Alex and Max, spring clean their movie watchlists and delve into the heart of cinema's evolution. The surprising success of films like 'Abigail' in theaters, we're discussing it all. Discover how the film industry's pivot towards modestly budgeted projects is redefining what stories make it to the big screen, and what this means for the streaming giants recalibrating their strategies.
Feel the buzz of the cinema's potential resurgence where the communal experience of a packed theater could reign supreme once more. We share early impressions of 'Challengers' starring Zendaya, directed by Luca Guadagnino, while carefully avoiding spoilers. Meanwhile, our critique of a new horror movie reveals how it revives the delightful terror of early 2000s and 80s B-movies, complete with good kills and cheesy one-liners. We also navigate through the landscape of horror, looking at how creative choices in recent films enhance the genre's rich storytelling tradition.
As we explore the latest in film, we consider the implications of filmmaker splits, like that of the Safdie brothers, and ponder the returns to familiar themes by iconic directors such as Spielberg. Guillermo del Toro's dive into the Frankenstein lore is up for debate—will this remake strike the same chord as his original masterpieces? Join our conversation, and don't forget to engage with us on social media for a look at what's to come in the world of movies.
Alex and Max, spring clean their movie watchlists and delve into the heart of cinema's evolution. The surprising success of films like 'Abigail' in theaters, we're discussing it all. Discover how the film industry's pivot towards modestly budgeted projects is redefining what stories make it to the big screen, and what this means for the streaming giants recalibrating their strategies.
Feel the buzz of the cinema's potential resurgence where the communal experience of a packed theater could reign supreme once more. We share early impressions of 'Challengers' starring Zendaya, directed by Luca Guadagnino, while carefully avoiding spoilers. Meanwhile, our critique of a new horror movie reveals how it revives the delightful terror of early 2000s and 80s B-movies, complete with good kills and cheesy one-liners. We also navigate through the landscape of horror, looking at how creative choices in recent films enhance the genre's rich storytelling tradition.
As we explore the latest in film, we consider the implications of filmmaker splits, like that of the Safdie brothers, and ponder the returns to familiar themes by iconic directors such as Spielberg. Guillermo del Toro's dive into the Frankenstein lore is up for debate—will this remake strike the same chord as his original masterpieces? Join our conversation, and don't forget to engage with us on social media for a look at what's to come in the world of movies.
been loose on this one. Sure this doesn't need to be any longer than 50 minutes yeah how's it?
Speaker 1:I'm alex mccauley and I'm max fosberg and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding some spring cleaning. Max and I have celebrated episode 200, and since then we've been busy tidying up our respective spring watch lists Ahead. On this episode, we will discuss some recent releases as well as take a look at some of the current events from the trades. Those conversations up next on the other side of this break, this episode is brought to you by the Seattle Film Society.
Speaker 2:The Seattle Film Society is an artist-run project that provides direct support and mentorship to filmmakers of all levels Through screenings, educational opportunities and community initiatives. The Seattle Film Society strives to be a centralizing force for Seattle filmmakers.
Speaker 1:Their monthly screening event, Locals Only, is held at the Arc Lodge Cinemas in Columbia City and showcases the most exciting new voices in Seattle filmmaking. Tickets are $10 and available now via Eventbrite To keep up with the Seattle Film Society.
Speaker 2:Be sure to check them out on Instagram and Letterboxd at Seattle Film Society or on their website, seattlefilmsocietycom. Come be a part of the next generation of Seattle Film.
Speaker 1:Society, or on their website, seattlefilmsocietycom. Come be a part of the next generation of Seattle filmmaking today. All right, buddy, here we are, episode 201. 201. The climb to 300 begins now. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm good. I'm good, I'm a little. I'm going to put this out up front here. I'm a little slacking in the movie watching. Okay, you know.
Speaker 3:Fat up front here. I'm a little slacking in the movie watching. Okay, you know, I teased, maybe or just uh, I don't know. I think I kind of jumped ahead of myself and watched some stuff that's important for like the next two weeks, instead of like going out and like trying to see as much as I can right now yeah also uh, I've seen you.
Speaker 1:You've been re-examining the Caesar versus Koba age old duel.
Speaker 2:Two of those movies are really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it takes up a lot of my head space as well.
Speaker 2:Two of those movies are really really good, um yeah and uh yeah, things have just been busy. Uh, uh, working, working a gig over in in in gig Harbor, uh, around the whole peninsula really. Yeah around the whole peninsula, yeah, so yeah, a little light on my movie watching. However.
Speaker 3:I'm good, I'm happy to be here. I've got some news bulletins for you later in the show. Yeah, I can't wait that I can't wait to get your reaction at how are you doing?
Speaker 1:I'm doing well. I've had a pretty productive week, I would say, of movie, movie watching, getting caught up. There's still a few things, a few things that just hit pvod whatever you want to call it on demand streamable um that I didn't get a chance to watch in preparation for this episode, namely monkey man.
Speaker 1:So if you're tuning in to hear our reaction about monkey man, apologize, have not seen that film yet. Very much so looking forward to it though I'm. I'm, I'm doing well though I I have for you and I didn't tell you that I was going to do this Just the top 10 box office films from this past weekend. I thought that might kind of be an interesting place to start here, because a lot of these films we haven't discussed. Some of them we will discuss in depth a little bit more later on in the episode, but just kind of gut check. So I'm going to go through one to ten and give you their worldwide gross to date. So some of these have been out for a week, some have been a box office holdover for over a month now and that's why their totals are as high as they are number one at the box office.
Speaker 1:This past weekend was civil war. It's worldwide gross is at 51 million. As of these are all, as of this recording here on um april 23rd I believe we are um beautiful weather. Outside it's spring like that's so great.
Speaker 2:That's also great too, right, we're getting outside touching grass.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, totally um second the box office this past weekend. Domestic, of course, is abigail. Abigail gross 15 million dollars worldwide. Godzilla x kong, the new empire, still third at the domestic box office and its worldwide gross is nearing half a billion dollars. It's at 487 million dollars worldwide. Fourth at the box office this past weekend, the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare gross 9.9 million dollars worldwide to date. The next film on the list, uh one. I'm unfamiliar with spy x family code colon white, so this is an animated film.
Speaker 1:It's a real movie and it's made 51 million dollars worldwide, only 4 million domestically, but internationally it opened it over like 40 million dollars. So I I don't know a sleeper cell in the animated world a sleeper agent spy perhaps x colon family, perhaps so spy and x spy, x family code white. So I don't know if this is the trilogy man, we're gonna get blue we can't red red, white and blue, I should say, I guess anyways I digress.
Speaker 1:Kung fu panda is still doing very well at the domestic box office and worldwide his gross 481 million dollars to date. Ghostbuster, frozen empire, in the same vein doing well still a holdover. That film is at 176 million dollars worldwide. Dune, part two still right there as well, that film is. I believe this is a typo on my part I have 969 million dollars, but I believe it's something like 690 million dollars worldwide. Monkey man eighth at the or ninth at the box office, excuse me, with 28 million dollars worldwide. You would expect that to kind of be a plateau, since it is now available to rent at home. And then, the first omen rounding out the top, the little horror movie that could has grossed 400, excuse me whoa $45 million worldwide. Cool, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:And now so here's kind of my thoughts. I guess at this we have left the days of the post-pandemic theater restrictions behind. People are back at the movies. I think people have been back at the movies for probably over a year and some change now with regularity and when you look at this it's still the same kind of films that we've seen.
