Is it worth your time?

How it works

New episodes land three times a week, every week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. New releases are covered close to their Australian opening, often within days and sometimes the same day. Wednesdays belong to From the Vault, where Darryl revisits an older film to see whether it still holds up. TV seasons get a full recap once they have finished airing, rather than a reaction to episode one.

We are based in Brisbane, Australia, which means our new release coverage tracks the Australian window.

The Frame Index

Every review carries a Frame Index score out of ten, built from five markers: craft, impact, originality, flow and echo. It is not an aggregate of other people's opinions and it is not a thumbs up or down. It is a considered position on what a film or series actually achieves, and where it falls short.

Where to listen

Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and YouTube, plus the written edition of every review on this site.

The hosts

Fraser

Fraser covers new releases and television, and he would happily argue there is still nothing quite like a cinema on opening weekend. Lights down, phone away, no idea what is coming. Marvel, Bond and Star Wars are the ones he grew up on and he will defend all three at length, though he watches a good deal more widely than that suggests. If something new has opened, chances are he was there on the Friday and the review is already written.

Darryl

Darryl, Fraser's father, covers From the Vault, which is where the older films get their turn. Retirement has handed him the one thing most reviewers never get, which is time, and he puts it to proper use. A film might get watched three times before he says a word about it. He is just as interested in the ones that have quietly aged badly as the ones that turned out to be classics, and he is generous with both.

How it started

My dad has early onset dementia. It is progressing, and when he retired the days got a good deal emptier than they had been.

Reviewing films turned out to be a decent answer to that. Every episode is a full run of work: he watches the film, sometimes three times over, writes his own notes on it, turns those notes into a narration script, and then records it. Recall, structure, sequencing, judgement. Every week, with a deadline, and something finished at the end of it.

I would like to say I planned it that carefully. Honestly I just thought he would enjoy it, and the rest became obvious once he started.

What I did not expect was how good he would be at it. Dad is the more patient reviewer of the two of us. If you want to know whether a film has genuinely held up, he is the one to listen to.