Author: The Barista Collective

I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: V for Vigilante

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

This week, we launched our new monthly feature: Shortcuts. Once a month, we will post quick write-ups about what the gang at A Damn Fine Cup has been watching, reading, listening to or playing. Our first Shortcuts took us from the poetic Silent Friend to the “chemistry and crass jokes up the wazoo” of goofball superhero game Dispatch.

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Shortcuts: January 2026

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Considering how much we watch, read, listen to and play in any given month, it’s almost a bit sad that we only write about a fraction of these. So, starting this month, we’re trying a new monthly format: on the last Wednesday of each month, we will release a few shortcuts: quick impressions of films, series, books, albums, games, or any other damn fine cups of culture that we’ve enjoyed this month, whether they are new or we only just got around to them now.

So, with no further ado, here are our first Shortcuts. Enjoy!

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: By the power of nostalgia!

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

Even a couple of years after its release, not everyone has seen Oppenheimer – and some who are now remedying this aren’t necessarily enjoying it as much as most have. Check out Mege’s Six Damn Fine Degrees for an instance of this.

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A Damn Fine Espresso: January 2026

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In our main podcast for the month, we celebrated our one-hundredth episode with Matt, Julie and original co-podcaster Mege, talking about the beginnings of A Damn Fine Cup of Culture. For this month’s espresso episode, we’re continuing the story: Matt, Alan and Sam met up in real life to record their first ever live podcast episode together. Join the three of them in their conversation about 2020, the year they joined A Damn Fine Cup of Culture, and their experiences since. How have they changed as podcasters? How do they keep things fresh and interesting, even after five years of podcasting? What are the episodes they remember best? And what are the topics they hope to do an episode about in the next five years?

P.S.: A big shout-out to the wonderful REX cinema in Bern, Switzerland for letting us meet up at their bar in early January (you can hear the gentle noise of other cinemagoers, glasses and espresso cups in the background) to record our conversation!

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: I’ve been through the desert

The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

In this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees, Alan writes about 2024’s witchy Agatha All Along – and what it may say about the different roads the Marvel Cinematic Universe could go down in the future.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: It’s time to play the music

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

Is it 2026 already? Where did the time go? One of our last posts in the year that was had Matt remembering the films, series and games he enjoyed best over the last 12 months – starting with a very memorable scene in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. You’ll find that scene in the post itself, but here’s a trailer for the film, for those who are more spoiler-averse.

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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast #100: A Hundred Podcasts

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And suddenly, to our surprise, we find that we have reason to celebrate: not just the beginning of a new year, but our one-hundredth episode! After our small-scale beginnings back in 2017, a little over eight years later, we have arrived at this nice, round number (and that’s without even counting our monthly espresso episodes, which we started in April 2022). And for this occasion, we’re got something very special: Julie and Matt are joined by co-founder and Damn Fine O.G. Mege, who graced the podcast from its first episode until January 2020, though he has been back on an annual basis to contribute to our Christmas Specials. Join the three of them as they wax nostalgic and talk about the early days of A Damn Fine Cup of Culture: what was it like to jump into the podcasting pond? What were the challenges we had to overcome? What made Mege hang up his headset back in 2020? And what are some of our favourite episodes of those first couple of years?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Welcome to the future

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

We at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture hope that you’ve all had happy holidays so far! On Wednesday, we did our part by releasing the Christmas Special 2025 – in which this thoroughly modern Maria got a shout-out.

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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast Christmas Special 2025

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It’s that time of the year again: when film geeks around the world argue about whether Die Hard and Batman Returns are Christmas films or not. The gang at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture has put together its usual Christmas Special episode, this time taking the topic of the year’s summer series, the Lost Summer, as a starting point: what, culturally speaking, have we lost this year… and what have we found? Join Matt, Julie, Alan, Mege and Sam as they ponder their Losts and Founds for 2025 – and everyone here at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture wishes you very happy holidays. Enjoy the remaining days of 2025, spend some quality time with your loved ones, and make sure to enjoy some damn fine films, series, books, games, songs, albums while you’re at it!

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Honey, Spielberg’s at it again!

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

It’s true: we have derived a lot of joy from Hollywood. But very little of that joy comes from maudlin pieces of Tinseltown self-pity powdered over with a sprinkle of mild satire. And apropos of nothing: earlier this week, Matt wrote about the Noah Baumbach/George Clooney vehicle Jay Kelly.

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