Chapo Trap House - Movie Mindset Oscars Preview ‘25

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Will & Hesse are back to look at the Oscars’ Best Pictures of 2024. They give their takes on the high- and low-lights, offer their predictions of who will take home Oscar gold, and give a special preview of what’s coming up in Movie Mindset Season 3. For more Oscars fun: Come see Will & Hesse host an Oscars watch as part of a party for Zohran for Mayor this Sunday, March 2nd @ Nightclub 101: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/partyforzohran

Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a juice. Hello, mindset heads, movie buffs and fans of all kinds. Hesse and I are finally back to kick off or give a preview of season three of movie mindset the way we always do with our annual Oscars preview. It's that time of year. It's the Super Bowl for movie fans. So I cannot be happier to be back talking movies with you. I am so psyched. The Oscar bells are ringing. The children in the streets are singing. It's Oscar time and what a time it is

to be alive for the Oscars. Well, before we kick off our episode, which we're going to give you a preview of the festivities and talk about some of the best pictures nominated this year, but if you are a fan of Movie Mindset and a fan of the Oscars and a fan of New York City mayoral candidate Zoran, Z for Zoran, Zoran Mandani, then please come out this Sunday to a fundraiser party at a club on the Lower East Side where Hesse and I will be

doing a live Movie Mindset Oscars watch party. So tickets for and I will be doing a live movie mindset Oscars watch party. So tickets for that event will be available will be in the show description on this episode. I encourage you all in the New York City area to come out and support movie mindset and support Zoran for mayor. It's gonna be a blast. There's gonna be an Oscars thing going on, Oscars watch party hosted by me and Will of course. The city's premier Oscar experts. There's also like other floors with Oscars thing going on Oscars watch party hosted by me and will of course The city's premier Oscar experts. There's also like other floors with other stuff going on like there's gonna be dancing and like DJs playing and like a moderated like Q&A thing with some other

Chapo luminaries, so it's it's very fun it's an opportunity for New York City to have a movie mayor, a movie mindset mayor, because his pedigree is that he is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair, who directed Mississippi Masala starring movie mindset subject Denzel Washington. So hopefully he will be bringing to Gracie Mansion the requisite movie watching skills and knowledge that you'd want from a New York City mayor, our current mayor, unfortunately, I don't think he's seen a movie. I would be surprised if Eric Adams has seen even one movie and I think like he's seen one movie and it's rush hour three. And

he's like, this is what they're all like. They're all like this. All right. So this year, this year, it's it's been a heck of a year for movies and by a heck of a year for movies I mean a fairly bad year for movies. Yeah, there has been a lot of a lot of heat on the I mean we got we got Megalopolis of course which you know was totally snubbed at the Oscars because of its You know because it sucked and was terrible. But I still haven't seen it. I feel guilty. I've been I've been a very bad current movie watcher because they there's two movies in the best pictures nominations that I haven't seen. Apologies to I'm Still Here and Nickel Boys, although I've heard very good things

about them. But then there's a glut of like not Oscar noms, but still movies I've heard good things about that I have neglected to take the time to see. I haven't seen The Apprentice. I haven't seen A Different Man. I haven't seen like La Chimera. But I have seen we have seen eight of the 10 best picture nominations is not bad. And if you want to watch, you know, if you're mad at us, you're not seeing all the movies, you watch them yourself. Okay. You get out there and watch the movies. Yeah, fuck you. Look, OK, the best picture we have here,

Amelia Perez, a complete unknown conclave nickel boys. I'm still here. The substance Dune Part Two, Wicked, Anora and The Brutalist. Now, so we can go through these things. I've not talked to you yet about I think any of these movies. I think maybe we talked about the substance briefly. But of these films, there are a couple that I thought were good, the two very good movies that I enjoyed watching. Yeah, there are a couple that I thought were that I admired some of its some of their ambition and some of the artistry but I found kind of flawed and I didn't really enjoy them.

Even though I kind of respected them or respected elements of them or I like them but with significant caveats. And then there are a handful of these movies that I thought were terrible. I thought we're asked and I'm going to be a pure hater on on on them. So period as a of the best picture nominations. Where would you like to begin? Should we start with The Brutalist? Because I know that that's a movie that we and I have both seen most recently. Yes, I just finished watching it today.

OK, as I said this weekend in preparation for this episode, I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to watch The Brutalist. So I began to prepare in my head a bit in which I would describe the plot to The Brutalist despite not having seen it. And I would invent a plot based on what I've seen of the movie or what I know of the movie or I would just invent what I think this movie is about. And what I had settled on was that I would describe the movie as a story about a man who's driven insane by his attempts to build the most brutal building of all time. You know what? That would be a better movie. In fact, that is basically the movie

that Brady Corbett turned in. So I was not far off the mark on what I had anticipated going into this movie. And I guess I'd like to begin with the things I did like about the Brutalist, and like I appreciated the VistaVision filming. I thought a lot of it looked really good. And I gotta say, the runtime was not a hurdle. I thought the length of the movie,

I didn't feel the length in the way I did in some of these other films. It was pretty brisk. That being said, I cannot say I was a fan of The Brutalist. Yeah. It had me in the first act, but it really lost me in the second act. Absolutely, I was gonna say the exact.

I was feeling it in the first act, but like, look, I'm just going to say right now, all of the discussions of these movies will be spoiler heavy. And I'm going to jump right into this with The Brutalist. The Brutalist has something that happens in the second act of the movie around the three hour mark that is so ludicrous that it basically takes the entire movie for me. You know what? I'm trying to remember what thing you're talking about

I can't remember if anything crazy Really? Oh, yeah, wait doesn't guy Pierce rape Adrian Brody Yes, yeah, the daily mon of the movie is that um He he escapes to Israel the one country where your boss would never rape you Yeah, it's it's so crazy cuz, because that scene comes out of nowhere. My friend, I was texting my friend when I was watching it, and I was like, this is Keno. I'm like, we're back, baby, movies.

And he was like, you're in the first half, aren't you? I was like, yeah. And he's like, well, just wait until the crazy thing happens in it. And I was like watching like there's no there's no way this is happening right now. Like, what the fuck? Yeah. The same we're talking about is when. OK, so like they set it up. Guy Pierce is sort of the very wealth wealthy waspist patron, Pennsylvania

patron of Adrian Brody's Holocaust surviving Hungarian refugee architect who studied under Bauhaus. His name is Laszlo Toth. And he's sort of like, Guy Pearce sort of discovers him in this country when he's kind of living on the skids, doing like kind of odd jobs for his cousin. He designs a modernist library for him that Guy Pearce's character initially hates, but then when he is lauded for it in like Time Life magazine, he sort of adopts Adrian Brody and then like helps get his wife and niece like into America from Europe after World War

II. And then around like the three-hour mark of this movie, they're in a marble quarry in Italy. And Guy Pearce is just sort of like looking Lee very angrily at Adrian Brody, and then like discovers him down some sort of marble passageway like passed out from drinking and smack, and takes it upon himself to just rape him. Yes, you just just rape him. And then like the the the climax of the movie that like in which this movie ejected itself entirely from consideration as a good worthwhile movie is when Felicity Jones like like Felicity Jones confronts Guy Pierce and his whole family and like hobbles into their dining room on a walker and basically just says you're a rapist you're all evil rapists and then they chase her out of the house and that's basically the end of the movie well no

you didn't see the the epilogue no the epilogue yeah the epilogue makes it clear that you know he he went on to design many other buildings in which his patrons didn't rape him and that they moved to Israel and that it's the destination, not the journey. It's the destination, not the journey. And he also says that he designed the big building in the in the brutalist to look like a concentration camp kind of because of how traumatized he is. And he like it's kind of I don't't really know what it's trying to say necessarily.

Maybe that, like, Israel is kind of like a concentration camp because of the trauma that she was experienced. And it's all very heavy handed and confusing. And the wrapping up of, like, it's not the destination, it's not the journey, it's the destination is, if we said it the other way around, he says, it's not the destination. It's not the journey. It's the destination is if we said it the other way around, he says it's not the journey. It's the destination. It's like, um, you know, the final building. It's not the building of the building, which I guess, you know, uh, like could mean anything when you think about it.

Now, uh, like a lot of the discourse around this movie was hobbled by the question of is this movie Zionist or not? And the answer to that question is yes, it obviously is. But like that to me is not really important. Or it's just not really like an argument that I think is worth having about this movie. Like yes, I think the movie does render incredible terms, why people of Laszlo Toph's experience or generation would turn to the state of Israel Based on their life experience or why they would why Zionism meant something to them or why our why a character like his would end

Up settling in Israel like I don't think I don't think the movie and I think the last line of the movie makes it pretty clear Where the director yes in this but like that to me is is not a scene to hold against the movie makes it pretty clear where the director stands in this. But like that to me is not a scene to hold against the movie. What I hold against the movie, like I said, is a like is a ludicrous second act. And like, like I said, like, what I admire about this movie is like kind of the scope of its ambition. And a lot of the way it's filmed, like I think it looks really interesting. But like, this to me is kind of damning it with faint praise, because this is just kind of like, to me, this is a hallmark of Mickey Mouse millennial moviemaking by Brady Sorbet. It's like it's one

thing to make a movie that looks really good and references other good movies. But to me, ultimately, at the end of the day, it felt kind of empty. And nor was I bowled over by really any of the performances in this movie. I thought Guy Pearce was good, as this kind of like, highly enthusiastic but menacing, like kind of WASP patron of the arts. And I could tell something evil was going to happen with him,

but in no way, shape or form could I have anticipated that he just straight up rapes Adrian Brody.dy And like the decision to include that in the movie to be like to make it that Thunderingly literal about what like patrons do to their the artists that they sponsor Yeah, like I like to think about was the fact that Brady was in the remake of funny games the Michael Hanukkah movie And it just seems to me like he's trying a little too hard to like go with that level of like cruelty and violence to make a point. But like to me, it just it lands like a just a dud. Like it just that's when the movie became ridiculous to me. Yeah, I like I like a lot of his other movies.

