Welcome to Critical Darlings, where critics Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore cover the latest film driving the conversation—from big summer blockbusters to festival favorites, buzzy streamers, and major awards contenders. New episodes every Thursday. Produced by Benjamin Frisch Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠⁠Premiere Party,⁠⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠⁠at Vulture.⁠⁠ Follow @blankcheckpod on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beam me up…Rocky!? Critical Darlings is back, from outer space, in our new feed, talking about the first blockbuster of the year. Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller for Amazon, is a family-friendly science fiction film about Ryan Gosling on a risky space mission with a cute alien pal. The movie is a critical and commercial success and feels livelier than so many would-be blockbusters. But what is it about Hail Mary that works where last year’s Gosling-led The Fall Guy failed? Is this the return of the ’80s-era cute puppet friend movie? Is Gosling the hottest middle school teacher ever? Alison and Richard also get into the film itself, with sidebars on Gosling and Lord and Miller’s filmographies, and dig into Amazon’s upcoming film slate, James Bond, and whether the studio could become a significant player in a post-Paramount-merger landscape. Finally, we check in on the vibes around The Mandalorian and Grogu and Alison’s newest crush, Rotta the Hutt. Read and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at Premiere Party, and read Alison at Vulture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s Critical Darlings’ biggest morning! After a marathon season, we react to this year’s Academy Awards: the winners, losers, presenters, performances, and awkward play-offs. One Battle After Another and Sinners nearly split the ballot with One Battle and Paul Thomas Anderson taking the biggest prizes in Best Director and Best Picture, while Sinners took home Best Actor, Score, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography. But for as many questions as the ceremony answered, it raised more: Do Sinners and Amy Madigan’s wins signal a shift in how the Academy sees horror? What exactly is the Best Casting Oscar tracking? Are we now doomed to see Timmy eat a raw elk in an Iñárritu film? As part of this special episode, we also check in with Critical Darlings fashion correspondent Ben “The Other Ben” Hosley on this year's Oscars fashion, review the best popcorn buckets of the year with Vulture’s Rebecca Alter, and reveal the future of Critical Darlings.  Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work at ⁠Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What time is it? It’s time to study the revolutionary texts with David “Rocketman” Sims! On our last episode before The Oscars, we’re talking about One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic about parental legacy, revolutionary identity, and a dad trying to charge his Goddamn phone. But first we reflect on the influx of last-minute Oscar narratives, before getting into One Battle After Another’s plot and politics, sidebar on Leonardo DiCaprio’s legacy at the Oscars, and finally give our official Critical Darlings Oscar Predictions for Sunday’s ceremony. Read more about Richard’s predictions at ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ See you on the other side! Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work at ⁠Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re only slightly hung over from last night’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards! Griffin Newman joins the pod to discuss the event, where, among dry-run Oscar speeches from Amy Madigan, Rose Byrne, and Wagner Moura, we saw Ethan Hawke fall into a fountain beneath a towering Buddhist deity. Then we turn to the precursor circuit, where Marty Supreme’s momentum has cemented Timothée Chalamet as a frontrunner for Best Actor. We get into how he’s played the campaign circuit so far, and why Timmy and Marty are well positioned for the Oscars, despite not resembling the usual Oscar fare. Finally, we dive into Marty Supreme spoilers, before closing out with both an award and an in memoriam for the week. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠at Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Critical Darlings, a new podcast miniseries from Blank Check: A conversation about the awards season conversation, one contender at a time.  On Critical Darlings, critics and Blank Check alumni Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore guide you through the state of the Oscars race, from the precursors, to the campaigns, to the nominees themselves. To get things started, we begin with a discussion of the festival circuit and the curious state of this year's race; where many promising films have floundered upon their public release. Sidebars include the host's Oscar history, watching festival features on no sleep, Brazilian film Twitter, The Oscars on Youtube, Leonardo DiCaprio at Cannes, and Allison's shocking Il Postino experiment.  Critical Darlings is crashing the Blank Check feed every Thursday through the end of Oscar season. Starting next week we'll have video clips to share produced by our friends at Vulture, stay tuned.   Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠at Vulture. Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re joined by Sam Sanders of The Sam Sanders Show to discuss Sinners, the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. With sixteen nominations across directing, writing, music, and acting categories, Sinners is a somewhat surprising record breaker, as genre films, especially films with horror elements, are rarely awarded by The Academy.  On this episode we discuss the film, why it was able to break through, if Sinners counts as a genre film; and if so, what genre it represents. We also get into what effect the Warner Bros. Paramount merger might have on the Oscars, the film’s blunt sexuality, Michael B. Jordan’s double act, and what to make of the film's coda. Finally, Sam makes an impassioned case for Sung Song Blue and Kate Hudson’s nominated performance.  Check out Sam’s interviews with Kate Hudson, as well as some of the cast and crew of Sinners on ⁠The Sam Sanders Show. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work at ⁠Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re in hygge mode, uncovering traumas in our generational home with the host of This Had Oscar Buzz, Joe Reid! One of the breakout Oscar films of the year is Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, a warm, realist Norwegian film about a difficult but brilliant director (Stellan Skarsgard), his two daughters (Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), and an American actress cast in the auteur’s new film (Elle Fanning). All four performances earned Oscar nominations, along with nominations for Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Screenplay. Sentimental Value also highlights a recurring phenomenon in Hollywood, wherein the Academy will pass over a director’s breakout film but shower the follow-up with nominations. In Trier’s case, his previous film The Worst Person in the World received nominations for Best International Film and Original Screenplay but, in our opinion, deserved many more. We try to break down how and why this happens, whether films about filmmaking have an innate appeal to Oscar voters, how Fanning’s star power helps bridge the international gap for voters, and the film itself, including its deft intermingling of artistic expression and sublimated generational trauma.  With Joe's guidance, we also check in on some of the Oscar-buzziest films of the year that didn't pan out, check in on the state of the acting category race and some potential upsets, and celebrate The Secret Agent's breakout star Tânia Maria and her new role as Burger King spokeswoman. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠at Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re brooding, Victorian style, with Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri! Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a Best Picture nominee and is well represented in the craft categories, but it has only one acting nomination, for Jacob Elordi’s hulking monster. It’s of a piece with past craft-heavy Oscar contenders like Dune or The Lord of the Rings, but does Frankenstein actually stand a chance? We discuss the film itself, its lavish sets and costumes, del Toro’s choice to center the monster as the hero, and how that decision reshapes the monster’s opposite, Victor, played by Oscar Isaac. We also touch on the new Wuthering Heights, also starring Jacob Elordi, the history of Wuthering Heights adaptations, the shameless state of celebrity Super Bowl ads, and finally atone for our past sins, as Bilge defends previous subjects Train Dreams and Hamnet against our critiques. As it turns out, we were the monster all along. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠at Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Viva Brazil! Today we discuss Best Picture nominee The Secret Agent, the simmering, colorful Brazilian thriller about a man on the run, starring the dreamy Wagner Moura and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho. The story, about retaining personal and political memory under authoritarianism, has proven resonant with an international audience and awards bodies, garnering three additional Oscar nominations for Best International Feature, Best Casting, and Best Actor for Moura. On this episode, we discuss The Secret Agent itself, how it fits into and subverts the tropes of international films at the Oscars, the Eurovision-like process for international nominations, check in on the Berlin Film Festival, and do a very special Il Postino corner. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work at ⁠Vulture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Honey, we’re buzzing about Bugonia with Marie Bardi-Salinas! The movie surprised us with its appeal to Oscar voters, but maybe it shouldn’t have: Director Yorgos Lanthimos and star, frequent collaborator Emma Stone, have proven themselves Oscar favorites with strong showings from their past films, especially The Favourite and Poor Things.  We discuss the film, but first, a Sundance report from Richard before digging into Lanthimos and Stone’s history with the Oscars, and why this somewhat prickly, political movie succeeded with the Academy despite a relatively weak showing upon release. Then we discuss the movie itself, get into spoilers, the future of the Stone-Lanthimos collaboration, and finally discover whether or not Richard is an Andromedan. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work at ⁠Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s show, Richard and Alison hop on a boxcar and stare wistfully as the 20th century passes them by with Best Picture nominee Train Dreams. They discuss director Clint Bentley’s lush, if somewhat sanded-down take on Denis Johnson’s novella about a lumberman haunted by his past, starring a very quiet Joel Edgerton. Train Dreams is one of Netflix’s Best Picture nominees this year, but the film was not an original production. It was acquired by the streamer at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. On the occasion of this year’s festival (which is happening as we speak) we also discuss how Sundance works, and what, exactly gives a movie that ineffable Sundance flavor we have come to associate with small-scale American indies like Little Miss Sunshine.  We also discuss Netflix’s seemingly endless quest to win Best Picture, why the Academy is so resistant to giving them the big prize, and why the most popular streamer in the world is so desperate for Academy validation in the first place. Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠⁠Premiere Party,⁠⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠⁠at Vulture.  ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s Hollywood’s biggest morning! Join Richard and Alison (plus a vacationing Producer Benjamin Frisch) as they pick apart the biggest snubs and surprises of the year: Sinners breaking the all-time nominations record! The Secret Agent surging out of Neon’s international power lineup! The complete collapse of would-be frontrunner Wicked: For Good! Plus we take a conversation detour with Apple’s F1, the surprise blockbuster pulling up the rear amongst the Best Picture lineup finds alongside Train Dreams, Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, Bugonia, Sentimental Value, Hamnet, and One Battle After Another in the Best Picture category despite being a popcorn racecar movie about Brad Pitt going fast vroom vroom.  Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work at ⁠Vulture. ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re joined by David Sims as we orbit the Golden Globes and their Best Drama winner, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. In the vibes-based reality of awards season predictions, Hamnet has emerged as a potential spoiler to the season’s other favorites, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. But what, exactly, makes something an Oscar villain? We also get into the film itself, the historical Shakespeare, why people are weird about Chloé Zhao, and our predictions for next week's Oscar nominations.  Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠at Vulture.⁠ ⁠Follow Critical Darlings on Instagram⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re eating the rich with two new horror films that share devilishly similar premises: Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come and They Will Kill You both feature women fighting back against satanic cults run by rich elites in order to protect an estranged younger sister, written with wry humor aimed at the ultra-wealthy. Neither film did particularly well critically or at the box office, but they raise a fascinating question for Critical Darlings: Has the Trump-era social satire horror film finally run out of steam? In this episode, Richard and Alison trace this specific strain of metaphor-driven social horror, deconstruct it, and try to distinguish it from socially aware classics like Rosemary’s Baby. From racial allegories like Get Out, the trauma-informed The Babadook, class satires like The Menu, and alternate-reality anthology TV like Black Mirror, we ask why the recent crop of these types of movies are starting to feel so creaky, while less directly metaphorical films like Weapons feel more fresh. Next week, we’re trading our cult robes for overalls as we hop on a Launch Star and blast off with our best friends Mario, Luigi, and of course Birdo, to orbit The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.' Read and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison at ⁠Vulture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re confessing the worst thing we’ve ever done with Zendaya and Batman