Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
The Steven Soderbergh Movie Draft
Unlock the secrets behind Steven Soderbergh’s groundbreaking career and discover how his latest film, "Presence," transcends traditional genres. This episode of "Excuse the Intermission" features Max's spoiler-free impressions and explores the film's extraordinary writing and performances, alongside Soderbergh’s voyeuristic style. We also examine his innovative techniques, like shooting with an iPhone, and reflect on how he single-handedly reshaped filmmaking with his unique editing style in classics such as "The Limey."
Our journey through Soderbergh’s eclectic filmography offers insights into his unmatched versatility, from the cultural phenomenon of "Ocean's Eleven" to the introspective "Sex, Lies, and Videotape." Whether it's crime, heist, or drama, Soderbergh’s character-driven narratives consistently redefine cinematic storytelling. As we prepare for a film draft that categorizes his diverse works, we celebrate his ability to both capture critical acclaim and appeal to a broad audience, despite not being a typical box-office magnet.
Beyond film, Soderbergh's ventures into television with "The Knick" and movies like "Kimmy" demonstrate his talent for balancing intimate stories with grand narratives. Our discussion covers everything from his adaptation of "Solaris" to the thought-provoking thriller "Side Effects," emphasizing Soderbergh's skill in handling a wide array of genres. Join us for a lively analysis of his enduring impact on the art of filmmaking, and don’t miss our humorous contemplation on creating a Hall of Fame for potential alien visitors, sparking a light-hearted end to our episode.
how's it? I'm alex mccauley.
Speaker 1:I'm max fosberg and I'm erica kraus and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding steven sodeberg. The storied filmmaker saw his latest film presence open in theaters this past weekend, which marks his most recent endeavor into genre bending and technical experimentation. We will celebrate sodeh's career on this episode as we return to the draft room and hold the Steven Soderbergh movie draft that conversation up next on the other side of this break. All right, guys, good to see you today. We've been braving the cold winter weathers here in the Pacific Northwest recently a little bit of snow, a little bit of ice, some two-hour late starts at work, which, as someone who's a little bit under the weather right now, I've really enjoyed being able to sleep in the past couple of days. How are you guys doing today?
Speaker 2:Good, yeah, I'm wishing the snow would stick a little bit, but yeah, I enjoyed a nice cozy weekend.
Speaker 1:By the time of this release, we could be snowed in listening to playback.
Speaker 3:I think I hope. So, yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:Wednesday Wednesday night is supposed to get a little.
Speaker 3:Pretty stormy out there. That would be awesome, you know, if I get a break from driving to Seattle.
Speaker 1:You would take that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:So Steven Soderbergh, very interesting filmmaker here that we're going to talk about today. His new film, presence, is out in theaters right now. As I just mentioned, throats a little scratchy right now, so I'm going to turn this over really to max to kind of talk about presence. You went out and saw max to kind of talk about presence. You announced all this film. Uh, you quite enjoyed it. I think that you're gonna give it a good glowing recommendation. But kind of tell erica and I what you saw, spoiler free, of course, and and kind of what sodeberg was up to, because it's always something with him.
Speaker 3:Nowadays very rarely is he going out there and just making a straightforward film well and you know I I would argue that he's always kind of been an experimentalist. Another guy which I feel like I'm starting to say this a lot, but he a big film school guy. They teach you a lot of Soderbergh or they use Soderbergh films a lot throughout the curriculum, at least at SFI.
Speaker 1:In what capacity would you say? Is it an editing, a screenwriting blocking?
Speaker 3:You know, the unique thing about Steven is that he is the camera operator on pretty much every single movie he makes, and so he is a very technical director, while also, you know, I mean just from a standpoint of designing all of the shots in the film, whereas some other directors, you know, really direct the technical side of your creative vision, where Soderbergh is someone who's got the camera in his hands on all of his sets and he does quite a bit of editing as well when he makes a movie.
Speaker 3:But you know, something like the Limey is such an experimental style of editing because it is trying to represent a memory throughout the movie that you're getting a lot of shots where people are talking but you're not hearing dialogue, and then the dialogue is voiceover coming in later. It's a really interesting film to watch and even to read further about, because if you read anything about, sober has been very open that you know they originally made the movie and then cut, cut it as a straightforward kind of crime drama and it just wasn't working and so he decided to then experiment with the editing and and cut it in this very unique way to where it's, you know, the first time you watch it or, if you don't know, going in it's, it's, it's jarring to watch and kind of why that movie wasn't, you know, successful at the box office. But I think also now you can see, you know, 20 years later or whatever that uh it's been reclaimed.
Speaker 3:It's been reclaimed because it's being taught in film school. Um, so, just kind of a interesting guy and he, you know, I I feel like he's always doing that and in presence, uh it is. You know whether it's making a movie on an iphone, which he's done. What was a high-flying bird that?
Speaker 1:was shot.
Speaker 3:Insane and insane was was shot on a iphone. You know he was kind of one of the first major filmmakers to do that. But then also now in presence. It is an experimental kind of genre picture. I wouldn't call it straight. It's much more of a family drama, but it genuinely gave me chills at certain moments throughout the film. I think it's really really well written. I think it's acted well. Lucy Liu does a good job, but the guy who plays the dad in this film is fucking fantastic and it's it's extremely voyeuristic, uh, when you're watching it, and and kind of has a bit of shamalan, like a little bit of of that dna in the film. So, uh, I I really enjoyed presence. Um, it's also his. It's his first theatrical film since a long time which I believe was 2018.
Speaker 3:Uh, so the first time one of his movies has been back in the theaters. It's also the second of three films that have been written by david kepp. Uh, so kimmy was the first one, this is the second, and then we will get black bag here in in the spring I believe in april, I think. Um, which looks to be a really great like spy thriller. Uh, I you know. So he is just such a a solid rock when it comes to directing films. Um, and going through some of his filmography this week has been pretty fucking fantastic, uh, you know. He also is, I think, one of the only, if not the only, directors ever to compete against himself in the oscars for best director. Of course, that was in the year 2000 for traffic and aaron brockovich. Um, and he's just kind of one of these gen x or xer guys from from the uh the sunday yeah right with quentin tarantino or kevin smith or um pta, pta.
Speaker 3:You know he is one of these guys who made indie filmmaking just extremely cool and inspired a whole generation to become filmmakers.
Speaker 1:What's your relationship with the Soderbergh verse?
Speaker 2:I yeah, I'm glad you asked because I, honestly I haven't really seen. I went looking through his catalog of movies. There's really like I've seen quite a few, but really not a lot of them and um, it's I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean I I've I like, I like the way you said that like, because you can feel like you've seen a lot of his movies yeah but then also at the same time like not a lot, because the big ones feel so substantial and can feel like such a major part of your life right, like he has a lot of household names yes, you know, and a lot of movies that like, if you, if you pay it, if you haven't been living under a rock, like you definitely know, these movies, the, the franchise itself, um, and so of course I've seen quite a bit of those.
Speaker 2:But then going back and, like you know, with this assignment, specifically learning that not all his movies are really something I'm gonna gravitate towards, but you know I'm I specifically learning that not all his movies are really something I'm gonna gravitate towards, but you know I'm, I'm a girl, I'm not like, and not that women can't watch these movies, but you know, it's just not my like, it's not what I'm reaching for a lot of these um, but listening to kind of what max was just saying, it gives me, like you know, an understanding of like him being an independent filmmaker.
Speaker 2:I'm like, ok, I get that, I see it and I do respect that. But I mean, the guy's made some pretty, pretty iconic movies over his career.
Speaker 1:I think, for somebody who has been as experimental and has really never been tied to a major studio and goes out of his way to make sure that you know he he aligns with with the good, a lot of his films are where you're just like there's not really a stinker in the bunch. There's things that you can say are less successful than others but, as you pointed out, max, like when you've won best director, you've already reached the mountaintop yeah, and and so after that
Speaker 1:very early on yeah, very early on, um, and and I mean, received an academy award nomination right out of the bat as well for sexualized videotapes, for writing the screenplay of that film. So as someone who's extremely accomplished but has, you know, like I don't know who you could compare him to nowadays, but it's so cool that there's not, you know, looking back through his filmography, there's not like a 1998 batman movie, you know, sprinkled into his like that's just not I just don't think he would ever be interested in something like that.
Speaker 3:You know, he he is very much interested in like the human, like character driven stories, right yeah um, but you know he still dabbles in genre, right? Yeah, I mean, he's one of our best crime. And, like caper thriller, yes, directors of heist movies. Yeah, yeah, I mean, he's one of our best crime and like caper thriller.
Speaker 1:Yes, directors of heist movies. Yeah, yeah, I mean, he's great at the heist movies kept that that genre really alive.
Speaker 3:um, and even when they aren't. It's so funny too, because like it's not like he's a huge box office draw either, right, like watching one of these films last night, you know, was a total flop. It was a total flop and it has huge names in it and rewatching it I'm like this is a fucking fantastic movie.
Speaker 1:It's one of the ones that made me fall in love with Riley Keough.
Speaker 3:I know exactly which movie you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, so we're going to draft for the Soderbergh conversation. Here we tweak things a little bit. We normally have eight categories in a draft episode. We have six here today just to better fit, um, kind of the amount of films that Steven has directed. He's also been extremely successful working in television and executive producing different things. Um, you can even get real creative with our wildcard category, which I might plan on doing here, because he's also somebody that has been. He's taken his, his love for filmography online and done different recuts of films and done different things on on a really popular blog that he, that he produces, so so, someone whose career is not limited to just film either. And so what we've done to sort of tweak this draft is we've kept Oscar nomination. However, it's with the caveat that the film can be from any, or that the award can be tied to any film from any category, as long as he is the director of it, which still is pretty, pretty thin unfortunately it's still pretty thin yeah um, adaptation, slash, remake.
Speaker 1:So just a little bit more of a wrinkle there, because he, some of his biggest films are remakes of of prior movies and then, of course, adaptation sort of speaks for itself on, uh, the other side of that, we have blockbuster, but we've reduced it from $100 million domestically to $75 million domestically to better fit kind of what you were talking about. Max, where he's not the biggest draw but he has had some very successful films. We've taken his knack for the heist film, for genre filmmaking, and we've combined action, crime and thriller into one category. We have Streamer because, also also as you mentioned for a while there, all of his movies were going straight to a streaming service, mostly hbo max, and so we have a streamer category and then wild card where, of course, anything can fit. So how do we feel going into this draft? Do we think that there's a number one overall pick out there? What's? Without obviously showing your hand, erica? Do you have a strategy? Is there one you have to have?
Speaker 2:well, yeah, because I honestly I could. There just was too many that I couldn't get get a hold of even just this past week, and so my, my picks are pretty slim, so you guys will have to go easy on me.
Speaker 2:But, um, you know, I, I don't know, I I think that, like, just kind of looking at my picks, yeah, there's a couple categories and I struggled with this assignment, like to be to be honest, just because, like you know, I'm coming to a lot of these movies late in the game and these are these aren't necessarily movies like it kind of feels like their moment to me maybe came and went um. So yeah, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 3:We'll see how it goes yeah, I, I think you know it's really interesting when we do a draft with with just one person's filmography, which we haven't done too often, not too often. It does make the playing field a lot slimmer and smaller.
Speaker 3:So picks and the way you pick is way more important. But I also think that when you do one filmmaker's filmography, it really comes down to personal taste, and so it will be really exciting to see what each of us are trying to capture, because you can play the audience. When we do a draft for a year, like Sweet. Home Alabama, which was a total farce when Alex selected that.
Speaker 1:Help me win though.
Speaker 3:And then you can, but in this, like it's really, I think it comes down to like what you really love.
Speaker 1:I agree with that because I think, after cause, you know, I don't want to say that his career has been top heavy, but just because I do think that there are, like what Erica was saying, there are some household names amongst his, his filmography, and so if you grab one of those, your roster is going to look a little bit stronger maybe than the competitions here. When it's all said and done, however, like in a normal year, if we were doing you know, 2005, which we did do, but you'll never, you guys will never be able to hear it in 2005 you could. You could kind of stack every single one of your categories with a big movie, whereas in this one, once, something like Ocean's Eleven is off the board. That's a big one that's gone. That could play in a lot of different categories. So, yes, it will be very interesting. Max, you have the wheel of names pulled up.
Speaker 3:I can see. I definitely do Cache cleared from the last draft. I hope Cache is cleared clicking to spin and here's the spread. I definitely do Cash A cleared from the last draft.
Speaker 1:I hope Cash is cleared.
Speaker 3:Clicking to spin, okay, and here's the spread.
Speaker 1:I hope this is a draft where I would be happy with the number one overall pick.
Speaker 3:Well, you're not going to get it because Erica, erica.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Number one overall pick.
Speaker 2:Thank God, which is great.
Speaker 3:And here comes the second pick We'll go to, unfortunately, alex, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Which does leave you with the turn it does leave me with the turn I don't like being in the middle on a three-man draft.
Speaker 3:That sucks. I get two picks here. Yeah. Okay, erica, start us off. I don't like being in the middle on a three man draft.
Speaker 2:that sucks yeah, okay, erica, start us off well, we already mentioned it, I'm gonna wipe Ocean's Eleven off the board, but I'm putting it in my action crime thriller interesting category.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a. You know, this is kind of like what I was talking about just a second ago. He has some of these like really heavy hitters that are household names and and while I can't deny that Ocean, the Ocean's trilogy, isn't something I normally gravitate towards, but I do really appreciate them for what they are and I do like Ocean's 11 a lot, appreciate them for what they are and I do like oceans 11 a lot. Um, and he he's. This is kind of like when I was doing my um my pics earlier, I was just kind of thinking about how two of my pics on here are really like cultural phenomenons, like one of them might not be great, but it really did like spark. This phenomenon in Alex is looking at me.
Speaker 1:like he already knows, I know what the other one is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, don't take it. But yeah, ocean's Eleven I mean it's a great heist crime, like you know thriller, it's got a stacked cast and it really set the tone for, like you know, the early 2000s for these movies. It went on to make three, obviously, and we got Oceans 8 for the girls and the gays, you know, quite a few years later, which, honestly, I mean Stephen did not direct that movie, but he is an EP on it and an amazing movie. It just it's so much fun.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, I'm going to, just'm gonna just take oceans, oceans for myself yeah, and I I think that again, this is like the crowd-pleasing number one pick I. I don't know if I would have taken it at number one, but it would be hard not to it's, you can't argue against it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what you can't. I think something you can argue is that oceans 11 is probably in, I would say, the top this is bold, but I would say hot take probably in the top five most seen films of the 21st century as far as like, like spanning. You know, maybe I don't know if the Tik TOK crowd has come around to something like oceans 11 yet or anything like that, but I would guess that, like everybody, maybe I don't know if the TikTok crowd has come around to something like Ocean's Eleven yet or anything like that, but I would guess that, like everybody, maybe a few years younger than us and then everyone older than us, has basically seen this movie. This is one of those.
Speaker 3:Probably twice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, this is one of those like just endlessly monoculture rewatchable movies where everyone knows the cast of Ocean's, the story of oceans 11.
Speaker 2:Most people like of our generation know, or at least have heard of oceans 11, you know and um, yeah, I mean again, it's a household name that the trilogy it's just yeah I have a question for you, max.
Speaker 1:If you were to have taken this film, which category would you have put it in? Blockbuster okay, I would have gone.
Speaker 3:Adaptation remake oh interesting yeah erica puts it action, crime thriller I you know mono movie. Yeah, that would be an interesting episode like top five favorite mono movies yeah just like dominant you said dominant, like everyone has seen this yeah, I like that idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So I am on the board and a part of me is relieved to have oceans 11 already already rostered by one of our, our wonderful co-host here, because then it kind of opens me up to to pick with my heart here in the first round. This movie is definitely first round worthy and since I don't have the turn and I can't stack it with something else, I just have to get it here in case Max were to take it.
Speaker 3:You do have to get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in Oscar nomination I am taking Sex Lies and Videotapes for original screenplay. This is Stevens credited as his second film film. It's really his first big feature film. Um, this is the one that swept. Sundance when it came out was a huge deal.
Speaker 1:I re-watched this the other night. It had probably been like five or six years since I re-watched it. The last time I brought it up on an eti episode was when we did our top five favorite Louisiana movies. It was on my list there, even though it's it doesn't really do much for the, the town of new Orleans or the state of Louisiana other than just being set in there. But I'm just like anytime that I can shoehorn it into to an episode and talk about it, I want to do it and last night rewatching it, I really just like was kind of blown away at the feat of it.
Speaker 1:It's a movie with without set pieces. It's a movie that is extremely dialogue driven and part of the reason why you know it gets the nomination for best original screenplay. And just like a tour de force in psychological foreplay and horniness. Tour de force in psychological foreplay and horniness. And they just don't make them like this anymore, where you just are being so upfront, just like this is going to be a movie about sex and people's desires and God, like Andy McDowell is so good in this movie and I put in my review, like it's no wonder that Margaret Qualley, her daughter, is making such exciting and provocative choices in her career, because I'm sure a movie like Sex Lies and Videotapes was just on at the house all the time growing up, or she was, you know, shown it at an early age and I can only imagine the impression that it would have on her.
Speaker 1:Um, watching this movie and watching her mom in this role is this shy, timid person who thinks they're happy in a marriage and then everything kind of comes apart. Because, you know, james Spader enters your life as as as was the case in the 1980s in films, when James Spader would just walk into a movie and and be this like he's. So he is, he's amazing in this movie, without really having that much screen time. Like, when I think about this movie, I'm always like, oh, this is such a good James Spader movie and it is, but his scenes are just like so impactful where he really only has like six or seven really big scenes, but they're all so, so good. Um, peter Gallagher is just like an all time piece of shit in this movie and incredible um in in being a garbage person and so, yeah, I love Sex Lies and Videotapes. Got to get in the first round.
Speaker 3:Another film that is prominently used in film school.
Speaker 1:I love the little trick that he does in this movie, where a conversation in the next scene to come will start as you are still seeing the scene end that you've been with and so say it's like you know James Spader and and Peter Gallagher talking as boys or whatever, and then the next scene is going to be Andy McDowell and her sister talking or whatever. You will hear Andy McDowell and her sister start talking while the camera is still on Spader and Gallagher.
Speaker 3:It's just like it's so cool yeah, yeah, and he does that, he does that quite a bit and then, and as I was saying earlier, the limey is the whole.
Speaker 2:The whole thing is like um so that was the one movie that I really wanted to watch sex lies and videotape, yeah and I couldn't. I couldn't access it without having to pay like 20 bucks online, and that was like the one movie that on the ones that I hadn't seen. I'm like that's what I would want to be watching right now, but yeah, I didn't get around to it. It's on my list, though.
Speaker 1:You can check it out from the video store later. Oh perfect.
Speaker 3:Okay, uh, okay, I could do something really just dickish here and take, take two films off the board. That would kind of screw. You took that in oscar nominated yes.
Speaker 1:So we kind of screw erica if I were to do this oh um it's my one pick, but I still have three left that are available for oscar nom okay, okay however, they could play in other categories and then once they're you know, I mean once they're gone they're gone I think I must have missed one, because I only had three total nominated total okay so I must have missed one in my research. Um so maybe there's enough to go around.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right. Well then I won't do it. Cause then you know?
Speaker 1:does Erica have that in her notes though? I'm not sharing my big board.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he knows. I'm sure he knows.
Speaker 3:I think I'm going to take.
Speaker 3:I'm going to take probably my, if not my first, favorite Sderbergh movie my second um in action crime thriller we're gonna get, even though you know of course this is a very deep, deep category, uh, in soderbergh's filmography. I'm gonna take out of sight um, george clooney, jennifer lopez, uh, and then a slew of other sodeberg character actors that show up throughout, including five minutes of samuel l jackson at the end of this movie. That teases, you know. This is something he always does too, that I've noticed. He teases sequels. With every single movie he does it teases with a some sort of cliffhanger that just makes you want more like. I want to see that. That next out of sight movie where samuel l jackson and george clooney break out of the back of this car and like go on the run um, or almost, or even like.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's an extended sodeberg universe out there where you could almost have like, like out of sight is the prequel to oceans. 11 right, yes easily, easily could be um. There's a couple movies like that.
Speaker 3:I feel like where, yes, but yeah you got don cheadle in this, you got steve sawn, you've got uh, veen rhymes, rames, um, out of sight is like just the definition of cool. Like if I ever make a film that is as cool as out of sight I can, I can die happy.
Speaker 1:Uh, it is movie stars doing movie star fucking I was gonna say you'd have to find somebody as cool as george clooney was in the 90s in like the early 90s too, and like it's just, he's unbelievable everything that comes out of his mouth is just like the early 90s too, and like it's just.
Speaker 3:He's unbelievable. Everything that comes out of his mouth is just like the coolest thing any guy has ever said jennifer or look saying it yeah jennifer lopez is fantastic unreal in this, yeah uh, you know, for it's.
Speaker 3:It's so interesting, like the the 90s, she was actually a really, really awesome actor, um, and I wish she did more like action movies like this, and I'm not talking about like I know she did anaconda, well, well even, which is great, but like I think a couple years ago she did some sort of like sci-fi movie where she was in a mech the whole time, which is just not good.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, out of sight is really fucking awesome and and just one of the best crime capers that you'll find uh around, so I'll take that with the first pick.
Speaker 1:Uh and really cool to how he. It's funny because something that I've always admired about out of sight is that it's like tonally it's two different movies and the setting matches that as well, where you are in south florida at the beginning and then you go to cold ass detroit for the second half, when all of a sudden, like the stakes have risen totally and it's not as fun anymore.
Speaker 3:Uh, for the turn I think I'll just go, I'll go, I really I'll go, oscar nominated, and I'm going to take Traffic, the film that he won Best Director for, I believe, in 2000. Excuse me, another great crime thriller, an all-star cast Michael Douglas, don Cheadle Benicio.
Speaker 2:Del.
Speaker 3:Toro. Catherine Zeta-Jones, topher, grace, yeah, with Erica Christensen. Erica Christensen, benicio del toro katherine zeta jones.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, tover grace, yeah, with erica christiansen, erica christiansen.
Speaker 3:Uh, just about about corrupt cops. Dennis quaid shows up here um corrupt cops, kids doing drugs, the cartel, uh, you know a great, you know kind of his version of like a Magnolia or Crash. Just like a bunch of different stories kind of intertwining. At certain points Really interesting, like color grade on this film. The editing is pretty wild.
Speaker 1:This movie was such a big deal because it was one of the first times that mainstream movie culture was recognizing the cartel's influence on hard drugs that Soderbergh, through this film, was showing people. It's like no, this is in your private schools and this is in your upper, upper middle class families and this is in your gated communities Ahead of the curve on the opioid crisis, For sure.
Speaker 3:So yeah, kind of a hard watch you know, not not one that I reach for a lot.
Speaker 1:And probably got to be one of his longer films.
Speaker 3:Two, two plus hours, yeah, yeah, two plus hours, yeah, yeah, but um, but again, like when you're looking at, you know, uh, best best films of of those of the 90s, uh, you know, this comes in in 1999, one of the?
Speaker 1:uh, I think it was, or it was in 2000, and so it was 2001 yeah, so recognized at the 2001 awards it's a great.
Speaker 3:It's a great start to uh the 20th century.
Speaker 1:It is yeah, okay, so back to me now. I am gonna leave the, the other oscar nominated film, here on the board, just because I need to get something else and also, too, that'll allow erica to kind of round out that category and we can all put a pin in it. Um, but also because there's, there's another category that's a little light. I don't know, maybe she, maybe erica won't do this, though I don't know, we'll see. Um, okay, what I need to do, what I need to do is go to blockbuster, and in blockbuster I'm gonna take a movie that barely qualifies damn it. It's 75.6 million dollars domestically and that is the.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how would you describe this the highly predictive virus outbreak thriller, contagion. And now I don't know if we were to do this, if we were to do this episode maybe when we first started the pod, even though that was during COVID as well, when this movie really had a resurgence, but let's say, let's say, seven years ago I don't know if contagion even gets drafted, but because of the way that we can watch that film now and interact with the fallout of a mass outbreak and these Contagion periods and God, it's crazy it's probably been since COVID, since I watched this movie, but just the language used, the, the vocabulary of that film and the way that the world health organization is involved in the CDC and you know all these things that did at the time. I remember seeing the film when it came out felt very like science fiction based almost, and not a film really rooted in reality, like this couldn't happen. And then you when, when you watch it post-covid, you're like holy shit, this is like exactly what we live through.
Speaker 2:So this movie went viral during covid oh yeah, 100 one of the most streamed movies in 2020.
Speaker 1:I remember there was like a. I remember reading an article about how there was like a streaming war over it. Because when, when, I think in March 2020, when everything did shut down, everybody was going back to a film like Outbreak or some of these other like virus movies that had already been made and nobody had the rights for Contagion Like no streamer had it and so then all of a sudden, it became this like bidding war as to who could access the rights to have that on their streaming platform, cause they knew it would take off, obviously. So, yeah, you know, I looked at blockbuster. There's some other choices. There are probably some more popular choices. However, contagion, of the movies that I have here on on my list, it's the one that I enjoy watching the most, which I don't know what that says about me, but I'll roll with Contagion here in the second round.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I should have taken this. I'm disappointed. I didn't get this. I love Contagion.
Speaker 2:Yep, that was my pick too. Both of you guys took a couple of my picks, so I'm trying to do the math over here, but I appreciate you both saving me. You know, or kind of the obvious one which is my oscar nom is aaron brock, which I mean this movie especially like, for it's just such a win for women too, and um I think he shows love to the girlies he does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I just I love her story so much and, um, I re-watched it just this past weekend and I have seen this movie quite a few times. Surprisingly, and it's just, it gets better the older I get because I appreciate her story so much. And you know, julia Roberts is just incredible that she won Best Actress for this role, as well as many other awards that year for this movie. Um, but, yeah, and again another like household name, like in in film, you know, aaron brockovich. You've heard of it. It's mentioned in other movies, um, but it's a an amazing story, an amazing true story too, and just I don't know, I love it is it uh?
Speaker 3:is it julia roberts apex?
Speaker 1:gosh, that's a great question. Probably she wins the best actress yeah and you could say alongside what? Probably pretty woman. It's the most iconic role yeah, that she's played.
Speaker 2:I think pretty woman is a little bit more iconic, but as far as like, she could have done anything after this movie. Yeah, this performance of hers is really just top tier.
Speaker 1:And I mean she does, she goes on to be I mean she's in oceans 11 as basically the female lead of that film, which is another hugely successful project. So yeah, I mean I would say so, yeah, I would kind of say that that turn of the century there, right there from like the late 90s into the early 2000s, probably the the roberts peak there for her cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're back on the board. Yeah, you're, so I get to go again, yeah yeah, top of the third round well, I'm like again. I'm like trying to play tetris a little bit with my picks and I my wild card pick. I might actually move it to blockbuster.
Speaker 2:Um, I might have to fact check here, but I think I think I'm in the clear with magic mike 113 mil yeah, so, um, this is kind of like I feel like I alluded to this earlier is that this is one of his movies like? First of all, very random in my opinion, just it. It sticks out like a sore thumb amongst his filmography but it created a cultural phenomenon. It's not a great movie, it's. One might say it's kind of bad, but but it started the McConaughey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it really like it catapulted Channing Tatum's career to into like this you know he's not. They started a magic Mike show in Vegas because of this and I think it was nice. I mean, I remember going to see this in theaters, it was a big deal. He went on to direct the third one as well. He did not do the second one, which is arguably the best out of the three. I have only seen a little bits and pieces of the third but, yeah, not a great movie, like I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty awful writing and it's a little corny, but it really did spark this whole like Magic Mike household name again, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, and again spawns two sequels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you said, launches Channing Tatum, and maybe you said that, and then but he and Channing have worked together so many times since then too, so many times since, yeah, and then, yeah, matthew McConaughey, I mean this is the beginning of his like oh, because then he's back on True Detective and everything else. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then Dallas Buyers Club. And then you know, like it was, like, oh, matthew McConaughey is, even though he is like just a body in this, but like he was, I believe, wasn't he nominated or like a supporting role.
Speaker 1:Perhaps.
Speaker 3:Yeah or something.
Speaker 1:I know he was nominated at other award shows but like it is kind of known that like he steals the show in this movie, yeah, no, it's a good pick and, and I think, putting it, you moving it out of wild card into blockbusters definitely the move there, um, okay, I, I feel like I'm two for two. I need to stay. I need to stay undefeated with my picks here, um, and with max having two coming up, I feel like I have to get this now because I'm not sure where he's gonna go with with with his picks. I'm going to go over to the streamer category and I have to take my beloved Kimmy, probably a little early, but I mean, this is a movie that when it came out a couple of years ago on our end of the year episode, I was like you know what? It's just time to admit that, like Kimmy's my favorite movie of 2022. Like, just, I rewatched that movie endlessly. I think that that movie has already aged incredibly well, especially now when you think about AI and the. You know, like the at-home smart service apps like a Siri or an Alexa or something like that. Like Kimmy has already been very predictive of kind of the perils of having something like a device like that in your home.
Speaker 1:Zoe Kravitz is incredible in this movie. I think that the reason why I and Max, I know you're a fan of this movie as well, but, like the reason why I love Kimmy so much is that it's Steven Soderbergh doing Brian De Palma who's doing Alfred Hitchcock, and like that can sound like it's unoriginal and it wouldn't be exciting. However, like when you have three, I would say, masters that are all very aware of what they're doing and they're not doing it in a gimmicky way or in a way that feels trite and just like cheap, you get a really, really good product. And so Zoe Kravitz is awesome in this movie as as like a data analyst for one of these like in-home smart devices, and she overhears something that she feels like is a crime, and so she tries to take it up. You know the chain of command at her job, this Amazon-like company and in the process of doing so, uncovers this huge like cover-up of one of the like key stockholders and CEOs of the company, and so it turns into, like you know, this thriller where people are coming after her and she's realizing who she can and cannot trust.
Speaker 1:It's set during the pandemic and it's one of these movies that doesn't like beat you over the head with that, and so it's kind of nice to be able to return to it and not necessarily be reminded of, like those terrible times, because the story is really what drives it. It's not so much about like it's not a pandemic movie in the way that like not the contagion is, but it's not like. There there's a real virus, um, that's like a part of this story, and so, even though she is agoraphobic, she does not like leaving her house, and so that part is all really interesting, uh. But no, it takes place in seattle. Like there's just this movie, just a big W. I've talked about it a bazillion times here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly yeah. So Kimmy and the streamer category for me had to have it. That's a great pick, great pick.
Speaker 3:Um, okay, I have two picks, here. Uh, you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3:I'm going to go to TV and I'm going to take the Nick.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Smart, which could be 20 of the best pieces of TV that we've had in the 20th century, 21st century, whatever you want to call it 21st century.
Speaker 1:Yes, 21st century, that's what I would call it. Clive Owen, the last great.
Speaker 3:Clive owen, the last great clive owen uh content we've had um, you know, that guy I. I feel like we say this every 10 episodes. I don't know what ever happened to clive owen. He was such a fucking force on screen. Uh, here he is, in the early 1900s. He's addicted to heroin or cocaine. He is a racist bastard and he is operating on people on sick people, on dead people, on pigs.
Speaker 3:It is such a disgusting show as far as graphic goriness but in a clinical way, but also very messy because it's the early 1900s and Soderbergh. It's excellent writing. It's excellent editing A lot of fish eye angles of being in the operating room, excellent editing A lot of like fish eye angles of being in the operating room and you know again, just like kind of on the, maybe at the height of like prestige television or like maybe even a little.
Speaker 1:I'd say a little on the forefront, a little before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Just just excellent, excellent stuff, and really wish this had like had gone more seasons.
Speaker 1:Five seasons or something. Yeah, I never finished this series. I remember having a Showtime package at the time, and so I watched season one.
Speaker 3:Put Showtime on the map really, it really did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a great pick and I think it's probably top of the list for wild card if you're going to incorporate tv into recognizing um and acknowledging what sodeberg's done on the television side of things yeah, uh, then I'm gonna go with adaptation, remake and this is definitely a a personal pick, uh, because I don't know how many people really enjoy this movie.
Speaker 3:But I'm gonna go with the informant, uh, which, oh, was that on your?
Speaker 1:list. Just crossed it off. Uh, just crossed off that and the nick.
Speaker 3:So uh, this movie is fucking hilarious and again, like experimental wise.
Speaker 3:He is doing something so interesting with the audio in this film where, because the main character is such a liar, every important conversation and again this is conversation that you're watching in the frame is drowned out by this obsessive, compulsive voiceover of Mark Whitaker talking about butterflies or talking about a certain type of car or something else, so you as the viewer have no idea what is actually true and what is actually a lie. Uh, and I think it's just brilliant. Matt damon, honestly like one of his best performances. He is really the. Obviously he's the centerpiece of this. Um, scott bacula is really funny in this, uh, and, and a whole slew of character actors that show up in other soderbergh movies. Um, yeah, I, I just re-watching this the other night. I remember watching it when it came out, I think with my dad and like not really being into it, but re-watching it the other night, uh, night.
Speaker 1:I really think this is an underrated comedy and just a really, really funny movie the one and only time I've ever seen this was on an airplane, actually, and was one of those that I was like this is such a weird setting to be experiencing this movie in, so I definitely need to return to this, because I do remember really liking the damon performance a lot, yeah yeah, he's so kooky okay, so back to me.
Speaker 1:Um and I, in action crime thriller will be taking for for the crime aspect of it, but really this is like a comedy film.
Speaker 3:Um, in my opinion, logan lucky yeah, this is a really good movie too logan.
Speaker 1:Have you ever seen logan?
Speaker 2:lucky erica you know, I think I'd maybe I hated it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I that's so funny you said because this was one of the last movies that I can remember when, when there were still h channels not necessarily like I think HBO I think it was called HBO Go was the first like on-demand HBO service, so it was a movie that you could watch on there or whatever, but it was one of the last movies that I can remember, once it got onto HBO, always being on the channels and just watching it like over. It's such a rewatchable movie that gets funnier and funnier and funnier, like Adam Driver and his prosthetic arm and Daniel Craig and that accent, cauliflower, yeah.
Speaker 3:You just say cauliflower to me.
Speaker 1:Don't not make me laugh.
Speaker 2:I don't have the voice for it.
Speaker 1:It's like, and then, like I mentioned earlieriley, keough, as the sister is like incredible, in this movie we're robbing nascar. Like it just feels we're robbing a nascar track. So it just feels so, um, like particular and again, just like really studied to to be something that's like true to what it's true to what it's trying to discuss and talk about. But also you're like, am I just watching? Like a really funny, everyone's in on the joke like we're going to make like a hillbilly version and I say that respectfully like a backwards version of Ocean's.
Speaker 3:Eleven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's exactly what it is and it's so funny and it works so well. And then like again, like the way he ends his movies. This movie ends with like all of them at the bar and you get huge hitters making blair, hillary swank show up as these federal agents and you're like, oh, is this movie gonna go on for another like 30 minutes? But then it just like ends and I don't know. This movie is incredible.
Speaker 2:I really really like this film I'll have to re-watch it because I've only seen I don't know. I did not like it when it first came out and I remember just it being kind of a joke movie katie holmes is really funny in this movie you're selling it really well, though, so I might your boy, jack quaid yeah, young jack quaid, young jack quaid, in a terrible wig, yeah, it's hilarious.
Speaker 3:I watched this last, re-watched this last night and again like when it came out. I saw it in theaters and I remember hating it and just being like, so bored out of my mind. Watching it last night I was hooting and hollering it's endlessly entertaining and some of the sequences, like the, the, how they get out of the prison yes, and how they get back in is. It's really slick, unbelievable shit yeah, it's unbelievable shit yeah um, yeah, I, I, yeah, I'm jealous. You got this.
Speaker 2:That's a good one well, this is the category I struggled with, because max did take traffic from me for my adaptation, remake category. So, forgive me, it's been a really long time since I've seen this. I think I've only seen it one time.
Speaker 2:But I'm going with solaris oh shit, this was the one I thought I could sit on fantastic film I didn't get to revisit this, so I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember liking it. Um, I don't know, I don't know why I have this weird memory of like watching this, uh, like renting this from the video store when I was younger, for whatever reason. But yeah it's. You know, george clooney, you know, um, I can't say a whole lot about it, though, like as an adult an adult, because I just don't. It wasn't my first pick.
Speaker 3:Again, it's like it's very experimental in the way it's edited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I Well, how many people are going to be like yeah, I'll remake a Tarkovsky film. Yeah, Just doesn't happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's really interesting. I was listening to an interview with Soderbergh recently and he was saying that this is like one of the movies in his filmography that he wish he made for less money.
Speaker 3:He, you know, because people went into this thinking like, oh, george clooney again at the height of his powers, big sci-fi remake. Like people thought this was something completely different than when they go in and what it comes up with, because it is a very like internal character driven like slow burn movie. But man, again George Clooney, he used to really like, really put his all into it and he's really really good in this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:This is a great pick.
Speaker 2:Cool, really put his all into it and he's really really good in this. Yeah, this is a great pick, cool, um. So I guess then for my next one, um, I think I have streamer and wild card next and I had to move magic mike out of my wild, my wild card.
Speaker 2:So I'm gonna go with the movie side effects oh, I like this film I again another movie I haven't seen in quite some time, but I really liked this movie when it came out, um, kind of a trippy like psychological thriller, um, and I remember correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there like a big twist at the end yes yeah, so this is something I even like wrote it down to like. Okay, we didn't get to re-watch this this past week, but I'm going to this week because I totally forgot about this movie.
Speaker 1:Rooney is so good in this, oh I know.
Speaker 2:And then we also have Channing Tatum again, um and then um. We have Jude law too, which I love. So, um, that's going to be my wild card.
Speaker 3:This is a Soderbergh movie I've never seen. Really it's really solid I wasn't able to get to it. It's a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So back to me, and I need to fill Adaptation Remake and so I'm going to take a film that I had in my streamer category and move it over to Adaptation Remake, because this is really one of you know, I think it better fit streamer, because this is really one of uh, you know, I think it better fit streamer because this is really one of the big um, like, maybe one of the last big like quote-unquote made for tv movies that I think was extremely successful and that's behind the candelabra really good movie.
Speaker 1:it's a really good movie, wins like 11 emmys, um, even though it is just a film, like it's a two hour long movie which stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, and this movie is just like, again, very forward thinking in the kind of story that it was telling. You know, it feels like it wasn't that long ago, but it's 2013, same year as Side Effects, actually, and so, like something else that we haven't really touched on. But, like you know, we we always give guys like luca guadagnino credit for being prolific, like sodeberg is so prolific and almost always if he's working, he's usually releasing like two movies a year, if, if he has things in production, um, so, behind the candelabra, just like a. Really, when I watched this movie when it came out on HBO, like I was not even at, like you know, 23 or whatever, not emotionally mature enough to kind of handle the story and the sentimentality and also like kind of the the tragic nature of this story. But it's also very grand and such a spectacle in the way that Soderbergh shoots these, these really extravagant settings during these performance kind of set pieces.
Speaker 1:It might be along with something like Ocean's Eleven, which we're in casinos and we're doing all these other things he has such a knack for doing. The really small stuff like sexualizing videotapes and a lot of traffic is just like people talking in rooms or whatever. I think the reason why at the beginning I said like it's so great that he doesn't have some like stupid comic book IP thing on his resume is because, like, I think he could probably pull off the right thing when you look at something like Candelabra or Ocean's Eleven or some of the bigger things that he has tried to tackle, because he does it with really good success. So, moving it to adaptation, remake, cause it's it's based off of a book, um, true story of of these two guys and so happy to get it kind of kind of not where I expected it to be, but but I think it's a solid, solid choice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, another film I I watched for the first time this week and uh, it was just like, yeah, soderberg, it's just really good night. Um, okay, these are my last two picks and uh, with these two picks I will have gotten my first choice in every category. Wow, you guys are absolute chumps. Uh, in streamer, I'm taking no sudden move. Uh, which again, great crime caper. Uh, don cheetle, benicio del toro, brendan frazier your girl julia fox julia fox, who shows up in quite a bit. Uh uh, shows up in Presence.
Speaker 1:Does she? Yeah, I saw that, not the Julia Fox, it was in no Sudden Move Huh.
Speaker 3:I mean, I know it's the same person, but a lot's changed in Julia Fox's life in three years. But you know, hey, she's killing it. No Sudden Move just again. We've kind of beat this to death. But he's. He's really good at crime films and this is a period piece like almost like great to perfect crime thriller. Um, we also have kieran colkin again on the forefront, mr soderbergh, he, he knew it before it happened. Now kieran colkin is is like king of the world. Yeah, there's some interesting experimental stuff going on with iPhone shots. Not the whole thing is shot on iPhone, but there are definitely some shots on the iPhone.
Speaker 1:More fisheye stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, more fisheye stuff. Yeah, love it.
Speaker 1:I remember not being the. It's such weird to go back and think about a movie like this in comparison to, like, what kind of movies are coming out now and where was our kind of you know barometer for quality during the pandemic? I mean, obviously I love Kimmy. Kimmy was top of my board for streamer, but you know, this was I remember all of us on the pod kind of talking about this movie when it came out. As far as, like, boy, we can't just like let this pass by without acknowledging that, like this is a really solid little little movie.
Speaker 1:I still don't think I necessarily, and he's always, he's always having fun with this right, like what are we really trying to steal? Who's this saying? More about you know kind of deal. More about you know kind of deal because, um, you know, like some, some schematics for an auto part in like the 40s or whatever. The 40s, 50s, era of detroit or whatever, I guess would have been a big deal, um, but yeah, I don't know, I need to return to this. I need to return to this movie.
Speaker 3:It is solid though uh, and then with the last pick in the draft for me, uh, my blockbuster, I'll be taking Ocean's 12.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which I believe is the best Ocean's movie, 125 mil.
Speaker 1:I think is that his most successful film.
Speaker 3:Might be the highest, and I mean Ocean's 12,. It's different from Ocean's 11 as where it is literally just a like french new wave movie, uh, made in modern times. Um, I, I think, uh, you get a look it's much more centered around rusty this time, the brad pitt character. Um, there's just some fantastic stuff going on with him and katherine zeta jones throughout Vincent Cassell comes in and just is a great pompous Frenchman who thinks he's a better thief than Danny Ocean and you get the Julia Roberts.
Speaker 1:Bruce Willis scene.
Speaker 3:Bruce Willis cameo, but Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts bruce willis scene.
Speaker 1:bruce willis cameo, but julia roberts playing julia roberts, such a weird, funny meta moment yeah which is really great.
Speaker 3:Uh, he's. He's really good at meta, like comedy on meta culture, like another thing from logan lucky not to take it back to that film but oh, you mean one of my picks, the prisoners are like. We want the winds of winter and and Dwight Yoakam as the warden has to explain, has to explain to the prisoners that George RR Martin still hasn't written it and those poor bastards are still in prison waiting for that book.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's, that's, hilarious.
Speaker 3:But but yeah, ocean 12, uh, just uh again hilarious. But but yeah, ocean's 12 uh, just a, again just like an utterly cool movie. Uh, that's extremely rewatchable and different.
Speaker 1:So you know it feels so different from ocean's 11 it makes ocean's 11 feel like a real indie film and this feels like a blockbuster. This was top of my blockbuster list as well. For that reason I feel like this is his quote unquote biggest movie, ocean's 13, kind of goes back to the formula of Ocean's 11.
Speaker 3:I just love that he was able to do this again. French New Wave film in the middle there.
Speaker 1:That's a great pick, okay. Okay, in wild card for my last pick, because this is my last category that I need to fill, will you allow the black and white cut of raiders of the lost ark?
Speaker 3:you don't even like it doesn't fucking matter so that's horse shit. But yes, I will allow it. But let it be known on the record.
Speaker 1:Explain, alex does not like indiana jones at all, at all the, the white savior with a whip, who goes into foreign countries and culture vultures nazis yeah, and steals their artifacts to bring him back to the united states to display at his university.
Speaker 2:Damn, you put it like that.
Speaker 1:Jesus christ, no, I'm not a fan of this man.
Speaker 2:I'm never going to enjoy Temple of Doom ever again.
Speaker 1:See. Temple of Doom is the most problematic of the three and that's the movie I like the most. Wait a sec.
Speaker 2:But that's just because I was a big child slave.
Speaker 1:Listen, the children in the mines, the children are still. Minecraft is the biggest game in the world right now. The children, children are in. The children are still. Minecraft is the biggest game in the world right now the children they, they yearn for the minds.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, anyways, this, this edit is is really interesting, so I'm surprised you didn't pick this explain this to me, because I don't know so sodeberg is notorious for putting out like a best of a best of the year blog where he's, like he's, always commenting on contemporary films. You know, I like this, I don't like this. I'm sure the guy's got a burner letterboxd account out there somewhere. But but what he's also done on this blog of his is that he will go back and he will reeditit and re-cut different films just for fun, like and just like a passion project. Um, that of his. That he's done and in the most famous example of this is he went back and he did a black and white cut of raiders of the lost ark, um, but with no dialogue.
Speaker 1:Yes, right scored to the social network, to the social network score, trent redsner and atticus ross. So I'm getting all of this, okay, yeah, uh, and, and so that's my wild card, and you got it.
Speaker 3:I hope you sleep well at night. Uh, putting your head down on that pillow talking this nonsense about indiana jones I might just go make my own version of this.
Speaker 1:Pull up Indiana Jones, turn the brightness all the way down, put on my Trent Naticus social network vinyl and just have my own little Soderbergh moment after you guys leave here tonight. Amazing, it was between that. I know you guys have a few picks left, but I guess we can get to wild cards here in a minute. But I just thought that would be a fun one to have to throw in there it was definitely on my list, but, uh, I felt that, uh the nick that's, that's yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, my last pick is for my streamer and this is a movie that I just came to this past week and um never had heard of this. But this is an HBO movie and it's called Let them All Talk and it's kind of like it says it's a comedy drama. I really didn't really catch a lot of the comedy part of it. It was very much more of like a friend drama to me and I really really liked it. And it has Meryl Streep, candace Bergen and Diane Weiss. They all play these friends, but Meryl Streep is this very famous author like Pulitzer Prize winning author, um, and it was really just like a story, a very, very simple story. It all takes place on like a big on the Queen Mary 2 that goes from New York to England, I believe, and it's a very, very simple story but I really enjoyed it. Like the drama part of it it had kind of a jarring ending. You know, I'm just I threw this on because I needed a stream.
Speaker 1:You know I'm just. I threw this on because I needed a stream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this I really like this one was. I was drawn to this one and I really liked it and I just thought that even Meryl, kind of like it, felt a little bit like Miranda Priestly vibes but, but, but nicer, but just very intense on her end.
Speaker 2:Um, we also have lucas hedges, because I I really like him too, but just a good, like simple friend drama that had some like deep emotion to it. But, um, I recommend it. I you, I really liked it. It was a good COVID movie I think that came out in 2020. That was my last pick, though.
