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Speaker 2: What kind of a show you guys putting.
Speaker 3: On here today?
Speaker 2: You're not interested in art? Now? No, Look, we're going
Speaker 2: to do this thing. We're going to have a conversation.
Speaker 3: From Chicago. This is Film Spotting celebrating our twentieth year.
Speaker 3: I'm Josh Larson and I'm Adam Kempinar.
Speaker 4: No, it's not a revolution.
Speaker 3: The message is clear. I'll be seeing you very soon.
Speaker 3: Let of us see you first.
Speaker 5: Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle after Another may not be
Speaker 5: a revolution, but it is one of the movie events
Speaker 5: of the year.
Speaker 3: We've got a review, plus the new doc Predators, Massacre
Speaker 3: Theater and more ahead on Film Spotting.
Speaker 4: I don't know what freedom is, no fear, Just like.
Speaker 5: Tom Cruise, Welcome to Film spotting a new film from
Speaker 5: Paul Thomas Anderson is always a big deal, Josh, but
Speaker 5: one Battle after another it does feel bigger, and not
Speaker 5: just because of the Imax screenings the VistaVision screenings. Did
Speaker 5: you get to partake in either of those in Scotland?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: The Scotland theater adventure continues. We tried out another one
Speaker 3: and it was not Imax or VistaVision, but it was
Speaker 3: a giant screen. It was a beautiful presentation, huge theater.
Speaker 3: So yeah, excited about that. And a quick thanks to
Speaker 3: listener Heather who just before we signed on here, she
Speaker 3: left a note about the DCA in Dundee. Dundee is
Speaker 3: the town we've been traveling to to see Move and
Speaker 3: that's a smaller, almost art gallery slash theater, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I hope to get there as well. They have fewer screens,
Speaker 3: I've heard, they're not quite as big as the one
Speaker 3: where I did see One Battle after Another, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to see that one on as
Speaker 3: big of a screen as possible.
Speaker 5: I didn't have a special experience myself, but I did
Speaker 5: see it on the big screen at theater Number one
Speaker 5: at my local multiplex so that's the best that I
Speaker 5: could do. We will have a review of one battle
Speaker 5: after another here in moments. Plus I'll have a few
Speaker 5: thoughts on the new documentary Predators. Yes, it is a
Speaker 5: documentary Predators, not about the making of any of those
Speaker 5: Schwarzenegger movies. And we will play Massacre theater. A quick
Speaker 5: reminder that film Spotting is now available as a video podcast.
Speaker 5: You mentioned, Heather. That was a comment that came in
Speaker 5: Josh via Spotify that I shared with you. And if
Speaker 5: you are a listener on Spotify, you can toggleween video
Speaker 5: and audio. But you can also watch the show on YouTube,
Speaker 5: and you can find the link to our video episodes
Speaker 5: over at film spotting dot net slash episodes.
Speaker 6: Well look, look, maybe I can maybe I can give
Speaker 6: you some information and then you give me some information.
Speaker 6: All right, we'll just share a little information. My name
Speaker 6: is Bob Ferguson. I don't know if you've ever heard
Speaker 6: of any all right. I was part of French seventy
Speaker 6: five for years, years and years. All right. They used
Speaker 6: to call me ghetto pat rocketman stuff like that. Only
Speaker 6: problem is I've fried my brain since then. Man. I
Speaker 6: have abused drugs and alcohol for the past thirty years. Man,
Speaker 6: I'm a drug and alcohol lover, and I cannot remember
Speaker 6: for the life of me or the life of my
Speaker 6: only child. The answer to your question, what time is it?
Speaker 3: Fifteen?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 6: I need this rendezvous point. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: I need it.
Speaker 3: I understand.
Speaker 5: And the question is I think it's appropriate for this movie, Josh?
Speaker 5: How it just throws us right into this sort of past,
Speaker 5: sort of present world. We're going to jump right in
Speaker 5: to one battle after another. And I thought I might
Speaker 5: go see it with a friend who lives about twenty
Speaker 5: minutes away from me, Scott, and Scott's one of the
Speaker 5: biggest movie fans I know. Of course, he beat me
Speaker 5: to it as soon as it was available. He went
Speaker 5: and saw it. So I was going to go see
Speaker 5: it all alone. And he texted me back and he
Speaker 5: pointed out something that I had missed that Paul Thomas
Speaker 5: Anderson that night was programming TCM with movies that inspired
Speaker 5: one battle after another. And here was the lineup. Yeah,
Speaker 5: here was the lineup. And this will of course, since
Speaker 5: you have seen his new movie, this should feel appropriate.
Speaker 5: The movies were running on empty midnight run The French
Speaker 5: Connection and The Battle of Algiers. Run through those real
Speaker 5: quick right, running on empty the Sydney Lamette film with
Speaker 5: River Phoenix. Of course that makes sense, right, You've got
Speaker 5: former activist parents now in the wind, on the run,
Speaker 5: struggling with raising their teenage kids. Check Midnight Run a
Speaker 5: film spotting Pantheon movie. This new one from pta Is
Speaker 5: is kind of a road movie, and you've got the
Speaker 5: angle with de Niro and an element here of almost
Speaker 5: estranged father and daughter, right, the French connection, the obsessed
Speaker 5: authority figure that we have in this film played by
Speaker 5: Sean Penn, and also the conspiracy element. Oh and how
Speaker 5: about lengthy and very intense car chases or extended chase
Speaker 5: sequences period, and then well, the Battle of Algiers.
Speaker 3: That's an easy one.
Speaker 5: If there if there was one film that seems like
Speaker 5: it's the movie that most inspired one battle after another,
Speaker 5: it probably has to be The Battle of Algiers. Oh
Speaker 5: and it is the movie that is directly called out
Speaker 5: in this movie right where you have Leonardo DiCaprio's Bob Ferguson.
Speaker 5: Now this aged hippie who is getting high one night
Speaker 5: and since he's no longer in the game, all he
Speaker 5: can do is sort of fall back on the greatest hits.
Speaker 5: He actually puts in the Battle of Algiers so he
Speaker 5: can watch it and kind of quote along with the
Speaker 5: movie and relive his glory days through what is I
Speaker 5: suppose essentially the manual, you know, the Manual for the
Speaker 5: Revolutionary the Battle of Algiers. So I'm curious as as
Speaker 5: you hear that, I believe for the first time those
Speaker 5: four movies, though you probably saw the influence of some
Speaker 5: of those, and of course the Battle of Algiers, any
Speaker 5: of those really resonate with you in particular? What did
Speaker 5: you make of any influences and did any others strike
Speaker 5: you as you watch this movie or did you see
Speaker 5: this as as purely a Paul Thomas Anderson film.
Speaker 3: Boy, I want to get to that. I think the
Speaker 3: influences are interesting. It was something I thought about. But
Speaker 3: first I've got to get out of my system at him,
Speaker 3: because I haven't really been able to talk to many
Speaker 3: people besides Debbie, who is with me. This is the
Speaker 3: movie I've been waiting for all year, and it delivered astonishingly.
Speaker 3: I knew I knew nothing of its context going in,
Speaker 3: had not watched the trailer. I had no idea it
Speaker 3: was going to be this topical. If you remember when
Speaker 3: we did a Sacred Cow review of Dogged Afternoon not
Speaker 3: too long ago, I wondered what films and filmmakers are
Speaker 3: going to rise to the challenge that we're in right now,
Speaker 3: the way Sidney Lumett and al Pacino did. There. Of course,
Speaker 3: we talked about responding to this notion of state violence
Speaker 3: Mickey seventeen. We split on I thought it took a
Speaker 3: good sci fi swing at satirizing the state of things.
Speaker 3: Not everyone agreed, Eddington. I thought that was interesting, but
Speaker 3: felt a little bit behind the times given its lockdown setting.
Speaker 3: I know some folks took comfort in Superman as a
Speaker 3: tonal reprieve from what we're going through. You and I
Speaker 3: did not. For me, one battle after another? Is it?
Speaker 3: This is it? This is the movie, This is the
Speaker 3: movie we need right now? It is. Yes, it's exaggerated
Speaker 3: what we see in this film, but nothing in here
Speaker 3: is not happening to some degree right now in America.
Speaker 3: And I am in Scotland, but I am keeping an
Speaker 3: eye in Chicago. You better believe it. Ice agents, they're
Speaker 3: arresting and assaulting journalists, instigating violence. I mean, I could
Speaker 3: not believe what was on the screen in front of
Speaker 3: me and how it was reflecting what we are experiencing
Speaker 3: in America and what can we do in the midst
Speaker 3: of this. I think a lot of us feel paralyzed.
Speaker 3: But you know what, filmmakers can make films like this,
Speaker 3: Critics can champion them, and these are maybe small gestures,
Speaker 3: but you know, they add up or they're something, And
Speaker 3: at the end of one after another, I just I
Speaker 3: felt so galvanized about the littlest something because to my mind,
Speaker 3: there are a whole lot of people doing nothing and
Speaker 3: to see a formal filmmaker like Paul Thomas Anderson take
Speaker 3: this on and absolutely just kill the assignment was so
Speaker 3: thrilling to me. So just had to get that out
Speaker 3: of my system. Maybe we'll come back. I'm sure we'll
Speaker 3: come back to the politics of it. But I was
Speaker 3: thinking about these influences, this question, and I think what's
Speaker 3: so exciting about one battle after another on that front
Speaker 3: Adam is that this might be I would put this
Speaker 3: in the category of his most singular works, something like
Speaker 3: Punch Drunk Love in particular, where yes, the influences are there,
Speaker 3: but it's not something like you know, I would say,
Speaker 3: Phantom Thread is so obviously my favorite movie. By the way,
Speaker 3: I'm not knocking him for this. My favorite Paul Thomas
Speaker 3: Anderson movie, Phantom Threat very influenced by Hitchcock, right, among
Speaker 3: other things. It's all over it. There will be blood
Speaker 3: to me, you know, is so influenced by something like
Speaker 3: Citizen Kane, and you go down the line of his filmography.
Speaker 3: But I look at Punch Drunk Love, and that's a
Speaker 3: movie that, like only Paul Thomas Anderson could come up with,
Speaker 3: I feel like, and some people might feel that way
Speaker 3: about something like The Master perhaps, but I am definitely
Speaker 3: thinking that way about one battle after another. That being said, yes,
Speaker 3: Battle of Algiers, you know, just what a touchstone as
Speaker 3: well as a funny a funny side in that scene,
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, I thought of that before it did
Speaker 3: pop up in the movie French Connection, other seventies paranoid thrillers.
