Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Film Catchup: The Bombs and Breakthroughs
Every March, Hollywood seems to enter a strange twilight zone – award season is over, summer blockbusters remain months away, and the theatrical landscape becomes a curious mix of studio castoffs and hidden gems. This year proves particularly fascinating as we've witnessed an unprecedented $320 million Netflix disaster alongside genuinely brilliant filmmaking that's struggling to find its audience.
The stark contrast between something like The Electric State – a bloated, CGI-heavy disappointment from the once-celebrated Russo Brothers – and Steven Soderbergh's masterfully crafted spy thriller Black Bag perfectly illustrates the film industry's current identity crisis. While Netflix burns through hundreds of millions for minimal cultural impact, filmmakers like Paul Schrader continue creating thought-provoking character studies like O Canada with a fraction of those resources.
We're particularly excited about Opus, a psychological folk horror that blends elements of Get Out and Midsommar with John Malkovich delivering some of his finest work as an aging pop star. This divisive but mesmerizing directorial debut from Mark Anthony Green represents exactly the kind of original filmmaking that deserves theatrical support. Meanwhile, smaller releases like Borderline demonstrate how even promising premises with talented leads like Samara Weaving can falter without proper development.
What's becoming increasingly clear is that budget size bears little correlation to quality or cultural significance. The most memorable cinematic experiences of the season come from filmmakers with clear vision and artistic purpose rather than those with the deepest pockets. Whether you're planning your next theater visit or deciding what to stream, let quality guide your choices rather than marketing budgets or algorithm recommendations.
welcome back. To excuse the intermission, my name is max fosberg, my name is alex mccauley, and today we're playing catch up and diving into some of the biggest releases, or biggest bombs, uh, that we missed over the last couple of months. We are, uh, we're going to touch on a little bit of everything, kind of break down what stood out, what fell short. So buckle up, uh, for this cinematic roller coaster right after this break. All right, alex max, here we are. We Gosh, what a nice day today.
Speaker 2:Nice day of the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's something right in the mid-70s, just perfect outside.
Speaker 2:Well, mid-60s, Mid-60s or high-60s maybe.
Speaker 1:Just perfect out today here in the Pacific Northwest and you know we kind of had some trouble coming up what we were going to do on today's episode. We're lost without erica. A little bit. I'm feeling a little nervous without our third chair here. Uh, good news though for fans of erica she will be back on the pod next week. Uh, and and back with more strength than ever well, we've really could be.
Speaker 2:The reason why we're sort of in this holding pattern is we really want to celebrate her win at the grand cinema, guessing the most correct Oscar picks, and do her like her to, to embrace her in this victory lap and do her episode format that we won't spoil until next week, but it's one that we're really looking forward to. So, yeah, today was a little bit of a, or this week's been a little bit of filler.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So how, how has your week gone? Uh, any, any, any movie news. Any people are saying stories. You have right up front Gosh.
Speaker 2:People are saying, um, from the movie industry, from Hollywood. People are saying this is a heavy one. Okay, I like to have. Usually we like to have fun with this segment.
Speaker 2:People are saying that the director of the documentary winning feature at the academy awards no other land, that one of the co-directors of the film has been kidnapped, lynched, kidnapped, and his whereabouts are unknown as of this moment. This happened in the west bank. Um, so that goes out with obviously a heavy heart. Yeah, um, that that people are saying message you hate to see it. Um, again though I was talking to a friend about this speaks to the power of cinema as art, and obviously these are very trying times, especially in relation to the Israel Palestine conflict.
Speaker 2:Um, I don't want to speak out of turn on any of it. However, when you see a response as strong as this, where you know the, the director of a film, the, the painter of an, a piece of art, where, whatever it may be, when, when something strikes a chord and gets noticed and awareness is spread, and you have the other side of, whatever the topic or the issue may be, feel like you know an, an opposition needs to be felt, that it, that that knowledge needs to be met with force. I don't want to say that it is, um, uh, some sort of validation of the work. However, it it does speak to the greater importance of making meaningful movies, music, artwork, whatever it may be. Um, so again, that news breaks with with obviously our thoughts and prayers with the director, but um, yeah, I did see that come across my feed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, heavy, heavy heart there and um, you know, it's I, I think I, I echo exactly what you said, and especially now more than ever, right, uh and uh, this is terrible, it's horrific, it's frightening, um, and really really scary. And uh, you know, no one should ever have to go through something like that because of a piece of art that they made. Um, and you know, documentaries are, are pieces of art as well, and I mean mean they are. They are documenting real, real time, real life things. Um, so, yeah, just uh, really, yeah, really terrible really terrible um gosh.
Speaker 1:How do I say?
Speaker 2:no, no, easy pivot. I have another one. People are saying I heard this title thrown around three different times by three unexpected people in my life yesterday the new Netflix miniseries Adolescence I've been hearing a lot about this algorithm on social media, boots on the ground, talking to the people, and they are saying that adolescence is this incredible expose into.
Speaker 2:It's not like true crime or anything like that, but of of like a true crime-esque type of story, um, about a 13 year old where they've committed a murder, and what you get is this story unfolding over four episodes. Each episode plays out like its own mini movie and it's all one. Each episode is one take, it's one shot.
Speaker 1:Oh really, I haven't heard that it's got a little it's got a little gimmick to it. Sure.
Speaker 2:And I'm not using that.
Speaker 1:Stephen Merchant, I believe is is the lead in it Okay. Uh, you know, has shown up in a bunch of. He's usually like a gangster and something in you know in you know a Guy Ritchie film or uh, you know, he's in snatch, he's in lock stock, he's in rock and roll. Uh, um, he was also in the Irishman. But yeah, I've heard really really good things about this miniseries. I haven't checked it out myself as Netflix. I tell people this Don't subscribe.
Speaker 2:They don't believe me. I don't subscribe either. And other people in my family, other people in my life, I could mooch off of their account. I refuse to. I pay for Macs. Big fan of Paramount plus. You guys all know that, like there are other streaming services that it would be, I would be hard pressed to remove from my you know rotation netflix.
Speaker 1:I'm so fine not having netflix yeah, really interesting if each episode it's a four episode miniseries. And you said, each episode plays out like a movie. I wonder when I whenever I hear that I feel like the material might be stretched a little thin, because if four episodes Right, like I've, what I've heard, is that like it could just be a two hour movie.
Speaker 2:It could be, because what I've heard is that, like, episode three is really the one that you're edging towards and so it's like could okay. So then could you take maybe 40, the 45 of the best minutes from episode one and two. Keep what you have in episode three and take the best 30 minutes of episode four and you have like a really good two and a half hour film, yeah, yeah, 30 minutes of episode four and you have like a really good two and a half hour film.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a film that would that we call that it's a movie.
