What happens when you take a sixteen-year-old who already feels like an outsider and put him through years of psychological experiments at Harvard? Netflix’s new Unabomber film asks us to see those years as part of Ted Kaczynski’s story. But how much do we actually know about what happened to him there, and how much has the film imagined?

Elizabeth and I also talk about Shailene Woodley’s FBI agent, who reminded me of Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs: a woman who sees something the men around her keep dismissing. I loved watching her.

Elizabeth had a different reaction. And before we get into any of that, I have a completely different recommendation: The Love Hypothesis on Prime. It’s a rom com that made me laugh, gave me women I wanted to spend time with, and sent me straight to Elizabeth to talk about it.

- Christine Merser

Why is Practical Magic 2 filling theaters with women, and why are so many of them leaving in tears? Wilder and I talk about why this sequel feels bigger than its plot, what 26 years of loss and lived experience brought to Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s performances, and why a story about women reclaiming their power matters so much right now. We also ask why Hollywood still seems surprised when women show up.

- Christine Merser

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play a couple preparing to get married when a confession from her past changes everything. The film then moves into deeply disturbing territory, confronting a planned school shooting and the way people respond when someone’s worst act, or even the intention to commit it, becomes the only thing they can see.

Audiences and critics panned the film, in part because they arrived expecting a quirky romance and instead found themselves watching something dark, painful and profoundly unsettling. The marketing was not merely misleading. It put the film in front of the wrong audience with completely false expectations, then left the film to absorb the backlash.

Much discussion about why The Drama deserves a place on your dance card. They talk about Zendaya’s extraordinary sadness and desperation, Robert Pattinson’s remarkable performance, including one unforgettable scene in which he dances alone in an apartment, and Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli’s outsider’s view of America’s relationship with gun violence.

They also consider why the industry no longer seems to know how to market a film that refuses to fit neatly into one genre, how trailers have begun giving away far too much and why a difficult film should not be dismissed simply because it makes us uncomfortable.

The Drama is disturbing. It is supposed to be. And it may be one of the most important films people were told to see for all the wrong reasons.

Is it a success? That depends on what you were looking for when The Odyssey started rolling.

Different people came to this film expecting very different things. Emily Wilson, whose translation helped inspire Christopher Nolan to take it on, was looking for something quite different from film aficionados. Christine was looking for an education in the Classics she never got—and didn’t realize mattered until she saw the film.

And Wilder? She is all in, but with thoughtful commentary on everything from the production to Nolan’s approach to the original poem.

Then there’s the casting. Christine will tell you there is no way Matt Damon should have played Odysseus. But you may be surprised by who she thinks should have.

So climb aboard. This may not be Homer’s Odyssey, or even Nolan’s. It’s ours now.

Wilder and Merser are late to join the admirers of the extraordinary film Hamnet, but only because Merser wasn’t sure she wanted to take the emotional journey.

“I can’t believe I almost missed this incredibly special film. It may be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, for so many reasons.”

In this episode of Screen Thoughts, Wilder and Merser dive deeply into a film layered with grief, love, marriage, art, motherhood, memory, and the mysterious way great loss becomes great creation. When a film is this rich, there are endless layers to examine, and not one emotional stone goes unturned in this remarkable conversation.

You will be glad you experienced Hamnet through the eyes of two women who do not let a single moment pass unappreciated.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is one of the quietest films I’ve seen in years, and maybe one of the most powerful because of it. Starring Sally Field and Lewis Pullman, the film unfolds slowly, patiently, almost tenderly, as it explores grief, loneliness, friendship, aging, and the strange ways human beings find each other again after heartbreak. And at the center of it all is an octopus named Marcellus, who may understand more about humanity than the humans themselves. - Christine Merser, Critic

In this episode I take a deep dive into The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a film that should have been front-row center but never got its moment. I talk about Riz Ahmed’s extraordinary performance, the quiet brilliance of Mira Nair’s direction, the music that pulls you into another cultural syntax, and the way the film exposes America’s post-9/11 blind spots without shouting. It is a story about identity, belonging, and the small humiliations that shape a life. And maybe more than anything, it’s a reminder that no one becomes a fundamentalist in a vacuum — and we should stop pretending otherwise. - Hollister

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merser and Wilder could not wait to unpack Season Three of The Diplomat, which Merser calls “the best of the three, by a diplomatic mile.” After a quick walk through Seasons One and Two, they dive into the complex and ingenious storytelling that defines this season.

You cannot talk about The Diplomat without invoking The West Wing and Homeland, and Debora Cahn, who wrote for both, shows how to fuse the best of those worlds while making something singular in The Diplomat. The plot is a high-stakes global crisis, personal entanglements that complicate every choice, and a quieter script that lets tension build in the spaces between lines.

In a world on edge, this story lands close to home and makes for must-watch TV. Spoilers ahead.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices