Sardonicast - Sardonicast 210: Mercy, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Wurthering Heights, Sorcerer

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Listen early and ad-free at https://sardonicast.com or https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Merch: https://ymsmerch.com/products/normie-masterpiece-sticker-sheet Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sardonicast.bsky.social Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Sardonicast Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AhJ0bzQgs5fb9m_ZCRqkw/featured Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@YMS Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Jake's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ManCarryingThing Jake's movie channel: https://www.youtube.com/@womancarryingman Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/yms.bsky.social Jake's twitter: https://x.com/ManCarrying Jake's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mancarryingthing.bsky.social Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Jake's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mancarryingthing Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Timestamps: 0:00 BAFTA incident 9:50 Mercy 39:07 Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie 1:07:42 Wurthering Heights 1:14:42 Sorcerer 1:55:00 Questions 2:27:33 Recommendation + outro

Three, two, one. CP in the building. That was a quote from the Seattle Seahawks Twitter account. Letting everybody know during the Super Bowl that Chris Pratt was there and Chris Pratt made a video and he said, CP down here. He talks about how he likes to be called CP. I'm Adam from your movie sucks.

This is a Sardana cast. It's not a joke. I'm Alex from IG. No, I saw the same clip, but man, what can I pull? The future of criminal justice is artificial intelligence. I love you, Jeff Bezos.

We love Jeff Bezos. Oh, that's a great quote. What was that, Wuthering Heights? That was a good quote. Yeah, I think that was from Wuthering, right? I mean, I wouldn't be that surprised if it was. It's from War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds and Mercy.

Yeah, I didn't prepare a quote, but I will say that I'm feeling a bond of fellowship here amongst us as we prepare. to discuss a film that I think is kind of like toxic waste. You know, I feel like we're Chernobyl explorers kind of like trying to stop the bleeding of the reactor. And I feel like we're about to do something really dangerous, but good for humanity potentially. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to first of all congratulate Alex because people finally paid attention to the Baftas. Oh, yeah, for all the right reasons. I wasn't sure what the statue looked like, like the award. I didn't know it was a mask thing. I'm not sure if I could describe it if I had to be put on the spot right now. Yeah.

If I'm being real. Anyway, just acknowledging it, there was a movie with a guy, there's a movie about a guy with Tourette's and the real man activist who has Tourette's was at the BAFTAs and the BBC made the editorial decision to not censor his loud echoed, you know, like in the background screaming ticks that were very specific to who was on stage. Yeah. Which is unfortunate, but you know, that's how Tourette's works with some people.

It's just you have an intrusive thought of what's the one. worst thing I could say at this moment and instead of not saying it, you say it and you can't control it. It sucks. It sucks for him. It sucks for Delroy Lindo. That's his name, right? And then Michael B. Jordan. It sucks for both of them. Just an unfortunate situation all around. Exactly. And like a really toxic discourse machine. That's just like the racist and the ableists, like there's just there's no winning between the science. Yeah, racist versus ableists of infinity war. Right.

Um, what was he? So he yelled at other people, right, during the ceremony, but okay, because all I saw was the, the N-word clip. I mean, that's the, I don't want to say best one. But you know what I thought. That's the, that was the really like, because it was very, very, very, Like, it was hard to watch. It was very, like, Jesus.

I think he said shut up when Maggie Gillenhall and another woman were on stage. Oh, gosh. Okay. So. But, you know, like, some people say, why didn't he leave? And he did. Before the ceremony was over, he excused himself and left because he was too embarrassed. And it sucks.

It sucks for everybody. If there's anyone to blame, in my opinion, it would be the BBC. see, because, you know, as much as, or the BAFTAs, depending on who's making those editorial decisions, as much as, you know, I can understand the point of leaving that in uncensored. I think at the very least, we shouldn't have a situation where the two black presenters on stage are clearly caught off guard by that. Yeah. So clearly they weren't, like, properly notified that that could be a thing that would

happen because otherwise you wouldn't see Delroy Linda making that face. Like that's a that's a person who was not expecting that to happen. Right. And that's really unfortunate. Yeah. Unfortunately, it's the word but the most attention the Bafters have had in a long time. No one cares about the baffters. And here's the kicker. This is made infinitely worse and more notable by the fact that they censored at the end of someone's speech, the director of my father's shadow, I think it was two directors, One of the directors literally just said Free Palestine at the end. They censored that? And they censored that in the same show.

In the same program. That makes it fucking nuts. And then I read an article about it. And the article was like, oh yeah, the BBC censored when the director of my father's shadow shouted free Palestine at the end of the speech. I found it uncensored. They uploaded it to their YouTube channel. there's no interpretation where that's shouting. He literally just said free Palestine.

He just said the words right after all so acknowledging like Congo and Sudan. How did they even justify doing that though? Like how would they justify it? That's crazy. Like what the BBC is just like you can't say that? Like what the fuck? I would like to hear like an explanation for that actually because they've released, you know, they've released a statement on the.

Tourette's, but I don't think they've released a statement on the free Palestine. That's wild. That's actually fucking nuts. Like, how do you justify that? That's, that's, okay, it would be one thing if it's, uh, someone who wasn't invited bursts in and starts yelling and trying to disrupt the event shouting free Palestine. It's one of the fucking award winners given their speech. Excuse me.

Yeah. Well, you know, another stain on the spot. Foutless reputation of the BBC, sadly. Yeah. Yeah, it's so weird. Well, I mean, who even won? I don't even know who won, like, the top awards at the Bafters. I guess probably one battle, right?

Yeah, yeah, one battle won a bunch of Bafters. So Sean Penn is looking not impossible to win. Yeah, you know, it'll be interesting. I don't know how predictive the Bafters are of the rest of the awards race, but it does seem like it's going to be kind of a one battle sweep. Yeah, I don't see. Yeah, maybe. Any change?

How is your watch, watch of every Oscar? You watch every Oscar nominated movie, right, Adam? How's that going? Well, at one point I did try to watch every Oscar nominated movie. There's actually a subreddit for people who do this called Oscar's Death Race. Oh, nice. Death Race. That's appropriate.

Appropriately titled. It's a big toss. Oh, yeah. No. If I wasn't trying to, like, write and record reviews for those movies to get out before the Oscars happens, while also trying to manage my billions of health-related appointments and also moving...

I'll tell you later. It's kind of. Very, very, very particularly busy time of year for me. And so, like, there's no way I can watch every nomination. So I think I'm skipping documentary category this year. We already kind of know which one's going to win. I'm not going to watch any of the original song ones for that. I think I might want to continue special effects.

Like the only one I haven't seen is Dominion, Jurassic World, and that seems dumb enough. You'll love it. Yeah, I've watched all the best picture winners at this point. And it kind of sucked because everyone that I saw before the nominations was way better than the two that I had left. after the nominations. So you've seen Hamnet now.

Okay, yeah, you've seen Hamnet. But what is your least favorite? I would have to say F1. Unless I forgot about another movie, but I would say F1. All right. All right. I like F1. It was fine.

I don't know if it's a best picture winner. Yeah, it sounds out in that category for me. I like a nice, nicely filmed dad. Cool. Well, any other big. movie news going on trying to think well we can just talk about mercy yeah it's February there's like nothing there's nothing yeah if it's February why the fuck are the Oscars in March it's so annoying that day it's like three months of

torment stupid awards bullshit yeah yeah well probably because it's American and you guys drag things out forever look at your election cycles people are talking about Gavin Newsom is like we're not even at the midterms you people he's the nominee we everyone's decided now we have a that's our choice

it's so funny in Canada we have like a few like it was considered a long election cycle the last one it was like a few months that's funny yeah it's just hell it's hell over here it's hell and because of that we make movies like mercy

transition What did you guys think of this film? I think I saw it before either of you, and I think I enticed you guys maybe a little bit with what I saw and experienced. Oh, no, I... Well, so not to discredit your contributions, but I was looking forward to this since the trailer got dropped.

Oh, really? The trailers did look funny. Because it looked very funny and very funny bad. Okay. You just didn't want to see it in theaters. Correct. I figured, A, I want to be in an environment where I can shout out loud at the movie and not disturb other people, right? So wait for digital. B, I'm doing my part helping it get to digital sooner by not buying a ticket to the theater, the theatrical release. So it's a little bit of activism.

