Low Key

Summer of Soul, the directorial debut from Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, takes us back to Harlem in 1969 for a series of concerts that included a who's who of brilliant Black artists, from Stevie Wonder to Nina Simone to Sly and the Family Stone to Mahalia Jackson, among many, many more.Tim, Aaron and Keith had pretty different reactions to the film, which almost never came to be: For more than 50 years, the footage languished, rejected by white executives who didn't think there would be a wide audience for a film about "the Black Woodstock."We also talk about the unrest in 1969 compared to the racial dynamics in America today, and why the George Floyd murder captured people's attention — at least for a time — when so many others didn't.Also: Tim wrote this about why Jimi Hendrix couldn't play the Harlem Cultural Festival, and Keith is sick of so many movies taking place in New York and L.A. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, dads Aaron and Tim and non-dad Keith discuss the Kevin Hart Netflix comedy Fatherhood, about a dad struggling to raise his very young daughter alone. We talk about diapers, dumb preschools, what the first steps look like, and lots of other dad stuff, and what we love and fear about raising kids.Also: Shoutout to a notorious Memphis roller coaster, the perfect metaphor for parenthood. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

At some point last week, everyone watching Loki collectively decided the Time-Keepers were full of shit. For Keith and Tim, co-hosts of the Low Key podcast, that moment occurred in this episode, when co-host Aaron broke it all down for them.We also talk about Kang the Conquerer and some other fun theories. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sweet Tooth is your typical coming of age tale about a post-apocalyptic, pandemic scorched Earth with a human-deer hybrid kid searching for his lost mother in the (mostly) lawless Western United States - average Netflix stuff, right?The story from the show differs greatly in some aspects from the Vertigo comic book of the same name. The changes aren’t as drastic as The Walking Dead where we witness several seasons of new characters, but Sweet Tooth’s source material is actually much darker than what we see in the Netflix series. This doesn’t mean Sweet Tooth is devoid of shocking moments and troubling realizations. Scenes dealing with suspected viral infection are mundane and horrific simultaneously since it feels like these outcomes would also feel natural in our world if a pandemic were ever this catastrophic.This week on the Low Key podcast, Aaron Lanton and Keith Dennie are joined by guest extraordinaire Sam (“Sam Said It” podcast) to talk about why the show works, how adults coped with the apocalypse, an

