WEBVTT - Eddington, The Fantastic Four, Sunlight, Top 5 Joaquin Phoenix Performances (2023) 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.360 What kind of a show you guys putting on here today? 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:07.560 You're not interested in art? 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:09.399 Now? No, Look, we're going to do this thing. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:11.079 We're going to have a conversation. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:13.800 From Chicago. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:18.360 This is Film Spotting celebrating our twentieth year. I'm Josh Larson. 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.600 And in for Adam this week, I'm Michael Phillips. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:27.000 I am recording this fair warning is not really necessary. 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:31.720 Look Joe six feet. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.680 That's Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal and the trailer for 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:40.199 Ariasters Eddington, a film which whisks movie audiences back to 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:42.240 the magical year of twenty twenty. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.599 I am masked up and ready to go. 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:51.040 Josh cut our review, plus the top five Woaquin Phoenix performances. 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.160 And more ahead. I'm film Spotting. 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:02.960 This episode is brought to you by dead Man's Wire, 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.520 the new film from Roque Entertainment. Dead Man's Wire is 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.800 the incredible true story of the nineteen seventy seven kidnapping 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.920 that turned an aspiring entrepreneur into an outlaw folk era. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.280 Directed by legendary filmmaker Gus van Zant, dead Man's Wire 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.080 stars Bill Scarsguard Daker, Montgomery, carry Always and Mahalla with 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.640 Coleman Domingo and al Pacino, now playing in select theaters everywhere. 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:26.680 January sixteenth. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.480 Welcome to Film Spotting. It's Pedro Pascal's world, Michael, we 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:32.640 just live in it, okay. 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:34.759 And the time it took you to say that sentence, Josh. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:40.119 Pedro Pascal started a film podcast and has already already 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:43.280 got five trillion subscribers, So. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.480 He's a busy You know, you think you're joking, but 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.600 I bet that's true. Later in the show, you're going 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.800 to have some thoughts, some feelings too, I hope about 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:58.280 the new Pascal starring Fantastic four First Steps, plus a 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.680 new Golden Brick nominee from me. It's for a deeply 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.360 strange movie called Sunlight, and we'll have a new deeply 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.520 flawed Film Spotting poll question. All that, plus from the 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:13.600 Film Spotting archive, it's our top five Walking Phoenix performances. 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.760 Adam and I did that one back in twenty twenty three, 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.960 around the time of the previous Phoenix Ariastor collaboration bo 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.760 Is Afraid, But First Astors Eddington, which opened and wide 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.320 released this weekend and has been the recipient of strongly 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.840 and maybe this is appropriate divisive takes since its debut 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.000 at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Phoenix is 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.320 Joe Cross, a conservative small town sheriff with political ambitions. 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.840 Pedro Pascal is Ted Garcia, the town's incumbent mayor. Oh 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.000 and did we mention that it's twenty twenty. 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.240 So what have you been doing in there? It's takeaway drinks. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:53.320 All the town council members. 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:54.480 That's essential business. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.400 Well, you can't just call a central business whatever you want. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:58.760 It's a city council meeting. 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:00.840 Wherever city council people congregate. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:02.040 It's the mayor's office. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.760 If I'm inside, then you were open and you have 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.280 a pain customer costs trying up. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.160 He's aggressive, he's dangerous. He needs to be locked up. 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:13.840 Your streets. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:15.360 No, they're your streets, sheriff. 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:16.959 They're your streets to keep safe. 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:17.880 And where is your man? 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.080 To kickstart our Eddington conversation, Michael, I'm going to lean 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.080 on our producer Sam and something he posted recently in 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:30.600 Discord for film Spotting family members. Just a reminder here, 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.280 listeners that access to the discord is one of the 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.520 benefits of being a family member, So if you haven't 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.960 already signed up, we'd love to have you do that 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.680 over at film spottingfamily dot com. Now, Sam's prompt was this, 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.920 what's the best COVID movie? And by COVID movie, I 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.320 don't necessarily mean a movie that was made during the pandemic. 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.320 I mean a movie that is explicitly or metaphorically reckoning 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.760 with our shared experience as people who lived through the pandemic. 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.120 For example, the first titles I think of our asteroid 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.920 city and white Noise. Well, Michael, Certainly, Eddington, written and 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:10.120 directed by Ariastor of Hereditary and Midsommar Fame, counts as 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.960 what Sam calls a COVID movie. Set in the small 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.520 New Mexico town of the title, during the spring of 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.960 twenty twenty, the film pits Joaquin Phoenix's sheriff Joe Cross, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.360 a skeptic of the virus in general and of masking 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:27.960 in particular, against Pedro Pascal's mayor Ted Garcia, who staunchly 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:33.160 supports mandates requiring masks, limiting customers in grocery stores, and 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.800 establishing six feet of separation in public. Have I triggered 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:42.000 you enough yet, Michael? The movie expands beyond the standoff 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.440 between these two men. However, to consider how the entire 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:51.680 community crumbles amidst escalating personal tensions, political posturing, and social 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:57.280 media fueled conspiracies. Going back to Sam's prompt about COVID movies, 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:02.039 I unsurprisingly leaned toward Asteroid City if I were looking 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.760 to put a film in the time capsule for future generations. 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.640 Though that's partly because I think Asteroid City touches on 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.719 current anxieties even beyond the pandemic. Now Listeners on the 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.640 film spotting Family discord throughout other titles for pandemic movies, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.840 such as Steven Soderberg's Kimmy, Sarah Polly's Women Talking, and 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.880 Ryan Johnson's Glass Onion. What say you, Michael about pandemic 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:30.640 movies in general and Eddington in particular? Is Eddington a 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.200 time capsule film for the pandemic? Or should it be 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.440 left in the dustbin of history largely forgotten? 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.400 And that's kind of how at least half and maybe 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.880 more of the can first responders to Eddington feel like 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.039 to hell with it? I mean, they didn't like it 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:48.880 in any way, And I think it's actually getting a 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.400 more interesting response here in release, because I'm reading kind 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:58.719 of a really sharply divided and also I think a 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:03.520 lot of people stepping up on Reddit or letterboxed two 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.680 and not just so not just mainstream you know, old 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.960 lye critics, but people stepping up and really grappling with 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.040 the fact that they really like a lot of it 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.040 and really kind of hate a lot of it. And 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.679 that's me. Yeah, in that way, it's not It doesn't 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:23.800 really reflect the the psychic temperature of the pandemic, because 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.039 I don't think anybody, any sane person would feel that 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.359 they were had mixed feelings about you know, the last 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.159 five years, you know, I mean, and it's just nothing 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.560 but fall out of every kind that we're going to 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.400 be studying a generation from now. We barely know what 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.839 it is. But it's hard to it's really hard to 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:45.680 get extremely recent history sorted out in your mind about 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:49.440 what captured you know, you know, twenty twenty, or just 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.080 even just sort of like a metaphoric sort of pandemic 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.080 sense of isolation and all the rest of it. I 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.200 do love that somebody brought up Kimmi though, because I 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:58.520 love Soderberg's Kimmi. If you want to talk about a 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.400 straight ahead, straight ahead meat and potatoes, you know, kind 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.720 of linear mystery thriller, storytelling in a pandemic, shot in 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.880 a pandemic, set in a pandemic with an agoraphobic, pandemically 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.360 paranoid for good reason character trying to solve, you know, 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.680 a rear window type mystery in her Laft without leaving it. 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.200 And I love that about that, and I think that 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.240 film is just a grand, efficient story to us. Yeah, 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:29.760 that's one, but yeah, I mean Eddington, I wrote a 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.280 really squirrely review on that one. I do think I 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.640 was happy to have seen it a second time, frankly 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:38.800 to kind of help sort it out why. I really 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.040 like a lot of the first two thirds and I 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.280 kind of hate the last forty minutes. Did you feel 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:45.640 that way? 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:51.120 Yes, it definitely escalates spirals, goes off the rails, becomes unhinged, 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.160 whatever description you want to use. Purposely, so though, I 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.760 think that's the intent to get us to that point, 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.920 I am in a similar place as you, and maybe 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.760 we can both help each other find a more firm 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.160 position to take at the end of this conversation. I'm 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.280 at a similar place as you in terms of liking 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.520 a lot of it, disliking much of it, not thinking 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.680 that something's work thinking that some things are pretty audacious 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.040 and impressive. I don't have as linear of a response 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.120 where it's a first half second half break. To me, 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.800 though I would agree, I do think the second half 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.560 is weaker, squirrely review. Maybe that's what listeners are going 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.880 to get, because that's how I feel. I went into 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.360 this somewhat dreading it, even though I am a very 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.920 big fan of Hereditary and had positive, if mixed feelings 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.880 about his other films. I just didn't want to go 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.040 back to twenty twenty. I wasn't really ready. I didn't 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.199 know what could be said about it this soon. Maybe 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.760 that's why we're struggling, Michael Is. It's not so much 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.240 that Eddington doesn't have anything to say about it, because 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.880 I did think. I do think I landed on something there, 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.880 But I don't know how helpful it is to capture 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:08.040 the brain rot and the chaos, and the honestly the 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.480 dysfunction and hatred that we experienced just a few years 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.120 on from the dark heart of the pandemic. I don't 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:20.199 know what the ultimate value is of an endeavor like that, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:26.000 but I found myself surprisingly appreciating the attempt. It's not 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.600 entirely successful. But I did appreciate the attempt and the 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.360 one thing. Let me throw this out at you and 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.760 see if you know there's the one thing, this one 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.560 thing that I kind of landed on it. Maybe this 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:40.520 is what the movie's trying to do, is just capture 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.280 the fact that in the pandemic, the virus was not 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.600 enough of an enemy for us as human beings. You 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.520 would think, and initially maybe it felt this way that 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.360 could you ask for a more common enemy to unite 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.200 against is a virus? 0:09:58.280 --> 0:09:59.160 But what did we do? 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.240 We just tore each other apart eventually instead, and Eddington, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.520 to my mind, is capturing how that happened in this 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:10.280 particular town. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.320 I think what Astra is trying. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:17.320 To do is explore the way distrust, disinformation, and as 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:22.760 I mentioned, just hatred between people flared during the early 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.560 months of the pandemic. And I don't know if he's 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.400 as successful the microcosm in the first half that he 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.800 offers I think is successful. Maybe that's why you like 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.280 the first half better, where we're getting to learn how 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.880 this particular community responded the macrocosm. I think that he 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.760 also wants this movie to be for America as a whole. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.400 Maybe even beyond the pandemic, just as a nation. I 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:56.120 don't know if Eddington is assured enough to pull that off, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.880 but as an attempt to capture that brain rap that 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.240 you know, really did spread from sea to shiny sea 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.440 in this country. I do think the movie. I do 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.880 think the movie manages that in some pretty effective ways. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.520 Do we need it now? I'm not so sure about that. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.680 But did you did that have a hook for you? 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:13.240 Always? 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.160 Just kind of honestly, I couldn't agree less with you 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.760 on the fact of whether or not it's too soon. 