Speaker 1: A family finds themselves trapped inside their house four years.
Speaker 1: It's The Last House with Grete Lee and Wagner Mora
Speaker 1: and it's currently streaming on Netflix.
Speaker 2: I'm Jordan Hoffman and I'm At Singer. With more movies,
Speaker 2: more series, more stuff going straight to streaming than ever before,
Speaker 2: it felt like the right time for a podcast that
Speaker 2: keeps track of it all, and that podcast is Film
Speaker 2: Spotting sb You. This week, we've got a review of
Speaker 2: The Last House, plus some related streaming recommendations. This week's
Speaker 2: new to vod and streaming titles, and we're gonna play
Speaker 2: a game.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be a good game. I'm excited for
Speaker 1: this one because I created it this week. So everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody strap in.
Speaker 2: I'm buckling up my metaphorical seat belt, and so should you. Listener.
Speaker 2: It's all coming up on Film Spotting SVU. Welcome to
Speaker 2: Film Spotting SVU. I'm Matt Singer. And later in the show,
Speaker 2: we're gonna run down some Last House inspired streaming recommendations.
Speaker 2: And I'm very curious to see what Jordan is gonna
Speaker 2: recommend based on the Last House. Could it be another
Speaker 2: movie about a family in peril? Could it be a
Speaker 2: horror film set entirely in one location, A movie about houses.
Speaker 1: The Last House on the Left the sequel to this one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the Last House on the Right.
Speaker 2: What happens in that one.
Speaker 1: It's funny that this movie is called the Last House
Speaker 1: because this was not the original title of now movie,
Speaker 1: the Last House. It was, in fact the final shot
Speaker 1: before the movie starts, like during the credits, you see
Speaker 1: just their mailbox and it's like the number of the house,
Speaker 1: ye on the street they're on. It's like one, one three,
Speaker 1: one five or something. That was the name of the
Speaker 1: working title of the film. Was no terrible title. And
Speaker 1: then then it's like, what do we call it? And
Speaker 1: I said, we'll call it the Last House, but I
Speaker 1: it's like, I don't know. The Last House and the
Speaker 1: Left is a pretty famous movie, so it's like taking
Speaker 1: a famous title and just calling it half. It's like
Speaker 1: calling it Raiders Are the Lost, you know, like it's
Speaker 1: not that famous. But it's like taking a movie title
Speaker 1: that already exists and just using most of it.
Speaker 2: Yes, especially we're in the same genre. It would have
Speaker 2: been funny if they were like, what if we did
Speaker 2: the Last House on the Right, What if we really
Speaker 2: did it? Yeah, just where you go? No, is there
Speaker 2: another title like that? I just thought it sounded.
Speaker 1: Good, So yeah, that's gonna be the Rex Egg. But
Speaker 1: before we get to that, first up is the Last House.
Speaker 2: What the hell is going on?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but we are safe.
Speaker 3: We are in our home.
Speaker 2: It's not just us. Here's the premise of Netflix's most
Speaker 2: watched movie this week, The Last House.
Speaker 1: Do we know how many people watched it? Or we
Speaker 1: just know they just listed in the top ten.
Speaker 2: I don't remember the I don't know what the numbers
Speaker 2: on the Netflix website indicate anymore. I forget they go
Speaker 2: through different metrics, but it is if you open up
Speaker 2: Netflix and you go to your homepage. It is, at
Speaker 2: least as we're recording this, it's also like, you know,
Speaker 2: most watched movies today, it's the number one movie.
Speaker 1: It's number one.
Speaker 2: It is number one. And here is the plot? Give
Speaker 2: me the plot? Want I almost want to hear, like
Speaker 2: I feel like there should be rain and thunder. I
Speaker 2: want to go call audio drama here.
Speaker 1: Producer Sam is going to play, but we may get
Speaker 1: a takedown. But the intro to the doors riders on
Speaker 1: the storm. While you're talking just a little bit of
Speaker 1: and the rain and the thunder.
Speaker 2: To the Last House. They're born into this world.
Speaker 1: Anyway, all right, that is the coolest song The Door
Speaker 1: has ever made.
Speaker 2: Without question.
Speaker 1: This is the Storm is so there's a number one,
Speaker 1: and the number two is so far below it. Rise
Speaker 1: in the Storm is so far and away their most
Speaker 1: excellent song, with no question. It is a little long, though,
Speaker 1: because it's so great. Who wants it to end? Almost
Speaker 1: like this intro to the Last House, Matt, tell me
Speaker 1: what you have to say about it.
Speaker 2: I was going to tell you the premise. People know
Speaker 2: the premise. They're stuck in the house.
Speaker 1: Give me what you wrote. You wrote something brilliant.
Speaker 2: I want to hear it, all right. Yeah, On an
Speaker 2: ordinary day, it starts raining and then it just doesn't stop,
Speaker 2: and everyone inside their homes suddenly finds they cannot get out.
Speaker 2: Every door is locked, every window is shut, and any
Speaker 2: attempt to break through the walls or the floors, well
Speaker 2: they instantly reseal. I think because magic water fills the holes.
Speaker 2: Magical rain, you'd say it's magic rain. Okay, magic rain
Speaker 2: fills the holes. Also, there are weird love crafty and
Speaker 2: monsters that are somehow involved. Now from the deep. They're
Speaker 2: from the sea. Okay, is that a spoiler? I guess
Speaker 2: spoiler alert. These love crafty and monsters are from the
Speaker 2: deep and the sea. Now. I do not know how
Speaker 2: monsters can create and control perfectly targeted, impenetrable force fields.
Speaker 2: Nor do I know how they do it with water that,
Speaker 2: according to Jordan, is magic rain, but otherwise behaves like
Speaker 2: ordinary water, at least as far as we can see.
Speaker 2: Nor do I know why if these monsters can do
Speaker 2: these things, they don't just use them to kill people,
Speaker 2: kill everyone, take over the world instantly. And I don't
Speaker 2: know these things because the movie does not appear to
Speaker 2: know these things either. But nevertheless, in the very early scenes,
Speaker 2: in its early mundane stages, the Last House capture a
Speaker 2: very familiar nightmare for anyone who endured lockdowns during COVID,
Speaker 2: especially those of us who were parents of young kids
Speaker 2: at the time. And we're desperately trying to maintain a
Speaker 2: sense of normalcy and humanity for our children in a
Speaker 2: world that had suddenly shrunked to the size of a
Speaker 2: box that, you know, if we were lucky, was maybe
Speaker 2: a thousand square feet. The family in this case is
Speaker 2: led by a Minie mcguiver played by Wagner Maha. He
Speaker 2: can make anything with whatever crap he finds lying around
Speaker 2: in his garage. His wife played by Greta Lee. She's
Speaker 2: an incredibly good green thumb, and together they turned their
Speaker 2: home bound prison into an engineering and botanical.
Speaker 1: Marvel, a lush and verdant place y where she's growing
Speaker 1: broccoli and he's catching squirrels by throwing a vacuum cleaner
Speaker 1: thing a jig out the chimney with a and he's
Speaker 1: fishing for squirrels.
Speaker 2: And I could not, for the life of me figure
Speaker 2: out how he got it up the chimney every time.
Speaker 2: I just don't understand he threw you know, he threw
Speaker 2: up he had a pulley of some See this is why, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't do well in.
Speaker 1: Your family would starve and whereas the neighbors would be
Speaker 1: eating squirrel all day and and you'd be stuck.
Speaker 2: So yes, this family, thanks to the squirrels and rodents
Speaker 2: and the vegetables they grow in their floorboards, they have
Speaker 2: they have more of a bounty of food to eat
Speaker 2: than is available at my local little crummy Brooklyn grocery store.
Speaker 2: Now better than the seatown. That's right, ideal, ideal food basket.
Speaker 2: That's what I do myself. That's what it's called. That
Speaker 2: used to be a seatown it is now that's what
Speaker 2: it's called. Seatown.
Speaker 1: For those who are listening, seatown is New York City's
Speaker 1: lowest of all supermarkets.
Speaker 2: We're not going to get a seatown sponsorship, but let's
Speaker 2: call it what it is now. For most of us,
Speaker 2: what I've just would be a horror story, but for Netflix,
Speaker 2: it's a dream scenario. Just imagine it. Millions of customers
Speaker 2: trapped in their homes with nothing to do but watch
Speaker 2: and watch and watch. But Jordan, here's my question for you,
Speaker 2: after that very long introduction, Yes, in a world where
Speaker 2: there is Netflix and so many other streaming services and hundreds,
Speaker 2: if not thousands of things to watch every minute of
Speaker 2: the day, not just the two DVDs that this family
Speaker 2: in the Last House has, which are Annie and Air
Speaker 2: Force one, which is used to great effect. It is
Speaker 2: should these people who have more than two options watch
Speaker 2: the Last House?
Speaker 1: That's a good question I am going to say at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, Yeah, sure, I'm not. It's
Speaker 1: not like in like you must like oh my God,
Speaker 1: Stop Everything, Race Home, Turn On the Last House.
Speaker 2: It's not an A.
Speaker 1: Plus, but I found it enjoyable. I think, first of all,
Speaker 1: the lead performance are quite good, especially Wagner Morea. I
Speaker 1: like the look of the house, especially after the time
Speaker 1: delay when it becomes this lush, verdant place. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting stuff done with production design. This two kids,
Speaker 1: and the daughter is like an illustrator and an artist,
Speaker 1: so she makes the house look cool. It's like a
Speaker 1: it's like a it looks like when you go to
Speaker 1: like a special event and they have an activation space
Speaker 1: for Instagram. It looks like one of those. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's also like, you know, what would you do?
Speaker 1: It's on it's like the pre the movie just starts. Also,
Speaker 1: it's like it's minute three and the premise is here.
Speaker 1: You don't have to wait to see the shark on
Speaker 1: this one. It's in there. And you do a little
Speaker 1: bit of like, well, how what would I do? Like
Speaker 1: if this Kakamami scenario were to happen, how would I react?
Speaker 1: And you kind of think it through, but you know,
Speaker 1: kind of as you were joking, the movie doesn't really
Speaker 1: know the answers to why, Yes, it does not have
Speaker 1: a very satisfactory conclusion. Nothing is explained other than, like,
Speaker 1: you know, weird shit happens. I mean, you actually said
Speaker 1: in your intro that it was the sea monsters who
Speaker 1: was creating the magic rain. I don't even know if
Speaker 1: that's true. It can just be who was creating it
Speaker 1: then well, we don't know, but it could have just
Speaker 1: been that magic rain was happening and there was so
Speaker 1: much rain. The movie set outside of Seattle, where it
Speaker 1: rains a lot anyhow, so if it's raining a lot
Speaker 1: for Seattle, just to imagine how much rain it really is.
Speaker 1: So the preface is that it's just raining and raining
Speaker 1: and raining so much. So it could be interpreted that
Speaker 1: this crazy magic rain that's happening for reasons will never know,
Speaker 1: liberated the sea creatures and they just came out from
Speaker 1: the deep and then they started attacking people. I mean,
Speaker 1: we don't know what's going on. There's no the cause
Speaker 1: of effect is left to the to the imagination.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I do think that there's a certain and
Speaker 1: I don't want to diss the writer of this film,
Speaker 1: but there's a certain there's really no other way to
Speaker 1: use it, to say it than what I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: a certain laziness to this script of like, I don't
Speaker 1: have the mental force to come up with an answer
Speaker 1: for why this shit's going down, So I'm not going
Speaker 1: to I'm just going to say, we don't know, like
Speaker 1: just imagine. And once you take that route, once you
Speaker 1: make that decision, you can still have fun with the movie.
Speaker 1: Like there are some movies with wacky premises that by
Speaker 1: the end you're like, oh, it all clicks together. You
Speaker 1: know it makes sense now, I get it. This is
Speaker 1: not that film. But you know what else is not
Speaker 1: like that film? Life?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: WHOA Life? Is like that?
Speaker 2: Holy shit? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I think though, when you know when COVID was happening,
Speaker 1: which is clearly the inspiration for this film, although it's
Speaker 1: already been five plus years.
