This week, hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom take on three standout releases. Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, a quirky biopic starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as MMA legend Mark Kerr, prompts the question: did it really deserve a fifteen-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival?
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Robert Zemeckis’s blockbuster classic Back to the Future returns, as Laura and Elliot debate whether Marty McFly’s story is truly as relatable as we think.
Finally, they unpack Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, the Palme d’Or–winning film made secretly in defiance of the Iranian regime, which continues to censor and punish Panahi for his bold filmmaking.
Get tickets to The Smashing Machine @ LAB111
Get tickets to Back To The Future @ LAB111
Get tickets to It Was Just An Accident @ LAB111
Our hosts
(entertainment journalist)
(film critic)
(film maker)
(film programmer)