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:26.560 I think film history is full of you know, maybe foolish, 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.920 hopefully very talented, a lot of them, brilliant film directors 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:34.240 and screenwriters who take on what is happening right now 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.520 or very recently, and you know, maybe maybe this pandemic 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.520 was simply too wrenching, you know, and a lot of 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.280 people lost a lot of lives in their immediate family 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.599 or friends or whatever. You know, no argument. Absolutely I 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:55.480 found it not too soon. And in fact, the best 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.560 of this film, which is almost the first two thirds, 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.760 it's really more like not halfway that I feel like 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.320 it was settling for something else, because what happens a 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.160 little past a halfway point, there is an escalation in 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:12.880 the plot where a certain key character, you know, kicks 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.400 it up a notch to quote Anchorman, and and you know, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:21.959 we have a kind of a different, a different, huge 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:27.000 plot redirection, and it's it's it's very effective, I think, 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.000 And I think one of the things Astor does really well. 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.600 And this is also Joaquin Phoenix I think working at 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.480 his best in this film. I mean, I don't think 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.160 this is this film is Joaquin Phoenix at his best. 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.560 But the best work he does in this film is 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.680 we have we have a characterization of this guy, Joe Cross, 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:50.440 who doesn't come out as a wildly political really like 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.680 almost inhumanly stubborn caricature of a conservative, nothing like that. 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.240 Nothing like that. It's a much more of a slow 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.640 build and just kind of like, h I don't know 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.760 about the band. I love the I love the tone 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:01.839 of the first scene where you know, it's just it's 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.200 just a debate and an argument between two reservation police 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.680 coming off the pueblo and you know, saying to Joe 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.760 and they're both both in their respective you know, law 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.599 enforcement cars, and it's where's your mass Joy says, I 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.560 don't need it? You know, very casual, and that's you know, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:21.520 it wasn't like it's not like the lines of being 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.280 drawn in the sand. And I think that's why why 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.440 the film is as intriguing as it is for as 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.320 long as it is, because Joe Cross, even if he 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.600 is you know, people disagree all over the place about 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.760 how sympathetic or unsympathetic he is from from scene to scene, 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:42.160 but he's generally a pretty foolish mediocrity of a man. 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.960 And I think that's asters you know, he's he's not 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.760 running from that, he's leaning into it, and it's up 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.559 to it's up to the actor to make that compelling, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.360 even if not heroic, you know, but that's a good 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.640 build to that character and very interesting swerves. And then 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.959 know what's happening around that, well, you have you have 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.559 at least four or five and maybe six different subplots 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.320 that all kind of feed what is going on in 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.280 this town. There's this nascent Black Lives Matter movement, very 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.920 small but very mighty in the eyes of the mostly 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.000 younger characters who are kind of newly awakened, let's say, 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.360 by what they have seen on the TV in the 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.560 recent George Floyd murder, up in Minneapolis, and that's why 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.640 this film is set in when it's sad May twenty twenty, 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.880 and some of those scenes are better written than others, 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.720 or more germane to the I guess the overall plot. 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.960 But I think you know, I am never a guy, Josh, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.080 who goes to any movie to see them tell me 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.360 to watch movie makers and actors tell me a nice 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.400 linear story. I appreciate it when it's interesting, I guess. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.600 But it's about forty ninth on my list of why 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.400 I go to the movies. You know, I just I 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.640 like somebody chaos. I mean this you want to talk 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.320 about a chaotic time. I mean, in a way I 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.080 wish this film we're a little more kind of out 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:07.400 of control and chaotic in those early more realistic, uh 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.720 kind of slyly comic scenes where everybody is kind of 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:19.080 getting dinged for either their kind of liberal credulousness maybe 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:24.040 in some characters eyes, or they're sort of like conspiracy 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:28.400 prone mania or their butt headed conservatism. I mean, it's 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.760 all there, and it was all in the country, and 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.800 I like that Astor took it on, so I for me, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.320 it's not too early, Josh. It's like keep it coming. 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.720 I like topical stuff that forces people into me calling 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.840 you completely wrong in your opinion that it was too 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:44.960 still to make this move. 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.000 Yeah, well, and then let me let me clarify that 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:50.760 a bit. You can still call me wrong. 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:51.440 Well, it's. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.400 So, but you're recording this, I mean, I mean, you 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.120 can't clarify, you can't correct it. 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.760 Yeah, that's against the rules. Yeah, no, no, it's obviously 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.600 filmmakers can tackle timely subjects. But for me, I mean Eddington, 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.800 I guess, is it too soon for what Eddington is 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:10.400 trying to do? 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:10.880 I don't know. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.040 Maybe not to your point, maybe it is more successful 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.680 to your point about the chaos, there is a sequence 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.400 maybe we'll get into in that climax that I think 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.680 absolutely is the where it goes and what happens is 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.760 horrifyingly hilarious. That does capture the chaos of the moment, 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:31.560 and maybe I can share that in a little later. 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.640 But going back to Phoenix and this character of Joe 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.080 Cross the Sheriff, I agree with you there on the 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:42.760 characterization of him, because depending where you lived, the conflicts 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.200 that you encountered at that time, maybe we're more like that, 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:50.360 almost like aggressively passive aggressive about masks, you know, is 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.480 how you and that's how Joe carries himself, right, is like, 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:54.760 I'm not going to make a big deal about it, 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:56.160 but I'm also not going to put the mask on. 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.760 But notice this happens in an early scene at a 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.360 grocery store where the employees are keeping an older man 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.080 who's not wearing a mask out, and Joe stops them 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.080 and says, you can't put your hands on him like that, 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:10.720 and says let him in because the man is claiming 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.800 he can't breathe through the mask. So okay, you know, 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.440 everyone maybe is trying to be reasonable in this crazy situation. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.480 But then what happens. Then Joe enters the grocery store 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.000 after the man and doesn't put on a mask on either, 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.960 and so we're getting this slow escalation. The mayor is 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.520 in the grocery store shopping, and so they have this confrontation, 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.560 which is, you know, it's very familiar there. It's a 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.679 showdown of claims and counterclaims, facts and rumors, pandering and posturing. 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.959 And I thought that was very smartly handled and written. 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.240 But to your point about you know, Phoenix's performance and 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.440 the characterization of this sheriff notice that he buys the 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.320 older man's groceries as well. 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.119 And there's another moment, and that doesn't I just want 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.240 to interdict, that does not seem like a screenwriter contrivance 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.120 to make him more materially sympathetic. That actually seems it's 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.920 very casually handled to this guy. Yeah, it seems like, okay, 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.280 that's probably part of his thing. Yeah, okay, yeah, I 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:07.560 like that. 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:10.280 It's it's along the lines of when he tosses the 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.280 bottle of water to the itinerant man, who's who's shuffling 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.959 down the street and seems to be, you know, a 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.960 regular fixture in the town. He you know, it's a 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:20.800 small part for Emma Stone. I think she only has 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.640 a handful of scenes, probably, But his wife is just stricken, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.000 and he's very tender. The sheriff is very tender about 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.600 trying to reach her and making space for her. She 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.840 creates these bizarre, creepy dolls that she sells online, and 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.760 we learn early on he's buying them online to kind of, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.960 you know, give her a boost of encouragement. So there 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.199 are these other sides to the sheriff that I think 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.080 are important, especially to your point as things do escalate, 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:52.000 and he, you know, he suffers from a particular form 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.639 of brain rot in a particular political direction. At the 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.719 same time, Pascal's mayor you know, the movie pokes at 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.520 him too. He seems to he seems to almost delight 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.359 in the new rules that the pandemic is allowing him 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:10.159 to show that by following them, how progressive he is, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.439 you know. So this is this is a little bit 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.280 of an undercutting of that character as well, which I 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.440 think does make the movie richer. And we could list 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.600 a number of other characters who are involved, but this 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.720 thing really broadens out. I was wondering, Michael, a movie 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.320 that came to mind, and maybe I'm way off here. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:29.439 You seem to be in the mood of telling me 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:31.159 when I'm way off, so let me have it. But 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.000 I thought at this point, I thought at this point 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.399 about Robert Eltman's Nashville in the sense of a movie 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:43.800 that does come to incorporate a very large ensemble cast, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.920 also wants to, you know, be a cinematic consideration of 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.919 America at a critical juncture, and do it through this 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.400 broad canvas. Now, stylistically, there I can't think of two filmmakers. 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.240 Maybe further apart, right, Astor doesn't have the shaggy, free 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.439 flowing touch that you know Altman does, which made us 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.320 feel like a fly on the wall. Astor is very controlled. 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.520 His films are very controlled, so there's that difference. But 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.040 just in the sense of the broad canvas and trying 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.760 to capture Americana, Nashville did come to mind for me. Yet, 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:17.159 how far off am I? 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.800 No, No, no, that's you're not. No. I'm sorry to 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:21.840 jumped on your throat on the other one, but you 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:23.800 know it's that's my job. 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:24.240 You're good. 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.120 Yeah, I mean Nashville in fact, was just I think 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.520 just part of the Altman retrospective at the Cisco Film Center, 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:34.960 and I wish i'd seen that seen. I haven't seen 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:36.800 it on the screen since I was a teenager. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:38.679 But it's been a long time for me too, so 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:39.800 I could be off on this. 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.600 Yeah, yeah, it's yeah it. Astor is a different kind 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.280 of I don't want to call him a satirist because 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.280 I think one of the strengths of Eddington is that 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.720 it's not straight up satire. I mean, don't look up. 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:57.280 I'd agree the Adam McKay meteor, you know, liberal lament 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:01.159 film that was straight up satire with then sort of 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.000 a sledgehammer dose of pathos as the world's about to 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.240 end at the end, and I didn't like any this 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:08.879 is a different register. Yeah, and it's and it's it's 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.960 a it's a little it's a little slippery almost all 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.359 the way through. And I guess why I did think it, 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.440 you know it, I I sense Astor's need to give 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:27.240 this picture a satisfying, if outrageously kind of overscaled action climax, 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.880 just to kind of bring it to a head. And 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.560 maybe was always scripted that way. I probably was, but 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.879 to me that the kind of outrageousness does seem to 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.520 me much more puerile, and I guess adolescent need call it. 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:45.679 I mean, I think I compared it to like Tarantino, 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:47.640 a guy who I just don't think has a serious 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:52.200 storytelling bone in his body. Truly. I think he's got 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.239 great skill and he's often a lot of fun, but 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.399 he you know, to me, it's it's just empty calories, uh, 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:02.359 you know, and and you know, so be it, you know, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:07.000 asters much more he'll he'll never have the commercial instincts 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:11.440 the Tarantino does. And this film. The funny thing about 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.360 where this movie goes, where editing goes, and it's last 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.480 half hour forty minutes or so. It's it's almost as 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.000 if that part of the film exists, so that a 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:27.320 twenty four could legitimately include some pretty shocking, you know, 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.040 scenes of firearm you know, I mean, like like major 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:37.840 league heavy duty firearms and fireballs as part of the trailer, 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.720 and it looks like a movie. I mean that trailer 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.720 is very, very crafty, and that it seems to get 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.080 everything about the film, and it might even get a 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.719 traditional action audience a little bit interested in seeing it. 