Dry film talk with festival mileage.
Grierson & Leitch pairs movie criticism with the loose rhythm of two people who can argue, joke, and circle back without losing the thread. Recent episodes move from Sundance, Venice, and Oscar predictions into specific reviews of films like Undertone, Casino, and Project Hail Mary.
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Grierson & Leitch is a film podcast with the shape of a long friendship and the instincts of people who talk through movies closely. It rarely sprints straight to the movie. A domestic story, a festival travel update, a Dorkfest aside, or a strange encounter in a theater can become the runway for the actual review. Then the conversation tightens. Recent episodes weigh Sundance reactions, Venice reports, Oscar nomination predictions, and a wide range of current and repertory titles. The show talks about Project Hail Mary by pressing on character logic and the limits of charm. It talks about Undertone through sound, grief, digital unease, and the way a theater's speaker placement can make a viewer physically react. It talks about Sam Raimi-style chaos, Rachel McAdams, bodily-fluid gross-out energy, and whether a movie's characters have been built strongly enough to support the fun. Praise is usually qualified. Skepticism is usually specific. The show is comfortable saying a movie works, then spending several minutes on the one performance or structural choice that still bothers it. Festival culture and awards culture sit naturally beside the reviews, not as separate segments but as part of how the movies are understood. There is inside-baseball detail, but it stays conversational. The back-and-forth can be teasing, interrupted, and sideways, especially when the talk drifts into family routines, listener notes, travel fatigue, or the absurdities of moviegoing. That informality is the point. Grierson & Leitch suits listeners who want criticism that sounds argued through in real time, not sanded into a final blurb. It is sharp, dry, and opinionated without pretending every take is a grand theory of cinema.
Made for: For movie fans who follow festivals, awards season, critics' debates, and the difference between a promising premise and a finished film. It best suits listeners who enjoy banter as part of the critical process.
What sets it apart: The show lets the digressions breathe, then uses them to sharpen the criticism. It feels less like a review desk and more like an ongoing movie argument with years of shared context behind it.
Tim Grierson and Will Leitch are lifelong best friends who have been writing and talking about the movies for 25 years. Grierson is vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Leitch is doing his absolutely best to pretend. Read their work everywhere. But listen to this show for the pure juice, straight on tap.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Grierson and Leitch make film criticism conversational without sacrificing close attention to performances, craft, character logic, and franchise expectations.
Tim Grierson and Will Leitch turn current releases into arguments that stay open long enough to become interesting. Their conversations move through films including "Alien: Romulus," "Presence," "Companion," and "Project Hail Mary," weighing performances, character logic, camera…
A movie can be "solid" until the follow-up question; your favorite argument starts there.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A travel detour opens into a sharp, skeptical movie conversation that keeps returning to performance and follow-through.
Tim Gerson returns from Anguilla, and the episode uses that trip as a loose doorway into a close look at Alana Haim's performance and the moral-high-ground edge of her character.
A sharp film debate finds the entertainment while pressing hard on Grace's missing logic.
The episode gives the film discussion a clear spine: the movie is handsome, broadly entertaining, and still hard to square around Grace, played by Ryan Gosling.
A sound-focused horror discussion finds the real charge in Undertone's thin premise by letting imagination do the scaring.
Episode 476 treats Undertone as a horror movie built around what sound can make an audience imagine. Grierson and Leach keep returning to that theater-seat feeling: a noise lands somewhere behind you, and the body reacts before the image catches up.
Sundance catch-up, Oscar talk, and a skeptical Send Help debate with Raimi flourishes.
The episode settles quickly into Sundance and Oscar talk after the week off, which suits the show’s dog-days mood. Its best stretch comes in the Send Help discussion, where the Sam Raimi hallmarks get the cleanest read: the camera moves, the bodily-fluid chaos, and the moments…
Awards-season talk gives way to a funny movie-theater dispute over one critic's supposedly screen-blocking head.
A quick return from the LAFCA Awards leads into a brisk episode about awards secrecy, voting memory, and one especially odd movie-theater run-in.
A measured conversation about Presence, subjective perspective, and the limits of a polished formal experiment.
Tim Gerson and Will Leach take up Steven Soderbergh's Presence through a calm back-and-forth on form, mood, and payoff. They are alert to the camera-driven conceit, especially the way the unseen point of view can feel like its own character without reducing the film to a trick.
A measured Alien: Romulus review about franchise expectations, craft, and competent theatrical fun.
Alien: Romulus gets a measured look here, closer to a careful temperature check than a victory lap. The episode frames the film as good, solid, and competent, with strong visuals and pretty good sound design and music.
Fast film talk beyond the obvious releases.
Canadian cinephile talk with awards-season nerve.
Cult cinema and comics, argued with feeling.
Tim Grierson and Will Leitch return to discuss movies after Grierson's 34th Sundance Film Festival.
Tim Grierson and Will Leitch discuss the new film 'Alien: Romulus,' with Grierson giving it a B- and Leitch a C+.
Tim Gerson comes back from Anguilla, and the episode opens in that travel-story mode the show likes.
The hosts discuss personal experiences with medical procedures like colonoscopies, blending humor and reassurance about health topics.
This episode is a post-Oscars wrapup discussion by hosts Tim Grierson and Will Leach, recorded with editing magic to sound fresh despite the late hour.
Tim Gerson comes back from Sundance.
The hosts discuss personal observations about MLK Day, family life, and cultural differences in a casual, conversational style.
The hosts discuss their holiday traditions and tease upcoming content about Sundance 2026 and 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'.
"Marty Supreme" pairs Timothee Chalamet with Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa Azeon, Kevin O'Leary, and Penn Jillette in Josh Safdie's 1950s table-tennis story.
Will Leach introduces an episode where Tim Grierson reports from the Venice Film Festival and Toronto, following up on their preview show about these events.
This episode previews the 2025 Venice and Toronto film festivals, including a discussion of the film 'Paris, Texas'.
Will Leach shares his recent visit to Mattoon, Illinois, discussing local spots like Little Mexico and observations about the law firm Craig and Craig.