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Critical Darlings: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Blank Check Productions
Welcome to Critical Darlings: a podcast about the movies everyone is talking about, one new release after another. Every week, 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.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 1 weeks ago1h 36m
"You Can See Everything" Bares It All (With Jia Tolentino)
Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival! In our first live podcast recording, we’re doing an awards season kickoff at 2pm on Tuesday October 29th at The Gutstein Gallery in Savannah Georgia. We’ll be talking about the year’s awards narratives, the big races, and more. For more information and tickets, visit: https://filmfest.scad.edu/schedule/critical-darlings-awards-season-kickoff-live This week we’re joined by the brilliant Jia Tolentino to build monuments to our love…for this movie! It’s You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s meta-doc about Elizabeth Holmes, her family, and her reality. It's a mesmerizing journey into the world of Holmes and her partner, the Billy Evans, in the month before Holmes imprisonment for fraud as CEO of Theranos. In classic Fielder style, the movie takes a turn, and becomes something else entirely, but is no less interesting. Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 33m
"You Can See Everything" Bares It All (With Jia Tolentino)
Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival!In our first live podcast recording, we’re doing an awards season kickoff at 2pm on Tuesday October 29th at The Gutstein Gallery in Savannah Georgia.We’ll be talking about the year’s awards narratives, the big races, and more. For more information and tickets, visit: https://filmfest.scad.edu/schedule/critical-darlings-awards-season-kickoff-liveThis week we’re joined by the brilliant Jia Tolentino to build monuments to our love…for this movie! It’s You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s meta-doc about Elizabeth Holmes, her family, and her reality. It's a mesmerizing journey into the world of Holmes and her partner, the Billy Evans, in the month before Holmes imprisonment for fraud as CEO of Theranos. In classic Fielder style, the movie takes a turn, and becomes something else entirely, but is no less interesting. Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago1h 23m
“The Social Reckoning” Misses The Mark (With George Civeris)
Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival!In our first live podcast recording, we’re doing an awards season kickoff at 2pm on Tuesday October 29th at The Gutstein Gallery in Savannah Georgia. We’ll be talking about the year’s awards narratives, the big races, and more. For more information and tickets, visit: https://filmfest.scad.edu/schedule/critical-darlings-awards-season-kickoff-liveThe Social Reckoning is Aaron Sorkin's semi-sequel to the Oscar-winning The Social Network. It updates the story of Silicon Valley boy-king Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook to the near-present. Despite a more tech-skeptical public, critics and audiences seem to have rejected the film. Thankfully, we have an expert to help unpack it: former Facebook employee George Civeris of Straightiolab! Despite much of the press and promotional focus around the movie, Zuckerberg, now embodied by Jeremy Strong, ends up playing a supporting role to Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White's characters, Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, and Jeff Horwitz a journalist trying to expose Facebook's growth-at-any-cost mindset. We get into the inevitable comparisons to The Social Network, the lead performances (plus Betty Gilpin), and the mythology of Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed in both films. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago1h 26m
“The Social Reckoning” Misses The Mark (With George Civeris)
Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival! In our first live podcast recording, we’re doing an awards season kickoff at 2pm on Tuesday October 29th at The Gutstein Gallery in Savannah Georgia. We’ll be talking about the year’s awards narratives, the big races, and more. For more information and tickets, visit: https://filmfest.scad.edu/schedule/critical-darlings-awards-season-kickoff-live The Social Reckoning is Aaron Sorkin's semi-sequel to the Oscar-winning The Social Network. It updates the story of Silicon Valley boy-king Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook to the near-present. Despite a more tech-skeptical public, critics and audiences seem to have rejected the film. Thankfully, we have an expert to help unpack it: former Facebook employee George Civeris of Straightiolab! Despite much of the press and promotional focus around the movie, Zuckerberg, now embodied by Jeremy Strong, ends up playing a supporting role to Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White's characters, Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, and Jeff Horwitz a journalist trying to expose Facebook's growth-at-any-cost mindset. We get into the inevitable comparisons to The Social Network, the lead performances (plus Betty Gilpin), and the mythology of Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed in both films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 26m