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:55.120 Now what they get when they go in the door, 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.600 I mean maybe, but they're going to be waiting to way. 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:04.399 Make it they make it to the fireballs, is I know, Yeah. 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:07.919 I mean he's not he's a funny guy astor because 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:10.600 because if I go back to Midsommar, which I really 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.000 again sort of loved the first two thirds, and I thought, 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:16.040 even if it's a lot like The wicker Man and 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:18.960 a lot like some other films, you know that that's 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:23.680 set up, uh where where you really have a film 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:27.679 it's about this very queasy relationship that you know is 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:30.520 not destined to work out and it's it's in that movie. 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:35.520 And Astor is writer director, very very properly hard on 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.199 the on the on this on this worm of a 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:42.840 male protagonist. And he's a very clear eyed and honest, 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:48.040 kind of deadpan black humor perspective on on you know, 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:53.840 on this outrageous, outrageous flaws of your typical American and 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:56.040 that's what you get in Midsommer, and you also get 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:58.280 that into Ednington. And I don't think it kills the movie. 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.439 I think that actually, as I say, because Quaquin Phoenix 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:04.879 is there to slowly build the character. And also the writing, 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:07.560 as you say, it's not all one note like a 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:10.160 movie like Don't Look Up. Just you know, they don't 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:12.080 even have one note. Is too many notes for to 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:14.480 describe Don't Look Up. And it's treatment of all the 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.440 attitudes and characters, and that I think what you said 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:22.240 about Emma Stone, yes, but I'm I think I read 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:26.840 that those scenes differently even after two viewings than you. 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:30.880 I think his tenderness towards her you're there. 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:33.119 It's there. I think the tenderness is there, but it 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:39.520 is more about a guy who's just struggling to try 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:45.000 to for all the wrote reasons you know, keep this 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:52.720 difficult and clearly kind of corrosive, corroding marriage together in 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:55.919 this household where his mother in law. I mean, in 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:58.320 another way, this movie is just just another mother in 0:24:58.400 --> 0:24:58.880 law joke. 0:24:58.960 --> 0:24:59.119 You know. 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:01.399 It's like it's like a little like bo as Afraid 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:05.840 was in some ways, but it's yeah, it's a little 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:08.639 mother issues. Yeah, and it's a little dumb. It's a 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:11.960 little dumb and reductive about women in general. I think 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:14.040 it's a little like I just don't get them. It's 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:16.520 sort of the attitude of the characters. And it might 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:19.439 it might interest be it might be Arister's you know, 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:26.280 private struggle. Like many male writer directors to just write dimensional, interesting, 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:29.600 surprising female characters. And I think, you know, Emma Stone 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:31.840 does God knows every single thing she could do to 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:34.720 make that woman more dimensional interesting than she is on 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:35.320 the page. 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:38.320 Yeah, it's a thinly written role. I will say Deirdre 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:42.000 O'Connell as the mother in law gets maybe more scenes 0:25:42.160 --> 0:25:46.480 than Ada Stone. She certainly appears in the epilogue and 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:48.960 is crucial to that. We won't give that away, but 0:25:49.640 --> 0:25:52.920 I thought she was fantastic, I mean, making more perhaps 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:59.120 than what the screenplay provided. As this conspiracy theory obsessed 0:25:59.680 --> 0:26:01.479 mother in law, which is a crucial part of what 0:26:01.520 --> 0:26:04.879 people were, you know, going through, is when you couldn't 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:07.800 have human connection, it just amped up our inclination to 0:26:07.840 --> 0:26:12.280 turn to digital connections, which is why Facebook, Instagram, YouTube 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:15.240 plays a prominent role in this movie. I think it's 0:26:15.240 --> 0:26:17.600 pretty sharp about that. I would also say, to counter 0:26:18.080 --> 0:26:20.800 your claim about, you know, the sheriff's feelings towards his wife, 0:26:20.800 --> 0:26:23.240 one of the first videos we see him watching, I 0:26:23.240 --> 0:26:26.680 think it's the very first scene, is a YouTube video 0:26:26.760 --> 0:26:29.560 about someone talking about infertility and how that's hard for 0:26:29.600 --> 0:26:32.040 couples and handling it, and we learn that this is 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:35.120 part of their difficulty in their marriage at least, if 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:38.000 not infertility. I think it's just a willingness that he 0:26:38.040 --> 0:26:41.040 does want kids and she's not in an emotional state 0:26:41.119 --> 0:26:44.679 for it. So so yeah, I do think there's more 0:26:44.720 --> 0:26:49.600 of a genuine impetus to him, the sheriff, wanting to 0:26:49.680 --> 0:26:52.480 work out that marriage. But I agree the role that 0:26:52.520 --> 0:26:56.440 Emmastone plays is underwritten. Do you think we should segue 0:26:56.640 --> 0:26:59.760 Michael to a little spoiler? We've been dancing around that 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:03.600 last third the climax, and I know I do want 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:06.000 to mention one bit that really did work well for me, 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:09.959 that chaotic bit, which is also a joke. I found it, 0:27:10.000 --> 0:27:13.080 but I'm not quite sure how So maybe listeners, if 0:27:13.119 --> 0:27:16.560 you haven't seen Eddington yet and don't want to hear 0:27:16.920 --> 0:27:20.320 a few spoiler bits towards the end, you might want 0:27:20.320 --> 0:27:23.120 to jump ahead. If you're going to do that and 0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:25.399 you end up seeing the film and want to let 0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:27.840 us know your thoughts, you can always email us at 0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:31.520 Feedback at filmspawning dot net. As we mentioned, Eddington is 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:33.600 currently playing in wide release. 0:27:35.640 --> 0:27:39.280 You want things simple and neat. There was some allegations made, 0:27:39.440 --> 0:27:42.000 allegations like what you were in this house? Well, here's 0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:43.680 a quote from you arm yourself. 0:27:43.800 --> 0:27:45.679 I don't mean literal arms. 0:27:46.280 --> 0:27:48.000 I have motive. Oh we need evidence. 0:27:48.040 --> 0:27:50.960 People are going to be looking here now, So Michael, 0:27:51.000 --> 0:27:54.000 let's let's get to, you know, just some general thoughts 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:58.760 about the ending, the bit in the climax, and this 0:27:58.800 --> 0:28:01.480 is to your point about everyone being skewered all their 0:28:02.800 --> 0:28:06.399 political positions. It's almost like the gunfire which erupts, we 0:28:06.440 --> 0:28:09.320 should say, because at this point the sheriff is being 0:28:09.359 --> 0:28:13.920 pursued by anti fascist assassins who come out of out 0:28:13.960 --> 0:28:18.359 of nowhere, heavily armed, chasing him across town, across the countryside, 0:28:18.359 --> 0:28:20.560 trying to kill him. So he breaks into the gun shop, 0:28:21.000 --> 0:28:25.040 comes out with like a Schwarzenegger style machine gun assembly, 0:28:25.160 --> 0:28:27.200 and just starts laying waste to the whole town. 0:28:28.560 --> 0:28:29.240 In defense. 0:28:29.560 --> 0:28:32.280 Supposedly, there is a bit in that chase Michael, I 0:28:32.320 --> 0:28:33.800 don't know what to make of this. Maybe you can 0:28:33.840 --> 0:28:37.320 help me, except that it seemed to capture the insanity 0:28:37.359 --> 0:28:40.960 of this country, going back from its very beginning. But 0:28:41.040 --> 0:28:44.720 across Sheriff Cross is being chased. He runs on top 0:28:44.760 --> 0:28:48.120 of the roof of the town's history museum, crashes through, 0:28:48.880 --> 0:28:52.680 lands on a display case that also breaks, shatters all 0:28:52.680 --> 0:28:55.840 over the floor, and the case is holding supposedly the 0:28:55.880 --> 0:29:00.880 bones of Geronimo. Now you mentioned the Pueblo commune next door. 0:29:00.920 --> 0:29:04.240 There is a thread acknowledging you know that part of 0:29:04.280 --> 0:29:09.600 America clearly originally the original indigenous peoples who lived here. 0:29:09.800 --> 0:29:13.040 That's a thread in this movie. And something about that 0:29:13.160 --> 0:29:16.280 bit where Cross is laying among the bones and then 0:29:16.360 --> 0:29:18.920 has to get up with his guns and still run 0:29:18.960 --> 0:29:21.920 out and try to take down his assassins. I don't 0:29:22.000 --> 0:29:23.840 I don't know what it says. I don't know what 0:29:23.880 --> 0:29:28.040 it means to say, but it seemed apropos for our 0:29:28.080 --> 0:29:31.640 current moment and as I said, the country's history. That's 0:29:31.720 --> 0:29:36.480 where I think Eddington is doing something that makes me 0:29:36.520 --> 0:29:39.160 at least glad I gave it a shot. 0:29:39.400 --> 0:29:40.360 Yeah, yeah, totally. 0:29:40.400 --> 0:29:42.440 What did you make of that whole sequence or the 0:29:42.440 --> 0:29:43.479 climax in general. 0:29:43.760 --> 0:29:47.400 Yeah, So that's that part of the sequence where we 0:29:47.480 --> 0:29:51.160 never really see any of the assassins in close up. 0:29:51.200 --> 0:29:53.240 I think I might be wrong on it, but I 0:29:53.240 --> 0:29:55.360 don't think so. So, I mean they're basically anonymous and 0:29:55.400 --> 0:29:58.680 gamer type assassins, right, Yeah, it's also kind of yeah, 0:29:58.680 --> 0:30:00.800 I never, I never, I never think that's the strength 0:30:00.960 --> 0:30:04.520 in narrative filmmaking. I think that's an immediate weakness because 0:30:04.520 --> 0:30:06.320 it makes it makes it easier to just sort of, 0:30:06.360 --> 0:30:08.200 you know, get off on the killing, which I you know, 0:30:08.840 --> 0:30:11.320 we've you know, the whole industry is built on that 0:30:11.400 --> 0:30:13.600 to some degree. But uh, I think the way that 0:30:13.960 --> 0:30:21.040 scene is staged and edited and timed, it it leans 0:30:21.080 --> 0:30:25.000 into the many, many too many times we've seen exactly 0:30:25.080 --> 0:30:27.240 that sort of thing played for straight laughs in a 0:30:27.560 --> 0:30:30.400 much lighter film, And so I think the audience doesn't 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:33.960 know if you know what what what it's. It's it's 0:30:33.960 --> 0:30:37.680 a somewhat insecure a bit of that sequence. I think, 0:30:37.800 --> 0:30:39.880 you know, to your point, Astor doesn't quite really know 0:30:40.240 --> 0:30:42.880 how he wants to come off. I think just in 0:30:42.920 --> 0:30:46.120 that bit, uh, you know what I thought of I mean, 0:30:46.160 --> 0:30:49.880 I discus I've just seen the play recently, what I 0:30:49.880 --> 0:30:51.920 thought it was. I mean, this is this is sort 0:30:51.960 --> 0:30:54.720 of just the fact that he's landing on the bones 0:30:54.760 --> 0:30:57.000 of First Nation people who were there before all any 0:30:57.040 --> 0:31:00.560 of these idiot white people came along, just are shooting 0:31:00.600 --> 0:31:05.280 up their town, a town with the absolute palest whitest 0:31:05.440 --> 0:31:09.200 name in the history of fictional cities in film, Eddington, 0:31:09.400 --> 0:31:12.920 you know, and I'd love to get the backstory on 0:31:13.800 --> 0:31:18.000 the probably halpless military figure that it's named after. You know, 0:31:18.040 --> 0:31:19.840 maybe there's a maybe there's a short film in that. 0:31:19.920 --> 0:31:24.600 So maybe there's a Tracy Let's play called The Minutes 0:31:24.800 --> 0:31:28.440 that premier here at Steppenwolf, played on Broadway, and it's 0:31:28.640 --> 0:31:33.680 got a very similar kind of dynamic about these foolish, 0:31:33.800 --> 0:31:39.440 blinkered small town white sort of politicos just kind of 0:31:39.440 --> 0:31:42.360 going about their business and in a way that gets 0:31:42.400 --> 0:31:47.280 increasingly sinister, and it all kind of ends with this 0:31:47.400 --> 0:31:51.120 sort of second layer of history kind of eating them, 0:31:51.160 --> 0:31:53.640 eating them up on stage. I don't want to lay 0:31:53.640 --> 0:31:57.160 it out to uh too completely, but and it's all 0:31:57.200 --> 0:32:03.280 about the people that were there first. And yes, it's 0:32:03.320 --> 0:32:06.720 an effective moment, and it's also a little unexamined or 0:32:07.600 --> 0:32:10.479 it kind of needs a yes and improv prompt at 0:32:10.480 --> 0:32:14.320 that point, like yes, okay, good and and we don't 0:32:14.320 --> 0:32:16.160 really get that because it's an action set. I mean, 0:32:16.200 --> 0:32:19.320 I mean at that point, astor probably realized, Okay, this 0:32:19.480 --> 0:32:21.800 just has to kind of I have this thing carved up. 0:32:21.840 --> 0:32:24.959 In the eight beats, they're all increasingly violent and fatal 0:32:25.000 --> 0:32:27.280 and bloody, and you know, we just got to keep 0:32:27.280 --> 0:32:29.640 it going at this point. But I don't love I 0:32:29.680 --> 0:32:34.160 just don't love the way that movie, inevitably, I suppose, 0:32:34.320 --> 0:32:37.560 goes where it goes, and in sort of a way 0:32:37.560 --> 0:32:40.200 that again, if you see the trailer, you're really you're 0:32:40.200 --> 0:32:42.640 really I don't want to pin it on a twenty 0:32:42.680 --> 0:32:45.560 fours marketing, but it's just it's just promising a different 0:32:45.560 --> 0:32:48.000 movie than you get. And I think this movie really 0:32:48.040 --> 0:32:52.800 does get at a lot of what we still feel. 0:32:52.880 --> 0:32:54.520 And this is why I don't even look at it 0:32:54.600 --> 0:32:57.120 like recent history, Josh. I think you know how many 0:32:57.120 --> 0:33:00.080 people died last week of COVID in this country. I 0:33:00.080 --> 0:33:03.400 don't know, hundreds, maybe maybe more than a thousand. Is 0:33:03.400 --> 0:33:06.800 there always another viral threat seemingly these days. Yes, So 0:33:06.880 --> 0:33:09.160 to me, it just plays like it happens to be 0:33:09.400 --> 0:33:13.640 specific recent history, May twenty twenty. It also feels like, 0:33:15.240 --> 0:33:17.640 you know, like we're not over with this. It's not 0:33:18.200 --> 0:33:21.040 you know, in that regard, It's not well in every regard. 0:33:21.240 --> 0:33:24.120 This movie is not the best Years of our lives right. 0:33:24.400 --> 0:33:26.400 Came out in nineteen forty six, a year after the war, 0:33:26.440 --> 0:33:29.280 and the whole movie is about people coming home from 0:33:29.320 --> 0:33:32.480 the war like that. You know, it's set in you know, 0:33:32.920 --> 0:33:34.800 it's set basically one year back. 0:33:35.280 --> 0:33:37.880 Yeah, great example to prove your point about it, you know, 0:33:37.960 --> 0:33:40.840 not being too soon. That is absolutely not a too 0:33:40.880 --> 0:33:42.360 soon movie for sure. 0:33:42.760 --> 0:33:44.840 One other thing I'll say, structurally, this is one of 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:47.640 the few movies where I would say there's enough set 0:33:47.720 --> 0:33:52.120 up in the first three fifths that the film actually 0:33:52.120 --> 0:33:55.280 feels like it could be longer, could be two two 0:33:55.400 --> 0:33:57.400 hour chunks, it could be a four hour picture. I 0:33:57.480 --> 0:34:02.760 suspect that what he wrote initially was longer. I don't know. 0:34:02.840 --> 0:34:04.880 He's probably talked about, you know, whether or not it 0:34:04.960 --> 0:34:07.440 was ever much longer. The cut was three and a 0:34:07.480 --> 0:34:10.479 half hours instead of whatever it is two and a half. 0:34:10.520 --> 0:34:12.400 It's two and a half. But it does feel like 0:34:12.480 --> 0:34:15.239 it's either you know, this is one of the rare 0:34:15.280 --> 0:34:17.640 ones where it's like, you know, just not necessarily to 0:34:17.680 --> 0:34:19.399 clean up the mess of it, but to actually let 0:34:19.520 --> 0:34:22.240 some of the things flesh out. You know, it could 0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:24.959 have been longer, and there's something a little off about 0:34:24.960 --> 0:34:26.799 the length. So what do you think, do you think 0:34:26.840 --> 0:34:29.120 it's or did you feel like enough already? 0:34:29.800 --> 0:34:32.560 A little bit, But it also goes back to me 0:34:33.120 --> 0:34:35.280 for me, to the Altman thing a little bit, where 0:34:35.719 --> 0:34:37.680 you know, some of his movies you feel like, if 0:34:37.680 --> 0:34:41.360 not longer, you know, would be fantastic series where you 0:34:41.400 --> 0:34:43.120 could spend a little more time with some of these 0:34:43.200 --> 0:34:46.440 characters who just walk through and you become you know, 0:34:46.239 --> 0:34:48.400 you they grab your attention and you want to learn 0:34:48.480 --> 0:34:50.640 more about them. I mean, that's to those films credit, right, 0:34:50.719 --> 0:34:54.319 that's finding richness in small moments. But here, you know, 0:34:54.400 --> 0:34:58.440 we meet these kids, these teenagers. Those are interesting stories, 0:34:59.239 --> 0:35:02.880 you know, I think the Sheriff's deputies are interesting stories 0:35:02.920 --> 0:35:05.920 we only get little bits of and more about the 0:35:05.920 --> 0:35:08.320 marriage the movie I feel I could use. We've talked about, 0:35:08.320 --> 0:35:11.360 you know, Ema Stone being underused. So yeah, so before 0:35:11.400 --> 0:35:15.040 we wrap up here, we've worked through a few things. 0:35:15.200 --> 0:35:18.800 Do you feel stronger in terms of a little less squirrely? 0:35:19.360 --> 0:35:22.440 Let me say, would you say you are overall favorable 0:35:22.560 --> 0:35:25.279 on the film or more favorable I am than maybe 0:35:25.280 --> 0:35:28.439 after you saw it. Okay, I'm gonna go favorable as well. 0:35:29.000 --> 0:35:32.200 You know, I'm willingly saw twice. I am wildly conflicted 0:35:32.200 --> 0:35:34.560 about some of it. I do not like, you know, 0:35:34.640 --> 0:35:39.279 the impulse to just deliver, you know, the kind of 0:35:39.360 --> 0:35:44.759 somewhat weightless ultra violence at the end, and then it 0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:48.160 doesn't somehow it doesn't override everything I think the movie 0:35:48.200 --> 0:35:54.120 does not neat and tidy, but very intriguing ambiguities and 0:35:54.360 --> 0:35:58.440 tonal switches. No, I'm favorable. I want three stars, but 0:35:58.840 --> 0:36:01.520 star ratings mean nothing with a film like this. But yes, 0:36:01.600 --> 0:36:03.120 I would say check it out. 0:36:03.640 --> 0:36:04.400 About it totally? 0:36:04.520 --> 0:36:08.719 Yeah, Yeah, well I will give it a conflicted a 0:36:08.800 --> 0:36:13.560 conflicted recommendation from me as well. Eddington is currently playing 0:36:13.640 --> 0:36:17.160 in wide release. If you see it and agree or disagree, 0:36:17.239 --> 0:36:20.800 let us know feedback at film spotting dot net. Listening 0:36:20.920 --> 0:36:23.000 is the number one thing you can do to support 0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:26.600 an independently produced show like ours. Here are a couple 0:36:26.600 --> 0:36:28.359 of other things you can do to help us out. 0:36:28.600 --> 0:36:30.480 Take a minute to give us a rating or a 0:36:30.520 --> 0:36:33.239 review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 0:36:33.520 --> 0:36:34.440 Feel free to do this. 0:36:34.680 --> 0:36:37.520 If you're a brand new listener, just one show under 0:36:37.560 --> 0:36:39.919 your belt, you have something you want to share, leave 0:36:39.920 --> 0:36:42.120 that review. Hey, if you've been listening for twenty years 0:36:42.120 --> 0:36:45.000 and you've never left a review, maybe now's the time. 0:36:45.320 --> 0:36:49.040 Every new review helps us reach new listeners. Another way 0:36:49.080 --> 0:36:51.920 to support us, you can join the film Spotting Family 0:36:52.280 --> 0:36:56.040 at film spottingfamily dot com. We want to thank family 0:36:56.120 --> 0:37:00.399 member Jason Monholland from Oklahoma City. If if you want 0:37:00.400 --> 0:37:04.040 to follow Jason on letterbox, you can find him at 0:37:04.200 --> 0:37:08.680 Sooner Moondog. So Michael, we have a little bit of 0:37:08.880 --> 0:37:12.799 a questionnaire we ask new family members to fill out 0:37:12.840 --> 0:37:16.240 if they so desire when they join the family. Jason 0:37:16.320 --> 0:37:18.960 did that for us, so I want to share some 0:37:19.080 --> 0:37:22.400 of his responses here. We ask you know when they 0:37:22.440 --> 0:37:25.839 started listening, if they remember their first show, and he says, 0:37:25.880 --> 0:37:29.560 it's been so long, I can't remember when I started listening. Well, 0:37:29.560 --> 0:37:32.680 thanks for sticking with us for a while, Jason. His 0:37:32.800 --> 0:37:36.080 favorite reviewer segment. Jason says, one that sticks out is 0:37:36.120 --> 0:37:39.279 the methodical way you broke down Killers of the Flower Moon. 0:37:39.360 --> 0:37:41.960 I love it when you guys geek out about a 0:37:42.000 --> 0:37:45.240 film or a filmmaker. What review did we get wrong? 0:37:45.880 --> 0:37:49.200 I struggle to recaller review I strongly disagree with, which 0:37:49.239 --> 0:37:52.160 means that either the show has started affecting the way 0:37:52.200 --> 0:37:56.040 I watch movies, or that we share similar viewpoints, in 0:37:56.080 --> 0:38:00.160 which case I commend you on your impeccable tastes. It's 0:38:00.160 --> 0:38:03.960 always always encouraging to hear that the indoctrination is taking 0:38:04.080 --> 0:38:08.160 effect among our listeners. All right, Jason on Letterbox, As 0:38:08.160 --> 0:38:11.640 I said, here's his top four films listed there, eight 0:38:11.680 --> 0:38:16.920 and a half, The Empire Strikes Back, Princess Mononoke, and 0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:21.239 Rear Window. Any issues with any of those titles, Michael. 0:38:21.239 --> 0:38:23.799 Oh, heck no, heck no, I mean I mean, yeah, 0:38:23.840 --> 0:38:24.920 we were just true everything. 0:38:24.960 --> 0:38:27.440 Okay, yeah, you know the way, well you get the 0:38:27.920 --> 0:38:30.920 Michael Phillips Seal of approval. Jason a favorite movie he 0:38:31.040 --> 0:38:34.719 revisited recently alien a random film or filmmaker that you love, 0:38:34.840 --> 0:38:39.120 Terry Gilliams, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and a movie 0:38:39.440 --> 0:38:43.600 he credits with becoming a cinophile, Akira kurosawas seven Samurai. 0:38:43.920 --> 0:38:47.839 One last question that Jason answered for us a book 0:38:47.880 --> 0:38:50.640 about movies or movie making. He said, the easy answer 0:38:50.680 --> 0:38:53.160 is Ebert's Great Movies, But I will mention a book 0:38:53.200 --> 0:38:55.760 I got from the book Fair as a young upcoming 0:38:55.800 --> 0:38:59.120 centophile that stuck with and ignited a curiosity about film 0:38:59.760 --> 0:39:03.879 move monsters, monster makeup, and monster shows to put on 0:39:04.080 --> 0:39:08.640 by Alan Ormsby. Thanks for the recommendation, Jason, I am 0:39:08.719 --> 0:39:12.719 unfamiliar with that one. Thank you again for joining the 0:39:12.760 --> 0:39:15.360 Film Spotting Family. If you would like to join the 0:39:15.360 --> 0:39:19.719 Film Spotting Family, just go to Film Spotting Family dot com. 0:39:19.880 --> 0:39:22.480 This episode is brought to you by Peloton break through 0:39:22.520 --> 0:39:24.960 the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton 0:39:25.040 --> 0:39:28.719 Cross Training tread Plus powered by Peloton Iq. With real 0:39:28.760 --> 0:39:31.839 time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize 0:39:31.840 --> 0:39:35.080 your workouts and train with confidence, helping you reach your 0:39:35.080 --> 0:39:39.240 goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push 0:39:39.360 --> 0:39:42.600 and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training tread plus 0:39:42.719 --> 0:39:46.200 at one peloton dot com. 0:39:46.360 --> 0:39:50.480 Thisay Summer, Marvel Studios invite you to the cinematic event 0:39:50.560 --> 0:39:52.640 of the year with everything from. 0:39:52.480 --> 0:39:58.040 Action You Awesome, Stink You to romance kis for luck. 0:40:00.280 --> 0:40:01.680 Be careful There. 0:40:01.719 --> 0:40:06.520 Pedro Pascal again in the trailer for Fantastic four First Steps, 0:40:06.920 --> 0:40:09.600 which arrives in theaters this weekend. This is the third 0:40:09.600 --> 0:40:13.440 attempt to bring the Fantastics to the screen, at least 0:40:13.600 --> 0:40:17.040 in a version that isn't widely hated by audiences and critics. 0:40:17.040 --> 0:40:21.440 There was two thousand and five's Chris Evans starring Fantastic Four, 0:40:21.880 --> 0:40:23.880 and then it's two thousand and seven sequel Rise of 0:40:23.920 --> 0:40:27.480 the Silver Surfer. Here's Roger Ebert weihine in should be 0:40:27.520 --> 0:40:30.800 ashamed to show itself in the same theaters as good 0:40:31.080 --> 0:40:35.240 superhero movies. And yes, I remember the competition was strong 0:40:36.000 --> 0:40:38.520 around two thousand and five and two thousand and seven. 0:40:39.200 --> 0:40:41.719 Ten years later we got Miles Teller and Michael B. 0:40:41.880 --> 0:40:45.480 Jordan's turn. That one fared even worse. Here's a review 0:40:45.480 --> 0:40:48.400 we dug up. Everyone on screen speaks in a flat, 0:40:48.480 --> 0:40:51.799 earnest monotone, bordering on openly not giving a rip. It's 0:40:51.840 --> 0:40:54.960 a choice, a boring one, but a choice. Do those 0:40:55.000 --> 0:40:57.160 words sound familiar, Michael. 0:40:56.840 --> 0:41:01.920 Folks, I think that's a little detritis that floated off 0:41:01.960 --> 0:41:03.800 a one star review in The Tribune. 0:41:03.920 --> 0:41:06.240 Yes, one star from Michael Phillips. 0:41:06.320 --> 0:41:10.440 Yes, you did not enjoy that one. Well, another ten 0:41:10.520 --> 0:41:14.799 years have passed and they're back. We have Pascal's Mister Fantastic, 0:41:15.239 --> 0:41:19.160 Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, 0:41:19.400 --> 0:41:23.239 and even Muss Backrex the Thing. But this one the 0:41:23.320 --> 0:41:27.279 first Fantastic Four produced by Marvel Studios. It's directed by 0:41:27.480 --> 0:41:31.120 Matt Shackman. Is in the space age nineteen sixties, when 0:41:31.160 --> 0:41:35.640 the quartet first appeared in comics. So Michael, I saw 0:41:35.920 --> 0:41:39.640 those first two Fantastic Four movies. Also not a fan. 0:41:40.040 --> 0:41:42.759 I skipped the twenty fifteen one and didn't make it 0:41:43.000 --> 0:41:49.120 to this latest iteration. So you are our Fantastic Four correspondent. 0:41:49.440 --> 0:41:51.560 Is the third time the charm. 0:41:51.719 --> 0:41:54.520 It is I mean, I mean it's not great. I 0:41:54.520 --> 0:41:58.799 don't know if there's any way you can actually make 0:41:59.200 --> 0:42:05.280 great super hero cinema in within the Marvel Studios realm 0:42:05.360 --> 0:42:09.600 right now, Uh, this far into the collective cultural fatigue. 0:42:09.600 --> 0:42:12.840 We maybe we might I'll say might might be feeling 0:42:12.920 --> 0:42:17.200 as a populace. But this one's good and it has 0:42:17.280 --> 0:42:20.880 some of that conspicuously lighter spirit of let's say, the 0:42:20.920 --> 0:42:25.880 first ant Man film with Paul Rudd. Uh that that 0:42:25.880 --> 0:42:27.719 that to me felt like a relief when it came, 0:42:27.800 --> 0:42:32.720 because it was it wasn't It wasn't about yet another 0:42:32.760 --> 0:42:36.480 apocalyptic sort of universe crushing scenario. Is more just about 0:42:36.520 --> 0:42:39.720 like regional trouble, you know, with the ant Man fighting 0:42:40.160 --> 0:42:41.279 the forces of darkness. All. 0:42:41.600 --> 0:42:41.719 Uh. 0:42:42.160 --> 0:42:43.839 I like that film, and I like this one too. 0:42:43.920 --> 0:42:46.279 It's uh, it's the first film in a while I've 0:42:46.280 --> 0:42:49.719 seen from Marvel Studios in a quite a while that 0:42:49.920 --> 0:42:53.560 actually gives you some images to remember rather than just 0:42:53.600 --> 0:42:56.920 sort of a general wash of fan service. I mean, 0:42:56.960 --> 0:43:01.319 it's actually really sharply production design for once. It's not 0:43:01.520 --> 0:43:05.239 it doesn't it's not production design that gets completely smothered 0:43:05.480 --> 0:43:07.640 by every other visual element, you know, the via, the 0:43:07.719 --> 0:43:11.560 visual compiled, the digital compositing, the green screen stuff, all that. 0:43:11.680 --> 0:43:17.600 It actually is a really tasty look at Manhattan the sixties. 0:43:17.680 --> 0:43:21.520 If in an alternate universe, if the designers of Tomorrow 0:43:21.680 --> 0:43:25.000 Land redid Manhattan so that there's an awful lot of 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:28.720 skyscrapers that don't really exist on the never did exist 0:43:29.120 --> 0:43:32.279 on the skyline. But you know, so you know, alongside 0:43:32.280 --> 0:43:36.360 this Chrysler building and the pan Am building, uh, you know, 0:43:36.400 --> 0:43:40.359 you get you get these kind of wonderful wonderful you know, 0:43:40.480 --> 0:43:43.160 what if, what if? The what if? You know, the 0:43:43.239 --> 0:43:46.680 jet Age, space Age. It's great, and there's kind of 0:43:47.360 --> 0:43:50.040 it's a movie that really trusts, maybe maybe to to 0:43:50.120 --> 0:43:54.160 a fault, the hangout factor. The audience might feel like, 0:43:54.520 --> 0:43:57.799 I don't mind hanging out with these four Fantastic four 0:43:58.760 --> 0:44:02.520 as they sort of struggle through through various issues about 0:44:02.920 --> 0:44:06.200 it's increasingly serious about like, okay, you know, are we 0:44:06.400 --> 0:44:10.600 really going to deal with this ethical dilemma of doing 0:44:10.640 --> 0:44:15.160 what the nemesis in this story is asking, which involves 0:44:15.960 --> 0:44:18.759 a new family member, and it's a big issue. I 0:44:18.760 --> 0:44:21.400 don't want to spoil it, but I did sense that 0:44:21.480 --> 0:44:25.480 people were relaxing into enjoying it more than I've maybe 0:44:25.600 --> 0:44:29.840 experienced in a lot of marvels lately. Pedro Pascal's good. 0:44:29.920 --> 0:44:33.279 I think he's kind of It's the first performance I've 0:44:33.280 --> 0:44:37.040 seen it. It didn't seem surprising in any way it's 0:44:37.040 --> 0:44:40.960 a very steady, methodical performance. He's a very serious character. 0:44:41.080 --> 0:44:43.680 But it's Vanessa Kirby that really kind of takes off 0:44:43.719 --> 0:44:47.520 a little bit in this one. And you know, not great, 0:44:47.560 --> 0:44:50.480 but good, solidly good. And you know, I'm you know, 0:44:50.560 --> 0:44:52.719 I'm a Superman, which I also I know I like 0:44:52.800 --> 0:44:55.160 Superman more than you did. You didn't like it at all, 0:44:55.280 --> 0:44:57.279 but I think we hated the same things about it, 0:44:57.320 --> 0:44:59.880 the fact that it had that sort of crushing, punishing, 0:45:00.719 --> 0:45:03.759 sort of like jokey sadism running through it, and that's 0:45:03.840 --> 0:45:06.360 James Gunn at his worst. But I did like a 0:45:06.400 --> 0:45:09.680 lot of the other bits of Superman that maybe most 0:45:09.719 --> 0:45:12.399 people wouldn't go to a movie four like in fact, 0:45:12.640 --> 0:45:15.160 like the fact that there's a really interesting argument between 0:45:15.239 --> 0:45:18.279 Lois Lane and Clark Kent at the beginning of the 0:45:18.280 --> 0:45:20.000 picture that's all about like how do we sell how 0:45:20.000 --> 0:45:22.480 do we solve our relationship issues? And that scene is 0:45:22.520 --> 0:45:25.319 not a joke, and it actually is like it's buying in, 0:45:25.600 --> 0:45:27.520 you know, buying into the and and there's there's some 0:45:27.560 --> 0:45:30.759 of that, there's some of that even Superman very up 0:45:30.760 --> 0:45:34.520 and down film and kind of neurotically uneven and fantastic 0:45:34.560 --> 0:45:38.000 four is much more confident and sort of just a gratifying, 0:45:38.280 --> 0:45:40.920 pretty good picture all the way through. And look, I 0:45:40.920 --> 0:45:43.480 didn't you know these days. I'll take it. 0:45:43.880 --> 0:45:47.080 Yeah, Superman, I'll admit part of the reason, but I'm 0:45:47.080 --> 0:45:49.040 still recovering part of the reason I didn't make it 0:45:49.040 --> 0:45:52.520 to Fantastic for But with your recommendation, and you know, 0:45:52.680 --> 0:45:56.719 people being relatively high on thunderbolts, I might maybe I'm 0:45:56.760 --> 0:46:00.600 getting nudged, nudged back into the MCU here my Well, 0:46:00.760 --> 0:46:04.200 we'll see what happens. Fantastic four First Steps is currently 0:46:04.200 --> 0:46:06.880 playing in wide release. If you see it and agree 0:46:07.000 --> 0:46:10.399 or disagree with Michael's take, let us know feedback at 0:46:10.440 --> 0:46:12.160 filmspotting dot net. 0:46:13.440 --> 0:46:18.759 What Hi, Okay, No, I gotta get to Colorado. 0:46:18.920 --> 0:46:21.000 I gotta drop myself off the lake and then you're 0:46:21.000 --> 0:46:21.920 gonna have your band back. 0:46:22.000 --> 0:46:24.560 I'm not letting some birthday clown take me to Colorado. 0:46:24.680 --> 0:46:25.840 A birthday clown. 0:46:26.000 --> 0:46:26.920 This is my vehicle. 0:46:27.000 --> 0:46:28.960 I need you to stop driving in Oh. 0:46:30.800 --> 0:46:34.160 That's from the trailer for Sunlight from writer, director, and 0:46:34.200 --> 0:46:39.479 star Nina Kanti. Kanti plays Jane, and she's not, as 0:46:39.640 --> 0:46:42.600 she states, a birthday clown, but she is dressed in 0:46:42.640 --> 0:46:46.759 a full body monkey costume, which yeah, she wears for 0:46:46.880 --> 0:46:50.719 most of the movies runtime. Michael, you know, I'm fascinated 0:46:50.760 --> 0:46:54.120 with manimals. We did up Top five manimals together years ago, 0:46:54.560 --> 0:46:57.040 one of you know, clearly the best top fives in 0:46:57.080 --> 0:46:59.520 the show's history. I don't know if I'd actually go 0:47:00.080 --> 0:47:04.840 a manimal direction here with Sunlight. It's not why I 0:47:04.880 --> 0:47:07.799 am nominating it for our Golden Brick Award. Let me 0:47:07.880 --> 0:47:09.520 just put it that way, But I do want to 0:47:09.560 --> 0:47:13.520 throw Sunlight into the ring for a Golden Brick because, boy, 0:47:13.560 --> 0:47:16.480 we talk about, you know, looking for movies to consider 0:47:16.520 --> 0:47:22.719 for this award having original vision and taking bold strokes. Yeah, 0:47:22.760 --> 0:47:27.560 how about a movie by a ventriloquist comedian of sorts 0:47:27.960 --> 0:47:32.800 who is writing it, co writing it, directing and starring 0:47:32.880 --> 0:47:35.600 in a monkey costume. Just the fact that this works, Michael, 0:47:35.680 --> 0:47:39.839 that this isn't an abject disaster, I think is worth admiring. 0:47:39.960 --> 0:47:42.840 And it is much better than that. This film really 0:47:42.880 --> 0:47:46.680 worked for me. Uh, and it is all about to 0:47:46.719 --> 0:47:49.359 my mind, Contie's performance in some ways, you can tell 0:47:49.400 --> 0:47:53.239 it's a first film, and you know, maybe gets a 0:47:53.239 --> 0:47:56.839 little too easily cheery at the end. But this performance 0:47:56.920 --> 0:48:00.680 she gives as Jane, the woman behind the mask is 0:48:01.280 --> 0:48:05.720 it's alarmingly entertaining and works on a number of levels. 0:48:06.520 --> 0:48:10.960 The idea here Jane is basically fleeing an abusive relationship, 0:48:11.200 --> 0:48:18.239 and you sense that past in the physicality of the 0:48:18.360 --> 0:48:21.560 performance and in the way that Monkey she calls herself. 0:48:21.600 --> 0:48:25.720 Monkey is assertive, crude, and irrationally confident in the ways 0:48:25.760 --> 0:48:29.200 that Jane can't otherwise be. She also speaks I think 0:48:29.320 --> 0:48:31.480 what's supposed to be a vaguely British accent, which is 0:48:31.640 --> 0:48:34.799 very funny. But most of the humor comes down to 0:48:34.880 --> 0:48:38.759 that physicality. There are details like, you know, Jane just 0:48:38.840 --> 0:48:42.799 resting her head on the dashboard of this vehicle. She 0:48:42.920 --> 0:48:46.520 falls in with a man who's actually co wrote the film. 0:48:46.680 --> 0:48:50.080 It's the co star here, Shanoah Allen. He's playing a 0:48:50.160 --> 0:48:52.480 radio personality who's on the road and she falls in 0:48:52.520 --> 0:48:55.600 with him and she's in his motor home. And when 0:48:55.600 --> 0:48:58.240 she just lays her head on the dashboard, there's something 0:48:59.080 --> 0:49:02.920 melancholy funny about this mask doing it, and the mask 0:49:03.000 --> 0:49:06.759 in general works. It has dead eyes and whenever she 0:49:06.880 --> 0:49:09.080 looks at the camera, it's almost like a Rorschack test 0:49:09.120 --> 0:49:11.960 for the audience, for the viewer trying to read what 0:49:12.040 --> 0:49:14.399 she might be thinking of what we're thinking about her. 0:49:15.000 --> 0:49:17.280 But then comedy too. You know, she keeps her flip 0:49:17.360 --> 0:49:19.759 phone in the monkey suit, so she has to zip 0:49:19.800 --> 0:49:22.520 it down to get her phone out. When she gets hot, 0:49:22.560 --> 0:49:26.200 she dumps some ice in the suit, and then there's 0:49:26.280 --> 0:49:31.680 pathos as well, as we realize how severe the personality 0:49:31.760 --> 0:49:35.359 split between Jane and Monkey has become, how it's escalating 0:49:35.760 --> 0:49:40.640 and becoming something that's actually concerning. So this is it's 0:49:40.640 --> 0:49:45.600 a cringe free ventriloquism movie that made me genuinely laugh 0:49:45.840 --> 0:49:50.759 and I found moving, and that is a rare accomplishment that, yeah, 0:49:50.880 --> 0:49:54.480 I think does make it worthy of a golden bricknut. 0:49:54.840 --> 0:49:58.560 I know two people who would have jolly will agree 0:49:58.600 --> 0:50:00.560 with you, and I really wish I'd seen some time 0:50:00.600 --> 0:50:03.440 to talk about it. But my brother and his wife, 0:50:03.520 --> 0:50:05.880 my brother and sister in law, saw this. They live 0:50:05.920 --> 0:50:09.520 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The film was filmed in Albuquerque, 0:50:09.560 --> 0:50:13.640 New Mexico, and enquirens And so I think I think 0:50:13.640 --> 0:50:17.640 it's that second filmmaker you mentioned came and introduced it 0:50:17.680 --> 0:50:21.400 in this tiny, little, wonderful little art house theater that 0:50:21.480 --> 0:50:25.319 Albuquerque is sustaining quite nicely. And they loved it. They 0:50:25.400 --> 0:50:28.439 thought exactly the same. I mean, they laughed a lot. 0:50:29.160 --> 0:50:32.280 They couldn't believe that the premise didn't dry out after 0:50:32.320 --> 0:50:35.919 fifteen minutes, and by the end they were quite quite 0:50:35.920 --> 0:50:38.520 touched by it. So it's, you know, it's what you're 0:50:38.560 --> 0:50:42.359 describing sounds. Remember that film Frank with Michael Fassbender and 0:50:42.560 --> 0:50:45.920 Domin All, which was quite good, quite good, right, And 0:50:45.960 --> 0:50:48.600 it's that whole thing about sort of like you know, 0:50:49.480 --> 0:50:52.560 a bit about sort of like cloaking your identity but 0:50:52.840 --> 0:50:55.719 you know behind some crazy mask of you know, an 0:50:55.800 --> 0:50:59.600 artificial front, right and yet finding a weird sort of 0:50:59.680 --> 0:51:01.920 freedom minute. And you know, this is a simple idea, 0:51:01.960 --> 0:51:04.960 but it's a workable one. But I you know, your 0:51:05.000 --> 0:51:10.399 recommendation on top of brother and sister and my sister law, 0:51:10.880 --> 0:51:12.200 I'm going to check it out good. 0:51:12.239 --> 0:51:14.120 I'm glad it's getting some good word of mouth. 0:51:14.160 --> 0:51:15.200 That was probably Yeah. 0:51:15.200 --> 0:51:18.799 Who I mentioned Shanoah Allen Kanti's creative partner you know 0:51:19.000 --> 0:51:21.680 offscreen as well in other pursuits, but did co write 0:51:22.080 --> 0:51:25.840 Sunlight with her and also co stars in the film. 0:51:26.000 --> 0:51:30.880 So Sunlight had a limited theatrical run this month, but 0:51:31.000 --> 0:51:34.560 it is available now on streaming services. Just came out 0:51:34.600 --> 0:51:36.719 this week, so if it sounds intriguing to you, check 0:51:36.760 --> 0:51:39.359 it out. And as far as the Golden Brick goes, 0:51:39.480 --> 0:51:43.440 we have a healthy list of nominees at this point. 0:51:43.480 --> 0:51:45.759 If you want to see other titles on there, go 0:51:45.840 --> 0:51:50.200 to Film spotting dot net slash Bricks. Next week, Adam 0:51:50.400 --> 0:51:53.440 is going to be back and we have a big 0:51:53.520 --> 0:51:56.560 task ahead of us. We are going to indulge in 0:51:56.560 --> 0:52:00.279 a Pantheon Project review of nineteen seventy five's One Flew 0:52:00.360 --> 0:52:03.680 Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It is the film's fiftieth anniversary. 0:52:03.719 --> 0:52:06.040 It's been quite some time since I've seen it, so 0:52:06.120 --> 0:52:08.560 we'll dig deep into that one, and we're gonna pair 0:52:08.600 --> 0:52:14.040 it with our top five Jack Nicholson performances. Michael springing 0:52:14.040 --> 0:52:16.759 this a little bit on you. I know I had 0:52:16.800 --> 0:52:19.799 mentioned we were going to talk Joaquin Phoenix performances on 0:52:19.840 --> 0:52:22.480 this show, but just top of your head, do you 0:52:22.560 --> 0:52:26.880 have a go to favorite Nicholson performance or maybe a 0:52:27.080 --> 0:52:30.759 less praised one that I should try to catch up 0:52:30.800 --> 0:52:33.759 with as homework that you don't think folks talk about enough. 0:52:34.280 --> 0:52:37.680 Gosh, yeah, thanks for the thanks for the warning on that, Josh. 0:52:37.680 --> 0:52:40.080 You usually just go with the favorite, Just go with 0:52:40.120 --> 0:52:41.560 the favorite, take the easy way out. 0:52:42.120 --> 0:52:44.919 Usually I devote a spa month to working these things 0:52:45.000 --> 0:52:45.719 out privately. 0:52:45.760 --> 0:52:48.760 But oh, as do I mean, that's our process. 0:52:49.760 --> 0:52:53.120 I really It was seventy four, I think, or seventy 0:52:53.120 --> 0:52:55.480 three when I saw the last detail. Seventy four I 0:52:55.520 --> 0:53:01.239 think Robert Towns script. Yes, that was you know, that 0:53:01.400 --> 0:53:05.720 was especially bracing to see your first as a probably 0:53:05.719 --> 0:53:09.560 too young I saw a lot of our rated movies 0:53:09.560 --> 0:53:11.520 that year. That's kind of when it all started for me. 0:53:11.600 --> 0:53:19.560 But that was Nicholson. Nobody considered him anything anything predictable 0:53:19.880 --> 0:53:24.040 or familiar at that point. He was an established, you know, 0:53:24.160 --> 0:53:26.800 presence for sure, but that he's great in the last detail, 0:53:26.800 --> 0:53:29.040 and he just drives the movies excellent, I think, in 0:53:29.080 --> 0:53:31.279 a smaller role that I think I saw. I saw 0:53:31.280 --> 0:53:34.880 the film like it, don't love it, Reds saw it 0:53:34.920 --> 0:53:38.480 recently again from is That eighty one? I think from 0:53:38.640 --> 0:53:41.520 Warren Baties film about John Reid and you know Dyan Keto, 0:53:41.760 --> 0:53:46.840 and Nicholson plays Eugene O'Neill and he loses almost all 0:53:46.960 --> 0:53:51.680 of what you might call the nicholsonisms in this This 0:53:51.880 --> 0:53:56.600 very the stern and very careful performance, full of charisma. 0:53:57.120 --> 0:53:59.880 He's really a great, a great addition to that on. 0:54:00.440 --> 0:54:02.520 So yeah, those two, those two, all right. 0:54:02.760 --> 0:54:07.040 Last detail is homework that I recently did and it 0:54:07.239 --> 0:54:11.200 was quite amazing. I'm comparing it to my experience with 0:54:11.600 --> 0:54:14.560 Gene Hackman and al Pacino and Scarecrow when we did 0:54:14.600 --> 0:54:18.200 our top five Hackman scenes. I caught up with Scarecrow 0:54:18.239 --> 0:54:21.640 for the first time and you know, just felt horrible 0:54:21.680 --> 0:54:24.400 for taking so long. Similarly with the last detail, it 0:54:24.440 --> 0:54:27.879 paid off and very likely will a Nicholson scene from 0:54:27.960 --> 0:54:30.400 the last detail show up on my list. So that 0:54:30.520 --> 0:54:33.640 is coming up next week. If you want to see 0:54:33.680 --> 0:54:36.759 our schedule of all our future shows, you can check 0:54:36.760 --> 0:54:41.600 that out at filmspotting dot net slash episodes. Michael, you know, 0:54:41.800 --> 0:54:45.600 I've been doing Ebert Interrupt thiss out in Boulder, Colorado 0:54:45.800 --> 0:54:47.960 at the Conference on World Affairs for a number of 0:54:48.040 --> 0:54:50.799 years now, and yeah, brought it a version of it, 0:54:50.840 --> 0:54:54.120 Cinema interruptis to Chicago last December, and am doing it 0:54:54.200 --> 0:54:57.680 again just next month at the Gene Sisco Film Center. 0:54:58.040 --> 0:55:00.400 Have you I don't think you I've ever had a 0:55:00.560 --> 0:55:04.799 chance to see Roger do interrupt this at Boulder, to do. 0:55:04.719 --> 0:55:08.279 All those, Yeah, I'd love to do one a year 0:55:08.320 --> 0:55:08.680 or sometime. 0:55:08.920 --> 0:55:10.560 That would be great. That would be great. I hope 0:55:10.560 --> 0:55:12.120 to do many more. But yeah, one of my great 0:55:12.160 --> 0:55:14.759 regrets is not getting out to Boulder to do that 0:55:15.000 --> 0:55:17.960 when Rodribert was doing it. But yeah, an honor to 0:55:18.080 --> 0:55:20.839 be able to continue the tradition and have a version 0:55:20.880 --> 0:55:23.200 of it here in Chicago. So, as I mentioned, it's 0:55:23.239 --> 0:55:26.000 going to be August eleven through fourteen, and we are 0:55:26.200 --> 0:55:29.560 diving deep into nineteen ninety Two's the Player. It's part 0:55:29.600 --> 0:55:34.560 of the Film Center's Altman Centennial series Interrupt This is 0:55:34.920 --> 0:55:37.600 four days of communal film criticism. That's how I've been 0:55:37.600 --> 0:55:40.040 describing it to people. We basically will watch The Player 0:55:40.080 --> 0:55:42.960 in its entirety on day one and then come back 0:55:43.200 --> 0:55:46.719 started at the beginning, and for subsequent days make our 0:55:46.760 --> 0:55:49.320 way through it scene by scene, and folks can yell, stop, 0:55:49.520 --> 0:55:52.759 ask a question, make a comment at any time. So 0:55:53.719 --> 0:55:56.440 it's possible to come for all four days. Buy a 0:55:56.480 --> 0:55:58.640 ticket package for that, that would be awesome. Make it 0:55:58.719 --> 0:56:01.279 a journey, make it a team effort, join me on that. 0:56:01.480 --> 0:56:03.160 But if you can only pop in for one day. 0:56:03.600 --> 0:56:07.200 Single day tickets are also available. You can get either 0:56:07.280 --> 0:56:11.600 of those at Cisclfilmcenter dot org. Slash Interruptis. 0:56:12.280 --> 0:56:15.240 Can I ask how it went with Phantom Thread? 0:56:15.600 --> 0:56:18.160 Oh, just as you can imagine a perfect movie for 0:56:18.320 --> 0:56:24.360 Interruptis where you can dive deep in every aspect, the cinematography, 0:56:24.480 --> 0:56:29.600 that wonderful score, and the performances, but also that relationship 0:56:29.760 --> 0:56:34.600 between Alma and Reynolds, which you know, four days debating 0:56:34.640 --> 0:56:36.400 that with folks, and I don't think we're any closer 0:56:36.440 --> 0:56:39.000 to understanding the true nature of that relationship. 0:56:39.120 --> 0:56:42.360 So yeah, Phantom Thread. Fantom Thread was perfect. 0:56:42.400 --> 0:56:44.919 The Player a little different in terms of what we'll 0:56:45.000 --> 0:56:49.319 be dissecting, but I know those those Altman zooms. I'm 0:56:49.320 --> 0:56:52.279 going to spend some time on all the movie references 0:56:52.400 --> 0:56:54.400 that are in there. I'm going to show some bonus 0:56:54.480 --> 0:56:56.920 material from some of the films, the posters that are 0:56:56.960 --> 0:56:59.080 in the background. So I think the Player will be 0:56:59.120 --> 0:57:03.520 a different interrupt Us experience than Phantom Thread, but an 0:57:03.520 --> 0:57:04.680 equally rewarded one. 0:57:04.840 --> 0:57:06.960 So it's great to do that in a couple of weeks. 0:57:07.040 --> 0:57:10.239 Again, if anyone wants tickets, go to Ciscofilmcenter dot org. 0:57:10.400 --> 0:57:14.000 Slash interrupt us This week on our sister podcast, The 0:57:14.040 --> 0:57:17.440 Next Picture Show, looking at cinema's present via its past. 0:57:17.920 --> 0:57:22.200 They've got a new pairing and it's more Superman talk. 0:57:22.320 --> 0:57:23.280 So yes, listeners. 0:57:23.320 --> 0:57:27.360 If you were disappointed at my take and Adam's take, 0:57:27.400 --> 0:57:31.040 we were both pretty down on James Gunns Superman and 0:57:31.240 --> 0:57:34.760 Michael's previous relative endorsement of it. If you want more, 0:57:35.280 --> 0:57:38.360 perhaps you'll find support from the Next Picture Show. They're 0:57:38.440 --> 0:57:41.400 going to be talking about the new Superman in relation 0:57:41.880 --> 0:57:45.880 to the nineteen seventy eight Richard Donner Superman. 0:57:46.000 --> 0:57:46.760 Now that's a film. 0:57:46.840 --> 0:57:49.600 We did our top five Superman moments Michael on last 0:57:49.640 --> 0:57:52.800 week's show and gave the seventy eight Superman a lot 0:57:52.880 --> 0:57:55.400 of love, trying to make up for not loving the 0:57:55.480 --> 0:57:58.920 twenty twenty five. Now it's the Next Picture Show, folks 0:57:59.200 --> 0:58:03.160 turn to I've Into Superman. New episodes drop every Tuesday. 0:58:03.240 --> 0:58:06.280 You can get them wherever you get your podcasts. And 0:58:07.080 --> 0:58:11.680 for more Next Picture Show related content, listen to Keith 0:58:11.680 --> 0:58:15.440 Phipps new podcast, The Laser Age. Keith, of course, one 0:58:15.480 --> 0:58:17.560 of the Next Picture Show hosts. Yeah, I've listened to 0:58:17.680 --> 0:58:21.520 Keith's first episode, enjoyed it. Quite a bit. This series 0:58:21.720 --> 0:58:24.840 is exploring science fiction films from the second half of 0:58:24.920 --> 0:58:27.840 the twentieth century. Again, you can find that wherever you 0:58:27.920 --> 0:58:28.760 get your podcasts. 0:58:29.200 --> 0:58:32.840 Sixty years of Whistler Black Home, two legendary mountains, thousands 0:58:32.880 --> 0:58:36.000 of stories, ski and ride, legendary terrain and experienced world 0:58:36.040 --> 0:58:38.520 class snowsport events, concerts at the edge of the mountain, 0:58:38.640 --> 0:58:41.439 gravity defining fire and ice shows and more. This winter, 0:58:41.600 --> 0:58:44.120 go beyond plan your trip to Whistler Blackhome. 0:58:44.680 --> 0:58:46.320 Wait a minute, haven't I seen you before? 0:58:46.960 --> 0:58:47.680 I know your face? 0:58:47.840 --> 0:58:49.520 Get out till I call my servant. 0:58:50.600 --> 0:58:51.560 You know, I'm a Desmond. 0:58:52.200 --> 0:58:53.960 Used to be in silent pictures, used to be big. 0:58:56.160 --> 0:58:56.880 I am big. 0:58:58.560 --> 0:59:00.280 It's the pictures that got no. 0:59:01.280 --> 0:59:04.440 It is time for another deeply flawed film spotting pole 0:59:04.560 --> 0:59:08.280 question that was who else? Glorious Swanson with William Holden 0:59:08.400 --> 0:59:13.520 and Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard is another film 0:59:13.560 --> 0:59:16.160 that will be getting the Pantheon Project treatment in a 0:59:16.240 --> 0:59:18.840 couple of weeks. We've been doing a lot of Wilder 0:59:19.040 --> 0:59:23.400 this summer. We just revisited The Apartment a few shows ago, 0:59:24.200 --> 0:59:27.440 thinking about these two Wilder films. Michael, I'm gonna. I'm 0:59:27.480 --> 0:59:29.640 gonna ask you a very tough question, or maybe it's 0:59:29.720 --> 0:59:31.480 very easy for you. You can only pick one. You 0:59:31.520 --> 0:59:34.960 can only have one, The Apartment or Sunset Boulevard. 0:59:35.440 --> 0:59:37.880 What is this July madness? I don't want to do 0:59:38.040 --> 0:59:41.200 that kind of up stupid, stupid. 0:59:44.120 --> 0:59:47.480 You only participate in such things during film spotting madness, 0:59:47.520 --> 0:59:50.800 and even then it's more bigrudgingly than I do. So 0:59:51.160 --> 0:59:51.520 I guess you. 0:59:51.680 --> 0:59:53.000 I guess you're just not gonna answer, are you? 0:59:53.280 --> 0:59:56.600 No? I will, I will? I think. I think Sunset 0:59:56.600 --> 1:00:01.640 Boulevard is the greater film. But I I really love 1:00:01.720 --> 1:00:06.720 The Apartment, and I love how The Apartment feels to 1:00:07.360 --> 1:00:12.440 a new generation seeking some sort of bittersweet romantic comedy 1:00:12.520 --> 1:00:18.000 that isn't all just a bunch of fall de all, 1:00:18.200 --> 1:00:21.240 you know, a romantic comedy that really earns, you know, 1:00:21.360 --> 1:00:25.680 both the laughs and sort of the pathos. People. There's 1:00:25.720 --> 1:00:29.200 a new generation. Every twenty minutes, there's a new twenty 1:00:29.280 --> 1:00:31.880 two or twenty nine year old or fifteen year old 1:00:32.560 --> 1:00:36.680 that discovers The Apartment and they, maybe forever, maybe just 1:00:36.760 --> 1:00:38.640 for that year, it is their new favorite film. And 1:00:38.720 --> 1:00:42.720 I love that. So it's a tie. Josh, Sorry, Oh 1:00:42.760 --> 1:00:43.240 it's a tie. 1:00:43.360 --> 1:00:46.200 Oh, I see that's not allowed. You will be getting 1:00:46.240 --> 1:00:49.560 a letter from our attorney. But I can't attest to 1:00:50.680 --> 1:00:54.880 your experience because for this conversation we had this rewatch. 1:00:55.320 --> 1:00:58.840 Both my daughters really enjoyed the apartment as well. And 1:00:59.040 --> 1:01:01.600 maybe it's recency by but I am going to make 1:01:01.640 --> 1:01:04.520 a pick, and I'm going to go with the apartment. Nevertheless, 1:01:04.920 --> 1:01:08.640 I am excited about revisiting Sunset Boulevard. Maybe I'll change 1:01:08.680 --> 1:01:11.240 my answer, and that is the film that is inspiring 1:01:11.560 --> 1:01:16.919 our new poll question. Actresses plain actresses who are going 1:01:17.120 --> 1:01:20.760 through it. So that is producer Sam way of limiting 1:01:20.840 --> 1:01:23.680 this poll to performances that share. You know, they have 1:01:23.800 --> 1:01:26.000 some anks to them, so he didn't want to He 1:01:26.000 --> 1:01:28.440 didn't want to include comedies or musicals. He didn't want 1:01:28.440 --> 1:01:32.080 to include apparently Dustin Hoffman as Tutsie. So it's actresses, 1:01:32.760 --> 1:01:35.920 plain actresses who are going through it. Michael, I believe 1:01:36.000 --> 1:01:39.000 you have the options, the pole options there in front 1:01:39.040 --> 1:01:41.800 of you. Would you mind reading through those for us? 1:01:42.280 --> 1:01:47.240 I'd be honored. Josh Betty Davis, all about Eve Jenner, Rowlands, 1:01:47.640 --> 1:01:53.080 Opening Night, Glorius Wanson, Sunset Boulevard Juliet Binoche, The Clouds 1:01:53.080 --> 1:01:58.200 of Sils Maria Laura dern Inland Empire Good Choice, Naomi Watts, 1:01:58.320 --> 1:02:04.280 Maul Holland Drive List, Natalie Portman May December, Scarlett Johansson 1:02:04.520 --> 1:02:08.280 Asteroid City. That's a good list or other And I'd 1:02:08.360 --> 1:02:09.840 love to hear if somebody come up with a good 1:02:10.200 --> 1:02:12.720 There's others in that category, but that's a great list. 1:02:13.120 --> 1:02:16.280 It has your approval. Will it get a vote from you? 1:02:16.680 --> 1:02:19.240 Do you have an obvious choice? I'll say while you're thinking. 1:02:19.400 --> 1:02:21.720 For me, I think I'm gonna have to go with 1:02:21.800 --> 1:02:24.640 Genner Rowlands. I know a woman under the Influence is 1:02:25.240 --> 1:02:30.880 the broadly acclaimed consensus choice for her career performance, but man, 1:02:31.200 --> 1:02:34.919 is she incredible in Opening Night? So I think that's 1:02:34.960 --> 1:02:37.800 where I would go. How about you, Michael Boy. 1:02:41.840 --> 1:02:45.040 I haven't seen that for decades, so I'd have to 1:02:45.080 --> 1:02:46.960 see it again to kind of see where it falls 1:02:47.040 --> 1:02:50.160 on the list for any But you know, I guess 1:02:50.240 --> 1:02:51.560 if I'd had to go, if I had to go 1:02:51.720 --> 1:02:56.960 for nineteen fifty's, it's either all about ev or Sunset Boulevard. 1:02:57.120 --> 1:03:02.160 I mean, I'd probably go Betty Davis actually, uh, and 1:03:02.280 --> 1:03:04.880 I'd probably go for more more modern. I'd probably go 1:03:05.360 --> 1:03:07.560 Nailmi watch because I just you know, I think that 1:03:08.440 --> 1:03:10.680 you know that that what she has to do in 1:03:10.840 --> 1:03:14.360 Mulholland Drive is make sense of two very different psychees 1:03:14.400 --> 1:03:17.240 and it's, uh, it's great work. So yeah, that's very 1:03:17.280 --> 1:03:21.280 a fruitful, A fruitful list Sam, Sam, Yeah. 1:03:21.480 --> 1:03:24.520 A fruitful less okay, And and yet you're still trying 1:03:24.560 --> 1:03:26.640 to square them out of it. I see, Okay, that's fine. 1:03:26.720 --> 1:03:29.040 I am listeners who can vote, who can just choose, 1:03:29.160 --> 1:03:31.920 who could just choose one who could be disciplined. You 1:03:32.040 --> 1:03:33.680 can do that, and you can also leave a comment 1:03:33.760 --> 1:03:36.760 at film spotting dot net. We're going to share results 1:03:36.880 --> 1:03:39.280 and some feedback in a couple of weeks. 1:03:42.000 --> 1:03:43.480 I am so sorry. 1:03:45.440 --> 1:03:49.840 From what your daddy passed down to you, but I 1:03:49.920 --> 1:03:53.840 wanted a child the greatest gift of my life. 1:03:59.200 --> 1:03:59.800 I'm visiting my. 1:04:01.960 --> 1:04:05.200 That's Joaquin Phoenix and bo Is Afraid from director Ari 1:04:05.400 --> 1:04:07.720 Astor back in twenty twenty three. Adam and I use 1:04:07.760 --> 1:04:11.800 the occasion of bo to share our top five Phoenix performances, 1:04:12.360 --> 1:04:15.760 with Phoenix reuniting with Astor again in Eddington. We are 1:04:15.800 --> 1:04:19.360 reuniting you, the listener, with this top five But before 1:04:19.440 --> 1:04:23.120 we get to that, Michael, since you're here, only natural 1:04:23.360 --> 1:04:26.960 to ask if there are any favorite Joaquin Phoenix performances 1:04:27.080 --> 1:04:28.120 you'd like to talk about. 1:04:28.720 --> 1:04:34.160 MM. Yeah, yeah, there's a few. There's Yeah, I guess 1:04:34.200 --> 1:04:40.160 I like the ones for me, the ones that require 1:04:40.200 --> 1:04:45.080 to him a different side than than the more obvious 1:04:45.240 --> 1:04:48.600 sort of strangulated torment, you know, the one, the stuff 1:04:48.640 --> 1:04:53.120 that wins oscars, you know, vis A v. Joker. Let's say, 1:04:53.800 --> 1:04:56.320 I actually really like this. It's super solid work and 1:04:56.440 --> 1:04:58.280 walk the line, and he turned out to be a 1:04:58.400 --> 1:05:02.400 very good choice for that Johnny biopic. I think The 1:05:02.480 --> 1:05:10.080 Master is really inventive work that daringly starts on such 1:05:10.120 --> 1:05:13.919 an extreme note of distress with that character Freddie Quell, 1:05:14.440 --> 1:05:17.320 that the movie can barely recover from it, but somehow 1:05:17.360 --> 1:05:20.200 it does. And so it is Phoenix. I really love 1:05:20.280 --> 1:05:24.520 his work with Spike Jones on Her, which I am 1:05:24.600 --> 1:05:26.840 due for a rewatch, but I haven't seen it since 1:05:26.880 --> 1:05:28.720 it came on, I think all the way through. But 1:05:29.040 --> 1:05:31.240 another one I'd utterly forgotten, and this is the other 1:05:31.280 --> 1:05:34.840 one i'd mentioned. Another one I'd almost forgot is Lynn 1:05:34.920 --> 1:05:38.880 Ramsey's You Were Never Really Here Where that's much more 1:05:39.000 --> 1:05:42.640 of a I mean, that's an explosively violent picture, and 1:05:42.920 --> 1:05:45.680 I had you know, it's only since twenty seventeenths only 1:05:45.760 --> 1:05:47.720 been eight years since I've seen it, but I you know, 1:05:47.840 --> 1:05:50.200 I don't retain much of a clear memory of it, 1:05:50.240 --> 1:05:52.600 but rereading it, his work is really good in that 1:05:52.760 --> 1:05:55.200 and I just think he is. One of the best 1:05:55.240 --> 1:05:59.000 things about Phoenix is he really seeks out and responds 1:05:59.080 --> 1:06:04.040 to a variety of directors that he may lock horns 1:06:04.080 --> 1:06:07.560 with half the time. I don't know. I suspect he does, 1:06:08.840 --> 1:06:14.200 but that's what's keeping him reasonably more than reasonably, that's 1:06:14.240 --> 1:06:18.960 what's keeping him vital and worth seeing what he's up 1:06:19.000 --> 1:06:22.240 to next. The one thing he can't do, Josh, you 1:06:22.320 --> 1:06:24.360 want to hear it. The one thing that I think 1:06:24.400 --> 1:06:27.600 will never get from Watkin Phoenix, the one thing he 1:06:27.720 --> 1:06:31.520 doesn't have. And no actor has everything or can do 1:06:31.720 --> 1:06:35.720 everything or anything. He doesn't have great verbal facility. I 1:06:35.800 --> 1:06:39.680 think he knows how to use his voice beautifully in 1:06:39.760 --> 1:06:42.560 a lot of different keys and for different kind of 1:06:42.600 --> 1:06:46.680 shades of character. But when you see something like Inherent Weiss, 1:06:46.960 --> 1:06:49.600 which is all about that, that's what I was thinking 1:06:49.640 --> 1:06:52.240 to play. Yeah, he's not a guy who can spin 1:06:52.280 --> 1:06:56.920 out a lot of crazy gobblybook crisply. You know, he 1:06:56.960 --> 1:06:59.680 doesn't have that. It's just it's something. It's just part 1:06:59.720 --> 1:07:02.160 of its just the physical equipment you're born with. Part 1:07:02.200 --> 1:07:03.880 of it is the training you either have or have 1:07:04.400 --> 1:07:08.080 don't have as a screen actor. It's the one thing 1:07:08.160 --> 1:07:11.440 he's you know, it's it's the one thing in almost 1:07:11.480 --> 1:07:13.880 every kind of film he's done. He's done almost every 1:07:13.960 --> 1:07:16.000 genre where if he has to do that where he 1:07:16.040 --> 1:07:20.080 has to really propulsively zip through a scene, and it's 1:07:20.080 --> 1:07:22.080 a lot about just how fast you can handle the 1:07:22.160 --> 1:07:25.400 language and sling it, you know, in another character's direction. 