Speaker 1:Do well, do good business post-pandemic, but also pre-pandemic, right Like these are a lot of family films that are kid-friendly and that can play in theaters for a month or even longer at a time, because families need something to do on the weekend with their kids. So that's why you still see something like Ghostbusters, kung Fu Panda, even to some extent like Godzilla, maybe Dune Part 2, which then kind of bleeds into the franchise IP that always going to play well and same with horror. So now going back pre-pandemic and kind of to the quote-unquote golden age, I guess this sort of starts a bigger discussion that maybe we should pause, just so I can get your reaction on what's happening at the box office now. But gone are the days, I think, of the expectations that something like civil war would crack a hundred million dollars, but the fact that it's already done 51 worldwide, maybe it becomes a hundred million dollar movie worldwide. But now, when we think about the history of movies in the box office and there's this whole, you know, at the forefront of our mind right now and it's so many of these conversations, I think is that Chris Nolan quote from the Oscars, where we are about a hundred years into this art form and you can delineate that down to then.
Speaker 1:How long have we actually even been paying attention to the box office? So when we think back to like the time in which something you know like an adult drama we don't really have too many adult dramas on this list right now we have one coming up that's going to open this upcoming weekend. That will be interesting to see what it does. But the days of an adult drama making a hundred million dollars are gone. But how long were those days around?
Speaker 2:for anyways, yeah, I feel like they were very short, the late 80s into the 90s is the time.
Speaker 3:I think that probably was the last golden age of that, and what right?
Speaker 1:and maybe the first honestly, really, because it's not like films in the 70s. We're making 100 million dollars at the box office now. That's due to inflation and the cost of a ticket. Some still were obviously the exorcist a huge success and so on and so forth. You can do your history if you want, but like we think, I I think that we are starting to get to a place where we are holding that I don't want to call it like a drop in the ocean, because it's not that big, but maybe just like a little splash in the lake of the 90s, being such a great time for people going to the theaters. We're holding it in almost too high of reverence because that's just never going to happen again.
Speaker 1:Yeah just never going to happen again. Yeah, we're never going to. People are never going to return to the movies the way in which they once did in the 90s, when they weren't inundated with so much other technology and so many other ways to watch movies and consume media. So I think that, like the expectations for something like abigail, it's opening with 15 million dollars worldwide, the omens at 45 million dollars worldwide, like that is, I think, the threshold. When we start to look back in 20, 30 years or whatever, to at the films from the 2020s and going into the 2030s, when you can say that hey, this was a 60 million dollar movie, this was a 75 million dollar movie. That might start to mean what a 100 million dollar movie meant in the 90s yeah, and I think I think it's a.
Speaker 3:I think it's a good thing. I think also, what's really glaringly missing that has been there for the past 10, 12 years every spring is Marvel right.
Speaker 3:Or some sort of superhero comic book, big event movie. But hopefully we're going to get less of those and we'll have more of this kind of lineup where there's a lot of variety throughout. Uh, everyone's doing modest business and maybe that means like hey, you know what? Yeah, if, if a $50 million movie is what we're going for. You know we're, we're going to take more risks, we're going to, we're going for, you know we're going to take more risks, we're gonna, we're gonna do more interesting films. Uh, and even more films, rather than, you know, put a bunch of money into a you know ip monster movie or you know large comic book ip movie that has to make you know 200 billion to make half its money back right and going to and it will swallow everyone around it.
Speaker 3:I think I you know again.
Speaker 1:I think the pendulum is swinging back um towards smaller budgets, smaller movies more and just more to choose from and I like I love the word you use modest, more modest expectations from these studios.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the fact that you're- $50 million is a lot of fucking $15 million is a lot of fucking money.
Speaker 1:Honestly, and I do think too that what it would start to do is maybe pull some of these films from the streamers and give them a shot in the theaters once again, because a film like Abigail and I've said that name a lot already, I'm going to talk about it in more depth here in just a minute but that movie is the kind of movie that has always worked in the theaters but could so easily just be like on Paramount Plus in two weeks.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:And who knows, maybe it still will end up somewhere like that, but at least they gave it a shot in theaters and it's doing good business and it's getting actually exciting and fun. Word of mouth and I was just talking to my mom about this shout out to my mom um, a film that I can't, honestly, and I'm not really going to talk about it outside of this little part of our conversation because I don't remember if I brought it up a few episodes back when we kind of did like a recap recently watched uh episode but the film damsel that is on netflix right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stars, millie bobby brown, ray winstone, robin wright, penn probably with angela bassett I still think could have done pretty good business, especially with a star vehicle like millie bobby brown at the forefront of it.
Speaker 1:But again this thing gets into into contract negotiations and she has this deal with Netflix. That stems back to Stranger Things and then the Enola Holmes and everything else that goes into that, and they've almost, like, tapped her for the next couple of years, I think, for like her movies to be Netflix releases. I digress because when Damsel came out it had all the students at my school buzzing because it's a perfect entry level fantasy film, revenge film, quasi horror. It's a thrilling movie. I watched it and enjoyed it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's like a four and a half star film and you have to turn this podcast off and fire it up right now.
Speaker 1:But there are far worse ways.
Speaker 1:I have spent 90 minutes in worse ways, watching other films this year, where Damsel is a perfectly fine film and had that have been released because it came out on Netflix right around the same time that Dune Part 2 was in theaters.
Speaker 1:That, I think, would have been a really good counterpunch for not even counterpunch, just another option for families to go out to the theaters and watch something like that that can kind of still play in the same league but is a little bit more family friendly, and that you just have another option at the cinema to go out and see. And so maybe this, maybe this regression of expectation, and now again we're just kind of spitballing here. I don't know if the studios feel this, I don't know if they're starting, but it's a numbers game, right. So they gotta kind of start looking at this thing and say, if our theatrical run is shorter than it's ever been and people want to watch things at home and our movie only has a four to six week shelf life in the theaters, we need to make X amount of profit back. And if the worldwide gross is 75 million or 50 million or even 40 million and we knew that going in, we prepared for it and that we can still make a profit that way, then put these movies out in theaters.
Speaker 3:Well it's. It's never made sense that streamers hold their movies for just their streaming services. It doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't you release it, At least a limited release?
Speaker 1:That's money you're leaving on the table, table and it's money you gotta be losing when you're giving noah bomb back 200 million dollars to make white noise exactly put it in white noise had to have lost money for the company I know it did yeah
Speaker 3:yeah, uh, well, and that's probably why netflix is really kind of pulling back on how many movies they're making, what they're actually giving to their we're not writing blank checks anymore to these directors to make their passion projects.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you know, and I mean I really do think that there is. It's almost like going to the theater is becoming such a novelty that it will again. It will swing back to like oh, you know what's really fun and easy to do? Go to the fucking movies. Exactly Like I could wait for Scargiver Part 2 to come out on Friday or on Thursday night at midnight, or, you know, I could go to a Friday morning show or a Friday night show with a group of my friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hope it does start going that way, and I think it will.
