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9to5.cc Fantasia International Film Festival Podcast: Noise & I Am Frankelda

by on July 21, 2025 at 10:49 pm
Posted In: Fantasia, Homepage, Other podcasts, Podcast, Podcasting

Our Fantasia International Film Festival podcast continues talking about films Noise and I Am Frankelda

Noise, a Korean ghost story directed by Kim Soo-jin follows Joo-young, a deaf woman, and her sister Joo-hee, who’s obsessed with the noisy upstairs neighbor. The film kicks off with Joo-hee’s erratic behavior leading Joo-young on a tense search through their apartment complex. It’s a slow-burn horror with suspenseful moments, a few jump scares, and clever sound design. High points include Joo-young’s hearing aid toggling off and on and voice-to-text phone use, amplifying the creepiness. Sarah recommends it for ghost story fans, noting its 90-minute runtime and accessibility for those not into intense horror—perfect for teens or horror newbies.

I Am Frankelda, a Mexican stop-motion feature by Roy and Arturo Ambriz, is a vibrant, musical, stop motion film set in 19th-century Mexico and a nightmare realm. Young Frankelda’s imagination fuels this fantastical world, where she’s a horror writer linked to a realm powered by nightmares. The young prince, Herneval, seeks her help to revive the realm’s fading creativity. The film’s intricate sets and unique character designs—like spider people and two-headed dragons—are stunning, though the fast-paced dialogue and fantastical names demand quick reading. Sarah suggests it’s kid-friendly for strong readers (the subtitles go by very fast), though the 113-minute runtime and dense dialogue might challenge younger viewers. Ideal for Spanish speakers or stop-motion enthusiasts.

For more information about these films:


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The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 16th to August 3rd 2025 at Concordia University.

The song during our intro and outro is “Until I Sleep” by Henry Homesweet and is is licensed under a Attribution 2.0 UK: England License.

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9to5.cc Fantasia International Film Festival Podcast: Beans & Cielo

by on July 20, 2025 at 5:39 pm
Posted In: Fantasia, Homepage, Other podcasts, Podcast, Podcasting

Our Fantasia International Film Festival podcast continues talking about films Beans and Cielo.

Sarah and Keith are checking out a bunch of films at the 2025 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival and as we do, we are recording the chats we have about the movies and letting you eavesdrop on them in the form of a podcast. It’s fun, trust us.

We don’t usually plan out “themes” for any given episode but totally by accident we found that our first two films were linked (somewhat) thematically. Both feature strong willed young women dealing with things no young person should really have to deal with. One (Beans) is dealing with growing on in Kanehsatake during the 1990 Oka Crisis and the other (Cielo) is dealing with the loss of your parents. In both cases our young leading ladies need to deal with these far, far too young.

For more information about these films from the Fantasia Festival website:

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The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 16th to August 3rd 2025 at Concordia University.

The song during our intro and outro is “Until I Sleep” by Henry Homesweet and is is licensed under a Attribution 2.0 UK: England License.

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Osheaga Podcast 2025 (Unofficial) – Sunday: Part 1

by on July 9, 2025 at 7:42 pm
Posted In: Homepage, Montreal, Osheaga, Osheaga Podcast, Other podcasts

Osheaga 2025 is 23 days away!

Our Unofficial Osheaga Podcast is back for 2025! We’re almost there and it’s time to dig into Sunday’s lineup!

(More or less) every two weeks Sarah and I will be digging into the entire lineup of this year’s Osheaga to give you music recommendations all summer long. We pick ten acts from each day, we talk about them, play clips of their tunes to give you a feel for their music and tell you why we think they’re worth checking.

We’re having fun and talking about music all summer long, won’t you join us?

But wait – you don’t need us to tell you why you should probably check out Olivia Rodrigo now do you? So (for the purposes of this show) we ruled out the entire top line of each day of the lineup. So yes, that means you will need to decide for yourself if you’re going to see Jamie xx or not.

Trust us, if you listen to all of these episodes you might find yourself running back and forth between stages all weekend and discovering your new favourite artist.

Here is our first batch of 5 “non-headline” acts we think are worth checking out for Sunday.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

See You at Osheaga!

Osheaga runs from August 1st to August 3rd at Parc Jean Drapeau. Check out osheaga.com for more info and tickets.

All audio clips are copyright of their respective owners and used solely with the intention of promoting and editorial previewing Osheaga.

Our intro song is Paradise Engineering (instrumental) by YACHT and is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.

Sarah is somehow still @femalewalter on Instagram. Follow her for pictures of our dogs and sometimes she remembers to post about all the arts and entertainment we take in all year long.