But you don't really experience it unless you see it in an IMAX. It's not really, you don't really experience a film. It was filmed for IMAX. Oh, did you see it in IMAX? No, but it was filmed for AMX. Yeah, what does that even mean? It wasn't filmed on IMAX cameras. It's just like.

I don't know what they mean by that. I just saying, please see it in IMAX. I would love that, is that like an organic label on foods? Like, it can mean anything? Like, what does that mean now? Free range, messy, yeah. Yeah, I think that's what it means. So was it worth the wait?

Did you enjoy it, man? I mean, yeah, it was. It was, like, funny, but shit. I wish it was funnier from how, like, you know, Amazon, the link with what happened with War of the Worlds last year, and how that was just lightning in a bottle, as far as I say, a good, bad movie. I was thinking about that with this movie, maybe that is the key, you know, just grab Ice Cube and put him in, put him in a chair, and maybe this would be awesome, too. Yeah. Because this is boring. If you swapped the actors, right, they would be very different.

film like the this would be the better movie if it were ice cube I think it's I think it's mostly dependent on ice cube exactly that's the secret yeah because otherwise it's all the all the craziest stuff that was featured in all the worlds with it basically being an ad for Amazon and them spoilers for all the worlds and saving the day with a memory stick that they order off Amazon yeah this is kind of a scary implementation of that with the tech angle of it the way the the title is getting at the AI mercy, which is a judge in this apocalyptic world that they present as if it's not really a hellhole. It's more of a utopia, the kind of angle they bring it at you.

So you're kind of like waiting, when are they going to address how kind of scary and weird this is? And they kind of do a little bit with where it goes, but it's mostly in favor of by a ring doorbell. Isn't this good for solving crimes? and this kind of creepy integration where it's like this is what you want I guess this is the scary world we all want and are living in

I mean not only that it's like ideologically motivated it's like pro police state completely it's so like comparing War of the Worlds to this is so unfair because War of the World is such a fun masterpiece like it's just a fun experience because

while yeah it does have that kind of like ideological yeah pro Amazon whatever it doesn't It doesn't feel like, it feels like a stupidly put in there. It feels like they didn't realize that it was ideological messaging. Whereas in Mercy, it feels like very sinister of like, we're making this film to get people ready for the AI future, you know. It feels like a Philip K. Dick book all the way through until the very end where instead of like the twists of like, oh yeah, this is all bad. We need to overthrow the government. It's like, hey, isn't this shit kind of cool?

It's crazy It's the weirdest movie I understand where you're coming from And I think that like If this were a Like real production With like more talent And like

I don't know If they were creating something And they really wanted it to leave a cultural Impact and be in theaters And have people talk about it They could have done it Like this is incompetence in that sense. So in that case, like, it might just be someone that didn't really think through what they were writing and maybe not wanting to pick like either particular side or what they perceive to be a particular side.

I think they wanted to make like a Tim Pool version of like a film where you just say one thing and then you're like, but it could be the exact opposite of what I said. and you just kind of, you pretend to acknowledge it. So it's trying to please everybody. Then, yeah, why has it been for no one? Yeah. I think it's just a dumb writer. Yeah, I could imagine the script being written.

That's like, oh, this is a scary system that needs to be changed. And then through the process of being inshittified by, you know, the studio system, whatever tech company, you know, produce this to becoming kind of like, well, you can't really say the AI is bad, right? Let's just have the AI say that everyone makes me. mistakes. Everyone has those days, you know. Like that's, that's the better alternative where it's like, yeah, we can't explicitly state that any of this is wrong. We're just going to depict it as, you know, having a bad day and things will get better if we work with humans. Equated to humanity

and hand wave it. Yeah. I was quite amazed by how that, how lazy it was with that. And I think it does come down to like just laziness, lazy world building. Yeah. That is just, yeah, we're pro-savailant state basically pro death penalty but pro-a-i and we're not even going to deal with like the consequences or what is cool about setting a story in a sci-fi world or slightly futuristic or like what the commentary is it doesn't care about that at all it's way more interested in just being a simple kind of murder mystery with CP strapped to the chair with crazy graphics flying around like that's most of this movie they try they like really try some different angles to keep that engaging.

Yeah. It's like, wow. And then you check the budget afterwards, you're like, wait, what? Yeah. 60 million, they're dropping on this. And it's what you see you can kind of stare. Watch Chris Pratt just sat in a chair and Rebecca Ferguson just kind of like moking in the background.

True. How much you think he got paid? I reckon he got like 10 million or something wild for being in this. What else is? He's in like every scene, basically. Yeah, and the implication is that he's like really acting this time. That's what that's what is kind of trying to do. But I think they didn't realize before they started the project that, oh, the reason why he's typecast as like a lovable kind of goofy dope guy is because that's what he can do.

And he can't really sell the, I'm scared and crying. And like, I'm sorry. Like half of his fucking expressions were like James Rolf faces Like legit He was making such a weird face This is serious Chris

He's got his acting cap on He's really bringing his A game What is his career genuinely Like he starts out with Parks and Rec And then he does Guardians of the Galaxy And these are roles like perfectly suited to his talents He's like a charming guy And can play like a dumb goofball

And he's fun to watch on screen in that mode But then he's trying to be like Chris Hemsworth in like action movies. Yeah. In a completely, it's just like, why are you leaning into this? Why are you trying to do this? And not only that, he apparently, he wanted Rebecca Ferguson's part to be played by an actual AI.

He was like, yeah. Whoa. That's so much fun that he would say that. Yeah. So it would have just been a full CP film, just him. And well, I guess all the other actors on screen. But, um, so close. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's just aesthetically hideous.

It's such an ugly film. Yes. Yes. It's very, very ugly. Even with the graphics, like, moving across the screen, which is, you know, just, it's not even nice over stimulating. They add these weird, wooching sound effects. Like, every time he swipes on a thing, I'm like, okay. Or, like, even when the camera just moves in the, like, cropped zoom frame.

Like, it's just, it's very not convincing and ugly. I feel like they used AI for some of the action sequences. Like the cars move really weird. It looked really bad. Yeah, they looked insanely weird. Yeah. Like the way that the cars move in the environment, no animator in the industry would animate them like that. It looks like GTA 5.

Like inaction sequence at the end, there was a car that goes up like one of those other cars that has a ramp on it. Oh, yeah. It just like. Yeah, yeah. I know the exact show. It's so cartoonish. It's just like, really? Are we doing this?

kind of stuff okay it's so weird no it's completely ugly and it has like apple ui like the entire film so it feels like you're on your phone and then most of the footage is being shot again from like ring doorbell cameras other people filming and it does that terrible trope of these types of films where characters just happen to film everything with their phones at all times so that we can see like oh we can see the scene where he's talking to his friend from a yeah it's like oh that's great she just happens to be filming that. Oh, great. The daughter happens to be filming this domestic, you know,

argument between the parents that they have all the time. Beyond that is just the dumbest plot. Like, it's really horribly written, like, as a mystery. It's really bad. It's funny because, you know, not only do these teenage characters just fucking face-time each other all the time. Like, everybody has a facetime call, even the cop. Like, okay, you have to see the video of the person you're talking to at all points.

Okay, whatever. But also the excuse of him being able to access a lot of this information is just, oh, you know what, we've designed this system so that when you're on trial, you can literally just pull up anything. And it doesn't even matter if you have a warrant or it doesn't matter if you have clearance. Like any citizen that's on trial for this can just say, like, show me what's really in the Epstein files. And then like, I don't know, I guess if you're getting put to death and death

that it has 100% success rate, then, you know, it'll never get out. But, like, what if, what if you win the trial? Do you have to, like, sign an NDA? Do they, like, delete your memories? That doesn't seem very fucking secure. Like, why can you just access anyone's information through this? That's, that's so weird. Yeah.

Can I talk briefly about Chris Pratt's character? Yeah. What exists of it, yeah. So, basically, he is, like, the worst cop ever. He's pro-AI death penalty. he's depicted as like one of the lead guys trying to promote this thing. And he gets strapped into the system himself. And you think the result is going to be like,

he's going to be like, fuck this system. Or I thought there'd be a twist where it'd be like he actually was the killer, you know, and we get to see some flaws in the AI system and how this all plays out, et cetera. I don't know. Nothing that clever or interesting. It just turns out that he is the most unlikable dude because all of the evidence we see, you know, in the first like half of the movie,

I'm going like, not only do I, I think this guy is guilty, I think he will at some point kill his wife if he, if it wasn't already, you know, because he is violent. He is physically like, you know, intimidating. He screams at his family all day and all night. You know, he's a really, like, bad guy. There's zero redeeming qualities about him. And even, I love the part when his daughter is like learning that he's been arrested. And then his in-laws, his father and his father-in-law, is like, no, no, no, don't talk to him. It's like he definitely did this.

Like, there's zero shadow of a doubt for them. They're like, yeah, this guy was going to kill her at some point. Like, in the fact that there's really any, like, self-reflection of on his part as a character, it's just really funny that it's like, oh, no, he's just, he had a bad day. There was a mistake. And ultimately, that's what happened in the movies, that it turns out there was some police corruption. that resulted in this hicc of had nothing to do with AI making a mistake. It was human air.

There's a bad apple in the police system, you know, just one bad apple. And she just flat out fucking admits it. Yeah. She just says like, oh, no, yeah, we sabotaged this person's rights in order to, sorry, this doesn't make any sense. She says, she says, it was the first test run, and we needed the public to trust in it as an institution. So you sabotaged it? Yeah. Like, why would they trust in it more from a guilty verdict for a person that's not guilty, whether or not he's guilty?

Why would a guilty verdict make them trust the system more than if it determined that he was innocent? Did the AI, like, decide that he goes on trial in the first place? Because if that's the case, that wasn't really communicated. No. Um, also why 90 minutes? No, I know why 90 minutes because that's the runtime of the film. And also we get to see the timer in the corner of the screen. Yeah, seeing the actual timer.

Is the dumbest thing you could possibly do in a movie. All of the UI elements are so corny and distracting. And there's already like nothing going on with, like, they can't, there's no one acting off each other at the best they are FaceTiming each other. So it's like all these terrible actors like with nothing to work with just kind of like monologing to themselves. It's really quite. frustrating to watch and it's only really funny for the last section as it ramps up and it's like just skipping over all of these rules all these questions that you've been getting out of like it what like what are the rules here yeah you can like save your own crime and invade and like

everybody's space and like what is this world you've created like you won't let me be interested in it you always at an arm's like they didn't think about it for a fucking second yeah that's the answer they didn't think about it for a fucking second why do we he calls it the most advanced an intelligent mind on the planet. This AI that's created for this court system is the smartest thing in the fucking world. And what does it do? It doesn't represent you.

It's just fucking ask Jeeves. It's a Google fucking search system. It's not helping it with his like, why, if we replace the court systems with AI, why is it just acting only as a judge? Why doesn't he get a fucking AI lawyer? Why do we lose representation? It never explains why they decided to do that.

what the fuck why would you replace that system what the hell's the point yeah and i love that the movie doesn't end with any kind of like we're abolishing this system i learned my lesson about how this is wrong it literally becomes he becomes it's a buddy cop movie with the ai at the end like that's just it um the system works we just need to tinker with it a little bit and uh humans make mistakes a i make mistakes um end of the story and i love how the arch villain the super villain who becomes like a Batman villain in the film. He's just like kidnapping his daughter and then wants to blow up all of downtown LA. He's the one character in the film who's like, I have objections to the AI system because

it fucked over and killed my brother, you know? And it's like, oh yeah, he has a good point, but too bad he's he's psychotic and he wants to blow up all of downtown LA. Like, it's just so stupid. It's so, so stupid. Like when he kidnapped his daughter to like go downtown, I was just like. Like, this is, it was so funny. I'm like, please, more of this.

Like, it finally got funny near the end of the film. Yeah, like the flying motorbikes and the drone footage and stuff like that. That was pretty funny. But like, just to reiterate, you're saying about the conclusion with the saying, yeah, we all make mistakes, humans or AI. Like, that is said verbatim by the main character. Yeah. We just did what we're programmed to do.

We all make mistakes, human or AI. Like, that is said in the movie. that is the way it addresses its main, like, conflict. It's so fucking lazy. No. In doing that, it's passively also endorsing the idea of, like, that we need a police state. We just need more police, more judges, more law enforcement, because L.A. in this film is depicted as just being overrun with homelessness.

And it's just like Hollywood Boulevard, just like homeless camps for as far as the eye can see. And it's like, here's what we need to do, guys. More cops. And in the opening there, they show all these graphs of, like, how, much crime has gone down since the mercy judge has come in. So yeah, it's pro this kind of like quiet tech overreach. It's borderline a daily wire film. I don't know how they could be on top of any crime if they're doing like

one 90 minute trial per person at a time. Like if this is the most advanced AI in the fucking world, why do you have just like one chair in this gigantic room? Like a fucking warehouse just like for one guy. Yeah. It's a waste of me. That seems like an inefficient system if you're trying to like meaningfully get rid of crime or or do anything. Also, maybe do we need to use it on like the high case murder trials?

Can we just use it on like the low level style? Like even in this scenario. Can we use it on the president of the United States? Yeah. I mean, could we do that? But also just like parking ticket violation. You know, like why are we, why do we have to execute anyone who's using this? Yeah.

Like either execution or that's it. Like, I don't know. It's just highly inefficient. They make these embarrassing attempts at writing what they think a super intelligent AI would say. And so there was one moment where he's like, I couldn't have killed my family or whatever. Like, we love each other. And then she's like, love is just chemicals. And so is anger.

And it's chemicals and it's not a real emotion. And so you can't, because of that, you could have both, you could be angry and you could love someone and kill them. And I'm like, okay, well, first of all, sure, that's technically true. But that has nothing to do with whether or not he could do both. Like that, that would be true whether or not it's made from chemicals. Like, that's not relevant to anything being said. There's like a point where he's, I forget what he said. But she's like not understanding like a joke or sarcasm or like take.

taking something too literal, you know, like that, just, just this weird attempt at like super intelligence. And then how does he get it to do what it wants, what he wants it to do? He makes an emotional appeal. They never explain that. This fucking advanced supercomputer that's like emotions or chemical reactions. And he's like, but please, please help me. And she feels sad, does it?

Or does she feel anything? Why does she do it? If she's an advanced supercomputer that doesn't even feel. emotions because she said she doesn't. Did she lie? Is she lying? Yeah. Can we just praise Rebecca Ferguson's agent who's just like, hey, you get, you know, $5 million just to sit in front of a camera and a green screen and monotone, not even with emotion, just monotone, read your lines. And she was the best actor in this film.

Somehow, yeah. Yeah, the way they communicate that stuff was hilarious with her in particular, like, okay, now you're glitching. She'll like do it like a glitchy take and it's, yeah. Yeah, that was so goofy. And as we're talking about this movie, I'm just looking at this poster, like on an MDB page, and they're both just so stone-faced. Yeah.

On like a gray backdrop, just these close-ups of Chris Pratt and Repessa Bergerson, Rebecca. It's just like, have you actually in real life yet when you've gone into a shop or into a major city? Have you seen, like, these AI robot pods? Right. Because, like, I've started seeing them, like, popping up. out for real now. They're called like safer pods. And they look like something out of like half-life.

And they like scan you so they can figure out when you're shoplifting. What? They have one in. I first saw one in, I was in central London like a week or two ago. It's where he got this fucking illness in Charing Cross Station. Just like a really popular central station. There was just one there.

They look like, They look like droids from Star Wars. And I was like, why are we just okay with this? Like, what is happening? And then I go home, put on Amazon. And my movies are like, this is cool, man. All of this. What's happening?

The United Kingdom has always been kind of a weird surveillance state. Yeah, we love it here. You're already in the children of men universe. I mean, that's fascinating. Yeah, that's a weird one. I'm glad I haven't seen that. Yeah, keep your eyes out. Is it literally, like, do they say that it's shoplifting prevention?

Like, what, did they say it's last prevention? Yeah, like, I went and found its website and, like, it had an AI chatbot. You could talk to you. Oh, cool. They've got, like, a video on Vimeo explaining all its features. And yeah, it says these things. The SaferPod S1. Safer pod S1.

Safer pod S1. What a dumb name. Yeah, it does look like it, it's half-life. I love how anytime you talk about like going to London, you just give us dispatches from the UK that sound like, you know, dystopia and night, like, yeah, I just got this illness that won't go away. I've had it for five weeks. And, you know, there's AI pods monitoring if you're shoplifting.

Like, it's just like, man, do you need help? Everything good? He's rumping up. And I live in the United States, so I don't know. I have no place to speak there. I'm doing fine. I'm doing okay. Yeah, you know, and if I need to flee, I just drive north for a few hours.

Yeah. Well, you're not going to be able to get in, but, you know. I'll just drive really fast. Yeah, what the fuck? Funny story. One time we were driving. I think last time, actually, we were, went for the Sardonicast live stream. We were driving in, and Nadia was driving.

And she just, like, didn't realize that we were right at the border. And, you know, they have, like, big speed bumps to slow you down. And she just didn't realize that we were already there because there was, like, no line. And she just goes full speed over the speed bump, and we just, like, fly up. Oh, God. And we're, like, barreling towards the border and we're like, okay. Let's not do that again. Well, I'm glad you're okay.

Yeah, we're fine. Whenever I drive into the United States, it feels like there's something wrong with my car. And then I realize, oh, no, the roads are just shit. Um, yeah, yeah. You're not keeping up the infrastructure. Now, also the border patrol is their fucking assholes on the U.S. side. Like driving into Canada, they're just like normal. Yeah, they're really agro.

Wow. They're so intense. I know. To make you nervous to give an, if you show that you're nervous, then they'll use that as an excuse to check your car, basically. They're just looking to bait you. Yeah, we were driving. We had our baby with us, obviously, and we were driving back. and as we're getting there, we hand the passports over,

and she goes, that baby, that's a person, you know. Do you have documents? We're like, yeah, we know that our baby is a human. What? They're just so, so annoying. It's just so stupid. It's like, tell us you need the birth certificate. They're like, so fucking annoying.

That is a weird way to say it. Yeah, they're just like, that's a person. Do you have documents for that person? Maybe they're AI. You know, I would rather them, honestly, at this point, be AI than how they act now, because they're just power hungry. Okay, so I don't understand this fucking safer pod thing. I'm looking, it's like, it doesn't even move around, right? This thing is just...

No, no, static. It's like an eye store. Yeah, no, what the fuck? And so, like... I don't know why I'd want to bring so much attention to itself. And a big selling point behind it is, like, how it defends itself from people messing with it, because it's so alluring. Oh. Oh, because it looks dystopian

And so people will be scared Is that the like argument I mean it does look dystopian Like you can't make this shit up But I've seen it with my own eyes I think Where have you like at grocery stores Like you've seen more than one of them

Have you seen them like outside? I've seen one in a I saw one in a Tesco in Bristol And I saw one in Charing Cross Station In central London This looks like a scam As in like a scam as in like it looks like one of those things where like you market it and then somebody who doesn't know any better spends a bunch of money putting them in the stores because like what are these features like fucking smoke detection and carbon monoxide like things on the floor like smoke detection's a little too late if you if you've got this thing on the fucking floor first of all right it's not it's not detecting people shoplifting because all i'm seeing here for what it is is like intruder detection

Meaning fucking motion detection. Like, that's what that means. Flood detection. Flood detection. It looks like a Nathan for you scheme. Like, he's actually hiding in there. Yeah, it does. It really does.

All in one, just total safety for your store. Just buy this thing. And then you're good for everything. I mean, yeah. I think all of my electronic devices have flood detection, because I'll notice it's turned off, basically. Oh, the water fucking shut it off. Must be a fled.

That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it's a word. I hope to never see one of these. Yeah. These tech companies got to get better names, though. Like, Saferbod is terrifying. That's a scary name.

Yeah, I don't understand. That's a bad name. Palantia. Why are you naming your, like, spying, like, tech company on a villainous device from Lord of the Rings? Like, what? Just call it the torment nexus at this point.

Oh, yeah. Don't we have like a sky net now? I wouldn't be surprised. Grog. Well, that's just adorably sad. Grock, just the noise that a little demon makes when it dies. All right, do we have anything else to say about the CP, mercy? No, it was kind of boring.

One out of ten. It was mostly boring. Nice. I would give us one out of ten. One out of ten, yeah. Yeah, one out of ten for me as well. I got a shout out of this random director guy, though. Timur.

Timur Beckmanbatov. He's like... He's not so random, actually. Explain? He's been... If there's a movie where it's... told through a computer screen, he's like all over... He's the producer, right?

He's produced unfriended. He produced searching. He produced fucking... fucking, you know, the sequels to both of those. He produced War the World's Amazon. He just like, that's, you know, it's computer screen movies is like water to James Cameron for him, basically. Like, it might be a fetish. Is that the trick to the industry, just get like a gimmick?

Like, if you're just the first director to film a movie with an LG refrigerator? Yeah, yeah. That's your thing? That's your thing now, yeah. We're doing refrigerator movies. but he's been a director for a while and his breakout films Really random stuff

Night watch and Daywatch were like all right and they had good effects for the time like 2004 and 2006 He directed Wanted where you can like spin bullets or whatever and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter which is something that you know

people talk about and remember Those are her remake Dumb Guy Classics Dumb Guy Classics Especially Wanted That's just like such a I remember And the Ben Her remake.

Yeah, exactly. Jesus. But yeah, he's been around. I recognize his name when I see it. And so it is funny that he directed this. Good work, sir. I hope you continue prospering. Yeah, I wonder how much he got of that 60-mill slice.

I don't know. Nirvana. The band. The show. The show. The movie. the Sardinacast discussion. Yeah, without me.

Unfortunately, they don't have a distributor for Europe right now. Yeah, what the hell, Matt Johnson? What the hell? Yeah, he's, you know, it's because he personally doesn't want anybody in your countries to watch it. Yeah. That's what I heard.

He's gatekeeping. Why is he gatekeeping this movie? because everyone is glazing it nonstop I want to see it but I guess I'm not allowed

Yeah You guys had him on the podcast Right? Yeah you had him and Jay McCarroll Yeah we could have him back If you want to talk to him

Oh yeah that'd be cool We could have both them back If you want Yeah why not That'd be cool No I was like Looking up old podcasts Because I was like

Did you guys mention talking to him And I was like Oh yeah You guys did You talked Had a chat And that's pretty cool I feel like

People are Are excited about this movie Especially on like You know film YouTube and film Twitter and that sort of thing. People are very hyped about this. Finally, yeah. No, like he's getting like actual recognition

from like industry people even. You know, fucking like JJ Abrams was at one of his the screenings and like now Edgar Wrights shouting him out on Twitter and like... Matt Johnson's next movie is going to be lens flares and... Oh no. Yeah. Yeah, in the Bourdain.

biopic. Yeah, no, he's found success. All of them. It's a great crew, and he's been working with, like, a lot of the same people since the beginning.

Yeah, I've been watching him since the Dirties, which was 2013, I think. And, yeah, it's been really, really pleasant and satisfying watching his career

slowly. take form over time and turn into this, which is honestly one of the funniest movies of the past decade, I think. I think everybody should see it. It's fucking hilarious. It's very funny. Yeah, so we'll talk non-spoilers

because Alex is in dystopian world. We can say spoilers with like a spoiler warning and then we'll just post in the chat when we're done. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I didn't know anything about Matt Johnson. and Jane McGarrow or Nirvana, the band, the show of the movie. I thought it literally had something to do with Nirvana, with the two ends instead of three. I didn't even know.

I was, when I was editing my review, I was like looking. You mean one end instead of two, right? Yeah, well, the first N in the. Oh, yeah, sorry. Thank you. Yeah, check your fucking N letters. I became an AI for a second. Yeah, so I didn't know anything.

And then I just stepped into this based solely on Adam, your enthusiasm about it. Thank you. You would, you've been holding me a gunpoint for a while. So I saw it and it was a blast, especially knowing nothing going in. It just, I didn't even watch the trailer so I didn't know the kind of like tonal narrative direction it would take. I suggest people do the same if they just want to go in blind. I think that's super cool. The movie is just full of creative energy and trying new funny things.

I really what sold me the most was just this character dynamic between Matt and Jay and this kind of like reminded me very much with the movie Hot Rod, which is one of my favorite movies of a guy who's just like you know, a loser who has a dream. A loser with a big dream and he's dragging around

these people in his wake to try to try to make his dream come true. And you know I think anyone who is in a creative field kind of has some kind of relates to that in some ways. So it was just, yeah, totally fun. It blended documentary and mockumentary and homage to some great films.

And there were some laugh at loud moments like my theater was just enjoying it so much. It was a really good time. So thanks, Adam, for recommending it. Of course. Yeah. How does the film parody angle stuff manifest in the film? Because that was kind of the structure of the show. As each film was kind of, each episode was like a parody.

Is the whole film kind of like aping the narrative of another film or is it worth just going in blind? Yeah. Do you want to reveal it? Much of it, yeah. But I wouldn't. Yes, absolutely. It's not something that you need to have watched before seeing it to know what it is and it doesn't really matter. So it's not to boldly flee of Navajo.

It parodies a very well-known film that everyone would know. That you would know even if you haven't seen it. Exactly. But it's not just a parody. Like that's something that I was worried. Like once it started going in that direction, I was like, oh, are we just doing this? But no, it does its own thing.

And it's really smart with like all of its like little side jokes from the beginning, things that feel really irrelevant end up tying back in because of the type of movie this is. It's all connected and really smart and clever. And again, at certain points in the movie, you're going like, how did they do this? Is this real? Did they, how much of this is real? How are they getting these authentic reactions from other people? In some ways, it is kind of like a Nathan for you rehearsal situation, but totally different in tone and kind of like, you know, we aren't really making fun of these random people in the same way. There's not that kind of fun cruelty that we love about Nathan Fielder, who is kind of the devil. You know, Matt Johnson is. and Jay McCarroll don't really operate that way. The humor comes on them, like the joke's on their expense

when they're interacting with other people for the most part. So it's, uh, um, yeah, it's just really well, really well made movie, really well-paced,

uh, just flew by and I feel like, uh, there'd be a lot more humor to pull from just rewatching it as well. So, yeah, um, yeah,

I've seen it, I've seen it four times. I would gladly see it a fifth. Um, you're right. It's not mean-spirited in any way. And, you know, even if it, regardless of whether or not it's mean-spirited, it's not like a prank movie and it's not like that's the point.

It's just there are people that don't know they're in a movie for both practical and artistic reasons. And it adds to the humor. You do want to see people, you know, caught off guard by weird shit happening around them in a way that feels genuine. And it's actually really, really clever. There's one that I want to explain to you about how they got a reaction out of somebody, but I'll have to wait for the spoiler section, I guess.

It's very, very clever and well thought out and very... Yeah, no, it's really good. I mean, it is kind of the situation where if a movie's great, you just don't really want to say as much. It's harder to just be like, yeah, this is wonderful. This was well done because... you do want people to just experience it themselves and get the kind of surprises

and the fun experience from it. Yeah. And again, like, I went in totally blind and I think that enhanced the experience, even though I know there are a lot of people who are fans of the show. And I definitely want to watch the show now, and I plan to do that.

But it's kind of amazing that they were able to, like, have this cult show that they did that was so much improvisatory stuff. And I watched this interview with Matt Johnson that Joel Haver did on his second channel that was really enlightening to me about like their process I didn't realize how much of it was improvised but also like I guess his process has changed

in the fact that he's using more they're writing a lot more of what's going on and structuring it differently and how that's benefiting the process and the kind of filmmaking that he does is always like using multicam and very performance driven you know it's like very much like we need to make sure

everything is being filmed these lightning and a bottle performances. And you get more like spontaneity, I think, from that, but you do lose some of that feeling of like, well, you're having fancy camera shots and movements and stuff. But the point of this movie is that it feels like a mockumentary. So that's kind of, it's supposed to feel kind of scrappy. It makes sense for it to be in that style

based on what they want to get out of scenes and characters and location, you know, like get out of the environment of filmmaking. otherwise if you're trying to shoot in a different way, it just doesn't make any practical sense. So it's a nice little marriage of ideas that coexist and work really well with each other. Yeah, and I want to point out too that like Matt Johnson has like the bigger character that's very like doing the broader comedy stuff.

But Jay McCarroll is so good at playing like the straight man but is also dumb. I think someone on Twitter is learning out something like Jay McCarroll is so good at playing the smart guy who's actually dumber

than the dumb guy. Like his expressions and how he... Like, you think he's going to handle things much better and like solve things better because he acts so good as the straight man,

but his reactions are so fucking funny and stupid and the things he does. There's one scene in particular which we can talk about and spoilers that had the audience like,

I can't even describe reaction. Everyone was just freaking out. It was so fucking good and funny. Here's a question. Alex, have you seen any of the Weissland show? Did I show that to you? I don't think so. Oh, fuck. Well, I'll keep that in mind. I wouldn't mind getting into

a little spoiler reno. So Alex, wait for us to type in the Discord and then you'll know when to unmute or whatever. Okay, I'll take my headphones off. Yeah. We'll say we're done streaming or whatever, whenever. Bye-bye, Alex. So here's the thing about this fucking movie. So, yeah, what's really interesting,

anybody who doesn't know listening and just wants to be spoiled. With it being a time travel movie, there's a reaction of the woman who's outside of the CN Tower. Which is, I think you called it the Toronto Space Needle in your video. I did. People got upset at me. Yeah. As they should.

Also, also I'll mention people from Toronto, they like it pronounced Toronto as if you don't say the second T. Oh, Toronto. So if you say Toronto, then they'll be like, that's bad. So like people from Nevada don't like Nevada sort of thing. Is that true? I didn't realize that. I know. Isn't that weird?

Anyway, the woman who's outside of the CN Tower, who he basically bumps into twice, all they did was they just shot it out of order. So the second time was actually the first time. And then the first time, you know, he's able to say, oh, have I met you before? She goes, no. Or whatever, right?

That's so good. Which is a genuine reaction from a real person because she hadn't. They just shot it out of order, which is really cool. that is so clever yeah I was wondering about that because like the the the time travel specifics like it's so important in in these types of movies that you get like random stuff happening or things that are offhand that don't feel important but it's like seeing it a second time you're like oh we're back in this moment in time so like as he's there he sees like spider man holding up a woman or something like that that they clearly must have gotten like those people to paid to do it like multiple times but everyone else is like yeah maybe actually they're like I don't know like there's so much of that trickery, especially, like, have they talked about getting into the CN Tower and how much of that was real? And, like, that's the one thing that they say that, like, legally they have to wait before being able to, like, they, like, I don't, I don't know what they did. What was very funny is at the premiere at Tiff at Midnight Madness, the mayor of Toronto was actually in the crowd.

Oh, my God. And so, like, they said, like, before the show, like, please, just don't worry about the thing. we show and don't get us in trouble sort of thing but it was great like she showed up to support in that way like it was awesome um yeah there's a there's a lot of fun clever uh trickery going on and these guys through you know the web series which you know is good for what it is very funny just you know rough around the edges and then the tv show which is like one of the funniest things ever and also super fucking clever like the meta layers in the television show go really, really, really insane in terms of like how they get the shot or how they get the scene or the location.

One example I can give you is Matt Johnson directed a film called Operation Avalanche and it was about two characters basically faking the moon landing with Stanley Kubrick or whatever in the 60s, right? that film got accepted to premiere at Sundance. And so as they're filming the show, they were like, okay, well, we're going to be at Sundance. Why don't we use that as a way to get an episode where the characters make a movie and go to Sundance. And so in the episode of the show, there's this fake movie with the same title called Operation Avalanche,

but it's like about a school shooting or something. And it's like really super fucking cheesy and terribly made because it's made by these characters. And since the character's names are the same even, they went to Sundance and they snuck in basically phrases that they could use for the show into real interviews that they were having about the real movie, but in ways that it would make sense for the fake movie. And they did this whole fucking like fake like Q&A basically. after, like you'll see the episode. But that's how dedicated they are towards like, not just being bold enough to go out there and do something crazy and you're not sure if it's going to work or if people will get mad, but also being clever enough to figure out how to do it.

Obviously within like, you know, limited time frame, there's only one way to get the shot. You know, like, if you mess it up, you mess it up. sort of thing, but yeah, they managed to do it. Like, there's a lot of coordination and planning and clever ideas being orchestrated, and they've had so much experience with it now. I love that because it's like true indie filmmaking kind of like trickery that I love, and I love learning about like behind the scenes, stuff like that. Getting a lot with a little.

But I saw a clip of them. I think Jay was winning some kind of award. I don't even know what it was for. But then during the awards acceptance speech, they're like, okay, we're going to actually film something. We need a moment for our next film. And they literally filmed the scene of him getting a Grammy on stage. Like, I was like, oh my God, that's so clever.

Like, that's how they got the footage of it seeming like he was winning a Grammy and like, like, tricking their way into getting these shots. And it's the same way, like when they do the time travel stuff, like they just have, I guess, have all of this footage from back when they were shooting the web series or whatever. And they can like make it seem like they were actually there. I love that moment in the movie that's so silly. And it's like pointing out how silly it is, but it's like to make it seem seamless where they're in the RV and they're in 2008. And they're like, guys, we can't go out there with these like super high tech futuristic cameras. And you look, it's just like a normal camera.

It's like, it's like we need to use our shitty camera from 2008. Yeah. I like how they almost like it's almost leaning towards like that they won't do it. He even says, which would be very difficult to pull off if we were. faking it. Yeah. And then they actually go for it and it is pulled off so well and I believe them. I know. Right? Like there's so much that you'd have to, you know, anticipate and consider. Every time I thought it would end because I'm like, there's no way they have footage to be able to keep going with this bit. It keeps going and going and going and it doesn't feel like you just buy

into it. At a certain point, you're just like, oh yeah, they time travel. Yeah. Did you know that during the because we're in spoiler section during the scene where there's like news reporting of the shooting at his mansion that's real news reporting

from the during the Drake and Kendrick beef somebody like shot Drake's house in Toronto yeah and like a security guard got hit like there was like a drive by basically oh my and so and so like Matt

and like jay and uh jared i guess and maybe somebody else from the crew they literally just they heard there was a shooting they're like okay we're close by and then they went there and then said we're press and they said that they were like independent press basically and then you can literally see like if you look up on youtube there's like news report i'll send you a clip later um but you can literally see like in actual news coverage of the drake shooting you can see Matt kind of like running around directing Jay like to be pretending like he's you know

hiding from the police and they didn't even really know what they were going to use it for at the time I believe they kind of just saw an opportunity they're like yeah we're going to get some footage and they kind of figured out what they wanted it to be around that and just like the guy like at the beginning who's the libertarian that's like you can get electrocuted or whatever like that line comes into play by the end of the film, but he wasn't fed that line. Like, that's just a real guy. They used the real life interaction to, as a place for the film to go. And it's kind of like

a serendipitous, uh, filmmaking where it can, it can just be anything. You can change it into anything. Yeah. And just having that freedom is really cool. That's kind of amazing. Yeah, like, it really is an ode to that sort of, like, having that sort of flexibility and the creative process when making a film. Like, most people just don't think of filmmaking on those levels. Like, they just think, you have a script,

you execute the script. And, like, but also, like, you have to have a sickness in your head to have the mind. And, like, filmmakers are like this where it's like, you, hearing about a shooting outside Drake's house and you're like, we need to go get this in our film.

Yeah. But it's a, it's a, it's a, It's a Canada shooting. It's like not... It's a Canada shooting. Oh, my God. Like, it's just, it's wild. It's funny.

I think I, in another interview with Matt Johnson, he said something where, like, other people from other countries will come up to him and be like, how were you allowed to do any of this? Is Canada just, they just let you do this stuff there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, again, like with the cable coming down from the C.N. Tower, like at the climax of the film, it's, It's done really well. It looks very realistic. But you're also like, yeah, how are they actually doing this? And I kept thinking, how are they getting the reaction shots from these people?

And apparently, tell me this is true, like someone was holding the wire up with like a fishing pole. Yeah, something along those lines is what I would assume. And so people were looking at that or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I assume. It's like they either had someone on a roof or a rig or like, you know, they can just climb on of shit like when when they when they uh when they have matt kind of like landing on top of the the bus and then climbing down the bus stop they just you know they just did that right they just

had them climb up there and i guess make like a loud thud noise and then climb down like you can just fucking ask for forgiveness later if you need to yeah i mean that combined with like the clearly good, like, use of visual effects to, like, make it seem like they were in 2008. Like, the best part of that whole sequence, obviously, is when they watch the hangover. Yes. And they are thinking none of, like, nothing's wrong or weird about this until the paging doctor, you know. Me. Why?

Like, that was the funniest. Like, the face he makes, he does, like, this soy face that's just so fucking funny whenever he's shot. But, yeah, my theater was, like, cracking. That was one of the biggest last. up there with when Jay shoots the guy. Yeah, yeah. Those are the two funniest moments for me as well. They're like when I was rewatching it, like one of my rewatches in theaters or whatever, like Pat Crowd, I'm just getting up to that scene with Jay.

All I'm thinking is just like, I'm almost like scanning the audience for people that are like about to leave for the bathroom so I can just like grab them and be like, don't do that. It's not the time. You have to see that. Yeah. You have to be here. I think, like, another thing that's so fun is that it almost feels like a participatory experience at some point, like, you're watching something you shouldn't be allowed to watch. Yeah.

Like, even at the point when Matt just looks at the camera and it's like, if you're watching this in a theater right now, you're so lucky, you know, this is probably the only time it's going to, you're going to see it because of the music rights. And that sort of feeling of like, this is sort of like not allowed. Like, we shouldn't be allowed to be watching this type of movie. and it's unusual and the audience feels a part of it. I think that's why so many people are so excited about this movie and anyone who watches it, even like tons of YouTubers I see,

like, you who are in like film review spaces or like, you need to go see this movie. This is a special movie because it involves the audience in that weird, almost like parissocial YouTubery way where it's like... Oh, yeah, they're very internet culture savvy. Right, right. Like he shouted Obamna.

yeah and like their original show was a web show right and like they were inspired by like mega 64 um you know like they're they're all about that and so like it

shows in their humor and it's reflected yeah in their audience I love that I love that it's making rounds in these spaces because now it's not just me fucking shouting them out

and trying to get more people to see it Like, I want it to be a success. I want to see fucking a sequel, you know, like, if they want to make one. But, yeah, the more freedom that they have to make their projects, the better it is for me and for everyone, in my opinion. Yeah. And I think, like, that combination of, like, the internet virality, they're clearly, and I wonder if other, like, you know, studios will look at this and be like, hey, this is, like a strategy of, you know, building a pipe online. Of course, they do it in a stupid way, you know, because, like, they, like, they. have the authentic love and appreciation.

Like they went on Joel Haver's thing and they did like an episode of their show. Yeah, I got to watch that. There's one before I bring Alex back. Anthony Fantano told me that he was doing that cameo because he found Nirvana the band from my video.

And that's why he followed Jay on Insta and then Jay messaged him. That's awesome. Yeah. So I had a little bit. bit of an impact on it and that was nice yeah you are you are the um the movie maker you're you're well this movie wouldn't exist without you I I directed the movie yeah yeah I'm gonna send Alex a message to come back that's cool yeah yeah ratings let it back oh yeah yeah uh nine out or 10

nine out of 10 I give it a fucking 10 nice I gave it a nine on my first watch started creeping up to a by my fourth fucking love it it's a thing that like it's just impressive that it exists you know the stars fucking aligned yeah that's what i want to say even though i haven't seen it it's like they just don't care about broad marketability yeah like it's so niche and crazy i love that it exists yeah the biggest mouthful of a title for a movie based on a web series and a show that like you can't even watch anywhere. Like unless you get like a link to a Google drive. Yeah, just having Nirvana in the title is so like,

you're just kind of screwed immediately. It's so funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's part of the joke there. Yeah, I know. There's some funny, like kind of recurring jokes throughout the series even that like some are in the movie, but like it's not,

it's it's you don't need to have watched the other uh materials first it's almost just like extra stuff for fans rather than it being like inaccessible to people who haven't seen it i think getting that um sign of like sort of mainstream approval with neon of like okay this is uh film like it's okay to go watch this in a theater it's a neon and also and it makes me upset because like canada has this kind of public funding where they can't fund projects like this and make films and make art that we don't have in the United States. You know, they got, you know, publicly funded to make this film. Yeah.