I think like a big thing that got me mad. I hate how much he uses like shaky cam and just does like regular medium shots covering like a conversation in a room. And like, you know what, there wasn't really that this movie could have used, was more shots of a beautiful architecture. You know?

There's really not many. And you think that a movie called The Brutalist would have more of that, but I guess guess budgetarily, that wasn't feasible. They do go to the quarry. That's a cool milieu. But a lot of the milieus feel very like the rooms that people are talking in. They feel very, I don't know, it wasn't feeling of the period necessarily, which is strange because it's filmed on VistaVision, right?

And yeah, I did think it was beautiful at parts. There were scenes that definitely got me. And it's not a bad movie, for sure. But at the end of the day, it's a movie about moviemaking. And we see those all the time. You know, when are we going to get a movie about moviemaking where someone doesn't get gay raped? You know, I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of it. I mean, I don't know. Was is this his commentary on like what Hollywood is like? I mean, like that's how it has to kind of interpret it. Yeah. Like or even like financing in general, like finding financing from an outside person, like all the money is owned by these like maniacs, these rapey maniacs. And they're all like, I want to honor my mother and you have to do that instead of what you want to do. what you want to do. I do like that. Like the big, the big brutal project

that he's commissioned to do and spends most of the movie trying to create and losing his mind doing is supposed to be like a tribute to Guy Pierce's mother. And it's supposed to be a combination chapel, theater, gym, wrestling gym, library. And library. And like, but the chapel is very important and like you know this gets to the movies themes of like how immigrants are

treated in America the immigrant experience in America like whether like despite no matter how much success you seem to have in America or how embraced you seem to see for any immigrant but for you know Jewish immigrants and refugees from the Holocaust in particular the movie makes the case that like there's the his wife, the Felicity Jones character in a letter quotes a good in the beginning of the movie that no one is more enslaved than someone who thinks they're free. Yeah, I think that that is

sort of like the point about the immigrant experience in America that this movie is trying to trying to make. But I did enjoy like, so like, it's very important to the people of Pennsylvania, that their community be respected, and that they make this Holocaust surviving architect build them a Christian chapel. And that's like most of his focus. But I did like that at the end when it revealed, yeah, that the Christian chapel that I built for all you keystone

rubes out there is actually my take on what Doc how was like her book and walk is like for me. That's like, it's like a fuck you to the guy who's like I wanted to honor my mother I want her name to be visible on it Yeah, and he's like like in retrospect that's seen where he's like, I want her name to be visible on it And he's like, okay There's like a lot of it hits a lot of like kind of cliched beats to like he comes to he comes to the big city He goes to Philly and he's like doing heroin with Isaac de Bonkale one of my he was good

I was I was like saying Isaac de Bonkale in a movie. Yeah, I was so psyched I haven't seen him in something in so long and I was like, let's fucking go dude but like it did it seemed kind of like, you know, throwaway ish and not throwaway ish, but it seemed very I don't know. Is it is it this movie or is it just like is the magic gone from new movies? It makes me the shutter to imagine

like it's a problem with all the Oscar noms. They all feel like fake movies almost a lot of them. Yeah. I mean, I guess this is a segue into the other big movie this year that I have to be. I'm compelled to be somewhat of a hater on or be actually just a full-time hater on. And that is The Substance. Yeah. Now, and like, I essentially I kind of have the same problem with this movie is that there

are elements of things in this movie that I enjoy. Like, I mean, the body horror and the practical gore effects in this movie are very cool. And it certainly references the canon of other directors that we've discussed at length on movie mindset. But I feel it's like, again, like it goes back to your point about like, it has the magic gone out of movies because like, it has the service level appearance of things that I like in movies, but I didn't feel that there was really anything undergirding it. Like, yeah, it just is like, uh, Caroline Farragut or whatever, like it just, it seemed kind of like a mood board. Yeah, exactly. It's like a Pinterest board of like, here's some things I like in other better movies that I'm going to remind you of in my movie. But like the movie itself is just not nearly as smart or good as it as it believes

itself to be. And I kind of feel the same way about The Brutalist. And like they have their own look. But like, I just don't like the thoughts them I are just not really that impressive to me. Yeah the the substance especially I liked it when I first saw it I think we've talked about this because of how like how much of a bummer it was like how Fucked up the ending was I love that But like I saw it again recently and it just pissed me off Yeah, like so bad. It's like, it really feels like a student film where it's like, you know, just hitting

all the the requisite beats. There are things happening that there's no connective tissue whatsoever. The gross French cookbook. Yeah. It's just like excuses to make disgusting looking frames of a movie. It's like every shot of painting style movie making well again like and and the substance like obviously like very much references like David Cronenberg and David Lynch and like the body horror of Like Stuart Gordon or Brian Yunza that we've discussed on this show but I think where it goes wrong is that like I think what

those directors have is that like to get to the points of extreme body horror or alienation, you have to balance it out with things that aren't at that register. You need some sort of contrast there, otherwise it's just it's all at the same register and it's not really shocking or moving. And like I found every frame of the substance to just be so gross and hateful that like the cumulative effect of it was greatly diminished in my opinion. Yeah, like in Mulholland Drive when the you know when she does the audition and she does like an amazing job for all the guys and it's like a disturbing kind of audition because the other actors being like kind of rapey but it's the contrast between

when she in that movie when she she reads the lines that she's gonna read at the audition and she reads it to Laura Laura Laura Henning Laura Herring I'm sorry yeah Laura Herring when they're practicing when they're practicing it and like Naomi Watts his character, she gives it as this very like upbeat soap operatic, like, you know, like the standard. It's like two friends having fun. Yeah. Standard movie audition.

And then in the actual audition scene, like the exact same scene and exact same dialogue is played in a way that's really disturbing and has like overtures of like rape and incest. And but like the thing about that also is that that is in the like context of the movie that they're creating, that she's doing that. And then when they snap out of it, it's kind of like, you know, it was a little real because of the lecherous actor that she's reading the scene with. But the real thing that's happened is that she just did such a good job and it's like a triumphant moment of her being like a moment of like, oh, you were not a flash in the pan. You're not just a pretty face. You're an incredible actress. And this is

like in the substance, there's nothing really like that. It's like, oh, you're just beautiful. Like that's it. And like, I guess it could work. But in the substance, it's like, oh, you're just beautiful. Like, that's it. And like, I guess it could work, but in the substance, it's viewed as like, you're beautiful, but also like, the way we're gonna film this all, it's all very creepy, it's all very like, spooky. There's no happiness really, that the character can possibly achieve.

Like, it just feels so hollow. And I guess that's kind of the point of the movie is that like, modern society and beauty is like hollow and. And Hollywood is really cruel to women. Yeah. Age of like 25. And I never knew that. Yeah, I get it.

Yeah. I mean, however, I mean, like another another major problem I had with the substance is that like I don't like it when genre like like prestige movies throw on like a patina of genre over it in this case like grotesque body horror but then fail to follow the own like its own rules or conventions of the like genre trope that they're dealing with and I'm speaking specifically about how in the movie like as Demi Moore gets more and more desiccated, as her younger copy or like double continues to like push the treatment past the one week window when you're supposed to

switch back to your other self and making like the original Demi Moore body get more and more like disgusting and degraded. Like they show her like popping like her kneecap back in place or like breaking her toe, walking down the stairs. She becomes this like emaciated crone. Right. All that leads to a scene where the crone and Margaret Qualley have like a big fight in her apartment, where they're like throwing each other through plate glass and like coffee tables and stuff.

And it's like Sharon Stone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall. But like the Demi Moore character is getting just drop-kicked around this room and she's springing back up like Bruce Lee in Game of Death. You know, I was just, wait a second, like you just showed me 10 minutes before, like her kneecap just popping out of place when she tries to get out of a recliner. And now she's going like full on gonzo like fight mode with her younger duplicate. And she's just like, you know, just throwing punches and jabs like she's in the ring. Yeah, it's it's and like that scene also goes on for so long.

That's the other thing when you're doing like a mood board type movie like this, it's like fine to do, but like you've got to keep it moving, I guess. And like it just keeps lingering. Like scenes will take so, so long. And it's like, you know, it just doesn't know when to end a scene because it's like, oh, the scene is so effective. Why should we end it now? You know, and the ending especially, you see that problem. Even the first time I watched it, when I was suitably upset by it and thought it was more effective than I do in retrospect, I was checking the time, like always.

