July 2026 – Moviewallas

Episode 597 – Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass / Tony

Podcast

🎬 Moviewallas: Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass & Tony

This week on Moviewallas, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi review two very different films. First up is Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a wildly absurd comedy packed with rapid-fire jokes, celebrity cameos, fourth-wall breaks, and a surprising amount of sweetness. Then the team turns to Tony, Matt Johnson’s moving portrait of the formative summer that set a young Anthony Bourdain on the path toward kitchens, writing, and the life that would eventually make him famous.

Before the reviews, the hosts return to “I Can’t Find Anything to Watch…” with three streaming recommendations: the heartfelt science-fiction adventure The Adam Project, the brutal medieval thriller Pilgrimage, and Ridley Scott’s inventive historical drama The Last Duel.

📺 Streaming Picks

🚀 The Adam Project – Netflix
Rashmi recommends this warm and unexpectedly emotional science-fiction adventure starring Ryan Reynolds. Beneath the time-travel premise is a sweet story about family, regret, and second chances.

⚔️ Pilgrimage – Hulu
Yazdi revisits this beautifully shot medieval action drama starring Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal. A novice monk and a mysterious former crusader must transport a sacred relic through dangerous territory.

🛡️ The Last Duel – Hulu
Joe recommends Ridley Scott’s powerful historical drama starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, and Ben Affleck. Its ingenious structure allows the same events to unfold through several competing perspectives.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

When her fiancé acts on their celebrity-pass agreement, Midwest bride Gail Daughtry heads to Hollywood in search of a celebrity encounter of her own.

Directed by David Wain and starring Zoey Deutch, the film assembles a huge comic cast that includes Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Sabrina Impacciatore, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, and many more.

The hosts discuss the film’s relentless stream of jokes, its Wizard of Oz influences, its affectionate use of Hollywood caricatures, and the willingness of its celebrity cameos to completely make fools of themselves. It is ridiculous, exhausting, incredibly sweet, and, most importantly, genuinely funny.

Tony

Director Matt Johnson, whose previous film was BlackBerry, turns his attention to the early life of Anthony Bourdain.

The film follows 19-year-old Bourdain as he arrives in Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of restaurant kitchens. Rather than attempting to cover his entire life, Tony concentrates on one formative summer and the people who helped point him toward the career that would eventually define him.

The team praises Dominic Sessa for capturing Bourdain’s charm, arrogance, intelligence, and complexity without turning him into a saint. They also discuss the outstanding performances from Antonio Banderas, Leo Woodall, and Emilia Jones, the convincing recreation of the 1970s restaurant world, and the film’s refusal to romanticize the brutal reality of kitchen work.

Funny, moving, authentic, and made with enormous affection for Bourdain, this is a biopic that understands the value of focusing on the thing that led to the thing.

💬 Like, comment, and subscribe for spoiler-light film reviews, streaming recommendations, strong opinions, and general movie banter.

🎙️ Hosted by Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi
🌐 www.moviewallas.com

🕰️ Timestamps

00:00 – Start
01:38 – Streaming Picks
01:55 – The Adam Project
02:29 – Pilgrimage
03:37 – The Last Duel
05:24 – Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
17:05 – Tony
31:42 – Closing Thoughts

#Moviewallas #GailDaughtry #CelebritySexPass #TonyMovie #AnthonyBourdain #ZoeyDeutch #AntonioBanderas #DominicSessa #LeoWoodall #MattJohnson #MoviePodcast #FilmReviews #StreamingPicks #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

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Yazdi’s List of Best Films from the First Half of 2026

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Hello lovers of cinema. Yazdi here. Being a part of the global clan of pathologic list-makers, I feel compelled to enumerate the better films I watched during the first six months of the year.

There were only two rules. First, that the film should have been released between January 1^st and June 30^th. And second that it must have pleased me, turned something on within me, made me glad for cinema.

So, without much additional fanfare here are them films:

10. I SWEAR (available for digital rental) and PILLION (streaming on HBO Max and Hulu): Two films that couldn’t be more dissimilar vied for this spot and I want cinefiles to consider them both.

PILLION: That this film exists at all is some kind of a miracle. Plunging happily into places that commercial cinema would dare not venture into, I like this movie most of all for its gumption. This is not for the squeamish.

I SWEAR: Biopics are a dime a dozen. But there is something truthful, and bare and honest about this coming of age story about a kid growing up rural Scotland with the emergency of Tourette’s within him, at a time when few knew about the condition. Ultimately the film is a plea to meet the unknown, the hostile even, with kindness and understanding

9. MOTHER MARY (available for digital rental): This latest from David Lowery is film that should not work at all, but it does. A famous pop star (Anne Hathaway) reaches out to her costume designer friend (Micaela Cole) in a moment of crisis, triggering a psychological duel between the two. If you are tired of homogenized recycled fare, then this is your salve.

8. THE BRIDE (streaming on HBO Max and Hulu): A polarizing film derided by most becomes all the more dear to its supporters and I am one of those. Maggie Gyllenhaal re-imagines the Bride of Frankenstein as not a background player in her own story but as someone with steely self-possession. Give me glorious ambition even when it may not fully work.

7. THE FURIOUS (available for digital rental): The best action film to get projected on a movie screen since THE RAID. Period. Come to be wowed beyond your dreams.

6. OBSESSION (in theaters, still) : One could uncharitably reduce this film to a nominal horror-film but the script uses the premise – a man wishing that his secret crush loves him over anyone else in the world comes to realize the perils of his wish come horribly true – to comment on so much about the state of the world right now.

5. THE SHEEP DETECTIVES (streaming on Amazon Prime): I’d read the book this is based on, but even so hadn’t fully prepared for the joy, the delightful goofiness, and the wonderfully astute philosophical musings that can come from a film adaptation done gloriously right. Yes, this is about talking sheep trying to solve the murder of their flock shepherd. But it is so, so much more.

4. PROJECT HAIL MARY (streaming on Amazon Prime): A man (Ryan Gosling) wakes up as the only living person on an adrift spaceship; he has no memory and has to figure out his way back to planet Earth. Based on the Andy Weir novel and directed with impossible verve by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, this film accomplishes a funny, heartfelt journey to the screen of a book many had considered unfilmable.

3. SEND HELP (streaming on Hulu): Celebrate one and all. For Sam Raimi is back to regale us with his singular wit and outsized moviemaking skills. A smart but frumpy woman (Rachel McAdams) working in a company recently taken over by a loutish, unqualified man (Dylan O’Brien) sees their power dynamics change dramatically when they are the only two survivors from a plane that has crashed into a remote island. Broad, unrelenting, and smart, this is a gem of a film.

2. THE DRAMA (available for digital rental): What can you find out about the person you are about to marry that may make you question walking down that aisle. A simple premise, with able leads in Zendaya and Robin Pattinson, this crackerjack script will lead viewers to endless what-would-you-do debates. No one will come out of this film without strong reactions. And isn’t that why we go to the movies.

1. THE INVITE (in theaters): The only film this year I watched a second time in the theaters to make sure I hadn’t been too liberal with my admiration upon first watch. Confirmed, this script is firing on all cylinders with some of the best acting of the year. And with assured direction by Olivia Wilde, this lithe film set almost entirely in a single apartment delivers on laughter (both the guffawing and the nervous kind), insight, and so much empathy. I irrationally love this film.

Episode 596 – The Odyssey

Podcast

Welcome back to Moviewallas, your weekly dose of film reviews, movie news, and general banter – in theatres, on streaming, or in the back of an airplane. This week, Joe, Rashmi, and Yazdi take on just one movie, but it is a very big one: Christopher Nolan’s sprawling, IMAX-shot adaptation of The Odyssey.

Before setting sail, the team celebrates Rashmi’s newly published children’s book, Your Fluff Is Enough, now available through major booksellers. Learn more about Lenny the sheep, the Happy Wiggly farm, and the book’s message of self-acceptance at happywiggly.com.

📺 Streaming Picks – “I Can’t Find Anything to Watch…”

🐙 Remarkably Bright Creatures – Netflix
Yazdi recommends this warm adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s novel, starring Sally Field as an aquarium custodian whose story unfolds with a little help from a remarkably observant octopus.

🍬 India Sweets and Spices – Netflix
Rashmi revisits this charming indie dramedy about family, community expectations, hidden histories, and a young woman returning home from college.

🥊 Warrior – Prime Video
Joe reaches back into the early Moviewallas archives for this powerful sports drama starring Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte. It may look like a conventional fighting movie, but its performances and emotional weight lift it far above the genre clichés.

⛵ The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan takes on one of the oldest and most influential stories ever told, with Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, and a huge ensemble that includes Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton, and more.

Shot entirely in IMAX, this is Nolan operating at his most ambitious: vast locations, practical filmmaking, mythological creatures, booming sound design, and a story that spans war, guilt, temptation, survival, and the long journey home.

The team discusses the film’s extraordinary technical achievement, its unconventional structure, Nolan’s reinterpretation of the story’s women, Matt Damon’s take on Odysseus, and whether all that cinematic majesty comes with enough emotional warmth. They also debate whether Nolan’s devotion to IMAX and fractured timelines strengthens the story or sometimes gets in its way.

Despite a few reservations, everyone agrees that The Odyssey demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

💬 Like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoy spoiler-light movie discussions with strong opinions, mythology tangents, filmmaking analysis, and the occasional debate about whether “Dad” belongs in Ancient Greece.

🎙️ Hosted by: Joe, Rashmi & Yazdi
📺 Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts
📍 Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @moviewallas
🌐 www.moviewallas.com
🐑 Discover Your Fluff Is Enough at: www.happywiggly.com

🕰 Timestamps

00:00 – Start
00:44 – Back Together and San Diego Heat
02:45 – Your Fluff Is Enough
06:10 – Streaming Picks
06:42 – Remarkably Bright Creatures
09:18 – India Sweets and Spices
10:37 – Warrior
13:07 – The Odyssey

#Moviewallas #TheOdyssey #ChristopherNolan #MattDamon #AnneHathaway #TomHolland #RobertPattinson #Zendaya #IMAX #MoviePodcast #FilmReview #GreekMythology #StreamingPicks #YourFluffIsEnough #TooManyMoviesTooLittleTime

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:57 — 40.5MB)