Can you follow every trope and still achieve transcendence? Or put in simpler terms: is WARRIOR better than ROCKY? We 100% go there, and many other MMA-related places, in this Real Talk installment - including a look at Tom Hardy’s unexpected real-life MMA exploits! Can Alex look past the inaccuracies in the depiction of one of his favorite sports? Can Julio look past the similarities to HERE COMES THE BOOM? The answers are all here!

Is there really no other way for two men to resolve their issues than pure violence? And if they must do so, would it be too much to ask not to have them do it in such a paint-by-the-numbers sports movie? WARRIOR managed to somehow dazzle critics into a fresh Tomatometer score, but does it actually offer anything worth talking about, besides its outdated ideas about masculinity? Listen to Alex & Julio as they pick apart Gavin O’Connor’s bloated celebration of MMA and fractured families!

We wrap up our eighth year of podcasting and head into Year Nine by celebrating the good, the bad, the horny, and the super white movies we covered over the past twelve months: it’s THE EMBRIES - 2022 Edition. Don’t worry, it’ll still be fun even if this is your very first Contrarians episode. It might even inspire you to check out some of the awards recipients!

Honestly, if a few months ago you’d told us we’d have a serious sustained discussion about the finale to the Twilight Saga, we would’ve rolled our eyes. And yet here we are, debating whether Jacob was redeemed in the final two movies, trying to suss out how we feel about the franchise’s sudden jump onto a pro-life soapbox, and arguing the merits and flaws of the epic climactic battle. Breaking Dawn Real Talk, indeed.

The Twilight Saga comes to an end and, unlike those greedy studio-heads, The Contrarians will cover the wedding, honeymoon, pregnancy, birth, recruitment of other vampires and final battle against The Volturi all in one sitting! Listen as Alex & Julio geek out over every single development and cameo in BREAKING DAWN, a movie that may be rotten on the Tomatometer, but will forever be fresh in every Twi-hard’s heart.

You don’t really need us to talk about the original PSYCHO - though you’ll be surprised by one Franchise Killer opinion - when the remake provides much juicier conversation. With six of us on the panel, surely there must be at least one person who sees merit in Gus Van Sant’s experiment? It’s a far more contentious Real Talk than you’d expect!

This spooky season, we give you two PSYCHOs for the price of one - and we’ve brought four friends to play along! Rhys, Irena, David and AJ from the Franchise Killer podcast join Alex & Julio in nitpicking Alfred Hitchcock’s original PSYCHO, and then also help them praise Gus Van Sant’s experimental remake. It’s Perkins v. Vaughn, Leigh v. Heche, and Macy v. Common Sense in this massive (and massively fun) special episode!

If you’ve seen WAKE IN FRIGHT, you’re probably wondering if we’re going to talk about the kangaroo hunt sequence. Of course we are. Real Talk also prompts a discussion about “aggressive hospitality”, a fascinating recount of the time this film was lost, and, of course, whether this Aussie classic hit the Contrarians’ sweet spot! Has Chas Fisher scored a win for his country? Listen and find out!

We can’t seem to escape the Land of Oz here on The Contrarians. Patron Chas Fisher is throwing Aussie classic WAKE IN FRIGHT at us, and its freshness on the Tomatometer is… inexplicable to say the least. Why are Australians proud of a film that depicts their countrymen as alcoholic brutes? Listen to Alex & Julio as they try to analyze a pretentious Englishman’s descent into madness, and have their image of Donald Pleasence shattered forever!

We’re doing some really cool stuff on our Patreon channel - some of it a direct offspring from things we do on the main feed. Case in point: the continuation of our Summer Break episode, which started with our Dazed and Confused episode, and here moves on to a discussion about a very different kind of Summer flick: A GOOFY MOVIE. Forget the Tomatometer score as Alex & Julio are once again joined by Lilian to talk about how good Goofy is as a parent and how bad Max is a son.