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Stream It: Dept. Q

by on July 3, 2025 at 10:52 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Scott, Uncategorized

What happens when an asshole is traumatised? What if he’s smart, and working to save someone; how do you root for him? Dept. Q is out now on Netflix.

Dept. Q is developed by Scott Frank, known for writing and directing The Queen’s Gambit and for screenplays such as Logan, Out of Sight, and Minority Report. He co-created the series with Chandni Lakhani, who previously wrote for The Dublin Murders and Your Honor. The show stars Matthew Goode, recognized for roles in The Crown, A Discovery of Witches, and The Imitation Game. He is joined by Chloe Pirrie, who appeared in The Queen’s Gambit and The Victim, and Alexej Manvelov, known for Chernobyl and Before We Die.

It’s hard to review this series without giving to much away. It’s about a cop, Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck. He’s a smart cop, and he’s also an asshole. He is battling PTSD and depression, but he was an asshole before those struggles, so it’s not as if his colleagues suddenly see him in a new light. But he’s smart, and he’s a good detective, and he can’t help but need to figure out this case.

Full Acting

Goode shines in this role. His body language is exquisite. Exuding annoyance and patience worn thin. It’s a masterclass. He’s gone beyond the dialogue and facial expressions and pushed his posture into his character. It’s really a delight.

Alexej Manvelov plays Akram, Morck’s assistant and partner on the case, and he is the perfect foil. Quiet, patient, and softly pushing too far as they work, Akram is the one you root for. Manvelov is excellent, the way he breathes in a scene, pauses, and shows things down for a beat. It might take an episode or two, but he’ll be your favourite.

Dept. Q is streaming on Netflix, and if you like David Fincher flicks like Zodiac, and are a bit tired of the near-horror cop shows that Criminal Minds and CSI morphed into, it’s worth it.

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Osheaga Podcast 2025 (Unofficial) – Saturday: Part 2

by on June 25, 2025 at 4:51 pm
Posted In: Homepage, Montreal, Osheaga, Osheaga Podcast, Other podcasts

Osheaga 2025 is 37 days away!

Our Unofficial Osheaga Podcast is back for 2025! As always, we’re kicking things off chronologically (it just seems the best way to go) so this is our second look at Saturday’s llineup!

(More or less) every two weeks Sarah and I will be digging into the entire lineup of this year’s Osheaga to give you music recommendations all summer long. We pick ten acts from each day, we talk about them, play clips of their tunes to give you a feel for their music and tell you why we think they’re worth checking.

We’re having fun and talking about music all summer long, won’t you join us?

But wait – you don’t need us to tell you why you should probably check out Gracie Abrams now do you? So (for the purposes of this show) we ruled out the entire top line of each day of the lineup. So yes, that means you will need to decide for yourself if you’re going to see Shaboozey or not.

Trust us, if you listen to all of these episodes you might find yourself running back and forth between stages all weekend and discovering your new favourite artist.

Here are the acts and songs we talk about in this episode:

Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

See You at Osheaga!

Osheaga runs from August 1st to August 3rd at Parc Jean Drapeau. Check out osheaga.com for more info and tickets.

All audio clips are copyright of their respective owners and used solely with the intention of promoting and editorial previewing Osheaga.

Our intro song is Paradise Engineering (instrumental) by YACHT and is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.

Sarah is somehow still @femalewalter on Instagram. Follow her for pictures of our dogs and sometimes she remembers to post about all the arts and entertainment we take in all year long.

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Stream It: Love Hurts

by on June 23, 2025 at 12:17 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Movies, Scott

Over the weekend, my wife and I sat down at watched Love Hurts, which is now streaming on Prime. It is a zippy, weird fun action movie, and is delightfully original. In a world of Missions Impossible and Marvels-a-many, it is great to see fresh fun on the silver screen.

Love Hurts (2025) is directed by stunt veteran Jonathan Eusebio (John Wick, The Fall Guy) and produced by David Leitch and Kelly McCormick (Bullet Train, Nobody). It stars Oscar winners Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Goonies) and Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), alongside Daniel Wu (Into the Badlands), Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage), and Lio Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love). It also features another Goonies-alum in Sean Astin, as well as former NFL-star, Marshawn Lynch. The script comes from Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore.

Ke Huy Quan; Action Star

Ke Huy Quan seems like an odd choice for an action lead. As a former child-actor (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) who then took a long break from being on screen, he has a background in both acting and stunt work, including roles as a stunt coordinator and rigger. He worked on X-Men as a stunt rigger and assistant fight choreographer. Quan also performed some of his own stunts in Everything Everywhere All at Once, including the fanny pack scene and wushu rope dart sequences. 