Speaker 3:And that's the draft.
Speaker 2:There it is. That's the draft.
Speaker 1:Okay, so Erica, you had number one overall pick. Why don't you recap your roster?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I started off with Ocean's Eleven in my action crime thriller pick, and then, let's see, I had. What did I do after that? I did Magic Mike in Blockbuster, and then Solaris in Adaptation Remake, erin Brockovich in Oscar nomination and Side Effects as my wild card and topping it all off with Let them all talk in my streamer category labra, blockbuster contagion action crime thriller logan, lucky streamer, kimmy and wild card.
Speaker 1:The black and white cut of raiders of the lost ark, scored with the social network soundtrack by trent okay oscar nominated.
Speaker 3:Uh, I took traffic, which he steven soderbergh won best director for in the year 2001. Uh, adaptation remake. I took matt damon's tour de force performance in the informant blockbuster. I took the best oceans movie, oceans 12. Out of that series of movies action, crime thriller uh, a movie that drips cool out of sight. In streamer, I took a underrated film, uh, called no sudden move and in wild card, one of the best prestige tv series of all time. I get the nick with. I don't know is he a sir, sir clive owen probably not in this house in this.
Speaker 3:he is a sir, Sir Clive Owen.
Speaker 1:Thank you, keane Arthur. Thank you sexually repressed guy from Closer, that's my favorite, clive, and so we have some honorable mentions now here. Not too many, I feel like. Six categories, 18 projects total. It's kind of the perfect amount here, but there are just a few things that I want to give a shout out to. The girlfriend experience with Sasha Gray was such an interesting choice to make this movie.
Speaker 3:I'll let you Google Sasha Gray at your own risk.
Speaker 1:Entourage fame, right Of entourage fame, yeah, that's right. And so just another one where, like you know, Steven Soderbergh's like yeah, I'll cast a porn star is the lead in in my movie. He does the same thing with Haywire where he's just like I will cast a UFC MMA fighter, um, as the lead in in one of my movies. I love unsane with claire foy. I mean like as as this woman who is not sure if she's been voluntary or involuntarily committed to, um, an insane asylum basically, and so it's, and that's all shot on an iphone as well. Um, so, a lot of, a lot of good things here.
Speaker 1:Still, kind of like on the outskirts on the outside looking in, I would say, um, Eros is a really interesting like three part anthology um film that he directed one part of, along with Wong Kar Wai and then another filmmaker that are all again just like really provocative stories about sex and just like being really brave and telling these stories. And so, yeah, I mean I never really have considered like Soderbergh, like Horny, Like a horny guy, but also one of my guys and most of my guys are horny, and so I'm like you know what Like, especially watching Sex Lies and Videotape the other night I'm like this is this guy gets it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. I'd also shout out King of the Hill, which is not the Mike Judge cartoon, it's too bad, I'd vote for you if you had that on your roster. This is an early 90s movie starring the kid from Swimfan. What's his name?
Speaker 1:Jesse Bradford.
Speaker 3:That's right. Thank you, jesse Bradford. This is his first studio movie that Soderbergh ever did and it's very much like a coming of age Spielberg movie uh, period piece, uh, very fun film. Um, yeah, the limey again. Uh, I, I really liked that movie, malcolm. Uh, I really like that movie, malcolm McDowell or not.
Speaker 1:Malcolm McDowell, the other guy who looks Terrence.
Speaker 3:Terrence stamp. Yeah, terrence stamp, again, just a really interesting film and the way it's constructed. And then also like, listen, go out and see presence, cause another thing about presence is like it's a movie that kept me guessing until the end, and there's moments where you're like, oh, I know what's going on. I figured this out, would you?
Speaker 1:recommend High Flying Bird. Do you think you have to be a basketball fan to enjoy it?
Speaker 3:Or do you think that makes it harder?
Speaker 1:to enjoy it.
Speaker 3:I don't know it's tough, because have you ever watched it when it came out?
Speaker 1:It's tough Because have you ever watched it when it came out? It's been years.
Speaker 3:The cutaways to like. The interviews of the real NBA players I found extremely distracting and taking me out of the film. I would have rather just stayed in the world of the film as opposed to that, because the players, the people who play the players in the film and then putting them, and then when you see real players, it just it just doesn't. It kind of loses me a little.
Speaker 1:Things. It's sort of like I don't want to say like lost in translation, but it's just like why are we showing two different? Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3:But the, the main guy in that, is also in the Nick and he's also in moonlight what's his name andre something really, really great.
Speaker 1:First time I can remember seeing um zazie beats in anything yeah, she's really good in there. Yeah, she is good anything you gotta watch after leaving this.
Speaker 2:Um well, yeah, wait, it was the. Yeah, I really want to watch sex lies and Videotape. I mean, that was the one that I was bummed I didn't get around to, but I knew that if I would have even thrown that on my roster.
Speaker 3:You could have taken it first overall.
Speaker 2:True, yeah, but that's my list right now to watch.
Speaker 1:If I was going to recommend anything, it's obviously Kimmy. I just can't sing that film's praises enough. That's just like a really, really fun movie. But then also, too, like I do, I do want more people to go back and we need to like have the the Logan Lucky Resurgence thing happen.
Speaker 2:That's the other one that I want to revisit, yeah and Max, you, you love Blood and Guts.
Speaker 3:I would say, go check out the Nick okay, you need to watch side effects too max. Yes, yep, it's a good one. That's the big one I missed okay.
Speaker 1:So as for what's next on the podcast? Great, great draft. By the way, guys, it's always fun drafting. Um, we will be diving into one of dumpy wary's finest releases from this year flight risk, and holding another hall of fame ceremony for one of one of the dump truck Kings, mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 2:You don't want to use my face? Dump daddy.
Speaker 1:Dump daddy, listen, we will throw them all on the at the wall and see what sticks next week. But really excited to do a Wahlberg hall of fame episode because I think, as we were, you know, kind of chatting about what's going to be next week, it's like doing an experiment like this with a guy who's been in Oscar nominated films, who has been at the top of the mountain, who has been at the award shows, but who has also most recently been in something like flight risk depending on how flight Risk goes this weekend, I have counted maybe 15 or 16 movies that could go into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1:And what kind of Hall of Fame are we really trying to build here? Is this like if an alien lands on Earth and we want to say this is the man? Mark Wahlberg? What?
Speaker 2:do we show them?
Speaker 3:I love that we must show him his heights and his lows.
Speaker 1:There's going to be a lot of impressions Next week. I need to rest this voice so I can do my best. Boston accent.
Speaker 2:It's okay, I'll lead this one. I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's amazing. Okay, so until next time, follow Excuse the Intermission on instagram and the three of us on letterboxd to track what we're watching between shows, and we'll talk to you next time on eti, where movies still matter. Thank you, thank you.
