The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day & Backrooms

The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day & Backrooms — Full Spoiler Review | I Watch More Movies Than You We're back after almost a year off, and we came back swinging with three of 2026's biggest movies: Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Kane Parson with A24's money bringing us Backrooms! Hosts Ken "KDizzle" and Bobby break down all three films in depth — cast, themes, box office, and where each one ranks against the rest of its franchise or filmography. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey (00:02:48) We open with a deep dive into Nolan's adaptation of Homer's epic poem, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, and Charlize Theron as Calypso. Topics covered: How Nolan's IMAX-first, all-practical-effects approach (including a real, fully-built Trojan horse) sets this apart from anything shot on this scale before Why the Cyclops, Circe's body-horror transformation sequence, and the underworld descent are some of the best practical filmmaking of the year A breakdown of Matt Damon's Siren sequence — a strong contender for his best acting moment in the film Where we split: KDizzle calls it a near-perfect film and possibly Nolan's best-written work, while Bobby argues Odysseus needed a clearer character arc — starting proud and boastful like in the source material, rather than introspective from the jump A theory floated on Film Spotting: is this Odysseus being blown off course by actual gods, or by his own trauma from the fall of Troy? The cast, including standout supporting work from John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, Benny Safdie, and Robert Pattinson Our updated top-three Nolan rankings (spoiler: we don't agree) Spider-Man: Brand New Day (00:59:22) From ancient epic to modern blockbuster — we cover why this is closing in on Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the second-biggest domestic box office of all time, and why it might be Tom Holland's best performance as Peter Parker yet. We get into: How the film leans into a grounded, post-No Way Home Peter Parker who's lost his Avengers connections and is figuring out life (and genius-level engineering) on his own Sadie Sink's introduction as Jean Grey, and why it works despite the character's rocky history on screen (Dark Phoenix, X-Men: The Last Stand) Jon Bernthal's Punisher and a surprisingly great Hulk showdown, plus how the movie borrows visual language straight from Insomniac's Spider-Man video games Whether Tom Holland has officially passed Tobey Maguire as the definitive big-screen Spider-Man Predictions for where the MCU goes next — including whether Holland's Spider-Man shows up in Avengers: Doomsday or gets saved for Secret Wars, and the case for a full X-Men pivot Backrooms (01:34:11) We close out with Kane Parsons' leap from viral YouTube horror to A24 feature film. Adapted from his own liminal-horror web series, Backrooms stars Charithra Chandran, Mark Duplass, and Renate Reinsve. We discuss: The "liminal space" horror subgenre and why empty, familiar-but-wrong environments hit differently for a generation raised online. First true GenZ horror movie that they take entire ownership of, and it's amazing. Why a $10M budget and a massive practical set (no AI, by design) made for one of the best horror ROIs of the year Reading the Backrooms as a stand-in for late-capitalism dread and corporate monotony — and how that theme connects to shows like Severance The film's most unsettling visual details, including the wall drawings that hint at just how long Clark has been trapped What it means for horror filmmaking that a director this young, with no formal film school background, is already this good Listen If You Want To Hear Two movie-obsessed friends going deep on Nolan's filmography, arguing about Matt Damon vs. Tom Holland's best performances, debating Marvel and X-Men's future, and unpacking why liminal horror (Backrooms, Severance, Iron Lung) is resonating so hard right now. Rate, Review, Subscribe If you enjoyed this episode, a five-star review helps us climb the algorithm and reach more fellow film nerds. Share the episode with your fellow movie fans, and let us know in the comments: what's your top five Christopher Nolan movies? Movies discussed: The Odyssey (2026), Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), Backrooms (2026)