The Spool

The Spool Unraveling pop culture one thread at a time. Reviews, interviews, news and podcasts.

A weekly podcast dedicated to discussing a different film each week, along with a custom cocktail and drinking game. Subscribe to us on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, and visit us at www.alcohollywood.com!

BETTER MAN makes for a better music biopic even if it doesn't fully dodge all the tired tropes of the genre, says Tim St...
25/12/2024

BETTER MAN makes for a better music biopic even if it doesn't fully dodge all the tired tropes of the genre, says Tim Stevens.

It has been said that Walk The Line set up the “cradle to grave” music biopic genre in 2005. Then Walk Hard came along two years later to deal the killing blow. Yes, there have been financially successful attempts at the genre (Bohemian Rhapsody). Alas, they largely delivered creatively unsatisf...

Tim Stevens got four (or so) questions with Ted McGinley of SHRINKING (and so much more) and the results should delight ...
24/12/2024

Tim Stevens got four (or so) questions with Ted McGinley of SHRINKING (and so much more) and the results should delight and inform. This makes a great companion piece to the Season 2 finale, available now on AppleTV+!

In Season 2, Shrinking has established itself as one of AppleTV+’s big winners. A considerable part of what has helped it connect with viewers is the ensemble cast, including Jason Segal as series’ lead, the grieving therapist Jimmy, Harrison Ford as his mentor and boss Paul, Jessica Williams as...

Lisa Laman hauls it over to The Spool with a review of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 just in time for families planning a holiday...
24/12/2024

Lisa Laman hauls it over to The Spool with a review of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 just in time for families planning a holiday movie trip. Read her review fast!

“Ha, ha, one!” How are those three words, emerging from a hysterical improvised fan-dub of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) cutscenes, funny? Turning such a declaration into a chuckle-worthy meme is the bizarre power of Sonic. The erratic and often cynical video game series has inspired absurd flights ...

ICYMI LAID takes on mortality, love, and s*x with a good amount of laughs. Unfortunately, the show struggles with framin...
20/12/2024

ICYMI LAID takes on mortality, love, and s*x with a good amount of laughs. Unfortunately, the show struggles with framing its lead, the excellent Stephanie Hsu, and seems to overestimate how bad she really is. So says Tim Stevens in his review.

Sometimes, having any connection to your ex(es) can feel like a curse. In Laid—a Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna adaptation of the Kirsty Fisher/Marieke Hardy Australian series of the same name—that feeling becomes literalized. That’s because the former s*xual partners of Ruby (Step...

Tim Stevens delights in the simple adrenalized pleasures of CARRY-ON including a great villainous turn by Jason Bateman....
17/12/2024

Tim Stevens delights in the simple adrenalized pleasures of CARRY-ON including a great villainous turn by Jason Bateman. Read the full review now:

There’s an art to movies that play well on airplanes. They must be interesting enough to maintain your attention as flight attendants jostle by with enormous beverage carts. The feature also needs to be easy enough to follow that you don’t lose the thread when the pilot interrupts to tell passen...

Go house hunting with Tim Stevens as he takes in the mess that is NO GOOD DEED on Netflix.
14/12/2024

Go house hunting with Tim Stevens as he takes in the mess that is NO GOOD DEED on Netflix.

Selling a home is, at best, a time of sanitized chaos. As they say about ducks, above the surface, like during open house, everything is serene to the point of sterile. But beneath the surface, behind the scenes, it is a whirling dervish of activity and emotions. So it only makes sense No Good Deed,...

Tim Stevens catches up with BLACK DOVES, calling it deeply silly, blood-soaked, and quite satisfying. Knightley and Whis...
13/12/2024

Tim Stevens catches up with BLACK DOVES, calling it deeply silly, blood-soaked, and quite satisfying. Knightley and Whishaw bring excellence to the over-the-top series.

In Keira Knightley’s best roles, there’s always a certain itchiness to her performance. It gives the characters she plays, no matter how confident seeming on the surface, the suggestion of a dose of imposter syndrome. It’s a quality that makes her a natural for an espionage agent who may have ...

SWEETHEARTS, streaming now on MAX, will be no one's idea of great film. However, as Tim Stevens argues, it has a gentle ...
06/12/2024

SWEETHEARTS, streaming now on MAX, will be no one's idea of great film. However, as Tim Stevens argues, it has a gentle sweetness and does a couple of unexpected things that make it the kind of untaxing treat we all need during this stretch of the year.

There’s something to be said for an opening title sequence that eliminates the need for in-dialogue exposition. Over a collage of images and items, Sweethearts rapidly lays out its setup. Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) and Ben (Nico Hiraga) are longtime best friends attending their first semester of colle...

Tim Stevens plays catch up with Netflix's SPELLBOUND, appreciating the bigger issues it highlights while still admitting...
26/11/2024

Tim Stevens plays catch up with Netflix's SPELLBOUND, appreciating the bigger issues it highlights while still admitting the movie disappoints.

Sometimes, you end up respecting what a movie’s trying to discuss more than you enjoy the film itself. Case in point, Spellbound. In the new animated feature, Princess Ellian (Rachel Zegler) is on the eve of her 15th birthday. Sadly, the celebration is a bit muted this time around. That’s becaus...

A MAN ON THE INSIDE is excellent television, says Tim Stevens and it couldn't ask for a better cast, especially the perf...
22/11/2024

A MAN ON THE INSIDE is excellent television, says Tim Stevens and it couldn't ask for a better cast, especially the perfectly pitched Ted Danson.

In one of A Man on the Inside creator Michael Schur’s previous series—The Good Place—there’s a moment when one character explains that, as humans, we all know that we will someday die. That means we all walk around a little sad, even during our happiest moments. That kind of melancholic joy ...

