Sardonicast - Sardonicast 119: Nope, The Black Phone, Brokeback Mountain
Episode Date: August 22, 2022Support the Show for $2 a month and receive all future episodes early at https://sardonicast.com and https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Buy Sardonicast T-Shirts, and other merchandise at https://te...espring.com/stores/sardonicast. Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Ralph's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ralphthemoviemaker Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/YourMovieSucksDOTorg Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Ralph's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ralphsepe Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Ralph's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ralphthemoviemaker Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Fan art: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/tkgag3/this_is_a_fanart_that_i_made_for_the_boys_i_just/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/tnvj0v/found_an_old_vhs_in_my_family_home_titled_speed/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/tjm51n/no_movies/
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3, 2, 1
I wish I knew how to quit listening to Sardonicast
This is Adam from your movie sex, how is it going?
Hey, it's Ralph, a movie maker.
Hey, is Alex from Ochi.
You know, that was the one line I knew from the movie.
All you needed was the guitar music.
It's memed.
Yeah.
You pull that up on your phone with the...
Oh yeah, well, I know the...
There's like the meme with like Jacob and Edward and they play like the music like with them.
Like it's like a scene of with them but it's the Brookback Mountain music.
Oh, that's how I know it.
It's a great score.
It's just like, yeah, I think I might have seen that now.
You mention it.
Yeah.
It's a great score.
I'm just, you know, it's been memes, right.
Fantastic score.
We're going to talk about it more later when we're in the actual.
Yeah, I watched it on my new TV.
Oh.
Because I was like, I was like, tweet.
Yeah.
mentioned 75 inches or something?
Yeah, it's pretty big.
It's nice and big.
But there's like, so yeah, I remember we talked about it on the podcast like, yeah, I should
get a bigger TV and like, I didn't realize it was like last episode we did.
So like literally like the episode after I said that.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the episode after I said that, I got a new TV.
I'm like, oh, that's pretty proactive.
Yeah.
And it's good.
TVs are weird
They're not like
Like Adam you have a projector
Yeah
Like it's sad that like most TVs are kind of made for sports and gaming now
Yeah
There's like this
There's a lot of weird presets that they come with too
Exactly so I had to fuck around with the TV a lot
But there's some things like you can't change
So there's like I was looking it up
There's like a refresh rate
Oh yeah
I think it's like 60 hertz
So that makes the motion like smoother
I don't know exactly how much it is
It's like 60 hertz to 120
hurts. There's like, there should be like a motion smoothing setting though. Like, even if it is 60
hertz, if you turn off motion smoothing that. Oh, yeah, I turned all that off. Yeah. That stuff's good
for like sports and gaming, but not really for film. Yeah, really, you want like a 24 frames a
second for film and, but like a lot of these TVs, they just naturally bump it up. I'm just wondering
if it's possible to have a television that just has the capability of however many frames per
second, you know, whatever motion smoothing, et cetera, but only outputs what the input signal is
receiving. So like, so like if the piece of media is like, yes, this is 60 frames per second,
then the TV outputs it as. And it does, like, it wouldn't be creating artificial frames with
motion smoothing or something. Right. That should be the standard. You think that would be easier
to do, right? Yeah. Just play it the way the media wants it to be played. And if you want to add on, like,
ways to fuck with it, like, I'm, I'm all about customizing.
if people want to do weird shit,
but I think the default should just be like native to the media, right?
Yeah, exactly.
It's like, it's turned on automatically.
So like it will automatically, you know, up the frame rate or whatever of everything.
But, you know, there's a balance.
You got to find like I think a lot of theaters now show things at a bit higher frame rate.
You don't really notice it.
And it is a TV.
It is a different experience ultimately.
It's a different display than,
is a Samsung.
Yeah, it's a Samsung.
Samsung's are really nice.
That's why I usually got them.
They're good for the price, yeah.
Yeah, so, I got a nice one.
It's a Q-Let also.
They had an OLED.
O-led's apparently the nicest thing you can get right now,
but it's so expensive.
And also,
that was mostly, it's expensive.
And it doesn't come in any higher, like, size than 65, I think.
Oh, weird.
For Samsung anyway.
Yeah.
Like, LG has bigger, but
Samsung, the biggest one they had was like 65.
So, you know, it's about like taking in all these things in a consideration and finding
like the best TV like for you.
Like I watched doing it.
It looks great.
Like I can't really notice like the frames that much.
Like it's just like a very, yeah, it's a different experience.
Like maybe 24 on a TV like that would look bad.
I think most 4K TVs now have like, they just have that kind of built into them, you know.
So it's about like finding the balance, right?
Whatever screens they use at some of the rides on Disney World, they're like huge and like
pretty high-res.
Like, I want to play a movie on that and see what happens.
I guess that's technically what's happening.
Yeah, I think what a lot of theaters do, like even if they say it's 4K, because I remember
we talked about that before, I think with the Avatar trailer, if like movies projected 4K
in theaters, they do, but they do this thing where they like, they project the same image twice,
like on the screen.
I think they do that too with like those rides, right?
So you're seeing like multiple projectors.
So technically it's 4K but it's more like 2.5K like projected twice.
So I think that technically ups the frame rate also.
Weird.
So you know, there's like all these things like you don't even notice like when you're watching a movie in a theater also.
Why are they up the frame rate?
Because it's the same image twice I guess.
So it's like when you say twice do you mean like side by side kind of?
Well, no.
It's like, it's literally like two images projected over each other.
So I think there's some kind of like mathematical thing there.
So it's like two 24 frame per second images.
Again, I'm not like an expert on this kind of thing.
If it was delayed by a half frame, anyway.
I'll look into this later.
It's kind of complicated.
Yeah, it is very complicated.
But it's a nice TV.
Since you were so proactive about your television, three episodes ago, we were talking about
Halo, you said you were going to get the original Halo on disk. Did you do that?
No, not yet.
You should get on it.
You said you had them. You said you had extra copies also.
Oh, yeah. Do you want me to mail you one? I can mail you one.
Yeah, you can just mail me one.
Yeah, I'll have to remember to do that.
Yeah, I mean, I'll look on eBay.
Cool.
I got a bunch of Xbox stuff, but yeah, I need to get that.
Yeah, I think I have a few actually, so.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, I'll write that down.
Yeah, cool, cool. I could probably play those on my three
60 also.
Yeah.
Just because they're a little...
Yeah, let's go back pat.
Yeah, yeah.
Certain games do for 360.
Yeah, and you can't do backwards.
So the Xbox one and series X are backwards
compatible with certain original Xbox games.
Like a weird library, one of them being like blinks the time sweeper and then
like one of them being fusion frenzy.
But the original Halo isn't and that kind of pisses me off because it's clear.
It's like, oh, they just want you to get the Master Chiefs collection.
It's like, fuck off.
I want to, like, it would be nice to be able to play the original disc in that way.
Because there are differences.
They're, you know, they're tiny differences.
But, like, if you're a nerd and you want to be able to experience, like, the genuine, if not, you know, maybe upscaled by the series X or whatever, like, I feel like you should be able to do it.
No, they, they, like, messed up some of the particle effects and stuff.
Yeah.
Because the one on the Mars Chief Collection is, I think, the PC port, which, like, in the, like, in the,
the exchange did change some of the like atmosphere stuff and the density of clouds and whatnot.
So yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of shit. You want to get dorky. There's some good videos out there.
There's a lot of tiny things that they fucked up. Yeah. Yeah. I got the converter for like,
you know, H-TMI because new TVs, they don't even have. Oh, yeah. Like, like those AV ports,
whatever it's called. So I had to get like a converter. So it was an H-GMI into that.
There was a long period of my life, like many years when I moved to Vancouver. It's
over now, but there was a long period of my life where I just kept old tube televisions
just to be able to be like, oh, well, I have some composite cables and some, like, original
PS1 and Xbox stuff and just recreate the experience of playing it on that type of screen.
I think for certain games, it does really add to the atmosphere, like Silent Hill or something,
right? And even for older games that aren't necessarily like, ooh, we're supposed to be scary and
blah, blah, blah.
even for games like that, there is something unique about it where it kind of softens the edges of the polygons.
And so you look at like an HD remaster for something like the Rare Replay Collection.
You look at like some of these older games and you're playing it on like an HD television and it's upscaled to like TaneyP.
It's like there's so many jagged edges and it feels kind of weird.
There is at least one HD remaster.
and I think it might have been on the rare replay collection
I think it might have been for actually Battle Todes, believe it or not,
where you can press a button and it adds a filter
to soften the image in the same way than an old TV,
a tube TV would, which I found really cool.
That's cool.
That's a good idea.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree with that.
It looks more like software now because it's losing that like,
it adds like this atmosphere to it, I feel.
Well, yeah, we're spoiled with the clarity and sharpness.
Yeah, yeah, but it's for old games.
better then. But sometimes it works against it. Yeah, no, yeah, definitely. Yeah, sometimes it does
for the older games. Because a lot of these things were made for televisions that did, I mean,
the technology was there anyway. But the experience at the time, if you want to replicate that
experience, it was on that type of television and it's a very different look. And even, you know,
the fucking aspect ratio too, you know? Yeah. We're so used to widescreen now. Yeah, you know what
I did get, um, on Xbox. I got the thing game. Oh yeah. I talked about before. Oh, yeah.
Have you tried it?
It's very difficult.
It's very difficult.
Yeah.
Yeah, I played it for a bit.
It's, it's, yeah, it's pretty difficult.
It's fun.
Let me know if you beat it.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah, you, like, control all your guys.
There's like a trust meter.
Like, if you trust, they don't trust you.
Some of the shit just doesn't matter and it lies to you.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It sets you up to fail.
Because, yeah, like, one of my guys died, I, like, reset the level.
And then he just, he kept dying or whatever.
Kept turning into the thing.
So I'm like, yeah, this is.
This is just like scripted.
Yeah, it's funny.
But I don't know.
It's fun.
It's an old game still, yeah.
Yeah, cool.
I'll play Halo eventually.
Ask me a yes or no question.
Is Haley your favorite game?
On opposite day, I'd say, nope, starring Daniel Kaluya, directed by Jordan Peel is a movie that we all watched.
Um, how did we feel about it?
How did we feel about it?
Oh, I liked it.
Yeah.
I just like just woke up.
So that's why I sound like a deep thing or whatever.
Yeah, I like just, I watched broke back and then just woke up.
But yeah, I liked the movie.
I thought it was decent.
I'm on the verge of loving it, honestly.
Wow.
All right.
Yeah.
It's hard to tell with this one, this film.
Yeah.
It is only the first watch and as we've said the past few episodes or whatever, you don't truly know a lot of the time until you've seen a movie twice.
Really, really creative, fun, like, twist on a kind of tired genre.
I've always, like, had a thing for these, like, UFO alien movies.
As a kid, I was obsessed with, you ever seen that weird movie Fire in the Sky?
It's, like, not very good.
The title sounds familiar.
I have no idea what that is.
Yeah, it's like, it's one of those quote-unquote based on a true story, like, type
movies.
But it has this, like, infamous scene towards the end, which is, like, just this horrifying
abduction, which as a kid was just, like, so traumatizing to me.
It's on my watch list for some reason.
I think maybe there was, like, a YouTube video that talked about that scene or something.
Yeah, I'd recommend just watching the abduction scene on YouTube, but the rest of the
movie's, like, nothing.
Whereas, where's nope, like, without talking.
in spoilers. Like, it's a really good twist of the, a lot of, like, fun kind of commentary
that, uh, Jordan Peel seems to be excelling at kind of. How much do we want to say without
spoilers is my question, because I'm trying to think of, like, the things I want to talk about
are all kind of spoileries. Like, how, what, what even is a spoiler for this movie? Like,
it was kind of marketed, weird. Yeah, we can go into spoilers. I appreciate the marketing,
honestly. Like, it, it was surprisingly restrained. I thought the teaser,
trailer was great and then I thought the main trailer that they put out afterwards made the movie
would look a lot worse I was like who the fuck did this like whoever whoever's job this was yeah
that's what I said it's like three that's what I was thinking I mean there's like three different
tones like going on that trailer it's like really weird um I don't think the nope thing was like
intentional with the no planet earth I think I read that somewhere someone told me yeah because
we were talking about that I don't know I don't think Jordan Peel intended I think he said that
The original title...
Like us? U.S.?
Like, it's a bad America.
Us?
Right?
Oh, yeah.
Well, yeah.
I think this was better than us also.
The original title for this was like Little Green Men, which would have been misleading.
I think that was like another title they were considering.
It's probably a working title just to get the movie made.
Really?
Spoiling.
Yeah.
But the Little Green Men part was supposed to be like money.
Like they were because, you know, they were trying to film the UFO to make money.
So like the Little Green Men dollar bill.
Oh.
That's kind of cool.
I'm like, okay, that's like a bad title.
I don't know.
Nope is a better title.
Nope is a much better title because my gut, like, instinct when it was first revealed,
was like, I didn't it.
There's something kind of goofy about that, but how it kind of plays out in the movie.
And how it affects dialogue is quite effective.
They say nope a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In the movie.
It's a lot.
Like, especially the science.
Yeah, I mean, regardless of how many times they say it, I think that that word instill,
it tells you the genre of the film already.
Like, nope, as in like, fuck no, like, you know, maybe perhaps there's some fear intention.
And nope is just a, you know, it's kind of a comedic thing to say.
And it is both genres.
So I think that the title works really well.
It lets you know exactly what it is.
Yeah.
I was in, I was in Montreal shortly after seeing the movie.