And I was like, how is there another hour and 20 minutes left in this movie? What is going on? I couldn't tell you anything that happens in the middle of the movie. It's very scenes that could be in a movie like this, like The Substance, that might work in a full movie with connective tissue, but instead of picking and choosing,

they just throw it all at the wall and see what sticks and It feels very yeah, like mood board ask I like I feel this is a symptom of like a number of movies I can point to this year that like I'm thinking specifically of long legs another movie That was much praise I found to be deeply stupid and disappointing Is it like they're like they're they're competently made and they have like, uh, you know, like interesting performances or they have like an interesting look, but ultimately they just kind of collapse under the weight of the references that

they're pulling from other better movies. And it just, it reminds me of the mystery science theater 3000 episode about overdrawn at the memory bank where they keep showing clips of Casablanca and they're like, stop reminding me of a better movie in the course of your not nearly as good movie. No, it's like, it's definitely like a phenomenon now. Long Legs specifically, it was so insanely obvious what the twist of Long Legs was, like from moment one. And it's

played like it's a twist that you're not supposed to know. And it just feels like a dumb guy's idea of a smart guy movie kind of is what like it felt like to me. Hassa, as soon as Nicolas Cage's character was like made explicit in Long Legs, the movie rushed out the door for me. It was just the exit hard. But, you know, we've got Nicolas Cage. Hessa, this has been a really great year for trans representation in movie. There's been some wonderful trans characters. We got Nic Cage in Long Legs. We got Emilia Perez. We got Emilia Perez and we got the pope and conclave. Yeah. The oh my God, I totally forgot.

Pope and conclave is so funny. Oh my God. Should we just talk about conclave? Yeah, I'll talk about conclave because. Yeah. OK. I'm going to out myself here. And like in terms of like this year's Oscar movies, I am I'm going firmly with like the

middle brow critical consensus here. Of the Oscar movies, the two the two ones that I had actually, I most enjoyed watching just as like a movie experience in the theater was Conclave and a complete unknown. So I'm outing myself here as a totally boomer brained dipshit. But I gotta say, of the Oscar movies, these are the two movies that I thought were like holistically the most successful and most entertaining to watch. Yeah. I mean, Conclave was I was I was watching it. I knew about the twist before I watched it.

OK, I did not know about the twist. Yeah, yeah. I knew about the twist because my friend, my friend had seen it and was like, this is the stupidest shit I've ever seen. It's like, it's like deeply, it's so deeply and like intellectually, rigorously transphobic in the in the twist of it. Like in a weird way where it's like, you know, oh, we're going have a trans pope, but it's like, no, not really. It's like, it's not, it's not, we should make clear, it's not really, it's not really a trans pope. Yeah. But, you know, it's, it's someone who was born of basically intersex and that like lived, lived most of their life as a man, but

then was like, had a medical condition where doctors uncovered that he also has a uterus, that he was born with some level of like indeterminate male and female sexual, secondary sexual characteristics. And he discovers this after he becomes a priest. And he's like, if I knew, I never would have become a priest. It would have been the greatest, the gravest sin of all time for me to, but because he didn't know it's fine. And he can still be. can still like, he's like a Catholic Pete Buttigieg where he's just like, if I could have torn that uterus out of me, I would have. And the

Pope is, um, is like, I'm going to pay for you to get a surgery to remove your erroneous uterus and, uh, not erroneous. What's the word I'm thinking of? Vestigial? I don't know. Your uterus. Yeah, vestigial. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're gonna get a surgery to do it. And he's like, no, it is God's plan for me to be in pain forever because of my uterus.

Because it causes me great pain and medical issues. And so it's like, it's okay to have a uterus as a man, but only if you don't get it removed and you don't know about it. I mean, I don't know about you. I don't want the pope having a damn uterus, you know, once a month they'll be selling indulgences again, if you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, pure. Exactly, exactly.

That being said, like, you know, Conclave, along with the Complete Unknown, is like the category of movies that I feel like somewhat embarrassing are my favorite of these Oscar movies because they are the middle brow Oscar movie. Their ambitions, their artistic ambitions are not as grand as like The Brutalist, The Substance or Enora. But like because of that, because they take less of a big swing I think they connect I mean they they they get some wood on the ball a little bit better than those other movies and like yeah with conclave how I

mean how can I not like how could I not basically enjoy this movie it's got got we've got movies with Ray Fiennes John Lithgow Stanley Tucci Isabella Rossellini and it's just like it's just people talking and the vaping Cardinal, we got Cardinal Tedesco, my favorite cardinal, free Cardinal Tedesco. He has the new if I was in the conclave, despite the fact that Carla Cardinal Tedesco represents the most reactionary right wing facet of the Catholic Church. Look, I'm not Catholic. There's no skin off my back one way or the other. I'm voting for the vape and cardinal. He had swag. He had swag for days. There's, there's literally, there's like a scene where he comes over, like his intro, not his,

his introduction is him yelling at someone like, don't touch my cape. And then in like the next scene, the first scene where you see him talking. He like, what's his name? Ray Fine sits down next to him and he's like looking around all the Cardinals from everywhere in the world are there and he looks at the table of Cardinals from Africa and he's like, did you do we invite them? Like what are you doing? And like you know this is a movie that I think does a good job of like through basically only dialogue creating a good job of like, through basically only dialogue, creating a good sense of like narrative propulsion, intrigue, and some really good

performances as they sort of like, the plot of the movie is that, and by the way, amazing, I mean, we can talk about this year's the most disastrous Oscars PR campaign in movie history, in terms of Amelia Perez, when we get to that movie, Conclave is going to have the most successful Oscar's PR campaign in history. Yeah. Mark my words, if the actual Pope Francis dies before Sunday, Conclave is a lock. And I'm saying all the momentum is behind Conclave right now. When do the final votes go in? Aren't they...

Isn't the last day... It's like the 21st or something, right? There's still time for the Pope to die. There's still time for the Pope. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's like it's a Talking in Rooms movie about like solving a mystery. What's there not to love about that? And it did like... it is very effective.

It's like, you know what it reminds me of as far as like tenor and Providence as far as an Oscar movies go is this is so such a random poll, but good night and good luck. Like just people talking in rooms like, you know, made enough really good actors like, you know. Like well made enough, really good actors. Like, you know, middle brow critical consensus fair. But like I said, it's a solid base hit in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, totally.

And I do think it would be funny. I don't understand, like the picks for the Oscars this year are such a grab bag of like just what movies came out this year, let's just put them all in Yeah But you know like conclave it's like You go through like okay. There's Ray Fiennes is is basically he's the the reluctant Dean of the College of Cardinals and like the old pope dies and he like sort of represents like he was very close to the old pope

and represents sort of the him and stanley tootie represent kind of the liberal wing of the catholic church and he is kind of reluctantly put in charge of administering this conclave which is like you know one of the one of the coolest election systems in the world i wish voting for president were like they you you hand in your card and they like yeah You know thread it onto a big string and then burn them when there's no consensus reached. It was so sick This is something I vote in the Sistine Chapel and not like the gym of my local public school Yeah, it's it's so incredible and like the like something. I loved my autistic brain was just like absolutely in heaven with was seeing like the mix of the modern technology mixing with that ancient like this process and how they've

which is why Carlos Tedesco is vaping is such a such a clever invention of the movie. Yeah, it's so cool. It's so sick and it's I mean as for settings I mean this like every pretty much every movie it the colors are very flat and like it's very dark and annoying and kind of Lit like a TV show and not a movie which you could say about pretty much every single movie that's been nominated that I've seen but the pretty much every single movie that's been nominated that I've seen. But the, yeah, it is a beautiful setting and the costumes are amazing. And just as far as craft goes, there's a lot to

admire. But also there's this implicit thing that's going on throughout the movie that's really funny where it's like they're sequestered, like in the Vatican, and it's like, they're, they're sequestered, like, in the Vatican and they're like, they're not allowed to leave until a new pope is like reached and they're not allowed to like any contact with the outside world of anything that might bias their vote. Besides Ray Fiennes who gets has like, because he's running the conclave, he gets to, you know, get updates and stuff. And all the updates Ray Fiennes gets are like, there was another Muslim terrorist attack.

Every day, it's like 20 more people just died from a Muslim terrorist attack. Some suicide bombing in Rome. The Muslim hordes are literally at the gate of the Vatican in this movie. And there's a scene where as Ray Fiennes casts his vote, there's just a bomb goes off in St. Peter's Square and showers dust into the Sistine Chapel. Yeah. And that's a funny moment too because the vote he's casting, Ralph Fiennes, is a vote for himself to be the pope because there's's a lot of like politics going on

and politicking and which I love but at one point it seems it's clear that like they think oh it's either Ralph Fiennes or Tedesco and Ralph Fiennes does not want to be the pope but he's like I guess I have to vote for myself yeah we gotta have reluctant pope over right wing racist pope. At this point, John Lithgow, the Simony pope, who was selling clerical offices, he's out of the picture. African pope also been 86 because, you know, he had a child with a woman while he was a priest.

And that's when we get Isabella Rossellini's nun character is the one who sort of blows the whistle on that. Then there's a liberal pope played by Stanley Tucci, who's just a little bit too thirsty for the job. Yeah, he's never want to vote for someone who wants to be pope. I mean, yeah, as they say, and then right wing pope cardinal, the vapan pope, but ultimately at the end, they're all surprised by the trans pope who comes out of nowhere and a a Cinderella story for Popehood. The Cardinal of Kabul. He's ministering to the six Catholics in Afghanistan?

Yeah, yeah. It's like, come on, man. Go somewhere with more people. I think they're fine over there. Yeah, come on. There's about 80 million Catholics in Rio. I mean, come on, how about a Brazilian pope? Yeah. And, um, like a jacked, like oiled up Brazilian pope. No, but I love, um, I mean, Lithgow's performance is amazing. His perpetually, perpetually stunned. He's like, I've never heard of something like this in my life. What are you talking about? I never get any of that stuff. Simon E.? Is that even a crime anymore?

Yeah. No, Simon's over there. He's over there. So yeah, Conclave, I thought it was basically a good movie and I enjoyed it. Yeah, me too. to. Okay, let's go to the other of the middle of the road boomer brain movies that I got. I got, I feel almost embarrassed to admit this but a complete unknown was my favorite of these movies Yeah, you know what? Well, I have I have a confession. I have a confession to make I still haven't seen So sorry, I did a worse job than you Preparing um look this is this is a continuation of James Mangold's walk the line Johnny Cash Extended Cinematic Universe.

Now, I should say that I am not Dylan Pill, I respect Bob Dylan, but he's just not one of my guys. Yeah, same. You know, Warren Zvon's first solo album washes everything Dylan's ever done in his career. But that's neither here nor there. Look, James Mangold, the guy directs good movies, okay? The kind of good, decent pictures that you'd watch with your whole family.

Like, well done movies, good cast, you know? And I really enjoyed A Complete Unknown. I thought Chalamet was was great as Bob Dylan. And I say it's the Johnny Cash extended cinematic universe because shortly after watching A Complete Unknown, I decided to watch Walk the Line Again, which is another just very good movie that I really, really enjoy. Yeah, it's like a standard, you know, despite what Walk Hard did to it. Which is body is every movie ever made.

Yes. Yes. But walk the line like is kind of like the blueprint of the modern, like, you know, of that modern music biopic. And, you know, there were so many copies of it, like Ray and like, which also is a good movie, I think and Elvin like yeah Elvis well they kind of all stopped after walk hard came out and people were like I don't know if we should be doing the style of movie anymore and

then Elvis kind of like restarted the Fervor and Elvis I feel like is in a different almost a different category because it's so weird and like Fucking like it's shot like in this insane way But yeah, I definitely I'm no Dylan Hyperfan either. I love Timmy C I've seen several scenes from the movie like the scene where he meets Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash is like I'm a cool guy What are you Jewish that's pretty cool I'm drunk. I'm about to drive

Drives away. I wasn't in Boyd Holbrook I thought was very good as Johnny Cash But I say it's the Johnny Cash extended cinematic universe because there's a scene in walk the line Where Joaquin Phoenix portraying Johnny Cash is like flying on uppers or something and is like sweating out of every pore in his face and is like geeked up and like excitedly telling his parents played by a father played by Robert Patrick that he's like I wrote a letter that folks in remember I wrote a letter that folks in our plane I was

telling you about he wrote back he was a but this guy's genius or whatever and like his parents are like oh shut the fuck up no one cares about no one cares about freewheeling Bob Dylan and he said oh I told you I wrote this letter to Bob Dylan on an airplane and he wrote back oh my god he's the greatest artist of our lifetime a complete unknown then portrays a scene it shows in the movie a scene where Boyd Holbrook playing Johnny Cash writes that letter on an airplane to Bob Dillon and then of course they meet each other. I'm like Johnny Cash is like You're all right kid and then like and then he's like, okay I am gonna use electric guitars at the Newport Folk Festival

Yeah, but like I mean what the movie is essentially about is like this Apocalypse in American popular culture that I you know, like very important for my parents I remember my dad telling me about it this the moment where Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival and like inaugurates like much of what we think of as like the 60s counterculture and like rock and roll music but does it by like really spinning in the face of like the the folk music scene and like people like Pete Seeger and like the the community of folk musicians that sort of like he glommed on to and like launched his career off of and I think they're like villain folk singers in the movie too

that are like no and anything I think the movie portrays Bob Dylan is something of a villain oh Ed Norton plays Pete Seeger and is like he's great and Pete Seeger is like, you know the kindliest man in human existence but like his whole thing is like he's like Bob like folk music means something it matters and like it matters because It has certain strictures in terms of like a good song can sell itself It doesn't need the bells and whistles. And he's like, you know, and it's also part of a broader left-wing social movement that he hopes will be like

building the foundations to create a socialist society in America, like a society and a culture based on solidarity, tradition, and like, you know, a kind of lefty patriotism. Like the first scene with Pete Seeger is like when he's being convicted of performing This Land is Your Land as like, you know, being in the McCarthy era and he's being, you know, like harangued for his lefty politics.

Yeah. And then like, you know, Bob Dylan comes to New York City from Minnesota and then immediately goes to meets Pete Seeger in the the sort of hospice care of which Woody Guthrie is currently residing towards the end of his life. And he blows them away with some song that he wrote for Woody Guthrie, and he becomes the darling of like that Greenwich Village folk music scene in New York. Now, we've talked a lot about like movies

that remind you of much better movies. The movie that bodied A Complete Unknown is Inside Lewin Davis. Because like, I don't know why anyone would make a movie about Bob Dillon after that movie. Yeah, yeah. That's like the most... that movie's so depressing. Yeah, it is one of the most... there are so many scenes in Inside Lewin Davis that like have that perfect Coen brothers quality of capturing in the smallest detail what hell feels like.

Yeah. And I think of a scene in that movie where he steps in an icy puddle in Chicago, and then he cuts to him sitting at the diner counter and he's like taking his soaked sock out of his like sodden shoe and like flexing his toes to try to get some heat back into it back into them. And I was just like that since chills up my spine Yeah about it and also Lewin Davis is a piece of shit in that movie Yeah, which is like the most beautiful part of of the whole thing He's just like, you know kind of a shithead and he's like, you know

That's what I think of when I think of like folk music is like a guy like Lou and Davis. I don't know if that's like bad. Well, I have to give credit to a complete unknown because I think this movie does consciously kind of portray Bob Dylan as something of a shithead and a fuckboy. And that's what I loved about Chalome in the role. And I love it like his relationship to L. Fanning and the Monica, the woman who portrays Joan Baez.

She was also in Top Gun Maverick. And they're both very good. But I love his relationships with the women in this movie are so funny because he is even in the 60s. More things change, the more things stay the same in New York City. There are all it's fuck boys top to bottom. Yeah. It's like you have a guy over for the night. You fuck him. And then you like you wake up in the morning and he's writing songs in your living room being like, I don't know. I'm trying

to leave me alone. I'm trying to write a read the next song right here. Yeah, it's all it's all greasy dick. Wiery guys. Yeah, yeah. And if he if he was alive, he even has the Zuma Broccoli haircut. Yep. It's all there, all the pieces are there. I definitely got to say, I know I'm gonna love it because I love a good music biopic type movie. Monica Barbaro, sorry, excuse me. Betrayed us.

Saved us from 10 angry comments. Like I said, the essential tension of the movie for me that is dramatized, like the climactic moment when he goes electric at the Newport Folk Music Festival, the question is, what do we want from our popular artists? What do we want from our revolutionary musicians? Do we want art that is created with a sense of sort of solidarity and social responsibility but that unfortunately does not slap? Or do you want art that kind of spits in the face of all of that and tells an entire generation essentially you're all on your own and like changing the world is for suckers but unfortunately it does slap. Yeah. And you know like the first keyboard like riff of Like a Rolling Stone that he

opens his second set at the Newport Folk Festival with, the first lines of that song is, how does it feel to be on your own? Yeah. And like that, I think ultimately that was Bob Dylan as kind of a chimeric, sort of like, you know, chameleon-like artist who was like certainly a genius in reinventing himself over and over again and channeling a kind of a certain spirit of the moment he was in. But like essentially the message that he defined himself with was speaking to like the 60s generation that it was like, you know, it just come out of the civil rights movement and was like really believed in something and they believed that through like collective action and culture that they could change

the world for the better. His message to all of them was basically your grow up. You're on your own. Yeah, it's it's like what Kervonigut said, like all of the best artists in the world in history, like all got together best artists in the world in history, like all got together and they tried to art their way into changing the world and all of it amounted to a big wet fart or something. Or dropping a pie from the... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The incustive force of dropping a pie from the top of a stepladder. Yeah, yeah. But you know, that may be true, but like, that's why I mean that Bob Dylan comes across as something of an asshole in this movie. And something of a poser. And someone who was really kind of like, didn't want, he was dedicated to himself and his art, which is noble in a lot of respects, but in doing so, proved that he really didn't care about other people or politics or you know, politics or like any kind of broader meaning

or message. And like, like I said, I thought the movie did an interesting job of portraying that and like this tension between what we demand of art and the artists we revere. It's if you combined a complete unknown, the brutalist and the substance, you would get blonde by a beautiful andrew domenick film which I love and which everyone should see if they haven't seen it but that's how you do it that's how you cook baby all right so that is a complete unknown what's what's next up on the best picture list we could just stick with Timmy we could do do Dune 2. Okay, Dune 2. Again, another movie that I enjoyed watching, but I gotta say I liked the first one more.

There was just, I don't know how you feel, like, I like Dune 2. Put away the pitchforks, but like there was just something, I don't know, I liked the first one more. And maybe this is just through the haze of the departure of David Lynch. But I did rewatch the David Lynch movie. Yeah. And for all its flaws, it really blows away the villain away movies. And I'm not saying that they're bad in any way. I think they're very, very well done. They're very cool. But the David Lynch movies just it's just it's so much better.

The coolest shit in Dune two was because Because I love Dune 1, saw it in the theater, and then when I saw Dune 2 in the theater, I was like, yes, this is sick, this is awesome. And then it cut to Gaiety Prime, and you see Foyd Rautha, Austin Butler's Foyd Rautha, and Lea Siddow, and they perform a scene that is just so much, that makes the rest of the movie look terrible, like, because it's so good. They're cooking so hard. Oh, I thought you were going to hate on that scene. I was saying that was my favorite part of the movie.

Yeah, best part of the movie. Because with Austin Butler and Leah Sidoux, it's very, it was, dare I say, it was kind of sexy. It was so sexy. It was very dare I say, it was kind of sexy. It was so sexy. It was very erotic and it was kind of a turn on. It was amazing. It was like so sick. It was like, this is, they are cooking.

And then it cuts back to Zendaya, bless her heart. And she's like, I'm, you know, I'm so mad about the world. I don't have much more to say about Dune 2. Like I said, I think there was a lot of cool stuff in it. I don't think the two parts struck. It's just like, I don't know. Maybe I'm being too nitpicky on Dune 2. It was a fun movie.

I enjoyed it. I liked Dune part 1 and 2. I'm going to use this opportunity because you brought up Zendaya to hate on another movie this year that I thought was widely over praised. Probably my least favorite movie of the year or the movie that I thought was like the biggest gap between what people talked about it and what my experience of watching it was. Challengers. Oh, Challengers. Yeah, that's I had fun with Challengers, but I had a good... I did not like Challengers at all.

There were so many annoying parts of it. And I definitely can see why you wouldn't like it. I mean, it's a nothing. It's so forgettable. It's over. It was all over. I did a bit of sex in it and there was like there's nothing about the movie that was sexy. Yeah, I pretty much hated all three of the main characters.

Josh O'Connor was kind of cool. I liked him. But yeah, he's cool. But like Faced and Zendaya, I couldn't stand them. I mean, like not the performances, but their characters were so unpleasant to me that it just I was expecting a fun, sexy movie. But instead, what I got a movie was about like bloodless, soulless professional athletes. Yeah. And I heard a lot of people saying, oh, the tennis in the movie was the sex. Okay. I wanted to see sex in the movie, though.

Yeah. But like, I look has the movie market itself as a movie that has a threesome in it. And there was no threesome. Okay. Yeah. She makes them kiss at one point. It's very PG 13. Like they're going to be like sucking each other off in the steam in the sauna. Yeah, yeah. It's like Jaws if it never showed the shark even once. Yeah. It's like implying that they could have sex, but no, there's no sex. Or if there wasn't a shark at all at the end of Jaws. But I think the ending was really funny when Zendaya just screams like, let's go. And then it cuts.

If challengers did not have that Trent Reznor score to it, like people would not have liked it. That's what people like. That score is the best part. The Trent Reznor, the beautiful, I was so into the score. And I think that is what carried me through the movie with any other score other than like the driving techno stylings of Trent Reznor and I think Boys Noise even did a remix of one of the songs on the soundtrack which is really sick. I'm a big fan of Boys Noise but yeah it was kind of a forgettable movie I don't really

remember much that happened to it is it me or is Zendaya just being kind of typecast or does her acting range just basically encompass grouch yeah grump and grouch because she kind of is the same character in Dune 2 yeah she plays the same character in Dune 2, a similar character, I think, in Euphoria from what I've seen. But yeah, let's give her some fun roles where she's like a fun person. Maybe she can really just let her free flag fly in something else. I guess the other piece of praise I have for Dune II is that I guess I do enjoy the fact

that there's a major Hollywood movie nominated for Best Picture that made, you know, probably 100 plus million dollars at the box office that is unreservedly pro terrorism and pro Hamas. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And also my favorite actor of all time, Christopher Walken is... There should have been more Walken, you know? Yeah. I was like, I love seeing Walken in anything, but like, they should have had more of the Patecha Emperor in my opinion.

Everything needs more Walken. It's just a fact of life. It's just true. But yeah, Dune 2, fun movie. Don't think it's going to win. I don't think Dune 2 is going to win. I mean, but like, let's be honest though. This this is the year of Timothee. This is this is Oh, yeah. This is Club Chalamet. We're all in the club now. Yes, is New York City Boy makes good. And I got to say, did you see Timothee's Timothee's Timothee's acceptance speech at the SAG awards where he's like, I'm trying to be one of the I'm trying to be one of the greats. I was like, I was feeling that because like, I've long said that more people should talk about movies like they're sports.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It was like Michael Jordan. Like I was inspired by Dale Day-Lewis as I am by Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan. I'm trying to be one of the greats. I'm trying to get those rings. And you know what? This year, I think he, I think there's a good chance he wins Best Actor.

It reminded me of something Diane Keaton said about Al Pacino one time. Or maybe not Diane Keaton, someone that dated Al Pacino for a while. They were like, he's amazing, but he's married to acting. He can't like, you know, that's his true love and no no woman can compare to the to to acting for him. And I feel like Timothy is like, that's me, baby. I put me on. Put me in coach. Put me in coach. I'm ready to act. I'm ready to act MVP of of of 2024. Yeah. And I've seen I've seen all you fake Timothy heads.

Now you're now you're in the now you're on the Timothy train. I was there day one okay I was there ground zero you know when he got when he gave all those girls chlamydia I defended him I said it was fake um which I still it might be I don't know allegedly I mean I've never even heard of this story I it's yeah it's fake news It's from the anti-Timothee media. They'll think they don't believe it. Whatever he's killing it. He's killing it. MVP of movies this year. Yes, we love Timothy.

All right. Next up on the Oscar list, a Nora, a Nora fantastic movie. I like I like to know quite a bit, too. However, you know, like this is a movie I liked but I feel like I have One qualification here, which is that I did feel that the third act was a little too long I like yeah, I enjoyed an aura. I thought Mikey Maddison was great however The cumulative effect of the movie the last hour and a half or two hours of this movie

Did sort of just feel like being yelled at from a by a woman from Brighton Beach, which I know that's what the movie is about. But it was I really like the middle part of the movie with OK, the goons in this movie were fantastic. They made the goon game was on point. The goons were fantastic. That was like for us. And that's what I really appreciated. Like Sean Baker, like the kind of like this is his tribute to like the classic screwball comedy like Conceit. Yeah.

And I thought it was really I thought it did a really good job of that, but I just thought it went on a little too long. I thought like the central joke was strung out a little too long over like the middle to second half of the movie. Yeah. And the you saying it's like his play on a screwball comedy really locks a lot of stuff into place for me, because we've as we've talked about before, the main the main defining feature of a screwball comedy is that they stress they're so stressful than

they're like thrillers basically. Yeah. And this one really delivers in that in that sense where it's stressing you out so bad at all times. And it feels like a runaway, a runaway roller coaster kind of which I love. But it's it's, you know, it's very stressful. It's a stressful movie. It's a stressful movie.

And I think like, at some point, it kind of passes the breaking point. Like I said, like, for me, watching it, it felt like being yelled at by a woman, which is, you know, unpleasant experience for anyone. But that being said, like, I did mostly really like Nora. And yeah, Mikey Madison was great. I thought like, but the goons were fantastic. The guy who plays her, her fiance slash aborted husband was very funny.

And I thought he did a really good job capturing that certain kind of like insouciance of like that someone of that level of privilege or any man around the age of 20 has, if they're just like in a world of like limitless pleasure of just smoking weed, getting laid, but essentially really doesn't know anything about himself or the adult world at all and is like in no way prepared for a serious relationship or any kind of relationship.

Yeah, is so like short sighted and not, you know, it's just like... And callow ultimately, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And when push comes to shove is just like, you know, a piece of shit. Like, you know, a piece of shit. Well, you know, here's like the question the movie is like if we're going on the like screwball comedy template, like screwball comedies are really many movies of like the Golden Age of Hollywood or about like, no matter what the plot is, essentially, they are mechanisms by which a couple is created.

Yeah, so let me ask you, is a couple created by the end of Enora? And it's sort of like, strangely, it's sort of ambiguous ending. Um, I don't think so. And I think that... No, I don't think, yeah, I don't think so either. Yeah. And I think that's part of what, like, got people so mad about it too, because people were, there was a lot of people being like, Sean Baker made a movie just to torture a woman. And it's like, well, made a movie just to torture a woman. It's like, well, I mean, have you heard of any other movies?

That's called movies. What are you talking about? That's every single movie. Like, I don't understand, what do you want? Like, do you want them to just like? I saw a lot of people being about like, of course he has to make a movie about a sex worker where like her life gets fucked up and it's complicated.

And it's just like, what did you want a movie with no tension or a plot? Yeah, a sex worker who's like a girl boss. Whose life is fine and nothing happens. Which if you like that, there's a TV show called The Girlfriend Experience that I would highly recommend and it's starring Riley K.O. and I would highly, highly recommend that season one on stars, I believe. But so that can be good if you make something like that. But this is it's just a different type of

movie. I mean, like Sean Baker also, of course, made Tangerine, which is amazing. It's so good. I mean, like all of his movies are really like the thread that connects all of them is his treatment of how that sex and money are like inexorably linked in like, I mean, the thread that connects all of them is his treatment of how that sex and money are like inexorably linked in like, in capitalist society. Yes, that like, all sex is about money, all relationships are about money. And it's like, he has it like, it's treated both lightly and seriously in his movies. And I think there's a real tension there. And I think that's another thing people are sort of mad about or I don't know like they can't really decide whether this is a movie is like a celebration of sex work or like a searing indictment of it.

Yeah. And I think like that the idea of a movie having to choose between celebrating something or it's indicting it is like so ridiculous on its face. And like, I don't understand how you can watch this movie and think, oh, Sean Baker has no empathy or for this woman whatsoever. I do understand how you could think that about the substance, but like, which, and not, and even like, there's nothing like inherently wrong with that either.

Like the substance is directed by a woman who has no empathy for the main character. But it's one of the most hateful movies towards women I think I've ever seen. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's all about context and it's all about like what you're looking for in a movie. If you don't want to be stressed out and you want everything to work out great for a sex worker, don't watch a movie about it, you know? I mean, like, you can watch... And like, it's stressful, but it's not like anything truly horrible happens in the movie either. Yeah. Yeah, I mean...

The scene where they tie her up is very funny. It's really funny, yeah. And like, yeah, you can watch like, the Girlfriend Experience or like, Working Girls, the Lizzie Borden movies. Another one where it's just sex workers, you know, going to work basically and just like doing shit and hanging out. And those are amazing movies. And, you know, we can have it both ways. We can have all all types of movies, you know.

Absolutely. And, you know, this year, Oscar has shown its light upon many different kinds of movies. Yes. Unfortunately, none of them are, you know, really great. I mean, like, there's no movie this year that is anywhere close to, like, Zone of Interest or even Oppenheimer, which I thought was a very good, great movie, and I thought the Zone of Interest was, like, truly a great work of art. Yeah. Well, we can talk next about one of the two musicals that got nominated. Okay. Wicked. All right. Which I thought was really good. I loved it. I know you're not the you weren't the biggest fan of it. I hated it. I hated every second of it was like, yeah, yeah. Again, like the thing that really pissed me off about it the most was

like the look of it and how I mean outside the songs, the look, the dialogue and the performances. I thought Wicked was pretty good. Look, Cynthia Evairo and Ariana Grande, they got some they both got some pipes on them. They really they really sing these songs. And if you're a fan of the musical Wicked, I'm sure this was a great adaptation. But like, I cannot remember a single song from it. You don't remember Defying Gravity? You don't remember? No, like, like, I just did not nothing stuck. And oh, and every frame of the movie looked atrocious.

Yeah, it's very, you know, CGI heavy. atrocious. Yeah, it's very, you know, CGI heavy. The costumes were awful. It's just like, I did the humor of everything in it was just I found it I found it unbearably grating. Yeah, I think I probably have a special love for it because I love the musical. I listen to the soundtrack of the musical all the time as a kid, which is a surprise. I've actually been I've actually been on like a classic musical tip recently. Oh, what have you been watching? Oklahoma and West Side Story. I watched those back to back. Oh, classic.

Those are like two of the greatest masterpieces of American film, in my opinion. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The songs and I mean, I guess maybe it's like the songs from those musicals were probably so ingrained in my head that like, yeah, it just the the defying gravity and popular just didn't penetrate my brain. I don't remember any lyrics or melodies because right now, dear kindly, your honor, my parents, you're rough with all their marijuana. They won't give me a puff. And the best song in the fucking movie, farmer and the cow man should be friends is just Banger just yeah, yeah fire. It's pure heat. Oh like those movies are pure heat

Yeah, the I think one thing we can take from this batch of Oscar movies is that the musicals back, baby And they're bringing it back how effective it is. I think Wicked is up for debate. All my friends loved Wicked because of how gay they are. What a shock. I don't know if they're gay or trans. Yeah. What a shock. But I enjoyed it. I like, oh, go ahead. You know, like we said, like this year's movies were, they were big on themes, sort of gay and trans themes and characters. What did I

hadn't I knew nothing about the musical Wicked outside the general concept that it's like you know or revisionist take on the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard of Oz. Yeah. What did you make I was I was sort of like taking it back that like a good chunk of the plot of Wicked concerns like an extended civil rights analogy. Yeah. As it relates to talking animals. Yeah. Animal genocide. It's it's the main plot point of The Wicked of the musical, basically, is that the talking animals are like second class citizens. They're treated.

They're being oppressed by Jeff Goldblum. Yeah. I'm sorry. A career worst performance for Jeff Goldblum. Well, have you seen Thor? Ragnarok? Yeah, I have. I know Jeff Goldblum just plays Jeff Goldblum anymore. It doesn't really doesn't really do characters anymore. Yeah, he was sleepwalking in this.

Yeah. Michelle, yo, I'm sorry. Like, again, not a good role for her. Not a good role for her. Yeah, it's very like you know, just giving everyone their flowers like just giving jobs to the people that focus groups say that everyone would like but yeah, like the like musical itself has like a crazy plot where it's like the wicked witch is

basically like on team animals and she's green because her mom drank with her in the womb. And yeah, Glinda has to basically be like... She becomes like a comprador. She becomes like a collaborationist with Oz, the great and powerful. Yeah, she's like Mon Mothma in Andor basically. I think it's a great musical. I love the songs. My favorite song, For Good, was not in part one, but hopefully we will see it in part two. Yeah, another three hours. Can't wait. But I was also really surprised by how well they adapted, like, because the musical is like all singing and

I was like, how are they gonna turn this into a movie? Like what are the scenes gonna be, you know and They kind of did it very I think they did it. Well, they just like structurally they did it Well, but like visually it ended up being like, you know, chase, CGI chase scenes and like bad CGI action. Again, this is just me being like, old man menacre here. And I think like watching much better movies has poisoned my appreciation of these movies. But like, when I was watching Oklahoma and the original West Side Story, just the vivid technicolor and depth in every frame of those movies are just like, they're singing as much as the music does. And like, Wicked was incredibly colorful, but it was all just like flat, like flat slop. It was just, it was just like this, oh, it looked like everything looked like a screensaver. There was just no depth and like,

the colors were very bright, but they were like, once again, everything was just at the same level of brightness and there was no depth or field of vision. And it was just like it made everything just like slide off my brain like, you know, grease or something. Yeah, it made me it did make me like yearn for the days of like, you know, like Kiss Me Kate to bring up another classic, classic musical. Like there's a part in Kiss Me Kate where they do a number and it cuts to an ethereal plane kind of. That is like the dream sequence in Oklahoma that looks like, you know, like a Dolly painting

or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got to bring back map paintings for sure. Oh my god, yes. Because they just look, they just look better than whatever they're using right now. Like, probably not, um, I don't know, probably not green screen. I don't know if they're using green screen or LCDs. Green face, more like it.

Yeah, or LEDs. Yeah, green face, ay. But yeah, this is a crazy movie. The marketing has been insane because of Ariana Grande. I gotta say, the flying monkeys look like complete ass. Yeah, they really, really poor. You know, but like at the end of the day, it's for kids. And I'm like, you know, maybe not Oscar best picture material, but it's there. There's a category for that.

It's called best animated feature. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll say it here. I'll say it again. Cartoons are for children. Yes. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Real movie mindset heads know how to read between the lines of yeah, inflammatory statements I make on this program. Yes. Should we?

Let's get to the let's get to to the crown jewel of this Oscar season. Yes. First I should say I've heard Nickel Boys is amazing. I've heard it's really good. I've heard Nickel Boys, I'm still here, are both very good movies. So, apologies to both of them and the filmmakers. I will definitely... I will watch those. But, The Peas Day Resistance. Yeah. Amelia Perez. I will definitely I will watch those but the piece de resistance Yeah, Amelia Perez Amelia

Amelia Perez Amelia Perez now I should like you know I have we have to comment only like the the outside the text of the movie that this this was going into Oscar seasons This had all the momentum Yeah, and people like like it had won best foreign film at the Golden Globes This was like there was a good chance that like everyone was talking about Emilia Perez is the one that's gonna be like the big Winner at the Oscars this year Then the star of the movie Carla Sofia Gascon's old tweets resurfaced and from here

it has been I feel now like this is kind of like a tweets resurfaced and from where it has been. I feel now like this is kind of like a collective effort to like make sure that no movie produced by Netflix ever is credited for anything ever again, which I gotta say I kind of support but like, maybe you'll disagree with me but like I was talking to Catherine about this and like people were a little too happy to take down Carla Sofia Gascon. Yeah. And the thing is, here's what I'll say. Yes, her tweets are very racist and offensive. But the thing you have to understand here is that she's European. Okay, exactly. She is an old European person from the LGBT community. Like, so she thinks there's too many Africans in Spain or at least is willing to ask the question. Yeah, yeah. It's it's like, you know, it reminds me of like, Stefano Gabana, like Dolce and

Gabana, those guys. Yeah. Like Lagerfeld. Yeah, yeah. It's just like an old Queenie like LGBT European affectation. I'm not saying it's good, but I'm saying that I'm not surprised. You're not into something. But like, come on. Yeah. Kevin Spacey won an Oscar, right?

Like there are, there are way worse people with way worse opinions and believe Mel Gibson won a shitload of Oscars, right? Yeah. I guess this is before people, this is before Twitter, before people knew what he thought and believed. So I guess it's a little bit different. But yeah, this is the social media era now. So we're exposed to the, you know, the rough edges of people that we want to be, you know, movie stars.

Yeah. And I think that her opinion probably, hopefully has changed since then. I mean, like the fact that Netflix didn't immediately take away her like just get delete her entire social media history and sent her to like woke re-education camp is Yeah, I saw a real bag fumble on their part that being said all of this would be in service of a movie that I'm not Exaggerating when I say is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Oh my god. I see I kind of like Wow, okay. Well, sorry, I said state your case for this movie being anything other than the word I would use to describe it is punishing. Yeah. OK. Well, I think that it's it's really funny at some point.

I really. Wow. I mean, I guess I mean, I guess it's funny to talk about in retrospect, but like it did not do not elicit a chuckle out of me watching it. I'll say that. Yeah, I think the scene where they do like a candlelight vigil for all the missing children of the world was really funny. It was funny and how tasteless it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly. Crass and offensive. It was. That's what I mean. Look, not to be Mr. Woke here or anything, this movie's gotten dinged for a lot of things. And like, I'm sure you can talk about the trans representation that this movie features,

but like if I had to pinpoint one thing this movie was really offensive, it was this depiction of Mexico, which I found to be schlocky, cloying, and condescending in the extreme. And the way this movie takes like real-life narco atrocities of like all those like mass murdered students and like mass graves of just disappeared people, I found this movie's rubbernecking made me very queasy in the way this movie invoked like the real-life narco violence and atrocity of Mexico

in a way that I found was just completely tasteless. Oh, so tasteless. And the other thing, the way it works in the plot of the story is ridiculous. Because it's, you know, Emilia Perez used to be... She's responsible for all of these fucking disappearances and murders. And when she discovers that there are missing people, her response is like, oh, my God, no one told me. Like, OK, come on.

Well, this I mean about like this movie is very much about like a trans character and like, you know, someone transitioning from male to female and living their life or like living their life as a woman is like, you know, like this what the movie is about. But like I found it a little difficult to take because the movie seemed to imply that through the process of transitioning you can go from being one of the most evil people in Mexico to one of the best. Yeah, yeah. It's really like, it's really crazy. I also love the scene, the sequence where Zoe Saldana is trying to find a doctor to do sexual reassignment surgery on Amelia Perez and goes to Thailand first and there's like a dance number with all the doctors and they're like

this is the famous from penis to vagina. Hello very nice to meet you I'd like to know about sex change operation. I see I see I see. Men to women or woman to men. Men to woman. From penis to vagina. Yeah yeah yeah and that is a song that did stuck in my head. Yeah. And she is like Zoe Saldana is like, this isn't the this isn't the place we should go probably.

For unclear reasons, I guess. The place like a pretty state of the art facility. I was like, oh, then why? Yeah. She found a nice doctor in Tel Aviv though. Yeah, that was the that was really funny. The doctor from Tel Aviv who's like, I don't even know if I agree with trans people existing. And she's like, this guy's perfect. This guy's perfect. He's like, you can't change when you're like, and it's kind of like is he talking about you can't

become trans or you can't stop being a mob boss it's like very confusing well what you certainly can't stop being is guilty for the many atrocities murders and kidnappings that you've done before you transition to the gender identity that you feel is appropriate yeah yeah, yeah. It's structured like an opera. They kill Emilia Perez at the end. She explodes. She gets dead named and then just blown up in a car. Yeah, yeah. And it's a long movie. Oh, it felt about 10 hours long. Yeah. Yeah, but I did like it Like why it was no, I don't know. I said like

You know, I was going into this movie. I was expecting something tasteless offensive, but just sort of ludicrous But fun the biggest sin this movie has perpetrated is that it is mind-numbingly boring in my opinion. Yeah, there are some parts that drag. The quote-unquote songs in it are like dirges. They are awful. I liked the one where Selena Gomez was singing. The one where she does karaoke with Edgar Ramirez, that was like the one scene in the movie that had some life in it to me. The rest of it felt like I was having dirt shoveled on me. Yeah.

And the funny, the other funny thing, the Edgar Ramirez, that character is so clearly like it's like the gayest man you've ever seen in your life. It's like, yeah, this is the love interest of Selena Gomez. But yeah, Emilia Perez, it really does feel like it comes from the same kind of gay European mind that caused Carlos V. Aguascal to say all those things. Like it's like one degree more woke than that. In a lot of ways, it's like that kind of mind, but like liberalized almost.

And like, oh, orgs, that's what to do. Like, we need to do orgs, we need to do some pranks. We need to have an NGO. And like, it's unclear in the movie whether Amelia Proctor's NGO actually does help anyone. Yeah. It seems mostly she just like gets pussy out of it. Yeah, I liked when she was like the guy, the girl was leaving her office and the girl was like, I brought a gun just in case he was here and Amelia Presse is like, oh, and holds up a gun as well. And I'll say this, I thought Carla Sofia Gascon was good. I thought she was like maybe the only good performance in this piece of shit. Yeah, yeah. I gotta say, Zoe Saldana, it's not doing it for me.

Not doing it for me. Man. Yeah, it was not, not super great. You know, I think that the like the, when it really starts, like it goes off the rails when they start looking for kids and it almost comes back on the rails when Emilia Perez and Selena Gomez are like living together and Selena Gomez has no idea this is her husband that is now trans and also a pretty fucked up thing to do to hear her ex-wife and kids. Yeah. Yeah, like she's still evil like

Can I tell you my favorite scene of the movie though? Yeah, my favorite scene in the movie the one the one scene that did actually make me laugh Was at the very end of the movie where Selena Gomez and Edgar Mires have kidnapped Emilia Perez like cut her fingers off and they're trying to ransom her to get their ill-gotten drug money back. And basically like they're in a hail of gunfire. Amalia Perez starts telling Selena Gomez details of their prior relationship that only her husband would know. Yeah. He's like, he's like, you know, I deflowered you while I was dating your sister.

Yeah. Details about their wedding. Very specific things. And like she does this like three or four times. And each time Selena Gomez is like, wait a second, though. Who are you, though? Yeah. She's like, how would you know that? Wait, hold on. Slow down. Start again. Who are you and how would you know this?

And it's just like, use your fucking brain. Like, yeah, I think she also calls. They have a fight and she calls Carlos V. Gasco and Shrek at one point. That was really crazy. And the marital drama is kind of like that's the part I was liking about it. I wish they did less kidnapped kids, less Mexico stuff. Definitely like should have left the Mexico stuff in on the cutting room floor. Oh, so like 90% of the movie then? Yeah, I agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I did love, you know, I think it was fine trans-wise. I don't think

it was super transphobic. No, I mean, like that was the one part of the movie I didn't think it was super transphobic. No, I mean like that was the one part of the movie I didn't find offensive. Yeah, yeah, truly. And Carlos Villagas-Gone is great when she is in Manface as the drug leader. See, like, I saw some people take offense to that and I was like, wait a second, like, this is just the character here. This is part of the plot of the movie. They didn't like detransition this woman to play the character at the beginning of the movie like yeah she read the script she knew she took the role shows up on set they're like you're back to being a man put on this facial hair put on the beard bitch put on the beard bitch put on the

beard faggot but yeah I don't think it yeah, I don't think it's a great movie for sure. It's definitely... I wouldn't watch it again. I don't know which of these I would watch again. I hate it every second of it. That's my review. Yeah, yeah. Our one disagreement this Oscar season is on. Our disagreement. Our strong disagreement. But, you know, we love movies and movies are life.

So just watch them. Yeah, you got to watch them. You got to watch them. You always got to be watching movies. All right. So let's see. Let's let's do our predictions here. So of who do you think will win Best Picture and who do you think should win Best Picture?

Okay, will win. I'm gonna say Wicked. I think it just had so much like juice behind it going into the season. I think it, you know, it has all the buzz kind of, not the buzz like Oscar buzz, but it has like, you know, I feel like they're trying so hard to make the Oscars more relevant and like I my feeling is that they keep giving like Academy voting status to like younger people to try and do this and I think that we're gonna see that coming out with wicked winning or you know a complete unknown maybe just because of the Timothy Juice. But those are my contentions.

I think those two are going to be neck and neck. What about you? All right. I think my Dark Horses, I'm putting my market down now because of its brilliant marketing campaign of having the actual pope die, Conclave is winning Best Picture. Yeah, that's the dark horse. Conclave is winning Best Picture. And like in the field of like no real there is no strong front runner. There's no Oppenheimer. I think Conclave is it's got the momentum. It's got the momentum going from all the other previous

awards leading up to the big show. I think Conclave surprises people and Conclave wins. I think, you know, as I said I don't really care who should win any of these movies. I'm completely unknown, like I said. That was probably my, shamelessly, probably my favorite movie of this year's Best Picture nominations. And I think like best actors, Timothy's to win for sure. Best actress, I think it's got to be, I mean it's got to be Cynthia Erivo, I think, but I think it should be Mikey Madison. Let me see here. All right. Best actor, I think Timothy's going to win it. Basically, as long as anyone other than Adrian Brody, I do not want to see

Adrian Brody win Best Actor again because if they give him Best Actor for playing two different Holocaust survivors, I think that that's a little that's a little annoying to me yeah that's a little played out you get one oscar for doing a holocaust movie not two yeah can't just keep going back to that well don't be surprised though rey finds winning best actor he has never won an oscar and i think this could be oh Oh! You know, Timothée, like I said, he won MVP this year. I don't know if he's winning Best Actor. I think he probably will, but don't be surprised if Ray Fiennes snatches it from him at the end. It's sort of like a culmination of like how many great movies he's been in, how good an

actor he's been for as long as he has. I think don't be surprised if Ray Fiennes doesn't surprise people and wins, best actor. I could see that, honestly. I could totally see that. Best actress, I would like to see Mikey Madison win it. I could definitely see Cynthia Arriva winning it, but then again, I wouldn't be surprised if Demi Moore wins it as another one of these

career sort of recognition. Retrospective, yeah. Yeah, sort of like, you know, many how many great movies she's been in and and so it's sort of like the Academy acknowledging the thematic elements of the substance which is basically about like Demi Moore has been disrespected by Hollywood and they're gonna be like yeah like the no she has it but here's the last thing do yeah yeah I did I did recently watch an indecent proposal with Demi Moore in it and she was amazing in that.

She was amazing in that. Yeah, that's a crazy movie. But yeah, she's she's a good actress in that in that wild movie. She does a really great performance. And as far as supporting. Let's see. I don't really agree. Supporting best supporting actress, Joey Saldana, Felicity Jones, Monica Barbaro, Ariana Grande, and

Isabella Rossellini. I could see Zoe Saldana winning it, but you know what? I think they're going to give it to Isabella Rossellini again. At least one of these, either Ralph Fiennes, Demi Moore, or Isabella Rossellini will get the career capstone Oscar as a recognition of how much they deserve it and how good they've been over the breadth of their career. You'll see if it happens for one of them, then that means the other two probably won't happen.

But I would like to see Isabella Rossellini win. But I think probably Zoe Saldana will win or maybe not Ariana Grande. She's not going to win. Yeah, I don't know if She might. I think she might. But the I think actor in a supporting role, it's got to be Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice. I think like they just love like a guy playing Roy Cohn. I think they're going to love that. Like I haven't seen The Apprentice, but I think a guy portraying a different rapist is going to win Best Supporting Actor, and that's Guy Giers.

Okay, yeah. I could see that. I could see that. But you know what? He ran afoul of Spacey recently. You know? Another bad Oscar PR thing. He waded into the fact that Kevin Spacey accosted him on the set of LA Confidential many times.

And then Kevin Spacey released that video saying grow up guy grow up grow up we were playing around um i that doesn't surprise me at all he's so hot in LA confidential and Kevin Spacey's not because he's hot i'm nothing he asked for it i want to see Guy Pierce win because i've been a long time Guy Pierce head i love Guy Pierce in pretty much everything i think he's i think he's a great actor. And I did like him in The Brutalist a lot. I thought he was very frightening and menacing. Yeah, yeah. And annoying too. He plays an annoying kind of character. And last one, best director.

We've got Coraline Farragate, The Substance, James Mangold, Sean Baker, Jacques Odyard, and Brady Corbet. I think Brady's probably going to win it, but I would like to see James Mangold win it. Sean Baker. I wouldn't mind Sean Baker winning either. Yeah, I would love if Sean Baker won. I think I wouldn't mind if Brady won. I think they're going to give it to Jacques Audiard. No way. No way. My mortal luck is that Emilia Perez, like maybe Zoe Saldana wins, but there

is no way they're giving Jock Odyard best director. Well, we'll see. We'll see. I think it would be very funny if they did. They were like, well, sorry that your actress is sorry that your tranny misbehaved. Here's your reward. Well, uh, I said we will find out on Sunday night We will find out on Sunday night and you will find out with us if you buy a ticket to the Zoran for Mayor fundraiser Yes, yes I love watching the Oscars. I'd be doing it at home, but it's gonna be very fun to do it with you in front of a live audience It'll be very fun to do it with you in front of a live audience. It'll be so fun, yeah. So yeah, that does it for the Oscars this year, but has a... This is like, usually Oscar season is when we begin to gear up to do Movie Mindset Season 3.

And I'm wondering, like, I know we've talked a little bit about it before, but can we give people just a little preview of what we're thinking of being on deck for this year's, this season of Movie Mindset? Yes, absolutely. You've already programmed two pairings that I think are very interesting and I'm very looking forward to. Yes, yes. Which pairings are they?

I have a list of all of my. Okay, the red shoes and perfect blue. The red-blue pairing about how colors drive actresses insane. Yes, absolutely. That's a beautiful, I think that's gonna be a really cool one. And then. I was also really looking forward to your pairing of trans issues and trans characters in 90s cinema. Which would be Neil Jordan's The Crying Game and David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly.

Two really, really powerful movies that are like... The Crying Game is very much not talked about anymore And if it is yes, we talked about in the context of how like sort of offensive it is But like I think it's time for a re-examination of that movie. Yeah, one of my favorite movies of all time truly It's it's a masterpiece and M. Butterfly is also amazing like one of the most probably the most slept on David Curnenberg movie That's also Incredibly gut-wrenching and powerful. Yeah, yeah. I'm getting chills just thinking about these two beautiful films. And another thing we discussed is doing a one movie episode. Should we, should we reveal? Yeah. Finally Casino

will be tackled. Finally. And we're going to dedicate the whole episode because there's so much there. There's so much to talk about. And we just need, you know, we need the Choppo final say on Casino. One of the best movies ever made. And you know, given his passing, I was also considering doing a single episode on Inland Empire, which is another movie that I know that you're, you know, hugely fascinated by. Oh yeah. And I think that might be as well.

As far as some of the, one of the directors, two of the directors that I'd like to feature on this season, I've been promising Noah Cohen a Sam Peck and Paul episode. So I would like Noah Cohen to be our guest for a Sam Peck and Paul episode, which I'd like to do, bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. That's a beautiful pairing.

And then I think I'd like to get Andrew Hudson back on to do Fritz Lang. To do M, I think, and like M in Metropolis or like M and then I think one of his film noirs from like his Hollywood days, like Scarlet Street or The Girl in the Window. And another one that I wanted to do was Point Blank. Oh, a Lee Marvin episode or just like Point Blank and paired with another? I think we can discuss it. We can discuss it. I think Point Blank is so weird and singular that maybe another weird singular like it.

Maybe like one of the Johnny Toe Hong Kong movies. Yes, yes. Triad Election or something. Exactly. maybe another weird thing maybe like maybe one of the Johnny Toe Hong Kong movies yes exactly what's the not election what's the name of the one I'm thinking of exile yeah okay yeah all right I think that's enough of a taste of movie mindset season three what we will we'll fill out the rest of the gaps before it launches but just be on the lookout for Movie Mindset Season 3 coming soon. Yes. And then be on the lookout for Hassa and I live at the Zoran for Mayor fundraiser on Sunday night.

What's the name of the club again? It's a club on the Lower East Side. Club 101, I think it's called. Club 101. Hassa and I will be in the basement of Club 101, watching the Oscars. And we will see how our predictions hold out. And open bars, we'll be having a grand old time, tipping it back, partying, and loving the movies.

Yes. And listening to Seeking Dream. And hopefully having a movie mayor for New York City. Yes. The movie mayor will happen. It will happen in our lifetimes, folks, if we have anything to say about it. All right. Hesse, it's once again, it's always a joy to talk to you about movies, and I'm looking forward to this upcoming season of Movie Mindset with you. It's always a pleasure.

All right. We will see you at the fundraiser and then also at the movies. Yep. Bye. Bye. Bye! You