Speaker 3: The propulsion of those movies is what I think he
Speaker 3: borrows here. Yeah, and you know, just thematically, I thought
Speaker 3: about Alfonso Koran's Children of Men, which is more of
Speaker 3: a prophetic many many years now, a prophetic envisioning of
Speaker 3: what in that in the UK to teller Terrrian government
Speaker 3: response to refugees might look like. I think that's a
Speaker 3: more I don't want to say grim, but Children of
Speaker 3: Men is a more serious take on the subject. But
Speaker 3: that doesn't make one battle after another any more important,
Speaker 3: and its take on the subject just because it is
Speaker 3: this absurd, comic, hysterical satire that saying a lot of
Speaker 3: trenchant immediately needed things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm with you on so much of what you said,
Speaker 5: including a couple words you just used right there at
Speaker 5: the end. So let me get out just kind of
Speaker 5: my single sentence take on this film. It is a
Speaker 5: beautifully choreographed fever dream of resistance and reckoning, blending absurd
Speaker 5: of satire with a poignant meditation on parental legacy.
Speaker 3: That's the thing. There is such an emotional.
Speaker 5: Core to this movie as well that I'm sure we
Speaker 5: will get into. And I suppose this also indicates how
Speaker 5: long we've been doing this show. Though I don't know
Speaker 5: that I can remember examples of you telling me this.
Speaker 5: I think I always think about you, Josh when I'm
Speaker 5: at the movies. But I was watching this film and
Speaker 5: I was seeing certain scenes and different themes were being
Speaker 5: brought up, and I was thinking about the police state
Speaker 5: evidence in this film, evident in this film, and the
Speaker 5: state sanctioned violence. And I was thinking about our conversation
Speaker 5: about Dog Day Afternoon, and I was going, Josh is
Speaker 5: eating this up right now, Josh is halfway around the
Speaker 5: world eating this movie up. I was having very similar
Speaker 5: thoughts about the film, and I was.
Speaker 3: As well, cross the Atlantic.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think so. In terms of the influences,
Speaker 5: one that maybe he just couldn't program the fifth film,
Speaker 5: but I have to imagine that the fifth influence, and
Speaker 5: maybe this is just too easy picking, but come on,
Speaker 5: the fifth influence had to be Doctor Strangelove. Right with
Speaker 5: Sean Penn's character makes sense. His name is Colonel Lockjaw,
Speaker 5: after Jack t Ripper. His name is Colonel Lockjaw. He's
Speaker 5: a military figure. He's full of all sorts of interesting
Speaker 5: ticks and behavioral quirks. He's got that great haircut, and
Speaker 5: he will assert his authority unilaterally. And at one point
Speaker 5: he does speak of bodily fluids and his power being
Speaker 5: taken from him. So that seems like a pretty clear
Speaker 5: call or reference to Doctor Strangelove.
Speaker 3: To me, Jack, Jack, tell me, tell me Jack, when
Speaker 3: did you first well developed this there well.
Speaker 2: I I first became aware of it, Man Drake, during
Speaker 2: the physical act of love. Yes, a profound sense of fatigue,
Speaker 2: feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret
Speaker 2: these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you
Speaker 2: it has not recurred, Man Drake.
Speaker 5: Where those references ended up bearing fruit for me a
Speaker 5: little bit and thinking about this film, it actually was
Speaker 5: the first one Running on Empty, which is a movie
Speaker 5: I haven't thought about in a long time, but I
Speaker 5: remember watching a lot when I was a kid. I
Speaker 5: think it was just a movie that was on HBO,
Speaker 5: and for some reason it always really resonated with me.
Speaker 5: And one difference here is that because it is very similar,
Speaker 5: you have the parents. And maybe while I'm talking you
Speaker 5: can look it up because I can see I can
Speaker 5: see the actress in my head and cannot place her name,
Speaker 5: and it's killing me, right, jud Hirsh's the dad, River
Speaker 5: Phoenix is the sun, the talented musician's son. Man Christine Lottie,
Speaker 5: I just got it. Christine Lotti is the mom, isn't it?
Speaker 3: You got it? Nice time? Do I get two points?
Speaker 5: So Christine Lotti is the mom and they were activists,
Speaker 5: and they were involved in a bombing and someone died,
Speaker 5: as I recall it, unintentionally, someone wasn't supposed to be
Speaker 5: at the building they bombed, and they've been on the
Speaker 5: run ever since. I don't think this is a movie.
Speaker 5: You can disagree with me on this, or we can
Speaker 5: talk about it, But as I reflect on my lone
Speaker 5: viewing of this film, I don't think this is a
Speaker 5: movie that really cares about whether or not the acts
Speaker 5: that Bob or Perfidia, who we haven't mentioned, Tayana Taylor's Perfidia,
Speaker 5: Beverly Hills, the mother, the acts that they committed in
Speaker 5: the name of injustice, in the name of oppression, in
Speaker 5: the name of revolution, were right or wrong. The conscience
Speaker 5: of what they did, that's not on the mind of
Speaker 5: this movie. Whether Bob or anyone else should have pangs
Speaker 5: of moral guilt, that is on the mind of Running
Speaker 5: on Empty very much. That movie is concerned about whether
Speaker 5: or not the sins of the father and mother should
Speaker 5: be passed on to or whether it's fair that they're
Speaker 5: passed on to the children. And this film is concerned
Speaker 5: with that question. Like Running on Empty, it's concerned about
Speaker 5: whether or not the sins of the father in this
Speaker 5: case and the mother should be passed on to the children,
Speaker 5: passed on to the daughter Willa. But it also asks,
Speaker 5: and maybe we'll get to this in more detail as
Speaker 5: we get into our conversation, but I think it also asks,
Speaker 5: really interestingly the opposite. It almost asks, should we allow
Speaker 5: the sins of the father and mother to be passed
Speaker 5: down to the children. It's almost like the movie is
Speaker 5: saying it needs to be we need that child, It's
Speaker 5: okay for that child to have that consciousness and they
Speaker 5: need to be enlightened about it and engaged in that.
Speaker 5: And I think that's an interesting spin on that question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the you know, dancing around spoilers. I think
Speaker 3: the movie leaves us in exactly that place. And that's
Speaker 3: what I found so stirring is, you know, not that
Speaker 3: it's too late for us to participate, but man, this
Speaker 3: this thing is going to be a long haul. I
Speaker 3: think we're starting to realize those who are paying attention
Speaker 3: to the.
Speaker 5: Movie might say it's actually too late for us, Josh,
Speaker 5: And that's okay.
Speaker 3: Our job and our generation, our job, and.
Speaker 5: This is to support the next generation. Might be what
Speaker 5: the takeaway is.
Speaker 3: I think I think that's completely fair, and I do
Speaker 3: want to take a moment to point out as to
Speaker 3: that moral question, because I know this is going to
Speaker 3: be a talking point once this movie, you know, gets out,
Speaker 3: and those who aren't aren't ready to root for it
Speaker 3: see it. It is very clear to me what you
Speaker 3: pointed out, that the movie itself is not necessarily endorsing
Speaker 3: the tactics employed by this group that Leonardo Dicaproo's character
Speaker 3: is involved with at the start of the film before
Speaker 3: we jump ahead sixteen years. It does not denounce them,
Speaker 3: but to your point, it is interested in other things.
Speaker 3: And also, just because a group is using tactics you
Speaker 3: might object to, does not legitimize the clearly unconstitutional anti
Speaker 3: American tactics that were initially employed. So I just want
Speaker 3: to get that out of the way in terms of,
Speaker 3: you know, this is not endorsing one battle after another.
Speaker 3: It's not endorsing such things. I think it's interested in
Speaker 3: other questions, those personal ones. And this even relates to
Speaker 3: the Sean Penn character Lockjaw, because I think it's really
Speaker 3: key that while he is not at any point sympathetic,
Speaker 3: he is depicted as a human being with you know,
Speaker 3: some perversities because of the way I read the sense
Speaker 3: of unchecked authority he's been given, which means there are
Speaker 3: no guardrails for him at all. But at the same
Speaker 3: time it is one of the supreme comic performances in
Speaker 3: the film, just that constipated walk Penn has and the
Speaker 3: way he carries himself. It I'm sorry, but as I said,
Speaker 3: like I've seen this on Chicago streets, the performative nature
Speaker 3: of these ice guys is it's clownish, and that is
Speaker 3: what Penn is tapping into here. I want to see
Speaker 3: on a protest sign, speaking of the kids, some kid
Speaker 3: holding up what Bob's daughter when we meet her as
Speaker 3: a teenager, later says to Pen in a crucial scene,
Speaker 3: why is your shirt so tight? That just killed me,
Speaker 3: because it's only a great line, but it gets at
Speaker 3: the root of the performative nature of There's something about
Speaker 3: if you are not morally sure of your actions, you're
Speaker 3: going to perform them even more. And that is what
Speaker 3: we are seeing now, and that's what we see in
Speaker 3: the film in Penn's character. But I do like that
Speaker 3: we also get him, as you know, we don't agree
Speaker 3: with any of his choices really but this is not
Speaker 3: just some faceless monolith that is conducting these things. This
Speaker 3: is an actual human being with motivations that are yes distorted,
Speaker 3: But I think that's key. It's almost connected to what
Speaker 3: you were talking about this movie, having a heart and
Speaker 3: being interested in the relationships here. This is not a
Speaker 3: socio political tract. This is a story about a family
Speaker 3: deeply connected and you know pen is related to this,
Speaker 3: deeply connected to these events. How it affects them on
Speaker 3: a day to day relational basis, you have to understand
Speaker 3: and will me and Mom we used to run around
Speaker 3: and do some real batches. They got hurt.
Speaker 6: Now they're coming after us.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I didn't ask for this.
Speaker 2: That's just how the cards were.
Speaker 3: Rolled out for me.
Speaker 6: It's not cards.
Speaker 3: You don't roll cards. It's dice.
Speaker 6: Dex's wrong with you?
Speaker 3: You're right, let's go.
Speaker 5: I think you made a good case for how for
Speaker 5: you anyway, this this almost feels like a bit of
Speaker 5: a departure for PTA. But let me maybe try to
Speaker 5: make a case for how it fits into a certain
Speaker 5: paradigm and we'll see if it works for you or not.
Speaker 5: When you think about his filmography, he is often reckoned
Speaker 5: with America's present through its past. Many of his films
Speaker 5: have been period pieces, and here he brings the battle
Speaker 5: from the past into the present. Though, as I alluded
Speaker 5: to earlier, and I think I haven't read it. I
Speaker 5: think this comes from the Pension novel. I may have
Speaker 5: heard this somewhere. I could be wrong that even though
Speaker 5: that was set in a different time, that that there
Speaker 5: is a sort of blending, right, And I felt that
Speaker 5: watching the film, that you're seeing it and you're not
Speaker 5: quite sure even when we're watching the prologue, when exactly
Speaker 5: is this taking place? And this feels like the present,
Speaker 5: but when exactly is this the present? That feels by
Speaker 5: design and it feels coherently incoherent in an appropriate way
Speaker 5: for the times in which we currently live, right, And
Speaker 5: so not every film follows this, of course, But I've
Speaker 5: certainly talked about his emphasis on mentor protege relationships that
Speaker 5: often takes the form of fathers and sons or surrogate
Speaker 5: fathers and sons. Con Men as well are often found
Speaker 5: populating his films, and those are among the most enduring
Speaker 5: and evocative figures in all of American fiction. Neither seem
Speaker 5: to be what this movie is concerned with, though maybe
Speaker 5: we should consider is it one battle after another about
Speaker 5: the absence of a mentor protege relationship, the mother daughter
Speaker 5: activist dynamic that should be here, but also the father
Speaker 5: daughter one. Since Bob is wallowing an apathy and you
Speaker 5: have Willa constantly looking to him, wanting that direction, craving
Speaker 5: it and not getting it because he is, he is
Speaker 5: completely absent, and according to my reading anyway, to some degree,
Speaker 5: isn't isn't Bob sort of a con man? You could argue,
Speaker 5: You could argue he's barely playing the role of a father.
Speaker 5: But I'm really talking about how we meet him in
Speaker 5: the prologue.
Speaker 3: Isn't he? Even with that name Ghetto Pat?
Speaker 5: I think it supports this, and I think DiCaprio's performance
Speaker 5: supports this. The nervousness, that anxiety, how Perfidia has to
Speaker 5: urge him on, how he constantly seems to be having
Speaker 5: to prove himself that he's worthy to be with her,
Speaker 5: that he's worthy to be part of this resistance group,
Speaker 5: the French seventy five. The ease then, also with which
Speaker 5: he falls into fatherhood and domesticity. Right, Ghetto Pat seems
Speaker 5: to be an upper middle class white boy from Ohio
Speaker 5: who joined the revolution.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: And I have to say Ohio because I'm from Iowa.
Speaker 5: Otherwise I'd say from Iowa.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: But there's a key line, and I may not have
Speaker 5: it exactly right. You maybe have it in your notes.
Speaker 5: My notes were completely worthless to me. But there's a
Speaker 5: scene where he's talking to his mother in law, Perfidy's mother,
Speaker 5: and she says to him something like, you'll never be
Speaker 5: good enough for her, You'll never be up to her
Speaker 5: standard my daughter and for my daughter. And I think
Speaker 5: I think she says something like she's a runner. I
Speaker 5: think the words like a runner and that will that
Speaker 5: will have or something along those lines, and that will
Speaker 5: have residents later. But in the moment, it's clear that
Speaker 5: what she's saying is, you know, Perfidy is she's a hunter.
Speaker 5: She is always on the move, she is volatile, She's
Speaker 5: never going to be contained. And it's kind of like
Speaker 5: she's saying, you're a lump. You just you don't belong here, really,
Speaker 5: you don't belong with her. And and you know, even
Speaker 5: if you reject everything I've said, what are those mentor
Speaker 5: protege relationships fundamentally predicated on and even what are con
Speaker 5: artists manipulating. I do think it's all about power, and
Speaker 5: that's at the core of every dynamic and decision that's
Speaker 5: made in this movie. If you look at every single
Speaker 5: one of them, including of course that key scene, that
Speaker 5: scene where we meet Perfidia and Lockjaw, and where we
Speaker 5: see them interacting in other scenes too, it's fundamentally the
Speaker 5: story of America. And oh what is that type of power?
Speaker 5: It is specifically white power, right, and that's what this
Speaker 5: movie hilariously excoriates.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's right, and I think the mentor
Speaker 3: protege dynamic is at play, even if to me it's
Speaker 3: a little more scene through the prism of the father
Speaker 3: and daughter. Actually wish I'd probably say at this point
Speaker 3: Willa his daughter as a teenager. We do jump ahead
Speaker 3: after the opening section sixteen years, played really well by
Speaker 3: Chase Infinity, a relative newcomer. It's almost about Bob coming
Speaker 3: into maybe mentor is a strong word, but coming into
Speaker 3: the realization that for him to be the best dad
Speaker 3: to this young woman, he's going to have to shake
Speaker 3: off the apathy and he's going to have to be
Speaker 3: more than what as you're describing. I think you're right,
Speaker 3: he was probably something of a hanger on in that
Speaker 3: opening scene where we see Perfidia leading an attack on
Speaker 3: a detention center and he's the explosives expert and she's
Speaker 3: telling him what do I almost thought he was just
Speaker 3: the way DiCaprio carries himself, he's kind of like a
Speaker 3: gun for hire. I didn't know what sort of convictions
Speaker 3: he had. And then we realize they're in a romantic relationship, that.
Speaker 5: There's a other question is just real quick you get
Speaker 5: the dynamic that maybe it is almost like he's proving himself,
Speaker 5: like they aren't in a full fledged relationship be yet
Speaker 5: you could read.
Speaker 3: It maybe that too, but they're basically the point is
Speaker 3: you don't sense the cause is what's primarily driving him.
Speaker 3: At least didn't. I didn't give that sense. I don't
Speaker 3: think it was objecting to it. But he's a little
Speaker 3: bit along for the ride. And I think in terms
Speaker 3: of this dynamic you're talking about mentor protege. You know,
Speaker 3: maybe it reverses where the daughter becomes the mentor to
Speaker 3: the to the father as the movie goes on. Yeah,
Speaker 3: let's talk a little bit more about DiCaprio's performance. I
Speaker 3: think he's just this is a first rate dimmed bulb
Speaker 3: in the line of the likes of of course, you know,
Speaker 3: we're thinking about Jeff Bridges and the big Lebowski or
Speaker 3: Joaquin Phoenix in the other pinchin adaptation from Paul Thomas
Speaker 3: Anderson right and here and vice. He's as good, I
Speaker 3: think as well. He's almost as good as both of
Speaker 3: them in those films. I really enjoyed him here, not
Speaker 3: only the way he dims his bulb like that. It's
Speaker 3: clearly because of the drugs, right, but it's also because
Speaker 3: of the psyche weight of this failed revolution and the
Speaker 3: burden of raising a child in this climate, because we
Speaker 3: learn that sixteen years have gone by and if anything,
Speaker 3: things have only gotten worse. Right, their movement people are
Speaker 3: scattered because of an incident. We won't detail their underground
Speaker 3: as he is hiding, and he's trying to make sense
Speaker 3: of raising a teenager in this environment. It took a while, Adam,
Speaker 3: but I knew I was on board with the performance.
Speaker 3: It shifts into high comic gear when he shows up
Speaker 3: at a parent teacher meeting, stoned but also weepy.
Speaker 5: He just if I takes a drag, he takes a
Speaker 5: drag during it. But you're right, he gets emotional.
Speaker 3: If I get emotional, it's just tears of joy, that's all.
Speaker 3: But the thing about the performance is he's not just
Speaker 3: trying to cover up. He is, but he also means it.
Speaker 3: He really means it because he's got a good report
Speaker 3: about his daughter at school. Yes, and this is just
Speaker 3: what DiCaprio's trying to balance as this character. And yeah,
Speaker 3: from that scene, none, he puts the pedal down and
Speaker 3: never lets up through the rest of the movie.
Speaker 5: No, I don't or I haven't come up with yet
Speaker 5: the right adjective to describe what I'm thinking about DiCaprio's performance.
Speaker 3: But I like that.
Speaker 5: Of course, the touch points for it have to be
Speaker 5: Doc Sportello because it's Pta and it's it's a pinchin adaptation.
Speaker 5: But it's a very different performance, and it's very different
Speaker 5: than the other go to, which is Lebowski. It just
Speaker 5: it doesn't it doesn't have that same stoner vibe to it.
Speaker 5: There is something different about it, and I think I
Speaker 5: think one of the things that's different about it is
Speaker 5: that it just doesn't feel But I think in a
Speaker 5: good way. It doesn't feel quite as lived in it
Speaker 5: feels like someone who was transplanted into that character and
Speaker 5: is still taking it on in some way. And I'm
Speaker 5: really glad that you you mentioned that psychic weight, because
Speaker 5: in the few comments I've seen about him here and
Speaker 5: there or about the character, everyone talks about him just
Speaker 5: as and we have so far as this apathetic character
Speaker 5: or someone who, you know, the revolution's been gone for
Speaker 5: a while, so now he's just hanging around and he's
Speaker 5: getting drunk and stoned and doesn't feel like there's a
Speaker 5: fight anymore, or he's too lazy or not willing to fight.
Speaker 5: Going back to what we've said about the emotional core
Speaker 5: of this film, I still see him as fundamentally a
Speaker 5: heartbroken character.
Speaker 3: Yes, josh as Air.
Speaker 5: I think that is also part of who he is,
Speaker 5: and that's driving so much of his apathy. It's not
Speaker 5: just that what was me, you know, quote unquote the
Speaker 5: sixties aren't here anymore. I think he's a heartbroken character.
Speaker 5: I used a word earlier at the start of my
Speaker 5: comments that I want to come back to a little
Speaker 5: bit because it relates to Paul Thomas Anderson in the filmmaking,
Speaker 5: and you have to be careful a little bit, how
Speaker 5: often you go to certain words or phrases as a
Speaker 5: critic when praising movies, especially in the same year when
Speaker 5: we talked about Sinners, I spoke about it having the
Speaker 5: rhythms and audaciousness of some of our boldest musicals. I
Speaker 5: know that Punch Drunk Love feels to many like a
Speaker 5: musical despite their being no singing in it. And of
Speaker 5: course there are numerous sequences we can point to in
Speaker 5: Paul Thomas Anderson's filmography where we can single out the
Speaker 5: fluidity in the intricacy of the camera, the elaborate nature
Speaker 5: of the shots right, the coordination with the performers. But
Speaker 5: with Battle, I had a different sense, and it was
Speaker 5: largely in that extended I'm gonna call it the extended
Speaker 5: raid on back ten Cross, especially when we haven't mentioned
Speaker 5: him yet, especially when Benisil del Toro, Oh gosh, was
Speaker 5: on screen, and.
Speaker 3: I wonder if you were thinking.
Speaker 5: I wonder if you were thinking the same thing I was,
Speaker 5: because even though you liked the movie more than me,
Speaker 5: we were both a little down on the mellowness of
Speaker 5: Beniicil del Toro and Phoenician scheme. And here it couldn't
Speaker 5: have served this movie better. He is so good as
Speaker 5: this senseay in this movie who who ends up coming
Speaker 5: to the aid not only of Bob when he most
Speaker 5: needs it, but also so many other people in a
Speaker 5: scenario that he even himself describes it as as a
Speaker 5: Harriet Tubman like situation, going on, Oh wait, wait, a
Speaker 5: Latino Harriet Tubman situation.
Speaker 3: There you go, right, That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 5: But when he's on screen it it relates to how
Speaker 5: the camera Josh slows to match the calmness of that character,
Speaker 5: who truly is like the conductor of the Latino Harriet
Speaker 5: Tubman like situation. All the movements that are occurring. I was,
Speaker 5: I was keenly aware of the blocking everything that was occurring,
Speaker 5: not of the camera how it was moving, but everything
Speaker 5: that was occurring within the frame, the choreography of it.
Speaker 5: That's the word for the camera to capture, not not
Speaker 5: how the camera again was moving within the space, but
Speaker 5: how the camera was there to observe for us, how
Speaker 5: we were then able to observe in that space with
Speaker 5: a sense of often real time urgency. It wasn't like
Speaker 5: the long shot in Boogie Knights right where you know
Speaker 5: we see William H. Macy's character kill himself right, and
Speaker 5: it's it draws a lot of attention to itself. It's
Speaker 5: about us being able to observe in real time and
Speaker 5: that that sense of intimacy and urgency. But it's not overwhelming.
Speaker 5: It's heightened, but it's steady. Bodies are constantly in motion,
Speaker 5: but it never feels jagged or jarring, the only way
Speaker 5: I could really describe it. And and here it's just
Speaker 5: a little bit of a trick that Pta pulls off.
Speaker 5: He somehow creates a serene intensity.
Speaker 3: I need you, brother Sencing, please courage Bob Carriage. It
Speaker 3: did good.
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you, hey, thank you, since thank you, thank you, God,
Speaker 6: damn it.
Speaker 3: That's a great, great description of it. The one thing
Speaker 3: I had to put out there in blue sky after
Speaker 3: I saw this was maybe Benicio del Toro will save
Speaker 3: us all, because that's what I can help. So thinking
Speaker 3: he has this, it's this bemused spiritual calm. You know,
Speaker 3: we should say this is when the town has been
Speaker 3: taken over by the military. The streets, they've instigated among
Speaker 3: protesters an attack, and that is what precedes the underground
Speaker 3: railroad to go into effect to get some of these
Speaker 3: mostly women and children not violent criminals, women and tru
Speaker 3: children who are being targeted by the military, and del
Speaker 3: Toro's calm balances with DiCaprio's antickness. This relates to our
Speaker 3: discussion of how invested in the cause is Bob, because
Speaker 3: there isn't until there's a moment where Del Toro has
Speaker 3: given him clear, calm directions about what to do, where
Speaker 3: to go, and Bob pauses, catches a breath, and that's
Speaker 3: when he screams out, Viva la revolution.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not it's not so much because he's about to,
Speaker 3: you know, to make a blow against the authorities. It's
Speaker 3: because he knows what to do. He's he's been told
Speaker 3: what's do. But del Toro in this scene and yeah,
Speaker 3: the blocking and the camera because we're following him upstairs, downstairs,
Speaker 3: through back rooms, in and out of shops. This elaborate
Speaker 3: system he's put together, but he just has this this
Speaker 3: sense of assuredness to him that is so reassuring. And
Speaker 3: to your point about the Phoenician scheme, Yeah, that was
Speaker 3: one of my My main qualms about that movie is
Speaker 3: how is it constricted Del Toro into a Wes Anderson
Speaker 3: type of character. Other actors have given their best performances
Speaker 3: as to that type, but to me, it just did
Speaker 3: not fit del Toro, who needs to have a certain looseness.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I identified it as much while
Speaker 3: watching the Phoenician Scheme until I saw him here, and
Speaker 3: I think this might be a career best turn for him,
Speaker 3: because there is even when he's playing villains, like really
Speaker 3: scary guys, which he's done in the past, there's this
Speaker 3: same sense of calm or looseness where he's not always
Speaker 3: he's not necessarily taking the scene or the actions as
Speaker 3: seriously as you think he should be, but it's because
Speaker 3: he knows what he has a firmer grasp on it,
Speaker 3: and this whole sequence just allows him to be this
Speaker 3: grumbly sage whose she's rumbling through these halls not being
Speaker 3: hurried because he knows exactly what to do.
Speaker 5: It's wonderful in addition to the politics of the film
Speaker 5: as we're describing it, that we were on board with
Speaker 5: the emotional core of it that we've talked about that
Speaker 5: did resonate with us. The humor of the film. You
Speaker 5: can find humor in all of PTA's movies. I'm pretty
Speaker 5: sure I had a scene from liquorice pizza is my
Speaker 5: funniest moment of twenty twenty one, or it was the
Speaker 5: runner up. I'm certain I had a scene from Inherent
Speaker 5: Vice as my funniest moment of twenty fourteen. I'd probably
Speaker 5: still put Boogie Knights as his funniest film, but I
Speaker 5: think this would be my number two, Josh. And it's
Speaker 5: also obviously his most action oriented film, his most suspenseful.
Speaker 5: Despite that steadiness I was talking about, and there is
Speaker 5: a chase scene at the end. This is one of
Speaker 5: those movies where I'm sitting in my seat with my
Speaker 5: knee bouncing in rhythm to the score, you know, wondering
Speaker 5: where this is exactly going, and feeling the intensity of it.
Speaker 5: And actually it is a steadiness where you're feeling it
Speaker 5: kind of the entire film. So you've got that, right,
Speaker 5: You've got that intensity that's maintained for almost the entire
Speaker 5: two hour and fifty minute running time. But all those
Speaker 5: elements are culminating with that humor. And even though I'm
Speaker 5: not someone who has read Pension, I understand that pension
Speaker 5: esque some of it through films like in Hair and Vice,
Speaker 5: that pension esque postmodern sensibility tinged with paranoia, as it
Speaker 5: is here that absurdist sensibility. And the bottom line is,
Speaker 5: we haven't mentioned this part of the story yet, and
Speaker 5: I want to mention it here because it relates to
Speaker 5: the humor.
Speaker 3: I mean, Hail Saint Nick.
Speaker 5: This will mean something to you when you see the
Speaker 5: movie if you haven't. While Saint Nick is one of
Speaker 5: the funniest three word phrases you'll hear all the year
Speaker 5: at the movies. And I want to praise I want
Speaker 5: to praise Paul Thomas Anderson and whoever I should look
Speaker 5: it up, whoever his casting agent is, because whoever is
Speaker 5: responsible for coming up with this group of completely unrecognizable
Speaker 5: for the most part, unrecognizable but innocuous looking, evil, middle
Speaker 5: aged white.
Speaker 3: Dudes, they deserve a raise.
Speaker 5: I'm thinking, I'm thinking, And I went for the record.
Speaker 5: I wanted to give them praise. I went to IMDb,
Speaker 5: and I just did not have the time to scroll
Speaker 5: through every name and try to identify them.
Speaker 3: I couldn't.
Speaker 5: I couldn't pick them out. You know, the pictures didn't
Speaker 5: line up or whatever. But I'm thinking of the second
Speaker 5: in command to Lockjaw, who we see interrogate some people. Yeah,
Speaker 5: perfect right, every single person, and one of them. I
Speaker 5: can't believe I didn't. I didn't recognize this guy, even
Speaker 5: though now of course I see it. He's the bar owner, yes,
Speaker 5: But but other than Tony Goldwyn, who you do most
Speaker 5: of us do know? The one guy who we see
Speaker 5: later in the house who at first is silent and
Speaker 5: we're not sure that he's going to talk. Oh yeah,
Speaker 5: that's that's Kevin Tigue. That's Kevin Tigue from the bar
Speaker 5: owner of the Double D in Roadhouse. So fairly a classic.
Speaker 3: That guy.
Speaker 5: We kind of recognize him, right, But otherwise all those
Speaker 5: other guys are that guys that we don't know. And
Speaker 5: I'm calling these innocuous looking, evil, middle aged white dudes
Speaker 5: the Tony Goldwyn all stars, and every one of them
Speaker 5: in this movie. Josh is just so perfect.
Speaker 3: This is the Christmas Adventures Club, This is the Christmas Conspiracy,
Speaker 3: pulling the strings we learn, and it's so funny. I
Speaker 3: saw it just on Blue Sky today. Alyssa Wilkinson, the
Speaker 3: New York Times critic, say something about being out in
Speaker 3: New York and she's pretty sure she's I think she
Speaker 3: said something like pretty sure. I saw a member walking
Speaker 3: down the street, and I'm sure we had the same
Speaker 3: thing here. Debbie and I were walking down and we
Speaker 3: saw a guy sitting like a really nice house in
Speaker 3: town here and he was out in his yard, just
Speaker 3: sitting on the patio in like a you know, innocuous
Speaker 3: but very expensive, clearly like sweater vest. And we both
Speaker 3: were like, we looked at her, like, oh, he's in
Speaker 3: the Smith's Adventures Club. Yeah, it has to be. So
Speaker 3: this is so funny, and it is, it is really
Speaker 3: fun and it's sometimes it's beautifully I'm gonna call it
Speaker 3: a sequence that has the humor and also the filmmaking chops.
Speaker 3: And this is actually part of the entire sense sequence.
Speaker 3: But at this point, del Toro's character has sent Bob
Speaker 3: off with some skaters. He said, these guys will get
Speaker 3: you safe where you need to go. And the route
Speaker 3: is across the rooftops because, as I said, the military
Speaker 3: has taken over the streets and are just you know,
Speaker 3: shooting at random. Below this is shot by Anderson and
Speaker 3: cinematographer Michael Bauman from a distance and in silhouette. And
Speaker 3: so you have these these skaters, these younger guys with
Speaker 3: their boards just you know, very beautifully leaping in silhouette
Speaker 3: from one building to the other end just as you're
Speaker 3: thinking like, oh, this is a I have this sense
Speaker 3: of like mythical resistance, and then we have Bob stumbling
Speaker 3: behind them, barely able to keep up. And that's just
Speaker 3: you know, the This is what's so great about this movie, too,
Speaker 3: is it's willing to puncture those moments. It's not taking
Speaker 3: itself too seriously, even though it's probably going to be
Speaker 3: the most serious movie that comes out in the United
Speaker 3: States this year, But it doesn't carry itself this way.
Speaker 6: Hi, what's up?
Speaker 3: What's upon me?
Speaker 6: It's it's me again, Bob Ferguson. I don't know if
Speaker 6: you remember what we we we spoke earlier on the
Speaker 6: on the phone. I think we had a little misunderstanding.
Speaker 6: I think we got off on the wrong foot. I
Speaker 6: was trying to get the rendezvous point for my daughter,
Speaker 6: right will.
Speaker 3: If you can't answer, what time is it, I cannot
Speaker 3: give you. The rendezvous point is the relion.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you are.
Speaker 5: I do love that it punctures that mythos there, but
Speaker 5: what it does with that imagery still astounding, that shot,
Speaker 5: that silhouetted shot of those those younger men on the
Speaker 5: skateboard is still among the most vivid shots in his filmography.
Speaker 5: And think about what he's given us through ten films.
Speaker 3: I have one that wowed me even more, and it's
Speaker 3: during the climactic car chase, which we won't even say
Speaker 3: who's involved, but it is taking place on this stretch
Speaker 3: of desert hills and at one point it's they must
Speaker 3: have placed the camera on the hood of one of
Speaker 3: the cars. Three cars are involved, and as the vehicle
Speaker 3: kind of lolls up and down this road, the road
Speaker 3: is like an undulating road, and the experience of watching
Speaker 3: it from that point of view was it was anxious
Speaker 3: but also mesmerizing, and it was inducing in me because
Speaker 3: it kind of is repeated and goes on, and it
Speaker 3: was inducing in me like a nausea but also a sleepiness.
Speaker 3: And the only thing I could think about is when
Speaker 3: I got out of the movie, and even a day
Speaker 3: or two later, like what was that all about?
Speaker 7: Is?
Speaker 3: Oh, That's how I felt. For the last ten years,
Speaker 3: I've exact life has felt like being on that road
Speaker 3: of dipping up and down and not knowing what's over
Speaker 3: the next hill, and what it might do to you,
Speaker 3: and my goodness, however, they got that shot and sustained
Speaker 3: it so that it works in terms of suspense, but
Speaker 3: also on a certain level just pure beauty is incredible.
Speaker 5: Well, it kind of goes back to what I was
Speaker 5: saying and we were talking about. It is intense and suspenseful,
Speaker 5: and yet it feels I remember the feeling of watching
Speaker 5: it and what you're talking about with the undulation, there's
Speaker 5: a certain serenity to it as well, isn't it. So
Speaker 5: it's crazy how they managed to balance that in this film.
Speaker 5: There is I think we've had the discussion we probably
Speaker 5: wanted to have, and we could close here, but I
Speaker 5: will at least raise that I knew within about ten
Speaker 5: minutes of this film that among the conversations that were
Speaker 5: going to be had about this film, there was definitely
Speaker 5: going to be the discourse around a certain issue with
Speaker 5: the movie, one that the two of us probably aren't
Speaker 5: the best people to weigh in on, but I knew
Speaker 5: there was going to be a discourse, and sure enough,
Speaker 5: I woke up this morning and I actually these days
Speaker 5: I'm not on social media much at all, but I
Speaker 5: will usually wake up and just sort of check in
Speaker 5: and the very first thing I saw this morning, it
Speaker 5: had begun. Josh, I don't know if you know what
Speaker 5: I'm referring to, but I guess I will throw out vaguely,
Speaker 5: do you want to get into it or do you
Speaker 5: want to wait until feedback on an upcoming show and
Speaker 5: get into whatever or this discourse might be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we're gonna have to. I'm unaware of it.
Speaker 3: I was in a bunker before seeing this, and I've
Speaker 3: tried to be in a bunker aside from you know
Speaker 3: that Alyssa Wilkinson comments and a few other things since
Speaker 3: until we've had this conversation. I cannot wait till tomorrow
Speaker 3: to be able to dive into all the critics who
Speaker 3: I respect their takes, and I'm sure there's gonna be
Speaker 3: some pushback. I surprise it hasn't started already because so
Speaker 3: far it's just been a wave of raves seen star
Speaker 3: ratings come through on Letterbox. So yeah, I'm gonna dive
Speaker 3: into all of that tomorrow and perhaps we'll pick it up. Yeah,
Speaker 3: when we get some feedback, which may.
Speaker 5: Be a lot of those lines I had thoughts because
Speaker 5: they relate to the experience I had watching the movie.
Speaker 5: They don't relate to the thoughts or I should say,
Speaker 5: the specific criticisms that this person had, because they just
Speaker 5: came out this morning and I didn't have time to
Speaker 5: read those. So I wasn't going to be reacting to
Speaker 5: that article necessarily or not at all. I was just
Speaker 5: going to be talking about what I saw on the
Speaker 5: screen now.
Speaker 3: As it is.
Speaker 5: The discourse will pick up in the days before our
Speaker 5: next episode, and maybe we will be more informed and
Speaker 5: we can talk about.
Speaker 3: It, and hey, this is a movie that needs to
Speaker 3: be interrogated. I mean, just because I'm in line with
Speaker 3: it's totally relative politics, if you want to say that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that it's a film that has everything lined
Speaker 3: up perfectly right. It's capturing chaos and capturing a way
Speaker 3: to honorably respond to that chaos from my point of view,
Speaker 3: But it doesn't mean that it has everything right along
Speaker 3: those lines. So I'll be curious to see that. And
Speaker 3: I think, you know, the only other thing I would
Speaker 3: say on the political front is I almost pardon me,
Speaker 3: was like, this doesn't even really feel political, because it's
Speaker 3: it's not arguing against, you know, a political direction we
Speaker 3: may be heading towards. You know or and it's not
Speaker 3: even offering an alternative political vision to our current circumstances.
Speaker 3: That goes to your point about, you know, whether it's
Speaker 3: it's endorsing the this gorilla group's actions, it's it's just
Speaker 3: mirroring what we're in right through this comically absurdist lens.
Speaker 3: And all I can say is that by doing that,
Speaker 3: it goes back to what I said at the top.
Speaker 3: It felt like this desperately needed fresh air. To me,
Speaker 3: It's like that, this is what I've just been feeling.
Speaker 3: Why are we not talking? Why are we recognizing this?
Speaker 3: And and One Battle after Another is at least doing that?
Speaker 3: Is it doing it perfectly? Probably not? And yeah, well
Speaker 3: we'll see what qualms other people might have about it.
Speaker 3: It's a good thing.
Speaker 5: I don't expect perfection from art, even from Paul Thomas Anderson.
Speaker 5: One Battle after Another is currently playing in wide release.
Speaker 5: If you see it and agree or disagree, you can
Speaker 5: email us feedback at film spot Net.
Speaker 4: This episode is brought to you by dead Man's Wire,
Speaker 4: the new film from Roque Entertainment. Dead Man's Wire is
Speaker 4: the incredible true story of the nineteen seventy seven kidnapping
Speaker 4: that turned an aspiring entrepreneur into an outlaw folk era
Speaker 4: directed by legendary filmmaker Gus van Zant. Dead Man's Wire
Speaker 4: stars Bill Scarsguard Daker, Montgomery, Carry Always, and Mahalla with
Speaker 4: Coleman Domingo and al Pacino, now playing in select theaters everywhere,
Speaker 4: January sixteenth.
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Speaker 3: to thank family member Remi must Say and Leland Michigan.
Speaker 3: Remi's letterbox handle is R M A S S E. Yeah.
Speaker 5: This is tough because producer Sam did a great job
Speaker 5: of phonetically spelling out the name, and I'm not sure
Speaker 5: where he got that from. Maybe he reached out to
Speaker 5: this family member. But the problem is you do have
Speaker 5: to put where the the emphasis is. So is it
Speaker 5: Remi or is it Remy?
Speaker 3: This is me because I would be I would be
Speaker 3: saying this, and I think it's Remy. I'm gonna go.
Speaker 3: I checked it on fourvoh, so we'll see, we'll hear
Speaker 3: from and see what they say.
Speaker 5: From here on out. We're gonna call him he and
Speaker 5: I'm gonna hope that's right.
Speaker 3: Please tell us.
Speaker 5: Remy or Remy which pronunciation is correct. After moving to
Speaker 5: a city where I knew nobody than my now wonderful wife,
Speaker 5: I found myself missing the movie conversations that regularly sprung
Speaker 5: up with my college housemates. After watching The Banshees of
Speaker 5: Na Sharon, I was desperate to have a discussion with someone, anyone.
Speaker 5: Film spotting was the first result online, and Adam and
Speaker 5: Josh hooked me in and haven't let go since a
Speaker 5: favorite review or segment Top five Movies for Graduates found
Speaker 5: me at the right time. The respect for hyomi Izaki
Speaker 5: from both Adam and Josh let me know I was
Speaker 5: in the right place, and because of their top fives.
Speaker 5: I watched Columbus and Hikaru for the first time and
Speaker 5: adored both. Good job by us. What review did we
Speaker 5: get wrong? I can't find it on film spotting, but
Speaker 5: here at Kazu Karata's Monster, I thought it was brilliant
Speaker 5: and one of my favorites of the year. Sorry, Josh,
Speaker 5: you didn't like that movie, Josh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was a little down on it, but hey,
Speaker 3: in the case of Karita, I'm probably wrong, so that's fine.
Speaker 5: Letterbox Top four spirited it away. I mean, here, you
Speaker 5: guys are simpatico again. Fantastic mister Fox.
Speaker 3: There will be Blood one, There will Be Blood is
Speaker 3: great in the Fall. I love well, Okay, Tarsum saying.
Speaker 5: A favorite movie that Remy revisited recently Bong Juno's Memories
Speaker 5: of Murder Good one. A random filmmaker that he loves
Speaker 5: Rob Reiner, not necessarily because I think he's one of
Speaker 5: the great filmmakers, but he certainly doesn't get enough love
Speaker 5: from film nerds. A movie you credit with becoming a cinophile,
Speaker 5: he says. My dad loved Jim Carrey movies when I
Speaker 5: was a kid, and after showing my brother and I
Speaker 5: ace Ventura when Nature Calls. We watched The Truman Show
Speaker 5: and it completely altered what I loved about movies. I
Speaker 5: can still love a terrible exquisite film like ace Ventura,
Speaker 5: but the Truman Show led me down a path of
Speaker 5: loving movies for.
Speaker 3: Something a little different. I can see that terrible exquisite
Speaker 3: for ace. That's kind of great.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Remy for joining the family and for all
Speaker 5: those years of listening. In addition to keeping us doing
Speaker 5: what we're doing, your support comes with perks, Josh. They
Speaker 5: get to listen early in ad free. I'm not sure
Speaker 5: if you're aware. They get our weekly newsletter. They get
Speaker 5: exclusive opportunities like being part of the Film Spotting Family
Speaker 5: discord just an unruly bunch now, actually they're they're quite
Speaker 5: really great group of Film Spotting Family members over there
Speaker 5: having wonderfully insightful and sometimes absolutely absurd conversations. And you
Speaker 5: get our monthly bonus shows. We have channels over there
Speaker 5: devoted to music, books, sports, food, but yes, also movies,
Speaker 5: new releases, older films, TV, you name it. September Bonus
Speaker 5: Show was our Trivia Spotting edition that is now available, Josh.
Speaker 5: The one you know you slept through because you're in Scotland.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: I slept quite well. How did you do? Where did
Speaker 3: you place? That's all I really want to know.
Speaker 5: I did not podium, Oh I didn't. I didn't make
Speaker 5: the top three. But but my team fared well. I
Speaker 5: mean we I think we got at least seven right
Speaker 5: both rounds. And I went quite deep in the in
Speaker 5: the Lightning round, the Captain's Lightning Round.
Speaker 3: I think I was a topic.
Speaker 5: It was uh, it was directors, and it was of
Speaker 5: directors of sun Dance winning films. I think I was
Speaker 5: the last. I was the third from last out, so
Speaker 5: I had it. I had a shot. And and the one,
Speaker 5: the one I went out on, is so depressing because,
Speaker 5: as Sam and I were talking about later, there were
Speaker 5: ones throughout where you were you were just praising the
Speaker 5: Lord that you didn't get because you you should have known,
Speaker 5: but you just could not pull the name.
Speaker 3: You know, Josh how it is, but you can't pull
Speaker 3: the name.
Speaker 5: And and and then there were others that that you knew,
Speaker 5: and you were so grateful that you got those. The
Speaker 5: one that I went out on, the one that I
Speaker 5: went out on, for me, it was hump day one
Speaker 5: of my favorites, like one of my movies, the movie
Speaker 5: that I championed years ago on the show, and I
Speaker 5: missed Bacon, Lee said the Duplas Brothers because I thought
Speaker 5: about Mark Duplas being in the film. Now right right,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to say, well, I'm gonna say that
Speaker 5: I thought Thomas was a little too quick on the draw,
Speaker 5: and I think you should be allowed to think out
Speaker 5: loud for a second, like why does the first thing.
Speaker 3: You say to Thomas?
Speaker 5: Why does the first thing you say have to be
Speaker 5: your final answer? Why can't you think out loud? But
Speaker 5: right after I said it and everyone jumped on me
Speaker 5: for being stupid, I it hit me, of course that
Speaker 5: like Lynn Shelton there. Lynn Shelton of course directed hump Day.
Speaker 5: I mean I knew it. It took me a second,
Speaker 5: but wow.
Speaker 3: That's the way it goes. Yeah it is can go.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a bummer. October Bonus, we are going to
Speaker 5: do a draft with a family member. Looking forward to that.
Speaker 5: Please do learn more about becoming a member and supporting
Speaker 5: the show at film spotting family dot com.
Speaker 3: Hi, you sound so sweet. Are you nervous about talking
Speaker 3: to me?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You know, we gotta be like really careful about doing this. Yeah, Adam,
Speaker 3: you caught up with a new film called Predators, as
Speaker 3: you mentioned earlier. This shouldn't be confused with the animated
Speaker 3: predator Killer of Killers, which came out earlier this year.
Speaker 3: Still hoped to catch up with or Predator bad Lands,
Speaker 3: which is coming to theaters next month. This is totally different.
Speaker 3: Predators is a documentary from director David Osset about the
Speaker 3: reality TV program To Catch a Predator. The premise of
Speaker 3: this show was basically hunt down child predators, lure them
Speaker 3: to a film set where they would be interviewed and
Speaker 3: then arrested. It ran from two thousand and four to
Speaker 3: two thousand and seven. So yeah, fascinating idea for a documentary.
Speaker 3: I'd love to hear what they do with this sort
Speaker 3: of material in the dock.
Speaker 5: They do a lot. Yeah, they do a lot. And
Speaker 5: I don't know, I could be wrong. I don't know
Speaker 5: if they actually lured them to a TV set or
Speaker 5: if they lured them to an actual house that had
Speaker 5: basically been turned into a TV set. But I'll say this,
Speaker 5: the opening of the trailer that you just heard is
Speaker 5: also the opening of the movie. So yes, right from
Speaker 5: the start, it is as deeply unsettling as you might
Speaker 5: expect this material to be predators lingers long after the
Speaker 5: final frame. I remember to Catch a Predator on TV.
Speaker 5: I remember seeing bits of it. This isn't revisionist history,
Speaker 5: because anybody who did watch it regularly, if they watch
Speaker 5: this show, they might after it feel like maybe I
Speaker 5: should and say that out loud, or maybe I should
Speaker 5: feel guilty about it. I'll let others wrestle with their
Speaker 5: conscience or not. I do remember seeing maybe an episode
Speaker 5: or two, but I certainly was not familiar with the
Speaker 5: lore around it, or the fact that people would go
Speaker 5: to conventions around of course true crime and Chris Hansen.
Speaker 5: I knew he was a celebrity, but I didn't realize
Speaker 5: that he was a celebrity to the extent that he was,
Speaker 5: and that there were all these to Catch a Predator
Speaker 5: wannabes now on YouTube basically.
Speaker 3: Doing this same world.
Speaker 5: And to be fair, just like Chris Hansen, they are
Speaker 5: working usually with police, with authorities, and they are catching
Speaker 5: actual predators. Right, so you can point to real justice
Speaker 5: being done. But there is a downside to a lot
Speaker 5: of this. Whenever, whenever you have punishment as entertainment. There
Speaker 5: is a downside to this that this movie and you
Speaker 5: can imagine that. Well, this movie explores that. And I
Speaker 5: mentioned that I didn't know the war. I also didn't
Speaker 5: know about some of the recurring gags almost on the show,
Speaker 5: or some of the catchphrases. At the end of the trailer,
Speaker 5: you hear the documentarians say to Chris Hansen, you're free
Speaker 5: to go.
Speaker 6: Some people watching this may feel like you have something
Speaker 6: to answer for.
Speaker 2: What do you say that.
Speaker 3: They're free to go?
Speaker 5: Apparently that's what Chris Hansen would say to all these
Speaker 5: predators who would, somehow and the movie talks about this,
Speaker 5: would stay there and talk to him rather than run
Speaker 5: out the door. But it wouldn't have mattered either way.
Speaker 5: He says, you're free to go. Of course, they're not
Speaker 5: free to go. As soon as they walk out the door.
Speaker 5: They're police there to apprehend them. But when I say
Speaker 5: deeply unsettling, I want to be clear that, yes, occasionally
Speaker 5: it's the behavior of predators like the guy we hear
Speaker 5: there on the phone in the trailer, but mostly it's
Speaker 5: it's the movie's project in a good way. It's the
Speaker 5: it's the questions that it wants to and does pose
Speaker 5: that there are just no answers to Josh. I mean
Speaker 5: that that you're going to be wrestling with, I said,
Speaker 5: it lingers the questions you're going to be wrestling with
Speaker 5: throughout and and maybe for days after. Like I was,
Speaker 5: I can answer the question of whether or not the
Speaker 5: show is terrible. I think it was terrible, even if
Speaker 5: it did result in legitimate predators being caught, even if
Speaker 5: it did provide something in some cases cathartic for victims
Speaker 5: of sexual abuse. But the movie considers what it wants
Speaker 5: us to think about, what it poses as its main
Speaker 5: goal is to get us to think about and get
Speaker 5: some of the people on camera to think about, is
Speaker 5: what happens when the camera turns off and we see
Speaker 5: when we have to see these people as people, as
Speaker 5: human beings.
Speaker 3: Can we do that? Should we do that?
Speaker 5: And there are two scenes I will say, and I
Speaker 5: won't get into a lot of details because I want
Speaker 5: people to see the movie, to see this and experience
Speaker 5: it for themselves, But there are two scenes in the movie, Josh,
Speaker 5: where you watch catchers of predators, both pretty hard line,
Speaker 5: both inured to this. When confronted with their humanity, they soften.
Speaker 3: They do. They do see their humanity.
Speaker 5: And what I appreciate about the movie is that the documentarian,
Speaker 5: the director, Oh Sit, he doesn't take those moments as
Speaker 5: clear victories. He doesn't try to simplify things. He actually
Speaker 5: reminds you usually in these moments that let's not forget
Speaker 5: that these people, these predators, did show up because they
Speaker 5: were going to have sex. They thought they were going
Speaker 5: to have sex with someone under age, and in one case,
Speaker 5: they brought alcohol because they thought they were going to
Speaker 5: have sex with a fourteen year old. Preters is a
Speaker 5: documentary that that dares to question everything, including itself, and
Speaker 5: I think that's really bold about the project. So from
Speaker 5: the comfort of my TV, I can sit here as
Speaker 5: an enlightened liberal man and talk about how we need
Speaker 5: to see their humanity. But what if it was my child?
Speaker 5: Would I really be feeling so generous? And I can't
Speaker 5: wait to discuss this movie with someone who's seen it.
Speaker 5: I haven't had that chance yet, Josh, because I am
Speaker 5: as much as I do appreciate the movie and I do,
Speaker 5: I really recommend people see it. I'm very conflicted about
Speaker 5: the ending. It's not a spoiler because it's in the
Speaker 5: trailer and I alluded to it earlier, but I didn't
Speaker 5: know it. I hadn't seen the trailer. I was waiting
Speaker 5: the whole movie, and I said to Sarah, who was
Speaker 5: watching it with me, I'm like, when are we going
Speaker 5: to find out? The whole movie has been building to this?
Speaker 5: It has to be building to it. Are they going
Speaker 5: to interview Chris Hansen? They have to confront Chris Hansen?
Speaker 5: Or they have to tell us that they tried to
Speaker 5: get Chris Hansen on camera and he refused to be interviewed.
Speaker 5: But if they don't, if we don't get the interview,
Speaker 5: or we don't get the disclaimer, honestly, the movie is
Speaker 5: almost worthless because the whole movie has been in some
Speaker 5: way building up to it. Osi would be derelict in
Speaker 5: his duties as a documentarian and the journalistic enterprise would
Speaker 5: be sunk here. Well, he gets him, He gets him,
Speaker 5: and the interview is is entirely appropriate. I think the inquisition,
Speaker 5: if you will, is entirely appropriate. But how it concludes,
Speaker 5: how it concludes esthetically, I feel icky about. I'm not
Speaker 5: sure I'm on board with the choices that Osi makes. Again,
Speaker 5: some thing I would love to discuss with someone.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, this is grueling subject matter, and you know,
Speaker 3: someone who watches Predators may not be in the mood
Speaker 3: to see something else along these lines. But the way
Speaker 3: you're talking about the humanity and the question of that
Speaker 3: in it reminds me of this documentary I saw way back,
Speaker 3: I think twenty fifteen at Sundance called Pervert Park, and
Speaker 3: it was about a Florida trailer park that was basically
Speaker 3: founded to provide a place for registered sex offenders to
Speaker 3: live because their options are severely limited, you know, can't
Speaker 3: live by schools, can't because a condition of their parole.
Speaker 3: And it's a movie that's very much about you know,
Speaker 3: that One aspect it sounds like Predators is partially interested
Speaker 3: in is what humanity might there be in people like this? Now,
Speaker 3: this is on the other side of justice in this case,
Speaker 3: so it sounds like it's very different to that end,
Speaker 3: but still interested in that question. So yeah, if people
Speaker 3: are up for thinking about these sorts of really difficult
Speaker 3: issues a little bit more, i'd also recommend Pervert Park.
Speaker 5: Okay, Predators is currently playing in limited release next week.
Speaker 5: Here on Film Spotting, we've got a top five inspired
Speaker 5: by our conversation about one battle after another with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker 5: I think I've read this or heard this somewhere that
Speaker 5: it was a dream of his to get to work
Speaker 5: with Paul Thomas Anderson. And certainly fans of PTA's work
Speaker 5: like I am, and so many people are, and I
Speaker 5: know you are, Josh as well, it only seemed fitting
Speaker 5: that we finally got a big star like Leo working
Speaker 5: with Paul Thomas Anderson. So what are the actor director
Speaker 5: combos that we haven't had that we'd like to see.
Speaker 5: I should know the answer to this, because when I
Speaker 5: propose this top five at a film spotting production meeting
Speaker 5: several weeks ago, I think I looked up, or maybe
Speaker 5: on the call we looked up. We've done something similar
Speaker 5: to this before. I can't remember if we've done exactly
Speaker 5: this top five or something like it, but either way,
Speaker 5: certainly worth revisiting because it's been a while that we've
Speaker 5: done something like it, and I haven't started the work yet,
Speaker 5: but I'm excited to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm struggling where do I start. Do I start
Speaker 3: with the directors or do I start with the actors?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, right now I'm feeling like starting with the actors
Speaker 3: might be a bit more fun. Yeah, because there I
Speaker 3: can certainly think of five and I'm not going to
Speaker 3: name them here about like five, you know, relatively new names,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't have to be it could be veterans
Speaker 3: we could go with. But right now I'm thinking about
Speaker 3: new names who I'm excited about where they're at in
Speaker 3: their career and thinking about where they might go. And
Speaker 3: you know, pairing up with a top flight director is
Speaker 3: a way to kind of move up in your career.
Speaker 3: So I'm leaning towards that path. But yeah, I haven't
Speaker 3: really sat down to think about it much yet.
Speaker 5: As soon as you said it, I have to say
Speaker 5: my immediate thought was to start actor because I think
Speaker 5: I can build the director off of I can match
Speaker 5: the sensibility.
Speaker 3: Of the director to the performer.
Speaker 5: I know doesn't the opposite two, but for some reason,
Speaker 5: it feels more natural for me to match the director
Speaker 5: to the actor.
Speaker 3: Doesn't This go back to the Del Toro conversation, and
Speaker 3: maybe with Wes Anderson. Now, I think he's brilliant in
Speaker 3: Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, but that allowed him to
Speaker 3: have in that case a little bit of the mournfulness
Speaker 3: that he can carry in some of his performances, whereas
Speaker 3: the Phoenician scheme was at a little bit more prescriptive
Speaker 3: of what he needed to do. So yeah, it's I
Speaker 3: don't know if I would have ever said Benicio del Toro,
Speaker 3: an actor I love, he needs to pair with Wes Anderson.
Speaker 3: I probably wouldn't have thought of that. I don't know
Speaker 3: if I would have thought with Paul Thomas Anderson either,
Speaker 3: and would have missed out on one battle after another.
Speaker 3: But but yeah, it's yeah, it'll be an interesting experiment
Speaker 3: to conduct.
Speaker 5: Sam had a very good related prompt in the film
Speaker 5: Spotting Family Discord and in the newsletter this week, he said,
Speaker 5: Paul Thomas Anderson can only make one more film, and
Speaker 5: I'm gonna knock on wood and hope that that doesn't happen.
Speaker 5: The star of the film can't be anyone that he's
Speaker 5: ever worked with before. Who is that star? And I
Speaker 5: think I might take up that mantle for one of
Speaker 5: my five picks?
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 5: I mean, I'd love to, I'd love to. I'd love
Speaker 5: to do the DiCaprio Pta pairing that inspired the Top five.
Speaker 5: Why not go ahead and use it for one of
Speaker 5: my picks?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like it fun. I'll steer away from that
Speaker 3: and let you have that one. Okay, thank you. You can.
Speaker 5: You can go with Wes Anderson and we'll have the
Speaker 5: battle one battle about Anderson after another. You can send
Speaker 5: your actor director combo picks to feedback at film spotting
Speaker 5: dot net, and yes, we would love to share some
Speaker 5: on next weeks show. Also next week results and your
Speaker 5: comments from the current deeply flawed and deeply difficult Film
Speaker 5: Spotting poll. I said, you know, it's actually not a
Speaker 5: deeply flawed poll. It's a really good one when it
Speaker 5: feels impossible to answer and I will stall and procrastinate
Speaker 5: and do almost anything to avoid answering it.
Speaker 3: You agreed. The other way you know it's.
Speaker 5: A really, really good poll is when the answers are
Speaker 5: almost evenly split. I have not looked at the results, Josh,
Speaker 5: in about five days, so it's possible that it has changed,
Speaker 5: that there's been a shift, But the last time I
Speaker 5: looked it was about thirty three thirty three thirty three,
Speaker 5: And in fact, right now, wow, the number one answer
Speaker 5: has has taken a little bit more of a lead,
Speaker 5: but it's currently thirty six thirty three thirty Yeah, think.
Speaker 3: About difficult, deeply difficult, not deeply flawed.
Speaker 5: Okay, you can still vote at filmspotting dot net and yes,
Speaker 5: we would love for you to leave a comment. We
Speaker 5: might share your thoughts on air. If you'd like to
Speaker 5: see our current show schedule, some of the episodes we
Speaker 5: have planned, the reviews we have coming up. Go to
Speaker 5: filmspotting dot net and click on episodes.
Speaker 3: We want to keep you up to date on what
Speaker 3: they're doing on our sister podcast, The Next Picture Show,
Speaker 3: looking at cinema's present via its past. It's part two
Speaker 3: of their Till You Drop pairing. So this week they're
Speaker 3: talking about the Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk, which
Speaker 3: just came out. Previously, they set that conversation up by
Speaker 3: looking at Sidney Pollack's nineteen sixty nine film They Shoot Horses,
Speaker 3: don't they That one featuring Jane Fonda. New episodes of
Speaker 3: The Next Picture Show drop every Tuesday, and you can
Speaker 3: find them wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5: I want to mention one more time, maybe we'll get
Speaker 5: another plug in, but at least one Film Spotting family
Speaker 5: member posted in the discord they heard me plug this
Speaker 5: last week, Josh, and they must be somewhat in the
Speaker 5: area because they heard the promotion and said that sounds great.
Speaker 5: I got to get a pass. I'm going to Refocus.
Speaker 5: If you're anywhere in the vicinity of Iowa City, Iowa
Speaker 5: Film Scene is having their fourth annual Refocus Film Festival,
Speaker 5: celebrating the art of adaptation. It's October ninth through the twelfth,
Speaker 5: and you can come see a live taping of a
Speaker 5: film spotting Top five segment Friday, October tenth, four thirty pm.
Speaker 5: That will be with me, And since I can't record
Speaker 5: with you, I'm going to bring on, you know, our
Speaker 5: great third Wheel, our regular third Wheel, Michael Phillips, will.
Speaker 3: Be taping that with me.
Speaker 5: We are going to share our top five Iowa writers,
Speaker 5: basically grads of the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop or people
Speaker 5: people who were born in Iowa the films that have
Speaker 5: been adapted from their works. One of the things I'll say,
Speaker 5: we haven't totally ruled this out yet. I guess I
Speaker 5: haven't made a ruling, but I think I know where
Speaker 5: I'm going to lean. What you have to also consider
Speaker 5: is what do you do with people who are famous
Speaker 5: for teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, not that there's
Speaker 5: a lot of great film adaptations of his work, but
Speaker 5: if you go that route it opens you up to
Speaker 5: all of Kurt Vonnegut's adaptations, for example Josh. So you
Speaker 5: know there's different criteria you could include. But some great
Speaker 5: films I mentioned last week, The new Park Chinook film
Speaker 5: is playing. The new film Train Dream starring Joel Edgerton
Speaker 5: is playing at the fest. The Zodiac Killer Project new
Speaker 5: documentary from Charlie Shackleton which is very grill and trying. Yeah,
Speaker 5: playing at the fest, so worth getting a pass. If
Speaker 5: you're in the area, please do check it out. Refocus
Speaker 5: Film Festival dot org.
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Speaker 3: All right, let's embarrass ourselves with some Massacre theater. This
Speaker 3: is where we perform a scene and you get a
Speaker 3: chance to win a film spotting prize. Last time, was
Speaker 3: this the video debut of Massacre Theater? Adam that I
Speaker 3: think there's an addition to floating somewhere with video on
Speaker 3: the end.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but really the official debut. And yes, you have
Speaker 5: me totally self conscious now, but that's fine.
Speaker 3: We'll get to that. All right. Well, last time we
Speaker 3: massacred this scene smoking to your.
Speaker 5: We're on a flowers math. He's already on us.
Speaker 3: Oh, this is Tom Cruise and Miles Tuller in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two's Top Gun Maverick, written by Eric Warren Singer,
Speaker 3: Aaron Krueger, and Christopher McCrory and directed by Joseph Kasinski.
Speaker 3: That massacre was part of our five Years Five Movies show.
Speaker 3: A couple weeks back. We also had reviews of Spinal
Speaker 3: Tap two and the History of Sound on that show.
Speaker 3: There is always a tie in. So why that scene
Speaker 3: from Top Gun Maverick?
Speaker 5: Well, Alexa Debly has the answer. I believe the Masacer
Speaker 5: Theater was Top Gun Maverick. The tie in would be
Speaker 5: a movie sequel that was released years and ay decades
Speaker 5: after the original was released, as is the case with
Speaker 5: Spinal Tap two. And I'm just going to put this
Speaker 5: out there so all the true tap heads get it.
Speaker 5: Are you sure it's deubly and not doubly? There you go, Josh,
Speaker 5: I'm sure they appreciated that.
Speaker 3: Yep. Here's David Allen who said it's got to be
Speaker 3: Top Gun Maverick. Here are the connections. One, Like Spinal
Speaker 3: Tap two, this is a sequel that came many years
Speaker 3: after its predecessor two. One could say Tom Cruise feels
Speaker 3: like a continuation of Robert Redford's dashing smile and swagger.
Speaker 3: I don't know. We may have to discuss on our
Speaker 3: upcoming top five Robert Redford movies, Adam. David Allen's third point,
Speaker 3: The Right Stuff has some thematic crossover with the Top
Speaker 3: Gun movies, and I believe that came up on your list, Adam. Four.
Speaker 3: Glenn Powell's next vehicle is The Running Man, which, like
Speaker 3: Rear Window, is an examination of voyeur culture. Okay, Rear
Speaker 3: Window on my list, that's right.
Speaker 5: We close with Ron and Havertown, Pa. You both went
Speaker 5: above and beyond on this Mascar theater. I laughed out
Speaker 5: loud on hearing you both pretend to have masks on
Speaker 5: playing out the pivotal ending scene where Tom Cruise, Maverick
Speaker 5: and Miles Teller Rooster are in a dogfight against the
Speaker 5: nameless bad guys flying next Gen Fighters.
Speaker 3: Thank you for making my day.
Speaker 5: You're welcome, Ron, You're welcome. Everyone you know who's not welcome,
Speaker 5: all the people who just wrote in Top Gun the original,
Speaker 5: it's not the original, it's the sequel. Josh, of course,
Speaker 5: just like spinal TEP two our listeners, So, yeah.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine, Adam, if we had a prop budget, like,
Speaker 3: how good we would have been if we had actual masks?
Speaker 3: Okay not just use our hands maybe next time.
Speaker 5: And yes, as at least one listener one entrant pointed out,
Speaker 5: we did go with Cole for the name of Maverick,
Speaker 5: referencing Cole Trickle from Days of Thunder. We went with
Speaker 5: Andrew from Miles Teller's Rooster, a reference Yes to whip Lash, Josh,
Speaker 5: reach into the not very brimming film spotting hat and
Speaker 5: pick out this week's winner.
Speaker 3: Our winner is David Zobel from Roswell, Georgia.
Speaker 5: Congratulations David. Email feedback at Filmspotting dot net and we
Speaker 5: will set you up your very own film Spotting t shirt,
Speaker 5: film Spotting tote bag, or trial membership to the Film
Speaker 5: Spotting Family Broadsheet. Journalists have described my impressions as stunningly accurate.
Speaker 3: Well, they're wrong.
Speaker 2: I've not heard you, Michael o kay, but I assume
Speaker 2: it basically along the lines of I'm okai.
Speaker 3: That is where you are so wrong.
Speaker 5: We move on now to this week's edition of Massacre Theater.
Speaker 5: I think the tie in is going to be pretty
Speaker 5: obvious here, Josh. And we don't have any fancy sound
Speaker 5: effects that we need to employ here, no masks that
Speaker 5: we have to pretend to be putting on. Though Producer
Speaker 5: Sam picked a scene that does involve throwing our voices
Speaker 5: a bit, multiple voices.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's basically making us each play two characters. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you should enough each play a single character.
Speaker 5: That's that's correct. I struggle playing myself every week. How
Speaker 5: alo expect me to do this?
Speaker 3: Apparently he thinks I've been about a month in in
Speaker 3: the UK here, and I have a firm command. Yes,
Speaker 3: of a British accent, but I'm up in Scotland. It's
Speaker 3: totally different saying I'm I have hearing people like this.
Speaker 5: I mean, come on, yeah, this is this is going
Speaker 5: to be rough. It's going to be rough, but we're
Speaker 5: going to go for it. You are going to hear
Speaker 5: us attempt multiple voices in at least one instance, maybe
Speaker 5: maybe two back to back, and we are going to
Speaker 5: change the names in a couple of cases, as we
Speaker 5: are wont to do here on Masacre Theater.
Speaker 3: Josh, you started off. Are you ready? Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3: And action? Where are we? Canterbury? We're close? Anyone know
Speaker 3: if there's a hotel around here? What lind to promise me?
Speaker 3: A little bit of action? You still like it in
Speaker 3: the afternoon? Would you do rob a train, blow up
Speaker 3: a building? You told me he was swavek as a drunk.
Speaker 3: He's suave. Should have seen him in the old days
Speaker 3: when he was a real activist. You were an activist.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to get laid.
Speaker 5: One time the police came to throw us out of
Speaker 5: our squat and Dalton invited them up for coffee to negotiate.
Speaker 5: Only coffee was spiked with ketamine.
Speaker 3: And scene. See I played, we got I played an
Speaker 3: American there. That was easy.
Speaker 5: I don't know that I performed otherwise. If you know
Speaker 5: what film we just massacred, email the movie's title in
Speaker 5: your name and location to feedback at filmspotting dot net.
Speaker 5: Your deadline is Monday, October thirteenth. We'll select the winner
Speaker 5: randomly from all the correct entries. I'm expecting just a
Speaker 5: big full Film Spotting hat and announce it in a
Speaker 5: couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: Josh, that's our show. If you want to connect with
Speaker 3: us on social media, you can find Adam and the
Speaker 3: Sho show on Instagram, Facebook, letterboxed, YouTube, all as film Spotting,
Speaker 3: I'm at those places, also hanging out on Blue Sky
Speaker 3: as Larsen on film. We are independently produced and listener supported.
Speaker 3: You can support the show by joining the film Spotting
Speaker 3: Family at filmspottingfamily dot com. You can listen early and
Speaker 3: ad free. You'll also get a weekly newsletter from producer
Speaker 3: Sam monthly bonus episodes our latest just went out, as
Speaker 3: well as access to the entire show archive. For show
Speaker 3: t shirts and other merch go to film spotting dot
Speaker 3: net slash.
Speaker 5: Shop in that film Spotting archive, you can get past
Speaker 5: Paul Thomas Anderson conversations like our review of Liquorice Pizza
Speaker 5: eight fifty three, Phantom Thread that was episode six sixty
Speaker 5: four in here and weis episode five seventeen. The Master
Speaker 5: was episode four fifteen. There Will Be Blood episode one
Speaker 5: ninety three. The more in depth conversation was for its
Speaker 5: tenth annivers episode six fifty eight, and we talked about
Speaker 5: Magnolia on episode seven point fifty two. That was part
Speaker 5: of our nine from ninety nine series, and we just
Speaker 5: put that back in our feed a little from the
Speaker 5: archive episode just this past week, so you can find
Speaker 5: that available to all listeners in the main film Spotting feed.
Speaker 3: Quick note, Adam, as you were going through that list,
Speaker 3: I meant to say, while we were reviewing one battle
Speaker 3: after another and talking about the humor Phantom Thread, you
Speaker 3: know underrated for how funny it is. You're very dry,
Speaker 3: very dry, but quite hilarious.
Speaker 5: Yes, almost anytime or Woodcock admonishes, anyone is high comedy
Speaker 5: right exactly?
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 5: Okay, streaming or out vod you can see play Dirty.
Speaker 5: This is La Keith Stanfield and Keegan Michael Key, written
Speaker 5: and directed by Shane Black, in order to score a
Speaker 5: major Heisen expert thief played by Mark Wahlberg must outsmart
Speaker 5: a South American dictator, the New York Mob, and the
Speaker 5: World's Richest Man. Okay, I'm curious. The Lost Bus is out.
Speaker 5: Paul Greengrass has a new movie out, Josh. A man
Speaker 5: rescues a teacher and her students from a wildfire with
Speaker 5: Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera. Huh been a while since
Speaker 5: we've heard from Yeah, mister Greengrass obviously very interested in
Speaker 5: this one. Anemone. Daniel day Lewis returns to the screen
Speaker 5: in Son Ronan's feature directing debut, Hope to catch up
Speaker 5: with that one good boy. As dark entities threaten his
Speaker 5: human companion, a dog must fight to protect the one
Speaker 5: he loves most. Yes, it's a horror movie, Josh told
Speaker 5: from the perspective of the family dog. Indy Wire gives
Speaker 5: it four and a half stars, saying one of the
Speaker 5: year's scariest movies and one that doubles as a tribute
Speaker 5: to the bond between people and their four legged friends.
Speaker 3: This is killing me. I was going to try to
Speaker 3: fit this in at him and then, as you know,
Speaker 3: and listeners and viewers probably can tell got hit with
Speaker 3: a bug and have been down and out so had
Speaker 3: to take it off the viewing list. But man, come on,
Speaker 3: that sounds great. You know you want to see that?
Speaker 5: Can you see that? Or is that one that maybe
Speaker 5: you can get a screen or two.
Speaker 3: I was going to ask for a screener, lank, but
Speaker 3: maybe it'll maybe it'll get a release around these parts
Speaker 3: as well. Okay, happy end.
Speaker 5: This is a feature debut from Japanese American director Neo Sora,
Speaker 5: a near future japan bracist for a devastating earthquake. Mitchell
Speaker 5: bo Pray, our friend says, maybe the best looking film
Speaker 5: of the year. Also outlimited is Predators, the documentary recommended
Speaker 5: by me earlier in the show. GoldenEye is being re
Speaker 5: released for its anniversary. And very eager to see this one.
Speaker 5: Benny Safdi's solo directed The Smashing Machine. It's the story
Speaker 5: of MMA fighter Mark Kerr starring Dwayne Johnson. Hope to
Speaker 5: see that one. But next week we are planning our
Speaker 5: top five actor director combos. We'd like to see. If
Speaker 5: you've got a pairing you want us to consider or
Speaker 5: just want us to read on air, send it our
Speaker 5: way feedback at filmspotting dot net.
Speaker 3: Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Disso and Sam
Speaker 3: van Holgren. Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go.
Speaker 3: Our production assistant is Sophie Kempinar. Special thanks to everyone
Speaker 3: at wbeazy Chicago. More information is available at wbez dot
Speaker 3: org for film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson and I'm Adam Kempinar.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore.
Speaker 3: The burn.
Speaker 5: Film Spotting is listeners supported. Join the film Spotting Family
Speaker 5: at film spottingfamily dot com and get access to ad
Speaker 5: free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and for
Speaker 5: the first time, all into one place, the entire film
Speaker 5: Spotting archive going back to two thousand and five. That's
Speaker 5: a film Spotting Family dot com pantibly h