Speaker 1: Hey, that folks. In this episode, we watched them. So
Speaker 1: you don't have to welcome to part one of our
Speaker 1: best picture previews if you will here on Amy and TJ. Rhodes.
Speaker 1: Every single year we all end up in the same position, now,
Speaker 1: is it. It can't just be us Where you get
Speaker 1: around to Oscar stile, you ask that question, have you
Speaker 1: seen any of the Oscar movies?
Speaker 2: And usually I say I saw one of them. I
Speaker 2: mean that's usually at best case, I've seen two. It's
Speaker 2: I feel like a universal experience to see the list
Speaker 2: come down and say what what picture?
Speaker 1: So it's not just us, is it?
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: So you got ten movies this year, so we watched them, folks,
Speaker 1: So you don't have to the Oscars coming up just
Speaker 1: days away now. But if you were to sit down today,
Speaker 1: right now and start watching all ten Oscar movies, it
Speaker 1: would take you one four hundred and eighty nine minutes
Speaker 1: twenty five hours and nine minutes.
Speaker 2: So a full day of not sleeping.
Speaker 1: This is the longest collective runtime of Oscar movies in history.
Speaker 1: These were long, long movies, not a single one under
Speaker 1: two hours.
Speaker 2: They were long, and most of them, if not all,
Speaker 2: of them dealt with extremely heavy topics.
Speaker 1: Was there a happy movie in here?
Speaker 2: Wicked?
Speaker 1: Well, even at the end, I was kind of pissed.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a cliffhanger, so you can watch part two.
Speaker 1: All of them now. And that's the full disclosure. We
Speaker 1: didn't see a single one of these movies in the theater.
Speaker 2: We did not. We only saw them at home streaming.
Speaker 1: Okay, second full disclosure here. We didn't have a desire
Speaker 1: to see any of the ten nominated movies except for one,
Speaker 1: and that was you.
Speaker 2: I wanted to see Wicked in theaters. And it's funny
Speaker 2: because my daughters and my friends all saw it without me,
Speaker 2: and I knew that I was not gonna drag you
Speaker 2: into the theater to see that one. I mean maybe
Speaker 2: if I had it really begged and said please, pretty please.
Speaker 2: I knew my only chance was Sabine and.
Speaker 3: She saw it with me.
Speaker 2: So I was then left to see it finally with
Speaker 2: you under a work assignment. Okay, so I was very happy.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I but I would have gone to that movie
Speaker 1: with you. But I'm making the point there that out
Speaker 1: of all ten of these movies, there's not a single
Speaker 1: one that I would have registered say, hey, go to
Speaker 1: the theater and watch. Yes, we're big horror movie fans.
Speaker 1: It's pretty much exclusively all we watched in the theater.
Speaker 1: But that's weird to feel that none of these ten
Speaker 1: movies appealed to me enough that I wanted to go
Speaker 1: to a theater.
Speaker 2: I actually, because you just said that, I need to
Speaker 2: make an exception. I actually would have seen two in
Speaker 2: the theaters. I would have seen Wicked, and I absolutely
Speaker 2: would have seen The Substance and wanted to and was
Speaker 2: begging you to see it in the theaters with me.
Speaker 2: Do you remember that? And I kept saying I want
Speaker 2: to see the Substance to the point where it became
Speaker 2: a joke, and you were teasing me like, oh, let
Speaker 2: me guess you want to see the Substance.
Speaker 1: Are you glad we didn't see it in the theater? I?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you would have been even more angry.
Speaker 1: Okay, we this mony that might have caused a relationship
Speaker 1: altering incident. Was it even the two of us?
Speaker 2: But we'll get I could never have anticipated it. But
Speaker 2: it turns out, yes, that actually could have been tripped, and.
Speaker 1: So it's not just us. I should tell you now,
Speaker 1: these movies a lot of people didn't see them. And
Speaker 1: I say that because a lot of wide mainstream audiences
Speaker 1: did not. The collective group made two point seven billion
Speaker 1: dollars at the box office. That sounds good, sounds great,
Speaker 1: but that is almost two billion dollars less than last
Speaker 1: year's movies.
Speaker 2: Wow, and probably almost all from Wicked.
Speaker 1: A lot Wicked and Done drove a lot of this. Now.
Speaker 1: Of course, last year we did have Oppenheimer and Barbie
Speaker 1: going head to head. That was a big deal Barbarenheimer.
Speaker 1: But still this was a drop. A lot of folks
Speaker 1: just didn't see these movies. So, folks, that's why we
Speaker 1: are here now, so you don't have to sit for
Speaker 1: twenty five hours and twenty nine minutes and watch all
Speaker 1: these movies. So we're gonna split it up. In this
Speaker 1: episode we're gonna do five, and the next episode will
Speaker 1: do five. But the five we're doing today for you,
Speaker 1: A Nora the Brutalist, a Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys, and
Speaker 1: Milia Perez are the five movies we'll get into. And
Speaker 1: we're getting a little help. It's just not me, Me
Speaker 1: and Robes here. We have a little diversity of voices
Speaker 1: here in the room, wrote Emma Sidney and Andy are
Speaker 1: three producers. They went through this exercise with us and
Speaker 1: watched all of these movies. First up is Anara, which
Speaker 1: has some momentum. Right now, Robes take it away.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's been nominated for six Oscars Best Picture, Best Director,
Speaker 2: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best
Speaker 2: Editing and Starring Mikey Madison, Mark Edelstein. Directed by Sean Baker.
Speaker 2: The synopsis of the movie is this. It's a young
Speaker 2: sex worker. She marries the son of a Russian oligarch
Speaker 2: on a whim it happened at that famous chapel in Vegas. Hilarity,
Speaker 2: heart and havoc all in sue when her new husband's
Speaker 2: parents God I loved the mom in this hear about
Speaker 2: the marriage and rush to the United States on their
Speaker 2: private plane from Russia to force them to annul the marriage.
Speaker 2: Box office gross thirty seven point six million dollars. And
Speaker 2: you can stream it as we did on video and
Speaker 2: demand to get to pay for it. But if you
Speaker 2: wait till March seventeenth, you can watch it on Hulu
Speaker 2: if you subscribe to that and it comes in. Actually
Speaker 2: is not even close to being one of the longest
Speaker 2: two hours and nineteen minutes, and it really did great
Speaker 2: with Rotten Tomatoes. I'm a big fan of looking at
Speaker 2: the score ninety three percent. It's already won a lot
Speaker 2: of awards, the Top Prize at the can Film Festival,
Speaker 2: the Palm d'ore, Best Picture at the Critics' Choice Awards,
Speaker 2: and Spirit Awards, Top Prize at WGAPGA DGA. So this
Speaker 2: is a film. It's one of the front runners for
Speaker 2: Best Picture.
Speaker 1: All right, So I'll start over there with you, Andy
Speaker 1: and go through all three of you. All. First impression
Speaker 1: of Honora was I thought it was good, am I
Speaker 1: first impression bored? Wow, loved it, Rokes, I.
Speaker 2: Thought it was incredible and riveting.
Speaker 1: Shockingly good. I wasn't prepared for this one. So who
Speaker 1: over there? Okay, we got Emma. We'll start with you.
Speaker 1: You actually said bored. Now, what wasn't about this movie
Speaker 1: that didn't do it for you?
Speaker 4: I wasn't entirely interested in the plot. It kind of
Speaker 4: was slow to me, and so I stopped halfway through.
Speaker 2: Wow, you don't like sexy dances nudity, and.
Speaker 1: We should mention that that this was a lot of
Speaker 1: nudity in this movie. I mean, look, it's just you start,
Speaker 1: sit down and watch an Oscar movie. I didn't know
Speaker 1: enough about what it was about, but it's about a
Speaker 1: sex worker, so shocking. There was nudity and sex in it,
Speaker 1: but there is a lot of it. Andy You, your
Speaker 1: response to it was how good luke warm?
Speaker 3: I thought it was like I really wanted to love
Speaker 3: the movie, like I've like. I went into it saying, like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, it's going to be so good. Everyone
Speaker 3: was talking about Mikey Madison and how great her performance was,
Speaker 3: and I went in I think maybe expecting too much
Speaker 3: out of it. I watched The Florida Project other movie,
Speaker 3: and it's kind of the same thing he does, like
Speaker 3: very realistic takes on it, so you can't expect I
Speaker 3: don't know, crazyness from these types of movies that he makes.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think I went in expecting too much
Speaker 3: and then was bummed out.
Speaker 1: See but we didn't know anything about it, Robes you
Speaker 1: and I. But we were in a theater and we
Speaker 1: saw a preview of Anora, like wow, that looks awesome,
Speaker 1: but we still never went to see it. But it
Speaker 1: looked incredible to me at the time.
Speaker 2: Yes, even the trailers that I saw I was intrigued,
Speaker 2: and then we actually got recommendations from two of my
Speaker 2: friends saying, including my daughter, saying, you will love this movie.
Speaker 1: And just like Sidney loved it. Now, why why is
Speaker 1: your buddy sitting next to you, Emma there? How is
Speaker 1: it possible that YouTube? Yeah? What would you tell her?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How did she not like this movie? That's shocking to me?
Speaker 5: I well, very different from Andy. I had no I
Speaker 5: never saw the trailer. I didn't know anything going into it.
Speaker 5: I was like not on my phone the entire time.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 5: I was so invested in the story. I was so
Speaker 5: invested in Anora, Like I just loved her so much
Speaker 5: and I wanted her to come out on top. And
Speaker 5: I thought Mikey Madison was like beyond incredible, like that performance,
Speaker 5: the accent, everything, like she was so real to me
Speaker 5: and I just I thought she was beyond.
Speaker 3: It's interesting you say the accent, because that was the
Speaker 3: one part for me growing up in this area. I
Speaker 3: was like, she keeps slipping out of it. Where is
Speaker 3: she from? And I'm like, this is California. I know
Speaker 3: it's California, Like this is California pretending to be New Yorker.
Speaker 3: It's not like organ there my cousin Vinnie girl.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Marissa Tomey when.
Speaker 3: She's in that. My cousin Vinnie never slips because she's
Speaker 3: from Brooklyn. This one, there were a couple of words
Speaker 3: where she like talking.
Speaker 2: Oh, that was funny. I mean, you know, I'm a transplant,
Speaker 2: but I've been here for more than twenty years, and
Speaker 2: I was fooled into thinking that her accent was spot on.
Speaker 2: But I will say I I was so invested because
Speaker 2: I thought the storytelling was so great and the acting
Speaker 2: was so phenomenal that I actually felt like I wasn't
Speaker 2: even watching a movie. It was almost as if I
Speaker 2: was watching a documentary. And I was blown away at
Speaker 2: the whull time mobility that Mikey Madison showed just physically
Speaker 2: to do what she did. I mean, I imagine.
Speaker 1: There's exotic dancing on the level of you have to
Speaker 1: have an athleticism that No, that's impressive, so impressive.
Speaker 2: And I also was, as you pointed out, Sydney rooting
Speaker 2: for her. And I thought, especially the ending, and we
Speaker 2: don't want to give it away, but it had so
Speaker 2: much heart, ye so much heart in life.
Speaker 1: This is not just hyperbole because it's recent. There has
Speaker 1: never been that few seconds of a movie that tore
Speaker 1: my heart out but also made me love the movie.
Speaker 1: There there is as that scene in this There is
Speaker 1: a scene in this movie that I was not expecting
Speaker 1: and you get it and you understand and it fucking
Speaker 1: it crushes you in that moment and it's just beautifully done.
Speaker 1: So that's that. Mikey Madison, she is my hands down.
Speaker 1: We'll get into it later, but she I am rooting
Speaker 1: for that young lady.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am too, and I just thought she she
Speaker 2: did such an incredib job and for anyone I think
Speaker 2: there was Obviously there was a lot of messages, but
Speaker 2: we're also quick to judge and to put people in
Speaker 2: boxes and to assume we know what they're thinking or
Speaker 2: what their motivations are. And that movie just blows your
Speaker 2: mind with expanding it. All Right, So what we're gonna
Speaker 2: do at the end of each movie that we discussed,
Speaker 2: We're going to ask you if you would recommend this
Speaker 2: movie to your friends and why So, I guess we'll
Speaker 2: start with you, Emma.
Speaker 4: Well, for context for why I didn't particularly like it,
Speaker 4: it's because I was looking for a romance movie something
Speaker 4: that was light, and I saw romance in.
Speaker 2: The description, what this is hilarious? And so I clicked
Speaker 2: it while I was doing laundry, and then I.
Speaker 4: Realized I was in an intense sex worker movie and
Speaker 4: I was not ready for it. You wanted a light
Speaker 4: rom com, so I was totally unprepared and I couldn't
Speaker 4: snap out of I was just disappointed that that.
Speaker 2: Was the movie i'd bought. Okay, expectation make all the difference,
Speaker 2: So that makes a lot of sense. So now that
Speaker 2: you know what the movie is and you watched it,
Speaker 2: would you recommend this to your friends and why.
Speaker 4: I would recommend it. But I would want to watch
Speaker 4: it with them because I want to do over, so
Speaker 4: that's why i'd recommend it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel the same way. Like I wrote this
Speaker 3: down while I was watching it. I think it's like
Speaker 3: for me, one of the higher watchability ones, Like I
Speaker 3: look forward to seeing it on TV and like just
Speaker 3: mindlessly watching because there are so many funny parts to
Speaker 3: the movie and I did love the ending so much,
Speaker 3: so I think it has a really big rewatchability scale.
Speaker 3: It's just for me personally, Like I said, maybe going
Speaker 3: in with less expectations this next time, I would just
Speaker 3: be like, great, loved it ten out of ten.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's really interesting because I think there's
Speaker 5: only two movies on this list that I think I
Speaker 5: could ever like watch again, which would be Anra and Wicked,
Speaker 5: And I would one hundred percent recommend it to my friends.
Speaker 5: I already have, like, I just love that movie.
Speaker 1: I would absolutely and I would say stick with this
Speaker 1: movie and stick with honor through the end, and you
Speaker 1: will fall in love with this girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I have already recommended it and I
Speaker 2: will as well because I just also if you just
Speaker 2: love incredible writing and phenomenal acting, this is a movie for.
Speaker 1: You, all right. Next up on our list, we got
Speaker 1: the Brutalists. Woo oh my goodnesss all right. This one
Speaker 1: is nominated for ten Oscars All The Big Ones Best Picture,
Speaker 1: Best direct Or, Best Actor, starring Adrian Brodie, Felicity Jones,
Speaker 1: Guy Pierce, directed by Brady Corbett. This is about a
Speaker 1: Jewish architect who flees post war Europe to come find
Speaker 1: the American dream not going great, but then a mysterious
Speaker 1: and wealthy client changes everything. Now, this one may thirty
Speaker 1: one point six million dollars at the Box Office. If
Speaker 1: you want to watch it, it is available to rent
Speaker 1: or buy video and demand right now. The runtime three
Speaker 1: hours and thirty five minutes that includes a fifteen minute
Speaker 1: in a mission. It's rotten Tomato score ninety four has
Speaker 1: won some major awards, including Best Director, Actor and Drama
Speaker 1: at the Golden Globes, also Best Director Best Actor at
Speaker 1: the BAFTA's Robes. I'll start with you on this one.
Speaker 1: First impression of the Brutalists brutal Sydney.
Speaker 3: Tough watch Emma, too long, complicated.
Speaker 1: Heavy as hell would be my first impression. It's I
Speaker 1: don't you have to start here with Adrian Brody. He
Speaker 1: is just phenomenal start to finish. Every single scene you
Speaker 1: can't take your eyes off of him. But this one look,
Speaker 1: that runtime has to turn some people off.
Speaker 2: Oh, we would never have sat down and watched it.
Speaker 2: We haven't watched Oppenheimer because it's too long. I mean,
Speaker 2: let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: Stop.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just need to admit it. This was
Speaker 2: a labor of duty to get through this. And it's
Speaker 2: not to take away from the art and the acting
Speaker 2: and the cinematography. I mean it was all beautiful and
Speaker 2: something you would expect of a Best Picture nominee. However,
Speaker 2: it just went on for so long, and the themes
Speaker 2: were very heavy. I think I started to make a
Speaker 2: list of these themes, and we're talking about Obviously it's
Speaker 2: set just after or actually towards the end of the Holocaust.
Speaker 2: Then you have heroin or opium addiction. I'm not really
Speaker 2: sure what it was that he was injecting in himself.
Speaker 2: There was possible overdose. There was prostitution, there was like
Speaker 2: sex addiction.
Speaker 1: There was disease.
Speaker 2: There was osteoporosis that was debilitating that I didn't even
Speaker 2: know that could happen with that disease. There was rape.
Speaker 2: It was heavy, it was.
Speaker 1: But I think a friend of ours recommended it and
Speaker 1: she said, you know, it kind of just flies by.
Speaker 1: I get what she was saying. I didn't find necessarily,
Speaker 1: and for you all down there as well. I didn't
Speaker 1: find even though it was three hoursan and third of
Speaker 1: five as long. I didn't find it to have any
Speaker 1: unnecessary scenes. I didn't find that there was too much
Speaker 1: that so that went too long. Everything still seemed to
Speaker 1: contribute to the story in some way. That's me Andy.
Speaker 1: You had some I.
Speaker 3: Think personally it would have been better served as like
Speaker 3: an HBO mini series because the first half I was in,
Speaker 3: like I was so in and invested, and the second
Speaker 3: half crammed so much in that I just kind of
Speaker 3: felt lost watching it, Like where is all of this
Speaker 3: coming from? Like the wife really added such an element
Speaker 3: to it. Yes, coming to the country, and then they
Speaker 3: go to Italy and You're just like, so much is
Speaker 3: happening where? I feel like if I got a six
Speaker 3: hour HBO mini series, I could have really appreciated it
Speaker 3: a lot more.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it felt like parts were cut towards the end,
Speaker 3: and I would have liked to have seen weird, like
Speaker 3: a longer cut to get some more backstory.
Speaker 1: Wow, where were you give me the redeeming part of
Speaker 1: Sydney of the movie? What did you like about it?
Speaker 5: Everyone's talking about this, but just the cinematography and like
Speaker 5: just the visual aspect of it, Like that was something
Speaker 5: I have never seen before ever, and it was just
Speaker 5: it was like so crazy to see. And I also
Speaker 5: saw online that they shot it in thirty four days,
Speaker 5: which I'm like, that is like unbelievable to me. And
Speaker 5: like the budget was like super low. It was like
Speaker 5: under ten million or ten million, which is like so
Speaker 5: crazy for me to think about. But yeah, the way
Speaker 5: that it was shot, I know it was like some
Speaker 5: special camera or something, but like was so beautiful to
Speaker 5: me to see.
Speaker 2: Uh, Emma, you haven't waited yet.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm the most intrigued by the use of AI
Speaker 4: during this film because I think with my generation, we've
Speaker 4: AI was introduced in school to us because there was
Speaker 4: no way around it. And I think with older generations
Speaker 4: people are still adjusting to the way that it's impacting
Speaker 4: people's jobs in acting because it's being used. But I
Speaker 4: think that it's out there and it and it's meant
Speaker 4: to be used, and so I'm for the use of
Speaker 4: AI enhancing a production and enhancing a film, especially to
Speaker 4: make something more realistic. If an actor can't correctly have
Speaker 4: the Hungarian.
Speaker 1: Accent, I am I and I see it. I like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how any I don't know how anything
Speaker 1: will be able to replicate what Adrian Brodie makes me
Speaker 1: feel when I watch him on film, Like I can't
Speaker 1: take my eyes off him. This was this movie was
Speaker 1: It's so there. I don't know, is there any joy
Speaker 1: in this movie? Is Are there any there's a taut story.
Speaker 2: There's a true love story, but it's it's very flawed
Speaker 2: and he was a flawed character, but they loved each
Speaker 2: other and that did resonate throughout the film.
Speaker 1: And we don't want to harp on the fact that
Speaker 1: it's as long as it is, like that's a negative thing.
Speaker 1: This is it probably should win the Oscar. It is
Speaker 1: a beautiful movie. It is it just it's movie making
Speaker 1: on this type, this scale is stunning to watch it.
Speaker 1: I'm glad we watched it. It took us seventeen hours
Speaker 1: and fifty minutes to watch a three hour and thirty
Speaker 1: five minute move. It did because at one point we
Speaker 1: needed a break, like, oo.
Speaker 2: Let's get them cleanse our palate with married at first Sight.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then we got back to and then we
Speaker 1: fell asleep on it. We woke up a mound and
Speaker 1: we had to do a podcast, and then we had
Speaker 1: it going.
Speaker 2: It winded a couple of times too, did We ended
Speaker 2: up turning on the closed captioning, which we don't often do.
Speaker 2: But sometimes when you're having to focus on a movie
Speaker 2: that's that complex, sometimes it's helpful to not have to
Speaker 2: rewind an already long movie by just putting up the
Speaker 2: closed captioning and knowing what they said. I also want
Speaker 2: to give a nod to Felicity Jones. I thought she
Speaker 2: was phenomenal and Guy Pearce was just incredible. I mean
Speaker 2: everyone in that cast nailed their performance and you did
Speaker 2: feel like again, I was watching a documary and that always,
Speaker 2: to me is like the best way to say the
Speaker 2: acting was so good. I forgot I was watching something
Speaker 2: that someone had to memorize lines.
Speaker 1: For This and Doom two are probably the two movies.
Speaker 1: Just looking at them, I'm in awe of movie making.
Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible. So with that Robes, if you had to,
Speaker 1: would you recommend The Brutalists to a friend? And why? Hmmm?
Speaker 2: I would decide between my friends are among my friends
Speaker 2: who to recommend it to not to because you do
Speaker 2: have to have a love of cinema. I really think
Speaker 2: you have to have an appreciation for movie making to
Speaker 2: enjoy this movie, because I think if you're looking for
Speaker 2: just a quick fix of entertainment, which so many of
Speaker 2: us are, this is not the movie for you. But
Speaker 2: if you actually enjoy the art of filmmaking and cinema,
Speaker 2: then I would recommend it to you because it is
Speaker 2: something beautiful to witness, and I am glad I watched it.
Speaker 2: But I know most of my friends I would probably say,
Speaker 2: you might want to skip that one.
Speaker 1: Sydney recommend it, and why.
Speaker 5: I couldn't recommend it just because I couldn't get through
Speaker 5: it myself. So I just don't think that where did
Speaker 5: you stop?
Speaker 2: It was like an hour in.
Speaker 5: I think, oh, so, yeah, we're not once to talk
Speaker 5: on this one.
Speaker 1: Okay, then what was your answer to you? What would
Speaker 1: you say?
Speaker 4: Well, I believe that any movie that is up for
Speaker 4: so many wards, like The Brutalist is, I would absolutely
Speaker 4: recommend because I think it's worth a watch, and I'm
Speaker 4: kind of on the same tract of how beautiful it
Speaker 4: is that I think it would be best picture.
Speaker 3: I would recommend it to certain people for sure. I
Speaker 3: also thought it was a real movie up until the intermission,
Speaker 3: and I looked over at the person I was watching
Speaker 3: it with and I was like, I keep looking at
Speaker 3: Doyle's Town, like where is this place? And they were like, Babe,
Speaker 3: there is no Doyles Town.
Speaker 1: This is not a.
Speaker 3: Real sculpture being built. This is not a real story.
Speaker 3: And I was like, Okay, I thought it was saying,
Speaker 3: are we.
Speaker 2: Sure this wasn't a real architect? It seemed it did
Speaker 2: seem like a biopic.
Speaker 3: I was looking for this mega audit turium chapel whatever
Speaker 3: they were building thing in Doylestown and then was shocked
Speaker 3: when none of that was real.
Speaker 2: How about you? Would you recommend it?
Speaker 1: I would man so many asterisks next to it right
Speaker 1: when you do? So? This was an amazing movie. It
Speaker 1: just is. It's and I'm such a wit. Daniel day
Speaker 1: Lewis those, Denzel Washington, there, Anthony Hopkins. There are some
Speaker 1: guys that just like Mount Rushmore type Oscar guys. I mean,
Speaker 1: Adrian Brody in this performance is everything. He is just everything.
Speaker 1: So yes, that's how I would recommend it. You watch
Speaker 1: this guy do his thing, and it's a very cool movie.
Speaker 2: All right, we are going to move on now to
Speaker 2: a complete unknown. This is nominated for eight Oscars Best Picture,
Speaker 2: Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress,
Speaker 2: Sound Costume Design, Adapted Screenplay, starring Oh the heart Throb
Speaker 2: that He Is, Timothy Chalomey, El Fanning, Edward Norton, and
Speaker 2: Monica Barbarro. Directed by James Mangold, This is a film
Speaker 2: that follows the early nineteen sixties rise of a young
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan who arrives in New York as a while,
Speaker 2: as the title will suggest, a complete unknown. This one
Speaker 2: did really well at the box office one hundred and
Speaker 2: five million. It arrives on video on demand this week
Speaker 2: the week of the Oscars. Yes, and the runtime two
Speaker 2: hours and twenty minutes. Rotten Tomatoes score eighty one percent.
Speaker 2: A lot of nominations in all of the major categories,
Speaker 2: but there have been no major wins. However, Timothy Challomey
Speaker 2: won Best Actor at the SAG Awards, and that was
Speaker 2: considered an upset because a lot of folks are just
Speaker 2: anticipating that Adrian Brody was just going to do a
Speaker 2: clean sweep. But challo May was able to get that SAG.
Speaker 1: There's a mystery now about Sunday because the SAG Awards
Speaker 1: is the one though those are the actors themselves are
Speaker 1: voting on this, and they make up a big portion
Speaker 1: of the OSCAR voting. Wow, it's Timothy Chalomte might pull
Speaker 1: off an upset first impression of a complete unknown. We
Speaker 1: have to direct that to one person in particular. I
Speaker 1: think only one of the five of us have seen, right,
Speaker 1: That would be me, Emma. That's our thing, dear Emma,
Speaker 1: And we should say the reason we haven't seen it's
Speaker 1: still in theater. They haven't released it yet video on demand,
Speaker 1: or it's being released. I think as we recorded this,
Speaker 1: yeah it is so we just haven't been able to
Speaker 1: get out to a theater and see it. But we
Speaker 1: still wanted to speak on it. Emma, you can speak
Speaker 1: on it. First impression was what amazing. Wow.
Speaker 4: I saw the movie in December in theaters, which I
Speaker 4: think adds so much value being away from distractions, dark
Speaker 4: right in your face. But I also went into it
Speaker 4: not knowing anything about Bob Dylan. I never really followed
Speaker 4: his music. I've just listened to it. And the movie
Speaker 4: painted him in a good light. And when I talked
Speaker 4: to my parents after the movie and my grandparents, they
Speaker 4: they thought it painted him in a better light than
Speaker 4: he actually was when he was younger.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: So it made me like him even more I did,
Speaker 4: But other people were kind of annoyed by the way
Speaker 4: that it made him seem like a better person than
Speaker 4: he was.
Speaker 1: See. I don't know enough of the backstore his history,
Speaker 1: Like it's just interesting to hear how people in her
Speaker 1: own family receive this guy differently, and that was your
Speaker 1: first introduction to him.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh wow. And it's interesting, Emma, because you are
Speaker 2: twenty three. So my daughters are twenty two and eighteen,
Speaker 2: and they raced to the movie theaters to see this
Speaker 2: as well in December and came back just with a
Speaker 2: glowing review of how much they loved the movie. But
Speaker 2: I wondered how much of it is that I'm not
Speaker 2: taking away from the movie or its value or its reception.
Speaker 2: But I can just speak for my daughters. They're huge
Speaker 2: Timothy Shalomey fans.
Speaker 4: Huge, and the fact that he pre recorded his songs
Speaker 4: but then also sang all of his songs live in
Speaker 4: so which the director chose to keep some of the
Speaker 4: live performances in, as well as Monica's who played Joan Baez.
Speaker 4: Blown away by his ability to sing like Bob Dylan
Speaker 4: and by Monica to sing with fake teeth that resembled
Speaker 4: Joan Biez's teeth.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. This is one that I actually when it
Speaker 2: is available, I do want to watch it. I think
Speaker 2: enough has been said I would. I was actually upset
Speaker 2: that I didn't get to see this one in time.
Speaker 2: For this podcast because I it has also been on
Speaker 2: Hey when this is available, I want to see it?
Speaker 2: You all? Will you watch it? Andy? Will you watch it?
Speaker 5: I'm so excited to watch it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you. I really want to see it.
Speaker 1: It's funny.
Speaker 3: I actually had no interest in seeing it, and then
Speaker 3: I heard everybody saying it was such a great movie
Speaker 3: that I'm like, I'm invested.
Speaker 1: Now, that's what I know. It's a horror movie, is
Speaker 1: the usually the answer here? But why we didn't want
Speaker 1: to go to the theater?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: We're gonna move on to Nickel Boys, Now nominated for
Speaker 1: two Oscars Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, starring Ethan Harresey,
Speaker 1: Brandon Williams, and angeenue Ellis Taylor. Directed by Ramel Ross.
Speaker 1: Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the story follows
Speaker 1: two young African American men who are sent to an
Speaker 1: abusive reform school during the Jim Crow era. This made
Speaker 1: at the box office two point six million dollars. You're
Speaker 1: hearing this right that this was a tiny and independent film. Here.
Speaker 1: It is available now video on demand. It's still in
Speaker 1: very few theaters this week, but you can find it
Speaker 1: runtime two hours, twenty minutes ritten Tomato score ninety percent.
Speaker 1: It has gotten a slew of Best Picture nominations, but
Speaker 1: it has not pulled off any upsets and won the
Speaker 1: top prize. Everybody here saw Nicol Boyce correct Sidney, what
Speaker 1: was your first impression?
Speaker 2: Not for me? YEA, I didn't see it.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, nice, Yeah, you were busy watching Bob Dylan.
Speaker 3: I'd say, incredible, incredible ropes.
Speaker 2: I'm going to agree with Sydney. It just wasn't for me.
Speaker 2: I loved the story, but the execution of it was
Speaker 2: difficult for me to watch visually, and.
Speaker 1: My first impression was just uncomfortable watching. So we talked
Speaker 1: about the ropes you hit on here. So we talked
Speaker 1: about this is Jim crow Era, and this is about
Speaker 1: an abusive reform school. But it's shot in a first
Speaker 1: person way that is creative and clever and cool, or
Speaker 1: it's distracting and annoying on the other side.
Speaker 2: I like the concept of it, the idea that you
Speaker 2: were actually watching a movie as if you are living
Speaker 2: in that actor's body, so your vision, your lenses are
Speaker 2: their eyes. And I like the concept of that. But
Speaker 2: what ended up happening is I felt a little like
Speaker 2: I needed to take some dramamine. It was.
Speaker 1: It moved aunt.
Speaker 2: It's you know, as you do when you're moving around.
Speaker 2: The camera isn't still. It isn't even like a smooth
Speaker 2: it's jerky, and it goes on and on back and
Speaker 2: forth between two young men, and it was confusing sometimes
Speaker 2: whose eyes I was looking through? Yeah, yeah, it was
Speaker 2: just for me. It was a little jarring from a
Speaker 2: just spatial awareness perspective, but also I was confused in
Speaker 2: the storytelling sometimes.
Speaker 1: All right, what did y'all any, Sidney, what did y'all
Speaker 1: think about that first person thing they were doing?
Speaker 5: I liked that they did something different, but it just
Speaker 5: did not work for me, and I couldn't. I just
Speaker 5: couldn't get into it, Like I just I couldn't. And
Speaker 5: it's so interesting that you said incredible, because I feel
Speaker 5: like that's the perspective that I've heard from people who
Speaker 5: have seen it. It's either love love love, or like
Speaker 5: me and Amy are saying, like could not get into
Speaker 5: it wasn't for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think at first I was It's like, oh,
Speaker 3: I didn't know it was going to be like this,
Speaker 3: and the first person point of view kind of was
Speaker 3: like a little jarring of fish, like I'm gonna watch
Speaker 3: the whole thing through their eyes. But I think it's
Speaker 3: such a vital part of the storytelling and so important
Speaker 3: on how the story is told to make you feel
Speaker 3: uncomfortable or just like you're in the scene with them.
Speaker 3: So I personally came around to it entirely, and I
Speaker 3: think it made it brilliant, and I am so shocked
Speaker 3: that it's not winning more.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Brilliant might be a good way. It is brilliant,
Speaker 1: but still uncomfortable. I am one who wants to go
Speaker 1: to a movie and be nothing but entertained. Scare me,
Speaker 1: make me laugh, or fly around, do some action stuff, right,
Speaker 1: That's me. And so this was and you know the
Speaker 1: scene towards a certain part where you have a young
Speaker 1: African American male being chased down in Jim Crow era
Speaker 1: by a white man with a gun, and it's you're
Speaker 1: doing that in first person. Now that hits kind of differently,
Speaker 1: maybe with me having literally been chased by white men
Speaker 1: in my life. I think that's the point of it
Speaker 1: is to make people uncomfortable and for you and you
Speaker 1: and you, you all are sitting to be put in
Speaker 1: a position of being a black man running from a
Speaker 1: white man who shooting at you. And I think that's
Speaker 1: all really beautiful, But it is a it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a tough watch at times, and it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1: But the storytelling this again, this is this is movie
Speaker 1: making at its absolute best.
Speaker 2: No, it is, and I get it. Like if the
Speaker 2: goal was and it seems as though it was for
Speaker 2: you to be in someone else's shoes, to be in
Speaker 2: someone else's body and to feel not just discomfort, but
Speaker 2: fear and just yeah, the ultimate fear, right, it was compelling.
Speaker 2: It was just in an effort to do that. It's
Speaker 2: just it's just hard for me to watch. I'm not
Speaker 2: even saying like from a from a from a subject matter,
Speaker 2: obviously that's a given, but even just from a visual
Speaker 2: point of view, I just had a hard time seeing
Speaker 2: it through that lens.
Speaker 1: But great storytelling and Andy, Andy, how would you then
Speaker 1: recommend this to a friend?
Speaker 3: I would absolutely recommend this to people. I think it's
Speaker 3: an important watch. I highly highly recommend it. And it
Speaker 3: is actually based off true events. They kind of made
Speaker 3: their own with the Nickel Academy, but it's based off
Speaker 3: the Dogier Academy, which was in tallahassee there. Yeah, and honestly,
Speaker 3: it's I am so shocked this is not winning more.
Speaker 1: And thank you for saying that word. That's I think
Speaker 1: that's a good way to put it. This is an
Speaker 1: important watch. That's a good way to put it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree. I would recommend it. And just because
Speaker 5: visually it was not for me, like I think that
Speaker 5: everyone should give it a watch on their own and see,
Speaker 5: and like Andy said, it was an important watch.
Speaker 2: I would recommend it as well. But I would just
Speaker 2: let folks know this is not your typical movie. Just
Speaker 2: be prepared to, you know, really witness something in a
Speaker 2: very creative way. And I think if I were prepared
Speaker 2: more for that, I might have been it might have
Speaker 2: I might have had a better reception to it.
Speaker 1: And mine would be Yes, certainly, given the heads up
Speaker 1: about how uncomfortable you could get. But this is one
Speaker 1: of the more creative movies and storytelling that I've seen.
Speaker 1: So agree, I would recommend it for that reason.
Speaker 2: All right, And we say that now, yoh boy, let's
Speaker 2: move on to Amelia Perez right, thirteen Oscars. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is the most nominated film of the bunch Best Picture,
Speaker 2: Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actress in a Supporting Role,
Speaker 2: Best Original Song, two for that, Best Original Score, International
Speaker 2: Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, Adapted Screenplay, Film editing
Speaker 2: and Cinematography. WHOA starring Zoe Saldana, Carlo Sophia Gascon, Selena Gomez,
Speaker 2: and Edgar Ramirez. This was directed by Jacques audiard I.
Speaker 2: Hope I said that name correctly. This is you know
Speaker 2: when you tell folks, hey, it's not in English, and
Speaker 2: it's a musical, and it's about a drug lord who
Speaker 2: is transitioning to a woman so he can live authentically.
Speaker 2: He hires a run of a mill lawyer, this is
Speaker 2: Zoe zel Dania to help him fake his own death,
Speaker 2: remove himself from his family, and start this new life
Speaker 2: where he is living authentically. Fifteen point four million box
Speaker 2: office gross. You can watch it on Netflix exclusively. The
Speaker 2: runtime is two hours and ten minutes. Rotten Tomatoes score
Speaker 2: seventy two percent, and so far it's won four Golden Globes,
Speaker 2: including Best Actress and Best Foreign Language Film at the BAFTAZ.
Speaker 2: So why don't we go around and give us your
Speaker 2: first impressions, TJ.
Speaker 1: My first impression was what is happening?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Bizarre?
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, no, bizarre in your face, unexpectedly enjoyable.
Speaker 2: Ah, you know what, that's really good it. I was
Speaker 2: gonna say, WTF, but I liked it. If that makes
Speaker 2: a lot of sense. It's one of those movies. Let's
Speaker 2: just say, I've never seen anything like it in my life,
Speaker 2: and I wouldn't have been able to even come up
Speaker 2: with a plot like that. Look it. I think one
Speaker 2: of my biggest issues was that it seemed ridiculous. It
Speaker 2: seemed unlikely, it seemed almost impossible, And so that was
Speaker 2: my biggest hurdle was could this actually? Would this actually?
Speaker 2: How could this happen? And then when, for instance, there
Speaker 2: were a couple of scenes when they broke into song,
Speaker 2: it was just it almost was.
Speaker 1: Comical for me, but there was I think it's okay
Speaker 1: to your okay, it's a comedy, but it's not supposed
Speaker 1: to be. It's an action movie, but it's not supposed
Speaker 1: to be. It's a romance, but it's not supposed to be.
Speaker 1: It's nothing and it's not supposed to be. All these
Speaker 1: thing you can't make sense And and you said bizarre,
Speaker 1: I knew I had an idea of what I know
Speaker 1: what it was about. It was all this stuff. But
Speaker 1: still when you start singing in the market at the
Speaker 1: I was thrown Yeah.
Speaker 3: And also like I would use singing loosely because when
Speaker 3: you were talking like this and call it saying, I
Speaker 3: didn't necessarily see it that way.
Speaker 2: Again, I thought he Israel was especially that was awesome.
Speaker 2: I actually that's when I started laughing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Again, it was bizarre. And I've seen people say, like,
Speaker 3: that's why they're giving it awards because it really is
Speaker 3: pushing the limits of filmmaking. But then when you watch
Speaker 3: something like a Nickel Boys, I maybe appreciate that a
Speaker 3: little more. But I can still find value in what
Speaker 3: this movie did. I don't want to like completely say
Speaker 3: it's like not a watch.
Speaker 1: What was unexpected was your word, I think you said
Speaker 1: in your face in your faith. Okay, so does that
Speaker 1: mean you enjoyed it?
Speaker 2: I did enjoy it.
Speaker 4: I was confused again because I didn't know that they
Speaker 4: would do a crime musical, and so when Zoe Saldana
Speaker 4: immediately breaks out and singing, I was like, what did
Speaker 4: I just put on?
Speaker 2: Again by accident?
Speaker 4: And so and then I had to turn the subtitles
Speaker 4: on because it was in Spanish, so then there was
Speaker 4: so many elements, like they jammed so much into this movie,
Speaker 4: which like, it's awesome, I love it, but it might
Speaker 4: have been a little bit too much for me.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm finding that Emma was struggling with
Speaker 1: the synopsis of the.
Speaker 3: Movie this is about you know a drug lord.
Speaker 1: Now, Sidney, when did you start to or did you
Speaker 1: from the beginning.
Speaker 5: Enjoy it or so all my friends were like, you're
Speaker 5: not gonna like this movie. We all turned it off
Speaker 5: halfway through, like you're not gonna like it. You're not
Speaker 5: gonna like it. So I went in with like a
Speaker 5: not so good attitude and I loved it. I was like,
Speaker 5: so go into it. I was completely I'm like, I
Speaker 5: was completely shocked by how much I liked it. But
Speaker 5: I don't think the musical aspect was necessary at all,
Speaker 5: Like it did not bring anything to the movie to me.
Speaker 5: I like actually liked the story. I was into the story.
Speaker 5: I didn't think, yeah, I don't know. But when I
Speaker 5: was like, after I watched all the movies, I like
Speaker 5: to go on TikTok and like see what other people
Speaker 5: are saying about it. And one thing that I thought
Speaker 5: was interesting about this one was that a lot of
Speaker 5: people were saying that it was a very like stereotypical
Speaker 5: way to view Mexico and with like the cartel and
Speaker 5: everything like that, and that they should have they like
Speaker 5: also shot the entire thing in France, which was like
Speaker 5: another interesting thing that people brought up.
Speaker 1: There were non there were no Mexican actors, a French director.
Speaker 1: A lot of people took issue with some of that.
Speaker 2: That was just an interesting Yeah, there was a lot
Speaker 2: of controversy surrounding this movie from coming in from multiple places,
Speaker 2: directed at multiple people. But so I think, yes, I was.
Speaker 2: I had very low expectations. Now I will make this disclay.
Speaker 2: I love me a musical movie, and I love Broadway,
Speaker 2: and so I don't mind when people break into song
Speaker 2: because I don't know. I've enjoyed lots of movies and
Speaker 2: forms of entertainment where people break into song that is
Speaker 2: jarring to some people. I think it's entertaining. And when
Speaker 2: this happened and it still took me by surprise a
Speaker 2: couple of times. I enjoyed it because it made me
Speaker 2: lean in more. I was watching more intently because I thought,
Speaker 2: what are what's happening right now.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of conversational song though right yes,
Speaker 1: and this point it wasn't like there were some things
Speaker 1: that barely qualified as singing.
Speaker 2: It was like, I was like, wait, are they singing
Speaker 2: right now? Because they're kind of going into a weird cadence.
Speaker 3: She was whispering during that one song. I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is a whisper song.
Speaker 2: I heart talking song. Yes, yes, some people could sing
Speaker 2: better than others. And it was a little distracting, and
Speaker 2: yet I leaned in more when that happened, and I
Speaker 2: would watch it again too. I would watch it again.
Speaker 2: That's how much I surprisingly liked it.
Speaker 1: It was once again beautiful. I mean, you can't And look,
Speaker 1: this is the reason I am glad I watched this movie.
Speaker 1: There is a scene with Zoe Saladonia in that ballroom
Speaker 1: that she does a song and dance routine that is
Speaker 1: worth the watch. She fricking kills this scene. I love
Speaker 1: that scene, like all of Oscar season. That might be
Speaker 1: my favorite bit of a movie.
Speaker 2: I believe you said when not even Nazi, but when
Speaker 2: at first arted you said, how did these rehearsals go?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: You would imagine how much work went into that production.
Speaker 1: That scene was incredible, but the movie on its own,
Speaker 1: it was just bizarre to me for the most part.
Speaker 1: And I think we talked about the story and what
Speaker 1: are we trying to say. I know what it's based
Speaker 1: on and all that, but it's it's like a message
Speaker 1: out there that felt at times disjointed forced. We're talking
Speaker 1: about I mean, can you get any more macho than
Speaker 1: a Mexican cartel lord who now decides to have to
Speaker 1: transition to a woman that that idea and then become
Speaker 1: a famous woman who now is battling cartels again, It's
Speaker 1: that's storytelling.
Speaker 2: That was That was where I got a little I mean,
Speaker 2: the whole thing is contrived and like I said, unrealistic.
Speaker 2: But when you are hiding, you fake your own death.
Speaker 2: You know that if anyone knows you were your former self,
Speaker 2: that you would likely meet a very very unfortunate fate.
Speaker 2: That you would then put yourself as a woman out
Speaker 2: in front of all of these cameras, impressed to then
Speaker 2: battle cartels or at least to help them find those
Speaker 2: who they've killed. That seemed even more unrealistic.
Speaker 1: And he's looking at us like that was Yae's problem
Speaker 1: with the.
Speaker 3: Movie In her family, and she calls herself the aunt
Speaker 3: like no, no, let's go back.
Speaker 2: And Selena Gomez's character her wife didn't put two and
Speaker 2: two together.
Speaker 1: Oh look, okay.
Speaker 2: I was still entertained, the entire entertaining.
Speaker 1: So, Emma, I'll start with you. Would you recommend this
Speaker 1: to her friend? And why?
Speaker 2: I not particularly?
Speaker 4: No, I think there's other movies I would see again
Speaker 4: and recommend.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: I will say, like you, Amy, I couldn't keep my
Speaker 3: eyes off of it, and so in a weird way, yes,
Speaker 3: you would recommend it.
Speaker 1: I would recommend it.
Speaker 2: I would too. I would recommend it. I think it's
Speaker 2: worth a watch.
Speaker 1: I would recommend it this way. You gotta see this
Speaker 1: shit like that almost how you would recommend like you
Speaker 1: ain't gonna believe this, And I would tell you if
Speaker 1: you don't want to watch it, at least fast forward.
Speaker 1: There's always sounds on youa scene in that ballroom where
Speaker 1: she just absolutely crushes it. This is good. We're only
Speaker 1: halfway through, all right. The next time around, we're going
Speaker 1: to have Conclave doom too. I'm still here the substance
Speaker 1: and wicked. That's a good.
Speaker 2: I can't wait. And this is gonna be fun So again,
Speaker 2: we watched these movies so you don't have to. And
Speaker 2: I will say this is gonna be a really fun
Speaker 2: Oscars show for us all here in this room, because
Speaker 2: when you do watch these movies, you are invested. And
Speaker 2: we're also in the next episode going to give you
Speaker 2: our predictions for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor? Are
Speaker 2: we going to do the supporting roles too?
Speaker 1: The four acting categories and Best Picture?
Speaker 2: All right, we'll let you know where we stand and
Speaker 2: you all feel free to check any of these out
Speaker 2: and see what you think your movie review would be
Speaker 2: and how it compares to ours.
Speaker 1: So for Andy, Emma, Sydney and Rhodes, I'm te Jenny
Speaker 1: Will for yeas