"Digger" ??? (With Dana Stevens)
🚨🚨🚨 Big News! 🚨🚨🚨 Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival! In our first live podcast recording, we’re doing an awards season kickoff at 2pm on Tuesday October 29th at The Gutstein Gallery in Savannah Georgia. We’ll be talking about the year’s awards narratives, the big races, and more. For more information and tickets, visit: https://filmfest.scad.edu/schedule/critical-darlings-awards-season-kickoff-live ————— Digger may be exhausting to watch, but it sure is fun to talk about! This week, we’re joined by Dana Stevens, Slate critic and author of Camera Man, to discuss Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s big-budget, big-swing meta-satire about climate, gerontocracy, art, and who knows what else. It may have flopped at the box office, but we’re (sort of) split on what to make of the movie and its knotty, sometimes gorgeous, sometimes clumsy presentation. Next week, we’re reckoning with The Social Reckoning. Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 23m
"Digger" ??? (With Dana Stevens)
🚨🚨🚨 Big News! 🚨🚨🚨Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival!In our first live podcast recording, we’re doing an awards season kickoff at 2pm on Tuesday October 29th at The Gutstein Gallery in Savannah Georgia. We’ll be talking about the year’s awards narratives, the big races, and more. For more information and tickets, visit: https://filmfest.scad.edu/schedule/critical-darlings-awards-season-kickoff-live—————Digger may be exhausting to watch, but it sure is fun to talk about! This week, we’re joined by Dana Stevens, Slate critic and author of Camera Man, to discuss Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s big-budget, big-swing meta-satire about climate, gerontocracy, art, and who knows what else. It may have flopped at the box office, but we’re (sort of) split on what to make of the movie and its knotty, sometimes gorgeous, sometimes clumsy presentation. Next week, we’re reckoning with The Social Reckoning. Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Oct 1, 20261h 20m
“Primetime” Takes A Seat (With Jessica Kiang)
Heads up to listeners, this episode includes sensitive discussions of abuse due to the nature of the film. It's Primetime! The new Robert Pattinson vehicle is a neon-lit, morally murky movie about ratings and perversions of justice that serves as an astonishing acting showcase for Pattinson and costars Merritt Weaver and Skyler Gisondo . It's also a hit, and yet another feather in Pattinson's cap, after The Drama succeeded earlier this year, and with Dune III on the horizon. We're joined by the incredibly well-traveled Jessica Kiang of Variety and The Berlin Film Festival to discuss. We discuss the film, its unintended documentary companion piece Predators, the phenomenon of To Catch A Predator, and how all of that is filtered through this very slick film, the first narrative feature from director Lance Oppenheim. Next week, we'll be having a very measured discussion of the normal-looking film "Digger". Email us: CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Oct 1, 20261h 20m
“Primetime” Takes A Seat (With Jessica Kiang)
Heads up to listeners, this episode includes sensitive discussions of abuse due to the nature of the film. It's Primetime! The new Robert Pattinson vehicle is a neon-lit, morally murky movie about ratings and perversions of justice that serves as an astonishing acting showcase for Pattinson and costars Merritt Weaver and Skyler Gisondo . It's also a hit, and yet another feather in Pattinson's cap, after The Drama succeeded earlier this year, and with Dune III on the horizon. We're joined by the incredibly well-traveled Jessica Kiang of Variety and The Berlin Film Festival to discuss. We discuss the film, its unintended documentary companion piece Predators, the phenomenon of To Catch A Predator, and how all of that is filtered through this very slick film, the first narrative feature from director Lance Oppenheim. Next week, we'll be having a very measured discussion of the normal-looking film "Digger". Email us: CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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About Critical Darlings
Welcome to Critical Darlings: a podcast about the movies everyone is talking about, one new release after another. Every week, 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.
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Critical Darlings publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
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Critical Darlings covers topics including Culture, Film, Society & Culture, TV & Film, Film Reviews. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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