And what I think I've told you before, the Montreal, the Quebec language laws are so stupid in the sense that, like, they have to have French signage in ways that, like, are so weirdly nationalistic to the,
quote unquote nation of Quebec and just protectionist and just weird just weird shit where you go and
see you see a Starbucks and it says cafe Starbucks in France you see a Starbucks it's as Starbucks
right like it's it doesn't matter right and so one of the Instagram pages that my brother
follows is just like just a you know kind of a shit posting Montreal thing and the poster for
nope when like in like pretty much every other like it would just say nope like maybe just like a
direct translation but
They were laughing at it because it was like, bain, no.
And it was, which doesn't even really translate to, to nope.
It's, I forget what my brother said it was.
It was kind of like, like, fuck no or something.
I don't remember, but it was.
Yeah, it's quite pedantic, isn't it?
It was a silly looking poster anyway.
Sorry, where are you going to say?
No, you just, you mentioned, um, us and I don't.
I liked a lot of what that movie was going for, but I felt that towards the end,
it started kind of slipping over with like just too much exposition, kind of,
It's that balance with horror movies, isn't it, when you're playing with certain concepts,
and it's like, how much are you going to reveal versus keep secret and what's going to be
like a satisfying kind of way to handle that?
And I felt like once you do start getting the answers in Nope, it kind of actually adds to the horror
as opposed to kind of taking it away like it did in us, which we can delve into more in
spoilers when we're ready.
Sure.
I thought the movie was really scary at parts.
Yeah.
There's like some really good horror scenes.
It's probably the scariest movie to me.
Yeah, it's like some really effective scenes regarding like when they get abducted or when like the blood was like gushed out of the ship.
Well, we should be in spoilers talk if we're going to talk about it.
Oh, did we say spoilers.
Yeah.
Let's just say it.
Let's just do it.
Spoilers.
Yeah, spoilers.
Yeah, some really good imagery in here.
It looks really strong as well.
like the cinematography.
It's his best looking movie also.
There's just so many ways I think it's his best.
I haven't seen Get Out in a while.
And I remember liking it and to an extent where I'm like
I couldn't say if I like Nope better than Get Out.
Like I feel like Get Out better, but I really don't know.
But something that stuck out to me about Get Out,
something that I'll always remember is those trans,
trance scenes, those hypnotism scenes, where I thought those were shot like super well.
Yeah.
I thought the cinematography in those was like super creative and just like the, yeah, I loved
the filmmaking there.
There are parts like that in Nope, but I think that, yeah, if I were to say like my favorite
looking shots, it would have to be that sequence and get out.
And I love a lot of how Nope looks.
Don't get me wrong, but yeah.
But man, what a novel spin.
just so, like, such a tire kind of idea, the UFO, the paranoid guy is trying to figure out what it is.
And you're just kind of waiting, there's the fake out with the, the, like, kids dressed up as the,
the big-eyed alien things.
And you're kind of waiting for that scene for that kind of reveal.
But then it's kind of flipped on its head.
And it's like, nope, the ship isn't a ship at all.
It's like, it's a creature.
Yeah.
It's like a deep water kind of creature.
That's what, I guess the design is kind of inspired by it.
It's natural thing.
I really want to get, so Jordan Peel's films have all had some sort of racial commentary.
And it's clear that this does as well to me.
I have not thoroughly researched any of these conversations online.
I don't know how many people, like who, it just, it wasn't like on my Twitter feed and I didn't
look it up, but I would love to, I guess, dive into or try to, uh,
dissect exactly what he's going for here because here's some of the things that really stuck out
to me when I was watching the film is the um the creature the way it looks the way it like kind of
opens its mouth or whatever we're going to call it looks exactly like an old film camera uh like
lens looking at you like the square yeah um obviously the characters are um the first black uh horse
uh people that had horses for movies i forget the official title
of them. But that was heavily emphasized. When Stephen Young talks about the aliens as he's before he's
doing the show, he uses a very particular word. He doesn't, he doesn't say the watchers. He says,
the viewers. I call them the viewers. Like, that's a very particular thing to say. That is very
clearly, when you're calling the aliens the viewers, like, you're, there's some commentary being
made on media here. And I don't know, I'm just trying to think of like, oh, is it just like,
it's sucking up people, like everybody it's sucked up is not black or like the, what media wants
or there's like disparity in terms of how people are represented in media. Like I don't have a
clear answer of what it's going for. Maybe I have to watch it a second time. But there's something
clearly there, right? I don't know how you feel about that. Well, yeah, sure. That's so cool about it. Yeah.
Yeah, because the like the opening credits were from the perspective of inside the ship looking out as
well. And you don't know that yet. Like when you see it the first time, you're like, what is that?
Yeah. Yeah, you have no idea what it, what it means. But it's also, it's also a film about exploitation as well and like spectacle.
There's the whole kind of B plot with the, uh, with the chimp from the, the old kind of 80s sitcom and
all of that just feeds into the exploitation and just this, this obsession humans have with, like,
this kind of media, this kind of wanting to document everything.
and use like animals or whatever to achieve what like just kind of mindless entertainment.
True.
And that's kind of the horror of that, that, that chimp scene.
And I guess with them being like, you know, horse wranglers and stuff, that kind of fits into that too.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Because that's the point of, um, like, Stephen Inns, like, character, he's, he kind of misinterprets the whole, like, chimp experience as, as an exploited, like, child actor.
And he's, he thinks he has this connection with this chimp and that he, he,
as a result as an adult thinks he can kind of control the uh the alien in a similar way he could
like bond with the chimp and it's like all about the the relationship of the like trying to control
like predators or nature or whatever you want to describe it whereas the lead character he has
like a different relationship with animals like he respects them in a different way and he knows
they can't really be controlled in the same way and you got to treat them differently and
understand what they are yeah you see that in the beginning scene
Like when they're filming, like, Daniel Kulu is there with the horse on set.
They're all white on set.
And yeah, like, they're trying to control the animal.
It doesn't respond well.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're not respecting it.
And he's telling them, like, don't go behind it, like, you know, try to respect.
Yeah.
Well, that scene is great.
They, like, set up so much, like, in that scene that you don't even realize.
Like, they set up the cinematographer who I didn't realize would come back in the film later.
Yeah, yeah.
They made sure to, like, emphasize him.
I guess if you saw the trailer, it's like,
one shot. They set up the reflection thing. Yeah, the reflection that, yeah, you're absolutely
right. Yeah, like the, you know, if you look at the animal or if you look at the UFO, it,
it like, agitates it. Yeah. You know, I like the UFO doesn't really have like, like,
like, a purpose to it, like, not explicitly explained. It's kind of like going on instinct. It's
going like, you know. It's just, yeah, it's just an animal, just a territorial creature just,
just decided it wants to live there and it's just going to eat whatever comes near it.
Right. Which is, which is horrifying. Yeah. Yeah.
I'd like to point out and see, I want to get your thoughts on the connection between the B-plot
chimpanzee show and the actual alien UFO, whatever events, because there are ways in which it's
kind of implied that there's some sort of connection there. There was that like weird shoe that was
standing upright. It took a shoe, yeah. Yeah, like that was something that it focused on and was like,
okay, well, wait, is there some sort of, you know, supernatural thing happening at this moment that's
causing the chimpanzee to be agitated or like what's happening there?
And then there was also a clip that Jordan Peel posted on Twitter, which maybe was a deleted
scene or extra footage or something, but essentially it was a fake intro opening theme song for that
fake TV show. And at the end of the credits for the fake TV show, you know, it had,
the little boy and the champ
giving each other a fist bump
but what they were doing is they were looking
into a telescope like up at the stars sort of thing
so for it to end in that way
like maybe it's just like you know kind of being cheeky
like tying it into his like space movie
sort of thing but I'm wondering
what you think about like
what the connection is between
or like what the implied connection is
between the show and the
alien events
like what is he saying do you have any
ideas or I'm going to watch it again
I guess, but yeah.
Yeah, I think it was about kind of like what I was sort of getting at with the, like trying
to control animals or misinterpreted, what does they call it, a bad miracle?
There's like a line at some point in the movie.
Kind of feeding into Stephen Young's character as a kid may be misinterpreting these ideas
and assigning too much value.
And because he does take kind of the totally like wrong, like sickest, most kind of greedy, like,
take away from the experience and turns it into this like amusement park basically and it's all
about just the exploitation of it and right the crossover of over of a chimp kind of being abused
for entertainment and then like all these characters chasing this this thing that does turn out to
also be like a kind of dangerous predator that needs to be respected yeah you know that's the
kind of crossover I see there's a couple things I was a bit confused by in the movie like I don't
remember if it's because I went to the bathroom at the wrong time or what happened, but I was
hoping you could help fill me in. So in the context of the show that Stephen Young is doing,
was the implication that like he had, he was successfully able to like show a crowd alien
things at any point? Or was it like he was doing a fake thing and then they really showed up? I don't know
if that's really clear. I was also a bit confused on that as well. He was kind of
making out the, he was saying that every Friday it showed up and maybe you can see it fly in the
distance or something.
It was definitely like that was the first time it had like abducted a large group of people
in that kind of way.
Or like came that close, I guess even.
Yeah.
Because he has a line about how like this hasn't happened before or something like this.
But you'd also imagine that there'd be a much bigger crowd if he'd been doing this and showing
it off for weeks and weeks, whereas the crowd's kind of pointed.
out to be pretty slim picking, so maybe it was more vague.
Yeah.
And then what exactly was the cloud also?
What did that turn out to be?
I think I missed that part.
I think that is the show.
The cloud was kind of like a camouflage.
Just for the alien?
So like a cloud was just the alien hanging out there in one spot.
Or whatever it is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I saw it, you know, like in the deep ocean or whatever, like an octopus can like
camouflage into whatever.
That's true.
It's like a natural kind of phenomenon.
like that. Right. You really, really unique design of that shit. Like I like the, it looks cool.
Kind of a cloth it's made of. Yeah. Yeah. That was really interesting. I like the colors.
Yeah. I looked up, um, I looked up who designed it. And it was this, um, aeronautics engineer who
reverse engineers jellyfish. And you can like, I make that, when I've read that, that made it
make a lot of sense to me because I was seeing all these like, kind of deep ocean, like, natural, like,
patterns in the way like it, it's like a big reveal the way it unfolds towards the end and kind of
starts gliding around.
And it's very mesmer.
It's like, it's no longer that.
It is like something you see like a like a sea creature that's like really, you know,
hidden deep in the ocean.
Yeah, exactly.
It's something like that.
Like it feels kind of real.
Um, one of the more things I was confused about was like toward the end with the
cinematographer.
I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Like, oh yeah.
Why did he like suck a, like intentionally?
I think it was to get the shot up in the ship.
Yeah, it was partly of that, right?
And he says like, you know, it's, um, what's the term for it?
It's like sunset hour.
Oh, golden hour?
Like it's the perfect lighting for that.
So he's like, oh, I got to get the shot.
Right.
So it's like it's also kind of like he went crazy.
Like he just snapped and like, yeah, but as he walks away, he's saying like, we don't deserve
this or something along this lines.
Yeah.
So I wasn't sure if you.
Because I thought like, oh, it's his plan to get the shot while going up and then when
it spits out.
Yeah, like hopefully he's going to get the footage.
Maybe they're able to.
Yeah.
Yeah, but that didn't work out for him.
That's why I was like, oh, because it just spits it out, right?
And then the footage is all destroyed.
Like, definitely that footage got destroyed.
He was a kook.
He was kind of crazy.
Yeah, it's like he just lost it.
Yeah.
I guess he was sick of like editing all that old footage of like, you know, octopuses on, like,
sea creatures like or whatever.
It's something like that going on there.
God.
I think it's supposed to be kind of vague.
It's like so many vague elements of it.
And like, but there's a lot of like dialogue in this movie that's,
like exposition, but you don't really like pick up on it, but there's like so much
going on in the dialogue. That's like explaining yet things and like, oh, you don't even
notice it necessarily. Yeah, especially because the two leads have such great chemistry.
They really sell it. And they've got a great dynamic with Daniel Kluja, he's like really
underplayed and compared to a sister who's really vibrant and she's got these like eccentric
costumes and outfits I mean.
He doesn't have a lot of dialogue, which is great.
And yeah, he's like very understated.
And yeah, Kiki Palmer, it's very, like, animated.
Yeah.
Great opening scene as well.
I loved the whole, what is it?
Like the penny killing his dad and how, like, tragic and strange.
Oh, yeah.
Mysterious is.
Speaking of the thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, true.
Yeah, he was good.
Very briefly in it.
Yeah, I had no, I was, I was like, what?
You're in this movie?
I didn't expect him to die that quick.
And it was.
brutal like what's shooting out of his eye in the car when he's in the car yeah so I mean it's like
so much there's so much going on in it it's so dense every frame is so much going on
George Lucas except good yeah I don't know like and then I wonder if there's like
significance to it like killing him through his eye when we're talking about like viewer
and like that's kind of a kind of from a viewfinder sort of thing like watching like
there's more to two on here, you know?
Yeah, that was just like random.
Yeah.
Or if like maybe Keith David looked up at the sky.
One of the posters is just like a horse's eye and the reflection of like through that, you know?
Yeah, right.
Well, I don't know if you've seen the poster with like Stephen Yoon like looking up.
But his hat, if you look at it, it basically just looks like the UFO in the movie.
Oh, yeah?
Only on the poster.
Yeah, it just looks like the UFO was floating above.
head. Maybe I could pull it up here and just send it.
Yeah, I do really like those posters of all the characters looking up.
It's all immediately intriguing.
Yeah, I love, there's a lot of really, really cool visuals in this.
And yeah, that one scene particularly with, you know, the interior of people getting like
digested and shit, I was like, whoa, that's pretty scary.
