except for Jeffrey Jones because of…well, look it up) and it’s a family reunion […]

THE FRONT ROOM MOVIE REVIEW Don’t you just hate it when the in-laws move in? In The Front Door, this Mother-In-Law (Kathryn Hunter) is one straight from Hell. First time Directors, Max and Sam Eggers, have produced a film that at first glance appears to be another taut horror flick released by their brother’s (Robert […]

BLINK TWICE MOVIE REVIEW It’s hard to know how to market a film that depends on a giant twist without spoiling the surprise. It definitely feels like Blink Twice is one of those, where the trailers make it look like some kind of slasher on an island with beautiful people. But what if I told […]

ALIEN: ROMULUS MOVIE REVIEW On an incredibly crap mining planet job, Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her ‘brother’, the mentally simple android Andy (David Jonsson), are coming to terms with the fact that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation has no intention of letting their contract finish and they’re going to be stuck there probably till they die. Teaming […]

LONGLEGS MOVIE REVIEW The hype is here for director/writer Osgood Perkins new horror film Longlegs. It’s everywhere. Even not huge horror fans I know are talking about it in anticipation. Which is weird because I only know a handful of people who actually saw his terrific other films, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel and Hansel, and […]

STAR TREK DISCOVERY – SEASON 5 REVIEW These are the voyages of the starship Discovery. Its five-season mission: to set-up spin-off shows; to seek out new fans and new demographics, to boldly go where no Trek series has gone before: the streaming era! While some may prefer the episodic format of Strange New Worlds, the […]

STAR WARS: THE BAD BATCH SEASON 3 REVIEW In the aftermath of the Clone Wars, The Bad Batch follows Hunter, Cross Hair, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo, a unique squad of clone troopers with genetic mutations who resisted Order 66 and go on the run in the early days of the Galactic Empire. They are joined […]

FALLOUT SERIES REVIEW Hey there vault dwellers. I know it’s been a bit much being confined to a Vault-Tec vault for over 2 centuries, but we think it’s time that you zipped up your jumpsuit and wander out to the Wasteland. There’s raiders, rad roaches, and these cute little things called Yao Guai (basically giant, […]

STING MOVIE REVIEW From cult filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood, Nekrotronic) comes Sting, the charming story of a girl and her beloved pet; A pet that happens to be a giant, man-eating spider from outer space. Charlotte (Alyla Browne) is a precocious 12 year old living in an old New York City apartment building with her […]

MONKEY MAN MOVIE REVIEW Dev Patel has his directorial debut and co-writes and leads the cast of this new bloody revenge action film. He plays Kid, a scrappy pit fighter with the identity of “Monkey Man” who wears an ape mask and regularly takes the fall for cash at the hands of the fighting emcee […]

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE MOVIE REVIEW This new film in the monsterverse continues the story from the last film where Godzilla was VS Kong instead of X Kong (which we’re still not sure what the x is specifically supposed to mean as they never multiply them by each other). To be clear, this […]

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL MOVIE REVIEW Ever since it premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, buzz has been growing for Late Night for the Devil, from Cameron and Colin Cairnes, and starring veteran character actor David Dastmalchian in a rare leading role. It’s 1977 and late night talk show Night Owls with Jack […]

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE MOVIE REVIEW The time for busting has resumed, only whether it’ll make you feel good certainly seems pretty polarizing this time around. Ok, really every time around when The Ghostbusters have another film, even, apparently in retrospect now, the original. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire follows the events of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife which brought […]

DUNE PART 2 MOVIE REVIEW It’s part two time for the latest adaptation of Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi novel Dune, and sadly, the theater that Chris, Wright, and Marco saw it at did not have the sandworm fleshlight popcorn buckets. But we were still all in for this even better second half of the tale. […]

FERRARI MOVIE REVIEW It’s been 8 years since his last film Blackhat and Michael Mann is finally back in the director’s chair with his newest film, Ferrari. The film follows ex-racer and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari, played here by an aged up Adam Driver, during a tumultuous summer in 1957 where he jungles his auto-empire and […]

AMERICAN FICTION MOVIE REVIEW Jeffrey Wright plays author and teacher Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a man with a rather pretentious name and the attitude to back it up. Frustrated that he has trouble getting his books noticed by anyone other than critics or even published at all, he jokingly writes a ‘black’ book. That is to […]

SILENT NIGHT MOVIE REVIEW It’s hard to believe but it’s been 20 years since Hong Kong action maestro John Woo directed a Hollywood film. While Woo retains his taste for melodrama, his latest bullet ballet trades in his usual operatic flair for a grittier, more grounded approach to violence. Shot in Mexico City on a […]