Not only is this week’s movie named after battles, it provokes on on the episode. There has been widespread praise for the new film from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, but it is not universal. From early on in the episode we learn that some cinema goers are not fans of this Leonardo DiCaprio starring film. While praise outnumbers the critical positions, the discussion here goes deep into themes, performances and what the tone of the film is, rather than what the tone is intended.

Howard Casner from “Pop Art” and Rishabh Vashishtha from his self titled blog, have similar opinions in favor of the film, but they also find that there is less common ground than might have been anticipated. When confronted by the dissenting opinion on the show, Howard sites a sequence of scenes that he sees as brilliant, and Rishabh touts the father-daughter theme that runs through most of the nearly three hour film itself.

Our episode is not close to three hours in length, and we get to the key disputes in a very time efficient manner, but without the directorial flourish that might be found in a PTA film. There are some minor plot details in the first part of the episode, but a clear spoiler warning will clear anyone who has not yet seen the movie and wants to remain blank before plugging in.

To finish off the episode, the Exit Question this week, is really just a round of director Mount Rushmore. Inevitably, one member of the cast finds a way around the four person limit, at least if you think that time eras are a fair dividing point. Come on and give us your own lists, we may end up doing a show on that topic.

Introduction

General Thoughts 2:30

Tone Issues 20:00

Spoiler Wall 42:10

Exit Question 1:00:00

Rishabh Rishabh Vashishtha Reviews

Howard Pop Art

Richard KAMAD

The show can be found, of course, via iTunes – just do a search for “LAMBcast.” Also, I always post a link to the show on the LAMBcast’s Facebook page and on the LAMB Facebook Page.There’s a link  there if you’d like to listen online. Find the show here:

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast/episodes/2025-09-30T12_29_14-07_00

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