QAA Podcast - Civil War Movie Night feat Mike Prysner (Premium E242) Sample

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Well, here we are. The Julian loyalists are facing off against the Western Rockatansky forces as veteran journalist Mike Prysner (Eyes Left Podcast, Empire Files) remains a neutral and unwavering eye. The result? Total destruction of all three of our brains as we struggle our way through a showing of A24’s “Civil War.” We’ll look at everything from interviews with the film’s director to its reception by various audiences alike in an attempt to understand how and why this film was made. So, grab your squad, pop an XP token, and join us as we breach the Oval Office in an effort to make sense of “Civil War.” Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: www.patreon.com/QAA Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com) Mike Prysner: https://www.twitter.com/MikePrysner Empire Files: https://www.patreon.com/empirefiles Earth's Greatest Enemy: https://earthsgreatestenemy.com/ https://www.qaapodcast.com QAA was formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

I don't know. If you're hearing this, well done, you've found a way to connect to the internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast, Premium Episode 242, Civil War Movie Night. As always, we are your host, Jake Rakitansky, Mike Prysner, and Julian Field. A couple weeks ago, as I was exiting the Ben and Jerry scoop shop in Burbank, California, I looked up to see the word civil war plastered all over my local AMC movie theater. Five massive posters. all identical, depicting a sniper's nest in the Statue of Liberty's flaming chalice,

were mounted above the box office. Boy, that's a little disheartening, I thought to myself, knowing all too well the type of extreme rhetoric being thrown around in various online forums. Why would someone want to make a movie about a civil war in the United States at a time when the country feels more divided than ever? Oh, here we go. We got a lib reviewing a lib. I then found out that the film was written and directed by Alex Garland, whose work I very much enjoyed in the past.

I liked Ex Machina, I really liked 28 Days Later, as well as 28 weeks later, starring a young Jeremy Renner, by the way. And now A24 was releasing his latest Couture horror film, Civil War. A24! Hey, I like their stuff, you know, uncut gems and hereditary were supremely interesting films, and while I didn't care as much for Midsummer, I know Julian you disagreed with me here, but, you know, I still thought it was a pretty good movie, right? Jake, there's no way I could disagree with you on this. I haven't seen it. You haven't seen mid-summer? No, but I like that you assumed that I don't agree with you. I thought that you had seen it that we had talked about it and that you liked it.

No, and you should also mention zone of interest. If we're going to talk about 824's moments of glory. Oh, I haven't seen that, but I've heard it's very nice. It's very good. It's very good stuff. As I've gotten older, I find that I have a weaker stomach for gore. You know, when I was a kid, a horror movie or action movie was basically the only place I witnessed, you know, supreme violence. But with the invention of cell phones and internet, the ease of access to real world violence turned life into a movie that I didn't really feel like watching.

Oh, boy. Are you going to introduce our beautiful Mike Prysner? Or you're just going to let him sit in the cut like he's always around? I don't know. I was kind of, I guess I sort of was waiting for you to maybe, like, do, but I guess I kind of wrote an intro. Maybe what we should do is you kind of. No, we're in the fucking episode. We're not editing this.

I tease you and then you say yes. That's right. I should welcome Michael, and then you welcome him. Well, no, now it doesn't feel good. Now it doesn't feel good. Well, guess what? Listening to your intro didn't feel good for me, Jake. Mike, welcome, man.

It's such a pleasure to have you here. I'm not sure what Jake is going on about, to be honest, in this. I could sense his take is going to be like, this is so tasteless, which is not usually my Jakey. Jake, you were brought up on movies where people just fill. the fucking screen with dead bodies. Like, no, now you're going to be like, well, in an election year, that's your take? I mean, kind of. I mean, it's deeper than that, but it's somewhat similar.

I mean, it's somewhat similar. But yes, we're joined by Mike Prysner. We love him. Sorry I didn't introduce you off the bat. It just felt so natural that, you know, that it just felt like you're always here in the cut. You know him from eyes left. You know him because, um, you're, want to fuck them. Yeah, you know, it's more of a compliment that you didn't introduce me.

Yeah, it just felt so smooth. One of the boys. So, interestingly enough, Alex Garland's Civil War is the most expensive movie that A24 has ever produced. Yes, they might have cut costs on films about a tribe of witches or a Swedish cult, or even an obsessed jeweler with a gambling problem. But when it comes to factions within America slaughtering one another over modern day politics, it was time to shell out the big bucks. Jake, a tribe of witches? I think we know what a group of witches is called. It's a coven. A coven. Well, they're very, they feel like a tribe in the, in hereditary. You're going to piss off like every girl who wears all black that listens to this show, which I know from going on tour is a decent amount. A coven of witches. There we go.

Thank you so much. By the way, if you can't tell, I thought the movie was quite boring, so I'm just going to spend most of this bullying, Jake. Oh, man, I thought we were turning over a new leave. Yeah, yes. Yes, we will right after this. As soon as we're done with this. As soon as we get AI Julian back on the, back on the pod. No, no, no. I'm going to be nice. I'm going to be nice. But I will, I will poke fun at you for essentially having this like, this is a very liberal side of Jake that I'm not used to. See, I think it's the opposite. Maybe our terminology is, is different. When you can really see the budget in this movie, which was approximately $50 million. And it's already made more than that back.

As last time I checked, it was somewhere around 60 million. So it already has made its money back. It's doing well overseas. It's doing well here. Everybody wants to see America implode. Oh, man, it's the slop, though. This is the slop. It's like, this is lipstick on a pig situation here with 824.

The film was primarily shot in Atlanta, Georgia, with more principal photography taking place in London as production move forward. Of course, you would want to shoot part of the Civil War in London. This guy, this British guy, we're going to let this guy come in here and just make a movie about the United States and just pretend he's one of us. This guy, this guy's rooting for the fall ever since the dang tea part, they had the Boston Tea Party. So the first time I saw Civil War in the theater, I made the grave mistake of booking my tickets in a Dolby Digital Theater, not realizing that the already supremely loud movie would be turned up to 11. After the first gunshot rang out so loud in my theater that my wife and I jumped an inch out of our seats, I began to get mad. Yes, yes, Jakey went Karen mode. How dare you, I thought. Using gunshots as jump scares in a movie theater felt tasteless and irresponsible.

About halfway through the movie, I actually ripped up my popcorn napkin and rolled it into little balls to stuff in my ears. I was really pissed that the movie was actively trying to traumatize me, not because the content was so thought-provoking, but because the gunshot. shots were so loud and so random. And Mike, you were saying earlier that you actually, this was, you went and saw this film alone. So what was that like? Well, you know, it was actually, I think the first time I ever saw a film alone because I went on a late weeknight and couldn't get anyone to go with me, including my wife, Abby, who her reason was she thought it was a film about the actual Civil War because apparently she saw no ads for it and she doesn't like any movies that take place before like 1950. It might as well have been the understanding of technology is civil

War era. Well, the funny thing is is I was like very, I was like, you know, I'm very confident going to see a movie at night by myself. You know, I have not embarrassed about this at all. But my wife had given me a big old kiss before I left the house. And so I'm like, beaming with confidence going in the theater, checking in with the ticket

lady, getting concessions, chumming it up with people, showing that I'm not awkward about being alone at the movie theater. And I went to the restroom before and I realized that I had lipstick smeared over my entire mouth. It looked like, straight up looked like Joker makeup. Like there was just a red ring like an inch from my lips like all around it dude she she she smooched you she she marked her

territory yeah so the movie began with me feeling very awkward and after what i had just done trolling around the entire theater and talking to everyone but um anyways i was i was not actually scared of the gunshots though no i think it's interesting that that for jake whose brain is is mostly movies like he thinks gunshots being scary and loud are a jump scare like they're it was damn it's like every time they shoot a gun there's a jump scare it's it's it's it The jump scare just counts as Jake jumped. Jake jumped. I will say that, yes.

I thought it was quite effective. Like, it takes away from, you know, you just, you understand the gravity of gunshots in this movie. That was, that's not one of my critiques. But I think the movie was so loud. Next up, you have your paragraph about how there was a breeze. Wait, what? Yeah, the popcorn was stale. There was a breeze.

All the different stuff that old ladies care about. No. Wait, so, Mike, the gunshots didn't scary? Is that because you have heard them in? real life. You know, I didn't notice that at all. I mean, I thought it was just normal movie theater volume to me. Oh, to me, maybe it was the Dolby Digital

because, like, I left, I left, like, visibly shaking after the movie. And I've never, you know how you said you've never gone to a movie alone? Well, I've never ripped up the popcorn napkin. You've been listening to a sample

of a premium episode of the QAA podcast for access to the full episode as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries, go to patreon.com slash QAA. Travis, why is that such a good deal? Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA podcast for just $5 per month. For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes plus all of our miniseries. That includes 10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian and Annie, 10 episodes of Perverts with Julian and Liv, 10 episodes of the Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, plus,

20 episodes of trickle-down with me, Travis Vue. It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting. Travis, for once, I agree with you. And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.com slash QAA. Well, that's not an opinion. It's a fact. You're so right, Jake.

We love and appreciate all of our listeners. Yes, we do. And Travis is actually crying right now, I think, out of gratitude, maybe? That's not true. The part about be crying. Not me being grateful. I'm very grateful.

Oh, oh.