Excuse the Intermission
Alex, Erica and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Zach Cregger’s Weapons
When 17 children from the same third-grade classroom vanish into the night, a small suburban town becomes the epicenter of a nightmare that defies explanation. "Weapons," Zach Crager's sophomore directorial effort following his breakout hit "Barbarian," delivers a masterclass in atmospheric horror that will leave you checking the locks on your doors.
The film's brilliance lies in its unconventional structure, following multiple characters whose lives have been upended by the mass disappearance. We begin with Julia Garner's haunting portrayal of the children's teacher, quickly becoming the town's primary suspect as suspicion and paranoia mount. Just as we settle into her perspective, the narrative shifts to Josh Brolin's grief-stricken contractor, whose son was among the missing. Brolin delivers one of his most compelling performances in years, particularly during nightmarish sequences that blend reality and the supernatural with disturbing fluidity.
What sets "Weapons" apart from standard horror fare is how it balances genuine terror with moments of unexpected humor. Crager demonstrates remarkable control over tone, crafting scenes that can transform from laugh-out-loud funny to skin-crawling terror within seconds. The cinematography enhances this unsettling quality, with the camera constantly in motion, creating a voyeuristic feeling that makes viewers complicit in the unfolding horror.
The film lovingly channels influences from horror masters – Spielberg's suburban wonderment turned sinister, Carpenter's patient tension-building, Lynch's dream logic – while establishing Crager's unique voice. The soundtrack, featuring both perfectly chosen needle drops and original compositions, elevates each scene whether building dread or amplifying emotional moments.
As the mystery deepens and the film ventures into more overtly supernatural territory, "Weapons" asks us to consider what truly lurks behind the façade of suburban normalcy. While some viewers may debate the effectiveness of its third act, the journey is undeniably gripping from start to finish. Don't miss this theatrical experience that reminds us why watching horror with an audience remains one of cinema's most primal pleasures.
how's it? I'm alex mccauley, I'm max fosberg and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding weapons. The second feature film from writer director zach crager is now out, generating quite the buzz in the movie-verse. So Max and I will talk about the film's critical and financial success, along with what we thought of the movie and where it ranks amongst our favorites of the year. That spoiler-heavy conversation is on the other side of this break.
Speaker 2:This episode is presented in partnership with the Gig Harbor Film Festival. The Gig Harbor Film Festival will take place September 25th through the 28th in beautiful Gig Harbor.
Speaker 1:Washington, hosted at the Galaxy Uptown Theater, this year's festival will feature 90 wildly rich films from across an array of genres. The lineup includes filmmakers from 11 different countries, ranging from the United States and Canada to the Philippines and Vietnam.
Speaker 2:The opening night centerpiece is September 25th at 6 30 pm. The film is Bob Mackie Naked Illusion. We are excited to host Bob Mackie and producer Joe McFate for a Q&A session following the screening. There are 11 blocks total, including animation. There are 11 blocks total including animation, washington-made short films and scintillating feature films. Our own Jeremy Kent Jackson, gig Harbor resident actor and Gig Harbor Film Festival board member, will be featured in Gunslingers, which is screening Saturday night, also starring Nicolas Cage, stephen Dorff and Heather.
Speaker 1:Graham. This year's attendees will enjoy exclusive premiere screenings, Q&A sessions following the film blocks Stephen Dorff and Heather Graham, and for more information on scheduling, VIP passes and general admission tickets, please head over to wwwgigharborfilmorg, and you can also follow the festival on Instagram at Gigharborfilm.
Speaker 2:All right, max. How are we doing today? Bud, I'm tired. Yeah, I've been working on a second feature. I was able to jump on Gosh. When was that? The middle of our beginning of august, I guess end of july. And this past week, like every day on set, has been splits where you start at like 2 or 3 pm and you go till 2 am, 3 am, 4 am. So my mind's a little mush, but happy to be here and found time to see this movie twice yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I. So I have a question. Going back to the hours now, I think most people understand that working in the film industry is not your typical nine to five. When you were back in film school, though, if you could kind of take yourself back, is that something? Is that something that they talked to you about? Like, I'm sure there's really no way to prep for you know, like a overnight shoot or anything like that, but is that something that that is talked about when I don't know, when people are trying to figure out if this is something for them or not? Like, is that? Is that almost like not not? Are you given a warning? But, but you know what I mean. Like, does that get? Does that get discussed?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and and from the from first quarter, I mean, I remember you know it's, it's nailed into you Like these shifts are going to be 12 hour shifts. There's going to be weird, it's going to be at weird times of the day and you know you, yeah, it's, it's 12 hours on. You get an hour lunch usually, but it's and you're moving, you're, you're, you know, you're constantly depending. It doesn't really matter what position you are Like, you're, you're on your feet and you're, you're, you're using your body and your energy constantly. So yeah, yeah, yeah it. It definitely, definitely was always talked about for sure, especially in the film too.
Speaker 1:So is it what you thought it would be then?
Speaker 2:it is. It is extremely hard. Everything in film school was extremely easy in in in the real world it is. It is twice as hard. It's you know, you, you're getting, even though you're putting in 12 hours, you know, until 4. Am In the morning, you're, you're still getting paid If you do the math, you're still not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not making, especially in indie film, you're not. You're not making the celebrity money, right, the glamorous big budget movie money. So, uh, yeah, it's a grind, it's a grind, but you know it's only month. How many months has it been? Six months maybe? Uh, so, six months into this industry? So it's a grind. I'm extremely lucky, you know to, to, to have been on on two features back to back this summer in a new place and with new people, and I've I've been extremely lucky to work with the people that I've worked with, right, like no one's been a a dick or an absolute psychopath, but but yeah, it's, it's, it's such an amazing thing. I think I said I don't know if I said this on the pod recently, but I've been saying it a lot on set that filmmaking is like the ultimate team sport like everyone's got their job, everyone you.
Speaker 2:you gotta keep your your optimistic vibes up Right. You gotta keep the vibes good because if one person starts to dip, then like everyone, goes to the locker room. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's, it's, it's been, it's, it's been a really great experience so far, but but very tired very tired, so because sorry to just bombard you with questions but um because you've had the the luxury and the good fortune to be on two features back to back in this short amount of time.
Speaker 1:do you feel like that's sort of prepping you for this, almost like no strings attached mentality when it comes to your films or the films that you're working on and you're you're given role on those movies, whereas, like in film school, you're so attached to what you're doing right and it feels really personal and I'm sure that's great and obviously you want to work towards a place where, like, maybe you are the director, you are the screenwriter and you're on set just kind of like supervising, maybe in a producer role, and it still feels really personal. But as you're becoming more worksman oriented, do you feel like that's maybe getting a little easier? How has that transition been?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think, I think, yeah, it's definitely less romanticized. I think, yeah, it's definitely less romanticized. And you know, because it is such a grind and really you know you have to jump from gig to gig and you know again. You're either like the first film I was on, you know we were on for 28 days and you really within like the first, like 14, about the 14th or 15th day is like when you really start to like build, I feel like, deep bonds with with people on set and become friends with people on set. And so in film school you know we're in class and then we're also making films, so we spent a lot of time together. So there is a deep deepness there. But like this set you know that I'm currently on it's 15 days, so you know, right at the end is like when we're going to start to be like, oh man, like we're really tight now.
Speaker 2:And then and then everyone just, you know, kind of disappears into the smoke and you know, maybe you'll work with them again down the line, but, like you know, it's all about finding that next job. So like we kind of have to all, like you know, hit, hit the ground, hit the pavement again. So it's a really interesting thing about film because you do spend a lot of hours and time with people and and again like build friendships and stuff like that, and then once you know it's picture wrap, like it just kinda everyone just kinda goes their own way and maybe you'll see someone down the road again. But especially in a, in a town like LA, like you know there's I've already experienced the whole like, yeah, let's hang out, I want to hang out, and then you know, you don't hear from them for three months. Yeah, and LA is a very busy town and I feel like just that's part of the industry as well.
Speaker 2:Like you know, yes, we should get together, but you know, oh, I'm jumping on another gig and you know I'm dead the two days that I'm not on and then the other days that I am on, you know I'm, I'm working, you know three to four, and so there's just no. So I'm going to be sleeping until two and then, you know, it's just it's, it's wild, it it's, it's pretty crazy it's. But yeah, I, I think I I've definitely like, I care about these films, I want these films, I want the director to accomplish what they set out to do and I want it to be successful. I want you know, one day to see these films, but at the same time, like I'm not, you know, yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I can't wait to see something like it's a job and we're on it and it's good experience.
Speaker 1:Well, great job on Maxi school corner today.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:doing I I'm. You know, we're in the 11th hour of summer, which is yeah, man, it's coming to an end.
Speaker 2:I can't believe it. It is.
Speaker 1:I have a couple of trainings later this week. We're recording this on a Monday, so Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, yeah, I have some trainings and then, boy, I'll tell you this movie that we're going to talk about today in a weird way I mean, you know me, you've known me a long time got me excited to get back in the school building. Perfect back to school, perfect back to school film, it kind of is. I I wondered if that was part of the marketing where they were like this, this is going to be an august release, because not only can it maybe kind of like monopolize the corner and and sort of take over the culture for a couple of weeks, but just because it does have so much to do with like an elementary class, should we roll it out right before school comes back? So couldn't help but think of that. But yeah, so we're just. You know, I kind of want to shake up my days, give myself those weird schedules, those weird wake up times, try to get naps in the middle of the day, stay up late, sleep in, do all those things now, while I still have the opportunity. So hopefully I can still enjoy these last couple of days before the weeks do start to get broken up with trainings and back-to-school events and stuff like that. So, yeah, we're doing good.
Speaker 1:Thanks for asking, all right, so in the meantime, while you were maybe dead but had enough energy to drag yourself out to the theater, and then myself on a Sunday night eight o'clock or like this is a underrated movie time Sunday night eight o'clock, or let me tell you, yeah, it's kind of dead, it was nice.
Speaker 1:We both went out and saw weapons. Now weapons new film from Zach Crager, the director of barbarian. Barbarian was such a phenomenon when it came out and director of Barbarian. Barbarian was such a phenomenon when it came out and I kind of want to start by talking about that movie a little bit, because when that film dropped it wasn't exactly one of these day-and-day releases that we saw during the pandemic. However, I do feel like it was a big deal in the theater and then it was on demand for people to view at home very shortly thereafter and so like I can think I don't know if I can think of one person who at least like dabbles in casual movie going that didn't see barbarian and really, really enjoyed it. Is that kind of your experience with that film and like just kind of talk about when that movie came out and how you feel like it landed yeah, I, I, we.
Speaker 2:I took my our buddy tim to see barbarian in theaters which was like the first movie he had seen in theaters in like three or four years. Uh, and I remember we, we both went in very cold, had no idea, just knew it was a scary movie and, yeah, I remember being blown away by it. Now I also remember criticizing it a lot, like the. The third act gets a little cartoony and I think that kind of became the general thought that like the first two acts are so well done and so tightly put together and great tension and you know it was the whole. Like bill skarsgård is in this, but then he's like he's planning to type, but then it's against type right, yeah, yeah, it was a great bait and switch.
Speaker 2:And justin long, who you know, again, it kind of cemented not that he wasn't cemented already, but like, really like he's a scream king and you know he, he's, he's in all these movies. But I do remember that last act, when, when barbarian gets out of the basement, we've had the big reveal of mama. Yeah, when she gets out of the basement. It turned into like this weird like Scooby-Doo episode almost yeah and so yeah.
Speaker 2:But I remember being really positive about that film and especially, you know, first time filmmaker zach crager had never heard of him before and I also remember him being like kind of a breath of fresh air too, like he kind of when he was giving interviews back then, like he would kind of just like go off and like go on rants and like he just didn't sound like your, your atypical, like you know hollywood filmmaker at the time. But yeah, man, I remember that being a huge phenomenon and yeah, crager.
Speaker 2:Crager doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that we're gonna see in the criterion closet, pulling off, like you know, a tarkovsky film and giving some big grand explanation about it, like he's gonna grab videodrome and be like fucking cronenberg rips you know and just tell you something real yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a horror head and and I also remember well and then it goes to streaming early and, yeah, it has like a second life on that, but it still is not on physical release, it is still just living in this stream. You know this purgatory, yeah, and he's even and now he's even talking about it now with weapons, because people have asked him and he was like yeah, you know, I've, I've beat the drum, I've called the people. I thought I needed to call like yeah, you know, I've, I've beat the drum, I've called the people I, I thought I needed to call and you know, it's just not a thing that people want to do.
Speaker 2:So I, I hope, I hope, maybe, hopefully, criterion could pick I would love to own barbarian.
Speaker 1:I really want to own weapons trying to remember who the like number one producer. Like who that you know like what company? Was behind Weapons is WB, wb, right, and so that makes me think, coming off of you know, the success of some of their bigger films here recently that have then gone to physical, that we should hopefully get, a Blu-ray copy WB.
Speaker 2:What a year. Minecraft Can't stop Sinners, superman, superman weapons there was another one in there, I can't remember at the at the moment, but yeah, they're just, they're killing it and everyone thought that studio was left for dead and I think you know, I think superman is like the only superhero ip right that that has land or IP that is in that lineup. I believe it was like six movies that have made $40 million and have opened number one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So good on WB who got out of the. I'm just so glad that they got out of the Zack Snyder business. I feel like that had been such a burden on them for such a long time and now you know you get rid of that and look what you can do. You can give ryan coogler you know enough money to go out make a hit. You can give zach kreger to go out and make a hit well and when? You think about.
Speaker 1:Absolutely right and when you think about the time, really kind of like the inflection point, of when this stuff really probably changed for them, it had to be coming off of Barbie, and I think Barbie's really probably the movie that saved that studio as far as all of a sudden having the bankroll and the confidence to kind of give directors a blank check. Look, because this movie give directors there a blank check. Look, because this movie definitely feels like a blank check. Look, you know, sinners been talked about a lot as sort of a blank, blank check type of movie, and so I think you know we're gonna, we're gonna be able, we're still going to be tracing things back to the barbie oppenheimer summer for a long time, even though that's two years removed now, correct?
Speaker 1:yeah, that was 2023 yeah, yeah, but I think we're still feeling. We're still feeling the effects in a positive way of that. So so, yes, okay, weapons. Weapons opens number one at the domestic box office this past weekend, with 42.5 million dollars playing on 3200 screens, which is awesome, because disney also released freakier friday, the follow-up to freaky friday, this this weekend. That film made it like 27 million dollars while playing on 700 more screens. I think so just like a great weekend for for the sickos, like people really wanted to go out and see this movie so that's the theater I went to.
Speaker 2:The second time I saw it was a cinemark, and weapons was in an xd theater and then, straight across the hall, freakier friday was in the other xd theater, which is like their big, like you know, mini imax theaters. So yeah, it's funny, they were going head to head.
Speaker 1:That's, yeah, that's, that's quite the double feature. I wonder how many people did that. And so so the film has opened up to great, great critical response. It's at a 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, an A minus cinema score. The other horror films that have finally leveled out in like the A minus range are things like get out, silence of the lambs.
Speaker 1:So we're talking about some pretty lofty comparisons here. And then, instead of 3.9 on letterboxd, which is also very, very high. Now I'm starting to feel a certain type of way about letterboxd because after I watched this movie that I came in completely cold to, I write my review and then I want to go read some of the other reviews on there and like you have to scroll down to maybe the fourth or fifth top rated review for it to actually be someone who sat down and wrote a movie review and not just make some joke about, like you know, the kid's not listening, because you know, like kids never listen to their teacher or something like that, and those are all like five star reviews, and so it feels a little bit trite when you're kind of like it's, it's getting listen and I'm, I'm, you know, I were both part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm both part of it too. I've done this before, but I was noticing. I was noticing this because last night I was, I was kind of going through and looking for just like thoughts and also like I was looking for low reviews to try and see like what people, how they were feeling.
Speaker 1:Well, the most interesting thing is, once you get past those first couple, like real quippy punchy jokes. The first, like high rated, like the the highest rated review that's actually a movie review is only a three out of five star review, right right, yeah, and but yeah, I have felt that that letterbox has been getting a little, a little gamey.
Speaker 2:A little gamey, yeah, a little little. Like how many likes can I get on this review, right? Or this, this sentence? But yeah, uh, yeah, I, I felt that too. I. I also like, if you rate something and I know it's hard because, like, if you don't like something that is like really hitting on letterbox right, like most of the like low stars for this movie at least the people who I follow they'll just rate it like two and a half and then they don't say anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to. I want to read.
Speaker 2:I want to read. What, what, what. What's bothering you with this film?
Speaker 1:Absolutely Agree. I'm way more interested in a three paragraph, three star review of this film than I am. Someone giving it four and a half stars and not telling me why, like, okay, that's just kind of consensus. That's cool, good for you, you know. But, like, if you have an opinion or if you truly think like, I give you credit because you gave it five stars, and especially in your second review, you really started to kind of go in and now that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:I think you and I are in this interesting position because we want to save a lot of thoughts for this podcast and to not give too much away of like kind of how we're thinking. But but I'm right there with you where I'm. I'm kind of returning to how I think maybe we first both came to letterbox, which was like a really good opportunity to actually feel like you're writing a movie review, you know, and not doing something for clickbait or for the reason why you would maybe, you know, post something on your Instagram story. You know, trying not to treat Letterboxd like social media is the hardest challenge box like social media is the hardest challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but you know that that it's gonna happen with any service. That that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's big enough, which is very true. Gosh, yeah, I'm just yeah. That's the other thing too. Thinking about how far letterbox, the leaps and bounds that it has gained in popularity and it's it's online following in the last couple of years, is just wild, but great for them. Okay, so no real outline here.
Speaker 1:We did mention that this is going to be a spoiler heavy conversation. We don't necessarily have to dive into the plot right away. You know we we've done this enough. We can kind of wait our way from the shallows into the deep end. So I'll start with this. What was your like, what was your point of reference coming into this movie? How much did you know? I'm talking cast, I'm talking storyline, all of that even like runtime, like I went in completely blind. I didn't know how long this movie was going to be. I didn't know who was in this film besides julia gardner. Literally didn't know josh brolin was in this movie until he came on screen, which was an awesome, awesome feeling what an amazing way to see that yeah, I literally had no idea, and so that was great.
Speaker 1:Where were you at coming into this movie? And we can talk about anticipation too, because you know, I think we had both talked about this movie on previous episodes as far as being like something that we hoped really lived up to expectation.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, they did a great thing with this movie. I think the only trailer I saw was the teaser, and the teaser is like literally kind of like the beginning of the movie, like it's just like the voiceover saying a bunch of kids disappeared and then it's like a montage of kids running and josh brolin yelling and julia garner, you know, looking scared. So that's all I really knew. I knew brolin was in it, I knew garner was in it. I knew and I remember from that first teaser I the first thing that I felt fromlin was in it. I knew garner was in it. I knew and I remember from that first teaser I the first thing that I felt from it was was carpenter, like I? I immediately was like this feels, you know, vintage as far as like horror goes, they made me think of carpenter, made me think of poltergeist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's big spielberg vibes in this movie oh my gosh, yeah, the suburban spielberg just fucking inject it. And so after that I, I I stayed away from any other trailers. I did the, the classic alex, you know, plug the ears, cover the eyes anytime it came on, and I was when I was in a theater. I do know that they did a Blair Witch-style marketing where they built a fake website that had the case and case files and newspaper clippings and kind of like a, not a fan website, but like if someone is obsessed with a, with a, with a crime right and like they listen to this.
Speaker 1:We need it.
Speaker 2:We needed more people in this town to be obsessed with this crime I never went to that website but again I had heard about it and and again that just like kind of like you know it, it's a little bit nostalgia bait, but like it's just like, ok, that's really cool. That's really cool that a studio in 2025 is still willing to do that kind of marketing.
Speaker 1:And then what did you see? What did you see around town down in LA? Was this a big billboard movie? Was this a bus stop movie?
Speaker 2:You know it, it, it wasn't, it wasn't crazy. You know, right now that the biggest thing I'm seeing on billboards right now are the emmy nomination. Like the tv has taken over the billboards down here so like it's just like you know, all those shows saying how many emmy nominations they've gotten. So I I didn't see a ton of marketing. It's not a couple, I think. Well, that was even, that was. Yeah, that was like Saturday, I think. After I'd seen it there are some posters on, like you know, different street corners, but, yeah, not a, not a ton, not a ton. And honestly, honestly, I feel like the, the release almost kind of snuck up on me too. Right, like I, I, I only you know, because I listened to other movie podcasts.
Speaker 2:I think I was aware that like, oh, it's getting close yeah, but then also when the poster came out too, like again it just it like feeds a, a feeling that you get when you think of eighties, nineties, seventies, horror.
Speaker 1:The poster has a great piece of iconography that I think is going to kind of live on Like there's some great stills. This movie would would yes, this, this, this movie would have crushed on Tumblr with all the silhouettes of the kids running down the street and stuff. Yeah, the big, wide shots, two lawns on each side, like it's just really, really well framed.
Speaker 2:It looks like a goosebumps like right, and the fact that it's art, you know, and and not not just like big heads, photos of the actors. So, yeah, I, I really didn't know a whole ton going in. I had no idea where it was going while I was watching it which is great I had no idea about the structure. You know that that we were going to go full Magnolia on this film and you know I was anticipating it. But at the same time, you know it's not like barbarian, is like a, you know, top five movie from that year for me.
Speaker 1:So I don't know, I, I was, I was, I was excited because of the, the accoutrements, uh, the, the, the setting of it was what really excited me yeah I mean I mean, I was just completely cold, I knew, I knew like nothing outside of julia gardner and just kind of what the log line was that 17 kids go missing in the middle of the night and this town is kind of shaken. Now I'm right there with you as far as not knowing how, and I and who knows, maybe it's time to go back and watch a trailer. But I, the one thing that I was most curious about was is the movie going to give us the events leading up to that and then have the kids disappearing, be like a big second act, third act, bridge kind of reveal, or are we going to be living in the aftermath? Basically, and for the most part it's the latter, we do get to see a little bit in the third act once we, once we arrive at alex's story of life before the disappearance, and so I, I again didn't know that that was going to be the, the plot, but I, I think I like that a lot, especially because we deviate away from narration at the very beginning of the movie, where I thought like, okay, I, I hope, I hope we don't just get kind of like spoon fed. What's going to end up happening in this movie with this narration. That narration was cool. It's a little girl, it's kind of creepy and sets the stage pretty well.
Speaker 1:It does do some things, though then that they kind of built my expectation up in a certain way, and just because it ends up going another way doesn't mean it's a bad thing. But we can kind of start to talk about some of the characters now, because I really expected this movie to be like a julia garner movie and you may as well. And now here's where we are getting kind of heavy into spoilers and I I ultimately think the movie would have. It would have been a very different movie. It would have been less fun, I think, and a little bit more serious, if it just stayed with Julia Gardner the whole time.
Speaker 1:But that first act it does. It does do the barbarian thing where it does kind of bait and switch, especially when you don't know what's coming, that she's not really going to be like the protagonist of the film, she's not going to be the person that you're following around for an hour and 50 minutes. And so once you did realize that we had this, this different narrative structure at place, I mean I was in. I was like, okay, cool, this is great, where's it going to go? But in, in, in. Looking back now, hindsight 2020, do you think that there could have been more? Julia Garner, do you think that you know, we, we lose anything by giving it this, this Magnolia effect of storytelling? I?
Speaker 2:I, I don't, I don't think. For me personally it doesn't lose anything, because I think, just like sinners earlier this year, like I was really into getting to know these characters in this town, like if, if, if. We don't even like get the Alex story and there is no, like you know. Third turn, third act turn into a supernatural horror movie like I'm loving like be popping around, first with julia garner, then josh brolin, you know, then alden l rich, then austin abrams, like it's jumping around from benedict wong I gotta know, how long did your wigdar break the moment you saw him?
Speaker 1:because that's the moment I saw his character. I think when they're at school during julia gardner's part is the first time we've seen when there's like a big town hall meeting there. Basically, the very first thing I thought was max is gonna go crazy for this. This is like hall of fame, wigdar action.
Speaker 2:Listen benedict. Yeah, and his hair changes throughout the movie too, but you know he's got a nice coif going, yeah, and you know I don't know how he came to be the administrator of a school. Oh yeah, my appearances.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I I think you're right If we just stay on Julia Garner, because during that sequence you know when we're in the parent meeting and we're meeting Benedict Wallen's character, josh Brolin has a moment where he stands up in that meeting but they don't show him at all yeah, it's only from behind. And I remember being like when I first saw it I was just disappointed that we didn't, because in the trailer you see him stand up, which we see that shot from Josh Brolin's perspective.
Speaker 1:Yes, in his story.
Speaker 2:But I remember being like, oh, I'm kind of disappointed that that looked like a really good, like yelling josh brolin moment. I it's weird that we stayed in the wide here. We only saw the back of his head. So, yeah, when, once we get to because, yeah, how, how, even far in jul, julia Garner's story do we go? Do we go all the way to the gas station with her we, or we just go to when she don't go to the gas station?
Speaker 1:we don't go to the gas station with her.
Speaker 2:We only see it after she drops off paul, yeah yeah we don't see anything after that yeah, or is it paul, or is it when she's getting her hair, her hair clipped oh, jesus, I think it's, I think it's the hair clip.
Speaker 1:It's that. Yeah, dude, top three moment of the movie right there.
Speaker 2:So good this movie it really the tones are are so impressive how it it is able to balance and you know barbarian was like this too. It's able to balance this like creepy, unsettling, you know goose bumpy feel, but then also like this odd, like comedy, and you know, I think of you know when, when, when she's sitting in her car staking out the house and like the mom, comes out like a zombie or whatever and like comes up to the, to the car and then just like leaves. You know that I think that's really funny. I think brolin's got a couple moments where, like you know, after the his dream he wakes up and he's wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:She comes out to the car and leaves.
Speaker 2:That's well, she comes up, she comes out to the to like the driver's side window, right walking, all weird.
Speaker 1:Yes scissors and yeah, yeah, yeah, she gets in the car, she doesn't leave, yeah, yeah she goes around the car but she like leaves, frame leaves frame, but that I I don't.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's. That's really interesting to hear you say that you're like hyper entertained by that. I was as well, but because my skin was crawling like that was such a scary moment. There's something that Craig does in this film a lot, which I love, because this is like an old Lynchian tried and true Like, like horror effect is to have people emerge from the darkness of a doorway and we get that a lot in this movie and there's a great, there's a great use of of music in this film and the lack thereof, and so there's no score happening at this point.
Speaker 1:When she is staking out this, this house, that she has had a bad feeling about the entire time. I don't know why no one else in in this town, this county, the fbi they went and checked it out. Two, two guys who still had donut crumbs on their suits went in and talked to some catatonic dad who's been picking his son up from school. I don't know that this school they needed a social worker. They needed a communities and school site coordinator at this elementary school because we did not have one. The fact that nobody was like oh yeah, alex's dad hasn't been picking him up recently. He's been walking home and then we meet dad and dad's apparently just like had a stroke and we don't need to like verify that or anything.
Speaker 1:I don't like those, those two detectives. I yeah, yeah. But but back to the mom coming out in the middle of the night so scary. And then when she does leave that frame and then you hear the back of the car door open, you see the car drop from the weight of her body getting in. I'm just like I'm squirming in my seat. I don't know what's gonna happen. Because you're right, that is, that is the last of the julia gardner chapter until we see her again. But because of who we know craig to be and what we know from barbarian, you're like we could see a decapitation right here, like we don't know what's going to happen and I will say once so the it's funny because in that sequence, the door opening and just the darkness and then her emerging is like really scary.
Speaker 2:But then when she's, when you watch her walk across the yard, people are laughing. In my, in my theater's experience, in my theaters, really, people are laughing while she's walking, because she's walking funny, she is sure. And then and then she gets up to the, to the wind, to the driver's side window and like just pauses there and then again walks, walks out of frame and again like so there's laughter from that walk up to the car until she's out of frame and then when the door opens, then the laughter stops. Yeah, that's cool. So yeah, I, I again, I, I think, and I think that's a perfect sequence to, you know, say that that's how the whole movie feels.
Speaker 1:That. That embodies the film very well, right there, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just a great blend of of these emotions going up and down and, like it, you know your emotions are changing in that fast of a sequence that, like you know, you're off kilter, and that that's something I really, really love about this movie. Yeah, and you know.
Speaker 1:but there are other great, other great moments, like the jump scare in the dream with josh borland, I mean for as much as I was getting attached to the julia gardner story and felt like not only had Crager started, because I watched him really enter interesting interview with him, I think it was like for a variety or something, where he he said that he didn't really know where this story was going and he just like he it started with the idea of what happens if a bunch of kids from the same class disappear and he goes okay, well then we have to have a teacher. So then he starts writing about the teacher and I could really feel that in that first act with the Julia Gardner part and he's like and then I just kind of arrived at the end and I mean that sounds inspiring, that sounds great. You in the film industry, you're probably like great. You in the film industry, you're probably like that's fucking awesome, cause you just go for it. I'm, I'm, I'm like, I feel like maybe you abandoned something really really strong with, with not centering it around Julia Gardner.
Speaker 1:However, what he does with Brolin even though that character is is a little bit more it's funny because he's this like blue collar guy, he's a contractor is a little bit more. It's funny because he's this blue-collar guy, he's a contractor. He's not Tony Collette in Hereditary, he's not in 1660s Massachusetts processing his grief and his loss and it's coming through in these horrific ways or whatever. He's a dude wearing a vest and some Levi's and he's driving his pickup truck. But it did start to feel like, ok, he is more of this, like. Now you've kind of like not reduce the story to just being like kind of like trauma porn. But I know this character, I know this archetype really well and he's and what he's going through and and sort of like the different allegories for cause.
Speaker 1:I've seen this be compared as like and who knows, you know, I haven't heard Crager talk about this, but like or respond to this, I should say. But a lot of people are saying like, oh, this movie is an allegory for like how a town and how families react to like a school shooting or a mass shooting and the loss of children in that sense, or the loss of young lives, I should say. And so I didn't necessarily like feel all that with the brolin character. All that being said, I was, I think, the most scared. I think this movie is the most horror film during the brolin segment because of those dream sequences, oh yeah, and it becomes this. Like you know, it's funny too, because I think that there's a lot of david fincher in this movie. Like the, the julia gardner part starts out and feels to me a lot like gone girl, yeah, and and she's like panic room too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's, she's kind of like the Nick Dunn of this world where, like in Gone Girl, everyone suspects Ben Affleck has something to do with it. In this movie everyone suspects that Julia Gardner, as this as the classroom teacher to these, these third graders, these 17 kids who have disappeared, she has something to do with it. And then the the Brolin part feels more like Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, where he and it's procedural and he's like trying to crack yeah, yeah, he's trying to crack the code, and so that aspect and then also the dream sequences, that's, I think, when I was like the most scared during the movie and there's a great jump scare as well that you kind of mentioned, but I was. I mean, those those first two segments hit really hard out of the gate and and then we get a little silly. But I don't know, I love the Brolin stuff, loved it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Brolin, Brolin's fantastic. Some of the best stuff he's done, I mean I can't remember the last time I didn't see him in purple makeup as Thanos, Right From the Marvel universe. So yeah, I mean just some of some of his greats is probably since inherent vice.
Speaker 1:It was so like the dream sequences were they felt so. It sounds weird. They felt so real though, like the way you feel in a dream you know, with just like these really dark. The really the dark shadows kind of the way that the camera was moving is the way you sort of feel when you're like having an out-of-body experience he knows exactly where to go right in the dream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like yeah yeah you know and the camera, the cinematography in this I mean the the way it moves and is constantly moving and glides you through this story is just some great, great execution.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I've heard Craig talk about. Like you know, I decided that it just it needed to feel like you were in this perspective of whoever's story you were in. So putting a camera on someone's shoulder and just following them is is kind of how we had to do it, like there was there was no other way to to bring those different perspectives to the surface without, like, making you feel like you are in the character that you are with.
Speaker 1:So I've I've a very quick, specific question related to the Brolin segment and and it's in his big dream sequence how did you feel about the floating M4 above the house in the thunderclouds?
Speaker 2:So that is the one part where I just I have, I have no idea. I mean I, I, I understand, because he later in the movie he's like, they're like weapons, but that is like the most abstract part of this movie.
Speaker 1:I can tell you something. I kind of loved it. And there's some stuff about this movie that I didn't really like.
Speaker 2:I love that weird ass choice, though so strange. And again like very Lynch right. This movie that I didn't really like. I love that weird ass choice, though so strange. And again like very lynch right. Like just yeah, obviously he's working within a dream which you know lynch is the master of, of doing that on screen. Yeah, I, you know, it's like the one thing where I under I'm sure, I'm sure it's got some other meaning, or maybe it doesn't, or it's just there to fuck with you, but like it says 217, then on it it has the time of disappearance yeah, I just I think that's the one thing I said to Kaylee as we were walking out.
Speaker 2:I was like, I think the gun thing, you don't even need it, it's just like a cherry on top. Yeah, because I don't think it changes really anything because it's there or if it's not there, but I think it's cool. I think it's something like, you know, maybe deeper for crager, that he wanted in there now. Granted, I also I've also watched a couple interviews with him and like he has said, like this isn't a metaphor for any, like this movie is not a metaphor for anything. All it is is a story about 17 kids who disappeared.
Speaker 1:Well that's.
Speaker 2:That's refreshing to hear, and I didn't necessarily think that this was him trying to have a take on it, but it just again kind of speaks to you know, the letterbox of vacation, well, letterboxification, well yeah, and wanting to find, you know, a traumatic reasoning for horrific events to be happening and I I think that's some that is kind of a problem with modern horror, right like right I I just saw together as well and and that movie is, is a metaphor that is for, you know, toxic relationships and it is that is its only idea and it's and it is shoving that idea at you through the whole runtime and and and I love this movie way more because it is. It is more about the plot on the page. We're not trying and and it sparks conversations like this, because that's what movies are supposed to do, that you know you are supposed to write a good story. It's not about trauma or a metaphor or a an idea. It should be a good story and you know, I I think this movie is one of my favorite stories that I've seen.
Speaker 2:I think Eddie Eddington also really captured that too. Like it is a story and, granted, he's kind of like, you know, basing that in real life and like going to a time, but like it's still it's about the story, it's not about, you know, some trauma metaphor thing, whereas something like bring her back together. You know some trauma metaphor thing whereas something like bring her back together. You know, those movies are really just about trying to get across a message okay.
Speaker 2:So then, after we have the julia gardner and josh brolin segments, this is where for, for me personally, the one more thing about the josh brolin, sorry yeah, one more thing the, the drums, the music that is his like theme, like the, especially when they're leaving the school and he, he like goes off the off, away from the crowd and like jumps in his car. The music is fantastic. It's so fucking good and it's written by Craig and two of his best friends who have had a band since they were like 16. And like again, just like, just really really good craftsmanship and and such confidence in knowing exactly what he wants the music to sound like, because obviously he's a musician. It's brilliant, really really good.
Speaker 1:That also feels a little Spielbergian too. Right, like the same kind of like music cue or like a distinguished music cue when, like kids, are on their bike or something is reoccurring.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Spielberg, I mean so the? So the opening montage. Sorry, we're going backwards now. The opening montage is is the voiceover telling us about what has happened in this town. And then we play beware of darkness by george harrison from his solo album and we see the montage of all 17 kids running out of their house at night. And the first time I saw this I started embarrassingly and openly weeping because, again, just like the combination of that song, the imagery that we're seeing with, with the kids running at night in this suburban town, like I was just like this was made for me, yeah, and and yeah, kaylee had to like hit me. It was like you're crying already and I'm like this is like the most, one of the most beautiful sequences I've experienced. It's so well done and so to say, this movie hooked me and got under my skin. From that moment on, I was just like it doesn't really matter what happens.
Speaker 1:I'm in, I'm 100% in it doesn't really matter what happens. I'm, I'm in, I'm 100 in. So so now remind me, do we go? Do we go to benedict wong's principal character, or do we go to paul, our deputy?
Speaker 2:we go to paul, we go paul next that's at paul, okay, so.
Speaker 1:So part of me is still in during the Paul segment, because I feel like there is information that we are discovering, that we're finding out, you know, different puzzle pieces that are helping move along the first two segments of the story. We're starting to figure out a little bit more about what the police are doing, what law enforcement is doing in this town, a little bit more about what the police are doing, what law enforcement's doing in this town, and we're also starting to see why this person was important to Julia Garner's story. The problem that I have is with the Paul story, however, is that by the time it makes its way back to the kids and the kids disappearing. I feel like we have had too much, not too much fun. We've had too much fun with with the paul character and you know he's getting like pricked by needles and all this other stuff is happening with, with his personal life and this marriage that is just going down the drain, and now this is maybe going to be his calling card.
Speaker 1:This is maybe going to be a pattern of Craigers, because we saw it in Barbarian as well, but in a way that Barbarian had such a great opening act. And then when we switched to Justin long, it is just like a flash in the pan and it's like so funny when that switch happens. This is a little bit more gradual and a little bit more I wouldn't say subtle, but it's just not as stark. And so it was like a five to 10 minute kind of like cool down period that took a while then to like bring back to a simmer and eventually a boil. And so for me I think that the movie, when we get away from Brolin and Gardner and so this goes for the Paul character and this goes for Benedict Wong's character, james- James is the, the James is the transient Okay, so so his story too, though.
Speaker 1:So for all three of them I just feel like our foot's off the gas a little bit and and the tension is just kind of let out of the room. And I get that that's intentional. We're trying to introduce more humor, but then again, this is where I just kind of go back to. One of my original points is like I'm fine with this not being that, not having the magnolia storytelling device yeah, I again, I really love.
Speaker 1:I really love this stuff because it gets away from the horror stuff and makes me want to learn more about this town and the people who who populate it and I mean, there's definitely a like a Stephen King kind of dairy atmosphere where I, I want that as well, but knowing that this is just like a contained film, I, I just I don't know, I don't think that there's the time for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I, I and I, I get that and I for it. Yeah, yeah, I, I and I, I get that and I, I, I think it almost it probably would have benefited from, because what we go to is it seven different characters garner, brolin, eldritch, abrams, wong six, six different characters yeah, yeah so, but but then you know, aunt, auntie starts to feel like the seventh auntie is.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting, we never get her story we don't get a title title card for her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't get a title card for her? We don't get. Let's save let's save.
Speaker 1:Let's save all that. Let's focus on, on our big three of role players here yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, the cop stuff, I I enjoyed it. I think it's again like we're. We're doing some, some great stuff with car chasing and whatnot. We're having fun, it?
Speaker 1:you're right, it doesn't really play into the mystery of the children other than like getting you know paul and james to the house getting paul and james to the house and then seeing how benedict wong's character gets to the gas station, which is how the brolin chapter ends.
Speaker 2:I think the one stuff I I think you could, I think that has to be in there a because we we end up seeing him in the Brolin story at the gas station.
Speaker 1:That only felt like, though maybe like a. I mean, I agree we have to have it but for it to be a full title card again. Another momentum shift, another momentum break.
Speaker 1:I'll even say, and for it to only really last 15 minutes minutes and here's what I think it does too, and that was like 15 to 20 minutes is, although there's a lot of mayhem in in his part and and that's really the bridge that becomes sort of the bridge between the second and the third act. I also think it starts to spoil things for the third act, for alex's story. That I really wish would have just been like kept closer to the vest until we were actually in that chapter of the story yeah, I mean the whole.
Speaker 2:You know, the whole part, part or point of the wand story is to show the power of aunt gladys yes, right, and to introduce her right, and so it is. It is a little strange that she's introduced in that story and not in alex's story altogether she is, but we've already seen her we have that's when dad's like your aunt gladys is coming to town.
Speaker 1:Da da da we find out all this stuff. But like we've already seen her, we have.
Speaker 2:Yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, so, and we've seen her. We have, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, so, and we've seen her from the wand story, right, cause we've seen her in like flashes and like Abrams Caesar, in a very like Pennywise the clown moment in the woods. But we don't know who that character is other than like this really creepy lady that everyone seems to be imagining. That everyone seems to be imagining. So yeah, it is. I think you put the Wong stuff in there because you want to show, because she's not going to kill the parents, right? She doesn't kill the parents, right. So you want to show her power. And after the Paul and the James stuff, you kind of do need some sort of rev up. So I think that's why, that's why she's, she's introduced in the wall.
Speaker 1:And and I you know, if that's how he wanted to write it, then that's how he's going to write it. I I think that the execution of it is. It's more along the lines of that third act of barbarian, though, when we're just getting like a head caved in by you know repeated blows, like point blank, and then you know there's there's some other just like really goofy kind of funny stuff that feels like that third act of Barbarian as well, where we go back and we're all with like pastel colored painted houses and everyone's driving, they're like Thunderbirds and all that stuff, and it's like here's these two guys and they have like eight hot dogs for lunch and we're sitting down and we're watching you know Planet Earth or whatever. And and we're watching you know planet earth or whatever. And this is where, like if he's gonna be cute and do the george harrison thing at the beginning, I like that because that's a little bit more nuanced when they're watching the video of the ants being taken over by the parasitic, you know fungi, and it's basically like brain control again.
Speaker 1:I'm just like, okay, we're kind of we're, we're tripping over our own feet here right now. We're kind of like patting ourselves on the back a little bit too much and and I are like, and it's just, I know where the third act is going at this point. You know, right, like I know now, that we're under a spell and this is some sort of possession film and and we're gonna go supernatural. And now, listen, I have no problem with them going supernatural and I don't know if we're quite ready to start talking about that yet, but that's just where, like I, I do think that the principal part is the most important out of those three role-playing narratives that we get, because, like I, have so many questions about what is the school doing to find out more about this family, like what is you know when is CPS going to get called and when is a house visit going to be made?
Speaker 1:And so we get to see a little bit of that. Still not as much for my liking, but but you know again, it's fun and it's it's fun and it's crazy, but it feels more like something out of you know, like Train to Busan, than it does the beginning of this movie, or the sadness. The sadness is the one, I should say, where we're just like vomiting this black goo into people's mouths and it's just like weird.
Speaker 2:That was a weird part too, because that never, ever comes back. Yeah, literally that was just like oh, we have how much left of the budget, let's vomit black goo on. Yeah, I would also say that you know, craig does this in the Garner. He does it in the Garner portion too, Right, he? I mean he gives away the movie with what's written on her car.
Speaker 1:Sure way. The movie with what's written on her car, sure, but at that point it's way you're still in the dark about.
Speaker 1:So so so much, right, you know, right, yeah, and you, there's a little bit of a red herring there, because after we see the red paint in brolin's truck, you sort of just think, okay, that's it, we figured out who did it. And right now, unless julia gardner was actually going to be a witch at the end of it, you know, then that would have been one thing, but but you're right, I mean, that feels to me more like a bread crumb than it does like lifting the entire curtain, though right, right, I.
Speaker 2:I think I was thinking of the you know the parasite stuff, because she's also teaching about parasites in her class, which we see, I think, next in the alex story she's talking about like a tapeworm that eats you from each year's food from the inside or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah but, yeah, man, I, I, I, I agree that that some of that, the, the paul, the james, the wong, because, like, if we take that out and we just have garner, brolin, alex and gladys, and, and then gladys maybe, yeah and like, and, but see, I I don't know, because I really also really love that we, even though you know, I, we don't get an origin story for Gladys or like any backstory other than like she is some distant aunt that they have, the parents haven't seen 15 years, she didn't come to their wedding and she's very sick. You know Cause, the first time I'm watching this, I'm like, yeah, yeah, I guess we have already seen the parents, you know, and how they're acting. And we have, by this time, we have seen, we have seen the kids in the basement, right, so we know where the kids are. Yeah, that's interesting. I, I don't know, I, I still, I still am not the first time I watched it. I'm still not In the moment, I'm still not.
Speaker 2:I don't know that it is a and again, heavy spoilers that it is a witch story, right, like, there is this witch who is, is possessed, and so when she shows up to juan's, juan's office and she is, it's very long legs where she, like, she is revealed and she is like the kookiest looking person in the world. Uh, and it's totally out of like in a different movie than everyone else in this universe, in this, in this world that we've created, that we're, that we're in, because it's very based in reality. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a whiplash, I think it's, and I think it's maybe designed to be like that. So you kind of you have to. I don't know, I was on board. I was on board during it.
Speaker 1:OK, so I have to do this now. Then we've mentioned you've mentioned the long legs, where we're at the second to third act turn of the film. I'm, I'm going to read you something OK, ok, ok, I'm, I'm going to read you something Okay, okay, okay, man, I'm a huge fan of the way this look sounded, performed. It's voyeuristic by nature. The camera is in such interesting spaces, making us feel like we are spying on these characters. The tension for two thirds of the movie really had me straight up searching the screen for clues. However, in the third act, the turn it takes for me does not work. A lot of tension is lost and the stakes are personal, yet lowered. There are some confusing plot holes that you could fall into. That is your three-star review of long legs. Yep, now, I'm not attacking, I'm. I'm genuinely very curious as to where you see the success of the third act of weapons being more effective than the success of the third act of long legs.
Speaker 2:I think. Well, first off, I think weapons is much more pop, is much more exciting, has more energy I definitely agree with that, yeah yeah, so I think that helps and is much more digestible. Long legs, I think, is a harder movie. It's just a harder movie. It's just a harder movie to to ingest. It's a harder movie to watch. It's a more challenging film than than weapons is.
Speaker 1:I think weapons is again like weapons is something you can have fun with from beginning to end.
Speaker 2:I think weapons is a great you know we talk about this all the time is a great gateway horror movie, right, and it has a little bit more prestige than than maybe most gateway horror movies. But it is more of a fun romp where long legs is this very like methodical, challenging, slow burn and so and and and so when, when the turn happens, it's, it's too much, it's too much of a whiplash and, yeah, it's too much of a whiplash than than the world of of weapons, I think so my, my thing for that would be that there are so many clues throughout the first two acts of long legs that this, this movie, does have, that that story is being told in a, a universe in which, like, there may be supernatural elements at play a little bit.
Speaker 1:You know, we're having visions of this demonic presence. We, we, you know micah monroe's character has like these psychic abilities, right, and so to me I think that that long legs does a really good job of kind of leaving these breadcrumbs that that help make that transition smooth. And it's also from the, it's from like it's basically just been from the law enforcement's perspective. It's only been from michael monroe's perspective, and so we've just spent a lot of time with her character, whereas, you know, the, the magic, the, the reveal that there's magic at play in weapons kind of just feels like it's.
Speaker 1:It doesn't feel like as natural, of a of, of, like a unveil of the mystery, like I just I, I don't know, part of me was was not expecting the movie to go this route, and not that I was expecting long legs to go that route either, and again, I'm I'm a big, big fan of both, but I'm just. I'm just and I was trying to find more reviews that that people were maybe talking about this kind of stuff because and and maybe that's why maybe it just feels like more fun and kind of like par for the course in weapons and in long legs. It for a lot of people feels like they, they jump the shark sort of, even though osgood's like a big possession guy again, like I don't know. But anyways, yeah, I just I don't, I don't know why long legs got critiqued so heavy for like introducing magic at the end, where this movie does the exact same thing, like literally almost the exact same thing, where we're like kids are in the basement.
Speaker 1:You know, we have the man, the man underneath the stairs or whatever he's referred to, and we're putting the magic into these like metal balls into these dolls, as opposed to, you know, this twig that breaks and then we can control people or whatever. There's just so many similarities and honestly I I love them both. My problem is not with either film, it's more so with just the reception of why, like, why is this working in one movie when folks didn't think it really worked in the other movie?
Speaker 2:I think also, I mean the magic in in long legs is introduced very early on, right, because she's she is a psychic, yeah, and so maybe. And so again, I I think one of my biggest gripes with that movie is that you know she is a psychic through the movie and then it turns out that the psychic officer did not know that the villain was living in her basement. And I think I take the psychic thing out and I think long legs probably, you know, doesn't, doesn't get the reception, maybe that that it did even though it made a freaking.
Speaker 1:People love long legs, listen, long legs yeah, it's just one of those movies where, when I re-watched it for the second time, I saw a lot of stuff and I saw a lot of things in the script where osgood is sort of like covering his ass, as far as you know, like when she calls home and she's like mom why did it take you so long to answer the phone?
Speaker 1:Like there there are doubts, there are reasons why she's suspicious of her mom and what her mom's doing and the fact that she's become this hoarder, but she doesn't really want to like believe it. Yet you know, like there's a lot of nuance to micah monroe's character in that film and she plays it so, so well and and in this movie, when, when that turn happens and and like you were saying in your in your long legs review that that there's the plot holes, when I find out that these kids have just all ran to the same house and we've established that like there's many different doors in in the town that have ring cameras installed on them and that this footage has been pulled in and you know we don't even discuss like traffic cameras, you know like well, it's just insane that, like brolin, is the first one to pull out a map and like yeah, in map where they've gone and they've said that there's like dogs on the case, but there's.
Speaker 1:You know, these kids have ran through the, the woods and there's no like footprints that have been found. There's also a lot of ways that like, I don't want to because, again, I still had a ton of fun with it, but I could do the same thing with weapons. As far as being like, these kids are just in this basement and no one knew about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think maybe that goes back to why we have something like the Paul storyline perspective to show like how incompetent and and maybe this is a a a message about how incompetent law enforcement is right? No, I definitely think that, because even the chief seems kind of like a fucking you know dildo yeah, totally he's.
Speaker 1:He's very aloof and I think that that department is certainly made to look aloof. But again when they tell us that like well, the feds are doing this, well, they're doing this, and there's just these people that like we never see, we never meet an fbi agent we never see, like that's almost where I would like maybe still keep paul's character, but you know, not that we needed to have like a special agent, dale Cooper, roll into town twin peak style, but like someone like that would definitely be in town watching all of this stuff.
Speaker 1:Totally, totally and it is a total like missed opportunity from from Craig or right, like, and it's funny, I you know we were talking about this yesterday off Mike and like, yeah, the, the fact that like no one has footage of these kids running to this one house at the end of the block, like that that would surface someone, everyone in this town Supposedly this is a small enough town, this would be this wouldn't just be like national news, this would be like world news and people would be online and people would be sleuthing and there would be, like I mean, you and I just watched, you know, the the one night in Idaho documentary kind of together, but but separate, obviously, but like at the same time and and again, like this is a movie, we're here to have fun with this movie, but the first two acts are very grounded in reality and so I have these standards that, like we need to be following some, some, some rules well, and I think that's where he dips into like the Stephen King stuff of like.
Speaker 2:It makes you feel like this is the only town in America.
Speaker 1:For sure, and that the parent and that, like the adults in this town can kind of not be trusted or they aren't really like paying attention to their kids. Yes, I agree with that as well. Yeah, okay. So gladys, all she needs is aunt. Gladys needs an object of someone's either personal belongings or something from their physical body. And then she has this tree that she travels around with, yeah, and she grows. This little tree snaps off a branch. If she then pricks her finger with this thorny branch and grabs a bowl, there's some fun rules. Like it's all super, super fun the way that, like she uses it to control and possess people. Another thing that I loved in long legs was sort of like the reveal that we get when the aspect ratio changes a little bit and we get the voiceover from Alicia Witt and she kind of tells us like here's how the sausage was made. I want to know, like the inside baseball to this witch, lore you know because again I love it, lore, you know, because again I love it.
Speaker 1:It's literally going back. Something that I thought of was like it. This is going back to like old school very first time we've ever seen like a witch on screen, like fucking snow white, right. Like this. She's after youth and she's after immunity and she's trying to preserve her own life and and I love that, like we love a good witch movie, right. So then it's almost like I'm.
Speaker 1:The movie to me is bookended by like I wish we could have just like stuck with julia gardner, seen more of her character arc. But then we get brolin and that's cool too and I love that. Then this like kind of choppy, really fun, but sort of like convoluted middle, and then we get this in the alex segment, which like, although I think it was very predictable, kind of a critique like you know, I saw this, you know this. The final shot sure you can say what do you want about it, but like I felt a happy ending coming for this movie, um, and and so. So we get that and I'm okay with that, but I'm also still left wanting to know more about the occult and the rules of the supernatural and where we come from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think again. I think I love that we don't get it, because I just think that's like respecting the audience to know. You know what she is when she shows up, right when she starts.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love all that. But like, how, how is, yeah, yeah, like how is my guy in the wood seeing a vision of her if she doesn't have anything of his like? Maybe she does, but she doesn't at that point.
Speaker 2:So there's just like there's some fun stuff, that's just there well, she shows up in in brolin's dream and in and garner's dream. He, she doesn't have anything of theirs either. So like, yeah, you're right, the rules are a little mushy and and because there is no backstory or or explanation or what this tree is, or we're left to speculate, and I think I, I think that that is that's good. That's good. I don't need, I don't need an explanation for every, every single thing and cause. It's just going to encourage you and I to talk about it. Right, right, right.
Speaker 1:And part of it is like she's just, she has this, she has this power, she has this magic, and I'm and I'm also okay with that.
Speaker 2:But also is she magic? Or is the tree magic? Because Alex does the same thing.
Speaker 1:The tree is magic, right, you know, like it's like Malisandra in Game of Thrones, like she takes that necklace off and she like loses her power, right, like she's only the one, she's, she's the conduit, she's kind of the one that can like, harbor this ability and and use it. And and she's, she's the conduit, she's kind of the one that can like, harbor this ability and and use it, and and she's learned how. And again, then, that leads me to like, okay, how did you learn how?
Speaker 2:you know, like where's the school for witches? There's a prequel. Yeah, on there yeah.
Speaker 1:So I don't know, I I that was a really, really fun third act, but again, like I think, probably the last big scare for me, and there are moments in this movie where, like I was so scared like really really great again. Like no score, dark hallways, is someone gonna walk out of this door frame like really really good stuff in that first 45 minutes to an hour. And I felt this with Barbarian too, and this is why Barbarian is just really palatable in a movie that almost anybody can watch, because you can just have so much fun then with like the back half of it. It's the exact same story here with weapons, and I think, though I think that there is a great like this could have been, and and now, if long legs doesn't go supernatural and if weapons doesn't go supernatural, I think in both these films there's a really great great procedural prisoners, thriller, mystery, silence of the lambs, prisoners, however, like whatever you want to call you know the comparisons that you want to make, but like there there's something.
Speaker 1:There there's something really strong in both these films that we're talking about. That I wish you know, and again, you're, you're absolutely right, because this is great stuff for us to talk about and it's great things to like want more of. And then maybe we see something in a movie two years from now and we're like, wow, that really kind of did like what weapons did, or that really kind of did what long legs did. But like weapons and long legs did it better because they did go supernatural and they didn't do this or that or the other. And so, yeah, I don't know, I'm I definitely want to see it for a second time so that I can kind of like have the knowledge going in that like this is going to take that turn in the second act, because the second time I saw long legs after really light or yeah, the second time I saw long legs I liked it even more. I think that the second time that I watch weapons I'm also gonna like it.
Speaker 2:The second time it blew by. Yeah, this is such a tight, tight movie.
Speaker 1:And a great year for two hour long run times, because we were talking about this with F1. We've talked about with a few other movies that like don't be scared off by it, Cause I think this has like 129 minute run time. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And another thing I noticed on the second time was like, depending whose perspective you're in, things are different. Things are like performances are different, dialogue is different, like little things which, again, just like it's a really, really great choice to do because that does prolong rewatchability.
Speaker 1:I was trying to notice that when Paul's walking into the bar and the way that Julia Gardner gets up to go greet him and the way that she says, like Jesus, can I give you a hug, or something. I think that's kept the same, but that was something you know. I mean Something in Paul's part when he you know that Magnolia is like my favorite movie of all time, next to Lost Highway. So when I'm like, okay, what are we going to hear or see? That is different. I was trying to catch on in the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a specific part I noticed in the Paul part. After he has hit James he wakes him up. You know, in the Paul perspective he is very like hey, buddy, I'm so sorry, and like he seems very empathetic. He's like we're going to and he's like we're gonna get you up. We're gonna get you these, these handcuffs off you yeah you know, we wronged each other.
Speaker 2:All right, ready up one, two, three, and that's when it like cuts. And then, in the james perspective, he looks like the devil and he's like you. I ever fucking see you around again. It's going to be a different story. Get the fuck up. Yeah, like, and and that's a really interesting like choice to make in in that moment and how you represent, how you think you're representing yourself, how someone else sees you, or a cop or whatever. So, yeah, there, there, there's definitely moments of like. Ah, ah, this is just going to be one, a great one to keep diving into, and I so, so we get through the alex stuff and also like the child actor in this really great, it's really great stuff from him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's really contained right, he's not really asked to do a whole lot, but that's but that's a, that's a challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally and just like hold the screen.
Speaker 1:He has to hold the screen a lot totally, and he has to sit in silence a lot and like and he and really embodied like a, a shy, timid bullied kid, and especially, too, once we find out that he does know everything Right. It makes it you know all the more impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what did you think of? Like the, the final kill, like I, I the, the chase, you you know the chase through the neighborhood which, again, like lots of comedic moments through it, reminding me so much of like 28 days later no, the the end of of substance oh yeah that is so comedic and and gross and gory and just like absurd yeah, I mean, I, I, I loved it.
Speaker 1:I was smiling ear to ear, I think, a little bit. If I'm going to be at all cynical of it, it's because, like you know, it's coming like it's not. It't really like it was a surprise how far Crager decided to take it and the effects team took it and that was awesome to see. But but again there was no doubt in my mind from like the final 30 minutes on that, like, oh, the kids are going to turn on and Gladys, you know, yeah, and so like knew it was coming, but again didn't know how far it was going to go and I think that that's going to be a lot of. Those will be a lot of the still images and a lot of the things that you see on social media and stuff is like, you know, the kids busting out of these windows. Like all of that was filmed. It was filmed really, really like that's what reminded me of 28 days later because it was filmed really unique to the movie, where we hadn't really seen anything like that yet from in in the movie weapons, you know, we saw them running and there's kind of this you know, when you are under the possession, you do run in this certain way where your hands are kind of like you're not christ-like but they're down it it. They're down at like a 45 degree angle. It it's not like a Naruto run, you know where you're like geeking out, but but it's fun, like it.
Speaker 1:It was all really really fun and and I agree with you, I mean like we're just so desensitized and and and honestly, like here for it, like I'm totally here for it If you're going to like rip someone's head apart at the jaw, someone's head apart at the jaw, son, just just really fun, like so I thought, I thought that was great and you know that the sort of like epilogue, like narration, voiceover that we get at the end is is nice because it puts a little bow on things, but it doesn't like tie it too tight right where you know we, we see that a lot of these kids still are.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't like tie it too tight Right when you know we, we see that a lot of these kids still are damaged and it's not like we need to be told that, you know. Oh, like you know, 10 years later, like Matthew or whatever Josh Brolin son's name was, like they were building houses together, like we don't need, we don't need, need that. But you know, it was interesting that, like, like alex's dad is like too fucked up to ever come back, like they did say that like his parents are at another place and they're still eating soup, like.
Speaker 2:It's like a really funny part. Alex would live with a different aunt. Yeah, this one unbelievable. I would never be about near an aunt again yeah.
Speaker 1:so I don't know. Yeah, the ending, that and again, like the ending was just like a lot of fun, which that's just going to be my expectation. Going in to Crager movies, is it like they aren't going to be as like somber and as like pessimistic as maybe I would want them to be, especially based off of maybe what he's shown us in the first half of given movie, of said movie, but like that's okay. Like, if I want something that's like really deep and dark and depressing, like there's a million other ways where you know a million other movies I can turn to, as far as like not really having that happy ending, like I think you said it really well, this, like this is like this is pop.
Speaker 2:this is like this is fun yeah, yeah, this is yeah again, like touches of carpenter, touches of spielberg, touches of, you know, pta venture the fincher touches of lynch. I mean it is, it is an album augmentation of, of, just you know, probably his favorites, yeah, yeah and yeah, I, just I, I just it, I'm, I'm so jealous. I think it's a great, great movie and a fun, fun watch.
Speaker 1:I was trying to think if Alex makes his way onto the Alex movie character Mount Rushmore I'll have to get back to you on that one, but but it was fun. It was fun to have you know to be sitting there, cause that's not I mean, we've talked about this before but like when you're in a movie and there's a character with your name and it's just being said repeatedly, over and over and over, it almost just perks you up a little bit more and you are just kind of like huh, okay. So I don't know if this was hyperbole or not. I haven't checked to see if your list is updated or not, but where does this now rank? You know, we just kind of did our first half of 2025, which was really more like the first seven months. Where's weapons now for you as far as your favorites of the year?
Speaker 2:Well, so again, I saw this Saturday afternoon like at one o'clock pm, and then the next morning I got up and went to a 940 am showing. The last time I did that was nope. And so, yeah, this is my favorite movie of the year so far. It's overtook the number one spot from sinners which, again, like both of them, are fucking fantastic, and we should be very happy that we have Zach Kreger and Ryan Kugler working with big studios making big like interesting original horror movies. But yeah, man, this is, this is the top of the heap right now. I again, I and you know, I think in that first review I put, which was just like a punchy one-liner, you know, like this is max core. Yeah, this suburban, you know some sort of supernatural. We've got comedy in it. We've got great at performances like, if anything, mystery, a mystery going on. Yeah, it's a great, great sound, great needle drops, great, great cinematography.
Speaker 1:The way again, the way the camera moves is just so exciting and engaging when you watch it brolin's dream sequence felt a lot like joaquin at the end of eddington, when he's in the middle of the street and the camera's just swinging around him. You know, I thought that that was, and julia garner has a few moments like that too, when she goes out into her yard after, like the the ding dong, ditch has happened. Yeah, there's, there's really good camera movement in this movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean he he totally lifts when james runs, when James runs out of Alex's house and it's like that quick zoom in on the door, like that is boogie nights.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's when Mark Wahlberg runs away from home Like it yeah, there's just, there's just a lot to really really it's just juicy, it's just a juicy movie. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's number one for me right now.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm just juicy, it's just a juicy movie.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's, it's it's number one for me right now. Well, I'm super happy for you. I I have it in my top 10.
Speaker 1:It definitely, it definitely popped into my top 10. I think it's right on the outside looking in, like maybe just behind something like dangerous animals in that top five, outside of that top five. I can pull it up here real quick. Yeah, I have it at six. Yeah, so just just outside I still have. You know, it wasn't that long ago that we talked about this, but yeah, like tons, you know.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing too like I'll definitely watch weapons. I know I'll watch weapons more than I watch sinners and I have sinners rated above it and so that that you know, the rewatch ability factor and again, like I said, like second time through with long legs, liked it even more. I think the second time through with this, I'll like it even more and whereas like something, something like sinners, I think, like I'll still have you know, like that first half will still be awesome, but I'll still kind of feel like there was something left and and once I can just accept weapons for and not that I haven't already. That's the other tough thing. Is it like more, a lot of a lot of my like? What's holding me back from from calling this like a four and a half?
Speaker 1:I don't think I would go as high as five, but like a four and a half star movie is that I just I, I I feel so strongly about long legs being really really well executed and and people not really appreciating it, whereas this movie is getting so much love and so much appreciation, and this time I'm sort of on the fence of being like there's plot holes to this, though, and there's rules that aren't explained and there's these other things that, like we deviated from this tension that was so good and and so, yeah, I definitely need to rewatch it, especially in theaters, too. Like I want that theater experience again, and and I'm sure this will still probably play to big crowds for another weekend, so hopefully I can find time to get back out, have that second experience with it oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't, I can't wait to hear, yeah, how, how we continue to feel and you know, to be totally fair, I've only seen long legs once.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have yet to revisit, so maybe that that needs to go on on my homework because I think, same thing right, like once you understand that like oh, this, this is gonna have a supernatural third act, you become more accepting of, of just the director's story.
Speaker 1:And then it gets back to like kind of what we were talking about the beginning, honestly, when we were talking about you know, your work. Right now we're like you want to see a director pull off their vision and like that's just how I felt so strongly that second time through with long legs, where I was just like Osgood did exactly what he wanted to do with this movie and, and again I think, like covered his own ass really really well, there's, there's no doubt, even at first blush, that like crager did exactly what he wanted to do with with this movie. And then it just comes to, you know, then it just comes down to like accepting some of the choppiness, finding the fun and the joy in those like more chaotic moments and the tonal shifts that occur during the movie and they don't and it's not like they have to work for you, like I know some of those things still just like won't work for me, but that's, that's totally okay, you know, like they're all part of the pie yes, absolutely yeah, man, wow what.
Speaker 1:We went like 90 minutes on one movie one movie.
Speaker 2:When's the last time we did that?
Speaker 1:that's a long time. That's a long time go see weapons. Yes, go see weapons. Okay, one, one final thing here, and this doesn't need to go on for for much longer, but like, does the title work for you? I don't know what else it would be. Yeah, and I do like when, when brolin is like, they're like heat-seeking missiles they're weaponized, you know like right, yeah, I, I do like that.
Speaker 1:I like that a lot. But I feel like it's going to be kind of a divisive title where, like, some people might just stay away from it or they might think there's something other than what it is, or they might think that it's like what? Like is this? Kids with guns, you know?
Speaker 2:like right, right, much like you know, I think also the, the assault rifle above the house, right, right, I think that's that's also going to be divisive too, where it's like because that ties into the, the title of weapons. But yeah, I, I, I like it. I like it because, again, it's a kind of a red herring right, which this movie is full of. Yeah, I, I'm fine with the title, I, I like it.
Speaker 1:I think it's really you like when a movie's, when a movie title is kind of provocative and a little, and and could spark some controversy, right, what's the name?
Speaker 2:do we ever find out the name of the elementary school?
Speaker 1:it. It's somewhere, because they have the vigil, that the vigil, and the vigil has something where it's like, you know, like they have their own version of like boston strong or whatever, and it's like written right there.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's, it's that's the only thing maybe I would change it to I would change the title of the movie to the name of the school. Name of the school, yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, off the top of my head. Okay, okay, I appreciate it, yeah, and once again, just like such a funny movie to watch right before I'm about to go back to school and I'm like you know how fucking stoked a teacher would be if she had 17 kids out on one day, until you find out they're all missing. But I'm like, wow, that's, that's pretty great, right there actually it would be insane if that happened to me.
Speaker 1:Carver, it'd be insane, oh yeah, um, that's wild, that would be. But again, I think also too are we are so prone to respond positively to stories like this.
Speaker 1:Having grown up in a, you know, like kind of a picturesque, like closed off little community where, like you, see so many movies and you think like oh, towns like this don't really exist or whatever in America, and and and the fact that we kind of grew up in one where, like kids could just run off in the middle of the night, like that's, that seems par for the course. And yeah, and and what I grew up kind of thinking and understanding, and especially that relationship to like to reality and movies like this was this was really refreshing to see because it felt so familiar, like we, what we were saying, with influences from all these different directors, but but to see a story like this was it's unique and it is original and fresh. Yeah, totally all right, let's let's wrap it up.
Speaker 1:As for what's next here on the pod max and I will be returning to the new york times top 100 films list, this time breaking down and analyzing the critics top 100 list of films from the 21st century. So that was a fun exercise a couple weeks ago. I think this will give us an opportunity to probably watch more movies in preparation for the list the user one. You know I think we were both like between four and eight maybe, having not seen, so it all felt pretty familiar there. There's a lot more inclusion of international films on this list, I think, of international films on this list. I think lesser seen films on this list. So that's at least what I'm anticipating kind of for next week's episode.
Speaker 2:Yes. I hope to find the time and fire up a couple of them. I got one more week. One more week on this job. We wrap next Sunday but, yeah, maybe we do an episode later in the week next week awesome all right.
Speaker 1:So until next time, follow excuse the intermission on instagram and the two of us on letterboxd to track those movies and those and read those quippy reviews that we're writing in between shows. And we will talk to you next time on eti, where movies still matter.