1:07:25.760 --> 1:07:29.280 He's not the guy. And that's an interesting interesting I 1:07:29.280 --> 1:07:31.040 wouldn't call it a drawback, but because you know, he 1:07:31.200 --> 1:07:33.880 is just like every other really good actor on the planet. 1:07:33.960 --> 1:07:36.920 He cannot do everything equally well. But those are those 1:07:36.960 --> 1:07:39.600 are some of the ones I think very fondly of. 1:07:39.720 --> 1:07:42.960 Yeah, now, can I pay you a licensing fee or 1:07:43.080 --> 1:07:48.480 something and use the phrase strangulated torment to describe Phoenix 1:07:48.840 --> 1:07:51.600 going forward? Because I think that's just perfect that that 1:07:51.760 --> 1:07:55.120 is what he specializes in, especially in something like The Master, 1:07:55.240 --> 1:07:58.560 and it's just so so good at evoking that sort 1:07:58.600 --> 1:08:03.160 of experience. Look at your fee structure, Michael, and get 1:08:03.240 --> 1:08:04.440 back to me, because I do want to I do 1:08:04.520 --> 1:08:07.120 want to use that phrase at some point. Now, speaking 1:08:07.160 --> 1:08:10.040 of her, which you called out as listeners will hear, 1:08:10.280 --> 1:08:14.360 that was a performance that we excluded from our top 1:08:14.560 --> 1:08:18.640 five list, Michael, And that's where Phoenix played Theodore of 1:08:18.720 --> 1:08:21.080 course and Spike Jones is her. The reason we did 1:08:21.160 --> 1:08:24.560 that is because we had devoted a bonus episode to 1:08:24.760 --> 1:08:27.600 that film for its tenth anniversary, which I think was 1:08:27.680 --> 1:08:30.160 right around the time we did this top five list, 1:08:30.400 --> 1:08:35.080 So there was a lot of talk about Phoenix's performance 1:08:35.240 --> 1:08:39.040 in her on that bonus episode. We did repost that 1:08:39.160 --> 1:08:41.439 her review in our main podcast feed this week, so 1:08:41.520 --> 1:08:44.120 you can find that wherever you get your podcasts. And 1:08:44.439 --> 1:08:45.840 you know, if you want to make sure you always 1:08:45.880 --> 1:08:48.320 get our monthly bonus episodes, just join the film Spotting 1:08:48.360 --> 1:08:52.479 Family at film spottingfamily dot com. All right now, from 1:08:52.560 --> 1:08:55.960 April twenty twenty three, here are our top five Joaquin 1:08:56.080 --> 1:08:57.320 Phoenix performances. 1:09:02.000 --> 1:09:04.639 We are ready to dive into this top five look 1:09:04.680 --> 1:09:08.240 at our favorite performances by someone who is one of 1:09:08.320 --> 1:09:11.799 the best actors, if not the best actors working today. 1:09:12.120 --> 1:09:16.160 We do have one disclaimer. We're setting aside one film 1:09:16.680 --> 1:09:19.599 that would have definitely made both of our lists, one 1:09:19.720 --> 1:09:22.760 performance by Joaquin Phoenix. And that's not because it's been 1:09:22.840 --> 1:09:25.840 talked about a lot over the course of the show's history. 1:09:25.840 --> 1:09:28.200 It's actually because we're going to be talking about it 1:09:28.600 --> 1:09:29.080 coming up. 1:09:29.640 --> 1:09:32.879 Yeah, we have our next bonus show for film Spotting 1:09:32.960 --> 1:09:36.760 family members focusing on Her, the ten year old. It's 1:09:36.800 --> 1:09:40.320 the tenth anniversary of Spike Jones's Her Believe it or Not, 1:09:40.479 --> 1:09:42.439 so that was one reason we wanted to revisit it. 1:09:42.800 --> 1:09:45.960 Also considering Joaquin Phoenix for this top five, and with 1:09:46.120 --> 1:09:48.320 bo as Afraid, we thought it'd be another good chance 1:09:48.400 --> 1:09:51.000 to take a look at her. And of course we're 1:09:51.040 --> 1:09:53.280 living right now, not only in the Age of Ai 1:09:53.439 --> 1:09:56.519 but Chet GPT, so that plot is going to have 1:09:56.560 --> 1:09:59.240 a lot of resonance for us, I think, and we 1:09:59.360 --> 1:10:02.200 will be spent a fair amount of time talking about 1:10:02.280 --> 1:10:05.799 Phoenix's performance in Her, So we are setting that aside, 1:10:05.920 --> 1:10:09.040 putting it in the penalty box for this list. Officially, 1:10:09.120 --> 1:10:11.479 though I think we can say, Adam, it would be 1:10:11.560 --> 1:10:12.439 on both of our last. 1:10:12.320 --> 1:10:15.840 Otherword, yes, one of his best performances as Theodore in 1:10:16.400 --> 1:10:19.040 her without a doubt. Let's get into our list, though, 1:10:19.200 --> 1:10:21.439 I can't wait to hear what you've got at number five. 1:10:22.080 --> 1:10:25.400 All right, I am going sort of back to the 1:10:25.439 --> 1:10:29.599 beginning with Jimmy Emmett from To Die For Now. Phoenix 1:10:29.720 --> 1:10:31.720 had been in a number of pictures before, so this 1:10:31.880 --> 1:10:35.120 isn't exactly his first or second role even, but it 1:10:35.240 --> 1:10:39.280 was his breakout Gus Vinceyan's nineteen ninety five satire about 1:10:39.360 --> 1:10:42.800 fame and celebrity. Phoenix's Jimmy is one of the high 1:10:42.800 --> 1:10:45.800 schoolers who falls under the spell of Nicole Kidman's aspiring 1:10:45.920 --> 1:10:51.200 TV reporter. She seduces him, manipulates him into killing her husband. 1:10:52.120 --> 1:10:55.960 Didn't you just get a divorce and then you get 1:10:56.040 --> 1:10:58.920 the conte and he get the car. 1:11:00.280 --> 1:11:01.080 Quality from me? 1:11:03.320 --> 1:11:06.240 Listen, I really think I'm just a kid, But. 1:11:08.720 --> 1:11:13.200 I can never do anything bad to you or I 1:11:13.360 --> 1:11:17.000 ever hurt you. A guy that does that to someone 1:11:17.160 --> 1:11:20.240 like you doesn't deserve to live. 1:11:21.520 --> 1:11:22.200 That's the cheesy. 1:11:22.280 --> 1:11:23.280 Doesn't deserve to live. 1:11:25.479 --> 1:11:30.160 No, I suppose you're right he doesn't. 1:11:31.479 --> 1:11:34.960 What's interesting to me about this performance, especially looking through 1:11:35.000 --> 1:11:37.360 the lens of the rest of Phoenix's career, is that 1:11:37.600 --> 1:11:41.599 right from the start, he had no interest in audience sympathy, 1:11:41.760 --> 1:11:44.519 did not seem like something that he cared about was 1:11:44.600 --> 1:11:50.240 on his radar at all, Yet he nevertheless gets it somehow. 1:11:50.439 --> 1:11:54.879 In this character, we do have a bit of sympathy 1:11:55.000 --> 1:11:58.559 for Jimmy Emmett, even though he's a messy kid making 1:11:58.680 --> 1:12:03.080 bad decisions. Phoenix brings that out in us while being 1:12:03.160 --> 1:12:05.600 completely committed to those more negative. 1:12:05.280 --> 1:12:06.320 Aspects of the character. 1:12:07.000 --> 1:12:09.120 I did turn to social media to help me make 1:12:09.280 --> 1:12:12.720 some of these other Phoenix performance picks, just to see 1:12:13.200 --> 1:12:15.519 beyond her, you know, and some of the other obvious ones, 1:12:15.960 --> 1:12:19.639 what people's favorites were. And I got a few interesting responses. 1:12:19.680 --> 1:12:21.719 When it came to Jimmy Emmett here a few people 1:12:21.720 --> 1:12:25.000 who also picked it. Adam Rupert touched on this audience 1:12:25.040 --> 1:12:28.519 sympathy quality on Facebook said that scene where he's shaking 1:12:28.600 --> 1:12:32.280 so bad while being questioned by the police heartbreaking, and 1:12:32.360 --> 1:12:35.800 then over on Twitter, Marissa Jude, she's at Marissa Jude 1:12:35.840 --> 1:12:40.000 here said, Phoenix reminded me of Juliet Lewis's performance in 1:12:40.120 --> 1:12:44.320 Cape Fear. The exquisite and nuanced expression of vulnerability and 1:12:44.439 --> 1:12:49.240 desire that seems unteachable well said by both. I love 1:12:49.320 --> 1:12:52.840 that comparison to Juliet lewis also one of those just 1:12:52.960 --> 1:12:58.439 deeply uncomfortable, unsettling breakout performances from a younger performer, and 1:12:58.560 --> 1:13:00.640 I think it does apply to what Phoenix is doing 1:13:00.720 --> 1:13:02.479 here as Jimmy Emma in to. 1:13:02.560 --> 1:13:05.720 Die for an honorable mention for me one that was 1:13:05.760 --> 1:13:09.400 a strong contender for my top five, And you're right, 1:13:09.520 --> 1:13:12.479 the performance that surely put him on the map for 1:13:12.920 --> 1:13:14.800 a lot of viewers put him on the map for me. 1:13:15.000 --> 1:13:15.160 Now. 1:13:15.640 --> 1:13:19.160 I had seen him first as Leaf Phoenix, then in 1:13:19.320 --> 1:13:22.160 Space Camp in the mid eighties, but I wasn't paying 1:13:22.160 --> 1:13:25.719 a whole lot of attention then to him as someone 1:13:25.760 --> 1:13:28.200 who I thought would be one of the best actors 1:13:28.240 --> 1:13:31.519 of his generation. But you're correct, and the listener is 1:13:31.600 --> 1:13:35.640 correct that he plays a character who shouldn't be heartbreaking, 1:13:36.200 --> 1:13:40.080 but is. He's a killer, and we have to buy 1:13:40.840 --> 1:13:44.439 that he's going to make the leap he does. As 1:13:44.520 --> 1:13:48.960 a character, he's naive, certainly, he's malleable, he's gullible in 1:13:49.080 --> 1:13:52.479 that way, but he doesn't seem overly dangerous. And for 1:13:52.640 --> 1:13:54.760 him then to get to that point where he is 1:13:54.880 --> 1:13:58.519 going to murder Matt Dillon's character. We have to buy that, 1:13:59.160 --> 1:14:03.880 and we by it because Phoenix makes him damaged enough 1:14:04.280 --> 1:14:07.280 that you can go there as quickly as you do 1:14:07.760 --> 1:14:10.160 with him. But then he also plays him as an innocent, 1:14:10.760 --> 1:14:14.560 so that he just becomes part of this tragic, manipulative 1:14:14.800 --> 1:14:17.400 web of Kidman's character. He's another victim in at all. 1:14:17.720 --> 1:14:20.160 I wonder if damaged is going to come up quite 1:14:20.160 --> 1:14:22.080 a bit on our lists. That word, that's a good one, 1:14:22.120 --> 1:14:23.040 that fits absolutely. 1:14:23.439 --> 1:14:27.720 My number five Walking Phoenix performance is the performance that 1:14:27.840 --> 1:14:31.440 earned him the first of his four Academy Award nominations. 1:14:31.680 --> 1:14:32.400 He did not win. 1:14:32.680 --> 1:14:35.599 We know he won for a performance that might come 1:14:35.720 --> 1:14:39.400 up later on one of our lists, Josh. This was 1:14:39.439 --> 1:14:44.559 his Best Supporting Actor nominated turn as comedists in Ridley 1:14:44.600 --> 1:14:50.439 Scott's Gladiator, and I googled this just Gladiator Comedists earlier 1:14:50.479 --> 1:14:53.000 today to get a little bit of background on the 1:14:53.080 --> 1:14:55.920 real life person that he was portraying. Not that it matters, 1:14:55.960 --> 1:14:58.600 but I was curious because I hadn't read anything, and 1:14:58.920 --> 1:15:00.960 this is the first thing that popped. Commodist was a 1:15:01.080 --> 1:15:04.640 terrible ruler by virtually any standard. His fictionalized depiction as 1:15:04.680 --> 1:15:07.800 a mad emperor in the film Gladiator actually plays down 1:15:07.920 --> 1:15:11.280 some of his less believable excesses while giving him a 1:15:11.439 --> 1:15:14.040 nobler death. So just keep that in mind, Josh, that 1:15:14.160 --> 1:15:20.000 that sniveling, conniving, evil little baby that Joaque in Phoenix 1:15:20.120 --> 1:15:23.160 plays is actually exhibiting some restraint. 1:15:23.320 --> 1:15:26.080 Yeah, yeah, he's underplaying at apparently right underplaying it. 1:15:26.840 --> 1:15:31.919 We joke. I do genuinely enjoy the theatricality of their performance. 1:15:31.920 --> 1:15:36.360 I think it's a nice counter to the untheatricality of 1:15:36.680 --> 1:15:40.639 Russell Crowe's performance. We get one great moment I always 1:15:40.680 --> 1:15:43.839 see in my head where comedist is watching a battle 1:15:43.880 --> 1:15:47.920 and there's a big blood spurt and he lets out 1:15:48.000 --> 1:15:51.280 this lusty response with his tongue hanging out and he's 1:15:51.320 --> 1:15:54.680 kind of grinning his teeth and growling at the response. 1:15:55.240 --> 1:15:59.760 But in general, that character, the way Phoenix portrays him, 1:16:00.120 --> 1:16:04.080 is anksier than Robert Pattinson in The Batman and Adam 1:16:04.200 --> 1:16:07.519 Driver in any of those Star Wars movies combined. He 1:16:07.720 --> 1:16:13.120 is so quiet and deliberate, it's as if it's wrenching 1:16:13.280 --> 1:16:16.600 him to even speak. It pains him so much. And 1:16:16.960 --> 1:16:20.799 he's a weak character. He's more than that. He's evil. 1:16:21.640 --> 1:16:27.240 But Phoenix really does give him some dimension. We see 1:16:27.320 --> 1:16:31.599 the emotional havoc. It reeks on him to be weak, 1:16:31.920 --> 1:16:34.960 to not live up to his father's image or to 1:16:35.160 --> 1:16:41.759 his father's expectations, and Phoenix amplifies, I think, his self awareness. 1:16:42.439 --> 1:16:44.080 Even then it was as if you didn't want me 1:16:44.160 --> 1:16:44.599 for your. 1:16:44.520 --> 1:16:49.120 Son, Cominos, you go too far. 1:16:51.280 --> 1:16:57.680 The faces off the god waste. Please you can make 1:16:57.720 --> 1:16:58.560 you proud. 1:17:00.080 --> 1:17:02.839 Kind what one fullock? 1:17:04.200 --> 1:17:09.800 You will just help me, Phoenix with Richard Harris there 1:17:09.960 --> 1:17:15.880 as Marcus Aurelius, one full hug. Josh pressed me to 1:17:16.000 --> 1:17:20.200 your chest and held me tight. That's that's all he's 1:17:20.680 --> 1:17:23.360 longed for. I guarantee you that Russell Crowe's Maximus is 1:17:23.479 --> 1:17:27.000 never saying the word hug in a Gladiator, and we 1:17:27.120 --> 1:17:30.280 don't expect any characters to say the word hug in 1:17:30.360 --> 1:17:33.360 a lot of Gladiator type movies. But when he says, 1:17:33.800 --> 1:17:37.679 all I've ever wanted was to live up to you, Caesar, father, 1:17:38.720 --> 1:17:42.880 you believe him, You really believe the emotional depth of that. 1:17:43.960 --> 1:17:47.200 I have not seen Gladiator since it came out when 1:17:47.240 --> 1:17:50.040 I liked it well enough, But it's interesting, you know 1:17:50.160 --> 1:17:52.840 how careers have gone in terms of the stars and 1:17:52.920 --> 1:17:56.360 so forth. The reason I would rewatch Gladiator now is 1:17:56.520 --> 1:18:00.920 to reconsider that woking Phoenix performance, just how his career 1:18:00.960 --> 1:18:04.200 has ascended, Russell Crows, Russell Crows has tailed off, and 1:18:04.240 --> 1:18:06.080 you wouldn't think that. Yeah, I'm gonna go look at 1:18:06.080 --> 1:18:09.240 Gladiator again for the acting necessarily, but that is what 1:18:09.360 --> 1:18:11.080 still intrigues me, and maybe I'll have to do a 1:18:11.160 --> 1:18:14.360 revisit for that, all right. Number four for me is 1:18:14.880 --> 1:18:19.120 Merril hess in signs. This is Phoenix in likable mode 1:18:19.320 --> 1:18:22.920 in m Night Shyamalan's Alien Invasion thriller. Likable mode is 1:18:22.960 --> 1:18:27.639 something he can do and does on occasion. Not very often, however, 1:18:27.880 --> 1:18:31.280 but it's kind of fun and rewarding when he pulls 1:18:31.320 --> 1:18:34.000 it out of his tool kit. I also like here 1:18:34.320 --> 1:18:39.040 how he effortlessly slips into what is essentially an ensemble piece. 1:18:39.080 --> 1:18:41.439 I mean, Mel Gibson is the lead, of course, but 1:18:41.640 --> 1:18:44.439 this is an ensemble drama in a lot of ways, 1:18:44.680 --> 1:18:48.000 and Phoenix comes in to do things you might not expect, 1:18:48.120 --> 1:18:50.960 to lighten the mood, lighten the movie's edges a little bit. 1:18:51.439 --> 1:18:55.000 He just has a wonderfully light comic touch, and I 1:18:55.040 --> 1:18:58.880 think it's probably best displayed when he gives the response 1:18:59.080 --> 1:19:04.480 to Mel Gibson and his long soliloquy about miracles or coincidences. 1:19:04.760 --> 1:19:07.720 This is an occasion of Shyamalan, I think, also kind 1:19:07.760 --> 1:19:10.759 of undercutting himself and being aware of his grund eloquent 1:19:11.160 --> 1:19:15.360 tendencies with this soliloquy here. But then in comes Phoenix. 1:19:15.640 --> 1:19:18.759 Merrill has given this whole speech some you know, probably 1:19:18.880 --> 1:19:22.639 not so deep thought, and he decides he's a miracle 1:19:22.720 --> 1:19:24.479 man who was at this party. 1:19:24.560 --> 1:19:30.840 Once I'm on my couch with the random McKinney. She's 1:19:30.880 --> 1:19:36.479 just sitting there looking beautiful, staring at me. I go 1:19:36.640 --> 1:19:43.360 to leave him and kiss her. Realize I've got side. 1:19:43.400 --> 1:19:47.679 Turn do you have the gum stuff in the paper? 1:19:47.760 --> 1:19:52.919 Come next to the sofa and turn around. Random McKinney 1:19:53.000 --> 1:19:58.880 throws up all over herself. I knew this a cand 1:19:58.920 --> 1:20:03.000 it happened. It was a miracle. I could have been 1:20:03.080 --> 1:20:06.439 kissing her when she threw up. Now I want to 1:20:06.439 --> 1:20:07.360 scar me for life. 1:20:07.920 --> 1:20:11.200 Meryl is the sort of part that this movie, you know, 1:20:11.320 --> 1:20:15.880 signs didn't really need Meryl necessarily, but because of Phoenix's 1:20:15.920 --> 1:20:18.719 performance now when I think about it, I can't imagine 1:20:18.760 --> 1:20:20.680 the film without him, you know, just because of the 1:20:21.080 --> 1:20:25.120 contributions he makes and again the different vibes he brings 1:20:25.200 --> 1:20:29.000 to this film. Another fan of this performance is Aaron 1:20:29.040 --> 1:20:32.120 Bergstrom over on Twitter at Aaron Bergstrom. He wrote, Phoenix 1:20:32.240 --> 1:20:35.320 is so often associated with playing weirdos, often dangerous ones. 1:20:35.400 --> 1:20:37.519 So when I look back at his performance as a 1:20:37.600 --> 1:20:40.760 well meaning fella like Meryl, I appreciate how good he 1:20:40.920 --> 1:20:45.640 is at depicting loyalty and bravery. So yeah, maybe a 1:20:45.720 --> 1:20:48.000 simpler character than some of the others he plays, but 1:20:48.360 --> 1:20:49.280 he plays it just right. 1:20:49.720 --> 1:20:52.800 He does very good in that scene, very good in 1:20:52.960 --> 1:20:56.280 that film. Interesting that we've got back to back choices 1:20:56.600 --> 1:21:02.280 in which we hear Joaquin Phoenix whispering primarily very very 1:21:02.360 --> 1:21:07.519 quietly different circumstances, and Merrill not exactly an evil character. 1:21:07.760 --> 1:21:11.760 My number four, I've got another weirdo, definitely one of 1:21:12.240 --> 1:21:16.040 Woking Phoenix's weirdos. And you were talking about him in 1:21:16.120 --> 1:21:19.200 terms of whether he plays characters who are likable or unlikable. 1:21:19.280 --> 1:21:22.360 This is one who I don't even know where to 1:21:22.720 --> 1:21:25.559 put him on that scale. And it's not because he's 1:21:25.640 --> 1:21:28.720 got things about him that make him someone that you 1:21:29.760 --> 1:21:33.400 really respond to favorably and even aspire to be like. 1:21:34.160 --> 1:21:36.200 That's not the case at all. But he also isn't 1:21:36.680 --> 1:21:39.720 so bad that you despise him ever, either. 1:21:39.760 --> 1:21:40.280 He's just an. 1:21:40.200 --> 1:21:44.600 Immensely flawed character. And that character is Leonard Creditor in 1:21:44.760 --> 1:21:48.720 James Gray's Two Lovers. So multiple collaborations with James Gray. 1:21:49.200 --> 1:21:53.200 I'm going with his performance as Leonard in Two Lovers. 1:21:53.439 --> 1:21:57.120 What a trip down memory lane. It was Josh reminding 1:21:57.520 --> 1:22:02.120 myself about this film, this performance, and the context around it. 1:22:02.240 --> 1:22:06.760 I had completely forgotten that Two Lovers, the movie and 1:22:06.920 --> 1:22:11.519 this performance were totally overshadowed at the time by the 1:22:11.600 --> 1:22:17.000 Shenanigans surrounding the filming of I'm Still Here, which would 1:22:17.040 --> 1:22:19.960 come out two years later, or actually just a little 1:22:20.040 --> 1:22:22.479 over a year later. In terms of when we reviewed 1:22:22.920 --> 1:22:25.639 this film Two Lovers on the show was February twenty seventh, 1:22:25.720 --> 1:22:30.160 two thousand and nine. That infamous David Letterman appearance was 1:22:30.280 --> 1:22:33.680 February eleventh, two thousand and nine, so this was all 1:22:33.800 --> 1:22:36.519 in the wake of that, and people were really watching 1:22:36.600 --> 1:22:41.400 Two Lovers thinking it was Woquin Phoenix's swan song from acting. 1:22:42.000 --> 1:22:45.479 It was supposedly his final performance as an actor because 1:22:45.520 --> 1:22:49.559 he was retiring to become a rapper, and with all 1:22:49.600 --> 1:22:53.439 of that, he had apparently completely lost his mind. 1:22:55.360 --> 1:22:58.800 So here's my hope that after some time off and 1:22:58.880 --> 1:23:00.519 I think you're taking a little time off tonight. 1:23:04.520 --> 1:23:08.120 I I'm hopeful that you will. 1:23:08.040 --> 1:23:10.840 Reconsider and and come back to acting because you're just 1:23:10.960 --> 1:23:13.200 you know, there's nobody really better than you are. 1:23:14.320 --> 1:23:17.200 Yeah, I still like. 1:23:21.120 --> 1:23:24.040 I say never, right, I don't I don't know, I 1:23:24.080 --> 1:23:26.280 don't know what, I don't know if, I don't know 1:23:26.400 --> 1:23:26.920 what will happen. 1:23:27.720 --> 1:23:32.439 But you you are You're not gonna act anymore? No, huh? 1:23:33.040 --> 1:23:33.560 Why is that? 1:23:35.160 --> 1:23:35.479 Mmm? 1:23:37.600 --> 1:23:37.960 I don't know. 1:23:40.040 --> 1:23:41.639 I mean you have given up some thought. 1:23:43.000 --> 1:23:46.160 This will come up some more. 1:23:46.840 --> 1:23:49.479 But going through my notes, it was amazing because I 1:23:49.600 --> 1:23:51.880 look back on these different films that have been reviewed 1:23:51.920 --> 1:23:56.680 on the show, how many times I'd use synonyms to 1:23:56.840 --> 1:24:00.479 describe his characters and movies. In this case, it was 1:24:00.520 --> 1:24:03.679 talking about a character who was always kind of floating 1:24:04.120 --> 1:24:07.679 through these scenes, disconnected from everything that the movie itself 1:24:07.720 --> 1:24:11.080 has an ethereal quality to it. It's basically a fable. 1:24:11.200 --> 1:24:15.599 You could apply similar words and phrases to Bo's Afraid 1:24:15.800 --> 1:24:18.839 or to some of these other performances that we'll probably 1:24:19.080 --> 1:24:22.080 talk about for those who don't remember. Two lovers. It's 1:24:22.640 --> 1:24:25.200 pretty much what the name suggests. It's a movie about 1:24:25.240 --> 1:24:28.840 a love triangle. Leonard is involved with two different women. 1:24:29.160 --> 1:24:32.519 One who really wants to take care of him and 1:24:32.720 --> 1:24:36.040 wants to love him, and he's too neurotic to let 1:24:36.080 --> 1:24:38.080 her do it. That's Vanessa Shaw's character. And then there's 1:24:38.080 --> 1:24:41.400 another woman who he wants to take care of and 1:24:42.120 --> 1:24:44.680 she's the one with the issues in allowing him to 1:24:44.720 --> 1:24:48.400 do that. That's Gwyneth Paltrow's character. But there's a melancholy 1:24:49.040 --> 1:24:54.080 to Leonard that makes him endearing or certainly endearing enough. 1:24:54.280 --> 1:24:59.600 And there's an intimacy that Gray captures with Phoenix and 1:25:00.280 --> 1:25:05.400 these women that is really striking in the way Phoenix 1:25:05.520 --> 1:25:10.000 can often be intimate on screen and also make you 1:25:10.160 --> 1:25:13.040 a little bit uncomfortable at the same time, there's an 1:25:13.120 --> 1:25:18.840 intensity to these intimate scenes that can be both off 1:25:18.920 --> 1:25:22.280 putting and something that also brings you in. And what 1:25:22.400 --> 1:25:26.160 really stands out about Phoenix in this role, but again, 1:25:26.280 --> 1:25:29.320 I'm sure many others we might get to. He's someone 1:25:29.360 --> 1:25:33.760 who's utterly uninterested in vanity. He has no interest in 1:25:33.880 --> 1:25:36.880 being cool on screen, and Leonard is not cool, and 1:25:36.960 --> 1:25:40.599 he also has no interest in being conventionally masculine, which 1:25:40.680 --> 1:25:42.360 is also one of the things that I think really 1:25:42.439 --> 1:25:48.160 does define Phoenix as a fascinating performer. He's volatile, but 1:25:48.760 --> 1:25:52.320 the softer and the more vulnerable he is on screen, 1:25:52.680 --> 1:25:55.320 the more interesting he is. And that's certainly the case 1:25:55.360 --> 1:25:57.080 here with Leonard in Two Lovers. 1:25:58.240 --> 1:25:59.920 If I got to know you that I wouldn't love you, 1:26:00.439 --> 1:26:02.960 But I do know you, and I love you a 1:26:02.960 --> 1:26:03.519 little more. 1:26:03.720 --> 1:26:07.559 I understand you, Michelle. I'm up too. 1:26:10.560 --> 1:26:12.880 I'll never walk with from you. 1:26:16.920 --> 1:26:19.120 I left, I never do. 1:26:21.280 --> 1:26:23.960 I take you well. 1:26:24.000 --> 1:26:27.280 You went with the one Waquin Phoenix James Gray collaboration 1:26:27.400 --> 1:26:29.760 I have not seen, but I've liked the other two, 1:26:30.400 --> 1:26:32.800 so I'm going to assume you're right in this pick. 1:26:32.880 --> 1:26:35.240 Adam I especially like him in The Yards. I can 1:26:35.320 --> 1:26:39.240 still picture kind of his devilish face in that one. 1:26:39.439 --> 1:26:42.479 So yeah, these two have been really strong collaborators. My 1:26:42.600 --> 1:26:46.000 number three pick is with another filmmaker he has worked 1:26:46.040 --> 1:26:49.280 with twice now, and that would be Paul Thomas Anderson. 1:26:49.360 --> 1:26:52.360 Here at number three, I have Larry Dox Bortello from 1:26:52.479 --> 1:26:57.680 Inherent Vice. We've touched on a little bit his comedic abilities, 1:26:57.920 --> 1:27:00.120 and I think this is the movie of all of 1:27:00.160 --> 1:27:02.800 his that I've seen that puts them on display the most. 1:27:02.920 --> 1:27:06.960 This adaptation of Thomas Pinchon's comic Gumshoe novel. It's set 1:27:06.960 --> 1:27:10.320 against the druggy beach scene of nineteen seventy California. Doc 1:27:10.360 --> 1:27:13.640 Sportello is this hazy private detective just ekeing out a 1:27:13.720 --> 1:27:16.400 living of sorts in a beach shack just a few 1:27:16.439 --> 1:27:18.840 blocks from the ocean, and as happens in these sort 1:27:18.880 --> 1:27:20.479 of tales, he gets caught up in a rabbit hole 1:27:20.840 --> 1:27:25.240 of an investigation. Phoenix has so much fun with the 1:27:25.520 --> 1:27:29.280 curly qu noir dialogue here and the chance to play 1:27:30.240 --> 1:27:34.599 really this adult fool who's sometimes smarter than he's presenting 1:27:34.680 --> 1:27:38.519 himself and a lot of times not or or let's 1:27:38.520 --> 1:27:41.120 just say not in complete control of his faculties. And 1:27:41.439 --> 1:27:43.960 just watching Phoenix have fun with that is such a blast. 1:27:44.040 --> 1:27:47.800 So many of the laughs come from observing Doc trying 1:27:47.840 --> 1:27:52.720 to focus in the midst of these increasingly ridiculous conversations 1:27:52.800 --> 1:27:56.760 with all sorts of characters, and this includes Josh Brolin's 1:27:56.960 --> 1:28:00.439 Lieutenant Detective Bigfoot Bjornson, Yeah. 1:28:01.479 --> 1:28:07.599 Big and smashed on my door, kwawn. 1:28:08.760 --> 1:28:11.720 After a long and busy day of civil rights violations. 1:28:13.320 --> 1:28:15.880 I found myself in the neighborhood and compelled to drop 1:28:15.960 --> 1:28:19.920 in just to check and see the current state of affairs. 1:28:20.080 --> 1:28:23.880 Mild stomping grounds, seeing as your effort to keep lines 1:28:23.920 --> 1:28:27.280 of communication had been limited. 1:28:27.720 --> 1:28:28.479 To say the least. 1:28:30.479 --> 1:28:32.240 Oh, I've been busy. 1:28:33.680 --> 1:28:35.719 I'm trying to figure out which side of the zigzag 1:28:35.800 --> 1:28:36.960 paper is the sticky sign. 1:28:38.040 --> 1:28:40.639 This is not just a comedic performance, though a few 1:28:40.720 --> 1:28:43.120 listeners mentioned when they made this pick some of the 1:28:43.160 --> 1:28:47.040 other qualities that appealed to them about the performance. Andrew 1:28:47.080 --> 1:28:50.000 Bodenbach on Facebook said, He's hilarious and ridiculous, but what 1:28:50.160 --> 1:28:52.240 really hits is how compassionate he is. 1:28:52.439 --> 1:28:53.679 He really cares about people. 1:28:54.160 --> 1:28:56.880 I think you do feel that. And here's from Jeremy S. 1:28:56.960 --> 1:29:00.240 Wade at American Weight on Twitter. You just really want 1:29:00.280 --> 1:29:01.800 that poor son of a bitch to get a win. 1:29:02.400 --> 1:29:04.640 And this kind of speaks, I think, more to the 1:29:05.439 --> 1:29:09.879 you come around to his character's side so often, despite 1:29:09.920 --> 1:29:12.080 all evidence to the contrary, that that's where you should be, 1:29:12.479 --> 1:29:14.600 and there's a little bit of that element here in 1:29:14.760 --> 1:29:18.160 Dox Bartello as well. It's also fun to think about 1:29:18.240 --> 1:29:21.840 this being the performance. Going back to the idea of collaborations, 1:29:22.240 --> 1:29:24.320 this being the performance and the character that he and 1:29:24.400 --> 1:29:28.160 Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to explore together after working on 1:29:28.479 --> 1:29:31.800 The Master. So interesting choice. I don't want to get 1:29:31.800 --> 1:29:33.599 ahead of myself, so I'll leave that there. 1:29:34.040 --> 1:29:36.360 And I don't want to get ahead of myself either, Josh, 1:29:36.479 --> 1:29:40.160 so I will also leave Larry Knox Bortello right there 1:29:40.200 --> 1:29:43.080 and go to my number three walking Phoenix performance, a 1:29:43.160 --> 1:29:45.720 performance in a film that no one will apply the 1:29:45.800 --> 1:29:49.479 words fun to or blast to, like you just did 1:29:49.600 --> 1:29:51.000 with Inherent Vice. 1:29:51.360 --> 1:29:53.080 But one connection. 1:29:53.360 --> 1:29:56.200 You've got Phoenix in your number three, chasing down a 1:29:56.280 --> 1:29:59.479 missing girl in a complex conspiracy, and so do I. 1:30:00.240 --> 1:30:04.240 But Joe from Lynn Ramsey's twenty seventeen film You Were 1:30:04.280 --> 1:30:07.640 Never Really Here is definitely not the teddy bear, the 1:30:07.720 --> 1:30:11.719 compassionate teddy bear that Doc Sportello is. And Joe suffers 1:30:11.760 --> 1:30:16.280 from something that Doc doesn't, which is severe trauma. So 1:30:16.360 --> 1:30:20.760 you've got a character who is all about repression and 1:30:20.920 --> 1:30:24.920 is all about withholding other than the blunt acts of 1:30:25.040 --> 1:30:28.679 violence that he carries out. He's not demonstrative, he's certainly 1:30:28.760 --> 1:30:32.360 not vocal. He barely speaks. This has to be the 1:30:32.479 --> 1:30:36.800 fewest lines the Phoenix has in any one of his performances. 1:30:37.040 --> 1:30:40.080 He's a big physical presence, like with bo Is Afraid. 1:30:40.120 --> 1:30:43.280 He put on weight for this role, and he certainly 1:30:43.479 --> 1:30:46.840 carries it. It's it's not a weight that manifests itself, 1:30:46.920 --> 1:30:50.800 certainly in muscle or as if he's been hitting the 1:30:50.880 --> 1:30:54.519 gym a lot. He is someone who carries a big 1:30:54.840 --> 1:30:57.760 burden and needs a big frame to do it. And 1:30:57.920 --> 1:31:03.120 yet somehow Phoenix may makes him feel like a ghost, 1:31:03.840 --> 1:31:08.439 like he's incapable of leaving a footprint. He's just moving 1:31:08.640 --> 1:31:14.040 through the world, almost invisible to everyone around him. A 1:31:14.160 --> 1:31:16.080 line that has always stuck with me from that film 1:31:16.840 --> 1:31:18.640 is when a character says, and if I remember the 1:31:18.720 --> 1:31:22.519 context right, they're not using it negatively. I think they 1:31:22.760 --> 1:31:25.839 may need his skills. They say, I hear you're brutal, 1:31:26.600 --> 1:31:30.640 and Phoenix says, I can be. And something about the 1:31:31.120 --> 1:31:35.759 kind of flat delivery of that the succinct screen writing 1:31:35.800 --> 1:31:39.519 there just having him say I can be. It's a 1:31:39.560 --> 1:31:45.320 case where Phoenix in the performance could indicate in that 1:31:45.479 --> 1:31:49.240 line reading or with some kind of physicality or something 1:31:49.280 --> 1:31:52.479 on his face before during after he says it. He 1:31:52.560 --> 1:31:55.720 could indicate that well he's not really a monster. He 1:31:55.800 --> 1:31:59.160 doesn't want to be brutal, but sometimes he has to be. 1:32:00.240 --> 1:32:03.479 And again, he's not someone who's interested in being cool 1:32:03.520 --> 1:32:06.639 on screen. He's not someone who's interested, it would seem, 1:32:07.479 --> 1:32:09.160 in indicating those things. 1:32:08.920 --> 1:32:09.599 To the audience. 1:32:09.920 --> 1:32:14.479 He's he's willing to play Joe for exactly who he 1:32:14.680 --> 1:32:18.360 is and his future actions, his choices will determine what 1:32:18.560 --> 1:32:24.200 we ultimately think of him. How many Josh Killer Seeks 1:32:24.280 --> 1:32:27.040 Redemption movies have we seen? I don't know if we've 1:32:27.200 --> 1:32:31.000 done that top five before. We probably have, like Assassins 1:32:31.000 --> 1:32:33.840 with a Heart of Gold or something. It's a well 1:32:34.000 --> 1:32:39.719 worn convention at this point, and Phoenix gives any beat 1:32:40.400 --> 1:32:44.880 that might feel familiar a completely different spin. 1:32:45.280 --> 1:32:52.040 Gets your name, Scott, mister Rogers that I'm to ask 1:32:52.080 --> 1:32:55.960 you some questions. Please be inlest with me, HI security. 1:32:56.240 --> 1:32:59.599 How many are there? Huh so one more than one? 1:33:00.240 --> 1:33:00.400 Two? 1:33:01.160 --> 1:33:01.519 Two? 1:33:02.960 --> 1:33:03.200 Where? 1:33:04.200 --> 1:33:04.360 Where? 1:33:06.680 --> 1:33:08.679 Oh god sez the front door? 1:33:08.960 --> 1:33:10.320 Second guy on the top floor? 1:33:11.640 --> 1:33:18.560 Where's the playgrounds? Thinking that these girls, therefore. 1:33:18.880 --> 1:33:22.680 He makes this character Joe a truly enigmatic one, and 1:33:22.760 --> 1:33:26.920 that he makes some choices sometimes that are confusing or 1:33:27.080 --> 1:33:32.839 bewildering or troubling or upsetting, but you don't ever actually 1:33:33.080 --> 1:33:36.920 question him as a man. And I think that's where 1:33:37.680 --> 1:33:40.120 the term damaged. We'll come back into play here at 1:33:40.200 --> 1:33:42.559 least one more time as a damaged man. 1:33:43.479 --> 1:33:46.280 That's the word that pops up here. I'm just pulling 1:33:46.400 --> 1:33:48.280 up my review and I liked it a little less 1:33:48.320 --> 1:33:51.679 than you, but did appreciate how the filmmaking aligned itself 1:33:51.880 --> 1:33:56.320 with Phoenix's performance and the character's headspace right when Ramsey 1:33:56.479 --> 1:33:59.519 using just a lot of impressionistic imagery, and I think 1:33:59.560 --> 1:34:01.479 of that the haunting sound design as well. 1:34:01.840 --> 1:34:03.559 But yeah, I wrote how this is all. 1:34:03.560 --> 1:34:07.519 Geared toward evoking Joe's deranged, damaged point of view. 1:34:07.680 --> 1:34:08.439 So there it is. 1:34:08.960 --> 1:34:12.080 We do have two more a reminder we set her 1:34:12.439 --> 1:34:15.360 and Theodore aside, although we both love those performances. We're 1:34:15.400 --> 1:34:17.640 going to talk about that movie coming up soon in 1:34:17.760 --> 1:34:21.000 some bonus content for film spotting family members. 1:34:21.280 --> 1:34:23.760 What do you have at number two? This might be 1:34:23.800 --> 1:34:25.680 where you want to go get some more popcorn and 1:34:26.160 --> 1:34:27.720 something to drink. Maybe look for a. 1:34:27.760 --> 1:34:32.120 Lid, an elusive lid, because it's Arthur Fleck in joker. 1:34:32.960 --> 1:34:35.439 I do think that Phoenix has a talent above all 1:34:35.479 --> 1:34:38.800 for miserableness, and to me, this is one of his 1:34:38.920 --> 1:34:42.639 most fascinating ones. Arthur Fleck the movie itself, we don't 1:34:42.640 --> 1:34:44.320 need to re litigate it. I know I'm one of 1:34:44.360 --> 1:34:47.240 the few people who take it seriously. I'll say I 1:34:47.280 --> 1:34:49.200 still feel okay about that. A couple of years on. 1:34:49.520 --> 1:34:53.640 I think we've only seen more disgruntled individuals lashing out 1:34:53.640 --> 1:34:57.040 at society that hasn't lightened up in recent years. So 1:34:57.120 --> 1:34:59.320 I think this movie resonates in that way. And I 1:34:59.400 --> 1:35:02.680 also think that that is what connects with Phoenix's performance. 1:35:02.960 --> 1:35:06.120 Arthur Fleck is both a symptom and a symbol of 1:35:06.200 --> 1:35:10.479 societal breakdown in Joker, and that is something that Phoenix 1:35:10.600 --> 1:35:15.360 communicates through a performance of operatic physicality. 1:35:16.200 --> 1:35:17.160 So yeah, I like the movie. 1:35:17.280 --> 1:35:19.680 There's a lot there, but for me, it's Phoenix who 1:35:19.800 --> 1:35:24.720 is the centrifugal force, and I am mesmerized by his 1:35:25.040 --> 1:35:31.000 carefully choreographed but seemingly chaotic clumsiness in this movie. That's 1:35:31.040 --> 1:35:33.880 also what makes this a somewhat funny performance. I think 1:35:33.920 --> 1:35:37.719 of him running down the streets or hallways, his limbs 1:35:37.880 --> 1:35:40.760 all askew. He's not, but he might as well be 1:35:40.840 --> 1:35:44.160 wearing clown shoes. That's how he runs. I think about 1:35:44.200 --> 1:35:46.879 him slipping and fumbling with the gun on the subway 1:35:46.960 --> 1:35:49.760 in that sequence where he's trying to defend himself from 1:35:49.840 --> 1:35:53.479 his attackers. And then yeah, the dance on those steps. 1:35:53.680 --> 1:35:56.639 I love so much, the dance and then his comic 1:35:56.800 --> 1:35:59.880 scrambling away when the cops come interrupt him in undercut. 1:36:00.040 --> 1:36:02.640 The whole scene, now, as outward is so much of 1:36:02.680 --> 1:36:05.360 this is Phoenix. This is the thing he does. We've 1:36:05.400 --> 1:36:08.000 touched on a number of times. He internalizes all of 1:36:08.120 --> 1:36:11.640 this as well, so you're getting both. He's using physicality 1:36:11.720 --> 1:36:15.720 to convey and internal brokenness, and we get another man 1:36:15.800 --> 1:36:19.160 whose wires just seem to be crossed, and in this movie, 1:36:19.200 --> 1:36:21.680 he's stuck in a society that doesn't care at all 1:36:21.840 --> 1:36:23.920 to even bother trying to uncross them. 1:36:24.560 --> 1:36:28.120 He just asked the same questions every week, how's your job? 1:36:28.800 --> 1:36:33.439 Are you having any negative thoughts? All I have are 1:36:33.560 --> 1:36:40.200 negative thoughts, But you don't listen anyway. I said, for 1:36:40.439 --> 1:36:44.960 my whole life, I didn't know if I even really existed, 1:36:46.800 --> 1:36:52.719 But I do, and people are starting to notice. 1:36:54.160 --> 1:36:57.280 I heard from Anton varfort Over on Twitter who said 1:36:57.360 --> 1:36:59.880 Joker is good. I think there is a vulnerability or 1:37:00.080 --> 1:37:03.240 maybe even something damaged there. It is to Woking that 1:37:03.400 --> 1:37:06.000 makes him work especially well in those kind of roles. 1:37:06.240 --> 1:37:08.080 I don't think the movie was amazing, but it wasn't 1:37:08.200 --> 1:37:11.760 just a King of Comedy ripoff. So yep, I'm going 1:37:11.880 --> 1:37:16.360 with Arthur Fleck my number two. I think, you know, technically, 1:37:16.439 --> 1:37:18.680 if we were including her, I'd probably have it up 1:37:18.720 --> 1:37:21.599 this high and Joker would be at three. But for now, 1:37:22.120 --> 1:37:24.360 it's my number two Walking Phoenix performance. 1:37:25.000 --> 1:37:27.360 Yeah, let's just go ahead and keep this positive. I'm 1:37:27.400 --> 1:37:30.479 not gonna rehash any in my comments about not only 1:37:30.560 --> 1:37:32.160 the film, but actually it turns out. 1:37:32.080 --> 1:37:37.840 I didn't even really like Walking Phoenix performance, and terrible, terrible. 1:37:37.560 --> 1:37:41.680 To me, especially after preparing for this list, is genuinely 1:37:42.240 --> 1:37:45.920 unthinkable because I think he can pull off the impossible, 1:37:46.600 --> 1:37:52.360 and yet Joker was too much for Walking Phoenix. In 1:37:52.439 --> 1:37:56.280 this case, I've got at number two a performance that 1:37:56.400 --> 1:38:01.320 you already mentioned. Some crossover here Paul Thomas Anderson Larry 1:38:01.560 --> 1:38:04.720 Dox Sportello from a Inherent Vice, which contains what is 1:38:04.800 --> 1:38:08.800 still probably my funniest moment in any Paul Thomas Anderson film, 1:38:09.240 --> 1:38:12.639 when early in the movie he's talking to Jenna Malone's 1:38:12.720 --> 1:38:17.479 character at her kitchen table, she's recounting her heroin use 1:38:18.040 --> 1:38:22.520 and getting pregnant. She shows a picture of little Amethyst, 1:38:23.320 --> 1:38:25.240 which Phoenix's doc responds to. 1:38:25.760 --> 1:38:27.640 This way, this is. 1:38:29.479 --> 1:38:32.679 What we had her looking like. Everybody helpfully pointed out 1:38:32.720 --> 1:38:35.559 how the heron was actually coming through my breast milk. 1:38:36.240 --> 1:38:41.320 But m h, now, I don't know that I've seen 1:38:41.400 --> 1:38:44.240 one used myself in the wild. But not surprisingly, if 1:38:44.280 --> 1:38:47.240 you search in Hairent Vice scream or Joaquin Phoenix screaming, 1:38:47.840 --> 1:38:50.360 all the gifts pop up. This is a ready made 1:38:50.560 --> 1:38:54.879 meme moment, but it's really brilliant acting. I mean Malone, 1:38:55.560 --> 1:38:57.920 she doesn't flinch at all what he screams like that. 1:38:58.400 --> 1:39:00.760 She does say I, I don't know if you have 1:39:00.880 --> 1:39:04.080 the stomach for it before she hands him the photo, 1:39:04.320 --> 1:39:07.080 so she knows that the picture is horrifying because she 1:39:07.200 --> 1:39:11.519 was breastfeeding but using heroin at the time, but it's 1:39:11.520 --> 1:39:15.120 still her baby. And you still expect that Doxportello will 1:39:15.160 --> 1:39:20.679 react by repressing whatever his instinctual reaction is. You actually 1:39:20.720 --> 1:39:23.920 think he'll do what he does right after he screams, 1:39:24.439 --> 1:39:27.320 which is he looks again at the photo, even though 1:39:27.360 --> 1:39:29.320 he doesn't want to. He looks again at the photo 1:39:29.400 --> 1:39:32.200 almost like he's he's assessing it, and he says mm hm, 1:39:33.520 --> 1:39:36.760 and he's very clinical about it, but he can't help it. 1:39:36.840 --> 1:39:39.680 He's so horrified. He lets out that scream and then 1:39:39.800 --> 1:39:43.960 it just immediately closes up. And I laugh every time 1:39:44.120 --> 1:39:46.840 I see it, and I do just love this gumshoe 1:39:47.000 --> 1:39:52.080 character who's in, as you said, this labyrinthine pinsion world 1:39:52.160 --> 1:39:56.599 of early seventies LA. In the setup to our review 1:39:56.640 --> 1:39:59.080 of this film, I described it this way. I said, 1:39:59.120 --> 1:40:03.120 take the big Lebouse, he's perpetually stone protagonists. Add the 1:40:03.320 --> 1:40:07.479 anachronistic absurdity and culture clashing of Altmans along Goodbye, Mix 1:40:07.600 --> 1:40:10.800 in the borderline nonsensical plot machinations of the Big Sleep, 1:40:11.280 --> 1:40:14.280 and top it all off with the pervasive corruption of Chinatown. 1:40:15.000 --> 1:40:17.160 That's what you get with this film. And there's some 1:40:17.240 --> 1:40:20.080 pretty strong touchstones there. Not surprising that I love this 1:40:20.240 --> 1:40:24.400 movie as much as I do. And I think one 1:40:24.479 --> 1:40:26.559 of his real gifts we've talked about a few of them, 1:40:27.160 --> 1:40:30.519 is that he's able to embody these characters who do 1:40:30.680 --> 1:40:35.040 kind of straddle these different these different worlds. He so 1:40:35.479 --> 1:40:39.599 naturally exudes being a man out of time, even literal 1:40:39.720 --> 1:40:42.840 time with this character and others in terms of the 1:40:43.439 --> 1:40:46.920 pace of his movements, his manner of speaking. He always 1:40:47.040 --> 1:40:51.839 moves at his own pace and often doesn't verbally respond 1:40:52.479 --> 1:40:55.639 in moments that you think a woking Phoenix character would. 1:40:56.400 --> 1:41:02.240 He's he's processing, he's experiencing it. You experience it in 1:41:02.360 --> 1:41:06.400 real time with Phoenix's character. So I'm with you in 1:41:06.520 --> 1:41:09.439 my appreciation. I have it even higher Dox Portello at 1:41:09.479 --> 1:41:13.639 number two. A lot of processing going on by document 1:41:13.800 --> 1:41:17.960 of processing, indeed, and that brings us to our number one, 1:41:18.080 --> 1:41:21.760 which is not a surprising pick, but we think it's 1:41:21.840 --> 1:41:25.760 the right pick obviously, and it's a joint number one 1:41:25.880 --> 1:41:28.479 pick there. There can only be one here if we're 1:41:28.479 --> 1:41:31.000 talking about Phoenix, and it turns out if we're talking 1:41:31.040 --> 1:41:33.200 about Phoenix and Paul Thomas Anderson. 1:41:33.880 --> 1:41:36.800 Yeah, I mean in The Master as Freddi Quell. It's 1:41:37.280 --> 1:41:40.640 a character you immediately know when you first see him 1:41:40.640 --> 1:41:43.040 in that movie you're not going to take your eyes 1:41:43.080 --> 1:41:46.280 off him, partly because you don't want him out of 1:41:46.320 --> 1:41:48.639 your sight for what he will do if he's out 1:41:48.640 --> 1:41:54.000 of your range of vision, so discomfaning, so unnerving. Maybe 1:41:54.160 --> 1:41:59.120 the character that tests the theory the most of Phoenix, 1:41:59.280 --> 1:42:03.960 somehow ill attracting the audience's interest and sympathy. I think 1:42:04.120 --> 1:42:08.759 Freddie Quell pushes that the most, and it's only maybe 1:42:08.880 --> 1:42:13.560 having Philip Seymour Hoffmann's Master as something of an antagonist 1:42:13.840 --> 1:42:16.320 that allows that to happen. I think once we see 1:42:16.920 --> 1:42:19.559 how Freddy is being manipulated a little bit, we maybe 1:42:19.640 --> 1:42:21.320 begin to feel a little more sorry for him. But 1:42:21.479 --> 1:42:27.799 this is a broken, dangerous, scarred man. And I remember 1:42:27.920 --> 1:42:31.959 my first impression of The Master, a movie I've revisited 1:42:32.000 --> 1:42:35.000 a number of times, but coming away from it that 1:42:35.040 --> 1:42:37.880 first screening was Phoenix's face and what he did to it. 1:42:38.800 --> 1:42:43.120 I don't know how he transformed physically so much. You know, 1:42:43.200 --> 1:42:46.639 we talk about losing weight gaining weight for actors. I wrote, 1:42:47.040 --> 1:42:50.080 his face was withered and warren. Particularly when he scowls, 1:42:50.600 --> 1:42:52.960 it's almost as if his cleft lip has spread so 1:42:53.120 --> 1:42:57.479 that rivulets now also cross his cheeks, his brow, his chin, 1:42:58.200 --> 1:43:01.840 And that also is a physical man inifestation again of 1:43:01.920 --> 1:43:06.280 what's inside. It's like all of this torture is bubbling 1:43:06.400 --> 1:43:09.479 and seeping out, and it's coming out in his face. 1:43:09.520 --> 1:43:11.880 It's also coming out, and how Freddie walks, how Phoenix 1:43:12.000 --> 1:43:14.080 carries himself. I want to get to this when we 1:43:14.160 --> 1:43:18.080 talk about his performance in Her. There's some interesting examples 1:43:18.160 --> 1:43:20.800 of just, you know, his gait as an actor, and 1:43:20.960 --> 1:43:24.479 we see it here more than anywhere else. I think 1:43:25.280 --> 1:43:28.080 it's just this mask of torment that Phoenix wears and 1:43:28.640 --> 1:43:31.639 spreads to the rest of his body, and of course 1:43:31.840 --> 1:43:35.080 it does explode into violent physicality at times. I think 1:43:35.120 --> 1:43:37.080 one of the movies' first indications of this is that 1:43:37.280 --> 1:43:41.519 incredibly odd and uncomfortable scene where Freddie is working as 1:43:41.560 --> 1:43:44.479 a photographer at the department store when he gets back 1:43:44.520 --> 1:43:47.880 from the war, and he just lets his rage seep 1:43:47.960 --> 1:43:51.280 out into this passive, aggressive session with a client. 1:43:51.760 --> 1:43:52.880 I'm starting to sweat. 1:43:53.880 --> 1:43:57.360 You need to shut up, you need to move the gun. 1:43:58.560 --> 1:44:03.040 You need to shut up, you need to back off, 1:44:03.880 --> 1:44:05.200 sit down. I'm very sorry. 1:44:05.280 --> 1:44:08.000 I'm trying to get the landing right. He must understand 1:44:08.600 --> 1:44:09.559 you want to get the radio. 1:44:11.640 --> 1:44:15.880 You can hear the simmering confrontation there. But there's also, 1:44:16.000 --> 1:44:18.680 of course in what Phoenix does again the actions. There's 1:44:18.800 --> 1:44:22.000 the slow shoving of that hot lamp towards the man's face, 1:44:22.680 --> 1:44:26.479 then the choke like tightening of the tie, and of 1:44:26.560 --> 1:44:28.920 course again that scowling look he has at the very 1:44:28.960 --> 1:44:31.200 beginning of the scene, just utter disdain for this guy. 1:44:31.360 --> 1:44:34.240 You know, he hates this man. We could speculate on 1:44:34.320 --> 1:44:36.400 the reasons. I think the movie goes on to give 1:44:36.479 --> 1:44:40.320 us a few of them, but immediately Freddy Quell hates 1:44:40.400 --> 1:44:43.120 this man. It's going to go badly for him. So yeah, 1:44:43.360 --> 1:44:45.600 I'm with you, master crowning achievement at this point in 1:44:45.680 --> 1:44:48.800 his career. Just a perfect marriage of the physical and 1:44:48.800 --> 1:44:50.799 the psychological that he's so good. 1:44:50.640 --> 1:44:54.800 At rewatching that scene today. I don't think it's an 1:44:54.840 --> 1:44:59.759 accident that the actor, if you look closely, the actor 1:45:00.000 --> 1:45:06.200 really resembles Philip Seymour Hopkins Lancaster. So it's it's foreshadowing 1:45:06.640 --> 1:45:10.760 the relationship he's going to have with that man as well, 1:45:10.920 --> 1:45:18.680 Lancaster DoD And we do get this seemingly unprovoked response, 1:45:18.920 --> 1:45:22.720 this disdain for this character. But it all starts when 1:45:22.760 --> 1:45:25.720 he asks him about who it's for. He says it's 1:45:25.800 --> 1:45:30.840 for his wife. This is this is the virile American 1:45:30.960 --> 1:45:35.800 male who is the domesticated version of a man that 1:45:35.880 --> 1:45:39.679 Freddy Quell can never be right. And it makes sense 1:45:39.760 --> 1:45:41.840 on some level that then that's going to be his 1:45:42.000 --> 1:45:45.120 instinctive response to him. And this movie is dealing with 1:45:45.160 --> 1:45:46.920 a lot of those subjects and those themes in a 1:45:46.960 --> 1:45:50.880 way that is not spelled out. But I really feel 1:45:50.880 --> 1:45:53.080 that Freddy Quell is carrying the burden of post war 1:45:53.160 --> 1:45:57.360 America on his shoulders, on his pretty slight shoulders here, Yeah, 1:45:57.560 --> 1:46:01.639 very thin and way more frail coming back from the war. 1:46:01.720 --> 1:46:03.559 And the way I described his character at the time 1:46:03.680 --> 1:46:07.720 was he's like an arthritic fist. You know, he's just 1:46:07.960 --> 1:46:08.720 crumpled up. 1:46:09.560 --> 1:46:10.839 You see it in that scene. 1:46:11.160 --> 1:46:13.320 It's as if every part of him is in pain. 1:46:13.400 --> 1:46:15.200 I think he does remark at some point that he's 1:46:15.240 --> 1:46:18.040 got stomach pain. But you watch him in that scene 1:46:18.280 --> 1:46:22.200 when he's getting the camera ready, pretty Quill acts as 1:46:22.240 --> 1:46:27.559 if he's perpetually experiencing heartburn, a terrible taste in his mouth, 1:46:27.600 --> 1:46:33.160 that as if he is always suffering or experiencing some pain, 1:46:33.880 --> 1:46:38.360 And you watch his mannerisms in that scene or throughout 1:46:38.400 --> 1:46:41.600 the movie, is Freddy. I really think a lot of 1:46:42.000 --> 1:46:47.000 lesser actors who tried to embody that character, tried to 1:46:47.560 --> 1:46:51.080 evoke those feelings and the type of phrasing that we're 1:46:51.320 --> 1:46:57.120 summoning here. They would make him overly theatrical. They would 1:46:57.160 --> 1:47:01.680 make him feel like a character, wouldn't feel natural, and 1:47:01.720 --> 1:47:03.880 it wouldn't have the power that it has. The putting 1:47:03.920 --> 1:47:06.960 his hand on his hips, the slouching that he does 1:47:07.040 --> 1:47:09.960 with his shoulders, in the facial reactions, all the things 1:47:10.000 --> 1:47:15.599 were saying, Phoenix makes it feel almost like Freddie Quell 1:47:15.760 --> 1:47:17.479 may have come out of the womb that way to 1:47:17.560 --> 1:47:19.639 go back to bow is afraid. We know that's probably 1:47:19.760 --> 1:47:23.360 not the case. That the war and his experience is 1:47:23.439 --> 1:47:26.799 there had to shape him somewhat into, if not completely, 1:47:26.920 --> 1:47:29.599 into the man that we see now, this broken man 1:47:29.680 --> 1:47:32.639 that we see now. But he makes it feel as 1:47:32.720 --> 1:47:35.920 if this is his life experience, and we don't ever 1:47:36.080 --> 1:47:37.880 we never questioned it. I never questioned it. 1:47:38.040 --> 1:47:40.880 Enough performance you'd pass this guy in the street. 1:47:41.240 --> 1:47:44.760 You know, that's like a very basic litmus test you 1:47:44.840 --> 1:47:48.000 can give to any sort of reality based performance. At 1:47:48.080 --> 1:47:50.920 least can I imagine myself passing this guy in the street, 1:47:51.360 --> 1:47:54.880 And in Freddy Quayle's case, absolutely, and you would know 1:47:55.040 --> 1:47:59.640 by all of those things you described Phoenix doing that 1:47:59.760 --> 1:48:03.360 can innicates you'd want to step aside, right it's just 1:48:03.560 --> 1:48:03.880 like this. 1:48:04.840 --> 1:48:07.920 Chances ire'll pass this guy, it'll be fine. Chances are 1:48:08.000 --> 1:48:09.560 more likely it won't. 1:48:09.280 --> 1:48:12.519 Be Yeah, even if he's not being assault of himself 1:48:12.600 --> 1:48:13.600 and no, no moment. 1:48:13.520 --> 1:48:15.920 How he's carrying himself, just the energy. Yep. 1:48:17.200 --> 1:48:20.800 Those are our top five walk in Phoenix performances. Any 1:48:20.840 --> 1:48:23.160 honorable mentions, Josh, do you like to throw in? 1:48:23.680 --> 1:48:23.880 Yeah? 1:48:24.200 --> 1:48:26.479 I think we should get to this one because I 1:48:26.720 --> 1:48:28.719 saw this come up a lot on social media. People 1:48:28.720 --> 1:48:31.320 are big fans of the film, Come on, come on. 1:48:31.920 --> 1:48:35.479 And his performance as Johnny this is from writer director 1:48:35.520 --> 1:48:39.400 Mike Mills, and this is another nice guy Phoenix role. 1:48:39.520 --> 1:48:39.640 Right. 1:48:39.760 --> 1:48:43.360 He's this single, kind of emotionally reserved uncle of a 1:48:43.479 --> 1:48:46.040 young boy and he ends up caring for the boy 1:48:46.200 --> 1:48:48.519 while his mother and father are going through this difficult patch. 1:48:48.560 --> 1:48:50.759 The boys played by Woody Norman. They have great chemistry 1:48:50.840 --> 1:48:56.040 together and it's a very generous and light turn. I 1:48:56.240 --> 1:48:59.720 think that is as good as the other stuff he's done. 1:48:59.760 --> 1:49:03.720 Maybe just not isn't the epitome to me of what 1:49:03.960 --> 1:49:06.000 Phoenix is like. So it didn't quite make the cut. 1:49:06.640 --> 1:49:13.880 Maybe we can just take this process slowly and and yeah, 1:49:14.040 --> 1:49:15.000 see how it feels. 1:49:16.400 --> 1:49:16.680 M H. 1:49:17.240 --> 1:49:23.519 Yeah, and I'm just really sorry that your children died. 1:49:27.160 --> 1:49:28.479 You know, only I can do that part. 1:49:29.000 --> 1:49:31.360 Yeah, I told you that's how me and mom do it. 1:49:32.000 --> 1:49:34.360 If it makes sense for your mom to do that, 1:49:34.920 --> 1:49:36.479 that's cool, But it doesn't make sense to me. That's 1:49:36.479 --> 1:49:41.519 what I was explaining to you, because it's ridiculous. It's sad. 1:49:42.720 --> 1:49:45.599 From April twenty twenty three, those were our top five 1:49:45.720 --> 1:49:49.080 Joaquin Phoenix performances. You can see our picks and more 1:49:49.160 --> 1:49:52.799 top fives at film spotting dot net slash lists. 1:49:53.479 --> 1:49:56.200 Michael. That does it for us listeners. 1:49:56.280 --> 1:49:58.599 If you'd like to connect with us on social media, 1:49:58.680 --> 1:50:01.240 you can find Adam and the show on Instagram, Facebook, 1:50:01.680 --> 1:50:05.920 and letterbox at film Spotting, I'm at Larson on film 1:50:06.080 --> 1:50:09.280 At all those places, as well as Blue Sky, we 1:50:09.400 --> 1:50:12.640 are independently produced and listener supported. You can support the 1:50:12.680 --> 1:50:16.040 show by joining the film Spotting Family at film spottingfamily 1:50:16.120 --> 1:50:19.160 dot com. You can listen early and ad free. You'll 1:50:19.200 --> 1:50:22.639 also get a weekly newsletter, monthly bonus episodes, and access 1:50:22.680 --> 1:50:25.800 to the entire show archive. For show t shirts and 1:50:25.880 --> 1:50:30.479 other merch go to film spotting dot net slash shop now. 1:50:30.680 --> 1:50:34.800 In that film Spotting archive, you will find reviews of 1:50:34.960 --> 1:50:38.760 all three previous ariastorfilms, so bo Is Afraid on Show 1:50:38.840 --> 1:50:42.559 nine seventeen, Midsomars seven thirty six, and Hereditary on six 1:50:42.800 --> 1:50:46.000 eighty five. I'm going to do a quick ranking here, Michael, 1:50:46.200 --> 1:50:52.040 just because I recently revised my Ariaster ranking on Letterboxed, 1:50:52.120 --> 1:50:54.320 I still have Hereditary up at the top. Maybe it's 1:50:54.360 --> 1:50:58.160 the horror fan in me just love that movie so much. 1:50:59.160 --> 1:51:01.800 I think I have bos Afraid next. I think that's 1:51:01.800 --> 1:51:04.960 where I put it because it and Eddington are close 1:51:05.240 --> 1:51:07.479 in that. Something's worked for me. Some things don't. But 1:51:07.560 --> 1:51:11.200 I love the swings they're taking. Midsomar I am positive on, 1:51:11.520 --> 1:51:14.720 but I thought was the least successful. Do you have 1:51:14.800 --> 1:51:16.920 a clear favorite of his, Michael, or have you seen 1:51:17.000 --> 1:51:17.360 all four? 1:51:18.040 --> 1:51:20.120 It's a good I have. It's a good question. I 1:51:20.760 --> 1:51:25.000 haven't revisited Hereditary because you know it's for me. That 1:51:25.000 --> 1:51:27.559 wouldn't be an easy revisit, although it's very good, I think, 1:51:27.720 --> 1:51:32.880 and unnerving as all hell. But don't I don't. I 1:51:32.920 --> 1:51:35.000 got to think about that in a funny way. The 1:51:35.120 --> 1:51:40.760 movies themselves are so internally uneven and arguably inconsistent, Yet 1:51:40.880 --> 1:51:46.680 he is consistently worth the provocations. You know, I mean 1:51:46.720 --> 1:51:48.519 I I's a good sign. 1:51:48.680 --> 1:51:51.240 I think I feel the same way. Yep. Yeah. 1:51:51.360 --> 1:51:53.760 And I'm realizing now, Michael, you're basically coming away from 1:51:53.760 --> 1:51:57.080 this recording with a homework assignment that's pretty hefty. So 1:51:57.240 --> 1:52:00.680 I want your ariost ranked list. I want you to 1:52:00.800 --> 1:52:04.160 choose between the apartment in Sunset Boulevard, and then I 1:52:04.240 --> 1:52:06.000 want you to vote in the film spotting poll about 1:52:06.040 --> 1:52:08.080 actresses playing actresses who are going through it? 1:52:08.160 --> 1:52:09.680 Okay, you got all that? Do you write all that 1:52:10.479 --> 1:52:10.800 in your. 1:52:10.720 --> 1:52:12.880 Noble all right, Yeah, I'll do it. It'll be the 1:52:13.000 --> 1:52:15.599 last time I remember darken these doors again. 1:52:15.720 --> 1:52:22.439 But yeah, it's next week, all right, on streaming and 1:52:22.760 --> 1:52:24.040 v o D right now. 1:52:24.360 --> 1:52:29.240 Recently released is Happy Gilmore two. This has apparently Betty Safty, Haley, 1:52:29.320 --> 1:52:33.599 Joel Osmond, Margaret Qually, Travis Kelcey and Bad Bunny. Make 1:52:33.680 --> 1:52:36.400 of all that what you will? In wide release The 1:52:36.520 --> 1:52:41.640 Fantastic Four First Steps recommended by Michael Phillips. Also in 1:52:41.720 --> 1:52:45.920 wide release, Oh Hi. This stars Molly Gordon from Shiva, Baby, 1:52:46.000 --> 1:52:48.960 Theater Camp and of course The Bear. She plays a 1:52:49.000 --> 1:52:50.880 woman who goes on a romantic get away with a 1:52:50.960 --> 1:52:55.120 new boyfriend played by Logan Lherman. Next week, Adam is 1:52:55.360 --> 1:52:58.920 back and we will be doing a Pantheon Project review 1:52:59.000 --> 1:53:01.640 of One Flew Over the Huku's Nest in honor of 1:53:01.680 --> 1:53:05.760 its fiftieth anniversary, and we're also tackling our top five 1:53:06.200 --> 1:53:10.479 Jack Nicholson scenes. Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe 1:53:10.520 --> 1:53:14.000 Deso and Sam van Holgren. Without Sam and Golden Joe, 1:53:14.160 --> 1:53:18.000 this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Kempenar. 1:53:18.320 --> 1:53:21.719 Special thanks to everyone at wb easy Chicago. More information 1:53:22.080 --> 1:53:27.000 is available at wbeazy dot org and special special thanks 1:53:27.479 --> 1:53:31.040 to Michael Phillips for helping me wade through my conflicted 1:53:31.080 --> 1:53:35.240 thoughts about Eddington. Michael, any work you've been up to 1:53:35.560 --> 1:53:39.400 coming out, things you're looking forward to that listeners should 1:53:39.600 --> 1:53:40.479 keep an eye out for. 1:53:41.000 --> 1:53:45.240 I mean, every almost every week over a classical WFMT 1:53:45.720 --> 1:53:48.959 ninety eight point seven FM here in Chicago, I introduce 1:53:49.320 --> 1:53:53.080 and host the first segment of the weekly program. Soundtrack 1:53:53.160 --> 1:53:57.320 a great array of film music, mostly film, TV, some 1:53:57.520 --> 1:54:01.960 video games, but mostly film. And you know, I'm working 1:54:02.000 --> 1:54:06.439 on just all kinds of fascinating stuff, including I Think 1:54:06.600 --> 1:54:09.200 what I Hope is going to be a piece that 1:54:09.280 --> 1:54:11.280 allows me to stretch out a bit and actually take 1:54:11.320 --> 1:54:15.920 time to do a proper Kim Novak interview and profile. 1:54:16.040 --> 1:54:19.000 She's getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice International 1:54:19.000 --> 1:54:22.800 Film Festival. I've been lucky enough to get invited back 1:54:22.840 --> 1:54:26.120 to Venice to be on this sort of off off 1:54:26.200 --> 1:54:29.760 the main slate side panel called the Bi and Ali 1:54:29.880 --> 1:54:33.560 College Cinema. Several critics in the country are going over 1:54:33.640 --> 1:54:36.920 to could reconvene and do that, and I'd like to. 1:54:37.080 --> 1:54:39.320 I'd like to, and I'll just talk process right here. 1:54:39.360 --> 1:54:40.840 I don't care if it doesn't work out. You guys 1:54:40.880 --> 1:54:43.600 are all friends. I'm trying to get. I may try 1:54:43.640 --> 1:54:46.880 to get out to Oregon, where miss Novak lives and 1:54:47.040 --> 1:54:50.040 has lived for many decades now, and do a do 1:54:50.160 --> 1:54:53.280 a minute interview away from the red carpet first and 1:54:53.360 --> 1:54:55.360 then catch up with her. So I'd love to. I'd 1:54:55.400 --> 1:54:57.440 love to do that. She is one hundred percent of Chicago, 1:54:58.080 --> 1:55:02.800 a really great, very bittersweet and anyways Chicago story, and 1:55:03.200 --> 1:55:05.920 I love it that she's getting the recognition now for 1:55:06.560 --> 1:55:11.839 one of the most unusual big stars Hollywood ever produced. 1:55:12.160 --> 1:55:15.120 Sounds like an incredible project, So all the best with 1:55:15.320 --> 1:55:19.640 that and safe travels to Venice. Thanks again for joining 1:55:19.720 --> 1:55:22.360 me here. Thanks Josh, it was fun for film spotting. 1:55:22.560 --> 1:55:23.440 I'm Josh Larson. 1:55:23.640 --> 1:55:24.440 Thanks for listening. 1:55:24.680 --> 1:55:29.200 This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. The burn. 1:55:45.520 --> 1:55:48.440 Film Spotting is listeners supported. Join the film Spotting Family 1:55:48.560 --> 1:55:51.400 at film spottingfamily dot com and get access to ad 1:55:51.480 --> 1:55:54.880 free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and, for 1:55:54.960 --> 1:55:57.600 the first time, all in one place, the entire film 1:55:57.640 --> 1:56:00.320 spotting archive going back to two thousand and five. That's 1:56:00.320 --> 1:56:02.080 a film spotting Family dot com 1:56:04.240 --> 1:56:05.520 Pannably