ICYMI Tim Stevens ponders why INTERIOR CHINATOWN has so much going for it and yet doesn't gel at the halfway point.
21/11/2024

ICYMI Tim Stevens ponders why INTERIOR CHINATOWN has so much going for it and yet doesn't gel at the halfway point.

Interior Chinatown looks great, features plenty of talent, and is rich with metatext as it explores the cliches of police procedurals and depictions of Asian Americans in media. And yet, it never quite comes together as a satisfyingly cohesive whole in the five episodes provided to critics. The over...

Tim Stevens gladly gets lowered underground for SILO Season 2, which does almost everything Season 1 did well, plus a fe...
20/11/2024

Tim Stevens gladly gets lowered underground for SILO Season 2, which does almost everything Season 1 did well, plus a few other bells and whistles.

About 18 months ago, I praised a new AppleTV+ series for its “frequently elegiac and hypnotic” tone. With its return, I renew that compliment. Despite growing in scope and ambition, Silo Season 2 remains committed to its quiet, insular brand of sci-fi. That’s very much a positive. The decision...

OUT OF MY MIND manages the rare feat of telling an honest story about being a tween with chronic disorder without being ...
19/11/2024

OUT OF MY MIND manages the rare feat of telling an honest story about being a tween with chronic disorder without being either treacly or dour, says Tim Stevens.

White Bird, currently in theatres (or just departed, depending on where you live), spins off from surprisingly well-done Wonder. However, the true 2024 heir to the warm and unusually honest 2017 family film arrives on Disney+ this week in the form of Out of My Mind. The “kids with a chronic condit...

It isn't that Sarah Gorr thinks GLADIATOR II is perfect. It's that Denzel Washington's star power, Ridley Scott's chutzp...
15/11/2024

It isn't that Sarah Gorr thinks GLADIATOR II is perfect. It's that Denzel Washington's star power, Ridley Scott's chutzpah, and those glorious glistening thighs were more than enough to get swept up in.

I saw Gladiator II two days after election day. By then, the results had been certified, sinking the country’s liberals and leftists of the country into a pit of mourning, terror, and rage. As I vacillated between feeling like a live wire and nothing at all, watching a movie was both the only and ...

Joy is a solid, if unspectacular, film about the invention of IVF that nonetheless feels ripe to meet this moment in his...
14/11/2024

Joy is a solid, if unspectacular, film about the invention of IVF that nonetheless feels ripe to meet this moment in history, argues Tim Stevens.

Try as hard as one might, there is no objective evaluation of art. First, there are all the biases—conscious and unconscious—each person brings to the work. Then there are factors like mood, health, comfort, and company. Finally, there are current events. The latter is especially relevant to Joy...

CROSS consistently lets down its lead actor Aldis Hodge, reports Tim Stevens.
13/11/2024

CROSS consistently lets down its lead actor Aldis Hodge, reports Tim Stevens.

When it comes to storytelling, especially when adapting a character that has starred in more than 30 novels and three films, it doesn’t matter if the plot relies on tropes. It matters how one utilizes those tropes. When it comes to the Ben Watkins-created Cross, there are few actors better suited ...

Tim Stevens praises THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: UNLOCKING THE TRUTH documentary series for smart pacing and structur...
12/11/2024

Tim Stevens praises THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: UNLOCKING THE TRUTH documentary series for smart pacing and structure while being frustrated by its unwillingness to draw any kind of conclusion.

Doctor Philip Zimbardo is something of the Stan Lee of modern psychology. And like the famed Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief turned mascot, that vibe has met mixed reviews. The two share an undeniable charisma and enthusiasm that tends to butt up against a frequently characterized slippery grasp of hi...

ST. DENIS MEDICAL is a mixed bag in the early going, but Tim Stevens sees potential if NBC gives the show a little time ...
11/11/2024

ST. DENIS MEDICAL is a mixed bag in the early going, but Tim Stevens sees potential if NBC gives the show a little time to work out the kinks.

Sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with a television show or film from a creativity or ex*****on standpoint. Sometimes, it just has bad timing. It’s still unclear which--or how much of each--is true of St. Denis Medical after screening the six episodes (1-5, 7) provided to critics. Certainly, the ...

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Our Story

In 2011, Alcohollywood started as a weekly film review podcast started by two theatre kids in Chicago - film critic Clint Worthington and mixologist Jared Latore. Altogether, the podcast has amassed more than a quarter million downloads, and two nominations for Best Food/Drink Podcast at the People’s Choice Podcast Awards. The podcast is a longtime member of the Chicago Podcast Coop, and has performed live shows at the Chicago Podcast Festival and PodSlam.

Seven years later, Alcohollywood has rebranded into a full-fledged film and television outlet called The Spool, with a growing staff of writers edited by Worthington, now a Tomatometer-approved member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Senior Writer for Consequence of Sound.

We’ve interviewed filmmakers, actors and authors including Mads Mikkelsen, Penny Lane, Filmspotting’s Josh Larsen, Zoe Lister-Jones, Felix van Groeningen, Leigh Whannell, Terry Notary, Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, and others. We’ve also covered festivals such as Sundance, Reeling LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Fantasia Fest, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival.

While the Alcohollywood podcast has come to a close, The Spool features two new podcasts - More of a Comment, Really..., a weekly interview podcast in which Worthington talks to actors, filmmakers, and others from the wide world of film and TV; and Hall of Faces, in which Worthington and TV critic Allison Shoemaker (and guests) debate which characters belong in their patented pantheon of TV’s greatest roles.