himself with The Drama. The twist premise of A24’s newest hit throws a grenade into the idyllic romance of a beautiful couple in Boston in the days before their wedding. The movie hinges on the question of whether we can really know the people we love, but the premise, the worst thing Zendaya’s character has ever done, is what audiences are talking about. Is it a purposeful provocation or an empty one? We discuss the movie’s masterful marketing campaign and how it harnesses its premise as an extension of A24’s edgy branding. Beyond the marketing, much of the movie’s success must also be credited to Zendaya’s stardom. We go deep on her career and her big 2026 lineup before digging into director Kristoffer Borgli’s work as a provocateur, and ponder the current state of provocation in Hollywood today, before giving our recommendations for the week. Next week, we’re off to the English countryside, discussing Mother Mary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, it's The Mario Galaxy Movie! The second film in the Nintendo/Illumination franchise is already a global hit despite less than stellar reviews. It is nevertheless a fascinating film: an amalgam of stunning animation and music, full of hyperactive action, with little interest in the typical conventions of narrative storytelling, and like, plot. On this episode Alison and Richard, along with producer Benjamin Frisch, discuss the film, its beauty and weirdness, offer a sidebar on Shigeru Miyamoto as-artist, and delve into the history of video game adaptations. We discuss producer Ben’s longstanding trauma related to the 1993 Super Mario Bros. adaptation, and the evolution of video game films from the schlocky but individual adaptations of the past to the more controlled franchise model of today. Finally, we expose Dr. Mario for his quackery, scold the Mario babies, and recommend some further viewing and listening. Next week, we will be revealing the worst things we’ve ever done, over dinner, with The Drama. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re holding a seance in a Dress Barn™ with Mother Mary! Directed by David Lowery and starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole, this two-hander sees a pop singer and her former designer revisiting the rift that severed their early creative partnership, with spooky results. The film goes wide on April 24th, so with extra spoiler guard rails, we’ll discuss the film, its heightened language, and the unusually depicted supernatural elements. We’ll also discuss Lowery’s filmography, contemporary Hathaway, and Michaela Cole’s trajectory. Finally, we’ll discuss fictional pop singers on screen. From Vox Lux to Spice World, A Star is Born, and Kpop Demon Hunters, why are they so tricky to depict? Next week, we will be discussing a film about a literal angel named Michael. Not the Nora Ephron film, unfortunately. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Description: “…You think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the podcast industry when, in fact, you're listening to a podcast that was selected for you by the people in the room…and Who? Weekly!” This week on the show, we’re joined by the hosts of ⁠Who? Weekly⁠, Lindsey Webber and Bobby Finger, to discuss The Devil Wears Prada 2, starring a list of all-star Thems: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci. 20 years on, much has changed in the worlds of Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs; amidst the cratering value of traditional media, Miranda and Andy reconnect to save Runway Magazine from bad billionaires. Despite its depressing subject matter, the movie is still breezy, funny, and surprisingly well observed. As veterans in the NYC media wars, we get into our histories with the original, recount our encounters with billionaire magazine owners, do a Meryl performance review, discuss the film’s elegy for tastemakers like Anna Wintour, and why we all still want (and need) publications like Vogue and Runway. Next week we’re talking about sheep and cozy mysteries with The Sheep Detectives! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael is many things: a box-office triumph, a savvy piece of IP management, and a Frankenstein stitched together from a movie we’ll never get to see. Today on the show, we’re joined by two journalists who have reported on Michael Jackson for the Think Twice: Michael Jackson podcast: our own producer Benjamin Frisch, and Danielle Hewitt, to try and make sense of a deeply flawed film that also features some of the best pop music of all time.   We get into the drawn-out trajectory of the movie, its legal woes and reshoots, the casting of Michael’s nephew Jaafar in the lead role, and the film’s rose-colored view of its main subject. We also dip into Jackson family history to think about how a more effective Jackson biopic might work, and get into the story of Michael’s career and the legacy of the now-impossible-to-stream Leaving Neverland. Next week, we’re off to fashion week with The Devil Wears Prada 2, with Who Weekly!