It's September 1, so you know what that means: time to board the Hogwarts Express!

Today we’re discussing HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE and, given the weight and volume of all there is to discuss, we welcomed two guests for the first time. Hadley Balser is a journalist and recent college grad, and TheSecondBatgirl is a podcaster and general expert on all things fandom (she also once was a moderator for a Harry Potter fan site — remember those?!)

Yes, we talk about J.K. Rowling’s bigotry against transgender people, and the impact that’s had on how folks engage with Harry Potter. If you don’t want to hear that, grow up. (Or, IDK, skip around I guess, but I’m not gonna hold your hand to the time stamps.)

This week’s bonus feature is all about fandom and “nerd” culture: the history, the hijinks and the hysteria that probably has done more harm than good to society.

Usually we ponder, “Does this movie matter?” but this week it takes on a different form, naturally, given the subject at hand. So grab a wand and hold on tight.

Free trial for FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE: https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/na/

Follow TheSecondBatgirl: https://bsky.app/profile/thesecondbatgirl.bsky.social

Follow Hadley: https://www.instagram.com/hadleybalseronpitch/

Hadley’s Blog: https://heroic-hmshadley.wordpress.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAcGRvZgJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAaftUUCzqTlVinopJCZBwAFYwmWzRUyEybCEQzqyEzGFfzS2-jctdL9boXOC-A_aem_7Tq6Y3Xy6xcOm5jC6IDQjA

SHOW NOTES (very useful this week): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lPlrgBNEBydPzhaQYcR7AB9PsAbhHPyDEsuS40QCvLQ/edit?usp=sharing

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

P.S.: Our audio listeners got about 10 minutes of extra “content” this week. If you want to hear a post-script to the episode, check us out wherever you listen to podcasts that isn’t YouTube.

What do you get when you mix several of the biggest actor in Hollywood, a filmmaker with distinct vision and commercial sensibilities, and a hair-brained scheme? One of the finest blockbusters ever screened at multiplexes (well, at least according to the host writing this description).

OCEAN’S ELEVEN stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts among several other well-known faces (including future Captain America Don Cheadle). It’s actually a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack flick of the same name but has very little in common with it beyond that. Here, the target is absurd — not one, but three casino cash reserves housed in an underground vault — and, often, so too are the motivations. It’s a crystallization of the phrase, “They don’t make ’em like that anymore.”

Allison, a true appreciator of sin, becomes a tour guide in this week’s bonus feature segment dedicated to the city that capitalism demanded exist: Las Vegas!

Finally, we put our chips on the table and ask, “Does this movie matter?” One of us might lose their shirt!

SHOW NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dMYepM8YQoBs5wxaM_JwU4m-Ec25gC6G8dIycVJnT0E/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.e32fsjx5hwrr

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

Get out your carving knives, cause we’re headed to the mean streets of London in FROM HELL.

Johnny Depp and Heather Graham star in the Hughes brothers’ adaptation of the quintessential Alan Moore comic FROM HELL, which was inspired by the 1988 BBC miniseries JACK THE RIPPER, which was influenced by the 1978 film MURDER BY DECREE, which followed Stephen Knight’s bestselling 1976 book JACK THE RIPPER: THE FINAL SOLUTION. No idea is original!

It all, of course, stems from a series of murders that occurred in London’s East End from April 1988 to February 1891. Many of those killings were eventually prescribed to “Jack the Ripper,” a serial killer who to this day remains unidentified. Fittingly for our goofy show, our final movie from the “That Really Happened” segment of our draft aligns with a subject about whom we really don’t know much.

Naturally, we dive into societal fascination with true crime in the bonus feature. Then, as always, we ponder “Does this movie matter?” Jack may not like where we arrive.

SHOW NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E4gmKuJwqKoaOK4EWmzxkocoAx-6fT2QpDIW2DBngbM/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.54kz1oojh3oi

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! This week, we’re stepping into the ring with Michael Mann’s biographical epic ALI.

We talk a lot about Will Smith’s physically impressive transformation into one of the greatest athletes who’s ever lived, Jon Voight’s uncanny turn as Howard Cosell and Mann’s signature kinetic, documentarian direction. The film captures a tumultuous decade in the life of a global sports and cultural icon, and we do the best job that three white people from Kentucky can in talking about that.

