Tag Archives: REVIEWS

UNLOCKED: Frotcast 447 – An American Pickle In Israel, With Alison Stevenson



[Now Unlocked] This week on the Frotcast, long-time friend of the Frotcast Alison Stevenson (twitter.com/JustaboutGlad) joins Matt and Vince in the virtual Frotquarters to discuss: Shia Labeouf’s new “Creeper” tattoo and his new movie, The Tax Collector. As well as, “brownface,” the character evolution of ex-Disney stars in general, and BOMBSHELL: Matt reveals that he briefly went to high school with Shia Labeouf. We discuss Alison’s love life and what it’s like to try to Tinder in a time of quarantine. Can you still smash, bro? After that we discuss Seth Rogen’s new movie, An American Pickle, about an unfrozen Jewish pickle man. Also: Seth Rogen’s new views on Zionism, Israel and what Jews are taught about it in general, and BOMBSHELL: Alison reveals that her mother is Israeli. In any case, a very fun Frot was had and we hope that all the piggies love it as much as we love our piggies.


Teaser – Frotcast 449: Russell Crowe Is Unhinged



I’s that time of the week again. The time when you can subscribe to our Patreon over at Patreon.com/Frotcast to hear our latest Frot.

In this installment, Matt and I discuss Unhinged, starring Russell Crowe as a road-raging psychopath who kiiinda seems like a more actually-homicidal version of Alex Jones. Before we get into that, we talk about the best names for next year’s Name Of The Year Draft that we came across this week, as well as the latest news in the movie world, like Olivia Wilde getting tapped to direct a Marvel movie and Guillermo Del Toro doing a stop-motion Pinocchio musical for Netflix. As the internet’s foremost source of factual movie news and not bad Irish accents or improvised songs about eating butt, you will probably love it. And we love you! Provided you go to Patreon and sign up. No refunds.


Frotcast 442: Eurovision And The Existence Of Fish (Unlocked)



Over on the Patreon feed, we’ve got a brand new episode about Shia Labeouf’s new cholo tattoos and Seth Rogen’s evolving views on Zionism. But since we love all our piggies nearly equally, we’re putting this episode with a classic Tales From NPR and our discussion of Eurovision Song Contest on the free feed. We love you! Please keep listening so we don’t starve. Can you believe we’ve been doing this TEN YEARS? Hot damn.


Frotcast 445: Caddyshack 40, Hillary 4 Hour, With Joey Avery



Caddyshack turns 40 this week, and since I had to watch it to write about, I made Matt watch it and talk about it with me and then we invited Joey Avery to discuss it with us. Caddyshack was slightly before our times but we still kind of like it, and I was curious what someone slightly younger, like Joey would think. Like was this just the era that was the first time Boomers got to drink and do drugs on film, or is it actually good beyond that in a way that holds up? So we’ve got that discussion, plus a run down of the latest in movie news, like Hulu getting into the Hillary Clinton fan fiction business and the Vanilla Ice biopic. We hope you love it, and as always, no refunds.

Over on Patreon.com/frotcast, I will be putting my bonus interview with Caddyshack book author Chris Nashawaty, and that will have all kinds of Caddyshack facts and stories and whatnot. Frot on and eat the beans.


TEASER: Frotcast 442, A Terrible Tales From NPR, Plus Eurovision Review, Now Available on Patreon



Howdy! This episode is just a tease, like your sister, but the full episode is available to our Patreon subscribers at Patreon.com/Frotcast. It would be so sick if you became one. So sick, dude. Seriously.

[Full Episode Description]

Hello faithful Frotcast listeners! It’s time for your weekly refill of content slop and I can’t wait for you to dig in. This week, your slop chefs Vince and Matt have served up hot steaming pile of conversations about the brand new Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga starring Will Ferrel and Rachel McAdams. I don’t wanna spoil the conversation for you but Matt and Vince very much enjoyed the movie and now are hoping to someday move to Iceland and start a new life together. But that’s just a dream.

Anyway, they also talk about reports that Christopher Nolan doesn’t let people sit, Mel Gibson said some bonus anti-semitic shit, tales from NPR and so much more. So dip your fat fucking snouts in that and try not to drown in that shit. Compliments to the chefs.


Frotcast 443: The Thing About Hamilton, With Francesca Fiorentini And Andrew Law



The time has finally come for the Frotcast to discuss Hamilton, a play Matt has seen and loved and thus far failed to convince me (Vince) to watch. UNTIL NOW! Is Hamilton the defining theatrical achievement of our times or some cheesy overhyped schoolhouse rock bullshit?

To join us in this discussion, we have Francesca Fiorentini, host of the Bitchuation Room, founder of Newsbroke on AJ+, and frequent guest on The Young Turks, who once, along with Matt forced me to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack on our way to the Russian River in the back of Matt’s Honda Civic; and Andrew Law, aka IllyBocean on Twitter and cohost of the BoontaVista Podcast, who, like me, was a skeptical Hamilton virgin, BUT has the added hurdle of being an Australian who wasn’t forcefed the Founding Fathers and Constitutional Convention in school.

It’s a spirited discussion, and naturally, Matt turns it into many analingus puns for his Hamilton parody about eating butt, Lumilton.

Sample discussion of geopolitics:

MATT: Wait, Australia has a queen?

ANDREW: The Queen of England, baby. We’re still subjects of the commonwealth.

MATT: Wow, that’s weird!

Hey, we’ve got lots of amazing bonus content, especially these past few weeks, including me and Matt reviewing The King Of Staten Island. Hear them right now by signing up to our Patreon, Patreon.com/Frotcast.


TEASER: Frotcast 441, Laremy Is Ir-RESIST-ible



THE FULL VERSION OF THIS FROTCAST IS AVAILABLE FOR OUR PATRONS. BECOME ONE AT PATREON.COM/FROTCAST, AND ENJOY ALL OF OUR BONUS #CONTENT.

This week on the Frotcast, ex-film critic, author of ‘Film Critic,’ and star of ‘Whoop Dreams’ Laremy Legel rejoins Matt and Vince in the Zoom Frotquarters to discuss Jon Stewart’s new movie IRRESISTiBLE, starring  Steve Carell and Rose Byrne as dueling political consultants who wage proxy war in a Wisconsin town. At first we were like “why the hell is this movie called ‘Irresistible?’ But then the title comes up at the end with some creative typography and we were like “Oohhh, that’s why it’s called Irresistible.”

Aaaanyway, we discuss our historic love of Jon Stewart and debate why this movie is getting such bad reviews. On one level, it’s kind of a good movie masquerading as a bad one for two acts, and you could argue that’s a weird move, but on another level it seems like certain people disliked it because it committed some sin against media orthodoxy by pointing out the Democrats are also bad. GRR, BOTH SIDESISM! Anyway, Rose Byrne is great.

After that we discuss Matt getting mistaken for the worst #resistance grifter and whether Alex Jones is actually Dan Carlin’s Wario.


Teaser: King Of Staten Island Bonus Review, Plus JK Rowling And Ice Cube



This week’s Frotcast is available on Patreon! Subscribe now to hear the rest of this show and a veritable mountain of bonus content. You can add our premium content to your regular podcast feed! Subscribe at Patreon.com/Frotcast, tell your friends.

In this week’s bonus Frotcast, I had to watch The King Of Staten Island because I’m a movie critic so I forced Matt to watch it with me. Sometimes being a movie critic doesn’t feel like work and other times Spike Lee and Judd Apatow both release 140-minute+ movies on the same weekend. PITY ME! Matt and I discuss Pete Davidson, how this movie could’ve been better, Bill Burr’s shockingly good performance, and why movies always want us to think 20-something year old adult men care who their mom is dating. Gross, man, come on. And then, just when you think we’re through, nope, we got more to talk about. Like, did Ice Cube fall down an Anti-Semitic conspiracy theory rabbit hole this week? And does Just Kidding Rowling, aka JK Rowling coming out as a transphobe retroctively validate us never giving a shit about Harry Potter? There are a couple of accents and everything is pretty dumb but hopefully you don’t have anything better to do and that’s why we love you. Please to enjoy.