He has a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo and draws on his martial arts background for his action scenes. He has a mild and unassuming presence, and on shows like Loki, he was able to lean into that kind and quirky charm. For Love Hurts however, Quan is putting all his experience out there at once, with his likeable nice-guy persona balancing out his butt-kicking chops.

Love Hurts, 25 years ago would have been a Jackie Chan vehicule. It has real Rumble in the Bronx energy to it. Quan plays Marvin Gable, a positive energy real estate agent who loves his boss, treats his employees like a mentor, and only really has conflict with rival agen Jeff Zaks (played by real-life reality show agent Drew Scott). He dresses houses for sale. He bakes cookies. Marvin is a feel good guy.

Then, Love Hurts takes it’s twist, and it becomes a blender of Shoot’em Up, Rush Hour, and Smokin’ Aces. Calling back to the late 90’s/early-aughts, this film brings a fun frenetic energy in it’s fight-scenes and stunt-work to balance out the cartoonish uber-violence it shows. It’s a throwback, with wild set dressing and cool cars. The film could be an underdog classic.

My one knock on the movie is the soundtrack’s slavish devotion to the Valentine’s Day theme. It’s cute at times, but sometimes gets a little too cutesy with itself, and could have used a little more faux-Tarantino or Edgar Wright flair. The way “Bell-Bottoms” (in Baby Driver) or “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” (Kill Bill) hit is missing from this one. One or two deep cuts in the right places would have punched things up a notch.

If you’re looking for a VHS classic, a hidden gem at Blockbuster kinda movie, Love Hurts will be your date.

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Stream It: 3 Body Problem

by on June 13, 2025 at 9:51 am
Posted In: Blogs, Featured Post, Homepage, Scott

I like a good science-heavy sci-fi show. There just aren’t enough of them out there. I get the appeal of a good ol’ fashioned space western — The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop were both great entries in that genre over the last few years. They’re fun, dusty romps, and I’m totally here for that too. (Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, less so.)

But give me a solid run of people trying to science their way through a fantastical problem, and I’m all in. The Martian, Neal Stephenson’s SevenEves, or James P. Hogan’s Giants series — those just click with me. There’s something deeply satisfying about watching characters figure stuff out, something that’s often missing in all the laser cannon pew-pew stories.

Which brings me to Netflix’s 3 Body Problem.

3 Body Problem comes from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — best known as the creators and showrunners of HBO’s Game of Thrones — along with Alexander Woo, who previously worked on True Blood as a writer and executive producer. Together, they’ve adapted Liu Cixin’s sci-fi novel of the same name.

The cast includes Benedict Wong, known for his role as Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and for standout performances in Annihilation and Marco Polo; Eiza González, who appeared in Baby Driver and Ambulance; and John Bradley, reuniting with Benioff and Weiss after playing Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones. The series also features Jovan Adepo (Watchmen, Babylon) and Rosalind Chao (The Joy Luck Club, Mulan), blending genre veterans with fresh talent.

The creative team’s track record with epic storytelling, along with the cast’s mix of sci-fi and drama experience, helps ground the show’s ambitious narrative and global scope. Wong is a standout, bringing a weary, hard-boiled noir energy to this wildly expansive science-fiction world. He’s got shades of Bunk and McNulty from HBO’s The Wire — and that’s all to the show’s benefit. Jess Hong (Inked, Edamame) also gives a strong performance as Jin, balancing stress, loss, malaise, and determination.

 

I don’t want to dive too deep into the plot — the twists and turns are part of what made the show so gripping for me. I thought it was going to be one thing, and then it turned into something else entirely. It’s part X-Files, part Ender’s Game, all stewed together in one intense pot.

3 Body Problem is also fearless — no sacred cows here. Everything’s on the table. No one is safe from the existential threat, and that dread flows like a river, always rushing at you.

All in all, 3 Body Problem is a hit, and the news that it’s been picked up for a second season is fantastic. There’s just not enough premium sci-fi out there — and more is always welcome.

 

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Osheaga Podcast 2025 (Unofficial) – Saturday: Part 1

by on June 11, 2025 at 4:09 pm
Posted In: Homepage, Osheaga, Osheaga Podcast, Other podcasts, Podcast, Podcasting

Osheaga 2025 is 51 days away!

Our Unofficial Osheaga Podcast is back for 2025! As always, we’re kicking things off chronologically (it just seems the best way to go) so this is our second look at Friday’s lineup!

