It was the most expensive movie ever made, the punchline of a thousand headlines, and a flop so infamous it got its own nickname. This week on Required Viewing, we bail out Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner's Waterworld (1995) and study it from every angle — separating the film that's actually on screen from the runaway-budget legend that swallowed it whole.We get into Mad Max on the open ocean, the world-building that still holds up, Dennis Hopper chewing more scenery than the Smokers could ever burn, the environmental anxieties it was early to, and why a movie everyone "knows" was a disaster has quietly floated toward cult reappraisal. Was it the trainwreck history says, or did we all just enjoy watching it sink? Let's find dry land.Media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, navigate this one.New episodes every Thursday.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

The last thing the world needs in 2026 is yet another Halloween film but, to be fair, the last thing the world needed in 2007 was yet another Halloween film, especially one directed by Rob Zombie. Given that the film does in fact exist, Movie Meltdown's Bryan Renfro joins the Kulturecast for the first time to talk all about the finer points of reboots, Rob Zombie, and a whole lot more in this oversized part one of a two part series covering the Zombie reboot series.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

From suburban horror to the back end of the Cretaceous, the American genre picture keeps finding new ways to burn down the cul-de-sac. The End of Oak Street, the latest from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell, is a studio tentpole carrying an arthouse thesis, offering Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as a marriage coming apart at the seams while something much older comes down the street. Along with a fleet of dinosaurs shot without an ounce of reverence, it takes to task suburban rot, willful ignorance, and the family unit under pressure, to largely successful effect.Mike White of The Projection Booth joins the show to talk David Robert Mitchell, dinosaur cinema, and so much more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Two guys, a week in wine country, and a whole lot of avoidance. This week on Required Viewing, we uncork Alexander Payne's Sideways (2004) and study it from every angle — why a shaggy road-trip comedy about a failed novelist and a fading actor became the defining midlife-male-sadness movie of its era, and what it's really pouring underneath the pinot.We get into Payne's gift for making you laugh at people you'd never want to be, Miles as a portrait of self-sabotage dressed up as good taste, wine as the film's central metaphor (yes, that merlot line), and how a small character comedy quietly reshaped an entire industry. Great movie, terrible role models — let's swirl it around.Media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, Doctor of Podcasting, pour this one out.New episodes every Thursday.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study is a brand new sub-feed within The Kulturecast main feed where Dr. David D. Perlmutter and The Kulturecast's Doctor of Podcasting Chris Stachiw talk all about filmic topics through the lenses of a different film, tv series, or pop culture topic each Thursday.On this Episode Zero: Syllabus, the good doctors sit down to discuss the thesis behind the show, what might cause something to meet the criteria of "required viewing", and what you might expect to hear in the coming episodes of "Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study".———Every film says more than whether it was good. On Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study, media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, the Kulturecast's Doctor of Podcasting, take one movie apart from every angle — theme, craft, and cultural fallout — and throw out the star-ratings entirely. New episodes every Thursday.A sub-feed of The Kulturecast, from Weirding Way Media. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

From Train to Busan to the far-flung future with cloning and fascism, Korean cinema spans the genre gamut. Mickey 17, the latest film from Parasite’s Bong Joon Ho, is the latter, offering a look into the future with Robert Pattinson playing two roles as Mickey 17 and Mickey 18. Along with a cavalcade of character actors, it attempts to take to task fascism, biotech abuse, and more, to unsuccessful effect.Texas Tech’s Dr. David D. Perlmutter and K-drama anthropologist Miranda join the show to talk Korean cinema and so much more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

As the MCU barrels towards the inevitable ultimate crossover event that is Avengers: Doomsday, we must first check in on everyone's friendly neighborhood webhead. Once again starring Tom Holland, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is fourth film featuring the MCU's take on Spidey, with 100% less multiversal madness, thankfully. Along for the ride are Punisher, Black Widow, and maybe even an X-Man or two; The Projection Booth's Mike White crosses over to talk about them and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Battle Los Angeles is one of those forgotten sci-fi films that toed the line between war and alien invasion, doing something that few films since have: create a novel and compelling world for an alien invasion to occur. Dr. David D. Perlmutter joins Chris to talk war, aliens, and what happens when the two are combined.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

While it may be simplistic to say that the Blackberry died at the hands of the iPhone, it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. That death, however, was a very beautiful corpse as one might imagine due to Blackberry device becoming so ubiqutous as to have a nickname: "Crackberry". Join Chris, Dr. David Perlmutter, and Mark Stachiw as they talk all about the film as well as the history surrounding it and much more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Last year's Superman was a genuine suprise, especially for those amongst us who had soured heavily on the previous attempt at a unified DC Universe with Snyder's Darkseriousverse. The hope was real that James Gunn at would be enough to point the ship in a new, more interesting direction. Unfortunately, Supergirl is not that and barely lives up to even the smaller successes of Superman while attempting to broaden the universe in mostly unsuccessful ways. The Projection Booth's Mike White crosses over once again to talk Milly Alcock, DC comics, and why Superman just ain't for either of us.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.———The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast