Sardonicast - Sardonicast 143: Asteroid City, Yi Yi

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

Support 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://teespring.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 Sardonicast Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AhJ0bzQgs5fb9m_ZCRqkw/featured 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/xz7wvk/fanart/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/el4jve/yeah_i_know_it_looks_like_shit_but_whatever/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/cq0afd/is_it_possible_to_create_sardonicast_fan_art/ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro, spider-verse animators 9:36 The Flash and box office bombs 20:18 Asteroid City 49:29 Yi Yi: A One and a Two... 1:22:03 Questions 1:52:28 Recommendation, outro

three two one oh Alex don't hate me because I'm beautiful Alex maybe if you got rid of that old ye yee ass haircut you get some bitches on your dick or better yet maybe Tanisho would call your dog ass if you ever stop fucking with that brain surgeon or lawyer if she fucking with Sardana cast Hey everybody this Sardana cast

This is Adam from your movie sex That was a quote from Grand Theft Auto 5 The infamous Lamar Ros Franklin. Yeah, I was going to say, this is Lamar from Lamar the movie maker. Fuck, I couldn't even say the joke.

The Ralph Maker. Yeah, and this is Trevor from I Trevor everything. A Trevor guy, he's in like, he's in Better Call Saul. He is, he is. He's really good in it, too. He's had like a good career. Like, he's on a lot of TV shows. He's on Walking Dead.

Oh, yeah, he's good for him. He actually, like, made it. And the guy who played Michael DeSanta and that. game. He's in Boardwalk Empire in like one scene. Oh, really? I don't know if you guys have seen that. Yeah, it's like season five. I think like, I don't know, some guy like beats the shit out of him in an alleyway. It's pretty funny. I'm like, it's Michael De Santa. Yeah, that was, you know, good for them. I don't think Franklin's done a lot, but I don't think Franklin was actually an actor, like outside of GTA, you know? Yeah, you're right. I remember that fact. Yeah. They kind of like plucked him and Lamar like,

you know, like out of the blue. Like, oh, you guys are going to be in this game and that's funny because they were like the best parts of the game actually like they're really funny in that game yeah like the whole yee-y-ass haircut line and I don't know it was very funny I thought do we know anything about GTA 6 or is it like just no official news

oh yeah well that stuff leaked out about it a lot of leaks yeah there was like some footage I never look at leaks I'm not a leaky guy because it's unfinished yeah there's no point you don't leak there's no point looking at a leak I mean it's people

were saying, oh, it looks terrible, looks terrible, but it's, it's an unfinished game. Like, yeah. You know, it's not done. It's like judging a movie based on like pre-vis stuff, you know, like if that looked. Exactly. It looks so unfinished. Well, yeah, it's unfinished. It's like sampling a piece of meat before it's cooked. Yeah. Uh-huh. Like, sorry, you got to cook it. You got to cook it longer. Yeah, yeah. To bring it up, like, I saw an our sonauticaster at it, someone had seen like David Fincher's new film and it was like kind of pre-vis, like some of the shots weren't done. Yeah. But I thought that was really cool that like someone who watches our show like actually saw the movie and it's like working

on it and he said like it's a good movie I'm like oh yeah really looking forward to it the killer I think it's called yeah it's a Netflix one right it's gonna yeah I was gonna say yeah yeah that is exciting yeah I'm like a little to the it's been a while yeah so on one of the other episodes we recorded we talked about spiderverse and since we record some of these like particularly early just because I'm fucking running around traveling and shit the news came out after we recorded that apparently the animators were also very overworked on that film. It is not exempt. Oh, for Spider-Verse?

Yeah. Yeah, I saw the comments about that. That might be why they were like so many, like, problems I had with the movie. Like, even though it looked great, there was a lot of sound problems. And I was guessing, like, did they, like, rush to get this out? Like, that's kind of what it seemed like to me. Yeah. Like, the sound wasn't probably done even when they released the movie, which is crazy.

because they released the movie like a wide audience and then the sound like isn't even finished. It's like what the fuck you guys thinking? Like push the movie back a little bit. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Well, I can actually pluck this thing from the subreddit that I was going to bring up later but that's one now from Jojo's crazy Reddit

bringing this exact thing up. Recently many animators across the Spider-Verse came out and complained that the working conditions were awful causing approximately 100 artists to leave the film as well as having to redo finish work five times. and potentially 11 hours a day for seven day working weeks. One of them even stated that this isn't the first time as producer Phil Lord has done this before with the Lego movie and Mitchell versus the machine.

This resulted in many artists and viewers asking the studio to delay beyond from its March release and being angry at Amy Pascal for saying welcome to making a movie. What do your thoughts on the situation and do you think there can be a better solution for animators that are being mistreated as this has been a constant problem for other animation projects over the years, possibly decades? Yeah.

Fucking unionize. That's all I'm thinking. Yeah. That and yeah, the movie looks fucking nice though. Like it looked great. So, yeah. Props to them for that.

Speaking of Rockstar, actually, do you remember the drama around the crunch period for Red Debra redemption too? That was like a big story around the time. No, I've actually never heard about that. Yeah, yeah. I think there, well,

a lot of game studios are notorious for the crunch period. And there's a lot of debate around like, it's difficult. isn't it? Because like all these films that are being mentioned in this in this comment here are like they are kind of stand out excellent too. So it's like, I guess it's about the compensation, you know? If if is often underpaid and overworked and maybe if the compensation was better, then you could justify it slightly more or it is difficult because yeah, without unions, without proper workplace conditions, it's yeah, it can be abusive. You don't want to be. You don't want to be. sleeping under your desk to get these projects out. I never heard about that Red Dead stuff, but like Red Dead looks amazing though. Like all those stories? That's the thing.

It's like you get you get to have Red Dead redemption two on your resume after that. You know, it's like what are the, what is the sacrifice to abuse, to pay off kind of ratios? Yeah, right. Exactly. But yeah, their work is amazing. So I don't even think it's like, it doesn't feel. like the work is unfinished, you know, it looks immaculate, like these animators. I just want to, you know, give them props on that. But it's funny, like, we talk about them being underpaid or

whatever, but like these budgets for some of these movies have gotten so high. It makes me wonder, like, if CGI is even, like, more cost effective than, like, doing something practically. Because I feel like that used to be the excuse, right? It's like, you do something practically. It costs a lot of money. It's a lot of work, a lot of crew members. But now, like, this new Indiana a Jones movie has like a like over $340 million budgets a lot of CGI work it makes me wonder like if they if a lot of that goes to the animators and I guess it just depends on the company maybe you know Spiderverse had a low budget it's a hundred million but I was just wondering like yeah I wonder like what exactly it is there but I do feel like they need to unionize yeah there's a lot of issues

with the industry right now like the the writers strike obviously yeah it's kind of put a hold on a of projects. There's the actors strike now. That just happened. All the actors are going on strike. Yeah. I think it's almost like baked into entertainment industries. Like even on our level, I don't want to speak for you guys, but like sometimes the crunch thing just to get a video finally done like just winds up happening sometimes as to just to get it out in a certain time. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I've crunched for sure. But you know, That's me. Like, you know, I work for myself.

I can work. Yeah, exactly. You know, I could do whatever the fuck I want, right? But, like, when you're paying other people and I'm, like, overworking them, that's a little inappropriate. Yeah. Yeah, it always sucks because, like, how much value do we really place on, like, the release date? You know, I get it for Microsoft and Halo 2. They're like, no, it has to be Christmas.

Everybody, it'll be a Christmas present game. And it's like, okay, well, you just released an unfinished game. Like, give it another fucking year. wait until next Christmas. Like, fuck off, you know. Oh, EA is the worst with that. Yeah. They're fucking awful.

Yeah. The battlefield games are all unfinished. I just got that, um, that new Star Wars game, Jedi Survivor, which is a great game. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I played it. But man, it just keeps crashing. It's so laggy and it keeps crashing. Yeah, the frame rate as well, it was all over the place.

Right. It's so bad. It's like really bad, though. Like, I'm like, did they even like finish? They probably even like, you know, do the playtesting they needed to do for it because it's just like a ton of glitch. Like, you can't get through certain doors. Like, it's like all kinds of, like, crazy issues the game has.

And, like, they could have been fixed, but they just, like, rush these things out, right? And I get it. They want to make money. You know, I'm not opposed to making money, but. And it's, yeah, it's kind of baked into the business model. Like, it starts at the top, you know, and trickles down. Because, like, they're investing these, as you said, like, with Indiana Jones, these sums of money that are so obscene. And, like, you know, it has to fit in the numbers.

the bean counters have made these certain predictions and all as to like fit in a certain place or like everything goes wrong and yeah they don't want to be in the black here or yeah so it's like the mob money yeah basically yeah it's all about money I like money they just missed the crabs yeah

money money money money not bad not a bread I like your um Ezra Miller impression I think I was looking at the comments like the comments like for the new flash we just uploaded wait he's Batman yeah mad trippy you gotta go up at the end

it sounds like just like him yeah that's funny like we're talking about like financials or whatever the flash like we just posted our discussion about it it's been four weeks since it came out right and the movie's already out of the top 10 it's a fucking huge bomb yeah no this is this is perfect actually because I had this

yeah I had this ready to bring up I got the list of the 10 biggest bombs in million dollars of loss right number one is the first Flash right now with minus 200 million dollars. Number two, Shazam... Of the past year? Or like... No, no, this is like of all time at the moment. Yeah. Oh, wow. Not even just in the superhero genre? Like, are we talking like every genre? No. The Flash is the worst bomb of all time? I think so, yeah. Like, listen to this list, right? So that's number one currently. Number two, Shazam Fear at the

gods, minus 150 million. Number three, Wonder Woman, 1984. That's minus 137 million. Four. Phoenix minus 133 million number five the suicide squad minus 130 million six black adam minus 100 million seven fantastic four minus 100 million eight ripd minus 92 million nine the new mutants minus 84 million and number 10 green lantern minus 75 million oh wow so like what was it two of them or from this year uh yeah at least from the past few years yeah shazana flash Shut up, Phoenix. Yeah, right. And, you know, the suicide squad and Wonder Woman.

Like, actually, like, the suicide squad, I think that's a good movie. But you could say, you could say that's because of COVID. Yeah. You could say it's COVID related to, like, these movies, like, the theaters are back, I'd say. Like, and then, yeah, like, those movies just bombed horribly, right? It's, that's so funny. I didn't realize the Flash was, like, that bad. But, yeah, it makes sense.

Like, Asteroid City did better this week than the Flash did. That's fucking crazy That's fucking insane Yeah And it's it's the summer of flops Huh? Because like just mentioning Indiana Jones That's like a 300 million dollar budget

For some reason Yeah It's not gonna be making every billion Elemental Yeah Elemental I mean elemental Might be all right

But like that Crackin movie The DreamWorks one Which is like Has been sent out to die That's the only competition For Elemental basically Because they're both like Kids movies

And that's doing terribly Mm-hmm That was like the worst opening for Dreamworks or whatever? That Blue Beetle movies fucked. Oh yeah, for sure. Potentially, yeah. What chance does it have at this point?

Majorly fucked. Like, in order to even be excited for it, you have to be already involved in like the inner workings of the DCEU and be like, oh, no, because it's like, it's going to be the start of the James Gunn universe. And it's like, okay, well, if all it takes for a movie to be successful is just those people watching it, then the Flash would have been fine. So, I don't know what we're supposed to do here. Yeah.

Maybe it'll connect with a larger demographic than we think. Maybe people will just enjoy seeing it because whoever that old comedian guy is in it, I don't remember his name. Anyway. George Lopez? Yeah, George Lopez. That's Blue Beetle. He's going to save Blue Beetoo. Yeah, he's going to save it.

Yeah, he's barely in the trailer. Because they played that trailer before The Flash movie. And I was like, George Lopez is in it, but it's like, he's two seconds of the trailer. I feel like that would be like, you know, the focal point of the movie. Like, you end the trailer, right, with like a George Lopez joke and everyone in the theater laughs. But they didn't even do that. I don't know. That movie's good.

You're right, Alex. It's going to be a fucking mess that movie. It's going to be even worse than The Flash. And that has a, you know, I was thinking like maybe the budget for it's like low, like 60 million, because it seems kind of more low key, kind of like a Harley Quinn kind of movie, like how that did. The budget for it's like $140 million for Blue Beetle. It's like, really? What the fuck?

Hide in Spider-Verst. Yeah, it's more than Spider-Verst. What the fuck? Like, what are they spending these money? Like, all this money on these movies. Like, you're not going to make that back. Warner Bros. must be panicking. That kind of explains that Harry Potter scramble now.

Like, yeah. Yeah. They must be like sweating. Oh, man. You guys haven't seen those fantastic Beast movies, right? Those are... Never will. I've seen two of them.

Those are really bad. Yeah, horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. I think they made money, right, at least. Oh, yeah. The first couple ones, probably. At least the first two. The first two, I don't think the last one did great.

Are they still making more? I heard they had a contract to, like, keep going. But I don't know if there's a point if people aren't watching them. I don't know if the third one was successful enough. I can't imagine it getting worse, but yeah, I can't wait to see the shit that they make. Yeah. They could just do a Blumhouse version, and it'll just be like, oh, it's like Mnights the visit. Like, this is found footage now.

You just imagine everything else. Yeah. Did Blumhouse do those paranormal activity movies? I think that's like what got them started, right? I don't think it was, but I'll check. It is Blumhouse. You're absolutely right. Oh, it is. Yeah, I thought that's like what got them started. It would have had to, yeah. Yeah. They stopped making those movies, which I thought was funny because it's like, really, you're going to like make your money back on that investment, you know? Because those movies cost like $10 million. Right, exactly. But they like stop making them. It's like the saw movies. Right, exactly.

I don't understand why they stopped making them, you know? You don't need name actors. No, you don't need anything. Like, you just need a house and like some cheap camcorders. And then they, but they made their money back on those. Like, always. Like, it would be like $5 million budget, $200 million gross. So I don't know why they stopped making them, you know?

Even the flops were profitable. Even the worst ones in the franchise. Yeah. Even if it makes like $40 million. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that, uh, that insidious. movie like that kind of you know that's it great yeah compared to a lot of these

movies we're talking about because it's low budget and it made money like it didn't make a lot of money but it made money and it was you know that's profitable it's much more profitable and any of the shit we're talking about right now the flash in Indiana Jones it yeah it's doing better than Indiana Jones yeah the studio should really like take you know the message from this and like you know you don't need these inflated budgets. Yeah, they must have, like, expected it to be returning to pre-C virus levels or something, right? Like, how it used to be.

They must have got just too cocky because there was just that string of just like, it seemed like every single superhero movie that was coming out was going past the billion mark, you know? Everything. And then, yeah, this is like an unprecedented amount of money to lose. So it's for, like, $800 million. dollars, like just from WB. Yeah. Adam mentioned, I think in our review of Valerian, like, just because you throw money at a movie doesn't make it a good movie.

Yeah. Like, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at it. Like, you need something compelling about it. I don't know. You need, like, a good script. Yeah. Every once in a while we'll be surprised by something that doesn't have a good script and is still successful. Like, sometimes it's just the IP, but like, I don't know.

Like those Fast and Furious movies, right? Yeah. Or the Jurassic Park things, yeah. Yeah, right, right. Everybody hated that last one. That was shocking. It still made money, though. It's made over a billion still.

Yeah, I made a billion fucking dollars. Everybody hated it. Yeah, because it says, you know, Jurassic Park on it. Because dinosaurs. Those Fast and Furious movies. You guys haven't seen that new one, right? That new Faster Furious? No, I haven't watched it yet.

No. I haven't seen any of them. It was fucking horrendous, man. So bad. What level compared to the other ones? The whole movie was like taking every husband in Hollywood. and just throwing them like in the movie like it's like okay we got vin diesel we got pre larsen we got a you know uh the rock is in it he makes a cameo galgadots in it and it's just like every scene is

introducing characters and there's no like progression like none of them die like you know it's like there's no story the whole movie's this guy introduced this is his scene and then the really the worst part of the movie was like they have that sentimental corny scene where vin diesel's like in his garage and he's like looking at photos of Paul Walker on the wall and they play like that song from like you know that big song when like Furious 7 came out it's like a piano rendition of it and it's like guys this is so this is such like corny sappy shit it's like like what is the story here you know the whole movie isn't it like dune as well where like it's like a part one type situation yeah it totally is yeah i i fell asleep in the climax so

I thought that they were making another one that's a part one I thought they had like two more and there would be like a part one part two Oh but I don't know The trilogy is it? I don't know I can't I don't know Keep up with this They will stretch it out for as long as they can The best part though is when Dwayne Johnson shows up in the post credit Because like he didn't want to do them for a while

But I guess like because Black Adam bombed he got desperate And so like his it's clearly a body double His body double walks into the room Oh no And it's like some guy in a mask so you can't see and it's clearly like a much less buff guy that Dwayne Johnson like clearly doesn't look like him and then like Dwayne Johnson's basically only on the movie for one shot he takes off his mask and he goes like you know let's take care of business or something

and that's like that's it and he probably got paid like $10 million. He's probably filmed it in his garage yeah I mean that movie too that movie is one of the most expensive movies of all time if you like look up the budget it's like $370 million yeah it's one of the most expensive movies ever made because they just they throw it a bunch of actors and that's like the whole movie. It's like, look at this actor, look at this actor. It's money laundering for all their mates. Basically. I mean, that one was really bad. That might be the worst movie I've seen this year. Like, even worse than cocaine matter. And that was pretty fucking bad too. Really? Is it worse

than The Fast and Furious 8? Because that to me was like inexcusable. That's what the showleys they're on like AI car one. Oh, she's in it too. Yeah, she's in it too. Oh, of course. You know, because they have to throw on everybody. It's all just like every actor they have under contract, like, they just, like, want to be a part of the movie. So, it's like, it's like 80 characters. Like, John Cena's in it. Now he's a good guy, even though in the last movie was a bad guy. It's like, what the fuck is going on? Like, yeah, it fast eight, that was bad, but this one, I think these last two have been really, like, atrocious. It's, like, so transparent now, like, the, the business model. Yeah, there's not about anything. Yeah, for

sure. We, we kind of jumped around a lot. But it's good. Good, uh, good to talk. about movies. Yeah. Speaking of Asteroid City, we saw Asteroid City. Everybody? Yeah. A new Paul Wes Anderson film. Paul W.S. Anderson.

What did we think about it? Well, you guys start, because I want to hear what you think about this. Genuinely. I want to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I'm quite torn on this movie, actually. I think it's like it's objectively well made, you know, like everything about it is what you'd expect from Wes Anderson. It's like, yeah, it's got everything you'd expect and want from the way he puts together a movie except. I'm just, I just did not feel much emotion during this.

And I'm going to need something. His best projects do bring out an emotional response for me. Even was it last years, the French dispatch? Or two years ago? Yeah, a couple years ago. It had sort of a more clunky structure, but it had some really standout segments in the French dispatch that did, you know, emotionally connect with me. And I've been like really memorable. And this film has its moments and there's a lot of great stuff in a vacuum, but I feel like there's an obtuse kind of framing that really takes a while to pay off for me.

the first third felt quite glacial to me and I was just kind of question like I really wasn't expecting this kind of structure from this movie and I was trying to figure out like what's it going for this whole kind of meta angle that I don't think was present in any of the marketing and the trailers and stuff because I was really enjoying it every time

it was kind of settling in the desert setting and exploring that stuff I was quite into it but it would yeah break out of that and then go into this meta-narrative about the asteroid city is actually a play and there's also this kind of yeah meta story about the the writer of the play

and the spoilers the dynamics of spoiler just guys sorry spoilers for asteroid city I guess but yeah it it does kind of come together towards the end and it did win me over by the end but I felt like for an hour and 45 minute long movie I don't know it took a it took a lot to get there and for all the stuff that was at play there's like a lot of characters and a lot of them are really memorable and they have their fun lines

and there's lots of good like memorable dialogue but there's also the idiosyncrasies man like it's always been part of the style but it's like it's like it's almost like cranked up to this point I don't know if it's just I kept thinking about like the I Love Dogs review we did what I'm kind of feeling like how Ralph did you're in that movie I think yeah with this one uh yeah I guess if we're in spoilers like adore the scene the scenes with the alien. Um, love that stuff. Yeah. I wish there was more. Yeah. Um, and I did quite like how it concluded, but man, I just did, I had quite a static

experience, um, as far as like any kind of emotional resonance, um, which for his best movies, I just, I just don't feel that way. Um, yeah. Sorry, how was like your crowd watching it? Was it like a lot of people there? It was weird. Yeah, it was actually a packed theater. It was busier than I was expecting. Yeah. Same for me. But there was like one person in the crowd laughing. Like I, I kind of, you know, snorted out my nose a couple of times and I really liked a couple of the characters and found them witty, but I wasn't, I wasn't chuckling, you know, like in Grandpa the Best Hotel or, you know, fantastic Mr. Fox or any number of his other movies. There's, yeah, there was something kind of cold about it. And I don't know if that's intentional

with the whole, like, desert setting and, you know, I don't know, like, it didn't fully work for me. Like, I don't want to rush back to see this anytime soon, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. The style is cranked up to 11. The quirkiness is cranked up to 11. And then there's no hook until like halfway through the movie. And even then it kind of just disappears and you forget about it for a while. And then, you know, like the style should be complimenting an actual skeleton of something.

Whereas the structure of this film, I just like, you kind of have to already love Wes Anderson movies to enjoy this. And don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it overall, but, man, I'm like, I just wish that I got the same filmmaking, but actually presenting me with, like, a better story instead of just like, it, it just felt like almost like random dialogue between characters of just at the service of, like, tiny little jokes that don't really matter in the grand scheme of the, the whole film, you know, even if, even if it's all relatively. consistent or even like thematically consistent even like it just feels like I was the entire first

act took up like half the movie and there wasn't really anything until the end of the first act that was a hook there wasn't really anything that was like like oh I should care about what these characters are doing it was just kind of like oh you've shown me a bunch of characters it's a very starsteaded cast the acting's good they're good jokes I like the way it's shot for the most part you know but like what what are you trying to show me. Yeah, sure. The filmmaking's pretty immaculate, though.

Like, his style. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing. It's like, it's pretty masterful, I'd say. Like, everything about it, the framing and the way he like, even just like the, the backgrounds, like this like mix of, I don't know if it was, um, like, miniatures or something like that. But like the, I love the desert backgrounds. I just see miniatures in the credits.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. You're right. Yeah. I thought it was pretty masterfully. made movie. Yeah, that's interesting, like, what you guys said about it because, like, I'm, I'm probably the biggest West Anderson naysayer, like, out of the three of us, like, all those movies are the same, you know, blah, blah, blah. I actually really fucking

love this movie. And I'll tell you why. Interesting. It's, it's, it's so weird. It's like what you guys are saying. It's so weird. It's so out there that it actually becomes its own thing. Like, he, I feel like, West Anderson early in his career made, like, kind of normal movies. But then he entered this, like, awkward middle stage where he was trying to like find his identity with like darjeeling unlimited and darjeeling limited actually and then um you know the the bill murray one life aquatic and even isle of dogs i had like issues with those movies where they're kind of artsy but they're also kind of too mainstream and there's like this awkward middle ground this one was

like so odd you know it's so out there that actually really liked it it actually felt like its own thing. It felt like such a unique film with its own voice. And I feel like he's really gotten good at the dialogue. Like the dialogue, I love the dialogue in this movie. I felt it was very funny. And the crowd I was with really liked the movie too. They were laughing consistently. And I was too. I thought it was just a really great movie. This is one of my favorites from him. Oh, cool. And yeah, I love like the science fiction angle on it too. That felt very different for him where it's about like this town kind of, you know, encountering an alien. And, and, you know, how they deal with it. And yeah, it was like, you know, it's definitely one of his movies. Um, and it

definitely has that style. But I really connected with like the story and with like his style in it. Because I thought it was really interesting. Um, and I, yeah, the cast was great. I thought it was very funny. Yeah. So, you know, I, it's, it's fine. We disagree. But yeah, I actually really love this movie. And I'm, again, I'm the biggest like West Anderson. Like, all of his movies are the same. But, blah, blah, blah. But I really like this one. This is one of my favorites of the year, like, in, like, top five. I thought this was really great, this one. Yeah. It's why I'm so torn on it, because I agree with everything you're saying, um, except for maybe the kind of emotional response. Um, yeah, that's what I was, I was spending a lot of the runtime kind of trying to

figure out like, what's he trying to say with this? Like, where's this kind of going? Mm-hmm. And then it like really quickly towards the end in one of the meta scenes, like, some of the characters kind of explained what the movie's trying to say. in quite a blatant way. And it's kind of like, yeah, I don't know which I would have preferred if you kind of left this more open or... It does kind of show its hand. Yeah, exactly.

It does show its hand. I like at the very end there. But I like the complexity of it, you know, because it's like the story framed within a story, like what you're seeing is actually a play told by these actors and the actors are their own characters. And it's based on this real guy. And there's like a lot of quirky scenes in it. Like, there's this scene where like the actor kisses the writer of the play.

play, right? Something like that, like the director or writer of the play. It's like a little quirky thing that I thought was like, oh, that's interesting. And like Brian Cranston, he's like the narrator of the play and like he accidentally winds up in the like movie version. He's like, oh, I'm not supposed to be here, am I? Like, and then he like, like, scurts off screen. It has like, yeah, fun stuff like that. And I do agree with you with the dialogue. There's lots of like memorable scenes. So I do really like that scene where Jason Schwartzman is addressing his kids about like his mother dying and, you know, going on about how the, the relativity of time and how they, like,

they can't understand, really, they can't even conceptualize really what's going on. But again, I feel like it's quite an emotional setup and setting, but it's like, I'm not feeling it from what they're saying or communicating. It feels like it's more interested in being kind of quirky and funny. On that note, there is kind of a point where I thought maybe it was going to kind of switch up and kind of deliver some more, like, emotional thing with the, uh, the Scarlet Johansson character. Um, she kind of makes out she's had a bit of a disturbed past and there's that shot where she's like in, in the bath, like, yeah, of playing dead.

I was, is this, oh, are they like changing up this? Is she actually dead? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that would have been like a little too morbid for the movie. But yeah, I saw, um, like this with a few friends of mine. And one of them had never seen a Wes Anderson movie. And they were trying, they were kind of like you. They were trying to find their meeting in it. But to me, like, I think what I really like about the movie, too, it's kind of like,

it's tied in our discussion with, um, Birdman where I like movies about artists and about how they, like, express themselves and how it's very personal to them. And this is very much like a movie about that, like this, this framing where it's about these actors, like, embodying their characters and this writer, like, writing something very personal to him. And I think ultimately it's a movie about that. It's a movie about art and how artists like have this relationship to their work. And that really resonated with me and that felt very like personal to Wes Anderson too. Like I like films that are very personal as well. Yeah, I see the quirky bits. But there's also a lot to be said about like thematically what

he's saying about art and about, you know, actors and writers and their connection to it. And I really did find that, you know, very poignant, honestly. I really like that stuff. Yeah, I did. Yeah, it comes together for me in that third act, but I was more hung up just on the flow of it during that first. I found it really like slow and kind of clunky to get moving. I don't know how that feel on a rewatch,

but like I really was just like, as soon as I was getting like absorbed in a scene, then it would do the, you know, the title card act. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Then I feel like, oh, it's like, it's resetting all this momentum. all the time. Um,

unless I just keep rebuilding it up. Um, I really like that, though. I thought that helped with the pacing. Yeah. I feel like we're just going to disagree on like a lot of, yeah,

it's a very divisive. I think it's a very divisive movie. This one's like, you either think it's okay or you hate it. I also really appreciate that like this is coming out like around the flash and like all these big blockbusters like it's, it's such a different movie for that kind of audience, you know?

And it seemed like they did mostly enjoy it. There were some walkouts, I think, or some people who weren't as engaged. But for the most part, like, to have like this weird movie where it's like this abstract kind of bizarreo humor and also like it cuts from black and white like four by three to like color and like all these interesting stylistic things. I really like that an audience is like being exposed to that kind of movie and that this movie did really well. I mean, like I said, it's doing better than a flash. Wes Anderson has has built up like a big enough fan base that he can just release something and people will watch it.

Like people are watching it because his names on it. I don't think there's a lot of people that are watching this film that don't know that it's a Wes Anderson film. So, yeah, by extension, him, I guess, being able to, like, if Christopher Nolan decided to make some weird fucking art house thing that didn't make any sense, you get a lot of people exposed to that because a lot of people are just going to watch the next Christopher Nolan movie, right? Wes Anderson, even just being in the indie crowd is one of few directors that does have that name recognition that people actually look forward to in terms of what they're going to. to watch from certain directors. I really feel as though I wanted something more out of this film. And I like what it was doing, again, with the alien stuff. I like what it was doing with the meta, quirky narrative stuff.

But out of all the films that I love in my life and all of the films that I am excited to go back and rewatch to dig into and get more layers out of interpretations and, you know, what is the intention of it being presented in this way or what are you trying to say about art, et cetera, et cetera. All of those films are ones where I'm kind of excited to go back and watch them, whereas this one, it's like, okay, by the time I feel like watching this one again, I don't know if I'll still be retaining enough about it that it wouldn't be like a first viewing again. So I'm excited to hear what other people have to say about it. If you got anything interesting in terms of like interpretations of this movie, feel free to leave a comment. below because I will read those. But yeah, I just... Yeah. Yeah, I find myself kind of like appreciating aspects about it more than I'm actually enjoying it. And even then it's just kind of like... Right.

What really gravitates me toward it too, I really like the pacing of it. I feel it's really tight. And it's really short. Like, when it was over, I was like, that's over. Like, the whole movie flew by for me. It was so tight and everything like, there's, I don't think there's any fat to be trimmed from it, really. It was such like an enjoyable, funny experience. to me. And yeah, I just thought it was very funny. Like, I'm, I'm shocked to you guys don't think it's as funny as I did. But I thought it was fucking hilarious, honestly, like the whole movie. I love the Piscopalian line. Like, oh, you know, don't pray to God, we're Piscopalian. Like, there's like a lot of little great, especially in that first act, I felt.

Like, I loved a lot of, like, the dialogue in this movie. I felt he's really excelled as a writer. Like, his style, he's got down. Like, you know, the framing of everything, the symmetrical framing and the color. it's immaculate in like all of his like in a lot of his movies but especially after like grand budapest or whatever but this one had really great writing i felt really tight it doesn't waste any time it gets to like its point in a very um i don't know it's very patient as well like it takes a while to get to that point like about the artists and so on but i feel like once it does i was really engrossed in like what was happening and yeah really that humor like that comedy kept me going through the whole thing it's a very funny movie and it's a very enjoyable movie and clearly you know not everyone's going to agree with that like my dad saw the movie i'm like because we saw french dispatch together he lives in florida i'm like go see it on your own you know let me know what you think and he fell asleep he's like i don't know it was good cast but like this one like i don't know i just really connected to this one i feel like there's

like other west anderson movies people might connect to more but everyone has like their own west anderson that they kind of like and yeah i prefer him like going super wacky making it super short, making it something so out there that it's its own, it's clearly its own world and it's not trying to like appeal to anybody. Like, this is a very weird film to me. This is a very odd movie to release in like the summertime. But that's kind of what I love about it too. It's, it's so out there. It's so weird. The pacing is like fast and the characters are so cold and distant, but at the same time, you know, there are those like emotional moments where there's like this, like this humanity comes out of them and it makes like almost the distance of it makes those like

little moments more impactful for me with like her in the bathtub or like just little lines of dialogue like here and there that like really like oh actually get this character I also want to mention like this is the first movie without Bill Murray that is made I think it's his first movie without Bill Murray and instead of Bill Murray it's Tom Hanks yeah because Bill Murray he had COVID at the time he had COVID so he couldn't do the movie So they got Tom Hanks instead. I thought Tom Hanks was fantastic in the movie. You know, it's funny, like, every great actor in the movie or every great actor in the world basically wants to, like, be in his movies and work with him.

Like, there's a lot of great, like, supporting actors and Maya Hawks in the movie and who's the guy. He kind of, I thought it was Orlando Bloom. I'm going to look up his act. I'm going to look up the actor's name. The cowboy guy. Yeah. I know who you mean. Rupert, Frind, friend.

Is that his name? Fwind. Yeah. Yeah, what were you known from... Yeah, he was very funny. Pride and Prejudice, Death of Stalin, Hitman, Agent 47. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

You're probably right, yeah. I mean, you know, Jason Schwartzman's in all of his movies, you know, but... Yeah, great cast, very funny. Sophia Lilis, you know, Margot Rob being a brief role. Yeah. I would say, like, in terms of humor, this lands for me just as well as any other Wes Anderson film, but it's just, it doesn't sell the whole movie for me. Yeah, sure.

You know, there's more, there's more to Grand Budapest and Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox than just the humor and the style. And it was interesting watching this and kind of, I guess, coming to terms with just how that's basically what's missing. Like, I feel as though the tone of his films and the humor and the style lends itself really well to stories where I care about the characters and their goals. and they're clearly defined from the beginning or close to the beginning of the film

and we get to watch like a narrative adventure play out. Like I feel as though that's where his style really shines is being added as the icing on that type of story. And it's not like, okay, you have to tell the same exact story every time. But I just found myself not really having much of a hook until over halfway through. I will also point out, I don't know if this is just like maybe I've watched,

Maybe this is like the straw that broke the camel's back and this is like the, we've just hit the one too many West Anderson movies that I've watched. But I feel like there is something particularly unique about the soundtrack in this film that just irritated the fuck out of me. Because it's the same two notes over and over. I go, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And sure, there's like some core progressions in the background that change. But like with how repetitive it was and how often they used it, I was losing my goddamn mind. after a certain point. And it's, you know, it sounded reminiscent and similar to other things that other soundtracks and other films that he's made. So maybe this is just the straw that broke the

camel's back, I guess. But like, I swear, this, this film in particular, it was, it needed a bit more variation and it needed to be just a bit less repetitive audio wise for me, personally. Yeah. I never really noticed the music necessarily. Something I noticed, I thought, the movie was like pretty quiet, which I thought was like maybe part of like that desert. setting. Like, it's supposed to feel kind of like maybe ominous and very, you know, distant or in some way, maybe, but there's like some licensed music in the movie. I didn't even really notice it, like for most of the film, probably playing on the radio or so on. But I like the original tracks they played for the movie too, like the freight train song. I was like

singing that to myself on the way home, freight train, freight train. Like, I don't know. I like the music in the movie for the most part. It didn't really take me out of it. I didn't even really notice it, honestly, which is, I think that's a good thing, like, for the most part. Like, if the, if it feels so organic that it's just like part of the experience, I tend to like that more. I like the dancing Roadrunner. Yeah, the good puppet. Yeah, just a nice mix of styles, too, because it does have, yeah, the miniatures. It's got the stop motion. I like the kids, uh, song. When the kid sings that song in class about the alien, I thought that was very funny. Yeah. A lot of good funny parts, especially when that alien shows up, yeah, like the stop motion effects there are great. And, you know,

He's made stop motion movies before. He's made animated movies, like the animated segment in French Dispatch. That's one of my favorite parts of it, yeah. But, like, yeah, it's just the way he, like, incorporated it into this movie, and it fits really well. I thought that was, like, really great. I'm glad you mentioned the Bill Murray COVID thing, because I felt like that was, like, a big chunk of the movie, the inspiration, at least, like, because the characters are basically put in lockdown after they meet the alien. And one of the best characters is when the alien comes back.

And they announced they've got to go straight back into lockdown and then they all kind of just freak out, you know? So that felt like that one of the things he was trying to sit in a more clever way without making the whole movie about COVID or whatever necessarily. But just having some of that, those feelings, that frustration, they're all in their own little cabins and they're all kind of restrained to their space. And yeah, I did like that. Yeah. I didn't even really pick up on that. But yeah, that's amazing. That's fantastic.

Yeah. Like, I feel like I want to watch this movie again because it was so fun. I will eventually. And, yeah, like to pick up on these little things. Yeah. I love this movie. I thought it was one of my favorites I've seen from him, especially recently. Yeah, this one's really great.

It might make my top 10 by the end of the year. I'm pretty sure about that, actually. This is like, cool. Is it a five star? Um, if we're getting into ratings, I'd give it, you know, fuck it. I'm going to give it four and a half. Fuck it. Fuck it.

Like Willa in succession. I fucking. I really enjoyed this movie. Yeah, Wes Anderson, you know, do more weird shit like this. I fucking love this movie. I thought it was really well done, honestly. Yeah, I guess where I kind of differ a little bit is I keep thinking about in the French dispatch, there's one of the segments is about the artist in prison, right? And that's like saying a lot about the concept of art and he's a bit more of like a meta commentary on all that kind of stuff.

And that like really hit for me. and that's been like a, I think about that sequence a lot. It's like a really memorable part of that movie to me, and I think it's saying a lot and communicating a lot. Not that this one isn't, I just feel like it's in that small space of the French dispatch where it's kind of making a similar point. It's just like way more eloquent to me and told in a kind of, you know,

a smaller package. And yeah, I don't know, I just, I couldn't get over the beginning of the movie, man. It was really like struggling to, to like pay attention until that that hook came in with the alien. I was like, okay, maybe there's more going on here. Maybe there's more to say. Yeah, like how you feel about the opening of this movie is how I feel about the

Timothy Shalloway segment in French Dispatch. I'm like, the rest of the movie's great. But that one segment was like, oh, it's like Harold and Maude, just a lot less like interesting. Yeah, yeah. Because I kind of feel overall the same. way about the French dispatch and Asteroid City. I feel like the highs are probably higher in French dispatch for me.

Same. It's just inconsistent. Whereas yeah, Asteroid City is probably probably got a better payoff. It probably, yeah. I don't know. It's I'm really told on this one, to be honest. The more we talk about it, the more I hear.

Like I do agree with what you're saying. It's just, I just really wanted more of an emotional response from this because like, yeah, I remember like feeling a Yeah, that's fine. Don't feel like, you know, like you need to like it. No, no. Yeah, I wouldn't lie. Um, but it is just like every, every frame is, is beautiful, you know, like, it is, it's just impeccably put together. Um, but yeah, I do. Yeah, there's just something just slightly off about this one. Sorry, it's just like one little thing I noticed too. I just like remembered, like, they go to like that diner there and there's the menu, like on the wall. The menu has like a thousand items on that. And I'm like, it's, it's, it's, like, it's, it's. it's so detailed.

Like, you could tell, like, they actually wrote that out, like, every little thing on it. But it's only, it's only in the movie for,

like, a second. But I just love that attention to detail in it. Like, oh, this whole fucking board, but it's like,

you know, it's such like a quick visual gag, but they clearly put a lot of, like, work into that. And I really appreciate that attention to detail. Yeah,

sorry. Um, did you give you a rating? Yeah. Yeah, the detail is like, it's so immaculate. You know,

it's almost, it's immaculate to the point where it's almost inhuman, which I don't know if that's like the point of like the whole alien angle and the desert. Because I remember reading something about like the way he writes and makes his movies is like with the storyboarding he'll often, he'll do, Wes Anderson himself will like record how he wants the like the cadence of like the dialogue to flow and whatnot. And I can't help but like just see he's like such a strong voice and a such a strong style.

It's almost like that actors aren't even playing character. there were like wise Anderson at a certain point um but yeah I don't know it's I probably will have to revisit this because of how tall I am I think I'll definitely revisit it but yeah as far as a rating though yeah um this is just this is like three and a half star like seven out of ten for me um it did I was kind of one over by the end but man it was yeah kind of a rough a right to get to that conclusion. Yeah, I, um, what's weird about this movie is I, most of it felt immaculate, although I will kind of nitpick a tiny bit near the beginning. There were like more than one of those like, you know, spinning shot transitions where it's like you do like a really

quick 90 degree pivot. And in this film in particular, compared to like his other films, you could notice the cut. Like I noticed the cut watching in theaters like in at least twice in this one where I was thinking like, okay, his other movies, I don't notice that cut. It's more smooth. So I don't know. The rest of it's, you know, really, really well made, immaculate, just a tiny little thing I noticed. But yeah, I'm giving this one a six out of ten for now. We'll see how I feel about it on a second watch.

And I'm going to piss my pants if I don't leave right now. So I will be right back. Yeah, I got a piss bed too. Yeah. That's a little break. I've been holding it for like fucking five minutes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I did have one thing I wanted to bring up, right? To do with Wes Anderson, not specifically Asteroid City necessarily, but did you go see anything about this, this TikTok trend? Like, Wes Anderson became a trend. And there was this video going around, I guess a TikTok going around of this woman being like, man, imagine now committing your whole life to making these films and then people just perfectly imitate it and do better than you as a TikTok trend.

It was just because people are like they're making TikToks where they have symmetry and they have pastel colors. Yeah, that's all it is to them. Yeah. Yeah. Go fucking do it then. Go fucking do it. Make, make a bunch of mine. God, yeah, that pissed me off seeing that.

Yeah. Just to reduce it down to the most surface level. Like those AI generated like lower. the rings in Wes Anderson style. Yeah, it's like... Oh, yeah, those are like... This looks like such shit. Yeah.

They're like soulless. Yeah. Uh-huh. Completely soulless. Yeah. I just want to mention that. Unawing it is. That's what like, um, because I've seen YouTubers get upset.

Because like, they, they, you know, their voices are like replicated on AI things. And then people make videos like with their voice or whatever. But at the end of the day, you're never going to like be able to replicate their writing style. You know, like, how. they like put together a video which is what makes me like okay like someone might be able to AI generate my voice but they can't like mimic my editing or my writing style my comedy you know so it gives me like some faith in that like they're not going to be able to do that quite yet maybe at this point maybe in the future I don't know yeah yeah 20 years maybe interesting

conversation yeah yeah all right I guess uh I guess this is the film discussion part we all saw Yee Ye by Edward Yang A one end of two is the subtitle This film came out when Yee-E-E-E-ass haircut Yep 2000 It came out 2000 right

The year 2000 Yeah it's on Criterion A bunch of people love Edward Yang I think this was his last feature I think you're right yeah And yeah people People talk really highly about this one And also a brighter summer day

I chose to do this one on the podcast because of brighter summer day is like four hours. I was like, I don't know if that's what I should start with. But yeah, it's, how do I describe the plot? There's a, this will be a spoiler discussion. There's a family in Taiwan, and their grandmother goes into a coma, and it's about relationships,

and there's some drama. And, yeah, it's kind of like a, like a slight, of life, you know, interesting portrayal of, you know, just normal but not so normal things, I guess. Mm-hmm. It's like, like that movie we discussed with Carson, like Wendy and Lucy, like trying to mimic, like real life with that kind of tone. Like, uh, naturalistic, yeah.

What's that? We had another guest on when we talked about men, um, the movie men. I'm always talking about men. That was a trow. Yeah, that was sorry. Oh, okay. And nobody's fool. I think that was it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed this movie. I feel as though I want to watch it a second time to, like, fully absorb what it was, especially with the pacing of it. And especially with, you know, the sequence of events over the course of the film. Because from an artistic standpoint, in terms of, presentation like, damn, this is some fucking incredible acting,

like especially child acting and like writing child characters and making them look and appear and behave natural and realistic. And the way things are shot and there was some kind of like, you know, interesting visual motifs that were pretty recurring throughout the film. A lot of like frames and windows and reflections and like, you know, seeing things from the outside versus.

the inside or seeing the reflection of something. And it's like, okay, this film is definitely trying to say things. And I didn't exactly look into every interpretation of what the film had to offer. But to be honest on this watch, I was, you know, there's so much about it that I loved. But in terms of my personal experience, like, it was kind of losing me in the last 30, 60 minutes or whatever. Kind of like, I was hoping for a bit more. At that point, that's fine. I actually felt it got, like, better as I went along.

Like I got more engaged. I've read, yeah, a lot of feedbacks kind of agreeing with you, Adam, more than people found it difficult towards the end. But I'm kind of like the complete inverse. To me, it was more like the first half an hour or so trying to figure out like, okay, there's like a lot being established here. Like who am I like focusing on here? Like what is the scope of this? What is what is happening here? But of course, yeah, it's about an entire family and kind of two or three different generations of that family and all of the,

kind of branching stories that attach to these people. And as I kind of figured out, it was like the threads that were being set up and expanded upon. And you do get to spend more time with certain characters and they flesh them out. And these, yeah, these fun people come in and out. And there's just this, the dialogue is really what kind of kept me going. It's like really thoughtful and delicate. Yeah, yeah.

And that's what, yeah, like, it just got better as it went along for me. Sorry, I've heard it described as like an epic from like stuff I was reading, even though it's like a family drama. Yeah, I'd agree with like the whole, because it's so long, you know, it's so kind of complicated. I struggled with this movie a bit because I was with you, like, especially in that first hour, I found it kind of frustrating. Like, what is this movie like trying to do?

What is it trying to say? It's like, it's like cutting around between all these different characters. But usually when I struggle with a movie like that, I just read like what other people have said about it. And I looked at the Roger Ebert review and he gave it three and a half stars, which, which for him is like a, you know, it's like a 9 out of 10 or whatever. But I really liked his review, and I'm going to jump in, I'm going to jump around his review a bit. But I feel like I'm essentially driving home his point, which is this is what he said.

He said, many mainstream American films are impatient. Our films have little time for thought, and our characters are too often superficial for their decisions to have any meaning. They're just plot points. And so, like, I think to his point, the slow pace with this movie can make it kind of frustrating. but it did win me over eventually because you do actually start to see these characters as people with their own like lived lives and it makes like those dramatic moments like more impactful. Like there's like the, are we talking spoilers already? I feel like we might as well.

