In the elderly world of film podcasts, where opinions often arrive vacuum-sealed and pre-approved by Letterboxd disciples who say “actually” the way sommeliers say “oak-forward,” there drifts a peculiar and charming vessel called Fear and Loathing in Cinema. It is less a podcast than a late-night diner booth where the mozzarella sticks have gone cold, the coffee has achieved sentience, and nobody particularly cares who wins the argument so long as the argument remains entertaining.
The show traffics in the familiar pleasures of movie obsession: nostalgia, criticism, over-analysis, and the occasional spirited defense of a sequel no reasonable jury would acquit. But its real gift is what might be called the affectionate autopsy. Movies are pulled apart not with the cold efficiency of a coroner but with the curiosity of archaeologists dusting off a relic they can’t quite believe exists. Was it bad? Maybe. Was it fascinatingly bad? That’s where the fun begins. The hosts understand that cinema history is littered with glorious wreckage and that sometimes the crash site tells a more interesting story than the monument.
At the center of it all is a quartet whose chemistry feels less like a panel discussion and more like the dinner party that somehow survives both politics and tequila. Bryan Kluger hosts with the enthusiasm of a man willing to follow a filmmaker into increasingly dangerous territory just to see how weird things get. Preston Barta has a knack for finding the emotional heartbeat inside movies that others dismiss. Dan Moran approaches plot holes like a prosecutor who has spent weeks preparing exhibits. And Chelsea Nicole possesses the rare ability to cut through nonsense with a single observation that somehow manages to be both hilarious and devastatingly accurate.
On Episode #162 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema, Bryan, Dan, Preston, and Chelsea crack their eyelids open for Wide Awake, the charmingly odd little comedy-drama that spent years gathering dust on a Harvey Weinstein shelf before escaping into the world as M. Night Shyamalan’s first feature, long before dead people started chatting with Haley Joel Osment.
The film feels less like a debut and more like a secret origin story. Everyone remembers Shyamalan emerging fully formed from The Sixth Sense, but Wide Awake is where the fingerprints first appear with faith and doubt wrestling in the same room, grief lingering like an uninvited relative, children searching for answers, adults pretending they have them, and the nagging suspicion that the universe might be hiding something just off-screen.
Along the way, the gang tumbles headfirst into the existential and religious questions that would come to define much of Shyamalan’s career, debates whether this movie contains even a molecule of horror, and marvels at the strange comic chemistry between a classroom full of wisecracking kids and Rosie O’Donnell, who somehow operates on the same wavelength as all of them. Most surprising of all, Wide Awake turns out to be warm, sweet, and unapologetically cheesy. It’s a film with its heart worn so openly on its sleeve that you almost expect it to get detention for it.
It’s M. Night before the twists, before the hype, and before audiences spent entire movies trying to outguess him. Enjoy this episode everywhere.
FEAR AND LOATHING PODCAST APPLE PODCASTS
FEAR AND LOATHING PODCAST SPOTIFY
Thank you for listening.
WRITTEN BY: BRYAN KLUGER
Bryan Kluger is an entertainment critic, writer, and podcast host with a deep love for film, horror, and pop culture. His work has appeared in outlets such as Arts+Culture Magazine, High-Def Digest, Screen Rant, The Huffington Post, The Drudge Report, Fark, and Boomstick Comics. He hosts My Bloody Podcast and Fear and Loathing in Cinema Podcast, along with a weekly radio show, where he brings sharp insight, humor, and an unabashed passion for movies to every conversation.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