Speaker 1:That's that's called a movie. Um, yeah, and how? You know, gosh, kind of wish that was going on right now.
Speaker 2:Way, I don't think march is usually as bad as something like january, or february, when it's typically anchored by at least in the past few years, maybe since sort of the fall of marvel, it has still been anchored by some sort of big studio property. Or, like last year, this is when we were getting excited dune 2 and we were getting excited and ready for something like challengers, like there was already buzz around a film that could potentially be playing during the award season yeah, but I will.
Speaker 1:I will say this year, uh, has been a little dry so far. Yeah, been a little dry. Uh, maybe some some other quick news points before we get into films that we've watched.
Speaker 2:I do want to go back to adolescence and just the act of being into a good tv show and and one of the folks who brought up the Netflix miniseries to me the other day I did say you know what I feel like. I'm hearing this at the right time because I am in the middle and so many of us are in the middle of season three of the white Lotus right now. I have I that high of being invested in a good tv show. Is it's on like I have it right now. I have the itch right now to to look for it.
Speaker 2:And now, of course, the way netflix rolls out their programming, which sucks and you can binge it all and it really stops or it prevents their films from, or their content from having like longevity, because it isn't like a water cooler moment where every Sunday you watch white Lotus like how you do on max, and then the next two days you can read stuff and you see the new memes come out or whatever it hits your algorithm and you can talk to your friends or realized appointment television. It is Um, but the fact that I am still in the middle of a good TV show right now and I know that feeling of like, okay, yeah, this is great. I do kind of love something that's like digestible, and an hour long segment does actually have me planning when I'm going to watch this miniseries. Adolescence Well, that very, very rarely happens with television.
Speaker 1:That just sparked a thing in my head. Another TV show is about to drop tomorrow. Do you subscribe to the Apple TV app? I do have Apple TV plus.
Speaker 1:Apple TV plus is dropping a new comedy satire series about Hollywood called the Studio, starring Seth Rogen, with a star studded cast of cameos, apparently including some of Martin Scorsese's greatest acting to date Interesting. And people are saying this is this is the best like version of Hollywood satire since Entourage. Really, wow, high praise, high praise. Cannot wait. That comes out tomorrow, the 26th of March. Okay, so by the time you're listening to this, maybe you've watched the first episode. And is it?
Speaker 2:because I believe that the way Apple does, apple does it. Appointment yes, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So Wednesday nights. Okay, might have another, another great show on the way, wow, um, and with someone like seth rogan like I'm, I'm in evan goldberg as well uh, in the creative yeah uh side. Um, you know I'm making fun of hollywood.
Speaker 1:I'm in I'm in, I'm in, I'm in. That sounds good. And then another people are saying one more people are saying Bon Joon-ho hosted a screening, saw this Of the Thing this weekend. Mr John Carpenter was in attendance, did a Q&A with Bon after the film. The very last question Bon asked Mr Carpenter is if he would score Bond June.
Speaker 1:Ho's next film, which he also said is a straight-up horror movie Very exciting. I know the reviews and results of Mickey 17 have been very lukewarm. The fact that Bond has come out now and said he is doing a straight-up horror, he's got, hopefully Carpenter on the ones and twos doing the score, could be very exciting. I know how much Bond loves the thing very exciting, we know, I know how much you know bond loves the thing. Uh, and if it's, if he, if he can get back to something like as we talked about on the bond episode? You know, snow piercer, parasite, you know, maybe even a little bit of the host, but not not so much a monster movie, but I don't know. I, I, I love to see that he is. He is going to go hard into the horror genre.
Speaker 2:I saw that news as well, very exciting, and something that I wish we saw more of was like you almost take the Avengers format of casting, but do that with your crew. That's brilliant. Like bring your all, bring the all-star team together, because so many of these different guys do different things right, and so it's like what if there was just a movie that was like directed by bong joon-ho, scored by john carpenter, edited by sean baker? You had all these different guys that do different things on a film set would be amazing and then come in and you know it's.
Speaker 2:It's shot by Greg Frazier or one of, like, the biggest cinematographers out there. And you're just like, oh damn, like they didn't spend money in front of the camera, they spent all their money behind the camera.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really brilliant and bomb could do that, because also he's got, I'm sure, a wealth of knowledge and his own acting pool that he can pull from South Korea Right, because I'm guessing it would be a South Korean film, or at least you could do it that way and again spend all your money on the people behind. Why Sean Baker doesn't, I wonder. If he edits movies like for money, that would be a great way to make money for your next film, sean Baker, and he could white label stuff. Not that he needs any sort of advice from me, of course.
Speaker 2:And I mean it could be white labeled too right, like he could use a different name or he you know, however, that works. You know he doesn't have to be the one taking credit, so I wonder if he has. I wonder, I wonder if he has. I did see something to what people are saying that like, um, just just along the same lines that killers of the flower moon, because a lot of you know the the Paul Thomas Anderson new teaser dropped for his film.
Speaker 2:We have an official title for it now. One battle after another, one battle after another. The teaser, of course, features Leonardo. Did you watch it? Uh, no.
Speaker 1:Um, and so I'm in. I'm'm in, like what do I need to? I watch it. Listen, paul thomas anderson famously cuts his own trailers uh-huh just an excellent trailer cutter okay, I've watched this thing about 16 times. Doesn't give away anything. Okay, gives you some vibes of of what we're looking at. I don't know. I don't even know if I want to tell you if you haven't watched if you, you're, if you're, endorsing it as far as I'm endorsing away, I can watch it, I'm endorsing.
Speaker 1:However, I will say there is such a fucking hive mind within filmmaking. Uh, there was a movie that came out last year that feels a lot like this movie Interesting, or at least from the snipp I saw my people are saying no is that people are saying that Paul Thomas Anderson rewrote the final draft of the killers of the flower moon script.
Speaker 2:I saw that come across my algorithm. Wow, and that's how he and Leo really got close and how one battle after another ended up happening. Huh. That's cool, that's great. Yeah, because Leo I think this is been famously reported was not happy with the way the first draft of that script looked the adaptation of the book and how he was supposed to be playing the Jesse Plemons detective role actually. So he wanted his part to be looked at and PTA apparently was the person who came in.
Speaker 1:Killers of the Flower Moon will go down as a hidden gem of Sc scorsese's that's one podcaster's opinion that listen it. It just grows at each day. Okay, the myth continues to grow if we ever get on fucking physical media.
Speaker 2:Insane that you can't do that I can't believe.
Speaker 1:What are we doing um?
Speaker 2:apple back to apple. Yeah, we're doing right fucking apple.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, I, I think, I think that's all, that's all my people.
Speaker 2:Apple Back to Apple. What are you doing, right? Fucking Apple. Okay, I think that's all my people. That's all my people. In the movie industry, global people are saying Seattle's ready for an NBA team. Again, people are saying that March Madness up in Seattle was a huge success.