TEASER – Frotcast Bonus: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker



This episode available to $5 patrons at Patreon.com/Frotcast!

As Robert Evans once wrote, “Fighting is healthy. If everyone has too much reverence for each other, or for the material, results are invariably underwhelming. It’s irreverence that makes things sizzle. It’s irreverence that gives you that shot at touching magic.”

That, in a nutshell, is what was wrong with Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, in this podder’s opinion. A film needs to have a point of view, and this film’s point of view seemed to be “We really like Star Wars movies! Hooray, Leia! Hooray, Lando!”

That being said, Star Wars movies tend to range in quality from B+ to B-, so even when I say it was “bad” I mean that it was still more or less okay, and only marginally worse than the last couple of Star Wars movies. I do think it was the worst of any of the new ones. Matt liked it more than I did, but we both agree that it was better than the prequels, which is a low bar indeed.

Anyway, we discuss all of that, including whether the original trilogy is a story about how the Boomers “beat” the Empire, and whether the principals in the latest trilogy (millennials?) should be taking the Boomers’ advice on how to defeat the reformed Empire once again (with all due citation to Matt Louv‘s comedy bit that inspired this whole discussion). There are smaller matters too, like how the hell people are riding horses on top of ships in outer space, whether Lando was horny at the end there, and why all the black characters seem to know each other. Oh, and Matt debuts a few new characters, including “Bubba Fett,” intergalactic bounty hunter and former long-haul trucker. Please enjoy.

For all this #Content and more, become a patron at Patreon.com/Frotcast. You’ll never be lonely when you have the Frotcast.


TEASER: Marriage Story With Francesca Fiorentini



This week’s Bonus Frotcast and all Bonus Frotcasts are available at Patreon.com/Frotcast. You can add our premium feed to your regular podcast app.

In this week’s bonus movie Frotcast, Francesca Fiorentini from The Bitchuation Room and The Young Turks joins us to discuss the year’s most talked about film, Marriage Story. Boy, people sure do love middlebrow dreck about sexless intellectuals, don’t they? Starring Adam Driver and Scarlet Johansson, Noah Baumbach’s latest is yet another work to remind me of John Dolan’s takedown of Jonathan Franzen:

Yes, it’s time someone said it outright: Manhattanites are the new  hicks. The mall kids are generations ahead of them. Things that are  stale jokes to the mall kids strike the NY publishing world as fresh and  hilarious. Maybe they just don’t watch enough TV, or they spend too  much time drinking cocktails with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ghost — whatever  the reason, the Manhattanites have lost it completely. The  scriptwriters of Christmas Vacationare Flaubertian chroniclers  of provincial mores next to Franzen. When you compare Franzen with  really talented observers of Minnesota life, like the Coens in Fargo, or even Garrison Keillor inLake Wobegon Days, his incompetence stands out even more sharply.

And  if one were to compare him with the great novelist of “pelagic  America,” Charles Portis… no, it would be an insult to Portis even to  compare a hack like Franzen with him. And yet Portis is all but unknown,  while Franzen is everybody’s darling…. Agh, ya buncha idiots!

Now just re-read this passage so that it’s about Brooklynites, Marriage Story, and Mrs. Fletcher (which is kind of like Marriage Story only much better). Yes, unfortunately (or fortunately?), none of your Frot pals liked this movie so much — which is kind of weird, since Francesca is divorced, Matt and I are both dating divorceés, and all three of us work in the arts and/or entertainment, so we should be the target audience (Francesca and I even lived in Brooklyn!). As Matt puts it, their fights are like a montage of every relationship argument in a play you’ve ever seen. I contend that this movie is either about a couple where a person is too cowardly to admit that they don’t love the other person anymore, or a couple who still loves each other but whose relationship couldn’t survive them wanting slightly different careers. Oy. No more stories about sexless New York intellectuals, please.

We finish things off reading about the Topanga tea ceremony and listen to your weird voicemails. You guys are sick, truly. Frot on, and you’ll never be lonely when you have the Frotcast.