Speaker 1:I think that there will be a in, even if it's momentary, and by momentary I mean for another 15 or 20 years, when you look at like the grand scheme of history here, when people are looking back on on this era of cinema, even if it's like, hey, you know, there was a resurgence there, post-pandemic, in the 2020s, where people really started returning to theaters and that films were playing well in movie theaters, because who knows what the technology is going to look like, who knows what a world is going to look like, who knows what will still be popular in X amount of years, in X amount of decades. So, hopefully, right now, while there is still somewhat of a pop cultural impact when it comes to movies, people are paying attention and they're watching them. Now, the first one that I'm going to talk about today is Challengers. I'm not going to go into that film quite yet, but just the experience that I had seeing this film at an early access screening with a extremely, extremely light crowd.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 1:Myself and one other person in the theater.
Speaker 3:No way it felt like so exclusive.
Speaker 1:It was really nice. Guess what happened before the film started. I said the twisters trailer came on.
Speaker 3:Come on now.
Speaker 1:Twice in one day, oh my god, twice in one day had already watched it with my morning cup of coffee, but but I'm sitting there watching the twisters trailer and I'm like if there was a theater full of people and now I've heard stories of people saying that like I've been at a movie theater to see this movie, x movie, whatever it is, and the twisters trailer comes on and people cheer at the end of it and so like there is that excitement and I'm sitting there yesterday and I'm feeling it and I'm like I would love to be hooping and hollering right now at this thing when it comes on, because it's great. There are some really good trailers for different films out there. I just saw a trailer the other night when I was at this Challengers early access screening for Zoe Kravitz's new film. I had no idea that Zoe Kravitz was making a film. It's called Don't Blink or something.
Speaker 2:And Channing Tatum's in it.
Speaker 1:This looks like an edgier version of, like a Knives Out story. Yeah, so we're taking movies that have been previously released to streamers, putting a twist on them, and not to say that Rian Johnson did the wrong thing by making Glass Onion, basically in a Netflix exclusive. I know that it played in some theaters right before it came out, but, like some of these films, we are now putting back into movie theaters and giving them the chance, so that I mean I'm encouraged right now. Yeah, go all the way back to your opening question. When it comes to movies, right now, I'm very encouraged, yeah yeah, that's fantastic and hopefully we continue to see it so do you want to do your kind of news right now?
Speaker 1:do you think it would piggyback well if of anything we just talked about, or should we get into some recommendations?
Speaker 3:or at least some, some, some movies. And then we'll close with news okay, uh.
Speaker 1:So so I did see challengers last night, film that I've obviously been anticipating for a long time, a film that a lot of people have been anticipating for a long time. This was supposed to be a 2023 release. If you're a fan of luca guadagnino, if you're a fan of zendaya, if you're a fan of Zendaya, if you're a fan of tennis.
Speaker 1:There are so many different boxes that this film can check and I think sort of the headline, if you read into any of it, is that Luca Guadagnino was brought in to do this film because he's not a tennis fan. He's not somebody that finds the game of tennis all that exciting, which I think is the perfect that then makes him the perfect person to come in and try to make tennis to make it exciting, because I find tennis very exciting.
Speaker 1:We play tennis, right. We have friends that play tennis. I don't I can't sit here and tell you that I watch tennis on tv or that I'm invested in what's happening in the sport. Sure, but I enjoy tennis. Look, you know what else I enjoy too, is that Luca Guadagnino film.
Speaker 1:So it's the perfect marriage, I feel like. And then also you have Zendaya at the center of this film, and now I did go back and watch the trailer, because this is one that I didn't need to be sold on. This one Went back and watched the trailer. They do try to make this look much more like Euphoria meets friday night lights or something, and now that is not luca's fault.
Speaker 1:That is how the studio decides to cut the trailer. That's how you're supposed to get people in and in a theater to to see your film, right? So, without going in with any expectations other than just you know what, I'm a fan of almost everybody involved here, trent resner and atticus ross on the score. Like it checks so many boxes already going in also, then creates a very I would say you have to be very bipartisan because you don't want your love for these creatives right to cloud your judgment on when something might not be working, and so I didn't give it a rating on letterbox quite yet.
Speaker 1:I'm not telling you that it's a five star film. I would probably land somewhere between a four and a 4.5 for this one because there are some swings that that the filmmakers take, that that is done in the editing, that is done with the music, that I think are a little bit arresting. When they happen, they really just grab you and they hold you and it can be a little bit uncomfortable at first and not in a way that you're not weirded out for lack of a better term but you're just like. I haven't seen this before and I don't know if they're doing this the right way. I'll give you an example multiple times in the film when two characters are arguing like having a very intense conversation with each other. This, trent resner and atticus ross score this electronic pulsating score will all of a sudden come in.
Speaker 1:And this is not like the social network, sure. This is not like girl with the dragon tattoo or even bones and all which was their past collaboration with luca only a couple of years ago. This score comes in out of 10 and it is very loud and you think, oh okay, this is.
Speaker 1:This is supposed to signify that this argument is reaching a crescendo and a big and and the scene must be coming to an end, because you wouldn't just have this loud music playing over the dialogue. Like this, you've never that. That's not sure how you score a film. But the scene continues for another two to three minutes with the music, oh man, playing over their dialogue. Sure which? Which at first, when it happens you're just like what is happening. What's happening. I can't hear, but you can.
Speaker 1:You still can hear you can hear both things and it's just different. And so what I put in my letterbox is just because in my review, is it? Just because something is done a way in which you haven't seen it done before, it doesn't mean it's wrong? So I'm not. And again it almost goes back to this hundred years conversation. Just because we haven't seen it done like this before and just because most people don't do it this way doesn't mean that this isn't effective and that there wasn't a vision behind it. Because what it does in these scenes is it creates an intensified sense of chaos. You feel the emotion in a way that is like disorienting. You feel the emotion in a way that is like disorienting yet even more. You become more involved because more senses are engaged. You're almost focusing more on what they're trying to hear because the music is loud and then it will stop and the scene ends and it goes on to the next. Sure, but then it happens again. So you start it's not just like one time they do it and you're like what was that?
Speaker 1:It is kind of like a theme, and this movie also plays with a nonlinear timeline. You go back and forth from when these three people. I mean if you've seen the trailer then you kind of know what it is. But it's a love triangle between two up-and-coming tennis players who meet Zendaya. Zendaya is also a tennis player and it follows their career. Zendaya suffers an injury, she becomes the coach, she becomes romantically involved with the two of them, so on and so forth. And so we're jumping back and forth between a 13-year time difference, basically between when these three parties have met and where the film is taking place in current time. In a way, it is very, very self-conscious of how audiences maybe are tired of non-linear timelines, because you get your little title cards that say 13 years earlier, you get yours that say eight years earlier and so you make, and you need those to make your legitimate time jumps.
Speaker 1:But then there's a few times where it doesn't and goes like you're already eight years back, and then it just says like the day before this, or like so it really jumps. Or like midnight it's just like so, you know, it's almost like how the shining is like sure, day whatever, day whatever. And then, as the film is getting more chaotic, at the end it it's just like 4 pm 8 pm and you really start breaking it down.
Speaker 1:So in somewhat of a winking way, as this film is jumping back and forth in timeline it's just like five hours before this and so you really start to break it down incrementally, which I enjoy, because once again you normally don't see that. You're just kind of going like, like if it was memento or something. You're just like and now I'm not just picking on Chris.