Like, that's pretty terrifying.
Oh, yeah.
Like, you're fucked.
You're absolutely.
That's genuinely horrifying.
Clostrophobic and
yeah, really good sound design. Like no hope.
Yeah. Like Jesus. And as it's
kind of like gliding around and you can hear
the like screams like an amusement park like coming from the hole, it's like
Yeah. That would be like honestly that's
no matter how I die
I don't want there to be a bunch of like screaming people around me. That's just so
uncomfortable. You know?
Yeah. I don't like I don't like screaming people.
It's very disturbing.
Yeah, and I guess...
Yeah, it's really dark.
There's like an audience of like children.
There's like the girl from the flashback who had her face ripped off.
A bunch of random families there.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Hmm.
Yeah, that's scarier to me than anything in his previous movies.
So that's some existential, like horrifying, like being eaten by a bear, like a type of fear.
Hmm.
Yeah, it has like an esophagus.
eaten by a large gay man
speaking of bears
no we're not gonna
we're still talking about
no
I don't know if you guys agree but
I did feel the length of the movie a bit
I felt like there was some
some pacing problems
that's the main thing from me holding back from loving it
it could have been solid two hours
yeah I felt that too
to a minor extent. Yeah. Not not a lot. Just like 10 minutes could have been cut out, cut down.
Yeah. Just a little bit. Just a tad. Yeah. For sure. Because even with like the, you know, the horror
movie trope of the, you know, the fake out scares and with the, the dress up kids and stuff,
I feel like on a rewatch, stuff like that won't be as effective because you're like, no, kind of
where it's going. Yeah. It wasn't. Yeah. On a rewatch. But, you know, it is so ambitious. It's
doing so much that like I just really respect this movie that like how big a budget it was
like how big it was and that it was able to like be this like experimental like person I saw
with thought it was really weird I'm like I guess I didn't take it that way but yeah I guess it is a
very weird movie for like a like a like a general audience and it's really scary at points
and it's really like the whole thing going on with the ape and how that's not like literally
connected to the story anyway. It's like very jarring, but I think that's intentional. It's like
all these really interesting things going on that like I feel like so many movies wouldn't take
these risks. Yeah, but that's also one of the best, um, horror scenes. Oh yeah. When the, when the
chimp actually kind of freaks out, which also has another fun parallel I saw, um, I think in the
trivia where it's a balloon that pops that sets off the chimp and it's like a balloon popping that
like finishes off the, uh, true.
Gene jacket or whatever they call it towards the end.
It's a balloon that looks like Stephen Youne.
And also, if you notice in that scene, there's like a shot from the point of view of the UFO and it has like those green like felt things that come out of it, right?
When you're sucked, when it's getting sucked up or whatever.
So, like, from the point of view of that camera, it looks like like the green drapes kind of hanging over like Stephen Youen when he's like getting attacked by the chimp in that scene.
Like, you see, like, the float come up.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That looks like Stephen Yoon.
And then there's, like, that green stuff coming from the alien.
It's, like, kind of blocking the field of view.
Hmm.
Yeah, I love, like, visual parallels like that.
Yeah, they definitely go on for something there.
Like, that's why the alien had green whatever felt.
Yeah, this makes me want to watch it again right away.
Yeah, it's pretty interesting.
But the 4K is not out yet.
Even if I don't have, like, all the answers for it, I think that's, like, kind of the point also.
Like, these are very weird.
Like the more you explain, like Alex said, the less scary it becomes, like the less it has that impact on you.
Because like seeing it twice, I don't know if I have like any more answers than I did the first time.
Like I get more what it's going for.
I like picking up on those like the racial allegory and the stuff he puts in all those movies.
It's always like this racial component.
But yeah, it doesn't really, a lot of these things just don't matter to me.
It just makes the movie scarier, you know.
explaining too much would take away from the horror really I was enjoying the movie until he
made it political it's like so yeah I have in my notes there is there was an interesting
like in the end credits they had like Western film genre music and like Western
aesthetic for like set of the film too which is kind of interesting yeah but one thing that
stood out to me when I watched it is that some of the music felt a bit inappropriate during
pivotal scenes. There's like some points where it got like kind of stereotypical and like kind of
cheesy. Um, what do you think like too triumphant or? Uh, I don't. It was like there was like a bit of
tension, bit of triumphant, you know, like it, a better musical score would have made the film better
for me. I still liked it a lot. Um, and yeah, I agree that there's some pacing issues. I think it took a
while to get into the meat of the film from the beginning of it.
But who knows, maybe now that I've watched it once, maybe the scenes in the first half
will have more significance because I've seen the whole thing.
Maybe, you know, maybe there'll be a lot more.
Because that first viewing is kind of disjointed to like how it starts with like the ape
stuff and then it jumps around to the dad dying and it's like kind of all over the place.
but it does kind of nicely come together.
So the fact I am kind of so eager to see it again, though,
is like always a good sign.
It's just got so many, like, cool details in it.
Like, I really liked how they used that, um, kind of tying in that clip from, like,
the military that, like, came out a few years ago with, like, that weird disc, like,
in the ocean and kind of tying that in and just the whole animal side of it.
I just...
Yeah.
I liked how it disabled cameras and, like, it had some EMP thing.
Like, it's very practical, like, why it was never photographed really at all.
Yeah, like all the electrics.
And yeah, the way that ties in the plot, they need a cinematographer with an analog camera and, like, all that was so interesting, like, the process of, like, them trying to figure out how to outsmart the thing.
Really great movie.
Better Universal movie than Jurassic World Dominion, that's for sure.
Yeah, just a taddle.
A bit more original.
Yeah.
So this is more, like, what I want to see.
For sure, if Universal's listening.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Oh, yeah.
Universal.
Make nope, too.
I make, like, original movies.
Like, it could be about anything.
Just don't make Jurassic World movies.
Universal.
Make a Jordan Peel clone.
You have the technology.
I think the Daniels signed a deal with Universal.
So, they're, like, they're making stuff with them.
Oh, really?
Yeah, I think so.
No way.
They have a deal with Universal now?
I think so.
Something like that.
Oh, I'll double check, but yeah, pretty sure.
So, yeah, they got like a lot of cool people working for them and Nolan, you know.
Yeah.
It's funny you want to mention that awful Dressa Park movie.
Nolan's just spiteful against Warner Brothers.
That's how you know he's going to get a good movie.
Yeah.
No, but the, uh, the original Jurassic Park, like that was, it was kind of a similar theme going on with the, like, don't mess with nature.
Like, the expectation, make turning something natural into like a theme park.
Yeah, right.
Go mess with the Zohan.
Continue on.
Yeah, I will say though,
the TMZ guy and the cameraman,
the cinematographer,
they were just a little bit too cartoonish for me.
Like everything else was like seemed like fairly grounded.
Like even the side character,
um,
Alex or something.
Kiki Palmer was a little cartoonish to,
to an extent.
I think that like their dynamic.
But she had such a chemistry with the lead.
Yeah, it was good chemistry.
And it was, and that really worked.
Yeah, she's very bubbly, bounced off.
That worked to me.
But then when he comes in and he's, he's almost like from like an old Western with his like, the timber in his voice.
Yeah.
He's like kind of, I don't know, there's something about him and then like screaming as hard as he could as he was like spinning the, the camera around and lifted into the bottom of the creature.
Do you mean the guy from Fry's Electronics?
store like the other comedic relief. Yeah, he was, he was fine. Like, he was okay with him.
He could have been much more like irritating and like this kind of movie especially, but he was
yeah, pretty well balanced. I like how he just like chooses to stick around. Like he like
keeps bothering them and they were like, oh, there's nothing we could do here. I mean, he's
going to tell everybody. So yeah, yeah, he's just wants to see. Yeah, he's just like bored.
And it's just kind of interesting. I like how Kate from Euphoria was in there too.
Oh yeah, eating some cheetahs. Yeah. Okay.
I wouldn't know
But yeah
He like helps out too
Like he's the one
The Fry's Electronics guy
He's the one like
Discovers that the cloud is like in the same spot
For like weeks or whatever days
Yeah
So yeah
I don't know
I don't have much else to say
Like there's a lot going on there for sure
It was fun to watch it again
Like it's not like a chore to sit through again
It's very entertaining
I think that's the biggest thing
It's a very like entertaining movie
I would recommend it to tell most people
people I feel and in some ways it's like more accessible than like anything else he's made
I think it's definitely better than us like you were saying Alex definitely better than
that yeah I think everyone has that opinion oh yeah okay well that's good yeah
everybody thinks it's better than us then like even the political stuff is more
subtle yeah it's just like much more entertaining um I like when he works with
Daniel Coluia too I think they work really well together Jordan Peel and Daniel
yeah yeah they're like Scorsasian he's a great he's a great actor I'd love this stuff
Yeah, a very different character than Get Out also and like most other characters he's played.
So, yeah, if you want to get into ratings, that's fine.
I don't really have anything to say.
Seven out of ten.
Yeah, I'd give it eight out of ten.
Yeah, I gave, I rated it like a seven, but it's like a really high seven.
Mm-hmm.
On rewatch, you could probably easily go to an A four star.
That's possible.
It's really interesting.
And talking about it, it's just like, there is a lot to like unpack.
And like, there's a lot to think about in so many, like, memorable sequences.
Like, I'd happily watch it again just to see the, the execution of, like, the reveal of the ship, like, unfolding.
Yeah.
The design of it.
The freaky way it looks.
Yeah.
And that, like, it's, it is disturbing stuff.
Yeah.
A lot of mysteries left unanswered.
Like, I don't feel like I understand the movie anymore, like, after this conversation, which is a good thing.
And it's satisfying way.
You don't feel like you're, like, blue-bald.
It's, like, you actually, you get just enough.
Just, just learning.
that it's like an animal, you can kind of just kind of assume and get a lot of the fear from
that.
Partly, yeah.
But you actually like think about the movie when it's over.
You don't just like, oh, all right.
I figured it out.
Yeah, yeah, it's just so same.
It's trying to say so much.
Yeah, I figured it out.
I moved on.
Yeah.
Really cool.
Really cool movie.
Much better than I thought it was going to be.
Yeah, same.
All right.
That was a nope.
We want to talk about black phone or news stories.
We could.
Yeah.
We're, how much do we have to say about, I think we have, you know what, fuck it, we're
gonna talk about black phone.
Yeah, I wanna hear what you guys said.
The black phone starring Ethan Hawk, it's a Blumhouse film.
And I, from what I've seen in our ratings, we all kind of have different opinions.
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's fine.
I liked it more than you guys, I think.
Um, I don't, like, I'm not in love with it.
Yeah, I can't even remember, I can't even remember the, for the film, let alone what
you've rated it, like, is, it was such a just non-experience.
I think you rated it like a fucking half star.
or some shit. Yeah.
Like, no, it wasn't that
extreme. It wasn't that extreme. Yeah, it was low.
It was one and a half star.
It was one and a half star. It was one and a half star. So,
so pretty harsh. Yeah, well, I could start
like my criticisms of it. So, like, to match you guys
was just like the dialogue, I think, was like one criticism I had
that they didn't sound like kids in the, in that time.
It's they sounded like adults. It's like giving exposition.
In the first 20 minutes, particularly.
Well, there's just like,
like so many walk-and-talk sequences
with like the, you know, the sister character and the brother
character, she's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's just like a bunch of, like, exposition.
Constantly saying the character name.
Yeah, there's like really corny parts
with, like, the kid with the bandana
or whatever in the bathroom,
like, with the bullies and...
That's pinball Pete. Yeah,
there's just like trying to give him all this information
and not a subtle way,
like how get out or
like how nope did it, like,
you know, very subtly giving you the exposition,
but working in jokes and like character moments and like really good actors.
I don't think there are like any actors alive who could have delivered this dialogue.
I mean, it sound like convincing, especially like anyone under like 21 or like young actor.
Joaquin Phoenix.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it was they're also giving it to kid actors.
That was like, well, I couldn't get into it mostly because of that.
Like it was.
It's a real rough first 20 minutes.
Mm-hmm.
I feel.
It's a real.
rough parts.
Yeah, and it's like, it's so weird because it's not, I don't think, it's not like a bad
movie to me.
There are parts of it that are like solid for sure.
And then like, even when the acting starts getting better, uh, when the little girl is
like reacting, you know, she's having an argument with the father character and he's like
threatening to beat her and she's like, I don't drop the vodka bottle.
Like, she seems like she's doing a great job, but again, the writing, even, I believe within that scene, like, the dad's just, like, force-feeding this exposition where he's like, your mother had visions and you're having them too, and it's not real. And it's just like, I, boy.
Yeah. I want, like, just while I'm appreciating the child actor being a bit better, it's like, ugh, dialogue.
Yeah, it seemed like it was trying to do a Stephen King thing.
It's such a weird scene that movie.
I feel like, I feel like totally it was off from like the rest of what was going on,
which is a little more like cheesy.
And that was like really disturbing, I thought that scene of like him abusing his kid.
I'm like, I don't know.
Like the whole audience was kind of like uncomfortable that part.
Maybe that's the point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But this is a Blumhouse horror movie too.
I like movies that kind of go a bit hard, even though this kind of did but didn't.
Yeah, that was probably the best scene.
Yeah.
that's one of the better scenes in terms of the acting there yeah but like the what where they took
that dad character i wasn't really a fan of like in other scenes he's just like a normal dad and
i guess that's kind of how alcoholics are they're very like bipolar like they just fucking snap like
but it was just like at the end of the movie he's like begging for forgiveness or i don't know if we're
in spoilers but like you know that end scenes like it's supposed to be some kind of arc there
with his kids and i'm like oh i don't really know if that works for me
at all. It's like, all that shit with like the dad. And it's like a lot of weird directions the plot
goes in that kind of go nowhere that are kind of weird. I guess I can get them more into now.
Yeah. It's not like an official review. The girl didn't do anything and her psychic powers
didn't matter. Not really. Exactly. Like the whole shining part of the story. They changed nothing
about the outcome. And I think the reason why that is, somebody said in my comment section, like,
it's based off of a short story
that didn't have her in it
and it wouldn't be long enough to make a movie
so they just made half the movie about her psychic shit
oh
that influenced nothing
yeah what did she even do she like found the house
I was confused by the Supernatural
I was too
she found the house that the other kids
were buried in
and then they did the whole
you know
expectation reverse thing
and the cops are going in
and you think he's going to get saved
and then they're like, well, looks like there's nothing here.
Oh, wait, there's a basement.
And then, oh, wait, it's the basement has just dead kids' bodies, nothing else.
And there's nobody there.
And then it's like, oh, he had two properties across the street from each other.
Which is funny.
And his brother was visiting.
Yeah.
It was like some silence on a lambs type reveal where, like, they go to the wrong house.
It's like the same exact thing at the end of that movie.
Yeah.
As far as like, like, Ethan Hawke, like, I get.
what the Ethanall character is trying to do
like keeping the kid in the basement and like toying with him
like they play a game or like the kid tries to escape
and you know like he catches the kid and brings him back inside
but it just went on for too long to I felt
it was like unrealistic to a degree
I'm like why doesn't he just like kill him
like or like do something this like it goes off for so long
it's because he's just not doing anything
he enjoys the fucking toying with him sort of thing
because he's a fucking pervert or something, I don't know.
He said it's not really clear, like, what's going on with that character.
And I guess also his brother was visiting, but that was all really silly.
Iggy from The Wire is visiting him.
Yeah, the brother's stuff just appears out now.
Well, it makes it really weird because at the beginning of the movie,
Finney, and his name, he says, like, who are they?
Like, I don't remember what he did.
But he did some verbal trick where he found out that there's more than one person.
He's like, oh.
Oh, so there's more than one person here.
He's like, meh.
Well, I've soundproofed the basement so he won't hear.
And it's like, okay, that's weird.
And so that turned out to be the brother character.
And he's, you know, Ethan Hawke is explicitly talking about how he soundproofed the basement for this.
But then, like, a core part of the movie is the whole, like, oh, he leaves the door open as a trick and sleeps upstairs on the main floor.
I didn't even think about that.
And waits for the kid to come there.
But it's like,
it's a huge risk, right?
Yeah, like, and so all the other kids, like,
I guess the brother wasn't visiting when he did that to the other kids or something, whatever.
But still, I don't know, like, what are you planning on doing, dude?
Like, you're still playing that game where it's like, oh, I'm waiting for the kid to come up on the main floor.
But you said the basement soundproofed.
The main floor clearly isn't because the dog was barking through the door when he tried to escape.
We literally hear the brother yelling.
through the door, like, at the end of that scene, and he's like,
it was just nothing, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Like, he heard something. Like, I don't know
why he's insisting on playing this weird game when he could just keep the,
yeah. Keep the kid in the basement, yeah. That's weird.
It's very silly. Like, sure, the guy's crazy. You can always, like,
kind of just dismiss anything by saying that. Yeah, if he killed the kid,
if he killed the brother, right, if he killed the brother in the basement, again,
it's soundproof. You, like, the other brother wouldn't have heard it upstairs.
Like, this is so much that's, like, confusing.
about how that's all set up and not in a good way I feel not in like how nope yeah and settle that up
it's it seems like it's I wish there was a bit more um feeling of consistency in the movie because
you know the the Ethan Hawk uh wakes the kid up and he's just like sitting like near his bed he's
like I was watching you sleep I'm fucking pervert or something and when you set that level of
expectation up then you you're kind of thing pervert I don't it doesn't matter you I'm just
It's just like, yeah.
Scary mask man.
It was kept like so vague, though.
Like, I didn't know what was going on.
His whole thing is just the mask, basically.
Yeah.
You're setting up levels of expectation that he'll be, you know, like, I guess keeping
an eye on things or, you know, that he might watch him sleep again at some point or
something.
That wouldn't be the only time.
But then the rest of the movie, like, the kids tearing apart the entire basement.
And he never noticed it.
Like, he never notices that, like, the fucking window panel thing's missing or that he's
like digging holes in the walls and the toilet and shit like it's just weird and
there's so much implied passage of time and it seems like the like he only
Ethan Hawke only set foot in the basement just at that tiny bit at the beginning
and then just to give him food and then at the end of the movie and that's it it's just
like oh shit like it's really kind of convenient you know mm-hmm yeah and like a
lot of the the horror moments the scares um they just they just they just came across as kind
funny to me. Like, there's that one where there's the, there's one of the, like, dead kids
communicating with the main character. And he, like, suddenly, like, is yanked into,
like, the background. Mm. And just, like, the timing, this almost got, like, a comedic time into it.
I was just, like, I don't even remember that. So, so he, like, scary. It was, like, it's just
really wasn't. Those ghosts or whatever were only there for the audience, right? Because, like,
the kid didn't really see them. It's just, like, there for the audience to be like,
Oh, it's a ghost kid.
I wish it was a voice on the phone.
Yeah.
It started out as a voice on the phone and that was creepy.
I thought that that worked well.
Yeah, that would have to like show them was weird.
And then in terms of, it's so weird because it's completely contradictory to what I would like to see it in this movie.
So that I would feel more scared about the villain and know what the consequences are is like there was no opening death scene.
This is like the first Blumhouse film that decided to have an opening death scene.
So they're showing the already dead kids.
like ghost kids on the phone when it would be scarier as a voice.
And then they don't show any of the actual deaths of the kids,
any of the,
like,
here's why you're supposed to be scared of the villain.
You know,
that's a pretty standard setup for like horror movies,
you know?
Like,
and not every horror movie has to be the same.
And I could have filled some of the time.
It's bizarre that this is the one where they didn't do that.
And it's like,
oh,
it just so happens that all the cast members are children.
Like,
okay,
grow some fucking balls,
Jason Blum.
Not even your movie.
Fucking director of,
but what is in no what was it called so it's a strange yeah what was the other horror movie
they made with Ethan Scott Derrickson yeah sinister thanks yes I like that one a little more
I like the film parts in that movie yeah I much prefer sinister rip of this yeah mm-hmm I did not
like sinister yeah it does it does feel well they're both like average horror movies to me or like a bit
above average because they have like some cool parts like you're right Alex it's like so many parts
I just feel like kind of filler.
It's like there's just padding out time.
The opening of the film, like the opening credits.
It was like a Netflix show or something.
It's like, jerry to jure, Blumhouse Present.
Yeah.
I got to admit part of it for me.
It's like this film is getting like pretty good kind of coverage.
Like it's got like a seven on MDB.
Yeah.
For a Blumhouse horror movie, it's actually decent.
It's better than Texas Chainsaw Massacre that came out this year that they made.
The crossover in terms of like the cut that one of the most common comments I got of people being mad that I liked men is also saying that I didn't like the black phone.
They're like, this guy gave men an eight and the black phone of five.
Like, as if that's like an insult to me.
That's so funny.
Like this was, this was the one.
This was the one that's like, oh, yeah, I'm so crazy for liking men because I don't like this one as much.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, the movie's like, no, poor men, they leave you thinking in some way.
It's just, it's kind of hollow to me.
Like, yeah, it's playing with all these kind of ideas, but...
This is not a watch more than once movie, for sure.
Oh, yeah.
No, I'll never see this again.
Like, I genuinely haven't thought a single thought about this movie since I watched it.
Yeah.
I don't know, the whole, like, mask thing, and I needed more reasons to be scared.
I wasn't really familiar with who directed this until after
And so by the end of it
I was like this is pretty good for someone's first movie
And then I realized they've directed like six other movies
I guess
Oh yeah he's been working at Hollywood for a long time
Yeah, yeah
That's why it's weird
He made like a horror movie
I guess they make money
Fucking motorcycle coming on
I mean it's not
I don't think it was a high budget
It's like a
You know
That's part of the Blumhouse model
You know
Don't spend a lot
but yeah the return is like decent yeah I guess black phone budget yeah not much at all 16
16 million like yes so it's about like child abduction it should be horrifying like room or
something that's scary I didn't like prisoners like all these moot yeah I liked it more than
this like I didn't like the room Tommy wife's like oh yeah sorry this is what I meant I did like
the like abduction scene with the brother character. That was like kind of well done to me.
If there's like anything I like about it, like, I don't know, this is very quick and I feel
like there's like some imagery there that still kind of sticks with me. At the same time,
there's like, didn't he like spray paints his mouth or like, like, put some kind of like,
it was like Matt Max, Fury Road. And he's like, you know, like going of a hall or whatever.
Yeah, spraying them in the face with like the gray, silver stuff. It like reminded me of that also.
It was a chemical or something.
I liked the look of the room that he's in with the black phone.
I thought that it was cool.
Yeah, I liked the last stuff too.
The ceiling being so tall and the walls kind of reminding me of like this rustic, decayed like Silent Hill thing.
Is rustic even the right word?
Rusted.
Are there the same definition?
Yeah, right?
I don't know.
Yeah.
Rusted rustic, I think are different.
I do like to focus on the one location.
Yeah, the child actors.
were not bad, it's just the dialogue
sect. It was the dialogue.
It was really the dialogue that was
like bad about it, right?
I do like the setting,
like that's kind of a creepy setting,
like the 80s.
You know, kids like just kind of walked around
like whatever they wanted. Yeah, they had like
abusive parents like that.
So like there was like something going on with the
setting and like, and yeah, like
the one location. I do appreciate like an
original horror movie. It's
a cut above Blumhouse's other stuff.
Yeah, there's like all these, all these problems, like, you know, that I had with it too.
I'm like, yeah, it's a good horror movie.
I just wish I liked it as much as like other people did.
I would like recommend it to like a crowd, like a general audience.
I feel like it's a good like, like, I feel like it's a decent horror movie for like a general audience.
It's just not really what I'm looking for.
It needed like a bit more of a like an edge to it.
You know, or like more blood or like some more like really.
disturbing parts like yeah it's like even all characters like too big like if they made him like
more perverted that would have at least been like memorable or something like that like that would
I would like oh shit this guy's like crazy but he's just like an average like killer like
I don't know this is something that stood out to him yeah so I mean about most of the fear
just coming from his like costume design I think that's what like kind of is supposed to
carry it like the creepy mask thing but that I don't know too I don't know there's something
about that just isn't on its own it's like
not enough if the unpredictability too carried it for me because I didn't know anything about it going
in so I'm like is Ethan hawk like a ghost like what is this whole like paranormal element like
especially with the sister but then once it gets to the end it's like oh okay that didn't really
go anywhere it's like I guess the ghost kids were talking to her trying to get them to find the
body yeah it's like that had nothing to do with like how the brother was found or like the brother
is like across the street yeah and it's like he's like doing his own B plot or something
Um, yeah, I, I don't know.
It's like a lot going on there, I guess.
But I also just don't find ghosts very scary.
Mm-hmm.
Also.
Yeah, me neither.
Maybe some people are.
I mean, they can be.
I'm sure if like you're scared of ghosts.
Yeah, I guess it just depends how you do it.
Like, but, you know, I bet if you're terrified of ghosts or whatever, you think they're real,
we'll be like, oh, my God, this movie is like ghost kids.
Oh, shit.
But, yeah, it depends, like, if we're talking about ghost or, like, just,
paranormal horror.
Because like paranormal horror can, you know,
it could be like, I don't know, caused by a ghost
or something, you know, like, there can be like
kind of fantasy horror things that happen
in a paranormal way.
Right. Like, even housew is like, I don't know,
is that ghost? Like, being eaten by
a piano was kind of scary.
Like, what's going on there?
That's all allegorical.
Like, even nope, you could take it like as
allegorical also. Yeah.
With like the creature.
Yeah, it's just like, I don't know.
I'm going to read a comment that somebody left on my
that Uncle Dane left on my review for this film saying
I find it pretty strange that mainstream horror films are still afraid to show a kid getting killed on screen
when hereditary it and to an extent a quiet place
some of the most successful horror films of the last 10 years
center their entire plot around a kid get kid getting horribly killed on screen in the first act
I think like yeah I kind of agree with that like it is it does seem kind of
bullshity and cowardly when the entire
the entire selling point of the movie or like the entire
I guess implication of the movie is like you have these children
characters one of them is a main character and in order for the fear
tension elements to work you have to believe that they're in some sort of danger right
you have to believe that there might be some risk of them dying in the film
and if you don't have
If you're not willing to show that happening to any of the side characters, if you're not willing to show that happening to like anybody, then it's like, well, you can't really prove that the risk is there.
Like, you're not showing.
Yeah, you're told it's a threat instead of showing it.
That's why horror movies have an opening death is to show you like, this is what the killer's capable of.
Like, at the very first part of, it follows.
You see like, oh my God, that's a mangled body right there.
You don't see exactly them being killed.
But you see, like, you get a pretty graphic image of like, oh, my God, like, you have to fill in
some things with your mind.
And that makes the rest of it follows scary.
If it didn't show that, like, then a walking person towards the screen wouldn't be as scary.
But because you're like, oh, God, there's like something really crazy and fucked up happened here,
like, right?
Otherwise, like, I don't know.
Just dead bodies, like, there was nothing particularly graphic or imagineate, imagine.
about the dead kids that they showed in Black Phone.
It was just like, we're ghosts.
Like, they looked like your average ghost, and, like,
they could have been taken from fucking haunting of Hill House or something.
Like, they could have been taken from another property.
Like, I don't know.
Like...
It definitely would have benefited from, like, a little stinger at the beginning of, like,
Ethan Hawke-killing, like, one of the kids and then you see his missing poster later.
That definitely would have been a...
Yeah, I don't know.
Like a mangled body at the very least.
Like a dead body, not like a talking, like,
body with dead person makeup.
Like, a dead body.
Right?
Yeah.
There's a huge difference between that.
Yeah, something to establish the stakes a bit better.
Yeah. There's a reason why it's such a trope in horror movies.
It's because it's borderline necessary depending on the type of horror movie you're making.
Mm-hmm.
But, and yeah, there's just like all that exposition, just explaining it instead.
Cowards.
It's so boring to sit through.
Like, you could have just like, yeah, we could have seen all that happen or cowards.
Yeah, it's too sanitized, really.
Show me dead children.
Show me something
I mean
Yeah
Yeah show me something that ain't the black phone
Please
Yeah I I there are parts that I like
I think that like
The
The acting from the children
Depending on the scene
Was like pretty exceptional
And like much better
Like there's a couple of these kids
The son and sorry
The brother and sister character right
Like those I would like
I would hope that they get like a good career and are in more things because given the right script and dialogue, like they can clearly do something with that.
That's something I really appreciate.
I don't think the film looked bad visually for the most.
Yeah.
Yeah, that too.
I like the look of it.
I saw the girl, the sister character and the gray man.
So she's getting like work and other things.
I'm like, oh, that's good.
Yeah, it's not a great movie either.
And I can at least say in like the middle chunk of the film, which is like the meat of the film, the kids in the thing trying to get out, it was compelling to me. It was like, oh, it's a nice kind of like escape room, you know, jigsaw, not quite, but like, you know, figure. I like the mystery of like, how do I get out of this one? You know, uncovering little secrets and stuff. Like, that was fun. And getting the phone calls, like, yeah, I didn't hate my experience watching the film.
But I will say, first 20 minutes, pretty horrendous.
Last five minutes, pretty funny.
And it has a lot of problems.
Yeah.
Yeah, man, I just couldn't.
I couldn't with this.
Yeah, I do agree.
It does have some interesting ideas, some interesting concepts.
I do like the imagery of the black phone on the wall and how much of this is real and what he's imagining.
But then they do just throw out this brother character, the supernatural elements.
it's,
and you're just not given enough.
I can't be doing with the,
the telling instead of showing.
And just,
just when,
when it attempts the horror in not landing for me and,
just kind of more humorous at times.
And, yeah,
this is just not for me.
I'm not,
there's something about horror movies like this.
I just,
the brother character,
that was really silly.
Yeah.
Especially because I just kept thinking it was Ziggy from the wire.
It's the same.
Oh,
yeah,
he does look like it.
Yeah.
He is Ziggy.
I don't know if you've seen the wire.
Oh.
I need to watch it still.
Did you not?
Yeah.
I didn't even tweak.
Because I reckon he's like an it, right?
Oh shit.
I didn't even...
Yeah, right.
I was just going to double check.
I'm almost positive.
No, you're probably right.
No, it's...
Yeah.
That's weird.
Yeah.
It's just so, it's such an odd.
I guess he's glad.
I'm glad he's getting to work.
I'm giving this one a five out of ten.
I yeah a bunch of problems I appreciated some things about it I think yeah it's I think it is fair
I'm a very fair person yeah for like a crowd pleaser I thought it was fine like the crowd
seemed to enjoy it the front I saw with really enjoyed it I'm like okay maybe maybe I was like
maybe more I would think I was persuaded by that and also the fact that I hadn't seen
nope yet which is much better
perfectly honest so it's still a six but you know I still don't hate the film I thought it was decent enough
I was just like I like an original horror I thought it was going to annoy me to no end I thought
before going into this movie I thought like this is gonna be like the most miserable bullshit I thought it was
gonna be like one of those things where like every five seconds they were doing something to just like
fucking a quiet place or something but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would no there's like some clever
stuff going on but yeah it's like I don't know you needed it needed like a little more work on it
like the scripts or the dialogue especially there's just like so much exposition it was like really
kind of dumb at point yeah I found like once I was about an hour in and I'm like checking my watch
like I can't connect with any of these characters I can't connect with the scares I need I need something
to attach myself to and I couldn't with this I'm glad people are enjoying it but
this is a no-go for me, one and a half star.
I'm not fair with this one.
Good.
All right.
It is time for the film that was recommended by Alex.
Yes.
Take it away.
Yeah, going back to Noep and the nice kind of neo-Western.
Noep's not really like that much of a Western.
It's got some very kind of Western imagery.
Yeah.
Braybett Mountain.
was my my choice um it was like 2004 five 2005 yeah uh angley um Gemini man
the Hulk he's made some interesting films huh yeah hmm a lot of variety introducing like
the Marvel characters the big screen in a major way um yeah he made this right after the Hulk
I think like this was like yeah maybe yeah next success
But yeah, unlike the Hulk, this is pretty masterful right here.
But the basic plot is basically about the injustice of how two men's lives are gradually torn apart
due to general attitudes and circumstances that are out of the control of the lead characters
and the tragedy that follows.
These are two sheep wranglers starting in 1963 and unfolding their lives and, yeah, the ultimate
tragedy of it and the sadness of it.
I'd always like, I heard this movie.
I hadn't seen it until watching it for this episode.
And it always kind of been reduced to the gay cowboy movie.
That's how it was always like advertised how people would, gay cowboy movie would describe it as.
Is it wrong?
That's how I discover it.
I guess it's not wrong, but it's...
I know you mean.
It's, I feel like it's it cheapens it to reduce it just to that.
It's saying quite a lot and it's a really complicated emotionally, like movie and story.
Like it's a truly fucked up central conflict where like there's no real like villainous characters or anything like that.
just about people falling in love in a time where it just simply wasn't acceptable.
And just the statement of that.
Depending on where you live, it's still pretty bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In 2005, the climate of like films, like major films, like something that would appear in theater.
is, you know, for a long time,
gay characters were just used
comedically, if anything.
Yeah. And so that's why inevitably, you know,
even if you, even if you release something that's
genuine and heartfelt featuring two gay characters that you're
supposed to take seriously, of course it's going to become a joke.
Like, and I grew up, you know, around that time being in school
when this movie was released. Like, it was, it was essentially the punchline of every
joke. It was essentially, you know,
you're not even just with schoolchildren
in like, you know, mainstream, you know,
television and comedy, like, the
punchline of a joke would be like,
broke back mountain and it would be like, ha ha, it's funny
because it's gay. And I think,
you know, just with things
that, with things that people
are confused about
or unfamiliar with or scared
of or weirded out by,
you know,
normal,
instinctual kind of responses from human beings.
is just to treat it humorously.
Like, some people have that reaction with issues like death, you know, where people, you know,
turn something into a joke.
Like, I do that with some issues, you know, so, yeah, it's kind of inevitable.
And I don't, I don't necessarily fault people in a way of, like, oh, you're a bad person.
If you've ever used Brokeback Mountain as a joke or if you can't take it seriously because
they're gay. But I think it is just like, I think it is a part of our like human cultural social
evolution. And this is like an important milestone in a sense, this film. Oh yeah. Yeah. And
just like from the starting point of having like the characters are cowboys, which is like such a like
comically traditionally kind of masculine type of character, especially in cinema.
having that having them be like the lead and exploring like sexuality in this way with that
that kind of framing is uh is really interesting to me it's like it's so subtle it's so so
well executed uh i'm curious what um your initial thoughts are rough yeah it's like a very
mainstream film like so it's bound to get that kind of stuff like when it came out i'd say it's
kind of like a groundbreaking film like a game changer in terms of that and introducing like an
audience to like yeah like it's a it's a gay movie it's definitely about gay people and like
but like I like how you described it Alex it's like there's other things going on it's like
yeah it's about how like society like you know basically drives them apart and like there's
these other ways of looking at it um just speaking for
from like the performances.
I thought they were really great, especially Heath Ledger.
Yeah.
He was like really good in the movie.
I was like, wow, he's, he's such a fucking great actor.
Like, he has like this voice, the way he carries himself and his voice.
I'm like, yeah, he's great in this.
And Jake Gyllenhaal too and everybody.
But it was like mainly him.
He like really blew me away.
Oh, blew me.
Who was really great in the movie.
Yeah, I'm going to make gay jokes.
But like, it's a great movie, I feel.
Or like Bearback.
Mountain, am I right?
Fuck.
This is so big jokes to make, yeah.
Because it's such like a huge film, such a mainstream hit.
Got like Oscars and, or at least like nominations, I think.
Oh, yeah.
I really like the score as well.
No, that was one of the dramas, right?
Because it's on top of the inherent nature of it ushering in like a gay movie of this
scale and this kind of success.
It lost a crash of the Oscars.
Yeah, it, I was looking at the...
Much better movie than that.
Those best picture noms.
And I have yet to see Capote, but I don't think the other two would be better than broke back.
If I watched them, we'll see.
But, yeah, Crash, broke back's a lot better than Crash.
Let's say that pretty definitively for most people, I think.
yeah that was a real snob from them that's one of the worst picks like that i could think of from the
oscars was crash ang lee won yeah that was director for best adapted screenplay and best music
which i'm happy about remember um the music's great yeah this is from gustavo santao la la who did
the last of us who's uh soundtrack oh i didn't even know that that's why it sounded like the last
of us.
And like,
most of
Iniati 2's films he also scored.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Amoros Peros.
Yeah.
Well, like,
I always feel like for the Oscars anyway,
usually the best writing category is usually the best film.
Like,
whatever they pick for best screenplay.
That's usually how I feel.
Oh, yeah, this is definitely...
Promising young women.
Not always.
Usually Tarantino's win.
I don't even know if Tarantino's one for directing, but he's one for writing.
Yeah.
I usually agree with those.
Oh, one best film at the BAFTAs.
So, the what?
No one cares about those.
Well, Alex, every year in a silly little country, they have a pretend on.
Yes.
Yeah, that's so fucking confused.
Very different for Ang Lee, too.
He's usually an action director.
you know, very stylized stuff,
crouching tiger, hidden dragon,
Life of Pie.
Yeah, I haven't seen all of this filmography.
I think I saw Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon like a long time ago and I would,
I couldn't comment on it without like rewatching it.
But I think,
like,
I haven't seen Lust Caution,
but that's kind of like a romance thriller or something.
Yeah, is it?
Yeah,
drama history romance.
That's,
okay,
that's one.
That's not necessarily.
Somebody told me that one of his,
um,
earlier films was also
LGBT related, but I
don't remember which one and I didn't see it.
But someone was mentioning that to me.
Either way, I think it's kind of incredible.
Like, the film is really great.
But having this be a, you know,
decent budget, big, you know,
name director, like,
actual studio, I think it was
like focus features or something, but
you know, there's...
Named actors who weren't K.
There's people
putting their faith in this
project when
at the same time, like,
I don't know, like 2005,
you're still kind of pushing the boundaries
in terms of like whether or not
it will help or hurt your career.
There was no telling really
whether or not this would be something that
like audiences would have like backlash for in terms of like your career from that point forward
um because there wasn't there wasn't a lot like this no you know it in mainstream especially like
this is a pretty unique movie in that sense um like even since then like how many
have there been any like real major like gay romance stories like
I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong.
Like, have there been? Have there been?
Really?
I love you, Philip Maurice.
Milk.
I now pronounce you, Chuck and Larry.
Yeah.
Yeah, not quite like this.
Yeah, but like milk is like a biopic of like a political figure who was gay.
And it's like, yeah, I guess they were like a romantic.
There was a romantic subpline in that, I think.
I don't remember.
But like, this is like truly just at its core, like a major.
production about two men that love each other and that's what the movie really is.
And it's difficult to make, you know, a movie about two gay lovers that doesn't also have
political statements to make about like homophobia. You know, it's kind of like engraved in the
subject matter because that's real life.
Especially that they are like cowboys.
Yeah, especially the time period.
Yeah.
But it adds so much to the story, and there's so much more to say with that angle, too.
It would be interesting to see something like this that has those same elements present
and things that you can chew on in terms of, like, characters and, you know, how broken they are
and how society has affected them.
But it would be interesting to see something that isn't so, like, sad.
Because this is spoilers.
We're going to get into spoilers.
the ending's like really sad like this is a sad movie this is like kind of a depressing movie it's great yeah
yeah it has to be the it makes it makes it so poignant it makes it so powerful like that's one of the
things I've loved about it most was how the first like 30 40 minutes or so it's like really like
relaxing and like it's so idyllic in the these like landscapes and these like colors and it's sort of
like nature and the, it's this like really like beautiful relationship like forming in front of
you. And then you get to that scene where Heath Ledger like talks about what his, his dad showed him
as a kid. And it's like reminding you of like what time period they're in. And it's like this
kind of foreshadowing for what Heath Ledger's character thinks happens to Jake towards the end.
Yeah. The fact that the execution of it just game.
the like how downplayed it is just getting the postcard ringing up uh and hathaway and
just like just what the character has to go through in that moment yeah it's really so like
reserved and yeah and it is it's just the ultimate tragedy it's it's it's heartbreaking it's
it's horrifying yeah it's like a gigantic part of that tragedy is you know thematically like
This touches on similar elements to a film like Synecdoch in New York,
where a huge part of the tragedy is,
is like loss and regret over, like, wasted time, you know,
because he was scared.
Like, Keith Ledger's character is a character who primarily lives their life
based around fear.
And, you know, we see that drilled into him
at that young age
and you see like the father's
hand gripping his shoulder
as he's showing him that
that gay person's dead body
essentially like yeah
like raising him to be like hey if you turn out this way
we're gonna fucking kill you like
don't do this we're gonna kill you like literally
and then inescapably
because you know we're human beings
and no one can control their own desires
no one can control what they like or what they're attracted to
you know he grows up he'd
realizes internally that he is that way.
And then we get these, like, tiny clues about his overall behavior throughout the entire film.
Like, we see a lot of films, sorry, we see a lot of scenes with Heath Ledger's character
communicating and talking, but it's what we don't see off-screen and what they allude to
that really informs us about how his character truly is.
One of the first pieces of dialogue that we get with Jake Dillon Hall and Heath Ledger is he's
commenting and saying like this is the most you've talked this entire time you've been out here and
he says like this is the most I've talked all year and we realize like how reserved he is and you know
we don't see a lot of scenes with him being so silent because you know it's a narrative and
there's only it's already like two and a half hours long or something two hours 20 um but with that
information we could we can read in so much about like wow this guy is keeping everything about
himself inside and he's he's able to share it and he's able to let it out with this other character
and he's driven by fear and just reserved throughout the entire rest of his life it's it's really
kind of heartbreaking and sad yeah just the way they communicate like time passing as well to
accentuate just like how it is a lifetime kind of like of pain like stretched out just so subtle with
the like the costumes the technology the vehicles they never like it
They didn't put like huge text on the screen like four years later or whatever.
And it goes by so fast too, but it's communicated so well.
Yeah.
Another synecicki New Yorkism, you know.
It's just.
And there's a lot of really good use of just communicating the like lead characters' emotions through the environment.
Like one of my favorites was when Heathler just snaps at that, um, when they're at the fireworks.
And it's like the fireworks projected behind him.
Well, yeah, that was probably my.
favorite show in the movie, but
yeah, just beautiful.
And I was reading up about
a surprising amount of visual effects in there,
like some of the sheep was CG.
I didn't even notice like any of,
any of that kind of stuff.
Yeah, it was pretty seamless.
Yeah, that's, those are
some of my favorite visual effects
is when you don't know that they're there.
That's Sang Lee.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's just cool about Ang Lee.
He's like really great, yeah,
visual effects director to where you don't even see
that kind of thing.
And yet, it's like,
drama. He usually works
with like animals and like really
complicated like scenes to
film but like like with
Life of Pie and the Lion and this with all the sheep
stuff.
Yeah. And it's pulled off like
perfectly. Yeah.
Yeah. There's
the way that passage
of time is communicated in this film
is like really well done.
You know obviously the
children growing up and then
you know you get into more detailed parts
where it's like the divorce happening and they say the date.
But at no point does it ever feel like, oh, that's a little force.
Like, you know, we're just talking about the black phone and how the characters.
The exposition is just so like, you can tell that that's what it's for, but it doesn't
serve another purpose.
And it's just like, I wish you just handled that better.
Whereas in this film, like, every bit of exposition is like, this is what they would say.
It feels like real characters talking.
There's like good excuses for it narratively.
and the exposition can come from the existing narrative that already has its own excuse for being there.
So, yeah, it's just, the writing is really, really great.
Yeah, dialogue's very natural.
Yeah, always manages to dodge any kind of melodrama.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it all feels very real and genuine.
I wonder what else these two have written.
Let's see.
Because it is based on a short story, isn't it?
Yeah.
But then the screenplay is from Larry McCurray.
who died in
2021 but they also wrote
an adaptation of
Terms of Endearment, 1983.
Not a lot of
stuff I recognize. And then the other
writer, Diana Osana
has written one other
major film that looks
really bad. It's called Joe Bell that came
out recently.
Mark Wahlberg.
it looks very funny bad actually
Joe Bell
oh yeah it looks really bad
so yeah like
fucking incredible writing but just like not
you know
we're not going to see a lot more from those two I guess
damn
we're not going to see any more Heath like fucking Jesus
it was crazy walking sorry it was crazy watching
this film and just being like
I can't believe watching his character, like, that this is the same guy as like the Joker.
Because there's just so insanely different performances.
They're just, they're different people.
Like, what an incredible character.
Yeah, lots of range.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
His accent felt very, like, authentic to me, like, the way he talks.
There's so much authenticity in this film.
Yeah.
And, like, really good.
We can talk about this another episode, but I, I, I,
finished watching prey like the day before I watched this and that was something I was really missing
from prey is like they you know on paper they tried to do the whole like oh well this is the first
movie to have a dub from Comanche and we used people that are actually a Native American and but
it still feel like the entire thing feels so inauthentic they're like speaking English and like the
acting is like like she looks like she got fresh out of makeup every single scene I'm like you don't
really look like you live outdoors like whereas like this
movie like everything about it just felt like super authentic like it it felt real it felt
genuine if it didn't feel like you know actors it felt like characters it felt like
people it felt like situations it you know it felt like a real story yeah mm-hmm
yeah it's it's it's really impressed by this um I guess I found quite a good good
quote from the original
author of that short story
who summarized it quite well
saying
how different readers take the story
as a personal reflection of their own personal values,
attitudes and hang-ups
which I think is quite a good kind of way to summarize.
Yeah.
Obviously it would have been quite a
controversial
reaction,
especially in like certain parts
of the world.
Yeah.
And there was another one I found
actually that was almost kind of sad from the from the author yeah she described it as a source of
the film as a source of constant irritation in her private life there are countless people out there
who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an
unbearably disappointing story they constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of
the story to me expecting me to reply with praise and applause for
fixing the story.
They certainly don't get the message that if you can't fix it,
you've got to stand it.
Most of these fix it tales have the character Ennis finding a husky boyfriend and living
happily ever after or discovering the character Jack is not really dead after all.
We're having the two men's children meet and marry,
etc, etc.
Which is like,
we were talking about like media literacy,
like an episode or two ago and it's like,
and this,
uh,
yeah,
that fan writing is like,
awful. Yeah. It's like if that's even crossing your mind, you're kind of like missing the entire
point of the whole like. Right. George Martin hates that kind of shit like Game of Thrones. I bet most
writers do. Yeah. It's just like insufferable. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm reading the, uh, the wiki,
uh, right now for the, uh, some of the reception when this film came out, film critic.
There's a whole, there's a whole category isn't there? Yeah. Gene Schallet of the today show.
described the character Jack Twist as a sexual predator
who tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trists
Trists T-R-Y-S-T-S-T-S I have no idea how to pronounce that
but like that's kind of funny
That's such like bad faith way to interpret the story
Yeah yeah and then the you know the next line in the Wikipedia page is someone
The LGBT media group Glad said that his characterization of twist was like calling Jack
in Titanic a sexual predator to do his romantic pursuit of Rose.
Even though like, yeah, it's, it is,
when all you have to do is like change someone's gender and then all of a sudden it's like,
oh, wait, that's, that is really fucked up.
It's like, okay, it was.
And it still is.
Like, yeah, like, you're, people are, yeah, have insane double standards and are very
insecure about adults and their consensual behavior.
and just their emotions and who people love.
And yeah, there's, unfortunately, still quite a bit of homophobia that exists.
There's people that exist that are, you know, silent for a while,
and then they hear the cue.
They're like, oh, oops, looks like.
monkeypox is the thing now I guess let's all be loud about her homophobia again yeah yeah like okay
so I guess you're just hiding this whole time but yeah that's what makes it such a powerful
movie such a statement yeah yeah this really um this really connected with me especially this
time watching it I'm not going to say too much but like um like my boyfriend's like in a
situation where he's like not out to his like family so um yeah it's something that still you know
just like affects me in a way where there's a lot of communities you know in the united states
especially um compared to canada where it's just like still you know like unacceptable for people
and you know people are willing to to disown family members
over like who they love which is just kind of sad yeah yeah if you like grew up in a more
kind of progressive area it's it's like a harsh reminder of like this this this this has been
going a long time and it's still like a problem yeah really fucked up they have their own
phobias yeah and to some extent that's always just going to be around people and their
phobias like just individuals just like yeah it's just it's always gonna
You know, it's a sad reality.
Yeah, it's like racism or anything else like that.
Yeah.
When you have like really, what's the word?
Like homogenous communities where it's like, you know, the only, the only example of a person that's not from in their group is this caricature that they've created in their head or maybe the types of media they consume.
Like, you know, the people who hate black people the most or people who have like never met black people or like have had a bad experience with what.
and live with like 99% like white people or something, you know.
Same thing with gay people.
Same thing with trans people.
Like statistically, like you, you can look at the actual data
and it shows that like the more that you're exposed to
types of people that are not from your group,
the more you're like, oh, wait, they're just people.
Who would have fucking thought?
You know, so that's a pretty consistent,
verifiable, trackable thing.
So, yeah, so who knows?
I mean, like, you can say, like, yeah, it'll always kind of be there.
But, I mean, the world is shifting in a way where, you know, people are kind of forced to be exposed to the reality of other people existing.
And, you know, that does help.
And, yeah, I get, you know, part of that is media.
Part of that is, you know, just existing on the planet.
or in a city.
Media plays a huge part in it, yeah.
There's probably many people who just, like, rated this film one star because, or, like,
one out of ten, because, because they just don't like that subject matter.
Because they don't want to watch it.
There'll be people who just refuse to watch it on principle.
They just refuse to watch it and rate it one star anyway.
Yeah.
And, like, yeah.
Yeah.
That happens.
It happens the other way, too.
I mean, my, like, legit.
There are people that are so fucking.
insecure. One of my best friends, his family, like, hated me growing up because I'm gay.
And his brother was like, told him like, he can't watch a movie with like Heath Ledger in it because he was in Brokeback Mountain because he just can't think of him like as a good character anymore.
Like shit like that, it was like really fucked up.
Like they were like, yeah, they were like.
It's actually insane.
They don't even realize what they're saying, yeah.
They were giving him shit for like hanging out with me and stuff.
So anyway, yeah, it's just, yeah, it's incredible just how insecure some people are.
Like, holy shit, get over it.
Like, people exist.
Like, it's insane how sensitive people.
How does it actually affect you in any way?
Yeah.
You're asking the world to cater towards your sensitivities.
Like, do you not see that that's kind of like,
like maybe something you should work on.
Yeah.
But it's also just like a fundamental misunderstanding of the way like humans are.
And it's like just because like thousands of years ago humans like look up like what the Greeks were up to, man.
Like it's yeah.
It's such a like myopic way to like.
Yeah.
Think about the way humans engage.
It's like total ignorance.
Yeah.
I mean, what I always say is like they're.
probably afraid of it because deep down inside they're gay and they don't want to admit it.
Some kind of repressed or suppressed.
Yeah, literally.
Like, there's some kind of repressed feelings there.
Exactly.
People, people can be like afraid of like the possibility of that, you know?
Yeah, you're not going to watch a movie and then the movie's going to make you gay.
Like, that's not how it works.
Unless you're gay.
If you're gay already, the movie, the movie, yeah, the movie might unearth something in you
that makes you realize you're gay.
Yeah, like, yeah, why are you afraid of that possibility?
Yeah, that's what they're scared of.
I hope this doesn't awaken something in me.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Yeah, that's a weird way to think about a movie, right?
Yeah, like, I watched like the normal heart when I was like 12 or 13 or like whenever
the fuck it came out.
It's like gay sex of that movie.
I was like, oh, all right, that's a, that was a movie.
Like, it doesn't affect me or like at all, like that kind of thing.
I watch it with my mom and she was like, oh my God.
It doesn't do anything.
Like, it's just, it's just a scene.
Yeah.
It's just like, you know, it's just like a straight sexy in a movie.
It's just a scene.
Yeah.
I think I think by the age of 12, like, people's sexualities are already like kind of hard-coated inside them, like, somewhere deep in the subconscious where you don't realize it.
I guess everyone, everyone's different.
But yeah, it's like, they're afraid of like, I don't know.
Like, like, I guess like the gay agenda.
Like, that's such a dumb term.
Like, that every movie's going to be like that in the future.
Yeah.
And again, it's like such a minority of films and characters.
Obviously, James Bond movies are still made, right?
Like, you still have James Bond movies.
They're like, it's like a straight guy.
Like, so clearly that's not going to happen anytime soon.
Yeah.
And I mean, like, then that input, that also implies that like,
heterosexual people in movies is an agenda too, right?
Mm-hmm.
Like, if that, that would be the implication if that's,
how people's brains. Yeah, exactly. It also implies it's like only, only heterosexuals working
or only straight people working on like a James Bond movie. Like you, I bet gay people work on
James Bond movies too. I bet like a gay guy could direct a James Bond movie would be fine.
Like that doesn't really matter. It's just a film. Like it's just about plugging in those
elements really. It's like doing math. It's like it doesn't really matter who it is doing it,
really, unless you want to make some kind of statement. Like I don't think Ang Lee is
gay or I don't think these actors were gay but they told the story well because it's a good
story and they had passion for it you know they knew how to tell it yeah and it was effective
I think it was a really good very sad heartbreaking story you know you got a if you love someone
you got to fucking make it work while you can because nobody lives forever and uh
time slips through our fingers and you don't want to spend the rest of your life living with regrets.
So thinking about what could have been.
Yeah, exactly.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
This was a really great movie for me and very close to home, especially recently.
So I don't know if we have much more to say about it.
I thought the cinematography was beautiful.
lots of beautiful Alberta skies.
I know John Favreau might hate this movie,
thinks they're unrealistic.
A little too lucky for real photography.
John would have loved this movie if it had uglier skies.
Yeah, performance is all fantastic, brave, honestly.
I know that's kind of a buzzword, but literally,
like, they're kind of putting their careers on the line in a way.
You know?
Yeah.
All these two straight dudes just making out with each other on camera.
But at the, you know, for the purpose of like a real dramatic story.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yes, admirable.
And also, yeah, I just want to, I also want to communicate one thing about the movie because we kind of didn't really touch on this is like the film shows that they're not like the only victims in the story.
Like Michelle Williams' character is like brutally tortured throughout her life as well.
like it's it hurts heath ledgers like internalized issues that are uh brought on by society
are hurting himself and everyone around him like it's it's it's causing so much pain to so many
people in the story it's not just those two that experienced tragedy so i think that that was
an interesting way to tell the story because in a way you could consider it risky like okay
well, if these guys are like assholes and like cheating on their wife, you know, they might think
some people might be like, okay, well, can I really empathize with them at that point? Like, are they
bad people? But I think, I think it makes sense to tell the story in this way because these characters
are all just victims of this circumstance of reality of society, putting these pressures on them. You know,
like Keith Ledger's character is scared and he feels like he has to have a marriage and children with a woman
and he feels like he has to do that to survive.
And it's been literally like ingrained into him like as a child and seeing a dead body,
right?
Like the amount of trauma that can embed in someone and can really shape how they behave their entire
life.
So it was really great.
Yeah.
Every decision he's forced to make just hurts him more.
People are not perfect.
They make mistakes for, you know, for reasons.
Yeah.
Or they do things that might be messed up or like that cheating on Michelle Williams.
But yeah, it makes sense.
That's just great drama.
That's such a compelling conflict.
Yeah.
Like when that scene where she does, she accidentally sees them like making out.
And then obviously like her world is kind of like finish.
Like it's such a complicated scenario because like for her.
It's the 60s.
Like it was definitely also not socially acceptable to get a divorce or to, well, like, she was like relying on him for money.
Like it's like a really complicated scenario and you don't, you don't just instantly blame him because you also feel empathy for his situation.
Because he's like, what is he supposed to do?
And it's, yeah.
Yeah, it's really, really sad.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
I'm giving this one an eight out of ten.
I thought it was great.
Love it.
Really important groundbreaking film that tells a great story.
Love the music, very appropriate.
Even in the, you know, transitionary scenes, like the tone helps the movie so much and it matches it perfectly.
It accentuates.
It's so bittersweet watching these characters as their lives progress.
so quickly in front of us, you know, it's just perfect, perfectly captured by the music.
I love it so much. Yeah, great music. Yeah, how it's used in the, in the very ending scene and
yeah, you know, with the, the shirt and that line and then it like, it ramps up louder and it's just
it's a lot. And I'd probably give it, I probably give it a nine, four and a half stars. I was,
I was very impressed. Um, and is, it's, it's, it.
It's painful, but in the way that it needs to be to make such a strong kind of point.
Yeah.
It's kind of like a groundbreaking movie.
Yeah, like you said.
I'm going to go with a 10.
It's my first watch, but I think this is considered a classic.
I'm going to go with a 10.
And I'll probably watch it again sometime soon.
Yeah, I'm nearly there.
Yeah, this is a great movie.
Yeah, this is one of Angley's best.
For sure.
Yeah.
Like easily.
One of his best movies.
A little worse than Gemini Man, but...
Yeah, Gemini Man was a cooler.
Yeah, not quite as good as Gemini Man.
120 frames a second.
This movie really needed to be 120 frames a second.
That would have been much better.
I don't have Will Smith.
One critique.
Yeah, it needed two Will Smiths.
Making out.
Gemini Mountain.
Yeah.
It does always work with...
different actors which I think is like commendable of him like always like a
completely different cast of people I don't think he's really reused a lot of
actors in his films I'm trying to think like you know like he's worked with
Michelle Yeoh and then Jake Gyllenhaal Heath Ledger and like Will Smith even
and like Clive Owen like I don't think they like there's much overlap there you
know like in his filmography I do like respect that about Angley this is something
I noticed. I was thinking about.
Yeah, he's, you never know what you're going to get when you watch one of his movies.
Yeah, I watch his movies. I always look versatile without a consistent level of quality.
Just versatile in general.
Yeah. Yeah, he's very ambitious. Yeah.
Yeah, but this turned out really good. So yeah, good for him right after Hulk too.
Yeah. Saved it.
That's probably, that's probably his worst. Honestly, it's probably his worst movie. I don't even like
that as a kid. Worse than Gemini Man?
Yeah, very odd to that movie.
Yeah.
The Hulk is funny, so funny that I would watch it sooner than Gemini Man, but I think it is
kind of worse, yeah.
Yeah, as a kid, I just thought it was scary. Like, there's like all these like, like,
editing and like, this scary editing in it, I guess.
Oh, yeah.
Like when he's transforming.
The comic panels, like, it's so literal with the...
Oh, yeah, that too.
Yeah, it's like a literal comic book adaptation.
I was like two thirds through the movie when I realized, oh,
it's supposed to be a comic book.
That's why everything's so crazy.
Yeah.
It's really weird.
Yeah.
Question time?
All right.
Okay, let's do some questions from the Saldonkers community.
Head over to the subreddit with a suggestion thread.
You can ask us whatever you feel like, just like the space dentist did.
You can start itself off here.
Has anyone seen any of Nathan Field's insane new show, the rehearsal?
So I kind of binged.
watch like a, like two and a half seasons of Nathan Few while I was recovering from my nose
being sliced.
And I found that very funny.
But I haven't really heard much about this, the rehearsal show.
Have you guys seen it?
Oh, yeah.
I've seen the first four episodes, uh, while I was out of town with my boyfriend.
And since I'll be at Toronto Film Festival in another few weeks and I'll be, uh, seeing my
boyfriend again.
I'm just kind of waiting for the last two episodes.
I'll watch those with him again.
So I won't be finishing it right away, but I love it.
It's so funny.
It's literally Nathan Fielder's Synecichy, New York.
Really?
Because I was like not really understanding like from the description on IMD or whatever
about what it's about, what it's going for.
It's like if Nathan for you had a bigger budget
and was just focused on like one type of thing.
Okay.
yeah that sounds
hilarious i saw it so i think it's on hbomax isn't it
so i don't know how they held to watch it if you liked
nathan for you then you'll you'll for sure like
the rehearsal yeah nathan for you is very funny
i think i've said i went to one of the shops you went to
i'm like l.a fame
oh yeah
oh yeah
like the nicknack souvenir thing
yeah
yeah got something from there yeah
oh yeah
yeah
Yeah, it sounds, it sounds cool.
I've seen some clips of it.
It seems funny.
There's so much stuff to watch, you know.
It's, it's so, you need to prioritize it.
It's so funny.
So good.
Yeah, I'll add it to my list.
Yeah, Saul is ending.
Better call Saul's ending today.
It's the final episode.
I'm just kidding.
Oh, no, seeing as you mention it, Ralph, man, we got this question from SWBG-9.
nine thoughts on better call soul season six because that was another thing I was like
yeah is that the newest one that's the newest one right what do you think of yeah it must be see I was
they they did the kind of midseason break didn't they and then it was like a month or or two in between
and I was like I loved how how the mid the season ended but building up to us a bit like
not sure like where this is going how is this going to wrap up but where it's gone and like
the end it's like it's pretty like incredible writing to me it's really fucking great yeah
that last episode was like excellent the this the pent ultimate yeah it's just pay off after pay
off after pay off it's oh yeah the the pacing is so so so creative too like unexpected like yeah
yeah like um again i always go to game of thrones it's like a bad example like they're setting up
way too much shit in that show to where they
didn't pay any of it off. It felt disappointing because they had like all these moving pieces that
they wrap up and like one season or whatever, six episodes. And here like the way everything was
paced out was just very gradually. Like it really took its time. And then you slowly see like all the
dominoes fall. But like it feels very satisfying each one that like it's great that they took their time
and like they paste the show like the way they've used the kind of like different timelines, the different
time zones or whatever you want to call it. Oh yeah. That like starts.
I was like really impressed with that and like where it's where it's taking.
I can't, yeah, I can't wait.
It starts jumping around.
Yeah, like a lot this season, which I thought was really cool.
Well, yeah, because like the early seasons, it has all these like intros that are like set like in some undistinguished kind of time period.
And it's like that's like, that's like slow bill kind of set up.
It's like, it's like seasons ago like this stuff has been established.
So it's like a really a really satisfying kind of slow burn sort of pay off.
Yeah. Yeah. Those little teasers, yeah. But now there's like whole episodes that are like that.
And the way they set that up was like perfect. And like you're never confused as to where you are in the story.
And I like how you don't really see Saul like as Saul that much. Like the Saul Goodman is like very briefly.
Yeah. It's all about how he got there and yeah, how it's going to wind up.
And those characters like you know, you get Gus and whatever and Mike. But it's more about like they want to focus on those new guys.
too. Like, I like that they spend so much time
establishing them. Like, it takes
a long time to get to Gus.
One of the best characters probably in this universe now to me.
Yeah. She's like a
really fascinating character.
Yeah. The way they took her was like,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really sad.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, um, yeah, there's just so many smart
decisions they took. Like, I don't want to give away too much. We have a lot
of smart choices.
I really like that time jump and like
the end of,
uh, it's like, I think
episode nine of this season. Like it was very jarring. Like it's not even a commercial break,
but it was very like purposeful how that was done. I'm like, oh yeah, that was great. It's just
like jumps to like to modern Saul Goodman like really quickly. And that was that was awesome.
It's like very risky. Like that's how I felt about the whole thing. It was like very,
they took a lot of risks with it. And I think a lot of it was paid off really well to like tell
this story they were trying to do. Yeah, it was a risky project to begin with. Like,
prequels kind of have a lot of stigma inherently like it's a challenging thing to tackle
and it really distinguishes itself I don't know if it's quite as good as Breaking Bad but
it's like definitely it's kind of yeah so it's same thing I think that's an unfair question
unfair like thing to compare I mean yeah it's almost pointless to compare because
they are yeah they are so different they are very different yeah for sure it makes me not
like salt Goodman any or I guess I didn't like them before
But now I'm like, yeah, fuck that guy.
Well, like, he's more two-dimensional and Breaking Bad.
He's, like, just kind of like the asshole lawyer.
But then, like, seeing his whole, like, backstory and how he's wound up in this place, it's, like,
gives him so much more depth.
He really does become, like, Walt.
Like, he becomes, like, a total bastard by the end of it.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's, like, a really complicated character.
He's, like, a total corrupt, yeah.
Like, especially that last few episodes, you're, like,
Man, this guy's like a kind of a piece of shit now.
Like, you don't realize.
Yeah, just how bad like he got.
Yeah, great show.
I'm excited to see how it wraps up today.
Yeah, yeah, same.
The Vince Gilligan did the last one.
But actually, this episode is directed and written by Peter Gold, who like, I believe he wrote the first episode with Saul Goodman in it for like Breaking Bad.
So that's why he's like a executive producer and like, you know, directed this episode.
Because he's like, he actually created the sole character, which is great.
Like, you know, they really fleshed that character out.
He was like an interesting viewpoint character, I think, for like the prequel show.
I guess because Bob Oen Kirk was like such a, like a notable actor in it.
He's great in the show.
Yeah.
Yeah, he had a lot of range.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He turned out to be like a really great actor too.
Yeah.
And like the, they don't fall into the fans.
kind of pitfalls, there's touches here and there. It is in there.
There's fan service. There's a lot of characters.
It's never, it's never annoying or distracting. It always feels earned to me anyway.
Yeah. Yeah, you want to see that stuff too. Yeah. It's, it's worked in really well. Yeah, it's really great show. You should watch at some point Adam.
Maybe.
There's a lot of things I got to, I still got to watch Mr. Robert. Yeah, you do.
Yeah, there's blue rays. Yeah, there's blue rays he got you.
Yeah. I'll be doing it. Don't worry. I'm starting to like, part of the reason my 2016 list is taking so long is because I'm like considering like television shows for it as well. Like if they started at that point and like especially miniseries and so.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I think Mr. Robot is 2015 or 16. So that will be something that I make sure I go through anyway. So another question.
I guess we can edit this one out if we were planning to talk about it in one of our upcoming episode.
episodes, but Elfafa extras, it's been over a month since its release.
What's the SARS general opinion on the Phil Tippett movie, Mad God?
Yeah, I don't have much to say about it, so this works out fine, actually.
Yeah, I think this is a good way to summarize it.
Yeah, thank you.
Shit, I haven't seen it yet.
Oh, whatever.
Here, let me bring up my notes.
So basically, it's something that I enjoyed,
watching and I loved the aesthetic and the style and obviously the craftsmanship and the talent going into the animation.
It's stop motion and the creature design is like really interesting and the world is really interesting.
But what prevented me from thinking it was like really great personally is it just didn't have much of like a through line and it felt like different shorts kind of stitched together that.
And then I think it turned out it was.
I think I looked it up, it was like,
basically, yeah.
I stumbled across this like bizarre video of,
because Phil Tippett's like a special effects like master.
But his attachment to Star Wars meant that I found this video on YouTube
where like he was interviewed by like this huge Star Wars channel,
Star Wars theory.
And of course this guy is like interviewing him like just asking him
questions about Star Wars and like he doesn't give a fuck about like franchise film and it's
hilarious like how like disinterested he is and that kind of stuff because he's such just like
a I want to do my own say I want to make my weird models like over like 10 15 years to get
this project that he's like not interested in like franchise films or anything like that of course
but and hearing him like talking about it was like really funny and I recommend watching that
video to hear his process and uh kind of what he gets
out of the, he like, laments about how like, the way like special effects have gone over the
years and how like just people just don't really appreciate stop motion the way it does.
And that is what drew me to Magog's like you just, you just don't really get like
projects like this, this weird, this, this out there on this kind of scale.
But I'm right there with you there.
What's funny is you say that you don't really get a lot of projects like this.
This was released the same year as like another.
cut of another movie called
Junkhead, which
almost has like the exact same
story. It's stop motion, not
story of the film, but it's like a stop
motion animated film made by like
basically one guy over like 17 years.
And it's another, I actually
like Junkhead a bit more. I thought that
it worked a bit better. And there's also
cool creature design and cool animation
and stuff too. If you liked Mad God, I would
say check it out. It's different in tone.
Junkhead is a bit more
less like gothic.
It's like kind of a bit more like breakbeat in a way.
Was that the what was that in one of your festival videos?
Yeah, I was in my Fantasia festival video and it was funny is I could have seen Mad God at that same festival but I didn't have time to catch it
just scheduling.
Okay
So it was like both of those movies at the same festival is kind of funny the same year. Yeah
See I was gonna say earlier. I felt like it
It was kind of like building with some structure it had kind of like a central character who was kind of like a central character who
was traversing through the environment and it was like cool and it seemed like it was kind of
go in a certain way and it was it was kind of rooted in something I could attach myself to but
after a certain point it just like goes a different direction and yeah it does kind of feel like a bunch
of like vignettes just set in kind of a wacky environment and it goes like full like 2001 at the
end like fully like abstract like crazy but it's like really slow pacing it kind of feels
Yeah, I got a bit impatient.
Repetive?
By the end of it, yeah, it was a bit repetitive.
I think I might have enjoyed it more as shorts,
or if they, like, trimmed it down or something a bit.
Just because, yeah, like three shorts or something.
Like a French dispatch kind of thing.
Kind of, but it doesn't, like, present itself as that,
and you're kind of just left wondering why you're watching something else.
But you're kind of like, what was happening with that other story
that was kind of interesting, like, you know, like, that one kind of, are we going to go anywhere
with that? And you're just kind of on something else. And it's like, oh, and it's like in the same
universe. But some are like more interesting than others. They're, they're kind of different.
But there's like no dialogue, really. Yeah, yeah, basically. It's basically dialogue free.
Yeah, there's like a cool section towards the end with the, it's got quite like similar kind of
dingy color palette for most of the movie.
And then like in the last third,
it's suddenly it's like this crazy,
colorful,
weirdly switch up for just a second,
which I thought was cool.
But it's like I just,
I needed a bit more like me.
And I kept thinking about that video game inside.
I feel like I mentioned it quite a lot.
But,
you know,
the kind of oppressive imagery.
And I just feel like we have art that is expressing these ideas
in kind of ways that I just,
I just prefer.
I'm probably not going to visit it
I do have mad respect for mad gods
So I'd still recommend checking out
If you love like weird creatures
And just stop motion
And Phil Tippett's like history
I think it's
It's interesting
Nice
Mad respect for bad God
Like that
Yeah I'll check it out at some point
You should
Oh yeah I don't know
I give it a six out of ten
If anybody's curious
Yeah
Seems decent.
Worth a watch.
Yeah, I think I gave it about the same.
Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.
Another question?
Next question.
Okay, let's do this one from Screamicide.
Seems like the Bollywood film
R-A-R-R is getting some of the highest praise of any film this year.
Have any of the Sardonna Cunts got plans to see it anytime soon?
No.
No, not watching it.
Oh, no.
I don't want to talk about it.
You're not going to.
I'm pretty sure it's...
I've watched it.
They're always so...
No, I watch it.
shit. Oh, you've seen it. Every fucking
Bollywood movie gets overinflated to
shit. Yeah, Adam is right.
It got so
overhite. I haven't seen it. I'm not going to
watch it. I'm not... Fool me
once. Fool me twice.
Fool me can't get fooled again, okay?
What did George Bush say? Yeah, really.
Like, no, I'll watch the Apu trilogy if I
want to watch an Indian film later, okay?
Yeah.
So what was wrong with it then?
I'm not going to say anything because I don't
want to piss people off, yeah.
I did not really enjoy it.
It's a, it's three hours long.
Yeah, it's...
Director of Bahubali, which was like...
Uh-huh, it's the same thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, why not?
Yeah, exactly.
It's like, I haven't noticed any notable improvement.
It's the same shit.
Yeah.
People are like, oh, you know, they like, oh, the scene we're like, the, you know,
there's animals running around.
It's like, a, the car comes in.
There's an explosions.
It's like, isn't it fun?
I'm like, okay, yeah, it's...
It's a cool scene.
There's nothing wrong with liking that type of film.
But I got to say, there's certain large populations where, you know,
traditionally the culture likes a certain type of film.
And I'm just not that into it.
And it's okay if they like it.
That's fine.
I'm just not that into it.
What Chinese audiences really like, I'm not that into.
What Indian audiences really like, I'm not that into.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying it.
There's nothing wrong with not enjoying it.
but they have large populations and they rate the films on IMDB
and people go like wow everybody really loves this movie I'm like
not it doesn't like not the type of audience that I
that I find to be yeah there's some truth to that for sure
trustworthy for my opinion my personal preferences for films so
yeah those readings get so inflated that's why it's so hard to trust these
sites it's like yeah because of that happens and bots
yeah I think IMDB actually has like a separate like
thing a separate like portal for like Indian movies because of it just because otherwise the top
250 would be only Indian movies yeah yeah that makes sense okay yeah I gave Bahubali a chance and
yeah it's like Bahubali or something yeah yeah I can't get into that shit yeah I don't I'm not
trying to make anyone upset like enjoy what you want yeah this I can't get into that I just can't
seriously the amount of the amount of times
where people have, like, tricked me, essentially
into watching another, like, Bollywood movie.
Like, I can't...
I can't...
I can't... I can't...
Yeah.
I have to have a breaking point before I just say, like,
no, I'm not checking it out.
I've hit that point.
I've hit that point.
I've hit that point with this movie.
I'm like, this was three hours long.
I didn't care about what was happening.
If I had unlimited time and I didn't have other movies to watch,
then sure, I'd check it out.
Why are these so long?
That's my biggest criticism for most movies I see.
Why is it so long?
And then you watch something that's like three hours long.
I'll watch the first five minutes and I'll get pissed off and I'll just shut it off.
That's what happens.
I watch the first five minutes.
I'm like, this is exactly what I don't like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, yeah.
All right.
Yeah, that's all I need to say about.
So, yeah, I'm not watching RRR.
I might if it gets to
I don't know 40 years from now
and I'm making my best of 2022 list
and it's on my watch list
then I'll check out the first five minutes okay
but I'm not watching it
I'm not setting aside time for it now
but it could be watching other things
watch the first five minutes you won't even get past
the opening credits
yeah probably
seriously honestly yeah
Ray Stevenson was in it that was interesting
yeah I was just looking at the trailer
and it was yeah
It was, yeah
I just like the Bahubali link
Because there's a whole episode on that one that we did say
Yeah, I like the title, Bahubali
Yeah, it's rated number 226 on letterboxed
Well, RAA.
Yeah, unlike the top films of all time
Well, yeah, that's the Bahubali thing though, right?
It's gone eight.
Yeah, RR has a 4.2
They have a gigantic population and they like those kinds of movies.
Yeah.
And they have, the internet is an international system.
So.
Menyans Rise of Grow is at 3.5 for some reason.
So, there you go.
All right.
Oh, well, unletterboxed?
Yeah, on ladder box.
You can't really trust those sites.
I don't know what's going on.
There's like, most movies you can, but like, like, even men.
like it has low ratings
but I understand why it has like low ratings
like I don't think those are like rigged really
maybe a little like but
I don't think that's too much a problem
with that I just think it's like some movies
that come out they get like
they get like five stars because it's a meme
or cause like like like Matt Adam was
saying or like yeah
I don't know what it is sometime maybe it's bots
I mean I generally well like with the
the Snyder cut those were bots
like he's like
is that like like articles yeah
Rolling Stone, I think.
Like, they confirm it's like, he basically just used bots to like, and that's why like the
Oscars cheer moment or whatever with Ezra Miller.
That's so funny.
Like, those were bots who voted for it.
Yeah, they actually like rigged the Oscars.
Yeah, it's hilarious.
Yeah.
I didn't know that's hilarious.
That's hilarious.
But like, I didn't even need to be told that.
I knew it was like, I knew there was some amount of manipulation going on.
Like even my like first reaction in the movie.
I'm like, this is weird.
Like, why is this movie that just came out, or at least on HBO Max have like such high ratings?
Unless it's like, you know, comic book fans who are obviously really, they love that kind of thing,
but also some kind of like manipulation going on.
Yeah.
It's very strange.
It's why these rating sites are very hard to trust, like, not every film, but there's
certain films that the ratings seem way off.
It's like some of these films are rated higher than like actually great films, like
Shawshank Redemption or whatever.
Even the Joker film.
It's like very inflated ratings, I feel, probably from like people who are really passionate
about that character or whatever.
It's like...
Yeah, there's like a recency bias thing.
Yeah, it's not better than like a lot of these other movies in like the top 250, right?
Like that IMD B list is like way off.
Like Spider-Man no way home.
Like that's way off.
Yeah, like Willie Ventures movies.
There's a recency bias as well.
Yeah, that too.
Yeah.
I like Spider-Man No Way Home.
I thought it was great.
It's not as good as Pulp Fiction or like whatever it was next to like what we were saying in our review.
Right.
Yeah.
It does reward like broad, like big, like everyone loves it kind of movies.
Mm-hmm.
It used to be like a bit more interesting kind of in the early 2000s.
IMDB does have like a scaling system or like some ratings count more for others.
I think based on how many movies you log.
But again, there's ways to get around that.
Probably.
Yeah.
So who knows.
Who knows what's going on?
All right.
One more question.
One last one.
Okay.
let's do this one from a bitch bitchington 309 what's your favorite part of living um comfort and happiness
yeah chase and happiness yeah experiences movies yeah i mean i i could list things that give me
comfort and happiness but that's it's you know those are things like that's the that's the most
basic answer
Yeah, we're all pretty matter of fact with that one.
Yeah, I don't know how, I don't know what else I would say, honestly.
Yeah.
Yeah, I just felt, I felt obliged to read it because it was one of the most upvoted ones in the thread.
So, you know, I said, yeah, you got your answer, guys.
Having, having, having goals.
Yeah, maybe next time ask us what brings us comfort and happiness, idiot.
Yeah.
Reaching, reaching your goals.
I mean, that brings me, like, happiness.
Having ambitious goals and reaching them.
doing things for yourself yeah not just like existing yeah like having goals and and fulfilling
them some people are happy just existing too you know depends on the person that's good yeah if that's
what you want to go for it yeah some people aren't some people want to like do something yeah oh yeah
yeah if you just want to like hang out some people aren't interested in you know ambition or
like proving yourself sort of thing so yeah some people like live for that it's like yeah good
obviously ambition can be bad
but that's anything
some people like honestly like there's a lot of people
that are just happy like just you know
finding a significant other having kids
and that's all you do and that's you know
as long as you're stable and you can afford
yeah but again that's a goal
like you gotta find you gotta find someone
you like at least
yeah unfortunately yeah a lot of happiness
is also tied to like income too
you know it's pretty difficult to
be happy if you're poor.
So, it'd be nice to have a bit more equality in that sense.
Yeah, some people's goals like to have a great job or like, you know, make a certain amount
of money.
Some people's goals to get to a good school.
Like, these people just want to go to a great school and they have like no idea what they
want to do after.
They're just like, after they graduate college, just have like, no.
Oh, yeah, they're, they've already taken out the loan.
They've already paid for tuition and they're like, I don't really know what I want to
But I'm in school.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is debt that I'll have to pay off later.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, if that's what you want to do, like people, they'll do it.
Like, if that's really what they want to do with their life or like some prestigious
school, they will do that.
Just surround yourself with people who love and accept you that you don't have to, you know,
pretend to be someone else around.
and, uh, yeah, you know, someone you can open up to and just be,
exist and be comfortable.
And, you know, it takes work trying to find that situation for a lot of people.
It takes work trying to find that type of person.
Um, but, uh, you can't really get it unless you try.
So what's there to lose, right?
Oh, yeah.
Well, hold down.
All right.
I guess that's it for questions.
Yeah.
all right i think it's my turn to recommend a film
well you go for us uh well conveniently
my 4k blu-ray just showed up of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
so obviously you know i've been
a lot of my recommendations are just going to be based on like when the 4k blue ray's
released um that's cool because yeah i've been yeah i just got my 4k tv so i'm still waiting for a 4k
Blu-ray for Kill Bill.
I don't want to talk about that one until we get a 4K version of that.
Yeah.
Should be coming in the next year, too.
But yeah, anyway, Michelle Gondry, director and Charlie Kaufman writer.
Yeah, starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey.
And a few other people are in it as well.
Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson.
Kirsten Dunst.
The film is called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
and it is what, 2003, 4?
2004.
Watch the movie.
If you want to not get spoiled about the movie,
watch it before the next episode.
These episodes come out every two weeks.
You can get them early
by going to patreon.com slash sardonicast
or going to sardonicast.com signing up for premium.
It's only $2 a month and you get them early
as they're edited, particularly early
for the next few weeks.
because I'm going out of town for Toronto Film Festival again,
so we're recording some of these pretty early again.
We're doing like three in a row.
So yeah, pretty simple.
Happy, thanks for watching.
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Search that up, link in the description also, I think.
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