Ticket Stubs

Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, Ticket Stubs heads to the front lines with a towering double feature of modern war epics: Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998). Though released within months of one another, the two films approach warfare from radically different angles: one through visceral spectacle and brotherhood under fire, the other through meditative existential reflection and the fragile relationship between man and nature. Join us as we examine how these companion pieces helped redefine the modern war film while wrestling with memory, sacrifice, violence, and the impossibility of making sense of the defining conflict of the 20th century.

Before storming the beaches and wandering the tall grass, our Blue Plate Special returns with a fresh batch of cinematic chatter. This time around, we share thoughts on a slate of recent releases, including Maggie Gyllenhaal’s long-awaited The Bride!, Lee Cronin’s new take on The Mummy, the mysterious romantic drama The Drama, the music-fueled fever dream Mother Mary, and the psychological horror thriller Obsession.

Whether you’re spending Memorial Day revisiting war movie classics or simply looking for a thoughtful cinematic pairing to kick off the summer season, we’re glad to have you with us.

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected].

As the year winds down and the calendar flips over, we’re ringing in the New Year with a special bonus episode dedicated to one of our favorite—and most elusive—writers: Thomas Pynchon. In this New Year’s Eve edition of Ticket Stubs, we gather to talk about what Pynchon’s work has meant to us over the years, why his voice remains so singular in modern literature, and how his obsessions with paranoia, the past, and slapstick continue to resonate.

From there, we dive into One Battle After Another, the recent adaptation of Vineland from director Paul Thomas Anderson, another favorite of ours. Then, we share our thoughts on Pynchon’s long-awaited new novel, Shadow Ticket, before closing things out by putting our cards on the table with our own personal rankings of his novels.

Whether you’re a longtime Pynchon devotee, a curious newcomer, or just looking to close out the year with a little chaos and conspiratorial joy, we hope you’ll spend what's left of 2025, or perhaps even the earliest part of 2026...or actually anytime in the foreseeable (or not?) future...with us. Any and all digressions are welcome when it comes to discussing this artist and his work. And believe me, we take digressions aplenty!

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 [email protected].

It’s that time of year again—when we gather by the fire, sip something warm, and queue up… movies that *technically* take place at Christmas. This week, we’re unwrapping two not-quite-but-definitely-set-during-the-holidays classics: Stanley Kubrick’s eerie yuletide odyssey Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Steven Spielberg’s breezy cat-and-mouse charmer Catch Me If You Can (2002). While neither film is exactly “festive,” both use the holiday season to cast their stories in a glow equal parts melancholic and mischievous.

Before diving into our gift-wrap-adjacent double feature, our Blue Plate Special is packed with plenty of cinematic goodies waiting under the tree. We break down the eyebrow-raising possibility of Warner Bros. being sold to either Netflix or Paramount/Skydance—and what such a shake-up could mean for the future of the film industry. We also share our thoughts on several recent releases we’ve caught (Sentimental Value, The History of Sound, Jay Kelly, and Pavements), react to Quentin Tarantino’s recent comments about Paul Dano and 21st-century cinema, relive our theatrical experience seeing Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, and pay tribute to the recent losses of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Jim Ward, Jeff Garcia, Peter Greene, and the legendary Rob Reiner.

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 [email protected].