774. Oscars Preview

·1 hr 22 min·5 clips

Zach calls Will Ferrell's 'You're Cordially Invited' the worst movie he saw this year, sparking a debate about what makes a film truly offensive.

The episode begins with casual banter between hosts Akiva Wienerkur and Alex Chester before introducing guest Zach Brooks for their annual Oscars preview discussion. Zach reveals he watched 66 films from 2025 and has prepared a ranked top 10 list. The conversation starts negatively with Zach sharing his worst-rated movie, 'You're Cordially Invited', a Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy he hated for its nonsensical plot and poor production. He then lists his top five disappointments, including Spike Lee's 'Highest to Lowest', Bong Joon-ho's 'Mickey 17', 'House of Dynamite', 'Him', and 'Marty Supreme'. Akiva and Zach then take turns going through their top 10 lists. Akiva's includes wildcard picks like 'Eleanor the Great' (about a fake Holocaust survivor) and 'Good Fortune' (Aziz Ansari's directorial debut), while Zach's features more mainstream contenders like 'Sentimental Value', 'Wake Up Dead Man', and 'Thunderbolts'. They debate films like 'Eddington' (a COVID-era drama), 'Black Bag' (a spy thriller), and 'Warfare' (a war film). Zach's top three are 'Frankenstein', 'Sinners', and 'One Battle After Another', which he describes as Paul Thomas Anderson's capture of the current political moment. Akiva's top pick is 'Marty Supreme', which they discuss at length, comparing it to 'Uncut Gems'. The episode also incorporates listener rankings from the 32 Fans Movies Chat, which had 'Marty Supreme' at number five, 'Weapons' at four, 'Sentimental Value' at three, 'Sinners' at two, and 'One Battle After Another' at one. They briefly mention other films like 'No Other Choice', 'F1', 'Train Dreams', and documentaries like 'Video Heaven'. The conversation ends with quick mentions of upcoming 2026 films like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Avengers Doomsday'.

As heard by us

An Oscars preview where rankings, video-store nostalgia, and war-film reservations all matter.

32 Fans Podcast treats its Oscars-preview run less like a checklist than a debate over what feels worth the time. Alex Chester and Wills Wiener move from a documentary about terminal cancer into a longer consideration of Video Heaven, Alex Ross Perry's three-hour look at video…

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Why you'd press play

You want a ranked set of watch tips, a Criterion Channel detour, and one three-hour video-store nostalgia bomb.

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