(More or less) every two weeks Sarah and I will be digging into the entire lineup of this year’s Osheaga to give you music recommendations all summer long. We pick ten acts from each day, we talk about them, play clips of their tunes to give you a feel for their music and tell you why we think they’re worth checking.

We’re having fun and talking about music all summer long, won’t you join us?

But wait – you don’t need us to tell you why you should probably check out Tyler, the Creator now do you? So (for the purposes of this show) we ruled out the entire top line of each day of the lineup. So yes, that means you will need to decide for yourself if you’re going to see the likes of The Chainsmokers or not.

Trust us, if you listen to all of these episodes you might find yourself running back and forth between stages all weekend and discovering your new favourite artist.

Here is our second batch of 5 “non-headline” acts we think are worth checking out for Friday !

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

See You at Osheaga!

Osheaga runs from August 1st to August 3rd at Parc Jean Drapeau. Check out osheaga.com for more info and tickets.

All audio clips are copyright of their respective owners and used solely with the intention of promoting and editorial previewing Osheaga.

Our intro song is Paradise Engineering (instrumental) by YACHT and is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.

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Stream It: Dead Boy Detectives

by on June 11, 2025 at 11:53 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Scott

Dead Boy Detectives: A Fun, Ghostly Whodunit That Netflix Has Already Ghosted

Marisa and I crush a lot of television. It’s how we unwind after getting the kiddo to bed and squeezing in some “grown-up” time before she crashes. Luckily, we’re pretty aligned in taste—comic book adaptations and crime procedurals are our shared comfort food. Dead Boy Detectives nicely mixes both.

Developed by Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant, Supernatural) and Beth Schwartz (Arrow, Sweet Tooth), Dead Boy Detectives is a supernatural mystery series based on characters from Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner’s corner of The Sandman universe. It stars George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri as Edwin and Charles, two teen ghosts solving otherworldly mysteries—think The Hardy Boys, but deader. They’re joined by Kassius Nelson (Last Night in Soho) as Crystal Palace, a psychic who’s lost her memory; Jenn Lyon (Claws) as Esther, a witch who might have missed the Wiccan PR memo about not being evil; Briana Cuoco (Harley Quinn) as Jenny the Butcher; Ruth Connell returning as the Night Nurse from Doom Patrol; Yuyu Kitamura (The Expatriates) as Niko; and Lukas Gage (The White Lotus, You) as the delightfully smug Cat King.

The casting is excellent across the board. Everyone is given space to breathe, and even minor characters feel lived in. Take Jenny the Butcher—she’s technically a side character, but she’s not there for cheap laughs or goth aesthetics. She gets moments of genuine vulnerability, sarcasm, and chaotic fury, all packed into surprisingly little screen time. It’s the kind of character writing that makes you want to see more.

Unfortunately, this is Netflix, where good shows go to get half a chance before being unceremoniously yeeted into the algorithm void. Dead Boy Detectives is a one-and-done, which feels especially frustrating. It’s a bit geeky, a bit niche, and absolutely the kind of series that needs time to find its people. Remember how Locke & Key got 28 episodes? Or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina got 36? This show easily stands alongside those—and in some ways, above them. The silver lining? The single season is a complete story, so at least you won’t be left mid-arc holding a ghost-shaped cliffhanger.

The episodes are brisk and snappy, with self-contained mysteries that build toward a cohesive season arc. It’s clearly got comic book pacing—fast, punchy, and designed for bingeing. I wouldn’t have minded a little more atmospheric lingering in some of the cooler, spookier sets, but I get the choice to keep it tight. It’s spooky without being gory, which is honestly refreshing. Not everything needs to be The Walking Dead with teenagers.

If you liked The X-Files, Supernatural, or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, these eight episodes are absolutely worth your time. Just don’t get too attached—Netflix already ghosted them.

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Montreal Fringe 2025 – Go Fringe Yourself #fringebuzz

by on June 9, 2025 at 8:44 pm
Posted In: Fringe, Go Plug Yourself, Homepage, Montreal, Other podcasts, Podcast, Podcasting

Sarah and Keith checked out 4 shows this weekend at the Montreal Fringe Festival

We saw (click the link for tickets and showtimes):

All of these shows have 3-4 showings left so you’ve still got time to check them out!

Go Fringe Yourself!

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Credit Where Credit is Due

As always, a big thank you to the providers of our theme song: Leighland Beckman and Aural Turpitude!

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and sometimes blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.

Sarah is somehow still @femalewalter on Instagram. Follow her for pictures of our dogs and sometimes she remembers to post about all the arts and entertainment we take in all year long.

 

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