Speaker 1:I was there both days you were scouting it out.
Speaker 2:The amount of retro throwback Sonic stuff that people were wearing. Oh sure, Just the energy that was in Climate Pledge Arena for those two days. I know that we have the Storm. The Storm have been historically one of the better WNBA teams. Some say the best People are saying but honestly, like Lauren Jackson's's retired in the rafters.
Speaker 2:Sue Bird's jersey retired in the rafters. Yes, you can go to watch the Huskies play. You can do. You can still access basketball in Seattle. The city needs an NBA team again, though, and so if there is an expansion in two years, and if people want to start caring about the NBA again, which I think they should, watching live basketball unearthed something in me that I had forgotten was such a love of mine.
Speaker 1:Are we finally going to start the NBA podcast?
Speaker 2:If we get a team, if the West the Western conference, it needs to be Seattle the Eastern conference. If they want to do something fucking stupid and like, put a Vegas team in the Eastern conference wouldn't make the most sense, but Eastern Conference. If they want to do something fucking stupid and put a Vegas team in the Eastern Conference wouldn't make the most sense, but whatever, do it. If Vegas takes the Western Conference team, because what I've heard people are saying that an expansion would be two teams, one for the West, one for the East.
Speaker 1:This is what you do you realign and you put New Orleans in the East. Thank you, that would make so much sense. And then you add Seattle and Vegas to the West and Vegas to the West.
Speaker 2:And Vegas can be part of that Southwest group, adam Silver, if you're listening.
Speaker 1:Of course, seattle's in the Northwest division. Yeah, it's time, I think it's time.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:And I mean everything is pointing towards it. I don't have a lot of people on this, but I mean everything is pointing towards it. You know I don't have a lot of people on this, but the people I do have on it, uh, everything is pointing towards Seattle getting 18 within, at at the very least four years, next four years.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think. I think an expansion is coming within the next two years. Yeah, yeah, that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, but we're here to talk about movies, yeah, movies that we've uh, new releases. We've not been doing that. Yeah, we just kind of turned into a yeah, a little news podcast, uh movies that have released again. So march usually not this dry I feel like it is extremely dry. There are some, maybe some gems out there that people need to pay more attention to. There's a lot of crap right now, um, and so I I spent my week last week watching some films, uh, from all different kinds of of apps and, well, actually, honestly, honestly, just pirating shit, uh, so I don't know if that really counts against my new year's resolution of not streaming, uh, because I am streaming.
Speaker 2:I'm just illegally streaming and not paying I'm trying to figure out who you're hurting the most, because streaming a movie doesn't necessarily help the filmmaker if you were to stream something off of Netflix or max. So I think the people you're hurting the most by pirating are the streaming studios.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the people I'm hoping will hire me.
Speaker 2:Um, but I mean to your point. Right now. I'm looking at the popular this week tab on letterboxd. Right now it is a ton of logs for films that played at the Oscars, that that competed at the oscars this year and things that have hit streamers now from 2024 that are very popular. So, like in your top 10 really your top 12 you have things like heretic conclave, moana 2, wicked flow and anora, yeah. So that tells you right now there are no new releases right now making any noise Really.
Speaker 1:Not, not really at all. Um, the first film that I watched uh this past week is uh directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, uh produced by their company, a GBO, and Netflix. Uh, the streaming company, the number one streamer in the world, made this movie called the electric state. It is a science fiction film featuring millie bobby brown, chris pratt and woody harrelson as the voice of mr peanut. The narrative follows an orphaned teenager who embarks on a journey through a retro, futuristic world alongside a peculiar robot. Uh, this movie was estimated had a estimated budget of approximately 320 million dollars. Whoa is based on a illustrated novel of the same name, the Electric State, written by Simon Stalenhag, who has also had another piece of his fictional novel work produced into I believe it was a TV show tales from the loop on Amazon.
Speaker 2:Uh this movie garnered the rare half star rating from you.
Speaker 1:It is a big pile of dog shit. It is Uh, I, I, I, uh, I hope Netflix doesn't look at my letterbox either, cause I've applied for a couple of jobs for them. Uh, but someone is I go off, I go off on on. Netflix doesn't look at my letterbox either, because I've applied for a couple of jobs for them. Someone is I go off on my letterbox review. It is kind of what is wrong, I feel like, with mainstream movie making right now. It is, and it's really interesting because I've never read the novel the electric state. However, I've seen some of the illustrations and drawings from it and, yes, they, they take those illustrations and drawings and they have recreated them in a, in a movie format. However, it is the movie. It seems like it's in such opposition to the text, the text, and when you're looking at these illustrations and what I've read from reviews of the book, it is a very dire down, like the world has fallen apart.
Speaker 2:Very dystopian science fiction novel I'm gonna stop you right there because, based off that description, the russo brothers are the last people who I would want to grab to try to communicate that exactly, and they don't understand the definition of any of those words you just said that is so true.
Speaker 1:It it is so crazy that the Russo brothers got this much money to make this film that they they continue. You know, as someone who, like in the in the teens, in the 20 teens, the Russos were hailed as like this forward-thinking, genre-bending directing duo. But as soon as they have left, as soon as they left marvel, as soon as they left all that behind and and their stuff works in in a marvel world, I think, and everything, every project they've done after that has been a huge miss. I mean even something like the gray man, which I had way more fun watching Right Um, because it is so like garbage, special ops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is so like bad, it's good, uh and, and it's I don't know, it's just, it's like funny on a on a meta level, because you are wasting the talents of someone like Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling and a big spy thriller. This is. This movie is just, it's just depressing that when you, when you click on this movie to play, and the first thing that comes up is a straight-up commercial from Planters Peanuts assembling the character Mr Peanut. He's a straight-up walking talking logo in this film, voiced by Woody Harrelson, and he's a freedom fighter and he's the president of the robots or something like that. This movie it just misses on so many levels as far as stakes, as far as script. Millie Bobby Brown Listen, I've only ever seen her in stranger things. That's my only relationship with her. I know you really liked the movie damsel. I was going to bring this up. She is completely dead. I in this movie, and this is because she is acting with probably people in green suits and surrounded by green, like this whole thing. They set this thing in Seattle.
Speaker 2:I think the only reason and again, I don't know if it's set in Seattle in the novel, but I think the only reason it's set in Seattle is so that you can have an overcast day, so that your graphics so it's easier to render your graphics- the frustrating thing about that is because damsel was such a nice surprise to me last year because I had zero expectations and I thought it actually did do a really good job of showcasing millie bobby brown as a professional actor, someone who could work opposite nothing but green screen. Cgi, um, props, you know, tennis balls, whatever they're saying, here's the dragon. Look, you know, okay, look this way, look that way, whatever. Um, because that's mostly what damsel is. It's her carrying that movie and it's a good time. Yeah, and maybe it's because that didn't have the expectation of a 300 million dollar movie, of a russo brothers production of co-starring with chris uh, whoever it is chris pratt, who continues to just play han solo ripoffs from in every movie, every single movie he does.
