It was a good year for movies (FOR MOVIES) that gave us a lot to talk about, so this super-sized episode gets right into the SportsAlcohol.com list of the 20 best movies of 2017, as voted by our quartet of film enthusiasts. We talk about what made the list and didn't, what we all loved and what made us disagree, with discussions of Three Billboards, Dunkirk, The Florida Project, The Shape of Water, Star Wars, Blade Runner, and many more!

Following on the heels of our episodes about The Force Awakens and Rogue One, and our December mixtape for The Last Jedi, a few SportsAlcohol.com mainstays got together over the holidays to talk about Rian Johnson's newest entry in the Star Wars saga. This is definitely a fan conversation intended for people who have seen the movie; spoilers and nerdiness abound. What did we love? What gave us pause? How were the porgs? And what does any of this have to do with Watto?

Superhero movies are still dominating the blockbuster landscape these days, and plenty of your pals at SportsAlcohol.com see most or all of these things. So after a bunch of us saw Justice League, we sat down to talk about the state of DC-based cinema, plus where Thor: Ragnarok leaves us with the MCU, and how they both fit into the year of superhero cinema.

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have collaborated on three movies, and this fall they're both back with their own solo movies: Gerwig's Lady Bird and Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). Marisa, Sara, Nathaniel, and Jesse watched both movies (as well as plenty of past work from both filmmakers) and then got together to discuss how they function together, how they function apart, and what we think of their new projects.

Following a movie swap where Pretty Woman was exchanged for Starship Troopers, Ben and Jesse leap forward one year in time and make another business/sci-fi trade: The 1991 Danny DeVito dramedy Other People's Money swapped for the 1998 cult classic Dark City. We watched 'em both and then talked it out, touching upon Penelope Ann Miller, The Matrix, subverting expectations, and possible reasons that both of these movies flopped in their original releases.

Jesse had never seen Pretty Woman.

Ben had never seen Starship Troopers.

So they sat each other down and watched two beloved Films of the '90s, then had a little chat about it.

This is that little chat.

While what makes us laugh, cry, or scared can vary greatly, what we want out of a romantic comedy is often even more nebulous, especially as romantic comedies appear to be in something of a mainstream slump at the movies. In a state-of-the-genre conversation, Marisa, Nathaniel, Jesse, and two different Saras chat about what makes a romantic comedy, what our favorites are, and how they (maybe) work or (sometimes) don't. This is a must-listen for rom-com fans and also for people who want to find out which one of us holds a torch for the Hugh Jackman/Ashley Judd rom-com Someone Like You.

Summer may be winding down, but there are probably still some cool non-blockbuster movies you need to catch up with. For the third year in a row, Marisa, Sara, Nathaniel, and Jesse got together to discuss over a dozen of the summer's most notable indie movie releases, which in 2017 includes The Big Sick, The Beguiled, Detroit, Ingrid Goes West, It Comes At Night, A Ghost Story, Atomic Blonde (it's an indie!), Columbus, and a whole lot more recommendations for your local arthouse -- or to keep you busy on Netflix all fall. Bonus recorded-outdoors ambiance abounds!

The last Spider-Man movie, Amazing Spider-Man 2, was the subject of SportsAlcohol.com's very first podcast. Over three years later, we're back with an ever-more-slightly-better-produced episode about the third cinematic reboot of Marvel's flagship character this century. Topics covered:

Betty Brant
Dennis Miller
Women named Marisa
How bad we are at podcasts 

Also, as mentioned in the podcast, check out Rob's take on Betty Brant

SPOILER WARNING: This podcast assumes you've seen every movie every made with Spider-Man

Earlier this year, a meme was going around Twitter, Facebook, and presumably other soc-meds, too: People were listing their favorite movies for every year that they had been alive. This struck the SportsAlcohol.com core cinema team as a fun exercise, so Marisa, Nathaniel, Sara, and Jesse each produced one such list, sent it to each other, and discussed the results. Which years wound up with universal consensus? Which years were wildly divergent? Which directors turned up again and again and again? Who actually chose Titanic? Listen in and find out!