the arc.fm

Lydia Davis - We Read a One-Minute Short Story and Argue If It's a Story for 49 Minutes

Cole brings us one of the great living short story writers, and we argue whether her stories are stories at all, until Jaclynn gets the last word. EPISODE SUMMARYCole ma

Hope (2026) - An Action Movie from Art House Film Director, Na Hong-jin

We went in bracing for a horror movie and got an art house director's monster epic, one we place in the DMZ in the 1990s, and we spend the episode working out how far our

Field of Dreams - Making Grown Men Cry Since 1989

We argue that Field of Dreams isn't really about baseball or fathers so much as the elaborate lengths men will go to instead of just going to therapy, and it all starts w

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw - Fighting the Sun with an Actual Astronomer

Hobbs & Shaw has a climactic dawn battle that goes from pitch black to full daylight in about two minutes of screen time. Can the sun really rise that fast? We brought in

Amores Perros - A Maximalist Masterpiece That Does Not Mean "Love Dogs"

Did you know people HATE Alejandro González Iñárritu's films, walked out of Amores Perros during its Premiere, and stopped being friends with Cole because of it? And on t

Airplane! - The Greatest Comedy of All Time is Not a Mel Brooks Movie

This episode argues that Airplane isn't a joke machine bolted onto a plot but a plot that never once stops being played straight — the "clothing line" every single joke h

Back To The Future I - The Original, The Classic, The Most Perfect Movie Ever???

THE ARC'S TAKEThis episode argues that Back to the Future's whole plot is smuggled into the audience's lap before Marty's face even appears onscreen, you get literally th

Fleabag - The Stage Play (2019): A Deep Dive Review and Analysis For People Who Have Watched Or Intend To Watch The TV Show

The real argument here is that the stage play and the TV show only look like the same story wearing two outfits, when they're actually two different animals entirely — on

Freaky Friday (1976) - Reviewing A Film That AI Doesn't Even Know Exists (UPDATED)

Our argument is that Freaky Friday has "so much plot, no story" — and that its real, unplanned achievement isn't the mother-daughter reckoning it announces but the siblin

Marty Supreme - Elegant Chaos

THE ARC'S TAKEThis episode asks whether Marty Supreme is Spielberg's version of Uncut Gems — sumptuous instead of feral, but just as committed to a hero who never actuall

Project Hail Mary - Is "Very, Very Different" from The Martian

THE ARC'S TAKEThis episode's argument is that Project Hail Mary only pretends to be hard sci-fi about a dying sun — strip away the spaceships and it's La La Land with an

Sinners - The Scariest Thing In This Oscar-Winner Isn't The Vampires

THE ARC'S TAKEThis episode's whole argument boils down to Jaclynn'ss tagline, repeated like a confession — "this movie is smarter than me" — and we spend an hour proving

Back To The Future II - Spring Forward Out Of Order Into 2015

THE ARC'S TAKEIn the grand tradition of this show, we watched this out of order in order to celebrate springing forward for Daylight Savings Time so true fans of "Back To

Our Viral Instagram Reel - 30 Seconds That Strangers Love

Jaclynn made the most viral reel about our friendship, and Robby has never seen Instagram until now- this is a GREAT (all caps episode) about telling a story in less than

The Straight Story - David Lynch's "Most Experimental" Film & The Only One He Didn't Write Himself

THE ARC'S TAKEWe argue that David Lynch made his most experimental film by removing every tool he usually relies on — no surrealism, no dread-tricks, just a man on a lawn

Mulholland Drive - The Diner Scene - A Five Minute Intro To David Lynch And His Producer & Editor Mary Sweeney

Everything you need to know about David Lynch's style in five minutes! You really should watch the whole film eventually, but a five minute scene that appears fifteen min

Women Talking - Sarah Polley Makes Perfect, Difficult Films

Content & Trigger Warning: this episode discusses sexual assault in the film and in real life. THE ARC'S TAKEWe argue that "Women Talking" only looks plotless if you're

Carol - Happy Holidays & Happy New Year Because Two Women Are In Love and Two Guys Are Mad About It

THE ARC'S TAKEWe spend most of Carol braced for the tragic, closeted ending 1950s convention demands, so when Highsmith and Haynes hand the women the reins instead, it re

The Muppet Christmas Carol - Scary Great

THE ARC'S TAKEWe argue Michael Caine playing Scrooge dead straight, like Shakespeare, is exactly why the Muppets around him are allowed to be so funny — and why this vers

"The" GameCube Vine - The Perfect Six Second Story

We put a six-second Vine of a guy falling outside a 7-Eleven up against Hemingway's baby shoes and argue the getting-up is the whole story — the difference between a joke