Well, you save so much money on your taxes. Exactly. I know. I know. I mean, we got to send more money to Israel, so, I mean, that's what we're worried about over here. Public funding for arts in Canada is, it's there. I've, like, looked through some of the process for, like, when I was younger, trying to figure out how I'm going to pay. for like, you know, recording music and stuff. And, you know, there's like some dumb rules here and there, but it is a system that exists that, you know,

if you're an artist in Canada and you need money to make art, like you should probably try to take advantage of that, you know? Like, it's there for a reason. And if, you know, good art is being made, then all the better. This is an art subsidy thing in China. Yeah. Yeah. And most developed countries,

have things like that. Like France. Yeah. What is it, what is your called the British lottery or something? Yeah, the lottery like funds everything.

Yeah. Yeah. Do they have anything like that in the States? Like anything? For art? If you tell the government you want to make something artistic,

they just throw a brick at your face and figure it the fuck out. I mean, they're used to, like the AFI, the American film is just, It used to be publicly funded. Now it's like, you want to go.

Yeah, that was under, I think, Lyndon Johnson. I started the American Film Institute, which is where David Lynch started, where all these great filmmakers, you know. And now it's like, you want to go to the American Film Institute, you are paying a shit ton of money. It's insane. It's only for rich people now. So rich people get to make art. Oh, it's a best art. I mean, Alex, you had a great fucking rant.

I listened to your Weathering Heights review and your rant about. you know, arts, funding, and how only rich people get to make art now. It's, it's, it was highly good. Yeah. You know, especially like the contrast of a Wuthering Heights and success it's found. Contrast it against, like, a 28 years or something, which is like, you know, we've got a classic British director attached to that from a working class background. It's weird and different experimental.

No one cares about it. Like, it bombs, basically. Yeah. The message is no, but then you get emerald in there. Adapt a book, it doesn't have to be anything even like the book. I haven't read it, but from what I understand and what I've learned since watching the film. And you've read the book. I love the book.

It's one of my favorite books, yeah. It's an incredible book. And it seems like it's a really interesting, like, structurally and what it's saying and this generational format to it. But the film is not about that. It's basically just like a. just a flat kind of very desperate softball pornos. It is, yeah.

Yeah. And it's like fine if you want to do that, you know. Yeah, if you want to do that, that's like, I mean, like, I thought the production designer, everything was really nice and there was some interesting. Yeah, it's incredible. But it ultimately is like trying to be this transgressive object. It's trying to be this like horny, transgressive like, oh, aren't we being bad and naughty? And it just really isn't that, you know, it's kind of boring.

and it's just kind of feels like a... Oh, so boring. Yeah, it's kind of like a boring love triangle film where all of the thornyness of the book is kind of removed and stripped back. And like, I'm not saying you have to direct the book one to one, but if you're going to do something different, at least do it interesting in a different direction

or go full, camp, big... Yeah, that's what would have made it work on that kind of more sleazy angles if they did go full in on that. That would have been kind of entertaining instead of kind of dreary and sleepy in a way I wasn't expecting. It was like so dull. At least I could like get through saltburn, even if that annoyed me in certain ways.

But I just... It got sentimental. Like they were trying to make the audience cry at the end of the film. And I'm like, really? Is that what we're trying to do? Yeah, whereas I wasn't into any character. I didn't feel this chemistry and everyone was so kind of like mustache-twelling, evil by the end. I was like, what am I supposed to be feeling?

Exactly. And to put into perspective, like the book isn't like a horny, like there's no sex in the book. It like first off, but also it's like about generational trauma. Like it goes, it covers probably like 60 years of this couple, these family's lives. And it shows like the cycles of abuse and also deals with, you know, racism and all this like class issues. It's very like class oriented and it has a just a really talk like the characters are fucking demonic like truly like there's Heathcliff by the end of that book. is irredeemable as a character. He's this like monster. And the movie does sand that down in order to make it kind of like a fun, horny, like BDSM-ish type thing. And, you know, like, again, if you want to do that, that's fine. But it's like, why are, if you're going to do it, do it interesting.

Go bick or go home. Like, let these characters be complicated. I mean, I was just saying, like, I liked your little class analysis there and talking about public funding and everything. Like Wuthering Heights is an example. of the type of art being made when we just let rich people make art. And it's like, we can let that happen, but you know, you're limited.

Yeah, no one's stopping them. Yeah, yeah. With this example as well being with so much of the inherent drama intention of the story is about like the class dynamics and like since I made that video talking about it, watching a bunch of interviews of her talking about her process behind the film, she doesn't bring that up like a single time. and basically alludes that she's not the right person to tell that sort of story, in which case, why are you making The Wuthering Heights?

Yeah. Why are you adapting this book then? Like, sure, take the setting or the ideas of these characters that you've liked, and I guess putting it in the quotation marks. It's supposed to be her, like, this is mine. Like, it's not actually, it's like the Emerald's version of it. It's going to be a bit steamy. this time.

It's like, yeah, maybe a swing and a miss, but it just feels like a very aesthetics led and just, I don't know, that can work if everything is on that level, but the script just isn't as spicy as I think she thinks it is. No, and that's the downside. If you want to be a big studio filmmaker, like, you're only going to be able to do as much as, like Salt Burn had the infamous bathtub scene, but it's like, you know, you can do a couple of shocking moments. But I mean, Wuthering Heights didn't even have that, you know, it didn't have anything where people were like, oh, remember that moment?

That was crazy. Yeah. Because in interviews, they're asking her, like, oh, what is the bathtub scene of this movie? Right. In interviews, and it's like what? That kind of goes to show how people view her films as this kind of like boundary pushing person. It's almost like the inverse to me. She's actually, like, quite safe in what she is adding with her commentary and this stuff.

And it is just, it does just feel like a. an aesthetic and that she never actually is diving into this and any real depth or finding what was interesting about these stories or characters, it does just feel like wanking off kind of I think castration movie would melt these people's brains

they would die. Yeah, because I do wonder about that sometimes. Am I just sanded down compared to like an average? But broadly it doesn't seem to be like it's making shit loads of money and like people weeping in my theater but at least like critically it's not really getting it's found his audience

but I don't think it's people who are fans of the books or people who are big fans of cinema necessarily it's that group in between and you know what the Normies they deserve they deserve slop to sometimes

right? Sure. I just don't know why you'd pick a book like this to do it with in that way it's in the public domain yeah that's true that's a good reason

that's an amazing reason yeah anyways I guess we don't have to keep going on about this film. All right, cool. Nice. Recommendation time?

Recommendation time. As in yours. Did we say, I don't think we gave ratings actually for Wutheringhires. I didn't watch it. Yeah. I mean, I just gave it one and a half star. I think it's Emerald's weakest yet. We'll see where that goes.

Yeah, I think I gave it a five out of ten. Well, I might lower it to four out of ten. Fair enough. Yeah, being generous there. But yeah, recommendation time. This week was my recommendation. And I recommended 1977 William Freakins Sorcerer, which is a movie I've been wanting to recommend for a while.

It's one of my favorite movies ever. I saw it probably in like 2016 or something on DVD before it really had proper, like, Blu-ray release or anything. And now is like, it feels like it has been fully like brought back into the canon. You know, at the time it was a huge flop. It was a disaster.

It was William Friedkin's first major disaster after the success of the French connection and The Exorcist, which was a huge, huge, huge success. A lots of stuff that are weird about this film that kind of explain why it didn't do well. First off, the title, it's called Sorcerer. It has nothing to do with magic or wizards. Yeah, what? Except, I guess, like metaphorically. There ain't no sorcery.