Speaker 1:Nolan, because I think that Luke is trying to pick on Chris Nolan. That's not what he's trying to do. But you know you take somebody who does this all the time in their films and they do it with such earnestness and they think that it's like so creative.
Speaker 1:There's a little bit of this film that I feel like is like okay, if you're gonna do it like kind of have some fun with it, right. Another thing that this movie does is play with frame rate a lot. There's a lot of slow motion in this film, and I'm not here to say that luke is making fun of somebody like zach snyder when he's making this film, but it's almost like that's how you should do slow motion if you're gonna do it where, like it should be a ridiculously intense shot of beads of sweat dripping off these tennis players from an angle that is so creative.
Speaker 1:It's like a camera shot that would be under the tennis court. So it's like there's a glass floor on the tennis court and there's a camera under it and you can see the tennis player, before they're about to serve the ball, bouncing the ball in slow motion, hitting where the surface is and coming back up. So just different things, where it's like this is not somebody, just like flying through the air, throwing a punch in slow motion like we were getting very creative with these little tricks that we're trying to do.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 1:This is all speaking to like sorry to cut you off, but this is all just speaking to the craft that went into this movie. Luke has always been a creative filmmaker, but he's also been a very sentimental and great storyteller with his films. The story in this film, I think, at times operates at like um like a seven or an eight.
Speaker 2:Did he write this no?
Speaker 1:At like a seven or an eight, and then other times there's a few scenes and we can maybe talk about this on another episode once more people have seen it Because I really don't want to spoil too much if you stayed in the dark like I did most of the time.
Speaker 1:There are a handful of scenes where you're watching this movie and maybe it was the environment. I'm by myself in this giant theater, legs kicked up, and I'm grinning ear to ear. I'm rubbing my hands together because it's operating on like an 11 out of 10. So I definitely recommend challengers with the understanding that it's not going to be for everybody and I think some people will not. I don't want to say they're not going to appreciate it, because it's not an intelligence thing what he's doing with with these tricks that I've detailed but it's, it's just different, and I understand.
Speaker 1:Does it feel gimmicky though?
Speaker 3:or is he making? That's what I'm saying, though it's a winking, like he's winking at you almost while while he's doing it.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely so. So it's interesting. I haven't stopped thinking about it for almost 24 hours now, which is a great sign. I can't wait to hear what you and some of our other friends who I really respect their takes when it comes to films, what they think about it, because I do think that this movie is going to capture the culture for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:Well, you hope so, because I mean Zendaya's star can't really be brighter.
Speaker 1:There's a world in which she gets nominated for Best Actress for this, and there's a world in which she gets nominated for Razzie. Uh-huh, wow, uh-huh Two sides of the coin. It's really interesting. She's going for it, and that's what I love about her as well. You look at some of the other people who Luca has kind of tied his ship to.
Speaker 1:Obviously, her one of the first names you think of is her counterpart in Dune Part 2, timothee Chalamet, and just the way that they trust like there's a lot of trust between the three main actors in this film that they have to have with their director in a story like this, and it's there and it's very apparent.
Speaker 1:And going back to her work on euphoria and some of the other films that she's been a part of, this is another one that, like you know, I think we talked about on a few, a few episodes ago where we're like she, we're gonna be able to look back and say she was the last, she's one of the last great movie stars that did it the right way, that didn't come up using um, a superhero franchise. I know she's in-Verse and what a lot of people know her for, especially the younger generation. There's even see, and this is why I know this movie is smart, because it's a little confusing. But if, like you're gonna, if you're gonna write your Letterboxd review about how and I don't want to spoil the joke I'll maybe tell you off.
Speaker 1:There's a joke in this movie that almost places, and I'll just kind of leave it at that. But it's one of these things where it's like it's funny. They could have put any other line at this moment in the film and it would have been just fine. But the fact that they chose the line to be written the way that it is, it is them having fun. And if you're going, to get hung up on that then like live a little like relax, that doesn't make, or break the movie.
Speaker 1:It's like this movie is just very knowing.
Speaker 3:That's the way I would say that's exciting and I I think luca is someone that you know. I would put him in a stratosphere of as far as like a very actor friendly director right it does seem that, like on every project, the actors really are, are there for him, they trust him and they will. They will crank it up as high or as low as he wants.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, so Challengers, I definitely recommend it, that's very exciting.
Speaker 3:I can't wait to see it. I think I'm going to try and go this weekend if I've got time. One of the movies I've seen I don't know if you've seen Civil War yet, so Civil War, you know, you just mentioned uh at the opening there top of the box office. It's been out for now, I think, two weeks. Alex Garland's uh, a24, the biggest movie, a24 has come out with Um, it's been been. It's so weird.
Speaker 3:Civil war has been like divisive, but also like people like kind of unifying, kind of kind of, but also like not wanting to talk about it. I feel like um, or or maybe they, they think something, but you can tell, you can kind of tell that people when they talk about it, they, they like are careful about it, which is really interesting. Because I, I love this movie. I think this movie I think it's one of the best of the year so far. Uh, I think it is the, the. It's a road movie, pretty much um, which I really love, the. The main thing that I adore about this film is that it you know, you, you say the title civil war, you know, and in a near future in America, and you think it's just going to stand up on its grandstand and take a blow horn and and tell you all its wokeness and ideas and what the right way is, and especially coming from a studio like A24, and that's not to take a jab at them, but this has not been billed or promoted as a purge film.
Speaker 1:Right, this is supposed to be a little heady.
Speaker 3:Right, and the best thing about this film is that it is the most centrist thing about this film is that it is the most centrist. Like no lesson, no, uh, you know no preaching throughout the whole film. It is so um, objective, yeah, and it's in its execution and that I think. I think it really works for the film because it because you go in with your own preconceived ideas and and you expect to be fed whatever the filmmakers ideas are, and I I think it kind of, and that can even, and even with alex garland.
Speaker 3:He's a guy who has collected a little baggage for some totally and I I think it keeps you really engaged because you're just waiting for that moment and then, once it, that moment just never comes and it's over and you're just like that was fucking awesome, I think. I think it's a really smart trick to get people to really like watch the movie. Some of the sound design is is some the I've never heard gunshots sound so great in a film and it's just like it's a great road movie that has little vignettes along the way. I will say that probably, like, maybe some of the weakness comes in our main characters, even though, like, they're doing good jobs out there. They're doing fine jobs of acting. They're doing good jobs out there. They're doing fine jobs of acting, but the people you meet along the way are more interesting than the people that you're traveling with, which is interesting, but also might be on purpose as well.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, I really really love this movie, highly recommend it. It was a thrill ride and don't be worried about you know, I don't know if you've have you seen any of the trailers? You know any of the marketing? Nope, don't worry about the people, if you know, if you're out there and you're like, well, but this person is in it and it's probably just going to be a joke. Don't worry about that. They have no screen time.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 3:And um, yeah's, it's. It's a great picture of the horrors of war, um, and a great just action like a snapshot yeah, it's just great. It's just some of the best action I've seen in a long time it's very exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 824 keeps churning them out. Yeah, man, I. And when you say I just want to kind of clarify this when you say it's the biggest film that they've done, do you mean scale-wise?