The movie's been, yeah. Like the like suicide attempt like halfway through the movie maybe. Like that was a really well done scene and it wasn't really because I feel like there's so many ways that movie, that scene could go wrong and it could be very corny, but that was really well handled, I thought. It was very tasteful and it was very, like, surprising and impactful how they presented it. And, you know, there's a variety of reasons for that, like, the way it's shot and how they cut around it. Like, you don't, you know, there's not like that shot where she opens the door and you, like, see him lying there. Oh, my God. It's, it's very, like, tasteful. And you see her

panicking. And even before that scene happens, you know, like what's wrong, you know, almost like that when he walks into his apartment and there's like that hopeless kind of glare toward the floor. Like you see like, oh, there's like, like, it's repeating it's all over, yeah. Mm-hmm. Like, it gives you hints of what's to come and it, it, it, I really like a movie that treats its audience like it's intelligent and can figure these things out on their own. And that, that's like a great example of a scene I felt where you know what's going to happen, but the way they drag out that suspense and that tension, that really worked for me. And that's

really when the movie won me over because before that I was like the stuff with the kid is great it's very funny it's clearly supposed to be funny like that's like the most lighthearted stuff in the movie very charming yeah yeah but then like the rest of it I'm like I found kind of frustrating but once it got to that moment I really it really did win me over at that moment and from that point on it was basically hooked in the movie and it's such a long movie you know I like to watch movies all at once I can imagine people watching this movie in chunks because it's like three hours long but I really like to watch a movie all at once and that's when I'm like

I'm actually like enjoying like watching this movie from this point on it was very satisfying I felt where it went and how it like handle all these characters and just the comedy in it too

like I hope on like movies being funny or whatever but it is a very funny movie even without like what's his name the kid Yang Yang Yang like whatever his name is I really liked the yeah I really like

the scenes without him even, like, later on. Like, when, you know, that lady comes in from, they used to be, like, in high school together or something, and they all start yelling at each other, and they start fighting and whatever. And they just cut to, like, the father character in this movie, like, standing there with his present. Like, that was really funny. It was really well done. I really like the comedic beats of the movie, too, which is important in a movie like this. That is, you know, so dry and so dark and almost feels kind of distant in a way with, like, how it's framed and certain points and there's it's all about like the the visual allegory of everything the visual metaphor like the scene where he's in the office and there's the birds like walking like going around the

office and the bird goes on like one of the co-worker's shoulders and you're like oh what does that mean does what does it represent it's important to balance it out with like really good comedy really funny scenes and i feel like this movie really did deliver on that like i would actually recommend this movie for people to see who even don't necessarily like a movie like this and i see like why it's so highly regarded in that way because it is very funny at points and very charming and there's a kind of through line with each each one of these major characters where there is this really strong interesting expression and commentary on art you know like the little boy he gets into photography and he has that whole kind of thing of taking the pictures

of the backs of people's heads that's more of like a comedic slump but then there's the more thoughtful thing going on with his dad it was it was the dad character that really kind of was the main hook for me that was getting me engaged earlier on. Yeah, I found that really interesting. I'll get into that more in a second. But he has this whole thing with this Japanese businessman he keeps talking to and he's talking about, because they have to speak in English because of the language barrier and they're talking about like music and he has this whole arc where, because he's this kind of, he's like middle aged. He doesn't really know what he's doing with his life. He's like an engineer.

and he has this old fling that he's kind of reconnecting with and he doesn't know really where he is and this whole like business dynamic that he winds up kind of snapping over the phone to one of his associates about like how this is how brutal and ruthless like the industry he's in is and how upsetting it is to him and then the daughter character,

they have that great scene after they go see the movie and they're kind of talking about like what movies are to them and she's more of like a, I just like this one thing, but the boy he's not the boyfriend at the time or it's kind of the friend of the boyfriend of one of her friends yeah and he's talking about the range of emotions movies can be

and talking more broadly about it and it is a delicate thing because it might sound like they're just kind of communicating bluntly like the movie's trying to say but it is communicated through like this yeah this delicate dialogue that does feel like like something people would naturally bring up or talk about. And, yeah, it's just delicate enough to not be too heavy-handed and does feel naturalistic and real.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I absolutely loved the scenes with the Japanese businessman and the dad. I especially loved that one with the magic scene where he calls him a good man. And it's like a really perfect, it's an impeccable scene as far as like how it's paced. where it begins and ends, um, with that guy kind of peeking in at the end, asking who, who won, thinking it's like gambling and feeding into the whole like business side of it, because he, he's trying to settle a deal with the, the Japanese company. And it all just, it all just winds up being like this fruitful, like nothing event. Um, and it, yeah, kind of feeds

into what that dad character's going through where he, he, he doesn't know where he stands. And he's trying to find some meaning and what he's doing. And yeah, I found, I found that character to have a lot of depth and like a lot going on with them. Yeah. Yeah. Adam, what do you think? Well, I think that, I think that like what this is a movie that like even if I'm not fully absorbed into over the course of the entire film in terms of like what it's going for overall. Like it's something that I watch and it's like, okay, this is undeniably really, really well made and there's a lot about it that I love.

I really like how believable the performances were. And this is one of those things where it's like you can tell that a lot of it is coming from good directing, not only just from the child performances being good, where it's like, okay, you have to have a competent director if you want to be able to direct a child properly. But also just how physical a lot of these performances were. There's quite a few shots where there's, you know, a huge amount of characters within the frame. And it's kind of just fun to just watch, like just pick out a random. character and just watch and see what they're doing, you know, like the guy standing up on

the table with the jug of beer might be the implied focus of the shot, but, you know, you look over your left. You can also look at the guy who's, like, struggling to stand up, who just keeps resorting to, like, sitting back in his chair. And it's, yeah, those are things that I really love about directing and about film is like, yeah, you can create, by your presentation, you can create the illusion that it is a real world and these are real characters just by giving thought and attention and detail to those tiny things. Yeah, it's really interesting because like the characters are really fleshed out and believable and, you know, you care about them. You care about what's going on. But I just felt like, I guess, I guess over the course of the film by like this

at the end of the second hour, I kind of already was like, okay, well, I see what this is for the most part. And I was not entirely sure that the entire three hours runtime was super justified. Also, I've been busy as fuck.

You know, I was just at my brother's wedding and like scrambling to catch up on shit. Like after that, I was kind of fitting in this movie the only time I could. And I was already working the entire day, like before I started watching. watching it. And so, like, perhaps I was just, like, kind of in the wrong mindset or environment or just, like, state of mind to, like, fully absorb everything.

I have a lot of that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You need to marinate on this movie. Yeah, I had that feeling with this, too, because I just watched it last night, and I'm, like, I didn't know how long it was. I'm like, oh, got, this three-hour movie, and it's, like, so complicated, you know, like, the themes of it. It's very, it's a very dense movie, not to quote George Lucas or whatever, but, like, it's a very, it's a lot of stuff going on in the film. And it's like, it's easy for a movie like this, like when you're talking about it for a podcast and you have to watch it. It's easy for it to feel like homework. I usually like to watch these movies kind of on my own time when I feel ready for it.

Not that I can't like appreciate a movie like this, but it does feel like kind of like homework because there's so much going on. It's so long and, you know, but I still did really appreciate a lot about it. Like that opening you were saying that like Adam, about the opening, like all those characters. It did feel like kind of like the godfather to me. like, which, you know, the opening of the godfather is like a big wedding scene and this movie starts with like a big party. I really, I feel it's a great way to start a movie because it's like a lot of energy, a lot of extras like going around and is a lot of like complicated stuff going on with like the blocking

and so on. And I really like the incorporation of like balloons in this movie, which they established like in that scene. There's like all the balloons and people popping them. And then later on in the movie, you know, it's about the, the, the kids. there is trying to like fill the water balloon and then drop it on his his crush or whatever, but then it drops on the teacher. It's like balloons are like constantly a part of the movie.

And it's even in the poster of the movie, you see the balloons. And I thought that was very interesting. Like, maybe there's something metaphorical going on there. Like, there's a lot going on with this, like with birds and with balloons, like things that kind of like propel or, you know, go into the sky, like maybe representing hope or something like that. Like Adam already said with the kind of a lot of use of like reflection in glass and mirrors, there are some incredible shots that frame things like that or some more like claustrophobic shots, I remember indoors where a character will be framed in like just the smallest slit,

like a claustrophobic thing, kind of, especially for that mother character who isn't in much of the movie, but she's got some powerful scenes because she kind of goes off to a Buddhist retreat I think. And that was the only, like, technical thing I noticed was, I think there's a really great scene with her where she's, like, breaking down, crying, and it is one of these mirror shots. I'm pretty sure in the top left of the mirror I saw the, the mic kind of just come in for, like, a tiny second. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It means something. It's pretty funny. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's funny. Yeah, but I feel like, yeah, the performance was probably a good enough shot that they didn't want to count it just for that one time. tiny thing but yeah that was like just a tiny nitpick yeah well george lucas it we can edit it out

yeah exactly just do that yeah so i i felt i felt that like while i'm consciously watching this film and being like okay i like these characters i like how realistically they're being portrayed even though i don't feel like every single set piece and every single moment that they show of every character doing everything was necessary for what they were trying to say overall, it still felt justified in the sense that the longer you spend with them, the more it feels like they're actually consistently building their character, the more you get a sense of atmosphere for the environment and the tone in the universe. Like even if it wasn't necessarily entirely justified for my opinion,

just to be building on that narratively, it was at least building on it in terms of tone and in terms of like the overall feel of the film, which I guess I more or less got entirely by the two hour, two and a half hour mark. But yeah, for the most part, it felt nice that it was always constantly building on something. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And, you know, like initially I felt like the way the film was shot feels kind of cold, at least to me. there wasn't a lot of energy to the camera work. It's like a lot of static shots.

And I don't even mean that as a criticism necessarily because there's a point I actually really got like invested in the movie because of those choices. Like, um, there's a scene where it's like the daughter's friend there. She's like alone in the shop. And then a soldier like comes in to like say hi to his friends after like going on tour, you know. So he's like saying hello for the first time. And in her mind, she like, she doesn't see that he's a soldier at that point. So she's just like, shut up.

This isn't your place because she's like kind of frustrated about her own relationships and so on. And just like the way that was framed is like, I don't know, you can see that like she was kind of in the wrong because she didn't realize the situation that was going on behind her. But you also understand that, you know, they're being kind of obnoxious. And just like that, that framing was very, the way they presented that whole scene, it doesn't really take sides. And it's not really very manipulative. Yeah. And I like movies that aren't very manipulative in that way. Like even with the music, it's mostly.

diagetic music. It's not very like manipulative in that way either with the music. And those are those are choices I do like really appreciate in certain movies. Yeah, that's the advantage of those, um, those static shots after a while. There's another really good one, um, where they're by the elevator and the guy who, um, he's like walked out of his apartment, whatever and he's just in his shorts and he's like hiding from people sneaking in and out. Yeah.

Yeah, it just gives the actors like a good chunk of time to just act. know, like no BS, like no manipulation, as you're saying, it's like, it's quite frank. And yeah, it takes a while to get going and to sort of settle and understand, like, what it's doing. But, yeah, it really, like, hooked me in at a certain point. And by the end, it felt like a very complete kind of emotional story, like, saying a lot too. Yeah, yeah. Movies like this are just so challenging, you know, it's, like, hard to, like, rate them or make, sense of them on a first viewing for me. But I did get a lot out of it. I do really appreciate it.

Yeah. Even though I did find it challenging and I find obviously challenging movies are very challenging to watch and to dissect. And that's why I read up on all these things and like trying to find the meaning of it and like reading other critics and like what they thought of it. And just like, yeah, I don't know. I did really appreciate the movie. Maybe I don't connect with it entirely. Maybe some of the stuff with the daughter I felt was, like, not interesting to me. Maybe I felt the movie was a bit too long. And that's like, this is kind of the thing with like letterbox.

Like, I use that site a lot. And like, this is one of the highest rated movies on there. I think it's like number 12. And that, you know, there's a lot of like, you know, like kind of peer pressure to like a certain movie like this, you know? Like, oh, this is one of the greatest movies. And if you don't like it, then you're stupid. And I've gotten that before from like certain discussions of like movies.

But like maybe at the time I was like uncomfortable talking about it or we're going through some things or you know if it's like sandwiched in between a discussion about shark tail or whatever. You know, it's like this is an odd movie to talk about. But I do really appreciate this movie. I think there's a lot of excellent things about it, especially the technical side of it, which I can really latch on to and like the filmmaking. I think that's really well done in this case. And yeah, I did actually really like the movie and I liked a lot of the characters and the things are going on. I do wish it was shorter though. I do wish it was just a tad shorter.

Just so, I don't know. I just like get to the more emotional beats like a bit quicker. And there's like certain scenes I could cut out, but you know, it's mainly a minor thing. I just, I'm really a stickler for pacing. and that kind of thing. But I did really enjoy the movie. That was the kind of cool thing I found about that daughter character where it's kind of the plot thread with the most escalation.

Like I wasn't expecting it to go to the places it does, including like a whole murder and the whole way that kind of transpires. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it kind of gives her story like a bit more meat by the end. And the way it does trickle out is quite, it kind of stays. rooted to her perspective. And yeah, it gives it like quite an interesting angle, her in the police station,

kind of finding out these details on the TV, and it re-contextualizes previous arguments and scenes with these same characters. And there is like a real darkness to that storyline. But, yeah, is a fun balance compared to the little boy character who is kind of like the more light-hearted angle. But even then, that has its emotional kind of bookends. with the Nana's funeral and him having his speech there that's like a beautifully written, like, poem basically.

Just delivered by this little kid. And yeah, there's just so many great character moments when the parents reunite, when she's back from the retreat. And, you know, when he's saying even if I was given a second chance, I wouldn't need it. And the whole kind of section with him meeting up with his. his ex and them kind of bickering and talking through everything that went wrong with them and him kind of bearing his heart to her, but also not betraying his relationship with his wife. It's like a, yeah, it's like a really elegantly put together a bunch of, like, character drama moments that's like, it is an epic.

Like, I'm glad you brought that up because that is kind of how it comes across by the end is epic and scope. Yeah. And I think it really does come together. then. Just one second. Boyfriend's rummaging around in the room for something. Do you need something? Oh, you, uh, yeah, I don't think it's in here. Sorry about that.

Get out of here. Get out of here. I'm okay. Love you. What's the matter with you? It's like all the cliche Italian things. Speaking, yeah, there was a, there was a moment in the film that kind of stuck out to me. It's like, that fucking guy who was saying like, oh, movies, they actually add three times to your life because the experiences that you watch in movies are real experiences that you get.

We all know what it's like to kill someone because we've seen it in a movie. It's like, what? That line was just so dumb. but I guess I guess then there was a murder in the movie so yeah foreshadowing

oh yeah I actually forgot about that it's hard to find like the comedy in this like kind of discussion when the movie's like so you know it's not like bleak or anything no no it's just like it's a good movie

yeah it's a good movie you know it's not like like when we talk about Valerian or whatever like or like you know something like that. It's like, oh, we could go on for hours about how funny and stupid it is or whatever. But this is like, yeah, it's a good movie. I picked up on a lot. I definitely noticed the themes and so on. There's a lot more to dissect on like a second viewing. It might be a while until I watch it again, honestly, because it's so long. But I did really, you know, again, I appreciate it.

It would be down for a second watch. Yeah, I did appreciate it. And yeah. Yeah. I think it might actually flow better a second time, to be honest, because you know what it's going for. Now that I know Now that I know like what it is And like what its goals are Yeah definitely Because it was kind of frustrating In that beginning part

Like it's cutting between all these different characters I'm like what the fuck is going on Like this is like And there's like no focus At first Yeah It's just broadly a family You know

And it's like Right but it does kind of come together Yeah It definitely does Yeah Definitely felt that way Yeah even with Even without like a distinct focus

at the beginning, I think that there was enough for me to like kind of notice and read into about like characters that that was just enough for me to chew on. And also like just the visual choices like really close to the beginning of the film. Like the guy's like carrying the wedding, like the blown up wedding photo and then, you know, he's asked to do something. And then because he's distracted, he like puts it upside down. And I'm like, okay, that's a really, you know, like the inverse, the upside down sort of wedding photo is like, okay, that's clearly saying something. right? So there were nice things to just be able to like chew on throughout the film. But yeah, I will definitely do a second watch on this one.

But yeah, for now I'm just, I'm kind of just like, oh, yeah, it's a really great movie. And I appreciate it. But I just didn't absorb as much as I possibly could have on it. Maybe just due to like limited time. Like maybe I could have watched this a second time if I watched it for the first time a week ago. But I've just been so fucking busy. Yeah, we've had a good. like five, six days to marinate on this.

And yeah, I just keep thinking about it a lot. I'd happily watch this again. Okay, well, for now, I'm giving this one a seven out of ten. That might change in the future, but that reflects my current feelings about it. Alex? Yeah, for me, this is a strong four and a half star nine out of ten. With you guys, it's slow to get going and figure out what it's doing. But yeah, I was kind of in love with this by the end.

I'm a sucker for that kind of sensitive dialogue that, you know, saying a lot, but without it just feeling like it's just the director speaking through every character. It just feels like real people communicating and this whole reunion aspect and the different generations and beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. And yeah, it never feels corny or tacky to me. Um, yeah, it was quite, quite an achievement. I'm, I think I'm more with Alex. It's not as strong of a four and a half stars.

It's maybe more like a, like a 4.3 out of five stars or something like that. Um, but I, I think it's great. Yeah, I really appreciate it. I think I, if I saw it again, like more on my own time, I think I'd really love it. Um, but yeah, I really did enjoy the movie. I thought it was, it definitely got better for me as it went along. And yeah, I really connected to a lot of the technical stuff and the storylines. And yeah, it's very funny at points.

And it's an entertaining movie. I feel even people would be put off by this kind of movie would like it, you know. Yeah, it seems like generally really well received. Like it doesn't. Oh, yeah. It's not like a divisive movie or anything. A lot of people really about it. Yeah, it's not like a pretentious, artsy, fartsy movie.

I can understand why some people consider. to this to be like their favorite. Yeah. Yeah. No, because I was, I was feeling that at first with the, you're saying about this, this kind of expectation some of these movies have for like, if you don't get on with this, then blah, blah, blah. Because for that first like 20, 30 minutes, I was like, man, this, like, this is like,

this is like, this like, where is this going? What is this? Mm-hmm. But, like, yeah, it really did start connecting and building up and everything kind of fell into place for me after you've settled into that four three hours i did watch it in one setting um and yeah yeah it did completely win me over by the end yeah my changing my my experience with uh like jean d'elman changed a lot on my second watch you know fucking love yeah that's true yeah definitely understanding what you're getting into as you're watching it and being able to contextualize it

more properly and also like i don't know there's there's certain i guess kind of what i was feeling watching this film is a lot of the movies that I enjoy that are really long. They have like a, I guess, I guess a lot of them have a bit more, what's the word? I guess like kind of showy moments in them. Like, Lav Diaz is like a slow cinema director. And one of his movies is like four and a half hours long. And I'm shocked that I love that movie on a first watch. and it's not like

bam bam bam everything's like happening right away it's a very slow burn but but the things that are happening like it's it's got like some interesting action and like some real stakes and drama and like some evil characters and like a murder and you know like all that stuff

and it's I think it's a it's more exaggerated in terms of like you know how high things goes compared to something like this right and I think that maybe I was expecting a bit more of like an exact exaggerated or heightened version of stakes or drama or emotion

and, you know, watching this film, sure, there's a lot of better I love, but maybe I just had like the wrong expectations going into it. But yeah, we'll see what it's like on the second one.

No, that's interesting because like a few weeks back I rewatched, but I was afraid. That's a three hour long epic. And I adore that movie. Like it was, it was better on a second time.

Great. A second watch. You just pick up so much more. Yeah, I think We've said it before Like sometimes You haven't seen a movie Till that second watch, honestly

Yeah, sure Yeah I would argue most great movies You haven't Or like any of it really Like a Valerian Maybe we should watch that again Well we did watch it

More than once actually Oh yeah That was our second time Yeah, yeah Yeah, I think I'm Yeah, I think I can say I don't need to watch Valerian ever again

I'm pretty confident Yeah, yeah, go to my grave. I do not need to do that ever. Yeah. Ready for some questions? Yeah. Okay, let's do some questions from this I don't want to cast community.

Head over to the suggestion thread on the subreddit if you want to leave questions for future episodes like BBD4116 did. If you all had to rename your main YouTube channels, what would you call them? YMS. Instead of your movie sex.org spelled out. Yeah. You could probably do that and be fine.

Probably. I got the at, so why not? What's stopping me? I got like the new channel URL thing, like the at YMS. I snagged that one. That was nice. I should rename my gaming channels.

Those are just so fucking incomprehensible. Mm-hmm. Yeah, with the YMS gaming. Plays with an A's. But I think someone else is already doing that And then it's like, do I just show up being like That's my name Do I pull a meta?

Who's got the Twitter at YMS? Who's got the Twitter? You've looked up who's got it? Some fucking Let's see Do you have a letterboxed YMS? Is that you? It doesn't exist.

Like, should I, how do I take it? I don't know. I'm asking is the letterbox Like you have a YMS letterbox? Is that you? Because I don't even know. I'm not. The guy claims to be you at all.

Someone who just loks you all IMDB schools, right? If it's active, it's not me. But I do, I do own a letterbox that I don't post on. Okay. So you do have one. Because I followed it and I wasn't sure if it was you. So I unfollowed it. But yeah, then I know the one you're talking about.

Okay. I would change my channel name. Yeah, I would change my channel, my YouTube channel name to YMS. YMS plays or YMS gaming That's what I'd change it to Yeah That's my answer I don't know I dislike everything

I kind of like my name Oh here's the problem Your username must be more than four characters long Well fuck you Twitter Go fuck yourself On Twitter really? Yeah More than four characters long

Oh so I couldn't even have IHE if I wanted it YMSS bullshit S bullshit I can't do a three letter Nope Oh you That's just

depressing. YMS and then dash dash. Fucking blue sky let me do YMS. So I'm going to spend more time there. Blue sky. Blue sky, the next big thing. It's like Blue Sky Studios. It doesn't even matter if it's big. There's fucking furries

on it. I'm happy. I'll just chill there. I don't care of it. You know how drama-free that website is? You go on it and it's like, holy shit. People aren't arguing about everything. Well, yeah, they're all furries. Yeah. It's not all for. There's a huge amount of it. Not to say furries don't have drama, but like the fucking atmosphere on that website. Like it's moving to different websites and seeing just how like not shitty a lot of these are,

it's like, it's leading me to believe like, how many of these on the major websites are just fucking bots? How many of these people aren't even like real and it's just like fucking. That's a real Twitter problem, right? Yeah. Like the bot thing. There's just like kids. Yeah. Children and bots.

And now AI is involved too. Yeah. Double bots. They're AI Twitter accounts. They just reply to everything. yeah Twitter is particularly bad like it's it's definitely

gotten worse it definitely has with the whole verified thing it's kind of much worse because now like people who are like literally like Nazis have like a verified fucking thing

yeah apparently there was like the other day there was a video going around of like a cat being like blended it's like go all stuff now it's like fucking fortune

now yeah it's just crazy man I don't even know if that kind of stuff is on fortune Twitter kind of used to be fun like back in the day like had kind of a fun

atmosphere, but now it's like the dunk platform, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That would, it used to be great. Mm-hmm. It used to, yeah. Make Twitter great again. No, don't make that my tagline.