M.O.D.O.K. stands for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. Is he also designed to be good subject for a Hulu stop-motion comedy? We talk this episode about whether the brainchild of Patton Oswalt and friends can sustain a show. We agree on at least one thing: the look of M.O.D.O.K. is absolutely great. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Those Who Wish Me Dead, the awesomely titled new thriller from Taylor Sheridan, stars Angelina Jolie as a smokejumper who must protect a boy with valuable secrets from a pair of assassins.Does it work? We're divided this week, in large part because we aren't sure if the MacGuffin at the center of the film works. (A MacGuffin, of course, is a plot device that serves no real purpose except to move things along.) What we do agree on is the cast is great and the fire sequences are spectacular.Also this episode: We'll explain to anyone saying "what the hell is a smokejumper" exactly what that means. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Outside Story, directed by Casimir Nozkowski, defies the rule that films need to be high-stakes. It's the tale of an introverted editor (Brian Tyree Henry) who gets locked out of his apartment and is forced to spend a few hours... outdoors. We liked it.Some critics are mad at this small, kind-hearted movie for not being about police brutality or the living wage, and we gently recommend that those critics go for a nice walk outside.Here's the article that inspired our discussion of the film. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Invincible, from Amazon Prime, is the work of a super team. Created by The Walking Dead mastermind Robert Kirkman, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who have developed a spectacular track record), and voiced by A-listers led by JK Simmons and recent Oscar nominee Steven Yeun, it's the most impressive cartoon we've seen in a damn long time. There are many reasons we consider if the superhero Game of Thrones.We also talk about the breaking news that occurred a few hours before this episode: A new report on the search for a Black Superman, and all the interesting reactions to it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, we cover why this year's Oscars were weird, whether movies are doomed, and how The Falcon and the Winter Soldier continues a Marvel tradition of murderers with perfectly reasonable ideas.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the Oscar-nominated short film Two Distant Strangers, a young Black man (Joey Bada$$) finds himself trapped in a hellish time loop, relentlessly targeted by a racist white cop.The film is written by Emmy winner Travon Free, who directs with Martin Desmond Roe. Free says the film is meant to illustrate the exhausting, horrific repetition of police killings of unarmed Black people. (You can listen to his interview over at the MovieMaker podcast.)Keith talks in this episode about how watching Two Distant Strangers reminded him of the emotional death he's felt too many times before, after past police killings.We also talk about police who kill and get away with it, whether there's any point in talking with racists, and how real events in the past week — including Derek Chauvin's trial for killing George Floyd — prove the film's point. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Concrete Cowboy is a coming of age story with cowboys but also with Black people in Philly; maybe not the combination you were expecting. The film pulls off most of what it intends to do, including one of the better story arcs for estranged parents seeking to help their child through a difficult time of their life. And surprisingly, there are a ton of parallels in narrative structure to the award-winning movie Nomadland that we discuss in detail. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, from showrunner Malcolm Spellman, builds on our nostalgia for buddy movies like Lethal Weapon 2. But it also offers a glimpse at what might have been if HBO had moved forward with Confederacy, a proposed show from the creator of Game of Thrones that Spellman was to have worked on. Spellman and his team have managed to include real-world racial struggles and nuance in a show about super soldiers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When you think of garbage, don't think of Coming 2 America: We very much enjoyed the Coming to America sequel, despite the debate around the film and quibbles with the Zamundan system of succession. If you miss this episode you'll also miss out on some solid recommendations for underrated Wesley Snipes films. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In awards-season darling Nomadland, Frances McDormand plays a woman named Fern who takes to the open road when her husband — and town — dies. We talk about what Fern wants, whether the movie should be harder on American businesses, and some interesting similarities between Nomadland and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I Care a Lot is about a crooked legal guardian (Rosamund Pike) who makes a living stripping seniors of all their worldly possessions. Things go great (or terribly, if we're talking about morality) until she targets Jennifer Peterson (Diane Wiest), who is connected to the worst person you could ever cross (Peter Dinklage). The film has gotten good reviews, but criticism from viewers who don't like movies about people they don't like. We also talk about double standards around bad onscreen men like Walter White and bad onscreen women like the protagonist of I Care a Lot. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Keith, Aaron and special guest Sam from the Sam Said It podcast discuss Judas and the Black Messiah, starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield.Believe the marketing — the protagonist is federal informant William O’Neal and not the groundbreaking leader he got assassinated, Fred Hampton.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Malcolm and Marie is a movie about a tense, revealing argument between a budding filmmaker and an aspiring actress after his critically acclaimed directorial debut. The premise sounds tame on the surface but the film goes in unexpected directions and features an acting masterclass between people in front of the camera - John David Washington and Zendaya. Check out this episode for a spoiler filled review and hilarious discussions on poor judgment during relationship spats. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three episodes into WandaVision, the guys discuss what seems to be happening so far, and share some theories. Is Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) controlling everything?it seems like we get some explanations in the fourth episode, out this weekend, so we're eager to see if our guesses prove correct. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Now that everyone has had time to see Pieces of a Woman — or at least find out what the astonishing Kornél Mundruczó film is about — we can discuss Vanessa Kirby's Oscar-calibre turn as a woman whose pregnancy ends tragically. Please rate, review and subscribe, follow us on IG @thelowkeypod, and check out our interview with Mundruczó over at the MovieMaker podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Regina King's directorial debut One Night in Miami imagines a conversation between Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay... who will soon become Muhammad Ali. We talk on this episode about the expectations of Black stars who are often expected to be activists as well as celebrities. And, since we recorded this on the last night of the Trump presidency, we talk about how Black leaders have often been the ones to make America live up to its own stated principles.We're joined by special guest Sam from the Sam Said It podcast — check out the podcast and follow him on @SamSaidItDFW.And you can check out MovieMaker's Regina King interview here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.