Movies

Mar 6, 2026 ∞

Tough Flicks: Dead Ringers

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#15 — Dead Ringers (1988)

John

Sam

Sean

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Picked by: Sam

Why: The last of Sam’s backlog of prestige arthouse picks — Cronenberg’s most acclaimed film, a critical darling that barely made back its budget and somehow became a horror landmark anyway.

The Conversation

Sam came in a little lost — soft dialogue, no subtitles, and two Jeremy Irons performances that start out deliberately indistinguishable. He rewatched the first thirty minutes before the call just to get his bearings. “I was confused and I just started enjoying it anyway,” which is honestly a pretty good endorsement for any movie.

John, on the other hand, watched it on his big fancy Audio-Technica headphones in one unbroken sitting and came in hot. “I fucking love this movie. Phenomenal fucking movie.” He never once felt the two-hour runtime. He was also the one to connect the dots for Sam on the drug arc — how Claire’s departure triggered Beverly’s spiral, which pulled Elliot down after him. “One woman destroyed their brotherly relationship,” he said, “and she was the three uteri.”

Sean watched it in thirty-minute chunks over a few nights on the Roku, which somehow still left him gripped enough to look up the Howard Shore score on YouTube afterwards. He didn’t know Shore did Lord of the Rings until that moment, which felt like a genuine revelation. He also noted that Jeremy Irons deserves serious credit for how clearly distinct the two brothers become by the film’s second half — you start out confused, and then suddenly you just know who’s who without thinking about it.

The consensus standout: Jeremy Irons acting against himself. John put it plainly — he was essentially the only actor in two-thirds of the film, doing the straight man, the drug addict, and both at once. He got scooped out of an Oscar for this (too weird, too uncommercial), then won Best Actor the following year and thanked Cronenberg in his speech. The Chicago Film Critics gave it to him in real time, even if Roger Ebert only gave the movie two and a half stars — “a collaboration between med school and a supermarket tabloid,” which Sean argued was kind of the point.

A few highlights from the conversation worth noting: Sam floated a Cronenberg Easter egg theory — Beverly eating something oddly shaped early in the film, and whether it matched the fleshy connective tissue Claire bites in the nightmare sequence. “Is David up to some tricks here?” John went looking for the timestamp. Sean had noticed the pizza too. Nobody could confirm it, but nobody could rule it out either.

John also admitted that mid-film he briefly wondered if the twins were the same person — a Patrick Bateman-style break, one man’s full schizophrenic episode. They’re not. But the fact that the movie earns that question without ever confirming it is part of what makes it work. Sam compared their bond to Where the Red Fern Grows — one goes, the other can’t survive it. John thought that was interesting. He was right.

Sean brought up the production angle: getting Jeremy Irons in the same frame as himself was apparently groundbreaking for 1988 technology, and it holds up. The seam only shows in the first few minutes, and then your brain just accepts it. The apartment design got a mention too — sterile, muted, brutalist 80s Toronto. Sam noted that Cronenberg strips the frame of everything except Jeremy Irons, which forces you to just watch him. The only real color in the film is red, which shows up exactly when it needs to.

The Verdict

John called it his best score yet — a 90, ahead of It Happened One Night, the first film in the series to crack that threshold. Sean came in at 88. Sam gave it a 78, still processing, possibly revisiting. He was lost for a good stretch of it and is honest about that. The average lands at 85, tying They Live and Cure at the top of the Tough Flicks all-time list.

Roger Ebert gave it two and a half stars. The Chicago Film Critics gave Jeremy Irons Best Actor. The movie is in every serious top-100 horror list.

Sam put it best: “I’m glad I watched it.”

Feb 15, 2026 ∞

Tough Flicks #11 — Touch of Evil (1958)

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#11 — Touch of Evil (1958)

John

Sam

Sean

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Picked by: John Why: He’s been digging into older critically acclaimed films — after Chinatown, this one surfaced as another noir set along the Mexican border. His first Orson Welles movie.

The Conversation

The group was unanimous on one thing: Orson Welles absolutely stole this movie. Playing the corrupt, grotesque Captain Hank Quinlan, he was so repulsive and so magnetic that everyone agreed he was the best part of the film. John couldn’t believe how good Welles was as an actor — “I hated that motherfucker” being the highest compliment he could give. Sean pointed out how Welles dominated every scene he was in, with the constant crosstalk and background noise making it all feel alive.

The iconic opening tracking shot got everyone hyped. Sean recognized it immediately as one of those “Best Shots in Cinema History” compilation staples — the camera following a car with a bomb through the busy border town in one long, unbroken take. The group agreed the direction was masterful: every shot had a purpose, reflections in windows, characters lurking in the background, no wasted frames.

The big revelation came from Sam, who floated a theory that blew John’s mind: did Hank Quinlan strangle his own wife? The movie drops hints — Quinlan is oddly knowledgeable about strangulation as a murder method, his partner reacts with shock after the killing of Uncle Joe, and the fortune teller subplot suggests a complicated grief. Sam argued the film was “saying it without saying it,” and the group loved that kind of subtle storytelling compared to modern films that spell everything out.

Speaking of Uncle Joe — John was a big fan. Charming, funny, bent the rules but didn’t seem like a true villain. At least until things went south. The drinking scene also stood out: after the movie establishes that Quinlan has been sober and living on candy bars, he quietly orders a double bourbon, the music stops, and his whole demeanor shifts. John rewound that scene.

Where it lost points: everyone agreed the Susan subplot dragged the movie down. Janet Leigh’s character had almost nothing to do with the main plot — half her scenes were about being tired and trying to go to bed. The motel sequences split the room: Sean found the Night Manager grating, while Sam thought he was basically Buster Bluth from Arrested Development and loved him for it. John admitted to pulling out his phone during the hotel scenes.

The Charlton Heston casting got a laugh — a white guy playing a Mexican detective with a dyed mustache and the occasional Spanish sentence thrown in. The group acknowledged it was brownface by today’s standards, but noted his performance was solid regardless.

Sean closed the night with a fun trivia drop: Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother. The room was appropriately stunned.

The Verdict

A rock-solid noir elevated by one of the all-time great villain performances from Orson Welles. The direction and cinematography are film-school caliber, and the core mystery works well. It just gets weighed down by a meandering subplot that the whole group wished had been trimmed. Strong 79 — not quite at the level of They Live or Cure, but a worthy addition to the Tough Flicks canon.

John came in at 85 and got talked down to 80 by his own crew. That might be a first.

Jul 5, 2025 ∞

Tough Flicks: They Live (1988)

Movie Discussion

Praised for its social commentary on capitalism, consumerism, and propaganda
Enjoyed the action scenes, particularly the extended fight scene
Appreciated the movie’s rewatchability and cult classic status
Discussed the open-ended nature of the film’s conclusion
Noted connections to modern issues like wealth inequality and climate change

Movie Scoring

John: 85/100
Sean: 83/100
Sam: 88/100

Next Steps

Watch “Bound” (1996) for the next movie discussion