The Contrarians

Twelve years of Contrarians goodness means it’s time to hand out awards again - and we are including the FIRF entries in this year’s line-up too! Listen as we hand out Embries, Hooeys, Ruffalos, Gads, and The Lancaster Dodd Grant for the Development of White People Movies!
TIMELINE
00:01:24 The Embries 2026
00:13:42 Supporting Actress
00:25:45 Supporting Actor
00:40:44 The Ruffalo
00:47:49 The Lancaster Dodd Grant
00:58:47 Lead Actor
01:17:34 Lead Actress
01:38:04 The Gad
01:46:44 The Hooey
01:52:00 The Embry
- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It’s everything a Contrarians devotee would want!
- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!
- Contrarians Merch is finally here! Check out our RED BUBBLE MERCH PAGE and buy yourself something nice that’s emblazoned with one of our four different designs!
- THE FESTIVE YEARS have been letting us use their music for years now and they are amazing. You can check out their work on Spotify, on Facebook or on their very own website.
- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn’t just a show about wrestling: it’s a brand, a lifestyle. And they’re very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we’d like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.
- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemoniospe on Instagram or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about economy on his new TV show, VALOR AGREGADO. Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he’s written on his own website. He has a new book: a sort of Economics For Dummies called MARGINAL. Ask him about it!
Up next, we begin Year Thirteen with a new FIRF entry, as we tackle the film adaptation of Alan Moore’s V FOR VENDETTA! In the meantime, let us know what you thought of this edition of The Embries: were your favorites appropriately rewarded? Did you feel there were notable snubs? How many of the eligible movies had you seen? E-mail us at wearethecontrarians@gmail.com or share your thoughts with us on Threads or BlueSky!

It’s a tough spot, living in the shadow of the Scream franchise and, specifically, living in the shadow of Sydney Prescott. Not that Jennifer Love Hewitt didn’t do well by herself as a movie & TV star, but the Last Summer films do tend to get lost amid other 90s slashers. So how does I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER fare when it’s judged on its own merits - if that’s even possible? Listen to this Real Talk segment to find out!
TIMELINE
00:02:21 Rio
00:03:14 Real Talk
00:49:38 The Future & Patreon Stuff
- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It’s everything a Contrarians devotee would want!
- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!
- Contrarians Merch is finally here! Check out our RED BUBBLE MERCH PAGE and buy yourself something nice that’s emblazoned with one of our four different designs!
- THE FESTIVE YEARS have been letting us use their music for years now and they are amazing. You can check out their work on Spotify, on Facebook or on their very own website.
- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn’t just a show about wrestling: it’s a brand, a lifestyle. And they’re very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we’d like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.
- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemoniospe on Instagram or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about economy on his new TV show, VALOR AGREGADO. Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he’s written on his own website. He has a new book: a sort of Economics For Dummies called MARGINAL. Ask him about it!
Up next, it’s time to celebrate another year of Contrarians goodness with our EMBRIES 2026 ceremony! In the meantime, let us know what you thought of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer: is it a worthy successor to the original Last Summer movie? Should Jennifer Love Hewitt have gone on to become a bigger horror icon? Would the movie be better if Freddie Prinze Jr. was around for the whole adventure? E-mail us at wearethecontrarians@gmail.com or share your thoughts with us on Threads or BlueSky!

The best thing Scream did was start a rebirth of slasher movies. The worst thing Scream did was initiate a slasher market saturation - a saturation which is probably to blame for the poor critical reception I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER suffered. Listen to Alex & Julio as they do their best to vindicate an underrated sequel with as many musical numbers as killers in its story! Welcome back Jennifer Love Hewitt!
TIMELINE
00:02:19 I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
00:17:45 Contrarians Corner
- Wanna know how we really feel about I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER? Check out the Real Talk (RT) episode, on your feed RIGHT NOW! (or pretty soon — Spotify can be a pain when it comes to refreshing the feed)
- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It’s everything a Contrarians devotee would want!
- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!
- Contrarians Merch is finally here! Check out our RED BUBBLE MERCH PAGE and buy yourself something nice that’s emblazoned with one of our four different designs!
- THE FESTIVE YEARS have been letting us use their music for years now and they are amazing. You can check out their work on Spotify, on Facebook or on their very own website.
- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn’t just a show about wrestling: it’s a brand, a lifestyle. And they’re very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we’d like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.
- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemoniospe on Instagram or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about economy on his new TV show, VALOR AGREGADO. Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he’s written on his own website. He has a new book: a sort of Economics For Dummies called MARGINAL. Ask him about it!

The Livestream for the Cure is back for their tenth installment and we will be participating with a two-hour block on Saturday, October 24th, from 1pm to 3pm CST. Join us and help us raise money for cancer research! There will be movie talk, re-enactments of scenes from the X-Men franchise, special appearances by Zoë and Jordan, and a lot more!

Check out www.livestreamforthecure.com for all the links. We’ll see you this Saturday!

The fourteenth installment of Fresh Immigrants, Rotten Fascists introduces us to Alejandro, a young immigrant from El Salvador in dire need of an American sponsor - a path that entangles him with… a Tilda Swinton character. PROBLEMISTA is written and directed by Julio Torres, the mind behind the Papyrus skit on SNL, so that should tell you everything you need to know.

Thank you for checking this new project out, whether you are a long-time Contrarians fan or someone who’s just trying to listen to people talking positively about immigrants and negatively about fascism. If you have any recommendations for future entries in the series, let us know!
- Many thanks to the amazing Jordan Cooper for composing our intro and outro. Fantastic collaborator to work with - and he has a They Might Be Giants podcast: DON’T LET’S START. You can also check out Jordan’s band TROUBLE’S AFOOT on Bandcamp!
- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It’s everything a Contrarians devotee would want!
- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!
- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn’t just a show about wrestling: it’s a brand, a lifestyle. And they’re very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we’d like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.
- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemoniospe on Instagram or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about economy on his new TV show, VALOR AGREGADO. Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he’s written on his own website. He has a new book: a sort of Economics For Dummies called MARGINAL. Ask him about it!