Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Ninety For Chill @ GalaxyCon Des Moines 2025, "Sinners", "TRON: Ares", 4 More Freaky Flicks

  

I Dig Crazy Flicks with @CatBusRuss

Episode 242: Des Moines sees 'Ninety For Chill: The Panel with Jess McCord' & 'I Saw the TV Glow'

Retro movie poster for 'I Saw the TV Glow'

CatBusRuss went to GalaxyCon Des Moines to once again preach the gospel of "Ninety For Chill". He is joined by Jess McCord from "Skies of Fortune" to further back his stance that modern movies are just too damn long, and to promote Jess's panel "A24: Horror Goes to the Art House."

It is a fun conversation that celebrates a shared love for cinema, so much so that there is not much space for audience participation. That may have been a bad thing as the Jess proposes that flicks with a runtime between 70 and 100 minutes are not respectable. Why else would there be a lack of Best Picture Oscars for cinematic offerings of the ideal runtime? Russ takes a literary approach to this concept.

Which films get the capital F and which films are spelled with a lowercase F? Perhaps, Russ should have let the audience decide. A note for next time.

If the argument that our host takes on tour has been overplayed, to keep up the spooky month vibes, CatBus watched the highly praised A24 feature "I Saw the TV Glow". This was a challenge for him. He was skeptical having watched Jane Schoenbrun "We're All Going to the World's Fair", and not being overly impressed. How does Schoenbrun's sophomore personal tribute to 90s Nickelodeon fair in comparison?

Bonus - Scary Cinema 6-Pack: Sinners, Jared "Ares" Leto, Puppet Master, Quench, The Reaping, Faustian Weller

'Sinners' Fan Art by Nate Gonzales

CatBusRuss had a four-movie marathon of sub 100-minute features that he intended to kick off the last week of spooky month. But since he currently has only one retailer to be responsible to, he had time to watch a longer flick or two. Lets just say Ryan Coogler's vision changed that plan. And our host had promised to go back to the Grid while it was still in theaters.

It cannot be the "Ninety For Chill: Discovery of 2025" with its extra 37 minutes, but Russ will be very disappointed in the Academy if "Sinners" does not take home best picture. He needs to see "One Battle After Another", but there are just three too many Oscar winners to tell me that they should receive one more. Never mind that it is 24 minutes longer than Coogler's film while lacking a time-traveling musical number, and, most importantly, anti-Klan vampires.

"TRON: Ares" also lacks the vampires, but a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack and a love for Depeche Mode checks off all the boxes to amuse this CatBus. It does what "TRON: Legacy" forgot to do, play to the nerds. Jared Leto is no Michael Sheen, but he does not mess up, and the geeky fanservice made it a fun two hours. And since it is the son of "TRON" (runtime 1:36), it does qualify to be the NFC D25.

The idea of Jared Leto is scary, but to make sure this bonus episode of "I Dig Crazy Flicks" fits the spooky tone, Russ revisits four movies that he covered in 2022. We will transition to more fun special effects with "Puppet Master (1989)" and then maintain a no budget vibe with emo-vampire flick "Quench (2007)".

And to test your threshold of pain (Let's see how long you last.), the podcast will conclude with movies our host may have misunderstood. He doubts it, but you cannot hate the idea of a Hilary Swank and Idris Elba movie on paper. Not be the religious type, "The Reaping (2007)" may never have been up his alley. On the other hand, Peter Weller possibly portraying the devil, is a premise that you cannot deny the potential. Does "Shadow Hours (2000)" deliver?

 

Follow me on Bluesky @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.

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