In our bonus feature segment, we focus on a part of Ali's legacy outside the ring: Parkinson's disease. We discuss Ali's diagnosis, his brave public fight with the neurodegenerative condition, and how his high-profile advocacy, alongside contemporaries like Michael J. Fox, fundamentally shifted public understanding and funding for Parkinson's research.

Does ALI matter in 2026? Let’s square off.

SHOW NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zhUnPnz0Zq1BVYa-ZdkG15QiQN9t8luBfH1pjaUL3Uo/edit?usp=sharing

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

All aboard! It’s time to take the train to John Carpenter’s GHOSTS OF MARS.

We are incredibly honored to kick off the episode with an interview with legendary producer Sandy King Carpenter to talk about her extensive career in horror, the wild production of this week's film, and what it’s like bringing terrifying, ambitious visions to the big screen alongside her husband, John Carpenter.

After the interview, we continue to break down the sci-fi, action-horror mashup. We dive into the delightfully chaotic casting — including Natasha Henstridge as a pill-popping space cop, Ice Cube as the notorious outlaw "Desolation" Williams, a surprisingly hairy Jason Statham, and the iconic Pam Grier — along with the film's wild premise of ancient, red-dust spirits possessing all-comers and turning them into maniacs.

In our bonus feature segment, Slate was inspired by Carpenter’s unapologetic vision to further discuss filmmakers' passion projects.

Does GHOSTS OF MARS matter in 2026? Or should it have stayed buried deep beneath the red dirt? Lock, load, and listen to find out!

SHOW NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Lu7qZWRnHul3keOKrmHT_Q1WBw4MTOB8KcM6HfLR_k/edit?usp=sharing

Check out Storm King Comics: https://stormkingcomics.com/

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century. Tell a friend about us!

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

A lot has changed since 2001, but Guillermo del Toro’s love for telling stories about monsters has persisted.

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE (or EL ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO in its native tongue) is, put most simply, a ghost story. We find ourselves in an orphanage strained by the realities of the Spanish Civil War, which is in its waning days but about to be won by fascists. Fuuuuuuuun!!!

Following the movie talk we dive briefly into the history of Mexican cinema before, as always, closing with a discussion about the movie’s lasting impact in our, “Does it matter?” segment.

SHOW NOTES:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MSbul3l4nhUx3G6ms0oQhj3fcHdpi7V03H4srz9_JN4/edit?usp=sharing

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

Of all the movies released in 2001, SHALLOW HAL is probably No. 1 on the list of those that could never be made again by a major studio, and that’s certainly a good feather in humanity’s cap. Alas, because they’re men, Josh and Slate did their best to defend whatever honor this movie has in the face of a force greater than Goop — Allison the unfettered hater!!!

It stars Jack Black — arguably the 21st Century’s biggest movie story, which is a statement that certainly says something about humanity, too — and Gwyneth Paltrow, who has the good fortune (?) of being the subject of this week’s bonus feature. Spoiler: there’s coochie talk.

As always, we try to decide if this movie matters in 2026, but this time with a bountiful helping of problematic comedians! LFG!!!!!!!

SHOW NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18kYP8Oe57qdNL6CVzNfZ5_KaPyhTDBEgkIgOHGxlLfI/edit?usp=sharing

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp

Are you sure this podcast isn’t starting from the end? That it isn’t happening concurrently with the beginning? That what you’re listening to is reliable? That this isn't really about THE ODYSSEY?!?!

MEMENTO often pops up in lists as a 2000 movie because that was the year of its festival release, but the movie didn’t hit movie theaters for the actual buying public until 2001 so Christopher Nolan’s first widely known flick is officially in our camp. And what a movie this is!

Guy Pearce stars as Leonard, a guy who might be the most unreliable narrator to ever grace a movie screen. He’s trying to find the guy who killed his wife, but what he might find is something scarier than a murderer: the truth!

Slate walks us through a brief history of major film festivals during this week’s bonus feature before we try to remember to ask, “Does this movie matter?”

SHOW NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RZJNteyafOyMuXRV83i5S875cDZA27gnU2SZ6YpFtDQ/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.54kz1oojh3oi

NOT ANOTHER 2001 MOVIE PODCAST is a limited series exploring movies released in the first year of a chaotic century.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnother2001MoviePodcast

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notanother2001moviepodcast/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@na2001mp