Speaker 2:He is the exact same character down to like the vest in this movie straight up and no, he's a smuggler.
Speaker 1:They call him a smuggler, a robot smuggler or whatever, um, and he's got a robot sidekick who, like can't really talk, uh, or makes noises. He's he is, he's got bad hair, um, and then I mean, I just can't't believe that. Woody Harrelson, jenny Slate, brian Cox.
Speaker 2:Coleman Domingo.
Speaker 1:Coleman Domingo.
Speaker 2:Anthony Mackie, stanley Tucci.
Speaker 1:Tucci is in this Jason, as an evil, steve Jobs, jason Alexander is is pretty much a cameo and again like it's set in the 90s. So they really try to nostalgia bait you with someone like jason alexander, kind of being like george from seinfeld, kurt loder playing himself.
Speaker 2:does anybody who does? Anybody who knows who millie bobby brown is also know who kurt loder is? Besides, maybe people that have a movie podcast? Absolutely not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this movie is so, so, incredibly bad and it's just boring and it's gray and concrete looking. It's overly lit, it's overly long. It has no Gene Carlo Espeon, again just like playing a bad guy who he's never actually in the movie. He's just a face on a screen so he's just like again doing voice work, pretty much. It is so bad. The stakes there's this big battle at the end of this movie. There's this big battle at the end of this movie and the sidekick of Chris Pratt, who is, I guess, the robot you're supposed to really fall in love with, because you know whatever comedy, and that robot gets shot, gets killed, and there's a moment there like oh man, oh no, my friend, my friend, only maybe three minutes, three minutes of this moment. And then the robot opens up and it's revealed that it's actually a smaller robot inside of this big robot. So the friend is still alive. I mean, that's the kind of stakes that they. There's just nothing.
Speaker 2:There's nothing good about this movie, absolutely nothing let me say something, and I don't want to sound like a pessimist. Good, it's a movie like this failing. And now here's the thing netflix, of course, will release some bullshit metric.
Speaker 1:They'd say that this was streamed by 20 million people worldwide.
Speaker 2:Blah, blah, blah. And the press tour for this film has been incredible. They've probably spent half of that production budget on the press tour, because I've seen millie bobby brown over in asia, I've seen her across the globe promoting this film. They've been doing in theater premieres for it. She's hit the tonight show, she's done all the talk shows, and so the moment for the Electric State was really pressed on us right now, really pressed.
Speaker 1:And also to see it fail.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of like good, At least critically, If you're going to do all that.
Speaker 1:Put it in fucking theaters? Yeah, because actually the $320 million production budget is the production budget. There is a separate marketing budget that comes after the movie is made. Who knows how much they spent on that, but you're right, it's probably close to half half the production, yeah 150 million. That's another 150, and so like I just don't understand what netflix is doing printing money.
Speaker 2:That's what they're doing.
Speaker 1:How, yeah, there's no way they got an an influx of subscribers because of the electric state no and yeah, no one was like this is the one that's.
Speaker 1:Uh, that's gonna get me to subscribe yeah, and quite frankly, I, the russos, who again, like made some amazing movies in the marvel cinematic universe captain america, winter soldier, infinity war, end game, three of the best marvel movies ever made the fact that they go around spewing this like weird perverted shit, talking about the 320 million dollar budget as if they're like really proud of like that's how much money we got, and then also like all their ai bullshit where they're very pro-AI, and really again in this film about a robot revolution kind of thing, and we're supposed to feel something for robots, even though they are robots, they're not people. You know it stinks. It stinks to high heaven.
Speaker 2:I fucking hate this movie.
Speaker 1:It is one of the worst movies, I think, of the 2020s. It's one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time and again, it's not even like. It's not even that. It's atrocially written, it's just nothing. It's just absolutely nothing. And I, I I just worry that if this is what something like netflix is is willing to give money, like they've gone from scorsese and coron with like irishman and I was just talking to somebody about white noise the other day too, and Fincher to this not good it is.
Speaker 2:It does feel contradictory to have them say, after the reception of something like white noise, that, like you know what, noah Baumbach, we love you, we tried, or whatever we're done, doing director passion projects and having the quote unquote blank check be $200 million so that you can make sure that every single little cassette tape has the right you know artist written on it, or however you want to spend that money. But here, joe and anthony, because you made end game 10 years ago, here's your blank check.
Speaker 1:Well, and to adapt an illustrated novel, yeah, yeah yeah, and again it just comes in a long line of this. The gray man, cherry cherry was I've.
Speaker 2:Cherry was the first sign that like this is not going to go well post marvel for them. Yeah, cherry should have worked should have worked.
Speaker 1:Um, and it just shows. And obviously they're running back to Marvel. Now they are doing the whatever Avenger movie is coming out in a couple of years. But I just you know these guys, they were such good, they were so exciting, they were such exciting filmmakers when they started out in community arrestedrested Development and then getting a shot with Captain America, winter Soldier and like, really honestly, like in a time when Marvel was kind of like, maybe the first dip of Marvel, right, that was around the Thor 2 sequel. It was around Iron man 2 sequel where, like, these movies weren't working as well as the first movies that came out and winter soldier took it to another level because of some really ingenious, like smart filmmaking. To now be the russos now and and have this crap and then also like to fucking go around telling people to like, you know, like, stay in your mom's basement If you, if you don't like this movie or something like that, fuck those guys, fuck those guys. And uh, yeah, that electric state is, is horrendous and there'll be kids who like it, but like because there's big robots, but like it's bad, it's really really bad. Okay and that, but luckily that's as bad as we get the next film that I saw is a comedy thriller called Borderline.
Speaker 1:This is Jimmy Warden's directorial debut. This features Samara Weaving as Sophia, a 1990s pop star whose home is invaded by an obsessive fan I can't even read my own writing Obsessive fan played by Ray nicholson, the son of jack nicholson. Having a bit of a moment right now, he was in this, he was in smile too. I believe he has another movie coming out that he is in soonish. Um, the film explores themes of celebrity and obsession. Uh, with a supporting cast that includes eric dane, jimmy falls and alba baptista. It's produced by lucky chap entertainment and productive media. Uh, borderline had an estimated budget budget of five million. The film was released in theaters and on digital platforms at the same time. I don't know how much it made in theaters, but it was very limited.
Speaker 2:This is something you've had on your radar for a long time Because I did not watch it in preparation for this episode. But I'm going back on my letterboxd watch list and at the time that I added this film. Here are the other films that are right around the same time. This is how long that this movie has been in production, gone through, I think, a bunch of different rewrites on the script.
Speaker 1:Eli Roth's Thanksgiving, oh, yes, I remember that so we're talking about like two years ago.
Speaker 2:Basically, there is a couple of other movies here that weren't like 2023, movies that I added, though when that I you know here on the podcast, I can kind of think about, like what we were doing, why I added this movie to my list or whatever, the Roman Polanski film, frantic, that stars Harrison Ford. So, like when we did our Harrison Ford batting lineup, whatever it was. So it's been a long time since Borderland was announced, and originally anticipated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, borderline is. It's interesting. If I you know, I didn't really do any research on the production, but if there were a lot of rewrites, I think you can kind of feel it while you're watching this film. It is kind of a nice contained story. Once we get to the story there, there are a little bit of jumps in time that were a little confusing but and it's a little messy around the edges as far as the plot goes um, um, but some pretty fun and really actually like absurd moments. Like there is a straight up like song and like musical moment in this movie which is kind of, which is actually it's pretty funny when it happens um, but the title borderline, I assume, is indicative of the the nicholson character having borderline personality disorder they never say that.
Speaker 1:Okay, they never say that. They just call him crazy, okay he? So, yeah, the movie opens up with him like getting dressed up, buying flowers, and it looks like he's going on a date. He shows up to this girl's mansion. A man comes out who you're not really sure who he is. You find out he eventually he's like the security guard for this pop star. This guy, ray Nicholson, you know, is under the guise that he has a date with this pop star, they get into a confrontation.
Speaker 2:He stabs the uh, the bodyguard and then and like turns into like a home invasion comedy. Well, then.
Speaker 1:Then it cuts six months or maybe two years. Is it two years later?
Speaker 2:okay yeah.
Speaker 1:So then it cuts and a title card comes up that says two years later.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Um, which is like some confusing. I don't know why they felt like the need to do that, cause you could have just gone straight in and like this is the rest of the movie. Because then the movie does become a home invasion movie where this somehow this Ray Nicholson character and two other characters from the mental institution and we can still call him that, I almost said loony bin have broken out of the loony bin and are on their way to this pop star's house, and then it's a home invasion thing where they kidnap people and you know all this stuff. But there's also a moment where they kidnap the bodyguard. Now, two years later, and again, like they take him out to the woods and supposedly shoot them, and so again, great stakes, right, like oh, these people are crazy and they're willing to kill. Somehow. This bodyguard shows up later. Apparently he just grazed his head the bullet.
Speaker 2:As bullets do.
Speaker 1:As bullets do, bullets do, I guess again feels like a rewrite moment where they're like, oh, we need to bring this character back for some reason to save the day, I guess. Um, but yeah, ray nicholson is in moments he channels his, his father, um, but also like kind of feels forced to be this crazy person because his dad is Jack Nicholson. Um, there are moments, though, where he looks exactly like Jack Nicholson and like that it's. It works to a certain degree.
Speaker 2:Well, that that's what we got to see out of Ray and smile too, even though he didn't really have anything to do other than one flashback scene where he's actually acting. Other than that, he is this hallucination of one of the smile demons that is doing nothing, but basically the shining Jack Torrance. Overlook Hotel. You know know, like down the barrel of the camera, we're arching our eyebrows, we're smiling, yeah and he does that.
Speaker 1:They have him do that quite a bit in this film and again some of it works, some of it's like okay, we get it, he is.
Speaker 2:He looks like Jack Nicholson something else that I would say about this film Borderline is that I'm not sure if this concerns me or validates opinions that I already had on Samara Weaving as not necessarily like a scream queen, because I do think that she is not necessarily playing a final girl.
Speaker 1:She's not. She's a victim.
Speaker 2:She's a victim, right's a victim, right? Not that final girls aren't all victims. In some manner. However, I think that there is some sort of hope that she could be a A-list leading actor in Hollywood, and because this movie gets dumped in March, because it has a day and day release for theaters and vod, it makes me it, I think it, it validates this thought that I've had post, ready or not, where ready or not, had and has continued to have a moment and become sort of this like cult classic of a film.
Speaker 2:I view it it as a your next copycat and we were both on record of saying that, which which lessens my opinion of that film and makes me think it's less successful than a lot of other folks. That's neither here nor there. She's great in it and got huge notoriety for her role in that film. The way that she was used as sort of the Drew Barrymore character in the scream remakes, um is, is also indicative of of where I think a lot of people in the industry view her as as far as being a a-list actor, a scream queen of sorts. But the fact that this movie didn't really make any noise hurts my thoughts and kind of validates the opinions of her as far as like reaching that level of celebrity the problem is she doesn't really she doesn't do anything to fight back in this film.
Speaker 1:I guess she has one moment where she fights back a little bit, but honestly, it's a lot of her screaming and being scared. Um, yeah, so, and, and you know, if you're gonna make a character, a pop star, which is kind of like a weird, like really popular thing to do right now, I mean, smile too, did it? Um, I think we've, we've gotten trap trap did it.
Speaker 1:We have another, I think, horror movie coming out this year about a pop star, or a drama or something about pop star let's I. You know. I know it's a trope, but like can I see her music?
Speaker 2:or like a performance, or have not watched something on the stage. Smile too. No, have not Sky Riley I would. That'd be front row.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Sky Riley concert. They do a great job of doing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and instead in this film they, just like you know, they give her a big fancy mansion and there's like a recording room. They just tell you, they just tell you she's a pop star.
Speaker 2:Yeah, show me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, show me.
Speaker 2:Again.
Speaker 1:Now Jimmy Warden, who knows first time filmmaker, maybe doesn't have the budget, sure. However, let's get creative. There's ways to do it. There's ways to do it. And and also like, let's, instead of just like opening with this ray nicholson character already obsessed, like, let show me the moment he becomes obsessed, why. What is the moment that he breaks and like, okay, the switch is flipped and now he is this obsessive, cause he's even like having these hallucinations again. Like we get into some absurd like comedy towards the end of this film.
Speaker 2:Could have been played as a straight up thriller. It sounds like yeah, is what I'm hearing you say. Could have been, could have been taken a lot like a single white female type of like a real stalker movie? Yeah, and it's. It's not. Um, so again. Check it out though, Cause it has been. I've been anticipating it for a long time. Fine movie, Uh, but three stars for Max Fosberg on letterbox. Three stars for Max is good.
Speaker 1:Good Listen, I had watched it right after a lecture state. So, so take that uh. How take that uh?
Speaker 2:how you will.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, yeah, the next film, uh, is actually one I still have yet to watch. This is one that you have watched, I think I've mentioned a couple times, but now we can actually really really dive into it. I know the all the thriller, all the or the spoilers for this film, um, so feel free to speak freely, but is the gorge, directed by Scott Derrickson, an action thriller starring Miles Teller, anya Taylor-Joy, sigourney Weaver. The plot centers on two highly trained operatives who develop a close bond after a perilous mission. Take it away. Perilous mission, take it away.
Speaker 2:So the thing about the gorge, which I gave three and a half stars, which for me is borderline good. Yeah, that's a 70%, if I'm being super analytical about it. This movie works in all the ways that I didn't think it would and then come short in all the ways that I expected it to produce, that is to say, the garbage special ops highly trained sniper duo of Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, which I did not expect to feel authentic at all, actually has some real heart to it, and I think both actors are talented.
Speaker 2:Yep, I think they both understand what is needed of them in these roles. And so the meet cute that happens across this gorge from their two different sniper towers. The idea is that western forces and eastern forces have been allied to protect this unknown black zone that is not visible from satellites. It's, and you can't find it on like whatever this this movie's world's equivalent to like a Google Earth would be. Like it is just blacked out.
Speaker 2:And so Miles Teller is the one who we see on like day one of his job day zero really when he's meeting his predecessor, the person who was on watch the year prior to him being there, and he is told you don't communicate with the other side, you don't do this, you don't do that. Miles teller, who we meet in the beginning of the film, is someone who can't hold a relationship very regimented what you would expect from like a combat veteran, someone with 200 confirmed kills, whatever kind of personalists. And so he and anya taylor joy. Anya taylor joy, who is much more kind of like the wild child Like she, he. We get a kind of a interesting introduction to her character via a conversation that she has with her father. You can tell she also is very disciplined, but also willing to kind of have more fun, break the rules with this prevent with this profession, this of being a, a hired gun.
Speaker 2:And so she's the one that sort of initiates the contact. They had these whiteboards, and so they're looking through each other's you know sniper scopes at each other as they're writing these notes. Miles teller starts off by saying we can't be in contact on each other. Joy is like look at bro, no, she's. She's like have a little fun with it. And then he slowly lets his guard down.
Speaker 2:Sure, all of that stuff actually works really well. So then, when they do find themselves in peril, you want them to make sure that each other are safe and you buy the, the commitment to their relationship that each other show as far as like, oh yeah, you know what I probably they probably wouldn't just leave that person down there to die. They probably would go back for that person, they probably would fight. And you buy that. You buy that part, the stuff that doesn't work, which I hate to blame scott derrickson, because I think he's a talented filmmaker who has his flaws. He's a he's a great elevator pitch guy. I I don't think that there's one scott derrickson movie that you couldn't sell me on in 15 seconds. You're absolutely right. This and this is no exception like great premise this is great, this is really good.
Speaker 2:two snipers guarding a, a forbidden gorge with unknown monsters in it, right.
Speaker 1:Well, and I've also heard that like it's kind of referred in the beginning of the film as like a gateway to hell.
Speaker 2:Like a gateway to hell, allegories for christianity and sin, and and men at large, you know the human race dealing with this, this burden of existence, of the thought, of religion, of an afterlife whatever, like we saw that in the black phone. You know these kids go to some you know purgatory, and they communicate back so that you know homeboy can get out of ethan hogg's basement or whatever, and that movie becomes so messy. But scott derrickson has done so such good. You know extra sim of emily rose, obviously huge religious overtones and that sinister has it too. But like again I'm you know I'm naming good films here like an accomplished filmmaker.
Speaker 2:No doubt this movie falls so flat on the effects and it is so reliant on visual effects and not that it shouldn't be, because it is it becomes. It's one of these type of like forbidden, quarantined off, failed government research facilities, where Plant people when an outbreak has occurred, and there are these plant people down there that you know there's all sorts of reasons it's almost like you know we have to of reasons it's almost like you know we have to contain the thing.
Speaker 2:You have to contain this you have to contain all these different things because we could be dealing with like an apocalypse level event if if another, greater outbreak occurred or if these people got out of this gorge, and so so much of the action is just ridiculous, cgi, green screen nonsense which you can still have fun with, because the people dealing with them are Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller.
Speaker 2:And now Miles Teller, who, like, we have probably the most recent relationship with from Top Gun Maverick, where you're like, okay, I love the bravado that this guy has and so you can buy him as as this gun. Anya taylor joy is so funny because I made the comment to you where I'm like anya taylor joy is probably 115 pounds, soaking wet and she's supposed to be carrying around like this tactical vest, a backpack, this sniper that's like five feet long, all this different stuff, um, but it's just like. It's really funny, though, because it reminds you of a movie that, without the visual effects component, would have been made in the 80s or the 90s, with like a, a harrison ford and a meg ryan or something like that john carpenter movie two snipers defending the gates of hell, or like or you know, preventing the gates of hell from opening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it could have been a Kurt Russell and a Jamie Lee Curtis movie. So I like it has parts of it that that really work the action once and it's. It's bad because once you get used to some things it's almost like watching subtitles on a movie you start to forget you're watching them and you're just kind of in in grained with it all. And then there'll be something where it's like now we're driving a Jeep without the top on it through, you know, all this fog and and fallen trees and it's and it just looks so bad so it's like you can fall out of it and start to sort of like whatever I've already accepted this that this looks bad and then something that looks worse follows it and so it just like it really prevents it. Excuse me from being like a, a, b, a, b minus movie. Even um stays in that in that C range for me can recommend it. I think you can have a good time with it.
Speaker 1:Do you think it would have looked better on the big screen, Cause this is on Apple plus right.
Speaker 2:So it was definitely um only available to watch at home. You know, that's a good question.
Speaker 1:Or do you think that's why they didn't put it on the big screen?
Speaker 2:I'm inclined to think it would have looked worse on the big screen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's too bad. Scott Derrickson yeah, we need a win. I don't know if it's going to be black phone too.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's going to be black phone too, Uh the next film is from another, another great filmmaker who just continues to do his own thing, the beat of his own drum, and that, of course, is the legendary Paul Schrader. O Canada is a drama starring Richard Gere, Leonard Fife, or as Leonard Fife, a filmmaker and draft evader confronting his past. You know Schrader has been on this mission to do these like deep, deep, lonely men in a room dramas for the past. It seems like what since first performed was 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:I think Um, and this movie might be his most autobiographical, even though it is based on a novel, um, which is called uh, from the it's adapted screenplay from the Russell Banks novel, uh, foregone, uh.
Speaker 1:And this is a very you know, very character driven drama about Richard gear as a filmmaker being interviewed for a documentary by former students talking about his experiences of being a draft evader in the 60s for the Vietnam War. It is literally a snapshot of this man's story, right Again. Don't know if the novel is the same way, but there just feels like a lot of missing pieces in this film, uh, or in the story. But also I think that is some of the point here that leonard fife is he did evade the draft but, like, the stories he is told of how he did that and now how he's remembering it, or maybe how it really happened, are very different and you're jumping back and forth between time. Jacob Elordi plays the younger version of Richard Gere. It's the best I've seen Richard Gere do in years and we haven't seen a lot of him. I know he's on that one of your Paramount Plus shows, the Agency, with Michael Fassbender.
Speaker 2:I have not watched that one, but yes.
Speaker 1:But Gere is really great. Elordi is fantastic. Elordi knows ball. He yeah quite a revelation in this film and he doesn't even really like speak that much, he is just such a presence because he's such a big dude. But he does an excellent job.
Speaker 1:The movie looks beautiful. All the stuff that's like in the past is obviously shot on like either 35 or 16 millimeter film, you know. You can tell that there's real grain there. The lighting is beautiful throughout. The costumes, the cars, everything in the past is really great. The stuff in the present is interesting because it's very documentary style, right, and it's a lot of Richard Gere just looking down the barrel and talking to you about these stories, but then also having these moments of because he's very sick, right, he has cancer or something, he's about to die, but he's having like memories rush back but he doesn't know what's real and what's not. And so it's again very dramatic piece about the past, about memories and about your own mythology and what you have created, and especially and especially Leonard Fife as a filmmaker I feel like Schrader is, who was a draft I believe a draft of Vader himself back in the day Speaks that autobiographical part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does feel a very, very personal film from him, um, but yeah, looks beautiful, uh, sounds beautiful, um, really well-written. I oh Canada, uh, he, he Schrader continues.
Speaker 2:Schrader does continue to deliver. Now I don't think that he's had as high of a high as first reformed since then. But the card counter, master gardener, and now this like quietly three, and you know, based off of your review here of oh Canada, three solid films in the 2020s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know this one doesn't go into any sort of like violence, or I mean more of a morality play yeah fife is definitely a womanizer and there's a lot of womanizing throughout the film. Um and and drinking and whatnot, but like I've got to have a highball glass of whiskey, yeah always um, but there is no.
Speaker 1:There is no violence. As you know, first reformed or card counter. I still have yet to see master Gardner, but I'm guessing there's probably some some violence, just knowing what that film's about. But yeah, really interesting film and like, listen again, Paul Schrader, one of these guys working into his eighties working into his eighties.
Speaker 1:Probably you know in like the Werner Herzog, like realm of, like, how famous he is as a filmmaker, how much he is revered as a filmmaker, um, but he should be up there with the Spielbergs, the Scorseses, the De Palmas. He is one of these guys that came up in the seventies that has been a profound voice all the way through. And you know, a guy who has just lived in independent film, which is, apart from a couple of different releases, but just just a great filmmaker, just really has something to say every single time I mentioned Michael Fassbender from the Agency, just really has something to say every single time I mentioned Michael Fassbender from.
Speaker 1:The Agency. He's one of the stars of Black Bag, the second film from Steven Soderbergh this year. Another man who just continues to work. The amount of work Soderbergh just puts in every single day is really inspiring. It's truly prolific. It's crazy. This uh caps the trilogy that he has done now with writer David Koepp uh, starting with Kimmy starting with Kimmy presence, and now black bag.
Speaker 1:Black bag is fucking awesome. Black bag is exactly what we have asked for on this podcast for years now. Original story, adult thriller, spy thriller, movie stars throughout the film well-lit, well-written, great sound. Soderbergh always showing off his camera movements just fucking awesome, great twists I don't want you to say too much more about this.
Speaker 2:I really don't. It's a cat and mouse game.
Speaker 1:There's a mole within the mi5 or mi6 or whatever agency they're part of and they have to find that mole. That's all you need to know. And I had a great time Went and saw this with Kaylee and some friends. It inspired us to go out after the movie and talk about it. Just, soderbergh, continue to do this, please, and I know you know.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately it didn't make like any money. It was released into over 2000 theaters. It grossed an approximate 7.6 million during its opening weekend and totaled out around 14.7 million. I believe the budget was around 60 million, so not a great return. But again, I feel like this movie should have been middle of the summer. I don't know why we're doing this in March. We just had another Soderbergh come out film come out in January or February with Presence. Like this should have been a movie that lived in the theaters for a while. I went on the second weekend and the theater was packed, so word of mouth has been good. But again, this is going to be on streaming in like probably a week, four weeks at the most. Yeah, but man, just a really great. The 40 bajillionth movie from Soderbergh is still really, really good Okay.
Speaker 2:Last film you can actually. I don't know what this is, because I know that Voodoo is owned by Fandango, but Black Bag is available to buy on fandango at home. I hate, so you could actually watch it already.
Speaker 1:I hate that and you know what this movie is. As sodeberg does, this movie is made for big screen and again I think we talked about this last week like the thing I noticed the most in films now, or is lighting what he's doing with the lighting. Here and there there is a dinner scene where, like it was, it was so beautiful to look at. It looked like a fucking painting. It was gorgeous. Um, yeah, please go out and see black bag. It's really good, it's really good and it's really what, what we want in theaters.
Speaker 2:Uh, the last film is another great film, another one I'm gonna ask you to I will talk about in a spoiler-free manner, because this movie has not made its way to the south sound yet yes, no, it has.
Speaker 1:I saw it at amc lakewood. It's at lake At last week. It was that's where you watched it.
Speaker 2:That's where I went, and saw it.
Speaker 1:Oh Yep, I went and saw it at AMC Lakewood, me and you know two other sickos. We're in there on a Thursday afternoon. This movie is the directorial debut from Mark Anthony Green. It is a. It's like a psychological, almost like folk horror. You know, I think the best thing I can say about it is that it's it's got parts of, it's got tones of midsommar and get out smash together.
Speaker 2:You must have seen some premiere really thing? Yeah, because it's there's no show times for amc uh town center.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully hopefully it's going to go wide here, because this movie is called opus and man, I haven't had this and black bag are are the most fun I've had in a theater this year. Oh I, I thought this movie was incredibly entertaining. It moved well. It's. It's a great like mystery that you are. You are a hundred percent in the acting is fantastic. You've got great supporting characters like Murray Bartlett from the first season of white Lotus. You've got AOo uh, is it ed debris, edibiri, edibiri, edibiri from the bear as your main protagonist and you've got 72 year old john malkovich again doing a pop star, playing a pop star it's just a thing right now in films, um and doing some of his best work I I think I've ever seen john malkovich do this.
Speaker 2:This feels to me a little bit like uh, some of blink twice as well from just reading.
Speaker 1:So I never saw blink twice, but yes, I I think it, I think it's kind of on that level, but I I don't know, and maybe, maybe I would really really love blink twice, because I've never I still have not seen that, but but I just think some of the again, I I think it's the way it's shot, the way it's presented it. It's got get out midsommar vibes where like a lot of tension, a lot of tension, there's some, there's some gore, but like not overly cartoonish and just a good kind of folk cult horror. Uh, so go see it because I think you really love.
Speaker 2:It sounds right up my alley yeah I'm hoping that it either comes to the grand or back at town center. If they did do a a premiere screening of it, which I think is just what you were lucky enough to go see, because I'm on my amc app right now with no show times available I hope it wasn't just there for a week. But no, I can't imagine that, because it's still listed under their thrills and chills okay, great so they will. They will hopefully bring it back, yeah yeah, or maybe fucking snow white.
Speaker 2:Push it out, because they have to have snow white on four screens christ, I don't think we're gonna see snow, white snow.
Speaker 1:I will not be covered on. Excuse the the intermission.
Speaker 2:Yeah, goodness gracious, I'm looking at the snow time.
Speaker 1:The snow times.
Speaker 2:The snow times and there's like a screening every 45 minutes of that movie.
Speaker 1:Wow, but yeah, opus Again, favorite movie of the year, best time I've had in the theater. That's awesome. I cannot wait to see it again.
Speaker 2:Something I want to get on Blu-ray go watch it and Erica, while she's been out of town, has also been able to see it. So something that you and her can talk about next week, maybe I will have a shot so I think I texted both of you as soon as I got out separately.
Speaker 1:I was like you need to go see Opus. I haven't even seen what she rated it.
Speaker 2:I'll leave that for you to find out.
Speaker 1:Yeah I I will say the movie is getting killed. Like there's a few folks here who critically yeah do not like, people do not like this film which I don't get.
Speaker 2:I had a great time yeah, I mean shout out to, to some of our, you know friends and listeners out there. Geo really liked it, hayley's kind of lukewarm, or yeah, my friend hayley has it like I don't know, not great, but erica's somewhere in the middle like I don't know it does seem to be divisive. Yeah, we love a device, a divisive movie, absolutely um, those are all the new films I saw.
Speaker 1:uh, those are all the new films a saw this week, so any other, any other?
Speaker 2:I will just say you want to shout out adolescence and it's weird how letterbox does this. But adolescence can actually be logged on letterbox as a 228 long minute miniseries. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, eventually they're just going to add TV to letterbox is there not?
Speaker 2:it does. Do they not already have their own version somewhere out there?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I I know, I know what you're saying. Yeah, eventually, once you get that big once letter, you know letterbox is gigantic.
Speaker 2:I think it is. I think it now has surpassed as far as, like red carpet press coverage goes, a platform for filmmakers to talk about their work, to give interviews. I think that it has surpassed. It is now this generation's entertainment tonight, totally E-news. Whatever comparison you want to try to make, I think Letterboxd holds the belt right now as far as the press coverage of the movie industry with the most notoriety. Yeah, which is great to see. It's awesome. How long have we been praising Letterboxd?
Speaker 2:Not as long as some other folks that we know, but for a long time, for a long time. Yeah, so yeah, that is our episode this week Should we tease Eric's episode a little bit yeah yeah, yeah, so yeah, next week we're going to be covering. Do we even want to say I think we should say, because we still are giving definition to this term in real time Great Then you do the tease and take us out.
Speaker 2:So this is funny, Cause I had a building leadership team meeting tonight and I'm like doing notes in our live Google doc and there's some things where I'm like I don't want to type that Cause I don't want someone to go into the version history and be like, well, Alex was the one that said this event needs to last until 7 pm at night I was like someone else can say that I don't necessarily want to be the one, that if erica's listening is like you were not supposed to say anything, I'll do it whatever.
Speaker 2:Uh, the episode that erica has has chosen is a top five list ranking of our favorite guilty pleasure films. Yeah, so I and we can talk way more about this next week.
Speaker 2:Obviously it's funny because you've got four on display right there, I sure do right next to me is ridley scott's robin hood starring russell crowe, house of wax, the jean-maje clet sarah house of wax into the blue, which is going to be so hard for me not to bring up again, the john stockwell film. And then what is that at the bottom? The original michael bay transformers. So that should paint a pretty good picture as to what we're talking about. Yeah, however, I'm curious do you have any knee-jerk reactions to what a guilty pleasure movie looks like to max bosberg?
Speaker 1:so I was thinking of, like what is something that I just I turn on at any time and it puts me in a good mood? Yeah, and like the first thing that came into mind because I just recently did this, uh, was best in show.
Speaker 2:Now, best in show is probably too good to be a guilty pleasure, and I think that's where we have to discern yeah, so it needs to be a lesser movie because to me, like a comfort film is different from a guilty pleasure film if I came on here and talked about my top five comfort films, yeah, you would try to administer me to one of your loony bins Cause I would be like yeah. I fall asleep every night watching Midsommar.
Speaker 1:They're called medical institutions.
Speaker 2:Yes, Mental wellness centers. Yes, and, and. So I do think that a guilty pleasure film has to be a little, a little bit of lesser quality that maybe also you feel like you need to be a closeted fan of, because the public perception is that like that movie is not good, like I think of shows that would fit into this really good, where, like I could say like oh yeah, like a guilty pleasure show for me is like I will throw on, you know, you could say like I would throw on love is blind or I would throw on the vampire diaries or I would throw on pretty little liars, you know like kind of these, just like brain rot, mindless.
Speaker 2:Uh, young adult targeted cw dramas or whatever. Netflix original reality shows kind of stuff. Laguna beach is a guilty pleasure, right, yeah. So what does that look like cinematically? It'll be fun to see it's gonna be.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be a really hard list to build, I think it will be it'll it'll be, you don't have to be honest with yourself.
Speaker 2:You do have to be, and it'll be interesting to see if Erica takes the same stance on quality as I think you and I are sort of mutually agreeing to do right now, because, like a film that is a quote unquote guilty pleasure to me, one that I could watch all the time, that I almost feel like I would need to be a closeted fan of, but then when I think about it, I'm like no, I've talked about this movie all the time very openly on the podcast and think that it is a legitimate five-star film. It's something like Mean Girls. There's no reason why Mean Girls needs to be a guilty pleasure movie for anybody.
Speaker 1:Mean Girls, retroactively, I think, has become a cult classic right Again. I think the level of.
Speaker 2:I think it's like an overall classic, yeah. Yeah, like the quality of that film is higher than I think again what we're talking about, if you were going to say, like from the same era, the Hilary Duff joint Cinderella story, there you go there you go yeah. Now we're cooking. Okay, I've just I've opened my, my horizons wide open.
Speaker 1:Now I'm thinking about this. This is going to be. This will be fun to make Okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that'll be next week. We'll welcome Erica back. That'll be triumphant, that'll be awesome. We'll catch up on her travels, things she's done, movies that she has also seen in comparison. In the meantime, follow the three of us on Letterboxd to track what we are watching between shows, and we'll talk to you next time on Excuse the Intermission, where movies still matter.