That is horrible. Before, yeah, everyone realized the potential of like algorithms that can, uh, maximize engagement through fighting. Yeah. It was like this brief period where like it was diverse and people were funny, making good memes, good jokes and promoting good stuff like, good movies. Now, like, especially film Twitter has gone like really bad. Like, I don't know if you've seen like, it's very cancer. Yeah, it's awful. There's all these people dunking on the

film Mommy. Like, that movie's great. And they're like, you know, posting the clip of like, when he changes the aspect ratio or whatever. I don't mind spoiling the movie at this point because it's been out for so long. But like, it's like, you know, that's a great scene, I thought. Like, maybe you disagree with the music drop at that point. But that's a great scene. That's a great movie. It's really hard. Like, I don't. don't know why you're dunking on it like I don't know like because the director doesn't want to make movies anymore like who gives a fuck you know making movies is fucking hard like I get it he's made started making movies

when he's fucking young yeah no that's what I changed my YouTube channel name to is I restore please restore the Snyderverse everything I've got this like secret Twitter account that like I've ruined it's well it's already ruined on the main I know it is in the search bar I just searched yeah Snyderverse and man like my feed now is like the craziest culty Snyder fan it's actually insane you don't actually

understand how many of these people are oh I understand it believe me I understand it it's crazy like every few minutes there's a new one it won the Oscar cheer moment so I found this Xavier Dolan tweet you're talking about is it the one where it's like can't think of another director who do railed his entire career with a single shot as decisively as I don't even get what they're saying yeah that's the tweet I don't I don't understand the point like what's the like how did he derail his

career I think a lot of these people are just like not real or have mental problems because the tweet directly underneath of them responding to themselves says this one sent too many F slurs into hiding like like okay what are you even saying what is it even mean like how did that one shot Raella's career. Like, it doesn't even make any sense, like, what they're saying? And I've seen people quote retweet it. And I'm like, it doesn't make sense. Like, what does that even mean? You know? What does it mean? Is it just bait? Is it just bait? Like, you're just happy that people... Yeah, it's engagement bait. Yeah. I think it is bait. Because then it gets quote tweets, it gets people angrily replying to it. It gets boosted in the algorithm. Seems like that's

the whole point. Yeah, so on everyone's feed. Yeah, definitely. 100%. It seems like people do that because they feel like they're supposed to do it on the platform. Like, the environment itself is just bringing more out of it, you know? Yeah. I can't get over how meaningless that tweet is. Like, it just doesn't mean anything. Like, it just doesn't make sense even, you know? Yeah, it's definitely not the platform to talk about movies on, dear Lord.

No, not at this point. Or anything serious. Anything serious? You notice how all my tweets are just fucking shitposts? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's the only purpose is. I said, eggs are a vegetable. And people are like, what do you mean?

mean. A lot of people are just like, really confused. That's a good tweet. That's what Twitter's for for me. Writing essays underneath now. Yeah. Yeah, because if you're like verified, you can, uh, you like, you forget there was like a character limit. Like, that was the whole point, you know, about brevity. But now, like, you can just do 50 paragraphs. Yeah, and the conversations are still just as out of context and met faith, even without the character. That's why, like, um, letterbox that could write long reviews and I don't have to pay an extra $6 to, write my long reviews. I can just write long reviews of movies that I like

without having to pay a billionaire who was associated with the weirdo. Yeah. Okay. I guess questions. Was that a question? What was the question?

What are we talking about? I think we started on what we'd rename our channels or something. Jesus. Oh yeah. I don't know. We got on that. I guess. Yeah. Went from that to Elon Musk. I'm considering renaming my gaming channels. I think that it doesn't make any sense what I named them. I'm changing mine to YMS gaming.

Yes. Yeah, that's my channel name now. All right. We'll see which one wins. Yeah, we'll see. There'll be two YAMIS gaming channels. Fuck, why not? Jesus.

Yeah, why not? All right, sorry. Sorry. Let's go ahead. Let's go ahead. Let's go ahead. What are your thoughts on recent film journalism? I recently noticed an influx of YouTubers such as R.K. Outposts,

a channel Adam reacted to in the past. Nerd Trotic, Midnight's Edge, Overlord DVD, Geeks and Gamers, and many other others that seem to be obsessed with covering the identity and studio politics behind major franchises, e.g. Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, before any specific film or show is even released. While I feel that these channels and many other similar ones, some legitimate criticisms, they appear to me to be more interested in talking about how woker film is, especially in their awful clickbait thumbnails and less about the craft of filmmaking thoughts. Kind of feeds into what we're just saying where...

Gets clicks. Stuff just gets clicks. Yeah. I think it feeds engagement. It's clicks and it's appealing to insults, which I don't like. Yeah. It's like, oh, you know, you never had a girlfriend before. You know, you want to...

You know, you just want to shit on movies starring women. It's, like, pathetic. Like, there was a period of time where that was, like, you know, whatever, like, Ghostbusters, the Ghostbusters movie. Like, everyone dogpiling on that. But now it's just like, I don't know, I'm so sick of it. Like, I saw some review of Joy Ride. It's, like, so fucking pathetic. Just like, you know, like, stop being so fucking toxic.

Or just, like, even the Star Wars fandom is so fucking toxic in that respect. Like, I talked about Andor and how much I loved it. And then there's just like people in the Star Wars community who are just like fucking racist. So the point where the lead actor of the Star Wars shows has to come out and say like, look, guys, stop attacking this actress. Like you're just being fucking racist. And it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's so fucking toxic. Well, the latest one is Indiana Jones with Phoebe.

Yeah, Phoebe. Yeah, they're attacking her now. Because, you know, she's in Fleabag. It's very like feminist show. And look, in the movie, I didn't think she was great or anything. But, yeah, they're just, like, attacking her. It's like, guys, relax. Like, just fucking calm down.

It's like, they can't find the words for what they actually want to say if they want to, like, criticize a character or something. So they just jump to these, like, yeah, these just ridiculous buzzwords and phrases. And I'm just like, yeah, I'm so tolerant of the other side of it. Like, with the whole, like, that's like the point of my Charlie's Angels refuse. It's like, yeah, you know, women can be in bad movies, too, obviously. Like, that movie sucks. I'm not arguing that. But it's just like, you know, you don't have to be so fucking toxic about it.

You can make something funny and entertaining and still, like, criticize a movie starring women without being. Like, on that Charlie's Angels review, I got so many comments defending Gina Carrano because they said, like, you know, that Charlie's Angels show. There's, like, there's, like, pretty women in that show, like, Minka Kelly, she's gorgeous, you know. But she's like, you know, I can't believe that she would beat up, like, a fly. old-grown man with muscles or whatever, like this giant dude. And I gave a good example, like the movie Haywire, that's a good example of a movie where a woman is fighting men, but you believe that she can beat them up because she's like some MMA star or something. But then I got so many comments defending Gina Carrano. And it's like, guys, what she said was fucking

anti-Semitic. She's anti-Semite. She compared like COVID to like, you know, concentration camps in Germany and like Nazis. It's like, that's wrong. Like, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. And it's like Lucasfilm fired her for that and like you're giving me shit for it. Like, come on. Like, she's, she's anti-Semitic. What she said was wrong. And it's like, you know, give her shit for it. Like, I just made some jokes about it. I didn't say anything that bad. But yeah, I got like all these comments like, well, if you were those, you know, everyone's going to say something wrong and then you're going to get attacked for it. And it's just like a bunch of bullshit from like people who were probably into Semitic themselves. And I just hate that kind of fucking.

online community. I try to distance myself, just distance myself from those kinds of people. Yeah, a continued lack of nuance with these conversations, right? Like, the whole little mermaid thing, you know? Yeah, she's black, so the movie sucks. It's like literally the conversation. It's not even any more subtle than the way I'm presenting it. It's like, this woman's black. She's not a good character because she's black. And that's like the end of it. And it's like fucking pathetic. It's like, don't you, can you, like, go get fucking laid. Go get fucking laid and, like, get a life. Jesus.

It's awful. But then, yeah, speaking of Twitter, I saw someone did, like, a fan art of a little mermaid, but they'd done her as, like, the character from the 90s version, and they're a bunch of hate. Yeah. Yeah. Because they weren't black. Yeah, that's like, who's this?

Talking about, man. Yeah. It's such a new one. Yeah. Again, there's people on the other. side who are ridiculous too. Like, you know, picking every little fucking thing, you know. Yeah, it's just so extreme.

Everything's so loaded. Like, I'm sure there's people who think I'm sexist for reviewing, like, a Charlie's Angels movie at all. But, like, at the end of the day, I'm, like, being funny. I'm joking. Like, I'm making jokes about the movie. It's very lighthearted and it is funny. Like, you know, I don't know if you've seen my review, but it's very funny, like,

the jokes I make, the references to, like, punch drunk love or whatever. It's very lighthearted. It's not so mean-spirited. like I feel some of these other YouTubers are. And that was like kind of my point making that video. I don't know. Because, you know, and like, plus you make a review of a movie with a bunch of beautiful women.

Like, who doesn't want to watch that, you know? Like, a Kristen Stewart. I'm interested in people who are passionate about film, even if their lens is, like, unrelatable through which they view film. What pisses me off is people who, like, wouldn't be talking about film. at all unless it was like a weird culture war issue. Like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh

and then all these clone channels like Jordan Peterson. They're just trying to capitalize off of like a lot of the same thing where it's like you're not even really talking about art. You're kind of just like any excuse you can get to talk about why something is woken therefore it's bad is you're just kind of grasping onto it. And it's just kind of it's like repetitive and it's insane just how much how successful that can be financially.

Jordan Peterson's review of free guy. That's like a really... That's great. Just example. It's his favorite. I think he liked the movie because it starred a white guy. It's like basically the point of the review. Like, you know.

But then again, you have the other side where like Olivia Wilde made that awful movie. Don't worry, darling. And it's like, Chris Pine's character represents Jordan Peterson. It's a model for that. And then she's asking Maggie Gyllenhaal in an interview because they did like some actors table. Olivia Wilde and Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's like, Olivia Wilde asking Maggie Jillenhall what an insal is. Like, do you know what an insal is? Maggie Jillenhall's like,

no. Because she doesn't fucking care because they're worthless people. It's like, why you need to make like Jordan Peterson a character in a fucking movie? He's he's worthless. It's just pathetic. A lot of people are like terminally online in a way where it's like, okay, you know, like you're, you're now making something that is unrelated to the average person because the average person is not Twitter. The average person is not like these weird culture war like spaces on the internet. Sure, it is seeping into real life politics for sure, especially in the United States, especially on the right. But, you know, it's, it's something that like the average person just trying to like live their life and just do their own shit and not be bothered is like, what? Yeah. Like most people just

don't know about a lot of this. Yeah. A lot of people are deprived of pussy. It feels like it is just leaking out to this insane degree though Like man the state of what What it's talked about in the UK at least like It's just woke stuff That's it That's like the whole thing Yeah

You know Yeah that's No more policy Yeah No one cares about policy This is virtue signalling It's crazy Mm-hmm

Uh-huh it's all virtue signaling It's all toxic But in parliament they bring it up It's crazy. I think most of these people are teenagers or like bots. Yeah. Like they, it's like we shouldn't even be addressing these people.

Yeah, we should have some kind of like, I don't know, mandated thing where you have to take a picture of your ID before you take a, before you make a social media account. Like, we all need to know,

like, who to actually listen to in like this respect. Because it's just like so many toxic teenagers who like, again, they don't get laid. So they watch like channels that are all like, oh, fuck women.

man, blah, blah, because they have their own issues. And it's just like, it creates a totally toxic environment that I just like, I do not want to be a part of that, you know? And even I've fallen into that too with like the Ghostbusters review, which is kind of more lighthearted. But like, I feel I've fallen into that too. I kind of like brainwashed mentality. But now I've tried to steer away from that because, you know, you know, I was young at the time. Now I actually get laid. So I'm a much better place.

know, it's, it's hard to, like, it's hard to listen to these, like, responses to these movies. Because, like, that's not the problem. Like, the problem with the New Indiana Jones isn't that there's a woman character who's strong. The movie just costs too much money and the guy's 80 years old. And that's, like, the issue. Right. It's not that she's in it.

It's like, guys, come on. Fucking calm down. I mean, it just invalidates other criticism. that people might have. Like, it makes, it honestly makes the problem worse, like, in my mind. Because, like, you hear these toxic people, and it just makes the studios want to go another direction. Like, it makes, it makes, you know, it's like, oh, well, if you don't like women characters,

then, like, we're going to cast more women. And it's, like, it has the opposite effect than the, that these people, like, want, like, from their movies, you know? It's, like, it's just so toxic. Yeah. Especially when like the companies realize they can kind of almost use it to their advantage in a way. Definitely they can. If they've written like a shitty character like, um, what's I name, Riefer in the Obi-One show?

Like, because there are all these like hateful people throwing these idiotic things around. It makes it more difficult to criticize the character because then you don't want to be brandished a certain way. There's valid criticisms for a character for sure. Like I watch that show. Like she's a dark side character. She's a bad guy. She turns to the light side at some point, spoilers. And I felt that was like a bit too sudden.

And it's like, but instead of saying that, instead of saying that her character shift is too abrupt, they just go, she's a black woman and she's fucking stupid. And that's like the basis of their fucking criticism. And it's fucking pathetic. And it makes me so angry to like read that shit. And it's like, you know, they like they want to criticize other people really when they're fucking. and saying shit like that, it's unbelievable. It's so nasty. Yeah.

The algorithms encourage them, man. Yeah, of course they do. Yeah, because they don't give a fuck. Yeah. Gets engagement. It gets mad engagement. Another question? Let's do this one from a walking wheel one.

What do you guys think of people that celebrate movies making huge profits at the box office? Recent example is the Super Marriber's movie, which hit one billion, leading to people I know being happy. It hit that milestone. It personally bothers me. because it's just people celebrating a corporate, but it's fine because the movie is a property they love and grew up with.

I thought that question was going to go in a different direction, because what I've seen with some of the Mario people is them trying to say that because it was successful, therefore it's a good movie. Like, I think that that's entirely irrelevant. Like, we're mentioning Jurassic World, right? Like, that movie was very successful. Everybody fucking hated it, right? So, yeah, if it's a movie you love, you want to see it be successful,

hopefully because you want to see more things like it, and you want to tell studios and investors and producers that, hey, you'll make money by doing things like this. I am more happy when, you know, something like everything everywhere becomes like a huge thing

or parasite where it's just like, okay, like you're showing that you can do something different or fucking, you know, like even the new top gun, you know, to focus on like the action spectacle

and like practical effects. It's still like a, it's still like a, it's not. not a cynically made movie. I want to reward things where it's clear that people that made it are passionate about it, the new Spiderverse, you know, like I'm happy when those things make money. So yeah, sure, a lot of the money is going to the corporation, but this is the system that

we currently have, right? So, you know, all the money you make is going to your fucking landlord, right? So, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make money. Yeah. Just try to exist within the system. Yeah, yeah, sure. I think I have more of an issue when movies I, like do poorly. I think I have more

problem with that. I always expect movies I like to do poorly. That's my expectation. Like that Scott Pogar movie, that really hurt. Because like, I thought that was great. I thought people would really find it funny and it bombed. And it's like, just because it bombed

doesn't mean it's a bad movie, you know? Like, it's actually really good if you like give it a chance. Yeah, it became a cult classic after. Yeah. Yeah. I have an issue with that. At least I go right, like, it didn't hurt his career that much, you know? Like, he was still able to go on after it. That's what sadder to me is when, like, a bomb, like, just kills, you know,

directs his career entire. What's that, um, under the Silver Lake? Like, he hasn't done anything in sense. I love that movie. That's a great movie. We've all sung our praise or sung praises about it. But yeah, it's a great movie. It's just a shame.

I just mentioned, like, Bo is afraid. Like, I don't care that that movie was a bomb. I'm glad I got it. And his next movie, I think, has already been confirmed. So, like, they didn't care either. 824. They knew that would bomb. And it's just like, I'm not criticizing the movie for that because I think some people

took it that way. I was more just shocked that that they would even like make a movie like that, knowing that it would not do well and be inaccessible and just made it anyway. Because they believed in Ari Aster and they believe in art, which is great. You know, I just have an issue with, like, discussing finances for a movie, I feel is an important part of a movie to some extent. Yeah. Because there's such large investments.

comically large. The last time I actually was invested in a movie making money was Dune, part one, because at the time, it wasn't a success. Yeah, exactly.

It wouldn't be a complete story without it doing well. So it's like, well, I want to see the whole thing. So please, like, you could see it. Whereas,

yeah, I just don't get it otherwise. I don't care that a Transformers movie makes a billion quid or whatever, or a Super Mario Bruce movie. Like, it's really not. It doesn't come into the quality of it for me.

But I love Mario. It's my favorite franchise. I do as well. That's why I think the film sucks. They do suck. They've gotten worse. David Robert Mitchell's got an untitled Anne Hathaway project in pre-production right now. So hopefully we'll see something from him soon because I've fucking under the Silver League.

Yeah, I need to rewatch that soon. Yeah. A lot of people do. Yeah. I've rewatched it a few times. it's very watchable, even though it's so long. And it's got great scenes. It flies by for me.

Yeah. And, um, but that movie was like five years ago. Like, I feel like it's like so fucking, like that guy hasn't done anything since. I mean, it's not that uncommon to have six years between a movie or something, you know? I would love if every director had a movie every two years like no one does. But it's just they, you know, a lot of them don't have that clout like he does. I don't know if it's necessary. even about clout though because like a lot of directors i think consciously choose to just you know not have not be

releasing things constantly there's a new movie coming out by uh fucking sexy beast director fucking what's his name oh yeah he makes jonathan glazer i can't wait for that he hasn't made anything since under the skin uh that's coming out this year but man that's why i love um i love that robert eggers because he's got stuff out every two years yeah it's pretty he's pretty consistent some people are surprising. He's pretty consistent with that. I love that. Yeah.

And then, yeah, the director of Tarr makes a movie every, like, I don't know, fucking nine years or some shit. Yeah, yeah. Or even, like, um, Tarantino, he's got one every, like, four or five years. Like, I feel like he's a little consistent. He just takes a long time, right, to, like, write his scripts. I think he cares a lot about, like, the script, and then he makes the movie. He just takes a long time because he really cares about, like, certain parts of it. but yeah.

It depends what you're doing with art. I feel like just a lot of these guys, they can't get funding. Like, they just can't get the resources because they're not, like, established, like a Nolan or a Tarantino or, like, one of those guys, which is sad. Yeah, hopefully it's not that. Yeah. Really worried for the industry. Like, at this point, especially with all these strikes going on.

I don't know. Movies not making money. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. How the fuck did Target made, like, financially? Right. How the fuck did they give money to that? and have it turn out like the way that he wanted it to.

Uh-huh. They figure like it'll get attention during an award season. Yeah. Something like that. Right. I feel like good movies will eventually make their money. But then there's like an under the Silver Lake kind of thing where it was so divisive. People were like critical of the nudity or it was so complicated or so long.

It was like a bunch of things. A-24-Butched the release. That was their fault. That too. Mm-hmm. They had no faith in it. Mm-hmm. And that happens too.

Like, the studios just dump something out because they have no faith in it. It's like, very quietly. It's not the director's fault. It's not his fault that they botched the fucking release in the movie. Because, yeah, like, it went straight to, like, the first time I watched Under the Silver Lake was on my television. It wasn't even a theatrical release. I'm like, really? Yeah, me too, I think.

Yeah, I was trying to find in theaters. It was like impossible. Yeah. Like, what the fuck? Although I did watch it again. But after that point, it was difficult. But A-24 produced the Idol. True.

More people watch the Idol from A-24 than, uh, I'm just over like. That worked out great for them, yeah. Fucking morons. That show's terrible. Yeah. Yeah, speaking of Cannes, I'm really distracted because I'm getting all excited looking at this Jonathan Glazer movie. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Holy shit, this looks... Very hype. It'll probably be it, too. This looks awesome. I'm really looking forward to that. Oh, hell yeah. Got to check this up. Oh, yeah.

Fuck, yeah. for sure. Damn, okay. Should we do one more? We can do one more if you want. Okay, let's end on this one from Scrody Pants. I've seen an increased trend with movies coming out in theaters recently to run to two and a half, to even three hours long, with examples such as John Wickford, Avatar, Babylon, etc.

Why do you think longer movies have become more increasingly popular even in the theater space and you guys think the length is becoming detrimental to the quality of the movies? Love you guys. We're just saying this about the Babenheimer. thing where Oppenheim is I think three hours long. Yeah. It's becoming more common. It feels like it used to be much more of a rarity 10 plus years ago than it is now.

It seems like really common. Even Indiana Jones was like two and a half hours long. Way too long that movie. It's annoying. It's like we don't have deleted scenes anymore. It's like deleted scenes just don't exist for big studio productions. What's the incentive though? Why?

Because they wind their way onto streaming services. Because they go into theaters With the intention of them being on the streaming service after The longer it is on the streaming service The more content there is that someone will watch before it's You know If it takes them longer to finish each show Then they'll theoretically be subscribed longer

Onto the service to watch every show that they want to watch I think that's honestly it That's part of it I feel like it's just a trend at this point It's like every movie's three hours long So yeah just make the new Fast and Furious three hours long. It's like it's just such a fucking trend. Because like as far as a theater space, it would be more beneficial if they were shorter.

Yeah, that's right. You show it more times than a day. Do they just not care about that model anymore? Is there just more money to be made streaming? Because even like, I think there's more money in streaming. Yeah. Yeah, there must be. Yeah, maybe. It's a new mission impossible. That's two hours 43. Just looking at that the other day. Mm-hmm. Yeah, just every big movie seems to be like, it's not considered like important unless it's the big three-hour epic, you know? Exactly. they want to be important. I'm sure they figured out the numbers.

Yeah. I don't mind if a movie's long as long as it's engaging the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

All right. I think that's it. I believe it is Ralph's turn to recommend a film. Oh, it's my turn. Oh, wow. Okay. Well, considering we've talked about DreamWorks movies a lot on this show. It's become kind of a trend.

I'm going to recommend, can I recommend two movies? They're not going to be very substantial in investment. I don't feel like length. Yeah, I know it's, we have a week till the next recording. I'm going to recommend Boss Baby. If you guys feel like watching Boss Baby 2, go right ahead. I'm going to watch both. I'm going to torture you guys.

With some boss baby Oh my god I've seen the first one But I never got around to the second You made me watch Yee yee I'm gonna make you watch Yeah I made you watch

Yeah I made you watch Two Boss baby movies All right Well I'll do a fucking stream Add them together And that's probably the same length as you Yeah I'll do a stream

God damn it I yeah God damn it Ralph is gonna torch you this week fellas Yeah with Boss Baby. Well, if you don't want to be spoiled for Boss Baby and the Boss Baby 2 family business,

have you both seen these? I've only seen the first one. I've seen the first one. I never saw Family Business. Never seen it. I'm watching, I'm with you. I'm watching both. Like, I'm going to do a double feature of Boss Baby.

I'm going to get my Blu-rays from Target. And we're going to do it on 4K? do we know that much? Is there a 4K Bluray? There must be. I mean, it's a new movie. Well, if you don't want to watch Boss Baby 2, that's fine. We don't, you don't have to. I'm going to watch both. I feel like I kind of have to at this point.

I'm going to watch both. And, you know, maybe Alex had just watched the second one because he's seen the first one. I feel like it's a worthwhile discussion. If you don't want to be spoiled for the Boss Baby 2017 and the Boss Baby 2 family business, both directed by Tom McGrath, then watch them before the next episode comes out. These episodes, oh, he's directed Madagascar. Yes. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, it's dream works.

Watch them before the next episodes come out. These episodes come out every two weeks. You can listen to them early by going to sardonicast.com. Sign up for premium. It's only $2 a month. Also, patreon.com slash sardonicast. You can support the show, get to listen to these episodes early and feel good about yourself. We got merch.

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Leave a comment. Do the stuff for the engagement. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. All right, everybody, have a happy fucking family business. I'm the boss. Have a happy boss, baby.

All right, bye, everybody. Bye-bye. All right, bye-bye.