Ticket Stubs – Details, episodes & analysis

The Oscars may have come and gone, the speeches have been made, and the dust has (mostly) settled—but here at Ticket Stubs, we’re not quite finished with 2025 just yet. A little late, perhaps, but right on time where it counts, we’re officially closing the book on the cinematic year that was with our 3rd Annual Harry Dean Awards—the true final word on awards season. Join us as we take one last affectionate look back at the highs, lows, and, above all else, the most memorable moments in film from the past year. From defining performances and standout directorial efforts to our favorite oddball distinctions, returning legends, and everything in between, we sort through a wide array of categories both heartfelt and slightly irreverent. As always, it all builds toward our ultimate honors: Filmmaker of the Year and Film of the Year. Awards season may have crowned its winners—but now it’s our turn to have the final say. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you listen! Got thoughts or questions? Email us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com

Belated but better late than never: Ticket Stubs officially kicks off 2026 with a double feature of icy, unnerving thrillers. This time around, we pair Otto Preminger’s paranoid vanishing act Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) with David Fincher’s bleak, meticulous adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Across decades and continents, both films ask the same quietly terrifying question: what happens when no one believes you? Join us as we unravel questions of identity, credibility, obsession, and the cold machinery of institutions that would rather look away than look closer. Before the mystery deepens, our Blue Plate Special returns with the usual cinematic smorgasbord. We share thoughts on new releases Send Help and Crime 101, take time to remember the lives and careers of Catherine O’Hara and Bud Cort, and hear Levi’s early-stage reflections on diving into David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. We also offer what are almost certainly already-outdated predictions for Super Bowl 60—because what’s a new year without at least one confidently incorrect take? Whether you’re here for missing children, hackers with dragons tattooed on their backs, or just the comfortable chaos of our opening chatter, we’re glad to be starting 2026 with you. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you listen! Got thoughts or questions? Email us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com.

Join us on a journey through the synthetic dreamscape of artificial intelligence, where we delve into how robots not just mimic life but seek to understand the human heart with our double feature: Bicentennial Man and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Before exploring these narratives of manufactured souls and their quests for earned humanity, we’re munching on a jar of digital cookies with our Blue Plate Special, chatting about Joaquin Phoenix's surprising departure from what sounded like a promising Todd Haynes project, reviewing new releases Trap and Cuckoo, and dissecting the trailer for the upcoming fall release Saturday Night. After logging out of these side discussions, we finally access the core of our episode, diving into Chris Columbus's messy yet heartwarming narrative alongside Spielberg's ethereal realization of a science fiction epic originally drafted by the late great Stanley Kubrick. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Order up! Our seventeenth episode finds us sorting through the wreckage of love, loss, and abandoned potential with Five Easy Pieces, one of New Hollywood's crown jewels. Join us as we dissect the mighty contributions of cinematic supernova Jack Nicholson, the qualified brilliance of director Bob Rafelson, and the iconic diner scene cemented into the memories of all who've seen the movie and the many more who likely haven't. Feel free to skip to 1:35:08 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK7TiA9qmuU https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a26454547/bob-rafelson-interview/

For our not-so-sweet sixteenth episode, the decision was made that a trip to Candyland was in order. Unfortunately, we saw less Lord Licorice than we did loquacious slave owners in Django Unchained, the much heralded revisionist western from cinematic provocateur Quentin Tarantino. Listen in as we discuss our least favorite film from a director whose work we otherwise love and the problems inherent in white artists attempting to tell black stories without the slightest bit of grace. Feel free to skip to 1:48:00 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IbC1Ve5kBM

Inspired in part by a precocious youth of the early 1970s who quite possibly may have been avian-themed serial killer, we take our own bold leap of faith in discussing Brewster McCloud, New Hollywood icon Robert Altman's 1970 follow-up to M*A*S*H! We do our best to string together some thoughts on one of the era's most fruitful auteurs while exploring the particulars of what made the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s among America's most maddening socio-cultural moments. Feel free to skip to 1:29:27 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. http://mrpeelsardineliqueur.blogspot.com/2018/08/another-dream-would-be-lost.html

After last week's traverse through Sin City, we thought we'd put up our feet and stay awhile before the check bounces with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam's 1998 adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's groundbreaking gonzo classic! We take our spin at the proverbial roulette wheel by diving into the complicated nature of adapting Thompson's signature prose, assessing where this fits in the pantheon of one J̶o̶h̶n̶n̶y̶ ̶D̶e̶p̶p̶ Jonathan Debt, what made Gilliam an uncanny choice to finally realize a project which had long resided in developmental Hell, and marvel at the glorious paunch of the just as glorious Benicio del Toro. Feel free to skip to 1:29:10 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-trouble-with-johnny-depp-666010/

We shut up and put our money where our mouth is: that's what we get for waking up in Vegas with Casino, Martin Scorsese's 1995 crime epic! Join the party as we delight in Marty's supersized take on Sin City, ponder where it fits into his legendary gangster canon, lovingly mock Joe Pesci's attempt at a Chicago accent, and take a stab at guessing what song on this episode's gonna get flagged by the fascists at YouTube. Let the chips fall where they may.

 

Feel free to skip to 1:22:40 for the beginning of our audio commentary. 

 

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

 

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/11/19/21574457/casino-25th-anniversary-retrospective

We follow up last week's discussion of the beloved billiards classic The Hustler with its sequel, 1986's The Color of Money! Listen as we walk through our very first Martin Scorsese picture while admiring the aged wine that is Paul Newman, the burgeoning superstardom of Tom Cruise, the delights and dangers of life spent in smoke filled pool halls, and an appreciation of the reality that *all* roads eventually lead to Atlantic City. Feel free to skip to 55:59 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

We ride the cheese and settle all outstanding debts with our discussion of 1961's The Hustler! Listen as we gush over the inimitable Paul Newman, love to hate the steady villainy of George C. Scott, suppress our tears over Piper Laurie, deeply consider Murray Hamilton's Kentucky accent, and generally appreciate the very presence of Jackie Gleason. Actors: now more than ever! Feel free to skip to 49:54 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.