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coucou les cheris! As Cannes is underway on the Riviera, we take a break from our usual movie-of-the-week format to look back at the year so far, and look forward to this summer. We count down our top 5 favorite movies of the year (that haven’t been covered on the show), including big studio movies and European arthouse fare. We’ll also take a temperature check on the summer blockbuster slate, from The Mandalorian & Grogu, Disclosure Day, Spider-Man, The Odyssey, and more. Finally, we’ll hear a transmission from Alison and Richard, live from Cannes, to discuss the festival so far. Your wish has been granted! Next week, we’re talking about Obsession, from director Curry Barker and Blumhouse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wake up sheeple, it’s The Sheep Detectives! This week we’re joined by our very own executive sheepherder Griffin Newman to discuss the new cozy mystery for families. After the mysterious death of their shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman, his band of sheep team up to solve the mystery in a picturesque British countryside. Surprisingly, it’s very good! Knitting together themes of memory and grief, tied up in a wooly bow. We discuss the plot and characters, our histories with upsetting kid’s movies, the exceptional voice performance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more. We get into Amazon and MGM’s current play for the box office, fall down a He-Man rabbit hole, and also talk about some other cozy mysteries. Next week, we look back at the year so far, and look forward with a Summer movie preview.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the power of Grayskull, we have cartoonist and co-host of the No Gods No Mayors podcast, Mattie Lubchansky, in studio to discuss Masters of the Universe!  The movie is a test for Mattel, who are going all-in on IP management in the post-Barbie era but Masters has underperformed at the box office and with critics. Has the He-Man IP run out of gas? Did it ever have gas? What would a coherent He-Man movie even look like? Where’s Orko?  On this episode, we try and figure it out. We discuss the movie’s patchwork approach to plot and character, its history in development hell, its mostly-winning cast including Nicholas Galitzine, Jared Leto, and do a sidebar on Idris Elba’s history on the big screen. Finally, we wonder if this movie signals an approaching end to the toyetic IP boom of the last couple of decades, or if this is just a blip, with movies like Spider-Man and Doomsday on the horizon.  Next week, we’ll be staring at the camera wistfully, eyes aglow with childlike wonder, to discuss Disclosure Day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re joined by the very liminal Ryan Broderick, proprietor of the great Garbage Day newsletter and host of the podcast Panic World, to discuss A24’s hit, Backrooms!  Based on a 4-Chan thread, creepypasta, and web series, the movie has captured young filmgoers and its young director, Kane Parsons, has captured Hollywood’s attention.  Compared to last week’s subject, Obsession, Backrooms is a much more ambitious blend of effects-driven horror: juggling mid-life ennui, childhood trauma, and corporate conspiracy against an endless fluorescent yellow backdrop. It turns out, men would rather go to the backrooms than engage with therapy.  We discuss what works about Backrooms, what doesn’t, and continue our conversation about YouTube directors making the jump to Hollywood. Finally, we discuss the feel-good story of so many new films finding footing in the industry, and what might be next for Parsons and other YouTube crossovers.  Next week, we’re getting shirtless and toyetic, with The Masters of the Universe!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, it’s springtime for sad boys, with “Obsession!” a horror flick from Blumhouse and director Curry Barker. The movie has exceeded all expectations and is currently doing better than its opening weekend, largely thanks to great word-of-mouth. The movie tells a monkey’s paw story about a one-sided, obsessive relationship that’s taken to horrific, supernatural heights. It’s both fun and genuinely upsetting, thanks to two excellent lead performances and confident direction that makes the most of a very low budget. We also explore the history of YouTubers who’ve made it big in Hollywood (where Barker started his career) and why directors seem to transition into Hollywood more easily than other youtube talent. Plus, we give a quick rundown of Alison and Richard’s Cannes experiences to give you a sneak peek of what we’ll be discussing later this year. And we have a special guest appearance from Critical Darling’s straight boy correspondent, Griffin Newman, who’ll share his thoughts on the movie in a Straight Boy Corner segment.  Next week, we’re all yellow, and exploring The Backrooms with a special guest, see you then.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices