Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, we just saw the movie that so
Speaker 1: many people were talking about Millennia. This is our very
Speaker 1: carefully worded review with that, welcome to this episode of
Speaker 1: Aiming and TJ. Road. I say, everybody was talking about it,
Speaker 1: the President, the big premiere they had at the Kennedy
Speaker 1: Center and all that, and then it wasn't expected to
Speaker 1: do well, and let's give it it's do. It performed
Speaker 1: beyond expectations, made a little lower seven million dollars opening weekend.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal for a documentary.
Speaker 2: It's a huge deal for a documentary, even one with
Speaker 2: the hefty price tag that this one had. But yeah,
Speaker 2: they were expecting between three and five million at best,
Speaker 2: and it was north of seven million. Correct, There were
Speaker 2: some astermates to say closer to eight million. So that
Speaker 2: is a wild success for a documentary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I put that in right context. You hear that
Speaker 1: seven million dollars If it was an Avengers movie, that's
Speaker 1: total bust. This is gangbusters and one of the best
Speaker 1: documentaries we've seen perform in a decade at the box office.
Speaker 1: So that let's give it it's due. Now. The other
Speaker 1: part of it is that in ropes, you have it
Speaker 1: up right now, what's the current Okay, so it has
Speaker 1: been just skewed by the critics out there, and the
Speaker 1: Rotten Tomato scores are hilarious.
Speaker 2: Yes, so the critics score is five percent, that's about
Speaker 2: as low as I've ever seen, and the popcorn meter,
Speaker 2: which is the audience verified reviews or ratings, are at
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent.
Speaker 1: That's why I say it's hilarious, and that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1: You go, okay, why is this possible? I don't see
Speaker 1: that kind of We see discrepancy. Sometimes the critics are
Speaker 1: at forty five and the audience is at seventy. Stuff
Speaker 1: like that can't happen. This doesn't happen, and it makes
Speaker 1: sense when you think about it. Maybe don't have to
Speaker 1: think about it that long. Why that be such a discrepancy?
Speaker 2: Well, look, yes it makes sense, But I also thought,
Speaker 2: you know, what are all of these critics? And yes,
Speaker 2: you might think people who work in the mainstream media,
Speaker 2: according to our president at least, are all left of
Speaker 2: center and anti administration and anti Trump, and so you
Speaker 2: could start to think, Okay, those critics had an agenda,
Speaker 2: and we obviously leave space for that as well. So
Speaker 2: we wanted to go see for ourselves to have the
Speaker 2: audience love this movie and rave about the movie as
Speaker 2: much as they have, and to see the critics not
Speaker 2: just say this isn't a good film, don't go see it,
Speaker 2: but just disparage it, call it a horror movie, call
Speaker 2: it an abomin nation.
Speaker 3: I mean, they went off on this film.
Speaker 1: Okay, some of that was a little much, and it
Speaker 1: certainly you can understand robes. The people who are in
Speaker 1: the theater, in all likelihood at least who aren't critics
Speaker 1: citizens are probably already fans of Donald Trump and Milania Trump,
Speaker 1: so that would make sense predisposed to like Milania a lot.
Speaker 1: But ninety nine percent versus five percent is just not
Speaker 1: something you see. And this this is the biggest disparity obviously,
Speaker 1: I've ever seen one.
Speaker 2: And it was I think that was really the driving
Speaker 2: reason behind why we knew we had to see this
Speaker 2: movie for ourselves.
Speaker 1: So we had to see it, and we did some
Speaker 1: context here. You've seen a lot of headlines and some
Speaker 1: places a lot of critics say I went to a
Speaker 1: theater and it was empty, Oh, nobody was there. And
Speaker 1: then they say, yeah, I went to the one at
Speaker 1: Lincoln Center on the Upper West side, okay, like duh okay, fine,
Speaker 1: but then you had reports of places like Dallas at
Speaker 1: whatnot that did have larger crowds in those theaters. We
Speaker 1: went full disclosure in the daytime, in the middle of
Speaker 1: the week and a weekday, so you wouldn't expect the
Speaker 1: full theater anyway.
Speaker 2: Every time we go to the movies, and it could
Speaker 2: be the biggest blockbuster ever, we always go at like
Speaker 2: the eleven thirty am showing on a Monday, and guess what,
Speaker 2: we're almost always one of the only people in the theater.
Speaker 2: So it was not an exception that the theat was
Speaker 2: mostly empty for us, because that's always what it looks
Speaker 2: like when we choose to go to the movies. There
Speaker 2: were I think I counted for women, and we'll get
Speaker 2: into some of the demographics because they're very interesting. But
Speaker 2: they were all women, and they were all I believe
Speaker 2: age forty.
Speaker 1: And up, and that goes exactly in line with the
Speaker 1: demographics you're going to be talking about. So that sets
Speaker 1: it up. We get in there with our popcorn, literally
Speaker 1: a bucket of popcorn, diapepsy diapeps in the water, and
Speaker 1: let's take this thing in now, robes let's go before
Speaker 1: we get into some specific details that stand out your
Speaker 1: general initial first response to it are initial thoughts upon
Speaker 1: seeing Millennia.
Speaker 2: Well, she looked perfect. She was perfectly curated from head
Speaker 2: to toe. And look, I know that if you've read
Speaker 2: the reviews, you know this is true. But the I
Speaker 2: think it's it definitely was disappointing for a lot of
Speaker 2: people who wanted to actually get to know Malania.
Speaker 3: That was the whole point of the film.
Speaker 2: She started out saying, you know, you all want to know,
Speaker 2: so here it is, and you think, okay, great, We're
Speaker 2: going to pull back the curtains. We're going to see
Speaker 2: twenty days in the life of Malania Trump leading up
Speaker 2: to the inauguration. This is going to be fantastic. Finally
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get to see Milania not perfectly curated and quoifed,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to get to hear her talk and
Speaker 2: see her interactions with President Trump, and maybe even get
Speaker 2: to hear Baron Trump's voice. I've never even heard his
Speaker 2: voice before, so I was hoping for all of those things.
Speaker 3: And none of them happened.
Speaker 1: None. So before you even I mean, content wise, it
Speaker 1: was fairly shocking from what you were expecting to what
Speaker 1: you actually got, and this wasn't. I felt it never
Speaker 1: felt like a documentary, and the feeling of it to
Speaker 1: me was a reality show. A reality show where certain
Speaker 1: things are it's supposed to be real, but it certainly.
Speaker 3: Feels staged without any drama.
Speaker 1: There was zero drama conflict of any kind.
Speaker 2: And that's what make reality shows good and interesting and entertaining.
Speaker 1: I think you pointed it out. There was something that
Speaker 1: one of the designers was stressing for a second, and
Speaker 1: that felt like drama.
Speaker 3: I was like, is this like in the film?
Speaker 1: This was perfectly packaged presentation of Milania And they didn't
Speaker 1: want you to see a flaw and.
Speaker 3: We didn't, and that is but that was the flaw
Speaker 3: of the film for.
Speaker 1: Me, because I went in genuine I am fascinated by
Speaker 1: this woman, and I walked away still fascinating, fascinated. You
Speaker 1: don't actually feel one way or another because you don't
Speaker 1: get anything to react to or feel. Of course, she
Speaker 1: is a fashion icon, and we see it repeatedly and
Speaker 1: repeatedly and repeatedly in this film. But romees it gave.
Speaker 1: I was fairly sunned. We were stunned at how little
Speaker 1: we see in a documentary. There are times robes they
Speaker 1: played long stretches of the inauguration like film footage we
Speaker 1: have seen plenty of times before. Why do I need
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes here when I'm trying to learn about her
Speaker 1: beautifully shot great right? All that, I was stunned at
Speaker 1: how little we got.
Speaker 2: I yes, agreed, because we knew going in obviously the
Speaker 2: bad reviews. We had a level of expectation about what
Speaker 2: we weren't going to get, and still it fell even
Speaker 2: further short than those expectations. And I look at it
Speaker 2: as a missed opportunity. There was a real opportunity to
Speaker 2: show us Malania Trump as a human, as a woman,
Speaker 2: as a mother, as a wife. And all I saw
Speaker 2: was that she knows how to hem, She knows where
Speaker 2: the hemline should go and address, and she knows how
Speaker 2: she likes her collars, and she likes you know, she
Speaker 2: has a very specific way of designing and curating herself
Speaker 2: in the White House.
Speaker 3: That's what I got.
Speaker 1: That's not sarcasm. What you just said was accurate, what
Speaker 1: the highlight was. And I'm just making sure nobody heard
Speaker 1: you and thinking you were in some kind of way
Speaker 1: being facetious there no no, no, no, no, we learned
Speaker 1: this about her like that is what she is skilled at.
Speaker 1: I'm saying how they were highlighting things robes that I
Speaker 1: didn't want to know about her. I know she is
Speaker 1: perfectly curated, and I'm sure she has tailors around and
Speaker 1: I see all that. I wanted to know what she's
Speaker 1: like as a mother, what if she is in handling
Speaker 1: and taking care of Donald Trump? I And maybe it
Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to be that type of personal intimate thing.
Speaker 1: It was something else, and maybe they did exactly what
Speaker 1: they wanted.
Speaker 2: I just wouldn't it have been amazing though, to have
Speaker 2: seen her and relate and be able to relate.
Speaker 3: To her she wanted to look. I can't see what
Speaker 3: she wanted.
Speaker 2: It seemed as though, based on the film and what
Speaker 2: they present to audience members, they wanted her to appear
Speaker 2: almost like royalty queen like and up on a pedestal
Speaker 2: above us all and focused on her role taking care
Speaker 2: of us and taking care of her image.
Speaker 3: And it just fell so far below.
Speaker 2: Or beneath what I was hoping for, because I just wanted,
Speaker 2: like I think all of us, regardless of politics, I
Speaker 2: want to like the first lady. I want to root
Speaker 2: for her. I love seeing women, and she's gorgeous. Like
Speaker 2: the thing is what I.
Speaker 3: Saw in the film.
Speaker 2: I already knew she's beautiful, she's stunning, she was a model.
Speaker 2: You don't need to prove that to us. You are gorgeous.
Speaker 2: You were given incredible DNA and you've done really wonderful
Speaker 2: things with it. But I didn't need to know that.
Speaker 2: I already knew that.
Speaker 1: That's it what I saw, I already knew that's it.
Speaker 1: That's the review. You could probably write that and keep
Speaker 1: it pushing and don't have to say much more. And
Speaker 1: that's fine if that's what they wanted to put out.
Speaker 1: But we were just saying what we saw with our
Speaker 1: own eyes, that we are fans. Robes of All's Fair,
Speaker 1: Kim Kardashian's show on Hulu. I bring that up because
Speaker 1: that's another show that was horribly reviewed, But I say
Speaker 1: it in this way. Robes, it had the documentary at
Speaker 1: least had this over the top fashion opulence at times.
Speaker 1: Feel to these introductory shots, these big opening it felt
Speaker 1: this over the It really did feel like that showed
Speaker 1: me at time.
Speaker 2: Yes it you know, the look of it just and
Speaker 2: by the way, as you pointed out earlier, the shots
Speaker 2: and the cinematography were gorgeous, but most of the time
Speaker 2: I felt like I was watching an out of touch
Speaker 2: with reality fashion like almost a music video, because there
Speaker 2: was just there was wonderful music of my favorite songs,
Speaker 2: from Michael Jackson to I Forgot.
Speaker 3: They just had a bunch. I was like, oh, I
Speaker 3: love the song. Oh I love this song.
Speaker 2: But basically that is what the director had to put
Speaker 2: because all we saw were I think you said fifty
Speaker 2: to eighty percent. I think it was seventy five percent.
Speaker 2: Foreshore of the film, and this is not an exaggeration.
Speaker 2: Is her walking, and the only thing that changes is
Speaker 2: either the cameras behind her, so you see her gorgeous
Speaker 2: hair as she's walking in her stilettos, or maybe you
Speaker 2: get a thing from the front and you see her
Speaker 2: holding Donald Trump's hand but she's walking like a model,
Speaker 2: or sometimes the camera was off afar, like maybe behind
Speaker 2: the scenes and you're seeing her walking. But literally it
Speaker 2: was just from one walking shot to the next, to
Speaker 2: the point where our jaws dropped. I was like, you've
Speaker 2: got to be kidding me. She's still walking.
Speaker 1: Okay, you all this is one This is not a criticism,
Speaker 1: it's an observation, and you can call the criticism, but
Speaker 1: this is an observation. To the point it got comical.
Speaker 1: We were laughing, could not believe how it's You're right, folks,
Speaker 1: it's an hour and forty four minutes. And every time
Speaker 1: you see her, seventy five percent of the time she
Speaker 1: is in motion, she is walking. You need to see
Speaker 1: a close up of the shoes. We see everything going up.
Speaker 1: How many times do we see her hair and not
Speaker 1: see her face? Kind of that too many times?
Speaker 2: Too many times, it was it was comical. And the
Speaker 2: other shots were her getting in and out of vehicles.
Speaker 2: Those are the other shots. And then when you did
Speaker 2: have Trump, and by the way, when Trump did come
Speaker 2: onto the screen, it made it finally somewhat interesting.
Speaker 3: He spoke a little bit to the camera.
Speaker 2: We got to see a few little exchanges, but sometimes
Speaker 2: when they were actually talking and walking and music was blaring,
Speaker 2: those are the moments I actually wanted to hear what
Speaker 2: was he saying to her? What was she saying to him?
Speaker 2: So it was actually frustrating because the one time you
Speaker 2: might actually get to see some intimate exchanges that weren't performative.
Speaker 3: They were masked with music.
Speaker 1: One of the funniest. He did have some moment and
Speaker 1: you even mentioned like nice moments, sweet moments. It seems
Speaker 1: like he's been disarmed to a certain degree. The only
Speaker 1: time I've ever been around him, she was next to him,
Speaker 1: and he was charming, He was fun, and there was
Speaker 1: something that she adds some element of warmth to him
Speaker 1: in those moments, and you see that nice.
Speaker 2: Yes, he seemed to soften when when he was around
Speaker 2: Malania in a way that I appreciated.
Speaker 3: It was nice seeing that.
Speaker 2: I would have liked to have seen her just in
Speaker 2: sweatpants or in anything other than high fashion and stilettos,
Speaker 2: Like give me a little like she was sitting on
Speaker 2: her couch watching the news in stilettos.
Speaker 3: No woman does that.
Speaker 1: She does.
Speaker 2: No, she does not, not when the cameras aren't there,
Speaker 2: She is not sitting in her living room watching the
Speaker 2: news in stilettos.
Speaker 3: I guarantee it.
Speaker 1: We did mention that, to the point you pointed it
Speaker 1: out to me about the shoes. I don't know. Halfway
Speaker 1: through the movie, so I'm staring. I say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna see her in some tennis shoes, some fashion
Speaker 1: shoot something. There was a slipper.
Speaker 3: Shot for like a half a second.
Speaker 1: It really was. In an hour and forty four minutes
Speaker 1: of this movie, it was less than five seconds in
Speaker 1: two different shots that you see her in something other
Speaker 1: than five inch heels.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: That was it. So what sure if that's what she
Speaker 1: wants to present? And I don't need you to see
Speaker 1: me casual. I don't want you to see me casual.
Speaker 1: That's cool, But I was hoping for those moments and
Speaker 1: every time, even at home, right she's walking just in
Speaker 1: and out of hallways, through golden doors and golden walls,
Speaker 1: and it never looks chill, ever looks chill. And her
Speaker 1: fittings when you're seeing in side the home were happening
Speaker 1: in the same like boardroom with glass behind them to
Speaker 1: where those went on for a.
Speaker 3: While, and there was what will happen?
Speaker 2: Will her lapel be wider or thinner? Where her neckline
Speaker 2: go get tighter and crisper? Will the lines be the
Speaker 2: way she wants them come Inauguration day? Sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: In this one, however, Melania did have what I think
Speaker 1: and I think we might agree, robes was her most open,
Speaker 1: her sweetest, her most authentic, even moment, we'll explain what
Speaker 1: that was, and we'll explain the demographics of Milania.
Speaker 3: Stay here, Welcome back everyone.
Speaker 2: As TJ and I talk about our time in the
Speaker 2: theater watching the film Milania, and we mentioned, look, this
Speaker 2: was a highly curated and I'm again this is not
Speaker 2: me looking to criticize.
Speaker 3: It was just, babe, can I say this? It was
Speaker 3: just really really boring. It was boring, like there's only
Speaker 3: so many shots of her walking with no dialogue, and
Speaker 3: the only time you hear her voice, she's speaking in.
Speaker 2: A way that appeared to be so forced and so contrived.
Speaker 2: It was poetic even it almost some of the it was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't natural, it wasn't authentic, it wasn't off the cuff.
Speaker 2: It was again, like everything in the film, so highly
Speaker 2: curated and orchestrated.
Speaker 1: Again, if that's what they were going for, they succeeded.
Speaker 1: It's not maybe not our cup of tea. I just
Speaker 1: want to reserve that for everybody else who this was for,
Speaker 1: or like this, or is looking for something like this.
Speaker 1: I was just looking to know, what did you say?
Speaker 1: You just used a great line before the break I
Speaker 1: just it didn't give you anything.
Speaker 3: I wanted to know. I wanted to know who she
Speaker 3: was when the cameras aren't rolling.
Speaker 2: That's what a documentary typically typically is for, so you
Speaker 2: actually get to see and get to know someone and
Speaker 2: you know, you literally pull the curtains back. That did
Speaker 2: not happen in this There was one moment when she
Speaker 2: and President Trump came down off of one of the
Speaker 2: balls on the inauguration night and she had that beautiful
Speaker 2: white and black dress. You'll get to see how it
Speaker 2: was made and everything that want into making that dress,
Speaker 2: if you're interested. And when she came off the stage,
Speaker 2: they were playing Ymca and she was doing the little
Speaker 2: dance and shaking her hips and giggling, and it was
Speaker 2: the only time that we saw her actually kind of
Speaker 2: let her hair down, so to speak, and show a
Speaker 2: little personality that wasn't thought through and perfectly executed.
Speaker 1: Well, you're right, it was cute. It was you said
Speaker 1: she was giggling a little bit. She was cute, Well
Speaker 1: like she was the first time in the film, having
Speaker 1: a good time.
Speaker 2: And I think that's when I thought, what a missed opportunity.
Speaker 2: Not that you want to have your first lady and
Speaker 2: being silly. I'm not suggesting that, but just getting to
Speaker 2: see and know her personality beyond this. I have a
Speaker 2: speech and I'm reading exactly what the speech writers told
Speaker 2: me to say. I wanted to see the person behind
Speaker 2: the first lady, and that was one small glimpse, you know.
Speaker 1: What the other if that was one small glimpse the
Speaker 1: other highlight for me Robes And I don't know if
Speaker 1: this story had been out there, but during the inauguration,
Speaker 1: there was a moment that happened between President Trump and
Speaker 1: Malania Trump as he was making his speech. Now, if
Speaker 1: you caught it, he's just kind of paused for a
Speaker 1: moment and looked back at her and kind of pointed
Speaker 1: after he had delivered a line, and she kind of
Speaker 1: smiled back. We see in the documentary Robes where that
Speaker 1: came from. I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker 3: It was really cute.
Speaker 2: They had a rehearsal basically of the President giving his speech,
Speaker 2: and she suggested a change in one of the lines,
Speaker 2: and so she kind of interrupted and said, I think
Speaker 2: you should say this, and so you see him then
Speaker 2: cut to his speech and he says the phrase that
Speaker 2: she suggested, and he looked back at her appointed. That
Speaker 2: was sweet, and I just that's what. If there were
Speaker 2: more of those moments that it would have carried the
Speaker 2: film to a completely different place.
Speaker 1: That was cool. I just that was sweet. She got
Speaker 1: something into his all important inauguration speech, and he acknowledged
Speaker 1: in that moment he stopped and gave her credit. It
Speaker 1: was two words, I think something. Yes, it was like unifying,
Speaker 1: unifying peace or something. Yeah, and gave a credit. So
Speaker 1: that was something at least that we got. Now, we
Speaker 1: talked about folks try to report that they're empty theaters. However,
Speaker 1: theaters in places like Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, West Palm Beach.
Speaker 1: I think those were the top five markets and robes.
Speaker 1: We said, not a lot of people in our theater,
Speaker 1: but the ones that were in there seemed to go
Speaker 1: along with the demographic information.
Speaker 2: Yeah, with white women over the age of forty, you
Speaker 2: were the only man and the only black person in
Speaker 2: the theater. Seventy two of theatergoers were women, three percent
Speaker 2: were over the age of forty five, and seventy five
Speaker 2: percent were white.
Speaker 3: That totally reads.
Speaker 2: So we mentioned the cities in which this film has
Speaker 2: done gangbusters. I did want to point out because I
Speaker 2: thought this was quite funny, because sometimes you just have
Speaker 2: to be able to take a joke. But an Oregon,
Speaker 2: there is a theater that look and it's Oregon, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: just you know the state and where they typically stand politically,
Speaker 2: and so so a theater there decided to try and
Speaker 2: draw people in with some creative marketing and knowing their audience.
Speaker 2: So one of the messages on the films or the
Speaker 2: cinema's marquee said, does Milania wear Prada? Find out on Friday?
Speaker 2: That's funny, it's not bad. That's funny does not mean
Speaker 2: that's not bad. And then another message to advertise the film,
Speaker 2: to defeat your enemy, you must know them.
Speaker 3: Malania starts Friday.
Speaker 1: It's somebody I had the sense of humor.
Speaker 2: It's okay, so it's funny, but guess what, it was
Speaker 2: not funny to Amazon's studio Amazon.
Speaker 3: So Amazon pulled the film, pulled the film from.
Speaker 2: That cinema, and then so this was then what they
Speaker 2: put up on the marquee. Amazon called our marquee made
Speaker 2: them mad. All Milania's showings canceled. Show your support at
Speaker 2: Whole Foods instead.
Speaker 1: Somebody Humor.
Speaker 2: That book is hilarious without being mean. Again, they know
Speaker 2: their audience, they know their community.
Speaker 1: You're not being mean. And then the other time, I
Speaker 1: can't take a joke. Can't take a joke? Isn't that
Speaker 1: the best way if you know your audience to get
Speaker 1: them in here?
Speaker 2: And couldn't Amazon have said, clever marketing will take whoever
Speaker 2: wants to see Milania.
Speaker 3: The more people who see it, the better.
Speaker 1: Can't take a joke.
Speaker 2: Couldn't Amazon have just said that? That would have been
Speaker 2: a smart reaction. There was an again, another opportunity there.
Speaker 2: There's an opportunity to not take yourself so seriously and
Speaker 2: to have a little fun with the reality of trying
Speaker 2: to show Milania in Oregon.
Speaker 1: Take my movie and go home. Oh goodness, I wanted
Speaker 1: to lead this last one here. This was I think,
Speaker 1: not a mean one, but this was one of the
Speaker 1: best ways I heard people sum up what this movie
Speaker 1: is without being mean.
Speaker 3: Ropes, Yes, it reads.
Speaker 2: No good impression emerges of the former Slovenian model. No
Speaker 2: bad impression emerges either. Radner's film achieves rather a sort
Speaker 2: of passive distance, as you might get by pointing a
Speaker 2: camera for close to two hours at a waterfall or
Speaker 2: a wheat field.
Speaker 3: That's spot on, right, spot on, get.
Speaker 1: Up close to it. You're just watching this thing happen
Speaker 1: in front of you. It's a pretty picture, it's great.
Speaker 1: Look at it for a while, but you walk away
Speaker 1: with what an understanding and insight? Nothing that and again
Speaker 1: that thing, no good impression, no bad impression emerges. Nothing,
Speaker 1: And that's too bad. I wanted to know, so I
Speaker 1: really did want.
Speaker 3: To know more about it, and I do, and I
Speaker 3: and so did I.
Speaker 2: You and I both have said that, and I think
Speaker 2: even after reading the bad reviews, I was still surprised
Speaker 2: at how boring it was.
Speaker 1: She gets her steps in with that, Folks, check it
Speaker 1: out by all means see for yourselves. And with that,
Speaker 1: I am TJ. Holmes. Always appreciate your spending some time
Speaker 1: with us, with my dear Amy Robot, talk to y'lson,