Speaker 2: That you know, that was like how did we get here?
Speaker 1: Like I remember in the early days when it was
Speaker 1: April twenty twenty, I'm like, what this is my life now?
Speaker 1: I can't leave the house. I leave the house only
Speaker 1: to throw out the garbage and I race in and
Speaker 1: race out in twenty five seconds, covering my face. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: But how did we get here? So that's kind of
Speaker 1: what this movie does bring you back to So inconclusion,
Speaker 1: is it worth watching, Yes.
Speaker 2: But manage your expectations.
Speaker 1: It is not. It is not a masteries. But I
Speaker 1: think it's well put together. I think the action sequences
Speaker 1: are good, the ending is good. I mean, Luis le Terier,
Speaker 1: I think is a decent director. I've made some good,
Speaker 1: good stuff in the past, and he's also made some
Speaker 1: fine stuff, and this is this is one of his
Speaker 1: better ones.
Speaker 2: I would say, I don't know if I can join
Speaker 2: you on one of one of his better ones. I
Speaker 2: mean I I did like the first couple of scenes
Speaker 2: of the movie. I think all the strongest stuff is
Speaker 2: the stuff that I mean, if it wasn't inspired by
Speaker 2: being locked down during COVID, I cannot imagine what else
Speaker 2: could have inspired, because that's what it feels like, and
Speaker 2: that's what those scenes really strongly evoke. And I think
Speaker 2: the best parts of the movies is the are the
Speaker 2: ones that feel like you can imagine the screenwriter going,
Speaker 2: you know, like, how could I turn this very strange,
Speaker 2: surreal scenario and how can I kind of exploit the
Speaker 2: anxiety and the tension and the pressure sure and turn
Speaker 2: it into a horror movie? And this is and this
Speaker 2: is what came out of it. I guess for me,
Speaker 2: I think your point is well taken, Jordan, about you
Speaker 2: don't need to explain the premise of your mysterious horror movie.
Speaker 2: You know, like, there are plenty of examples we could
Speaker 2: probably think of where the characters don't even fully you know,
Speaker 2: like a movie like Cloverfield. It's not like there's people
Speaker 2: giving long monologues explaining what's happening and what this monster.
Speaker 2: You know, there can be there can be a very
Speaker 2: interesting film to be made in a film told from
Speaker 2: the perspective of people, just ordinary people caught in the
Speaker 2: middle of a nightmare who don't understand what's happening. Man, Well,
Speaker 2: I'll give you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a great example of this conundrum.
Speaker 1: It's probably the biggest, the biggest movie in this type,
Speaker 1: the biggest title in this type of movie at all.
Speaker 1: It's Night of Living Dead, and Night of the Living
Speaker 1: Dead is for ninety five percent of the movie you
Speaker 1: have no idea why the crazy stuff is going on.
Speaker 1: And then at the end there's an explanation that you
Speaker 1: kind of hear over a radio about something to do
Speaker 1: with satellite or something. And then for thirty years. George
Speaker 1: Romero did all he could to retcon that out because
Speaker 1: he realized that the explanation detracted from the strangeness of
Speaker 1: the movie. That's right, and that little scientific answer that
Speaker 1: you get at the end of the first one was
Speaker 1: never mentioned again, and it was you know, he swept
Speaker 1: it under the rug. So yeah, I mean, none of
Speaker 1: the Living Dead was just like you know, it was
Speaker 1: a living nightmare, and this strange thing was happening.
Speaker 2: So that that is kind.
Speaker 1: Of what I could imagine if they were in meetings
Speaker 1: trying to crack this project open, somebody might have said, hey,
Speaker 1: nobody ever did any explanations in Romero's world. That's what
Speaker 1: we've got here. But I don't know that this is
Speaker 1: as much of a classic or revolutionary film.
Speaker 2: As a living quite I mean, and I want to say,
Speaker 2: I do not need for those two examples we just
Speaker 2: mentioned and many more, I don't need things explained to me,
Speaker 2: you know, Like mystery is a good thing, especially in
Speaker 2: a movie like this, But I think the problem here
Speaker 2: is that it almost explains or at least shows too much,
Speaker 2: and and the things that it shows us are just
Speaker 2: they're just so strange and vague. And the threat is
Speaker 2: both like limitless and unclear. There's no rules, there's no
Speaker 2: sense of like what can or cannot happen. There's as
Speaker 2: we said, there's like magic rain, what can But they
Speaker 2: can still drink the water that they have, and they're drafted.
Speaker 2: They can't leave. But for years, like they still have gas,
Speaker 2: they still have plumbing, they still have electricity.
Speaker 1: Right, and then they don't, well, they don't for a while.
Speaker 1: After a while, that all both.
Speaker 2: Eventually, but they're they're watching a lot of Air Force
Speaker 2: one in that garage for a long time.
Speaker 1: And then that when they do have to escape, they
Speaker 1: they just dig a hole in the bathroom. Like I
Speaker 1: never I didn't quite get that, like how that was allowed.
Speaker 1: But you know, the stuff that works on a sort
Speaker 1: of a nightmarish level, for example, communicating with the neighbors
Speaker 1: via chalkboard.
Speaker 2: Those scenes, those those scenes work.
Speaker 1: And there's like one there's like a kindly old man
Speaker 1: across the street who still puts on a tie and
Speaker 1: he's like, we're running out of medicine here. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's kind of sad. And then there's the dog in there.
Speaker 1: The dog's on medicine, and.
Speaker 2: I guess I would have loved if the whole movie
Speaker 2: was that sort of simple and stripped down and basic,
Speaker 2: and if you're gonna do something this claustrophobic and based
Speaker 2: in something we can all relate to, I guess I
Speaker 2: just it seemed like that was the the the idea,
Speaker 2: But then they didn't have like the courage of their
Speaker 2: convictions to be like, well, what if the movie was
Speaker 2: just people trapped in their house for ninety.
Speaker 1: Mine people will get I think most audiences would not
Speaker 1: want that because it does build to a big ending
Speaker 1: where there's sea monsters attacking them and they're in the
Speaker 1: house and the house floods, And.
Speaker 2: I have to believe that the filmmakers or Netflix are
Speaker 2: both felt agreed with you, and they're like, well, we
Speaker 2: can't just have it be people in COVID in metaphorical
Speaker 2: COVID lockdown. How can we make it exciting? And eventually
Speaker 2: the answer was wacky, crazy sea monsters chasing them through
Speaker 2: a like through a like a literally like they're almost
Speaker 2: drowning in their own home.
Speaker 1: Yes, for some reason, it all takes.
Speaker 2: Sense metaphorically and nightmarishly when you describe the things happening,
Speaker 2: it all is like, yes, it sounds like a dream.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a nightmare. But then when you try
Speaker 2: to you try to parse any of it, you're just like, wait,
Speaker 2: what what is happening now? Well, I kind of like
Speaker 2: the monsters.
Speaker 1: I thought they look cool and the action scenes at
Speaker 1: the end, I could follow the action. They're the attic first,
Speaker 1: they have a gun of some sort that got to
Speaker 1: swim into the basement. I give it points for that.
Speaker 1: A lot of complex, hectic action in some of these
Speaker 1: lower budget movies tend to get a little messy, so
Speaker 1: I give that one thumbs up. I don't know, I mean, no,
Speaker 1: the movie is not a musty of the year, but
Speaker 1: but for since your Home anyhow, watching on Netflix, it's
Speaker 1: it's not bad for Netflix, it really isn't. I got
Speaker 1: to give a thumbs up from there. I also liked
Speaker 1: it when they were looking because their cable internet is
Speaker 1: out and they can't stream anything. That's why they only
Speaker 1: have they find an old box with the only two
Speaker 1: remaining DVDs, which are Annie and Air Force one, which
Speaker 1: is funny, it's like alphabetical. They found the two in
Speaker 1: the a's They also there was an old red Netflix envelope.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you caught that and he picks
Speaker 1: it up, but he's like and he throws it away.
Speaker 2: Yes, very cute, very cute. I guess here's my other
Speaker 2: big complaint is that again, it has a I think
Speaker 2: has a very smart premise, or at least a good
Speaker 2: starting point for a movie turn what we all understand
Speaker 2: and remember about COVID into a supernatural horror movie.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 2: I am very much on board with that. Sounds like
Speaker 2: a I would green that green light that idea. I
Speaker 2: get it. I see why someone would make it. And
Speaker 2: based on the fact that people are watching it on Netflix,
Speaker 2: I mean that was a was a smart choice. I okay,
Speaker 2: you need, you need something to happen. Okay, so we
Speaker 2: got these crazy lovecrafty and monsters. But I just at
Speaker 2: a certain point, I was like, we've spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time with these people, these characters, this family, and
Speaker 2: I really don't know much about any of them except
Speaker 2: for Wagner Mora. I really wished that there was a
Speaker 2: little bit more about them and we felt a little
Speaker 2: more like their relationships and some tension coming out of
Speaker 2: their relationships than that. There isn't a lot, you know,
Speaker 2: like we understand a little about Wagner Mora's character. He's
Speaker 2: an engineer. He's lost his job. He has this compulsion,
Speaker 2: he feels the need to as we as we all
Speaker 2: would like to protect his family and to use the
Speaker 2: skills he has and all of these sorts of things.
Speaker 2: But the other three characters in that house, yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean the dog is almost more well defined.
Speaker 1: Than Yeah, the kids. The kids are not. I mean
Speaker 1: they're good. They're like mappity kids at first, and they're cute,
Speaker 1: but and like especially the little she's very cute, but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the sun is just like extra kid, you know, like
Speaker 1: he just he's just there.
Speaker 2: What defines these people? And a movie like this you
Speaker 2: could potentially you have got nothing but time, and I
Speaker 2: guess Lovecraft monsters to dig into this family and make
Speaker 2: them feel like a real family.
Speaker 1: I do like at the beginning they have like the
Speaker 1: Checkof's fish cutting scene, like yeah, I'm gonna teach you
Speaker 1: how to gut a fish, Like, oh gee, I wonder
Speaker 1: if this is gonna come back?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this will never come up again on the on
Speaker 2: the show. It's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Greta Lee, how did Greta Lee get in my life?
Speaker 1: One day I woke up and Greta Lee was everywhere?
Speaker 1: What is what was where? What is her big movie?
Speaker 1: Or is she on a show that I didn't watch?
Speaker 2: She was in Past Lives she was yeah, but I.
Speaker 1: Feel like before that she was like I feel like
Speaker 1: by the time, that's the thing that I saw her
Speaker 1: in first that really well, you know, don't let it
Speaker 1: remain a mystery like the Magic Rain. All I know
Speaker 1: is that one day I woke up and Greta Lee
Speaker 1: was in my life, and I don't remember inviting her.
Speaker 2: But you're very good as a voice in Toy Story
Speaker 2: five this summer, which is an animated movie, so I'm
Speaker 2: sure or Jordan didn't see it and probably pretends it
Speaker 2: doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: I will never see it.
Speaker 2: I think she was on the Morning Show. I think
Speaker 2: that might have been. That's the answer that I think
Speaker 2: that might have been, which show I have not watched,
Speaker 2: But I believe that was her kind of the first
Speaker 2: thing that she did that got people's attention, and then
Speaker 2: that led to all of these movies.
Speaker 1: Who does she play in Toy Story five? Is she
Speaker 1: for four?
Speaker 2: Kat four Key's girlfriend? Please a little respect for Karen
Speaker 2: Beverly Forky's wife, But that is not who she but
Speaker 2: that's not who she voices. She voices lily Pad. She's
Speaker 2: the tablet. She's the villain of the piece, and she's excellent.
Speaker 2: She is a perfectly cast for that part. I've seen
Speaker 2: the first I bet you have seen her at least
Speaker 2: one other thing, and that thing is called tron Aries.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing you saw her in tro.
Speaker 1: That's a good movie. That's a movie.
Speaker 2: I love tron as. You love tron As.
Speaker 1: I really do. I think it's really quite good. I
Speaker 1: had a great time during that movie.
Speaker 2: So to recap here, as we're winding down, Toy Story
Speaker 2: five does not exist, and Jordan won't watch it, but
Speaker 2: he loves quote loves.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I thought really good. I saw that
Speaker 1: in the theaters. I sat in the in the center
Speaker 1: with three D glasses on. It was so much fun.
Speaker 2: I had a great time into the Spider Verse. What's that?
Speaker 2: Never seen it? Not gonna watch it? Tront Aries. Put
Speaker 2: it on again. If I could be trapped in the
Speaker 2: last House with one movie, it should be.
Speaker 1: But I would need those I would need really good speakers,
Speaker 1: and I would need a three D three D screen.
Speaker 2: Can I As we wrap up, I have one one
Speaker 2: more question for you please. And this is as the
Speaker 2: movie was winding down and I was I was not
Speaker 2: happy with the end of this movie. It kind of
Speaker 2: made me. I was getting annoyed because I really like, again,
Speaker 2: I love the idea of this sort of movie, and
Speaker 2: I just I was not satisfied by by where it
Speaker 2: took that idea. And I was thinking to myself, Okay,
Speaker 2: the COVID thing, it had to have been part of
Speaker 2: the stew but isn't I want to know your thoughts
Speaker 2: about this, Jordan, is the real origin of this movie?
Speaker 2: Someone saying, you know, at Netflix, now you know if
Speaker 2: we set a movie in a house and it's just
Speaker 2: in the house, we only have to hire like four people,
Speaker 2: we don't need to hire a lot of extras. We
Speaker 2: don't ever, I mean almost literally, this movie is set
Speaker 2: like is set entirely inside this one set.
Speaker 1: It is a relatively lower budget film. I do know
Speaker 1: that they shot on film for some reason, okay, and
Speaker 1: I know that they built like the street. They pretty
Speaker 1: much built a house and built the street.
Speaker 2: So it's not that's less cheap than I think. I
Speaker 2: think it's less cheap than you think.
Speaker 1: But I also think that by the standards of Netflix
Speaker 1: doing what was it called The Electric State and Red
Speaker 1: Hour and all their other kind of big action movies.
Speaker 1: This is significant Red Red.
Speaker 2: Notice was what notice? Red Hour is Ben Stiller's production coming.
Speaker 1: Right right, right right right from Star Trek Action. It's
Speaker 1: a Star Trek reference also.
Speaker 2: Starred and someone say Star Trek Extraction Extraction two.
Speaker 1: I happen to like Extraction too. I think that one's
Speaker 1: a good one and we should revisit.
Speaker 2: That is that the tron areas of the extraction pranice.
Speaker 1: So this is lower budget, but it's not a it is.
Speaker 2: This is the reason I thought of it is because
Speaker 2: there are so many movies on Netflix, and I don't
Speaker 2: get it necessarily that are There's like, if there's one
Speaker 2: genre I would love to know this someone should do.
Speaker 2: This is like if you stacked all the movies on Netflix,
Speaker 2: especially the originals, into like buckets of genre, what like it?
Speaker 2: See would seem to me, just anecdotally, just as a
Speaker 2: user of Netflix, the number one genre that they make
Speaker 2: is apocalyptic sci fi. There is so much apocalyptic science
Speaker 2: fiction on Netflix it never ends. You could if that
Speaker 2: is your favorite genre, Netflix has to be your favorite
Speaker 2: streaming service. And this is a way to and that
Speaker 2: can be an extremely expensive genre with the effects and
Speaker 2: the sprawling cast and the scale of the apocalypse, and
Speaker 2: here is a way of doing it on the cheap relatively.
Speaker 2: You got a house, you got rain machines, you got
Speaker 2: too respected, but not a list actors. Ba boom, there
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 1: I think what was it bird Box, right, that was
Speaker 1: kind of the first biggie on Netflix, which was around
Speaker 1: the same time as Quiet Place, which was a theatrical
Speaker 1: and quiet place. There's now been three of those, and
Speaker 1: those are big money makers for whichever studio that is.
Speaker 2: I think it's universal.
Speaker 1: And as Sam points out, Netflix would sure like to
Speaker 1: have their own Quiet Place uh trilogy, but.
Speaker 2: They have so many of them. There are so many
Speaker 2: of these. It's a rabbit hole that never ever ends.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, I guess it's it's kind of I.
Speaker 2: Don't understand why, but I just wondered. They just seem
Speaker 2: to be cranking them out. And how do you crank
Speaker 2: about at volume when you're trying to, you know, cut
Speaker 2: corners and save money. Stick them in a house. The
Speaker 2: last This is the it ain't going to be the
Speaker 2: last house, that's for sure, because they're.
Speaker 1: Going to make a hundred more of these this year.
Speaker 1: But anyway, yeah, I mean, I guess you're right. When
Speaker 1: you go into pitch Netflix, there's whoever is ultimately green
Speaker 1: Lighting has has a love for this sort of thing.
Speaker 2: So if you're if you're if we have any aspiring
Speaker 2: screenwriters listening, your your your high concept when you're going
Speaker 2: into Netflix is it's a quiet place meets and then
Speaker 2: fill in the blank. And in this case, it's like
Speaker 2: it's a quiet place meets phone booth or something. There
Speaker 2: you go, here's ten million bucks. Wagner Mora can it
Speaker 2: Stargretta Lee? If only you can pronounce his name, then
Speaker 2: you can you can think we're doing okay, all right? Well,
Speaker 2: The Last House is currently streaming on Netflix, the number
Speaker 2: one movie on Netflix. What did you think of it?
Speaker 2: Did you enjoy it? Can you explain the Magic Rain
Speaker 2: and the the Lovecraftian monsters? I would love an explanation.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear your best explanation. Send it to
Speaker 2: us feedback at film Spotting SVU dot com. Okay, which
Speaker 2: I'm sorry hid All right, it is time once again
Speaker 2: for everyone's favorite segment on the show. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 2: recommendation segment, also known as as as worser BRECKSAG right
Speaker 2: SAG RAG SAG. It's the rec SAG, the recommendation segment
Speaker 2: where we recommend movies in a segment. Now the first
Speaker 2: recommendation every week is something inspired by our main review. Jordan,
Speaker 2: I have been I'm I'm waiting with baited breath to
Speaker 2: find out what did you decide to recommend based on
Speaker 2: the last house.
Speaker 1: What you got? I gotta tell you. I went big mainstream.
Speaker 2: They go small, you go big.
Speaker 1: I was just thinking there were these creatures from the
Speaker 1: deep at the end of this movie, and I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, it's like the creature from Black Lagoon, but
Speaker 1: just Seattle. What if Seattle had a Black Lagoon and
Speaker 1: I put.
Speaker 2: The same guy but he's wearing flannel. I think that's
Speaker 2: put into this right. Listening to grunge rock very timely reference.
Speaker 1: Temple of the Dog. So I type in creature from
Speaker 1: the Black Lagoon into Google.
Speaker 2: Okay, this happened.
Speaker 1: Just yesterday, not because I was going to do create.
Speaker 1: I was like, just to help me think of ideas
Speaker 1: for the Rex Egg. And one of the first results
Speaker 1: was a pilot like one of these shady Russian websites
Speaker 1: that just uploads movies that are like Creature of the
Speaker 1: Black won is not is not public domain, but it
Speaker 1: may as well be at this point. So I click
Speaker 1: on it and I say, I'm just gonna watch the
Speaker 1: opening the Creature of the Black Lagoon. Well, eighty two
Speaker 1: minutes later, I was done. Or however long that film is,
Speaker 1: it's pretty short. I think it's eighty two minutes, and
Speaker 1: I was once again kind of swept away or washed
Speaker 1: away by this pretty famous movie. And you know what,
Speaker 1: it's pretty famous for a reason. The Creature from the
Speaker 1: Black Lagoon rules. It is awesome. It's so much fun.
Speaker 1: And I would imagine that this is not a deep
Speaker 1: cut for anyone listening to this show. I mean it's
Speaker 1: not a deep cut in general. There are t shirts
Speaker 1: of this movie if you go to any comic book
Speaker 1: store or place of that nature. But it's possible that
Speaker 1: there are people out there that have always been like, oh,
Speaker 1: one of these days I'm going to get around to
Speaker 1: the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Well that day is now.
Speaker 1: You can watch it on shady russianwebsite dot org. And
Speaker 1: it's a good print too. I'm sure you could.
Speaker 2: Actually I can also rent it if you choose you
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 1: But the print I saw was fine and there were
Speaker 1: no interruptions and it looked great. I just said, you know,
Speaker 1: my data is now you know, Vladimir Putin is drinking
Speaker 1: blood in the krem and looking at my data. But
Speaker 1: you know, nevertheless, there's a reason this movie is so
Speaker 1: famous again, you.
Speaker 2: Know, low buddy, but like it.
Speaker 1: It's just like this movie has been ripped off so
Speaker 1: many times we don't even realize it. Like, you know,
Speaker 1: the scientific adventure. There's the altruistic, handsome scientist. There's the
Speaker 1: money grubbing jerk scientist who's gonna get his come up.
Speaker 1: And there's the sexy dame in the who's like all
Speaker 1: spunky and wearing a white bathing suit. And then there's
Speaker 1: the creature. And then there's you know, the thing that
Speaker 1: makes that separates the movie from all the others, every
Speaker 1: other creature feature or the underwater photography, which in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four was really quite revolutionary, and it has a
Speaker 1: nightmarish dreamlike quality that every horror movie since has been
Speaker 1: trying to achieve but can't. Like it almost happens by magic,
Speaker 1: Like you know, another very famous, and this one is
Speaker 1: public domain. Is Carnival Souls, you know, very famous or
Speaker 1: horror movie of the same era that for some reason
Speaker 1: casts a spell on you, and no one's been able
Speaker 1: to recapture it since because the movie doesn't really make
Speaker 1: any sense and whatnot. But it has this hazy dream
Speaker 1: like quality, and Creature from the Black Woman really does
Speaker 1: have that. But then it also ticks. It swings back
Speaker 1: into like campy as hell, like Gilligan's Island level campy
Speaker 1: with all the sound effects and the music is straight
Speaker 1: out of Star Trek original series, Like every time you
Speaker 1: see the first claw of the creature, there's that that
Speaker 1: the horns and it sounds just like you know, when
Speaker 1: Spock and Kirk are fighting each other. It's I don't know,
Speaker 1: like it's it's very dated. It's the quintessential atomic age
Speaker 1: horror film, which maybe younger people don't have a nostalgia for,
Speaker 1: but when I was a young lad, that was the
Speaker 1: previous generations thing. So these are the types of things
Speaker 1: you would watch on TV, and it just, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it has that.
Speaker 2: It's weird.
Speaker 1: It has this like this surreal quality, but also it
Speaker 1: reminds me of a Gilligan's Island, and you put the
Speaker 1: two together, and that's two great tastes that really tastes
Speaker 1: great together. Plus uh, did I mention a lot of
Speaker 1: scenes of the gallon the bathing suit swimming around.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know.
Speaker 1: You're waiting for you to say this, and just the
Speaker 1: creature looks great now, the scenes of her swimming, which
Speaker 1: go on and on and on, with the creature mirroring
Speaker 1: her moves just beneath her, almost touching her. There there
Speaker 1: is a weird like every time I go in the ocean,
Speaker 1: I think about what's at my feet, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's more like Joey, you know.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm just picturing the creature of the Blacklaoon mirroring
Speaker 2: you with a big goop like the zinc on your
Speaker 2: nose and a bathing cap right right doing the backstroke,
Speaker 2: and the creature watching you, going yah. I think I'm
Speaker 2: gonna stay down here for now.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pass. I'm gonna pass. Yeah. The one thing
Speaker 1: I don't like about the Creature from the Black Lagoon
Speaker 1: is this, and this has nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: film itself. I don't like the fact that the marketing
Speaker 1: people at Universal have retconned him into the Universal Monsters.
Speaker 1: Now this is an old this is a conversation going
Speaker 1: back decades.
Speaker 2: It's getting on this soapbox. Here we go.
Speaker 1: This is straight out of Kevin Smith's clerks type conversation.
Speaker 1: But the Universal Monsters are meant to be on land,
Speaker 1: but they're meant to be in old times, in Middle.
Speaker 2: Europe, somewhere right Transylvane.
Speaker 1: Frankenstein's Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, the wolf Man, which
Speaker 1: I believe was Britain, the Invisible Man, which I believe
Speaker 1: was Britain or maybe France or something, and olden times.
Speaker 1: The Creature of the lack Lagoon is set now in
Speaker 1: the atomic age in nineteen fifty four. They're all about
Speaker 1: you know, in the future we'll be sending men to space.
Speaker 1: It's a different type of thing. I recognize two elements
Speaker 1: to this. One that the creature is meant to be
Speaker 1: something of a tragic figure, much like Frankenstein's Monster. And
Speaker 1: he doesn't mean harm. He's just been poked too many
Speaker 1: times and he fights back. And also I get it
Speaker 1: it's universal. They own the rights the IP and they said,
Speaker 1: let's sell another T shirt. But I got to ask
Speaker 1: you guys, doesn't it kind of annoy you that the
Speaker 1: creature has been part of the Universal Monsters thing for
Speaker 1: for all these years.
Speaker 2: I got to be honest and say, I've never, for
Speaker 2: one single second like lost sleep about this. But you
Speaker 2: are you are right?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the other thing you didn't mention is the
Speaker 2: creature from The Black lun Is nineteen fifty four. It's
Speaker 2: like twenty years after the heyday, the true heyday of
Speaker 2: the true Universal Monster. So you are correct in that
Speaker 2: they do because I think mostly because the design of
Speaker 2: the creature is so magnificent and he looks great on
Speaker 2: a T shirt. They throw him on there and he
Speaker 2: is kind of and because the movie was famous and
Speaker 2: the creature is so memorable that he's kind of become
Speaker 2: kind of grandfathered in. But you're exactly, and I think
Speaker 2: it's an appen In Costello connection. Also.
Speaker 1: I think that he also I think the gil Man
Speaker 1: also meant that he hang out with Aben and Costello
Speaker 1: of those movies contractually they had. I think there was
Speaker 1: I was reading that that he actually before the movie
Speaker 1: even came out, he did an appearance on like an
Speaker 1: Abbit Costello TV Hour.
Speaker 2: Oh I thought you were gonna say that before Abboin
Speaker 2: and Costello hooked up, it was Abbot and the creature
Speaker 2: and they had it falling out.
Speaker 1: Okay, so good. I'm glad we agree with that that
Speaker 1: we're angry at Universal for like grandfathering.
Speaker 2: Him in Boiling with Rage?
Speaker 1: Do you do you not? Do you agree with my
Speaker 1: central premises? Like some movies are really really famous and
Speaker 1: then you look at it again and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a like this really has the juice, as they
Speaker 1: say it, like, I.
Speaker 2: Haven't watched it in the last couple of years, but
Speaker 2: I always liked that movie. I always thought, and I
Speaker 2: think the things that you're mentioning are the things that
Speaker 2: are special about it. It has that incredible monster and
Speaker 2: the underwater scenes that have this kind of strange you know,
Speaker 2: they're somewhat scary, but also they're beautiful too. There is
Speaker 2: some kind of nightmarish, dreamlike beauty to them that I
Speaker 2: think even some of the true Universal Monster movies don't
Speaker 2: even have that kind of that mixing of there's something terrifying,
Speaker 2: but there's something alluring as well. Some of the great
Speaker 2: ones have that, but you know, like and maybe that's
Speaker 2: why it does fit with something like Dracula perhaps, is
Speaker 2: that it has that blending of you know, eroticism or
Speaker 2: or sensuality with.
Speaker 1: There's a terrifying there's no shortage of essays out there
Speaker 1: from all these eggheads writing about the sexual nature of
Speaker 1: this film, and you know the deep desires that lurk
Speaker 1: in the in beneath and then the beauty on top.
Speaker 1: And of course I just look at it and you
Speaker 1: see the beautiful woman up there, and then you see
Speaker 1: the slimy, scaly beast down below, and you go, oh,
Speaker 1: which one is me? I think, I know, so you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's there's that to it. But yeah, it's I
Speaker 1: don't know when they I think I have a hunch
Speaker 1: that when they went in to make this movie they
Speaker 1: were just like, oh, yeah, you know, just like let's
Speaker 1: let's crank this one out and then we'll move on
Speaker 1: to the next project. I don't think they realized they
Speaker 1: were making a classic. I just think they were pumping
Speaker 1: out in another project. And then there's a there was
Speaker 1: a some lightning in a bottle mystery, in the mystery
Speaker 1: element to the sauce, and we are better for it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, it's a great pick, assuming you're willing to
Speaker 2: watch it on shady bootleg sites, or you're willing to
Speaker 2: rent it for three ninety nine on Amazon or Apple
Speaker 2: TV or one of those places. So for my recommendation,
Speaker 2: as we mentioned earlier, there's a lot of ways to go.
Speaker 2: But for me, when I was, you know, like kind
Speaker 2: of logging last House on letterbox, I realized that one
Speaker 2: of the first adjectives that came to mind to me,
Speaker 2: and I think we did mention it a few times
Speaker 2: during the review was love Craftian. But I also realized
Speaker 2: that I know almost nothing about HP Lovecraft.
Speaker 1: Oh, is there a biographical film the HP Lovecraft Story?
Speaker 2: Would you let me finish?
Speaker 1: So excited by this recommendation that yes, So I've read
Speaker 1: a less than a handful of his short stories, that's
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: But just from osmosis and from you know, from so
Speaker 2: many of the people who've stolen from him and taken
Speaker 2: his vibe and adopted it as their own. I just
Speaker 2: I have internalized Lovecraftian. But I wanted to learn more
Speaker 2: about Lovecraft. So I wondered, is there a streaming documentary
Speaker 2: about HP Lovecraft that I could watch? And do I
Speaker 2: need to find some shady dark web corner of the Internet,
Speaker 2: like Jordan to watch it and you do not, but
Speaker 2: it does exist. What is the name of the film.
Speaker 2: It is called Lovecraft Colon Fear of the Unknown. It's
Speaker 2: from two eight. It is available on a variety of
Speaker 2: legal streaming services including Prime Video, Roku, TB, YouTube, tv Plex,
Speaker 2: and who Blah Now. The film is a fairly standard,
Speaker 2: straightforward talking head documentary with a lot of experts and
Speaker 2: other authors and filmmakers talking about Lovecraft Jordan. Take a
Speaker 2: guess if I said, who is the most likely famous
Speaker 2: current filmmaker to be to be interviewed in a documentary
Speaker 2: about HP Lovecraft? You got it and he's good good,
Speaker 2: then correctly. John Weber is in there. Stupid Gordon is
Speaker 2: in there. Peter Straub is in there. Man the other
Speaker 2: movie it has it also has Neil gay Men in there.
Speaker 2: That might be less of a selling point these days.
Speaker 2: Ycraft himself, I mean, he's a pretty he's he's My
Speaker 2: understanding is that he was a full fledged racist, anti
Speaker 2: semi He sure was. And what I appreciated about this
Speaker 2: film from director Frank H. Woodward is that it does
Speaker 2: not shy away from that fact that you know that
Speaker 2: the monster at the center of the story. In some
Speaker 2: ways his HP Lovecraft. He was a xenophobe, he was
Speaker 2: a racist, he was anti Semitic, although what I also
Speaker 2: learned in the film is that he was married to
Speaker 2: a Jewish woman. It's at one point in his life fascinating. Okay,
Speaker 2: So yes, it does not pretend that those things are
Speaker 2: not there. It celebrates his work, but it also explores how,
Speaker 2: you know, how those things are also connected, and how
Speaker 2: in some ways his his stories reflected that fear of
Speaker 2: the other and some of some of his kind of
Speaker 2: more monstrous beliefs. And so I thought, you know, for
Speaker 2: this sort of documentary it was. It was illuminating and
Speaker 2: I enjoyed watching it very interesting.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: It did sort of both make me want to read
Speaker 2: more love Crep but also maybe stay far far away.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah, but it gave me exactly what
Speaker 2: I wanted out of this sort of documentary. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm intrigued.
Speaker 1: He's a certainly fascinating care I know he lived in Providence,
Speaker 1: Rhode Island. Also that I remember one time being with
Speaker 1: somebody in Providence and they pointed to like a spooky
Speaker 1: looking house and they're like, HP Lovecraft lived there, like
Speaker 1: of course he did. I mean that, why wouldn't he
Speaker 1: It's a perfect.
Speaker 2: Spot for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've read some of his stories, I mean some
Speaker 1: of the classics, and they're impressive, like a Girlan Poe
Speaker 1: stories are impressive. And I did read his novella called
Speaker 1: Out the Mountains of Madness, which has been Giermo has
Speaker 1: been trying to make that movie for twenty five years,
Speaker 1: of course, And I have a funny story about that,
Speaker 1: very brief.
Speaker 2: It was early days, very brief, starting with Stopwatch Sam.
Speaker 1: It was early like it was Internet, like early Internet,
Speaker 1: like at the time, you know, nobody had broadband at home.
Speaker 1: You had to go. And I was working in an
Speaker 1: office and I remember I was leaving from the office
Speaker 1: to then go on a plane, and I didn't have
Speaker 1: like I forgot like the book I was reading at home,
Speaker 1: and I said, I've always wanted to read HP Lovecrafts
Speaker 1: at the Mountains of Madness. And I know that it's short.
Speaker 1: It's like famously one of those books that you can
Speaker 1: read on.
Speaker 2: One plane trip.
Speaker 1: So I went to Project Gutenberg, which is a thing
Speaker 1: that still exists which takes you know, I would imagine
Speaker 1: HP Lovecraft is in the public domain now if not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I went.
Speaker 1: There and I threw in the title and I hit
Speaker 1: print because I was at an office and I wasn't
Speaker 1: going to do is at home because I would eat
Speaker 1: up too much of my toner and it would probably
Speaker 1: clog my printer and too many waste a whole ream.
Speaker 1: So I printed out the book. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: at an office when like nobody ever uses the printer.
Speaker 1: The printer is used, like, you know, once every three months.
Speaker 1: But I did it at just the time that everybody
Speaker 1: else needed to use the printer. And I heard from
Speaker 1: like the other part of the office, like who's printed
Speaker 1: out a novel in the middle of what's going on?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, geez, I don't want to get caught.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get like hiding in my cubicle
Speaker 1: waiting for it to end its cycle. And then I
Speaker 1: slunked in and took it. But I and then I
Speaker 1: took it.
Speaker 2: Your boss came out of the office and it.
Speaker 1: Was exactly and then I read it on the plane
Speaker 1: and then I had it. I finished. I left it
Speaker 1: in the pocket of the seat in front of him,
Speaker 1: like maybe the next guy wants to read up the
Speaker 1: mountains a menda. So somewhere out there in Delta there's
Speaker 1: a printed out copy from X amount of years.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm sure, my one, I'm sure the elder gods
Speaker 2: appreciate you paying it forward.
Speaker 1: Did they mention that in the documentary the time that
Speaker 1: I printed out the thing and left it?
Speaker 2: No, it didn't. It didn't come up, but they should have.
Speaker 1: Guermo was like God to save on Ton or you
Speaker 1: should print it out at the office, especially if you
Speaker 1: don't anticipate working there for too long.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, Peter Lourie, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 2: us today.
Speaker 1: I can't do a good gear.
Speaker 2: Oh you certainly cannot. So the film one more time
Speaker 2: that I watched love Craft Fear of the Unknown available
Speaker 2: on so many streaming services, any kind of you know,
Speaker 2: like a fast channel kind of place where they have
Speaker 2: ad supported. They odds are that it's probably on there,
Speaker 2: but Prime Video, Roku to be et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Let's get to our recommendations for listeners. This week. I
Speaker 2: will show Jordan, do you want to read the email
Speaker 2: that you selected that you did a recommendation for if
Speaker 2: I could find it? But if I can't. Did you
Speaker 2: did you do we do the same one this week?
Speaker 2: Is it the one from Mary? Okay? I have yes,
Speaker 2: I can read it. Then, so we have listener. Mary
Speaker 2: wrote in for a personal recommendation, and remember, if you
Speaker 2: would like a recommendation from Jordan and I, you can
Speaker 2: email us at feedback at filmspottingsqu dot com. Send us
Speaker 2: a request. We might just answer it on the show,
Speaker 2: like we're about to answer this one from Mary. Here's
Speaker 2: what she wrote to us. I love period films. I
Speaker 2: was wondering if you could find me a good, somewhat
Speaker 2: obscure film. I have Netflix, Amazon, Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu
Speaker 2: and Peacock. Thanks so so, Jordan, what do you have
Speaker 2: for Mary? An obscure period? Well, let me check.
Speaker 1: I forgot to see if this is streaming anywhere. I just,
Speaker 1: uh god, where is this streaming?
Speaker 2: You have one job?
Speaker 1: All right? No, it's actually it's streaming a lot of places.
Speaker 1: So that's good. Okay.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: So Mary's like period films, and I'm like, yeah, let's
Speaker 1: do it. That's that's some of my best favorite movies
Speaker 1: are period films. But it's got to be semi obscure.
Speaker 2: Is that how did you put it?
Speaker 1: Semi ESOTERI somewhat obscure, somewhat obscure. So I'm like, one
Speaker 1: person somewhat obscure is another person's common you know? Is
Speaker 1: Barry Lyndon somewhat obscure? I don't think so, but maybe
Speaker 1: so Here's where my brain went, like, what is my
Speaker 1: favorite period film? Well, it's actually a movie that's been
Speaker 1: mentioned before on this podcast. It's Amadaeus, which is like
Speaker 1: my favorite, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna be my recommendation because A it's not obscure,
Speaker 1: and B I've already recommended it. But I was reminded
Speaker 1: of another movie about people in the classical music world.
Speaker 1: And then I went back to look and see who
Speaker 1: was in the cast, and the queen of all period
Speaker 1: pieces is in this movie, front and center, kicking ass.
Speaker 1: It's Emma Thompson before she was famous. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: Emma Thompson, is I mean period pieces?
Speaker 2: Boom?
Speaker 1: You think of?
Speaker 2: This is McPhee.
Speaker 1: When you think of period movies, you think of all
Speaker 1: the great movies by Merchant and Ivory, and you think
Speaker 1: of the Kenneth Branna and you think of her own
Speaker 1: Sense and Sensibility, which she won the Oscar for the
Speaker 1: screenplay adaptation. But this is not that film.
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 1: This is a movie I'm gonna see. If you guys
Speaker 1: can guess, I bet you said, Sam's gonna know. It
Speaker 1: was released in nineteen ninety one, and it has a
Speaker 1: powerhouse cast. In addition to Emma Thompson, you will find
Speaker 1: in this film the very handsome Julian Sands Oh, the
Speaker 1: very beautiful Bernadette Peters, the very handsome Mandy Patinkin, Wow,
Speaker 1: the very handsome before he was famous and doing a
Speaker 1: Polish accent, Hugh Grant.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what this is.
Speaker 1: And then in the starring role, the very beautiful Judy Davis.
Speaker 1: This is a powerhouse cast, right, is it?
Speaker 2: Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang?
Speaker 1: It's not. I'm just gonna say, what is Well. I'm
Speaker 1: glad I'm recommending it because this is I.
Speaker 2: Think you got the when you hit the brief somewhat obscure.
Speaker 2: It's a fair.
Speaker 1: It's a forgotten great independent movie from nineteen ninety one
Speaker 1: called Impromptu.
Speaker 2: Oooo. I don't know this film, Sam. Have you seen Impromptu?
Speaker 3: I have not, but I read Emma Thompson's sort of
Speaker 3: like diary when she was making Sense and Sensibility, and
Speaker 3: this is where she met Hugh Grant and why she
Speaker 3: had Hugh Grant be a part of Sense and Sensibility,
Speaker 3: of course, directed by Angley, But as soon as you
Speaker 3: said it, I remembered how fondly she talked about her
Speaker 3: time making that film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can understand why anyone involved in this movie
Speaker 1: loved it because it is a big, beautiful gay romp.
Speaker 1: I will now describe the premise and I will entice
Speaker 1: you all to watch it. It was directed by and
Speaker 1: I'm going to pronounce his last name incorrectly, James Lapine,
Speaker 1: James Lapine, who's better known for the world of musical theater.
Speaker 1: He is a Broadway director, he's a Broadway writer director.
Speaker 1: He did Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park
Speaker 1: with George I think that's the Mandy Pittink and Bernadet
Speaker 1: Peters connection there. And it was written by his wife,
Speaker 1: Sarah Kernachan. The basic premise is the love story between
Speaker 1: Frederic Chopin played by Hugh Grant, hence doing a Polish accent,
Speaker 1: and the writer George sand who was the French feminist
Speaker 1: novelist played by Judy Davis and George Sand whose real.
Speaker 2: Name was not George Sand.
Speaker 1: You know, she would go to these salons and smoke
Speaker 1: cigars and wear pants and was a scandal.
Speaker 5: Madame George Sand is quite brazenly inviting herself to the Fortnight,
Speaker 5: you know, the one. She wears men's clues and leads
Speaker 5: the most depraved life imaginable trying to meet you.
Speaker 3: Does anyone ever met this duchess?
Speaker 1: The romance between those two was real. Everything else about
Speaker 1: the movie is fake. The premise is that there is
Speaker 1: a rich woman who's got an estate in the countryside,
Speaker 1: played by Emma Thompson, and she wants to be respected
Speaker 1: by artists, so she decides to turn her home into
Speaker 1: a salon. And of course she's a bit of a ditch,
Speaker 1: but she means well. And her husband, uh, just like
Speaker 1: wants to go out and and shoot foxes and drink
Speaker 1: brandy and not pay attention. But she's like, I want
Speaker 1: artists to come to my house. So she invites them
Speaker 1: all and is gonna, you know, spend the treat them lavishly,
Speaker 1: and they all they all accept the invitation. And accepting
Speaker 1: the invitation are Judy Davis as George Sond, Hugh Grant
Speaker 1: as Frederick Chopin, Mandy Patinkin as Alfred de Mussette, who
Speaker 1: was a poet of.
Speaker 2: The time, beautiful pronunciation.
Speaker 1: Julian Sans plays Franz list somebody by the name of Ralph
Speaker 1: Brown plays Delacroix, the painter, on and on and on.
Speaker 1: There's some other famous people in there from from the
Speaker 1: era to be like, oh that's great, and they're all
Speaker 1: like romping around and it's just love triangle stuff. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of slam doors, love triangle drinking, witty Beaumonts,
Speaker 1: and it's a little bit like, you know, the Avengers
Speaker 1: of this time period. You know, Franz list In Chopin
Speaker 1: doing piano duels and stuff. Delacroix is out there painting
Speaker 1: on plane air and whatnot. It's a little bit silly
Speaker 1: of just you know, imagining what these heroes from European
Speaker 1: culture would be doing at a weekend retreat that never
Speaker 1: really happened.
Speaker 2: But the performances are incredible. It's very very witty.
Speaker 1: James Lapine certainly knows what this, you know, the vibe
Speaker 1: of hanging out with geniuses for the Weekend in the Country.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a song from Sunny in the Park
Speaker 1: with George right Weekend in the Country, So it's kind
Speaker 1: of like that vibe. And Bernie Dete Peters. She does
Speaker 1: not play a famous artist. She's Frand's List's girlfriend, I think,
Speaker 1: and she's just gorgeous in it and being.
Speaker 2: Very Brendaett Peters.
Speaker 1: It is a very very charming film, and I do
Speaker 1: remember seeing it in nineteen ninety one. I was a
Speaker 1: young lad. I was still in high school and I
Speaker 1: was kind of getting into indie films. There was a
Speaker 1: theater not too far from me and sextually still there
Speaker 1: in Red Bank, New Jersey, that would sometimes show more
Speaker 1: you know this, this was not a Miramax film, but
Speaker 1: it may as well have been, you know that kind
Speaker 1: of a film in the nineteen nineties, and feeling very
Speaker 1: proud of myself, very intelligent. None of the other jokers
Speaker 1: at school were watched They were watching Terminator two. I
Speaker 1: was watching Impromptu, learning about how Frederick Chopin was. The
Speaker 1: basic shtick is that Judy Davis pursues him, so she's
Speaker 1: the quote unquote man in the relationship and he is
Speaker 1: the wilting flower because Chopin was he was a very
Speaker 1: sickly man, and you know, she has to woo him,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of a sex reversal thing. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the basic premise, the gender upside down, gender reversal
Speaker 1: and how they.
Speaker 2: Fall in love.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's just a really really clever movie
Speaker 1: that has been forgotten, and I think it ranks for
Speaker 1: me and Hew as good as any of the other
Speaker 1: merchant and ivory type films of that era of the
Speaker 1: late eighties and early nineties. So James Lapine's Impromptu is
Speaker 1: the one I recommend this week.
Speaker 2: That's a really good recommendation. I don't think I've ever
Speaker 2: heard of this movie, to be honest, that I'm totally
Speaker 2: unfamiliar with it. So this is a recommendation for me
Speaker 2: as well. It's one I'm at it like.
Speaker 1: It was not released by It was released by not Miramax,
Speaker 1: but by Hemdale Film Corporation.
Speaker 2: I have Elmdale.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they lasted for one year. They released one movie this,
Speaker 1: I guess they didn't do a lot, So it's one
Speaker 1: that's been swallowed up and has fallen through the cracks.
Speaker 1: It got great reviews at the time, and it won
Speaker 1: some Awards at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Speaker 2: In fact, Judy Davis.
Speaker 1: Won Best Female Lead and Emma Thompson was nominated for
Speaker 1: Best Supporting Lead. But yeah, it's definitely fallen through the cracks.
Speaker 1: But today it can be rented on most It's actually
Speaker 1: free on Prime. So if you got the Prime, it's free.
Speaker 1: It's on Fubo, MGM plus, Filo Hoopla hoopla.
Speaker 2: It's on Prime is where it's on. You should watch
Speaker 2: it there Hemdale. I think one of their other claims
Speaker 2: to fame is I think they produced the Terminator, the
Speaker 2: original Terminator. Really, I'm pretty sure that's that name sounds familiar.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious like how it got It must have
Speaker 1: been like October Films or something. It's not on the
Speaker 1: Wikipedia page, but maybe if I dig down, they must
Speaker 1: have had a deal with October Films or because Helm
Speaker 1: there looks like a production company, not a distribution company anyhow,
Speaker 1: So maybe somebody in the audience, maybe a Fine Line
Speaker 1: Features remember them. That was another one of the era,
Speaker 1: like the sub Mirmax. There was mir Max where the Kings,
Speaker 1: and then Fine Line October.
Speaker 2: There were a few others. Yes, Okay, great pick for
Speaker 2: me for some reason, and I think it might have
Speaker 2: had to do with just the other stuff we were watching.
Speaker 2: And I was watching this week when I heard semi
Speaker 2: obscure period films, what came to mind for me was
Speaker 2: something very different. It was Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films,
Speaker 2: and between nineteen sixty and nineteen sixty four, exploitation master
Speaker 2: Roger Corman made eight popular Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, although
Speaker 2: in classic Corman fashion, only seven of them are actually
Speaker 2: based on post worries or books or poems or things
Speaker 2: like that. You think of Roger Corman, you think of quickie,
Speaker 2: low budget B movies, But the po films are I
Speaker 2: would say, maybe a B plus. They're a slightly bigger scale,
Speaker 2: and I think at least they have held up very well.
Speaker 2: They look great, they sound great. They've got oodles of
Speaker 2: gothic atmosphere, spooky production design, moody cinematography, and most of
Speaker 2: them have wonderful Vincent Price performances in them. And if
Speaker 2: you want period films, you know they're period films. You're
Speaker 2: gonna get all the frilly shirts and tri corner hats
Speaker 2: and cravats you could ever want. So many Cravats. The
Speaker 2: Cravat budget on these films was off the charts. Now,
Speaker 2: I have not seen all of Corman's po films.
Speaker 1: Yeah there were eight, but I didn't see them all either,
Speaker 1: but I've seen most of them. I'm hoping that you
Speaker 1: pick the one that's my favorite.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I have enjoyed all of the ones that
Speaker 2: I've seen. Most of them are very easy to find
Speaker 2: and watch for free on places like to be and
Speaker 2: YouTube TV and Mary's preferred Prime video. And that includes
Speaker 2: the specific one that I am going to recommend, which
Speaker 2: is nineteen sixty three's The Haunted Palace.
Speaker 3: It is the it is the one.
Speaker 2: It is the sixth of the eight of these films,
Speaker 2: and it is the one that is a Edgar Allan
Speaker 2: Poe film. Not based on Edgar Allan Poe. The title
Speaker 2: comes from Poe, but the story and now you will
Speaker 2: understand why I'm recommending it. The story is taken from
Speaker 2: an HP. Lovecraft book called The Case of Charles dexter Ward.
Speaker 2: And I thought, given the last house, and given my
Speaker 2: other reseg pick this kind of it. Just it's all
Speaker 2: of a piece this week for me, for sure. So
Speaker 2: it is Poe with an asterisk. But it does have
Speaker 2: all of the things you want from one of these,
Speaker 2: you know, Roger Corman Poe movies. It's a gothic melodrama.
Speaker 2: It's loaded with ambiance, with dread, with these horrifying intimations
Speaker 2: of the supernatural, and it does have Vincent Price. It
Speaker 2: also has Lonchhini Junior. As they wander these surprisingly large, expansive,
Speaker 2: opulent sets shrouded in fog and shadows, and nothing in
Speaker 2: any of these movies looks real, but I love the
Speaker 2: look of them anyway. There's something kind of dream kind
Speaker 2: of like Creature from the Black Lagoon. It has this
Speaker 2: kind of beautiful, dreamy nightmare aesthetic that just really appeals
Speaker 2: to me for some reason. And I'm sure to a
Speaker 2: lot of people looking at this through modern eyes they
Speaker 2: would say this is cheesy, this is campy, But I
Speaker 2: don't know. I just love the look and the fevered
Speaker 2: intensity of these movies.
Speaker 4: You who find a kind of macab joyousness and the
Speaker 4: horrifying will enjoy yourselves, as in Ecstasy in Law Haunted Palace,
Speaker 4: starring Vincent Price, a being who lived and died and
Speaker 4: lives again.
Speaker 3: I'll not have my Phillip revenge until this village is
Speaker 3: a great yard.
Speaker 2: Nobody could sell a piece of shlock like Vincent Price,
Speaker 2: except maybe Roger Corman. And you get two for the
Speaker 2: price of one here, So the Haunted Palace. The screenplay
Speaker 2: was written by Charles Beaumont, who's a famous Twilight Zone
Speaker 2: contributor to a lot of his own kind of spooky
Speaker 2: and horrifying horror short stories of his own. Price plays
Speaker 2: a warlock from the seventeen hundreds. He's burned at the
Speaker 2: stake by the paranoid residence of his hometown of Arkham, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Oh but I know that before he is burned at
Speaker 2: the stake, he curses the town and all of its descendants.
Speaker 2: So now like one hundred years later, his great great grandson,
Speaker 2: also played by the Price, shows up in Arkham. He's
Speaker 2: inherited the family you know hellhole, basically this old crumbling
Speaker 2: you know mansion, and he can't help but notice that
Speaker 2: the painting of his ancestor hanging in his family's home
Speaker 2: looks a lot like him. And the more he stares
Speaker 2: at the painting, the more he starts acting like his
Speaker 2: ancestor and maybe even gets possessed by him, and the
Speaker 2: vibes are Poe meets Lovecraft. Ab the Necronomicon plays a
Speaker 2: key role. Some of the elder gods gets shout outs
Speaker 2: in the film, but really it kind of all works together.
Speaker 2: The Corman poshtick. It really suits the kind of again
Speaker 2: like the fevered possession elder god story that's going on here.
Speaker 2: Vincent Price gives two good performances. He's pure malevolence as
Speaker 2: this one character. He's this genteel, refined, kindly gentleman. On
Speaker 2: the other I don't of the po Corman movies i've seen,
Speaker 2: my favorite, maybe this is the one you like, Jordan,
Speaker 2: is still The Pit and the Pendulum. That's my favorite.
Speaker 2: My favorite is The Mask of the Red Death. Okay,
Speaker 2: so it's so gorgeous. That one I actually haven't. That's
Speaker 2: still on my list to watch. I'll watch that one yet,
Speaker 2: Let's let's check in next week. Once you've seen it.
Speaker 1: You watch that an impromptu and you really be a
Speaker 1: rex segging yourself into all there.
Speaker 2: But I don't think the Mask of the Red Death
Speaker 2: was on Amazon. It's like the one that wasn't. With
Speaker 2: all of these or maybe two b there was one
Speaker 2: that was like not on there. You could literally watch
Speaker 2: all of these movies as a marathon, I think on
Speaker 2: tub except that one. So I picked one that was
Speaker 2: kind of more widely available film, but it was it's
Speaker 2: a good time, and it is a somewhat obscure period film.
Speaker 2: I'll be it a obscure period horror film. It is
Speaker 2: The Haunted Palace from nineteen sixty three. You can marry.
Speaker 2: You can watch it on Prime Video. If you don't
Speaker 2: have Prime Video, it's on tub It's also on YouTube TV.
Speaker 2: That is my recommendation. And so let's quickly run down
Speaker 2: the rec egg here. Thank you want to do it,
Speaker 2: you can do it.
Speaker 1: I'm I recommended The Creature from the Black Lagoon, which
Speaker 1: you can see on a site called film House for free.
Speaker 1: Also pay vod three or four bucks to Amazon Apple,
Speaker 1: or you could also watch it on a shady Russian website,
Speaker 1: dark Web. H Matt Singer recommended Lovecraft colon Fear of
Speaker 1: the Unknown, which is on Film, Prime Video, Roku, tub Plex, Hoopla,
Speaker 1: YouTube TV, and bazooga. And then I recommended Impromptu, this
Speaker 1: sort of esoteric James Lapine film with all the greats
Speaker 1: Julian Sans and Bernadette Peters. It's on Prime Video and
Speaker 1: also YouTube TV MGM plus Hoopla and v o D
Speaker 1: and then Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace on Prime MGM
Speaker 1: plus two b or vod for running list of all
Speaker 1: the films we've talked about on this show. Ever, are
Speaker 1: you go to letterbox and look for the link now
Speaker 1: streaming on bazooga And it's got show notes from every
Speaker 1: episode and links and it's terrific.
Speaker 2: I think it's also in the notes for this show
Speaker 2: if you are looking for a direct link.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's in the notes for this show. If you're
Speaker 1: looking for a direct link. And if you want to
Speaker 1: personalize streaming recommendation, send the note to feedback at film
Speaker 1: Spotting s VU dot com, film Spotting SVA dot com.
Speaker 1: And you like Mary can can be our next guest.
Speaker 2: You're kind of a guest.
Speaker 1: When you when you put in a feedback guest at
Speaker 1: all part of the show, very part of the shows.
Speaker 2: So before we start the game, producer Sam is here
Speaker 2: and I am dying to get to the game. But
Speaker 2: and this is germane to this podcast because it wasn't Netflix,
Speaker 2: That's right, it was a you. You are now a
Speaker 2: streaming television star because last night, like Chris Hemsworth an extraction,
Speaker 2: I and many people were, you know, if they turned
Speaker 2: on Netflix as we were are recording this. Last night
Speaker 2: was the Field of Dreams game on Netflix. Now, the
Speaker 2: Field of Dreams game is the thing they only started
Speaker 2: like a year or two ago, where like they have
Speaker 2: a Major League Baseball game, an official game, it's part
Speaker 2: of the regular season, it counts, but they play it
Speaker 2: in the field from the motion picture Field of Dreams,
Speaker 2: which not right away, but eventually they have turned into
Speaker 2: like an actual playable ballpark.
Speaker 1: Wow, is it the actual set where they shot them?
Speaker 5: All?
Speaker 3: Right there? It's Dyersville, Iowa.
Speaker 1: Do you live in Wisconsin?
Speaker 3: I am a near our forty five minutes away because
Speaker 3: I live in southwest Wisconin. Wow, So Diyersville, it turns out,
Speaker 3: is only an hour and forty five minutes away. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to think of the other notable metropolitan areas that
Speaker 3: are kind of close, Like Dubuque, Iowa is like I've
Speaker 3: heard of it, forty five minutes away from Diyersville. It's
Speaker 3: all very close.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And so the teams that were playing were the Twins
Speaker 3: and the Phillies.
Speaker 2: And burying the lead here so sure, which is that
Speaker 2: if if viewers were looking, they can go back and
Speaker 2: look right now it is available still if they were
Speaker 2: watching the game, the whole game. There are two familiar
Speaker 2: looking gentlemen literally in the second row directly.
Speaker 3: The best seats in that I mean unbelievable and it's.
Speaker 2: It's Film Spotting Zone, Adam Kempinar and Sam van Halgren.
Speaker 2: And I'm just staring at them the whole game. How
Speaker 2: did this happen?
Speaker 3: My God? I want to credit uh. It was a
Speaker 3: long time film Spotting listener who works at Netflix UH
Speaker 3: and was responsible, I think for helping to organize as
Speaker 3: this a is a Netflix production, this live broadcast was
Speaker 3: involved in this. David Cuuso is his name, has been
Speaker 3: a listener since the very early days of Film Spotting
Speaker 3: and reached out, I mean largely because you know, we
Speaker 3: have a relationship with Netflix, obviously like you guys do
Speaker 3: in terms of getting access to to films of theirs,
Speaker 3: but but also knowing that we lived in the Midwest.
Speaker 3: I Adam is in Iowa City, I'm in southwest Wisconsin,
Speaker 3: and so you know, he asked us so we'd be
Speaker 3: interested in going to the game. It wasn't until the
Speaker 3: night before the game that we got our tickets and
Speaker 3: realized where we would be sitting. Wow, I mean, it
Speaker 3: was truly and where to go, I will tell you.
Speaker 3: I mean, I I know you, Matt are a big
Speaker 3: baseball guy, and I was. I have to speak in
Speaker 3: the past tense almost about baseball because I was a
Speaker 3: baseball obsessive from my earliest days, you know, certainly through
Speaker 3: high school where I played all through high school. Baseball
Speaker 3: was hugely important to me. After my kids were born,
Speaker 3: I sort of stopped watching as much baseball. So the
Speaker 3: most moving part of this experience, I mean, in addition
Speaker 3: to being where I was, I mean, everyone should have
Speaker 3: a chance that loves baseball, should have a chance to
Speaker 3: watch a baseball game from this perspective. I've never seen
Speaker 3: baseball played at this level from that perspective, and watching
Speaker 3: a curveball come in from behind the catcher from a
Speaker 3: major League baseball player was truly mind bow But the
Speaker 3: most incredible thing which you can see if you watch
Speaker 3: this game is that twenty six Hall of Famers were
Speaker 3: also present at the game, and they all entered the
Speaker 3: field of Dreams through the cornfield.
Speaker 2: Oh Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 3: So cow Ripken Junior was there, Raleigh Fingers was there,
Speaker 3: Paul Mollitor, Andre Dawson, all of these players that were
Speaker 3: incredibly meaningful me at my most baseball loving days. I
Speaker 3: really was tearing up being in proximity to these incredible
Speaker 3: baseball players. And the game was incredible. It was The
Speaker 3: forecast was for rain all day, pouring, thunderstorms and rain
Speaker 3: all day from when you woke up in Dyersville till
Speaker 3: two am. It didn't rain a single drop. It was
Speaker 3: a perfect baseball evening. It was a miracle. It truly
Speaker 3: was heaven on earth in Iowa. Yes, yes, it's heaven.
Speaker 3: Yes it's Iowa. It was incredible.
Speaker 2: Wow, Now you silt it and they came, that's great.
Speaker 2: That's right. You said this was a long time I'm
Speaker 2: film spotting listener. David hooked it up. Now is he
Speaker 2: a long time film sputting I.
Speaker 3: Was gonna say, Matt, I mean, if this ever happened, you.
Speaker 2: Know, because Netflix has other I don't even need to
Speaker 2: go to the field of jeral but you should star
Speaker 2: game they do. I I'm just saying I don't even
Speaker 2: need seats that I would sit in the third row Cuso.
Speaker 1: I think is like almost as good as Bazooga. We
Speaker 1: can actually r bazooa Tokuso.
Speaker 2: I just watch, I thought, And I know I might
Speaker 2: have sounded a little it could have come out differently
Speaker 2: when I was reviewed. But I loved the Last House.
Speaker 2: I thought it was incredible, the film of the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, does he only do special events that involved baseball?
Speaker 2: Anything like?
Speaker 1: Are there, like you know, Rolling Stones in the New York,
Speaker 1: New Jersey Philadelphia area.
Speaker 2: Finished live from the Madison Square Garden the eighteen hour
Speaker 2: live stream on Netflix. Maybe that was so cool. I
Speaker 2: I could not and I could not be more jealous.
Speaker 2: And it was very surreal and very difficult to concentrate
Speaker 2: on the game.
Speaker 3: It was when Yeah, I don't want to spoil it.
Speaker 3: I don't want to spoil the game for the.
Speaker 2: People that a game that happened yesterday, but.
Speaker 3: I will tell you. I mean Schwarber was the designated
Speaker 3: hitter for the Phillies. Kyle Schwarber Al Schober of the Phillies.
Speaker 3: He uh top of the first drills a home run.
Speaker 3: I mean, unreal, unreal.
Speaker 2: So well, let's play an almost as spectacular game as
Speaker 2: the Field of Dreams game hosted by I believe Jordan
Speaker 2: is hosting.
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, So we've got a game this week,
Speaker 1: and we're going to jump right in.
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: This week's film was the Last House, directed by Louis Leterrier,
Speaker 1: a Frenchman working in Hollywood. So I thought this week's
Speaker 1: game would be called the goal of these people.
Speaker 3: Gaul, all right, exactly.
Speaker 1: The goal of these people. These are all films directed
Speaker 1: by people from France. Now, some of these are French
Speaker 1: movies in French, some of these are Hollywood movies in
Speaker 1: English directed by someone from France who came to Hollywood,
Speaker 1: like Louis Leterrier, and some of these are in between,
Speaker 1: you know. But these are all movies that are directed
Speaker 1: by a French person. And I am going to give
Speaker 1: we have seven I think one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Speaker 1: I am going to give clues, and the first person
Speaker 1: who gets it will go et and then you will
Speaker 1: name the film for one point, the film and name
Speaker 1: the director for a second point, all right, and if
Speaker 1: you can only name one but not the other, the
Speaker 1: other person can steal it away from you.
Speaker 2: Okay. I think that we're going to do pretty well
Speaker 2: with this. I discern.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna know it. I hope so if not,
Speaker 1: I'll never do a game again. Normally it starts easy
Speaker 1: then gets hard. This is kind of moves in waves.
Speaker 1: It's like a serpentine thing. So if the first one
Speaker 1: I don't know, we're gonna see.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 1: You're ready these again. The goal of these People.
Speaker 2: Title is good. I hate to admit it.
Speaker 1: The clue number one is this. This film includes original
Speaker 1: music by Michelle Legrand.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna go with umbrellas of Cherbourg right right
Speaker 3: out of the gate, and.
Speaker 2: You are correct.
Speaker 3: I knew it could be Young Girls of Brochworm, one
Speaker 3: of my favorite movies of all time, as his umbrellas.
Speaker 3: But I just thought i'd try to take the point
Speaker 3: all right, kind.
Speaker 2: Of assume these were gonna be like American movies made
Speaker 2: by French.
Speaker 1: I said, I said, both these are American films by
Speaker 1: and these are French movies by from French people.
Speaker 2: Protest. I'm lodging a formal protest.
Speaker 3: I've got a dog named Jacques to me and he
Speaker 3: directed the Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, I last week, I don't know it made
Speaker 1: the actual cut of the week, your dog, it didn't
Speaker 1: make the cut. If you listen to laxt Week's show,
Speaker 1: you'll hear Sam saying, O Jacams going crazy because the
Speaker 1: Amazon guy's here, and.
Speaker 2: That's I said.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, So when I was putting this together, I said,
Speaker 1: I got to make sure the goal of my dog
Speaker 1: to me the goal of your So Jacque Demise Bellas
Speaker 1: of Cherbourg is the first one.
Speaker 2: Got you named that tune in one note.
Speaker 1: Some of the other clues include it features very bright
Speaker 1: wallpaper and it won the palm door. Okay, next clue
Speaker 1: number one. This film co stars Elijah Wood. Clue number two.
Speaker 1: The lead female character in this film has the same
Speaker 1: name as a fruit. Oh, that's saying.
Speaker 2: It is eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Speaker 1: That is correct, very good.
Speaker 2: Her name is Clementine.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: And Elijah Wood is in the movie.
Speaker 1: But he's not.
Speaker 2: He's like one of supporting He's like one of the
Speaker 2: support tech computer tech guys.
Speaker 1: Can you name the director of this film, Michelle Gondry,
Speaker 1: You have two points. You tied it up very good.
Speaker 1: Other clues included nothing too sexy. It was released in
Speaker 1: two thousand and four. Okay, next up, film number three,
Speaker 1: The Goal of These People. This movie is seventy three minutes.
Speaker 1: This movie was distributed by RKO Pictures.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, okay, I have a suspicion I might not
Speaker 2: get filmmaker.
Speaker 1: This movie was produced by Val Luton.
Speaker 2: Okay, but which one? Which one? There's so many it could.
Speaker 1: Be Well, you're gonna know now. This movie was remade
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two. Matt did it.
Speaker 2: First movie is Cat People.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's Cat People, Very good, seventy three minutes.
Speaker 1: That's that's a hell of a of a thing. Who
Speaker 1: directed Cat People?
Speaker 2: Doaq Turner?
Speaker 1: Very Good a Frenchman who worked in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: So Matt is in the lead.
Speaker 3: Sam, I just waited too long.
Speaker 1: Very Good waited too long.
Speaker 2: Only he had a dog named It would have been
Speaker 2: confusing they would both have the same first name.
Speaker 1: Other clues would have been The remake featured music by
Speaker 1: David Bowen. Okay, next one, The Goal of These People.
Speaker 2: This time you say it? I like it a little less.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be on.
Speaker 1: This film has music original music by Bernard Hermann.
Speaker 2: Let's go to the next one yet.
Speaker 1: This film has cinematography by Nicholas Rogue. This film co
Speaker 1: stars Julie Christie. All Right, we're getting there. This film
Speaker 1: is based on a novel by Ray Bradberry.
Speaker 3: Oh oh, we're gonna say, yeah, this is this is
Speaker 3: Fahrenheit four five seven, Right.
Speaker 2: Well break it down six.
Speaker 3: Or five to one Fahrenheit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Fahrenheit four fifty one, not four fifty seven.
Speaker 2: That would be a little two Chris. Now, I know
Speaker 2: who directed it. I see, I knew the movie, but
Speaker 2: I didn't want to answer until I could thought of
Speaker 2: the director.
Speaker 1: I know who is the director of Sam Sam.
Speaker 3: Uh. This is going to be embarrassing because I know,
Speaker 3: of course who it is, and I'm just having one
Speaker 3: of these moments where my brain isn't working because this
Speaker 3: is you can see, this is the director of four
Speaker 3: under Blows and.
Speaker 2: Unto right, he didn't give it to me. I knew.
Speaker 2: I knew by the time it was stealable, but I
Speaker 2: could not think of it. I kept going. Which which
Speaker 2: French new wave filmmaker.
Speaker 3: Made his English language debut, right, it was only it
Speaker 3: didn't work out, really didn't wasn't really a very good movie.
Speaker 2: It was okay, interesting, interesting film.
Speaker 1: His first film and color British production, hence That's that's
Speaker 1: why I said, sometimes they're working in Hollywood, sometimes they're
Speaker 1: working in Francis was a British production nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: It was a success at the box office. But I
Speaker 1: think it's an interesting movie, but it doesn't quite come together.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I didn't remember that Bernard Herman did the music,
Speaker 1: and I was actually listening.
Speaker 2: To the store I realized that pretty cool.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move ahead now to the next one. Matt,
Speaker 1: you are in the lead, but only five to three,
Speaker 1: so it's still anyone's game. The next film features an
Speaker 1: original song, not by Bernard Herman, but by the rock
Speaker 1: band The Hives.
Speaker 3: Ooh, I like the Hives.
Speaker 2: What are the Hives up to these days?
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 1: Well, this film made over two hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: million dollars at the international box office international bonds a.
Speaker 2: Minute, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: And this film had a budget of merely twenty five million.
Speaker 1: Hence it was a major unexpected Okay.
Speaker 2: I think I might know the filmmaker, but.
Speaker 1: What who is This film was released in February of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, February when movies come out to
Speaker 1: not make two hundred and twenty five million and two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, especially big success The Highskay. This film
Speaker 1: co stars Famke Johnson, whose name I'm probably mispronouncing.
Speaker 2: You definitely mispronounced.
Speaker 1: I'm dancing around what okay the star once I pronounced
Speaker 1: it Botner Mora right, once, I have one more clue,
Speaker 1: and if this doesn't get it, then you both get
Speaker 1: zero point.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: This film was the inspiration of a particularly memorable sketch
Speaker 1: on the comedy series Key and Peel.
Speaker 2: Boy. I don't remember too much about GM Peel either.
Speaker 1: This is their most famous sketch.
Speaker 2: Not according to me, because I can think of a
Speaker 2: few sketches that are that don't involve a French filmmaker's movie.
Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute, Wait a minute.
Speaker 1: He's got it.
Speaker 2: That's he's got it. It was it's the movie is taken.
Speaker 2: That's right. Oh shoot, But who directed it? What's his name?
Speaker 3: I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 2: I can think of the guy who directed the sequels,
Speaker 2: but it was a different name, Sam Steel. Samkin Steel
Speaker 2: is right, it's not.
Speaker 1: He was the producer. He was from the Bissan school.
Speaker 1: It's some Schmid.
Speaker 2: It's not the guy that I'm thinking of for who
Speaker 2: did the sequel. But I'm not going to say it
Speaker 2: just in case he has a movie coming out.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, if you don't know, nobody knows. Nobody
Speaker 1: gets the point. And quite frankly, I would not have
Speaker 1: gotten this guy's name either. His name is Pierre Morrel,
Speaker 1: Pierre Morel Morrell. They pumped out It's it was one
Speaker 1: of these things. I mean, if you remember Liam Neeson
Speaker 1: before and as Key and Peele call them Liam Neeson.
Speaker 2: Yes, it took, took it there in my brain that
Speaker 2: that was, that sketch.
Speaker 1: Was not was at a It was at a dark
Speaker 1: point and his wife had just died rather tragically in
Speaker 1: a freak skiing accident, if I'm not mistaken. And then uh,
Speaker 1: he was just like, yeah, put me in a movie.
Speaker 1: And he's like, sure, I'll do an action movie. I'm
Speaker 1: not an action star, but I'll do it. And the
Speaker 1: movie was a phenomenon with good cause it's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. I mean, I've got a particular set of skills.
Speaker 1: And then Liam Neeson had a whole second career, as
Speaker 1: you know, making these kind of schlocky action films and
Speaker 1: it was a huge, unexpected hit. So That's Taken, which
Speaker 1: was directed a French production, but in English with Hollywood stars.
Speaker 1: Directed by Pierre Morel. We got two more Matt's in
Speaker 1: the lead substantially, but the.
Speaker 3: Gray was before that. But it wasn't it was after them.
Speaker 2: They all came after Wow, tooken?
Speaker 1: Was really they?
Speaker 2: One?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Next up?
Speaker 1: This movie inspired not inspired by but this movie inspired
Speaker 1: a song by the rock band Iron Maiden.
Speaker 2: Oh and this this movie inspired the song.
Speaker 1: Correct. Now, very Maiden saw this movie and said, we're
Speaker 1: going to make a song. This movie is not in French,
Speaker 1: nor is it in English. Good. In fact, this movie
Speaker 1: is in a special language created for the film and
Speaker 1: invented by the celebrated author Anthony Burgess. This movie employed
Speaker 1: the well known author and zoologist Desmond Morris as a consultant.
Speaker 1: Sam's close. I'm looking at his eyes. It's close.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking of that the island of doctor Moreau has
Speaker 3: a French surname in it, but I know it's not correct.
Speaker 2: This movie co stars ray Dawn Chong. Oh maybe she
Speaker 2: is in this I've never seen the movie. I'm thinking of?
Speaker 2: Is that the last clue? Can I ask? There's one more? One?
Speaker 1: Okay. This movie was released in nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: Okay, it could be what I'm thinking of. I guess, no,
Speaker 2: can I ask one question? Is that a film set
Speaker 2: in the ancient past?
Speaker 1: Just buzz in?
Speaker 2: My guess is the clan of the Cave Bear?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Wait, oh one so that one can see.
Speaker 2: Man the Park clearly is the other one of those movies. Oh,
Speaker 2: she's got it, he's got it.
Speaker 1: Think about Iron Maiden in a time when Donnas was ruley.
Speaker 1: It's a great film. But I'm a great filmmaker.
Speaker 3: I have this myself.
Speaker 1: I will sing the chorus from the Iron Maiden song
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 3: I was going to ask you to do this.
Speaker 2: On by Quest for Fire. Nobody gets it. I've never
Speaker 2: seen I've never seen so good.
Speaker 1: It's I've seen this five times. Who can tell me
Speaker 1: who directed it?
Speaker 3: West for Fire?
Speaker 1: He did. He's done a lot of celebrated movies. Uh,
Speaker 1: some satires. He filmed a film on location in Africa
Speaker 1: was a satire of French colonialism. But he also has
Speaker 1: a follow up for Quest for Fire, made another film
Speaker 1: with no English in it called The Bear. And this
Speaker 1: guy's still alive. He's got to be eighty five. He's
Speaker 1: still kicking.
Speaker 3: I know who.
Speaker 1: If you don't know I'm gonna count the three and
Speaker 1: nobody gets the points. His name is Jean Jacques. Sure
Speaker 1: and Jean Jacq andde made Quest for Fire, which is
Speaker 1: so good. It's so goddamn good. That's my rex seg
Speaker 1: of all. You got to see it. Okay, moving on,
Speaker 1: I don't have heves one more. Sam, it is mathematically
Speaker 1: no you could tie you can.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's.
Speaker 1: It's six to three, But here we go. This movie,
Speaker 1: which is long, was originally split in two and presented
Speaker 1: as two movies.
Speaker 2: Okay this movie.
Speaker 1: One of the producers of this film was disallowed by
Speaker 1: authorities to continue working on it because he was Jewish,
Speaker 1: and other Jewish members of the crew had to work surreptitiously.
Speaker 1: That is giving you a time period and potentially when
Speaker 1: and where this was made. One of the main roles
Speaker 1: had to be recast during production because the actor fled
Speaker 1: the country during production.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna say, is this Children of the Paradise?
Speaker 2: It is Children of Paradise?
Speaker 1: Very good? Can you tell me who directed Children of Paradise?
Speaker 3: Is it Carnae?
Speaker 1: It is car coming in at six to five a
Speaker 1: close speaker, Easter wins. But Sam and my other big
Speaker 1: clue for this one is that the leading actress it
Speaker 1: was mononymous like Scher and Madonna. Do you remember the
Speaker 1: name of the actress who played it was Arletti Arletti.
Speaker 1: Children of Paradise very famously shot in France.
Speaker 2: During the secondal War.
Speaker 1: Hence it took three years to make because production kept
Speaker 1: getting shut down. That the set designer was Jewish, so
Speaker 1: he had to change his name. The actor was what
Speaker 1: was called a collaborator, so when the Allies came in
Speaker 1: and liberated France, he was like, oh shit, I better leave,
Speaker 1: and he disappeared and went to Argentina or something, and
Speaker 1: they had to recast him because they had He was
Speaker 1: only in half the movie. Very strange production, but the
Speaker 1: movie itself is a phenomenon. And if you've never seen
Speaker 1: Children of Parent it's also three hours and ten minutes long.
Speaker 1: It's in the Criterion collection and it deserves to be there.
Speaker 2: That is the goal of these people, And that was
Speaker 2: a fun game.
Speaker 3: It was fun titles.
Speaker 2: Now are we doing the the are we instigating this
Speaker 2: new rule? Suggested by a listener whose name we didn't.
Speaker 3: Get that, Yeah, you're next your host?
Speaker 2: Okay, so I will host next week.
Speaker 3: You win, you host, Let's try it.
Speaker 1: That's the rules.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you guys getting through all of this time
Speaker 3: with me without mentioning the fact that I forgot to
Speaker 3: press record for the first seven minutes, which means.
Speaker 2: You shamed yourself, not not us. We wished the high.
Speaker 3: Road, which means that we lost this this great conversation
Speaker 3: about the actual pronunciation of Marty Scorsese's name, right, we'll
Speaker 3: have to forgot about anyway.
Speaker 1: There was a little bit of a groundhog Day effect
Speaker 1: because Sam still still reeling from having seen this Field
Speaker 1: of Dreams game. Thanks to our friend Marty bazooka recording.
Speaker 3: From a bed and breakfast in Galina, Illinois, where there
Speaker 3: are six cats. One of them is scratching him by
Speaker 3: door right now. His name is Keait.
Speaker 1: You went from you went from Wisconsin to Iowa, Illinois.
Speaker 3: It's all right in a corner, all right there, it's
Speaker 3: all right. The geography is very weird, but I've never
Speaker 3: been to that Mississippi or in another state. Basically, that's
Speaker 3: thet I gotta.
Speaker 1: Go, all right, well listen, so thanks again. Let's do
Speaker 1: a very quickly Matt, because the listeners want to know.
Speaker 2: He should I run down the titles that are coming
Speaker 2: real quick, real quick. Yeah, all right, real quick. As
Speaker 2: we wrap it up here, let's run down the titles
Speaker 2: that are coming to streaming or home viewing this week.
Speaker 2: First up, theatrical releases that you can rent or buy.
Speaker 2: Toy Story five. We mentioned it earlier, unless that was
Speaker 2: on the version that Sam didn't record. I think it
Speaker 2: was on there. It's the new Toy Story. It's a
Speaker 2: lot of fun. Jordan will never watch it because it's animated. Well,
Speaker 2: I got to watch the fourth one first, but I
Speaker 2: watched the first. You never saw the fourth one either?
Speaker 1: Boy, No, I never did.
Speaker 2: I never did. Okay, there's also something here called Rose
Speaker 2: of Nevada. And Sam is writing additional notes as I read,
Speaker 2: and I'm not sure what they mean. These are names
Speaker 2: of people and movies.
Speaker 1: But is this Yes, he's a British director named Mark Jenkin,
Speaker 1: and his previous two films are Bait and This Men,
Speaker 1: and I've seen both of them. And This Men was
Speaker 1: pretty cool because it involves like bacteria and fungus and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's about a woman living in a house on a
Speaker 1: hill in Britain. And so Rosa, Nevada is his new one.
Speaker 1: His gimmick is that he shoots all of his movies
Speaker 1: in sixteen millimeters. That's his thing.
Speaker 2: So all of those titles are available for rent on
Speaker 2: the day this show goes live, which is Tuesday the eighteenth.
Speaker 2: We've also got theatrical releases that are coming to streaming
Speaker 2: that you don't need to rent if you have a subscription.
Speaker 2: David Lowry's Mother Mary with Anne Hathaway and MICHAELA. Cole.
Speaker 2: That's going to be on HBO Max.
Speaker 1: It's the summer of Halfaway. We got these, and we
Speaker 1: got the End of Oak Street. You know, we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about the End of Oak Street? Did you see it?
Speaker 2: I am going to see it tonight. I have a
Speaker 2: ticket see it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it next week. Okay, we'll fit it in,
Speaker 1: we'll fit somehow. I loved it, but we'll talk about
Speaker 1: it next.
Speaker 2: Week, okay. And we also have Steven Soderbirds The Christopher's
Speaker 2: with Ian McKellen and also with MICHAELA. Caled It's Hurts.
Speaker 1: It's summer summer.
Speaker 2: Also, Yeah, that one's going to be on Hulu. That
Speaker 2: movie I really really loved. I've seen it twice already.
Speaker 2: I would highly recommend that one, and then I swear
Speaker 2: the biopic about the UK Tourette's advocate John Davidson. That's
Speaker 2: gonna be on Netflix. If you heard about the kerfuffle,
Speaker 2: we don't even need to go into it. But if
Speaker 2: you heard about the kerfuffle at the was it the
Speaker 2: BAF does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but put that aside and just watch the film.
Speaker 2: But if you were curious about the movie that caused
Speaker 2: the kerfuffle and wanted to watch it, it is that movie.
Speaker 2: It is streaming on Netflix. Okay, finally, yes, direct to
Speaker 2: streaming on Friday the twin four. We have nothing. There's
Speaker 2: no new movies on streaming. Is that true? I think?
Speaker 2: I think there surely is something, but nothing of note
Speaker 2: that Sam put down in our little.
Speaker 1: So instead we're going to cover something that's out.
Speaker 2: I think it comes out to day on Netflix, not.
Speaker 1: The day that we're recording, which happens to be Friday
Speaker 1: the fourteenth, the day after this Field of Dreams Games
Speaker 1: got it? The new uh Happy Madison film. It's Sonny
Speaker 1: Sandler and not Sadie Sandler. It's the other daughter. She
Speaker 1: plays a high school theater kid with a lot of
Speaker 1: drama in her life. The film is called Don't Say
Speaker 1: good Luck, and it co stars Melanie Lynsky, Steve Buscemi
Speaker 1: and Bebbe Newarkbe Sorry Sorry, Bebe Babe.
Speaker 2: Someone never saw Chicago on Broadway.
Speaker 1: Clear, I apologize directly. But Julia Hart is Julia Hart?
Speaker 1: Is she the one that made that horror film in Australia?
Speaker 2: Is that her?
Speaker 1: No, Julia Hart is somebody else. But Julia Hart's films
Speaker 1: include She Did Stargirl, Stargirl and a Woman, Fast Color
Speaker 1: and Miss Stevens. I'm thinking of someone else who made
Speaker 1: a different Australian horror film. But her new movie is
Speaker 1: called Don't Say good Luck, and it is on Netflix
Speaker 1: now and we're going to talk about it next week.
Speaker 2: Great. I can't wait to watch it and discuss it
Speaker 2: with you next week in the meantime.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you want to send us feedback
Speaker 1: at feedback at film spotting svu dot com, feedback at
Speaker 1: film spottingsva dot com. You can find Matt Singer on
Speaker 1: Instagram and letterbox at Superpulse. You can find me on
Speaker 1: Blue Sky at Jayhoffman and Matt Singer is on Blue
Speaker 1: Sky two. Film Spotting SVU is produced by Sam Van Halgrin,
Speaker 1: the star of the new Netflix release The Baseball Game
Speaker 1: The Field of Dreams Game, right, excuse me, And we
Speaker 1: are a part of the film Spotting family of podcasts,
Speaker 1: a great family to be part of. For more about
Speaker 1: us and those other shows, go to film spotting dot net.
Speaker 1: We're just one of many great shows.
Speaker 2: I'm Jordan Hoffman, right, and I'm Met Singer. Thanks for listening.