Speaker 3:I think so. I think it's the biggest budget and I think it was the biggest opening for an A24 film oh okay.
Speaker 1:Very cool.
Speaker 3:And listen, alex Garland. I'm pretty sure he has another project coming down. There's another thing going around that this is his last film. He's stepping away and he I think he's come out and debunked that he's already got another film called warfare coming. So, um yeah, garland, after the disaster of what men was, I think, garland, and granted, he does do a little bit of his guard, garlandness with this film With the Kaley Spanning.
Speaker 3:Kiki Dunst. No, kiki Dunst, yeah, especially one sequence where it's just like that's Garland, that's you just not letting it go. But the rest of the film is spectacular and I would put it up there with Ex Machina and Annihilation.
Speaker 1:Very nice and that's really good to hear too, because we were asked the question by one of our listeners last week if you were going to put somebody in director jail. He was almost going to be somebody. If I hadn't heard good things already from you and a few other people about civil war, I would have said Alex Garland maybe needs to take take some time off, but it sounds like this was a really good bounce back for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Abigail mentioned it a few times. You went and saw this Listen man, did you know going in?
Speaker 2:I yeah, I've seen the trailer for this.
Speaker 1:So I knew going in and and that's one of the biggest problems with this movie is that, and with all trailers, and especially horror trailers, is that we are spoon-feeding audiences half of the plot to try to get them in the theater.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I guess it works because these scary movies in particular continue to do business, and so you are drumming up excitement. You just don't have to do it to this level. The the first movie that I thought of, and I thought of a lot of films while I was watching this movie, but the first thing I thought of was had the vampire reveal been kept under wraps?
Speaker 1:the way in which the film barbarian played out this movie would have so much more positive word of mouth and have people coming out and drove to see it in the theater, because that was another thing with barbarian. It was hard to see that movie in theater but you kept hearing about it and then it really wasn't until it was at HBO. I believe, max, that they'd got the rights to distribute it on a streamer. Abigail with, without the knowledge of it being a vampire film, without the knowledge of the little girl, this ballerina, this kidnapped victim, and I use that. You can't see it right now, but air quotes victim.
Speaker 1:If the turn would have happened in theater and you wouldn't have known what was coming, this movie would have been 10 times as successful.
Speaker 1:There is still a lot of meat on the bone here. That's good, because this is and now this is done by the same guys who have directed the past two Scream films. They've used Melissa Barrera in those films. Melissa Barrera is the biggest star in this movie, so we have a budding Scream queen on our hands. She can carry. She does a great job as the lead actor in this film. But what this movie reminds me of, people have said like, oh my gosh, like we have this Holy Trinity now of like Megan and Abigail, and you know like whether you want to say like Annabelle then, or like.
Speaker 1:Maybe you just say it's a lot like Ready or Not, because it's kind of an all-in-one location, a big house type of movie.
Speaker 1:You can do these different things or whatever to draw lines through, lines to to more contemporary movies. This, to me, I felt like I was watching one of these scary movies that are like action or you know. They're not really scary. There's not even really jump scares in this movie, no, but this feels like you're watching a 13 ghosts or ghost ship or house on haunted hill or the haunting, just kind of one of these. Like you get a bunch of B level actors together and there are a crew of people that you know we're just going to get picked off one by one and there's going to be some cheesy one liners and there's going to be good kills, a lot of blood and a lot of blood, and you're out in less than 100 minutes. And that's what this movie does, and it knows what it's doing the entire time, and so they're not trying to give this movie, they try to give it a little bit of heart.
Speaker 1:You know, of course, like the Melissa Barrera character is estranged from her son, and so she has a little bit of extra sentimentality directed towards abigail, and that is what it is. It's almost a trope, though, that you that when you see it in these films, you appreciate it because you're like there's no need for you to do this. But, like I understand that there's maybe 10 people in every theater that go see this movie and they think like, oh, this is like really, you know, like I appreciated the parenting angle behind this. I don't need that from abigail, but what what I need from abigail is is the gruesome kills, yeah, the pools of blood I got all of that.
Speaker 1:Angus cloud is in this movie. Rip to angus cloud, so really, and there's a big um in loving memory of him thing at the end before the credits start to roll. He's awesome in this movie the vampire design of annabelle when she has her turn and you understand that like she's basically and it's. I don't want to spoil too much of it because there there is a lot that wasn't spoiled in the trailer that I think is fun to watch.
Speaker 1:I think I think I know what you're talking about, but but you basically learn that she is in full control over the situation at hand and anything that has happened to her in the past. Now there becomes a power struggle. At the end there needs to be obviously right. There are some sort of third act climax in this movie for it to feel like you're watching a movie, but there's no part of me that wasn't having fun as as we were kind of like unraveling this, the spool here.
Speaker 1:Um so abigail's a perfectly fine film that I'm happy is in theaters, and then I'm happy we're still did you go? To still making.
Speaker 2:Don't ask me that question because there's other ways to watch these movies um so I can't come up with this theory.
Speaker 1:I heard it on another show For the record I would never illegally download films and watch them from the comfort of my home, as opposed to leave and go out into the world.
Speaker 3:I heard a brilliant thing, though, talking about this film on another podcast, um, where they were talking about the, the marketing of it, and why. Why do we have to know? You know? Because, because it takes quite a long time for the vampire reveal to actually happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like 40 minutes into the film. This movie's like an hour and 40 minutes long, right and so, yeah, you're're right.
Speaker 3:If that was kept under wraps, I can't imagine what the word of mouth would have been these guys who were talking about this movie. They were talking about the movie Hardcore.
Speaker 3:Oh sure, george C Scott, yeah, paul Schrader, and how that poster was a black poster with white lettering that said is that my daughter Hardcore, hardcore, that's it. If this was just like you kidnapped the wrong girl, abigail Abigail, I think way more people go and see this. The mystery behind it. I just don't understand why we have to know. You know, there's another movie that just had a a trailer drop and I don't I'm sure you haven't watched it, but m night chamelon's new movie sorry, I know all about our saint saint patron, saint saint heartnet, yeah, trap and trap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, called trap, but again, and who knows, it's m night, so there might be like 12 more twists, but it gives the twist away in the trailer and I just even with you would think, especially with someone like m night, who has a brand, who has a following people.
Speaker 3:He is dr twist right, like I don't understand why we have to know exactly what we're going into. Um, and again, I think that's a great trick that's awarded, because you go in thinking you do know exactly what's going on and then it surprises you, um, and so yeah, that's why I haven't checked out abigail. Uh, but I would. I I'm glad to hear it was fun, at least absolutely. But jesus christ, if I gotta sit through 40 minutes of them not knowing she's a vampire and I know that.
Speaker 3:You know she's a vampire from the poster outside the theater like that's you're just like give me get to the action, yeah, yeah but that's what.
Speaker 1:But that's where I found some affection for the film. Was that in the setup during the meet the gang moments. I'm like I this is kind of fun what this is doing this is a this is sort of a throwback to these early 2000s horror films, even going back to the 80s, right like a freddy movie, a jason movie, where you're like, okay, this is that camp counselor, you're playing that archetype, you're doing that but you're gonna die probably.
Speaker 1:Third, you're gonna die. Fourth, you know like it has that whole familiar feel to it, which when you, when you, which, when you gotta find something yeah to, to hold on to, to get you through that. That opening first act it. It could be worse. Yeah, um, okay, should we talk about late night with the devil?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts. We both saw this movie, uh, separately yep, I haven't talked about it, yeah I went to the amc lakewood. I don't know if that's what you thought.
Speaker 1:Well, this is no.
Speaker 3:This is available to stream at home now, oh nice yeah, uh, my theater experience, it, granted, was, I think, an early matinee, but it was me and one other person in the theater and that person came in like during the last trailer, so for a while there I was like I got the whole theater, yeah, I like made a huge mess and then this other person came in and I like started cleaning up really quickly.
Speaker 3:but, um, late night with the devil is uh, and remind me that, what's the lead character's name? Jack Jack, but he's played by David.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, DeKoch DeScholl or something, I'm not sure how to pronounce it.
Speaker 3:Anyways, he's that guy right, Like he pops up.
Speaker 1:Especially from like Chris Nolan movies.
Speaker 3:Supporting roles all the time Usually plays a really creepy person. You know he was in the first Dune, he was in Prisoners, he's been in a lot of things, um, so he is the leading man. Thought a really good performance from him. Love the, the setting, love the premise. David, that's small. She in decimal chin, yeah, um. However, I think it. It it almost tried to layer too much plot on top of what was such a solid awesome. Like an exorcism happens on halloween night on a live talk show, like injected into me, like I will be there in the theater to watch that I don't need. Oh, also, like you know, we're he. He lost his wife, he's got trauma and we're worried about the nielsen ratings and beating carson which is like I get it's.
Speaker 3:It's kind of part of the reason why we have to right. I think that's fine, but like the whole like we're trying to go deeper and and make it more emotional Lost me a little bit. The third act then, like kind of for me, loses me and like I wanted I all I wanted was an exorcism on live TV. That's all like. Just show me that that would have been so kick-ass. Also, this movie is a little bit in hot water because some of the images, or there's some art that AI created throughout the film.
Speaker 3:I think it's like three or four pictures or something like that, which, whatever take it or leave it, that's going to start happening more and more. Sorry, it's cheaper, that's what's happening. As long as it doesn't take all the jobs away, that'd be great, and I think they still had our people like work on the photos. But yeah, I to me, I loved 75% of this movie For me.
Speaker 1:it also fell apart a little bit in the third act when. Jack or lead character, had to have this revelation of sorts where this is the reason why this is all happening to me. There's a little bit of like eyes wide shut secret society to this film.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was weird too. It's just like dropped in there but like not really explored at all.
Speaker 1:Explored at all and and I'm fine with that, I guess in a sense I kind of liked it because you know that, okay, this, this, this person, our lead character, he's not really our protagonist, right?
Speaker 1:he's just the lead character has put himself and the, the people in his life, in jeopardy before by by being a part of some sort of cult activity, sure, and so this is not this. We start to realize that, like this shouldn't come as a surprise, that something like this would happen on his show, where something would actually manifest itself into a demonic possession and and I do like that, it also too is almost it's more of almost like a summoning as opposed to an exorcist, um, an exorcism that they're trying to perform.
Speaker 1:So I did like that angle. I liked, I liked the structure of the film. I liked the, the editing choices that they did, that they used, that they employed to try to make it feel like a 1970s film. There's some split screen. I'm a sucker for split screen so there's some really good split screen that happens in this film.
Speaker 1:I liked the commercial transitions coming back same I loved that yes and in the, in the color changing from black and white to when we are offset to color when we're on set. I thought that that was enough. There was enough creativity there that I was like this, this what's my palette when it comes to, like, giving me something to kind of chew on while I'm also watching the movie. For the plot, like there's, there's there's fun stuff going on that I can appreciate, but I do think that the plot takes itself um, I don't want to say too serious, but they just try to do too much. Yeah, and I thought that the plot takes itself um, I don't want to say too serious, but they just try to do too much yeah and I thought that the performances outside of david, from the supporting cast, all of those actors, were pretty good too.
Speaker 1:our girl, who is possessed she's maybe dialing it up a little bit in some of her scenes before she is supposed to be and now we're supposed to know there's something wrong with this person, um, but but even so, you just kind of feel like the mood changed a little bit, where I feel like this is a pretty good slow burn for for a little, for, for, you know, I don't know 50 minutes of the film, and then it really turns up. Turns up the noise, which is fine, a lot of, but when it doesn't, almost too fast, and then it tries to incorporate all these other things that just feel half baked. That's what stops it from being like a great film for me.
Speaker 1:And I think that from a lot of the reviews that I've read from people that I trust on letterbox and that I respect that's kind of the consensus as well, is it like people really wanted to love this movie. Because I do think there are people, there are people out there who do, who do legitimately think that this is a great horror movie, and I'm not here to say that those people are wrong, but I just think that that created this expectation for this film and also, too, it was kind of like circulating its release. It was circulating around festivals, late night screenings midnight screenings.
Speaker 1:The grand cinema here locally showed it at their weird elephant, so that you know they're just getting tagged as kind of one of those like special movies it's just almost like a skidamarink right where you're just like and, and then, yeah, you go in and you're just like this isn't this doesn't work for me, yeah, the way and that it's worked for other people which which is kind of disappointing, but still, I'm telling you, 2024 is going to be a really good year for scary movies and the fact that this is like okay, that this is like going to I think we both feel like this is going to be a middling kind of middle of the pack.
Speaker 1:Horror movie, when this year is all said and done, is a great sign, because had this have?
Speaker 2:come out last year would have been like this is probably a top 10 scary movie from this year, even with nothing being changed totally.
Speaker 1:If it was the same movie that it is now, it is better than skinnamarink. It's better than a lot of scary movies that came out last year so. So another one right like it's. It's available on demand. Watch it from the comfort of your home. Great job going out and supporting theaters in the box office.
Speaker 1:This is one that you can wait to Wait for it to come to you, but it is fun, I think. One other film that I just wanted to give a shout out to that I watched on Mubi, that is M-U-B-I Mubi. Tubi's cousin there's, so many Mubi the cousin movie is really the cousin to something like criterion, Like they show show really independent.
Speaker 1:They have a focus on independent international films and and a lot of older stuff, remastering and re-releasing different different movies from from very important directors from around the world. So this, this was a movie. I believe that country of origin production was like Great Britain. I want to say so European film and it's about. Did I say the name of?
Speaker 3:it how to have.
Speaker 2:Sex. Oh, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1:How to have Sex was a 2023 release at, I believe, cannes is where it first played and just recently here in the States was released on streaming via MUBI. So kind of one of these like 2023 productions, but just releases but just getting to us now.
Speaker 1:A lot, a lot like the taste of things which we talked about a couple of episodes ago. So how to have sex three girls who are on holiday following the end of a school year, and they're they range in age a little bit, but between like 16 and 18, and it's the. The plot of the film is, is a is a little bit like what the title would insinuate. Where it's, it's one girl in particular who is on this trip trying to find herself sexually and who wants to hook up and who is kind of under the tutelage of her two friends that she's with. And this is in the same vein of like a larry clark film, something like kids, um, a little bit like bully, where it's like just young people when left up to their own devices when you introduce drugs and alcohol, and also to just like the way that the world is and the way that people are, and specifically in this film and in our world, the way that men are. When, like, carnal lust takes over, it gets ugly, and so there's a major trigger warning for this film.
Speaker 1:Like there's a sexual assault in this film, but it's important because this movie is told the way that the story unravels and the way that this film is told. It's told in a way that isn't as explicit and isn't as in your face, as I think a lot of people would suspect it to be. When you hear about like oh, there's a sexual assault or there's a possible rape, whatever, I don't want to spoil what happens, um, because if you do watch it, I think that it's important for you to kind of like digest it in real time for yourself, as it's happening, and that's the point. Right is to make you think like I've seen this depicted in films, not that there's different levels of egregiousness, but like I've seen. I've seen sexual assault be portrayed worse on screen than what it is now.
Speaker 1:That doesn't make what's happening in this film how to have sex any better than anything, that's happened.
Speaker 1:It is still a terrible, terrible act, but it's something that like and even some of her friends in this movie try to kind of sweep it under the rug as like, yeah, that's what happens when you party and no, that's not okay, it's not okay at all, and so that's what this movie does a really, really good job of doing is exploring is exploring the nuances of what a sexual assault can look like. Um, so, a really tough, impactful film and a really tough film yeah, absolutely. Um, but but one that also I I recommend and that I think that is.
Speaker 1:It's almost not even my place to say like it's a good movie. I don't think it's really anyone's place to say like it's a good movie or it's not a good movie, like it's a well made film, it's very competently made, really really good movie. The message is like undeniable and and how it impacts you and what you're left feeling afterwards. Obviously there's something you need to all understand is that, like, what happens in the movie is not right. How you respond to that and how you take that is then up to you and kind of your own personal experiences. Um so, so just a really kind of like a special movie where I'm like I wish that this had gotten a wider release in the United States and that maybe it was, I don't know, on Netflix, not movie, and I'm not often what I. I'm surprised.
Speaker 2:I hear myself saying that, but like more people need to watch this film.
Speaker 3:Sure, you know, yeah, cool, I have no more movies to talk about. Hit me with some of these current events then. Yeah, Note to future Max play the news music. Thank you Alright. So yeah, I've got how many here? One, two, three, four, five little stories. I just want to get your reaction.
Speaker 1:The first one is these will be gut reactions too, yeah.
Speaker 3:Quentin Tarantino has canceled the movie Critic and is going back to the drawing board. He will not be making that for his 10th and final film. How do we feel? No Quentin movie in 2025.
Speaker 1:I'm okay with not getting a Quentin movie in 2025. If that means we're going to get the Quentin movie that he feels like should be released as his last film If he cause, cause I'll. I'll give you my honest take on what I felt in regards to the movie critic which was.
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't again and it doesn't really matter. Now it's kind of a moot point. I don't know if that was a working title or if that was actually what this movie was going to be called. I felt like this is going to be kind of an underwhelming end to an amazing career. You're just going to make a movie about now again. Who knows, maybe the content was going to be insane Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is such a hangout movie but also is done in a way and maybe it's the actors who were involved in that film but it's done in such a way that felt grand and felt big.
Speaker 1:There's no reason for me to doubt QT as a director, but there was just something about the premise and the idea of the movie critic that almost felt too self-aware and it felt like it was going to be him just kind of trying to go back to the once upon a time in Hollywood, well, and so I felt like it was going to be. I had this bad impending sense of like. I don't want to say dread or doom or anything, but I just felt like that movie could be sort of underwhelming. So I'm happy that he has chosen to do something else as his quote-unquote final film yeah, uh, I, I agree.
Speaker 3:I it's so hard because once upon a time in hollywood would have been a fantastic final stone crescendo like it is. It is so like personal to him and is very much Quentin Tarantino and his brand and all that Kind of.
Speaker 1:he's the only person that could make the movie that way Right.
Speaker 3:So I'm also glad that he's going back to the drawing board, because if he wasn't all the way in, then you just you can't make that. Make it as your final film.
Speaker 1:And I don't think you and I are here to say that we need his final film to be something like Django.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Where it's like a grindhouse spaghetti western ultra violent. I think he's done that right. I think he's done that right.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I'm sad we're not getting a Tarantino movie soon, but I am happy that maybe you know, maybe he'll he'll, just you know, keep us, keep us on the, on the carrot Totally.
Speaker 1:Uh running towards it.
Speaker 3:Um, all right. Next piece of news Benny and Josh uh sad feet, uh, safety, safety, break up. Uh, even though they are. Even though they are, josh is doing his next film with Adam Sandler about sports memorabilia. However, benny will not be involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like the writing has kind of been on the wall for this one. Yeah, benny has been acting so much more in recent years and in getting involved with so many other projects, whereas Josh has. Just it doesn't seem like that's really I don't know if that's the career he wants for himself or if Benny is just so much of a go-getter to where, and whether that's in the field of acting or filmmaking, but it just felt like they were starting to go in different creative directions.
Speaker 1:Anyways, so and now this is almost gets into, uh, you know, like a tabloid story. We're like do we need this proclamation of a split? Sure, a breakup, yeah, like is this actual news Like eh, I don't know, you can just stop making movies together.
Speaker 2:Like Joel and.
Speaker 3:Ethan have done it basically.
Speaker 1:Totally Um, and you know, I don't think that that's man now. Maybe there's a lot more going on, maybe there's. There were creative differences and that's why Benny goes and works with Nathan Fielder on the.
Speaker 1:Curse, and Josh is nowhere to be seen on that project Right. So who knows, maybe there were actual creative differences, or maybe it's just one wants something when the other wants a different thing, and so, again, we're lucky to have gotten the couple of movies that they did make together, because they're all really really good, yeah, and I hope that you know, as brothers they can remain cordial and and and still make things that are exciting.
Speaker 3:Steven Spielberg going back to UFOs. He's making a UFO movie. He's making an alien movie. Returns to close encounters ET movie. Returns to Close Encounters, ET.
Speaker 1:What do we make of this? I make of this the way I think about this is the way I think about how my mom love you mom, and I love you dad, and I love all the boomers in my life, but the way in which they are just stuck in their own ways, where it's just kind of like you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And I love my again, mom, dad. I love my parents, but, like we just talked about this with scorsese, right, we're like he's he, he's trying to do new things at least I've talked about this recently.
Speaker 1:Killers of the flower moon, I think, was something similar to other things he's been trying to do, and I think the biggest downfall of that film to me was that you could feel him wanting to make it more about the G-Men and the crime and the corruption of, and again, that's what that story is about. But your movie should have been focusing on other characters in that film as opposed to making it feel like moments of goodfellas or moments of casino and and so I think that uncle marty is stuck in his ways a little bit spielberg same generation stuck in his ways a little bit. Um, so I'm not surprised to answer your question I'm not surprised we're going back to UFOs, because what's his comfort meal?
Speaker 1:UFOs, yeah.
Speaker 3:Aliens and parents. Aliens and parents and yeah, kids being unsupervised. Left to their own devices. Our guy, Guimero del Toro, has begun shooting his remake of Frankenstein. Do we need another Frankenstein movie?
Speaker 1:We don't.
Speaker 3:Are we okay with Del Toro going into this?
Speaker 1:I mean, if you're asking, would I rather him allocate his time and resources to an original project, Absolutely, If he wants to make Frankenstein and now you know what. We actually haven't had new Frankenstein IP for for a long time. Yeah, probably what the the De Niro, the De Niro films yeah so so sure, have have we made a trip back down?
Speaker 3:I think we are especially with lane recently doing Nosferatu. Now here we go right, kind of trying to bring back the dark universe. I believe Blumhouse putting out a Wolfman, okay.
Speaker 1:So so we're trying this. We tried this. What 10 years ago?
Speaker 2:with Cruz and the mummy and it just did not work.
Speaker 1:But, but now, hey, now we have this new generation of of independent and international horror filmmakers and studios that will try to produce something like this, as opposed to like when I believe that was that was universal right, that did the mummy with Tom Cruise and one of the biggest bombs of the 21st century. So do I think that that'll happen again to Del Toro's movie? No, but. But at the same time, like Del Toro's made a few films in recent years that he made his creature film, he made his creature film. But what I was gonna say is he's made some films that have opened less than stellar at the box office and I think, who have found their audience.
Speaker 1:But like something, I think of something like crimson peak, like just no one thinks about that movie anymore. It's a. It's a fine movie. I own that movie. It's upstairs right now, but like no one talks about crimson peak and and so like, will people talk about a Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein film? Maybe for a couple weeks, maybe for a weekend, but I don't know if that's going to have the same impact as if he tried to go back.
Speaker 2:And do like a Pan's Labyrinth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, devil's, backbone Something like that. Which is interesting because this is the whole. So it's almost like the same thing we just said, like where I'm not surprised that marty's going back and doing what he's doing and I'm not surprised that spielberg's uh, just been announced to go back and do what he's doing, because it's like you know and I'm not, I don't know. You just can't teach an old dog new tricks it's, it's kind of tough, and so at least he's trying to do something that I'm sure he's very passionate about.
Speaker 3:Well then, I suppose you'll have the same answer for this last news bulletin, martin Scorsese.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He has two films in pre-production. One's about Jesus and one's a Frank Sinatra biopic with Leo and J-Law as.
Speaker 2:Ava Gardner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just don Gardner. Yeah, we just don't need either of those two things.
Speaker 3:I personally don't need either of those two things in my life. You don't want a four-hour movie about Jesus, no, and a four-hour movie about music. Jesus, he's already made the last temptation of Christ and silence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Marty, again knock it off. Sit down, Can Leo?
Speaker 3:sing. I don't know. I think Leo can sing.
Speaker 1:I don't know, leo, I'm losing interest.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I am.
Speaker 1:There are so many other actors who are doing more exciting things and I'm not just saying that because maybe they're of a different generation or they're working with other filmmakers but Leo and Marty we've seen this time and time again. And now maybe somebody like Luca Guadagnino has no interest in working with Leo, but like be in a Luca film, be in a Robert Eggers film, do something Like somebody who maybe the verdict's still out on, like the Daniels, as much as I make fun of everything everywhere all at once, like what, what?
Speaker 2:what are they up to?
Speaker 1:yeah, what are you boys? Gonna follow up everything everywhere all at once with? Go find somebody like Leo and maybe do like something like as as in now. Whatever grain of salt from me, as fresh and exciting as everything everywhere All at once was like, I'm sure you have other ideas. Get, get one of these big a list veteran actors who are 40 or 50 years old and put them in your movie Like Leo, you don't need to be working with Marty again and a musical. Or like a music. Your movie yeah, like Leo, you don't need to be working with Marty again. And a musical. Or like a music biopic yeah, you know what that sounds like to me. Ten nominations, no wins For the fourth time in a row, that's what that sounds like this is why I bring the news to you.
Speaker 1:Hot takes, because you know what I'm sure? Because when I saw that, yeah, I was like I'm sure people are going to love this.
Speaker 3:They're going to eat it up. They'll eat it up. Spoonfuls Totally.
Speaker 1:I'll be there opening night. You know it'll be a quasi-gangster film. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Who's playing Dean Martin right.
Speaker 1:It'll turn into a whole sort of I don't know, maybe it won't, maybe it won't, I don't know, maybe it'll be phenomenal, but like am I going to be super excited.
Speaker 2:Not until I hear some great.
Speaker 3:Do people care? Do people that are younger than us care about Frank Sinatra?
Speaker 1:This is a great question. This is a great question for all of pop culture Is.
Speaker 3:Frank Sinatra. Like I understand, for a long, long time he was like the most famous person ever. Right, but does does someone who's 19 fire up some sinatra sometimes?
Speaker 1:here's some. Here's a depressing fact. So the the past two weekends as of the time of this recording, um, I'm gonna go off on a little bit of tangent here. I'll bring it back soon. I'll bring it back quickly. I promise it was Coachella down in the desert. Sure Indio, california Live streamed both weekends on YouTube. Fantastic stuff. No Doubt did not headline, but they sub headlined. Okay, it's the first time that no Doubt had played together in something like eight years. First time that no doubt had played together in something like eight years. Yeah, no doubt played on saturday night on the main stage. Before, I believe it was tyler the creator. Okay, and now tyler the creator in his own right has been around for a while now, but not as long as no doubt, sure? So you had so many people who were camped out at main stage, who. I'm reading the coachella subreddit. I've I've followed the festival. Um, you're doing the work, I'm doing the work, and there are so many people that are like I never knew I loved so many no doubt songs. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:So, if you're asking me, if people nowadays younger than us know who frank sinatra is absolutely hundreds of thousands of kids have just discovered?
Speaker 1:no doubt the answer is no, and now I'm not surprised. It's something like coachella, which is influencer friendly. Sure that is all over social media would be something that would turn some turn younger people on to something that was big in the past. It's. That's not going to happen with the martin scorsese film. Yeah, and I think somebody, even like leonardo dicaprio, is losing totally.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, how many people care about? How many people care about him? 21 and under care about leonardo dicaprio right now yeah, not many, just weird middle-aged guys like us yeah because I'm like have you seen the beach?
Speaker 1:he was great in the beach. So I don't know we gotta, I don't know the, the old guard is dying out and if they and if the flame, if the flame goes out, they're making one last push. Exactly if it, if it goes out burning the way in which at least we've seen it burn bright in the past, then, like I don't discredit them, for trying of course you know like it would be.
Speaker 1:It would be insane if marty actually made another wolf of wall street and that was his final film, and I think that was like that wasn't necessarily lightning in a bottle right, because again it was, it was Marty, it was Leo, it was somewhat of a nonfiction story. Right, it was New York. But at the same time that movie was so funny and exciting when it came out.
Speaker 2:But that was what.
Speaker 1:That was like 2015, maybe even before that 13 maybe, but that movie didn't feel safe right, that movie was a little dangerous. Yeah Him making a Frank Sinatra biopic is the safest thing ever.
Speaker 3:Same with Steven right Steven making a UFO movie is not dangerous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need my movies to be dangerous. My guys. Maybe they've lost their fastball, that's it right. Hey, greg Maddox pitched until he was 40 you know who knows.
Speaker 1:All right, in the meantime, I was doing this for fun episode yeah, love talking movies in the meantime, follow excuse the intermission on Instagram and the two of us on letterbox to track what we are watching in between shows, to get a sneak peek at what we might be talking about next week. And we will talk to you next time on excuse the intermission, where movies still matter.