It is a remake or an adaptation of the Georges Arnodes novel, The Wages of Fear. I had never seen The Wages of Fear until this week when I decided to watch it because I feel like that would help give some insight onto this film. And I do have a lot to share about the original. I didn't ask you guys to watch it because, you know, you guys have a lot to watch anyways. Because I specifically requested that we cannot do long movies or double features right now. know. Exactly. And the original Wages of Fear is

1953 French, two and a half hour films, so. I really wanted to, like as soon as I heard that like, oh yeah, you know, people wanted me to watch this for context like, and that it's great in different ways. I really wanted to, but I was like, I literally

just fucking, I'm so pressed for time right now that I couldn't get in. Yeah. Yeah. All I'll say about, well, I'll get into a little more, but what I'll say is that you guys should absolutely check out the wages of fear. I was stunned, genuinely stunned. To me, The Wages of Fear is a 10 out of 10. Like, I was so shocked because I love Sorcerer, and I thought, well, there's, I'm sure the original is kind of creaky and, you know, less intense than the new one.

It is a thrill ride. It, the Wages of Fear is an incredible movie. It's way more character focused. So, like, you spend way more time learning about these guys, you're way more, it's very dark noir feel to it. But you really care more about their relationships to one another. So in that sense, I can understand like a beloved classic, The Wages of Fear, being remade in the 70s by this William Friedkin, who, let's be honest, is kind of a jerk. Kind of a dumb guy.

You know, he doesn't listen to the studio heads. You know, he's this novice who found great success and he can do whatever he wants. And, you know, the directors are kings in the 70s. part of the narrative is like the studio people were kind of waiting for Friedkin to trip you know they're like let's let this guy finally be mortal right so this movie comes out it's a remake of a beloved classic and it's kind of different and it comes out I think the same week or the same month as Star Wars so um a lots of stuff set up for its failure and it was kind of written off at the time but now yeah it has criteria

4K release. It's people talk about it as one of Friedkin's best movies. And I agree. So anyways, that's a lot of talking from me. What did you guys think of Sorcerer? Alex? Hmm. Yeah.

I don't know what was outside of the Vietnam War was going on in the 70s where all these filmmakers was like, I guess we just got to go, we've got to do some shit in a jungle. Yeah. Got Apocalypse Now. Stalker. The Rath of God. which we did, the Herzog stuff,

in the previous episode, deliverance. I guess now, Sorser being one of these type of movies for me, a man versus wilderness kind of adventure. I've looked at this film many a time on IMDB. It's just been so, like, thrown off by the combination of that title that you mentioned in the intro there.

With, like, what? Sorcerer, like, really does just conjure, like, pardon to a certain, yeah, fantasy. I guess you can make it make sense. but I do think the wages of fear is kind of a more fitting title. I'd love to hear an explanation as to where that was changed, or maybe a did want distance from the original film or the book perhaps. But I did actually check out the 53 Wages of Fear.

Oh, you watched it? I did. I just managed to sneak it in today. Oh, fantastic. So I've got this huge, hours-long sequence of anxiety-inducing sequences of bombs being moved around in trucks. Yeah. But I really liked both of them.

Nice. With a slight edge towards Sorcer, I think, actually. Cool. With it being this kind of jungle adventure, the tangibility and practicality, not that wages of fear, isn't that, just what they were able to do with that kind of unhinged 70s energy of like,

just on the border of, like, health and safety and this kind of stuff. Let's just be in the jungle. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, let's just torture a casting crew and make something quite engaging, unique and, uh,

incredible at certain points. So, some of the best action like, I've seen in a while is in Sorcerer. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, I'm,

I'm so glad that you enjoyed it and that you watched the original. Yeah. But I do think like, for me, I get two different things. Like, the original has brilliant, like,

Hitchcockian suspense. Like, there are a, four set pieces, four or five set pieces in the Wages of Fear that are just brilliantly constructed in like this language of cinema that's like amazing. But it doesn't have that same type of grime or grit that you get, of course, from a movie that's shot entirely in the jungle, you know, with like it's a comparison, I would say that I feel like the wages of fear kind of feels like a nuclear war take of like at any second these bombs could blow up. You never know.

know what's going to happen. You know, we're transporting nitroglycer and like any, like the, the chaos of chance and randomness, whereas Sorcerer feels like these guys are faded to doom. Like this feels like purgatory or hell. That, like, there's no escape, you know? Like a Cold War, yeah. Yeah, that is interesting. Contrast those interpretations are the same story.

Because the basic beats are still there, but as you said, they really couldn't be more different from a kind of stylistic or atmospheric, atmospheric perspective. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, this was a really great watch. I was just, fuck it.

I had, I've been having such a touch and go week of just like, bam, bam, bam, bam responsibility after the other. So they're just like, by the time that I got to this, it was like just end of the day, last night. And even though I was like, you know, started the movie. felt kind of still just stressed. It didn't take long, you know, for the film to engage me enough

and just kind of lull me into like, oh, actually, I'm feeling better now, just kind of watching and engaging. Your relaxation from a stressful day is to watch the most stressful movie. Oh, no, it's great, yeah. Yeah, we've talked about this. Yeah, no, it's pretty nuts.

Like, it's really, really impressive what they managed to, to capture on film here. And especially with, you know, watching this kind of makes me even more intrigued to check out, like, Fitzcaroldo and the companionist documentary with it. And although I, you know, that I understand that there's like a story behind that one of just the filming conditions, I don't. expect it to be as well shot as this. And so that's something that I really love about this film in particular, when it comes to this genre of we're going to the jungle to film things in the 70s or whatever. It really has a sense of like not only variety when it comes to the shot composition, the framing, but also a sense of intentionality.

Like it feels motivated. It's varied. It doesn't feel stale in any way. The editing also really helps with this, like, fantastic pacing. And it's also, for me, you know, as much as I really did want to watch wages of fear, I do love how unpredictable this was for me. Like, when things were happening, I was like, oh, wow. Like, you know, like, wasn't kind of anticipating it.

And things go in many different directions in a very nice pace. Like 30 minutes through the movie, we've met so many characters. We've seen so many different settings. And it just feels like a nice flowing piece of art. That's just a pleasant thing to watch. Yeah, that structure was cool for films of this genre, the kind of vignette introduction to these different characters before. They're smashed together in the tracks.

I thought that was a cool way of trickling out the information and, yeah, adding some variety in there. That's interesting. You guys are talking, like praising the opening, like half hour. That's just kind of like all over the world as we meet these characters,

boom, boom, boom. It's intriguing. It's like, where is this going? Like, how are they? Right. How is this kind of link? It was all compelling. It didn't feel like it was,

um, like a big narrative mess or anything. Also, like the immediacy of the images. Like you are there in those locations. Like, those are real explosions. Like,

it just feels, again, like watching movies from this era where, like Friedkin has the ability to not only film wherever he wants in however, whatever style he wants, but he has the budget, you know, at this point to do, have like his blank check movie. So getting to see all of that. And that was one of the complaints of this movie.

And I frequently see that as a complaint with this movie is like the half hour feels like, oh, it's unnecessary. The original didn't need it that. Well, let me tell you, the, the 1953 version is the intro is much longer. Both movies, it takes an hour. I was kind of looking at the timer to see. It takes an hour for both movies to get on the road literally when the trucks start moving. It's about an hour.

I think that it goes much faster in Sorcerer simply because the editing is a lot faster. We're moving a bunch of different locations. It's visually more, there's just more happening. However, with the wages of fear, I was like really compelled by the characters. Whereas in Sorcerer, I was kind of like, you know, I don't really care that much about the characters. I'm curious what you think about that, Alex, if you've had a different relationship to that. That's kind of interesting because there is the quality of the music and sorcerer.

It was a big thing for me. I love Tentering Dream. I thought that created a really weird, unique atmosphere to that jungle, which isn't there in the same way in the 50s version. There's like no music in the 50s version. Yeah, exactly. So that contrast of the characters, though, specifically, I liked the same set of characters just in different ways, I guess.

I think I am overall leaning more towards Sorcerer, and that is the one I did pick to watch first, as it was the wreck, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get necessarily to Wages of Fear. So maybe it's like the punch of the story first off, but I don't know, I still think I prefer how it came together as a piece. Yeah. But it didn't even stand out or contrast that heavily as far as like, oh, this one is so much better.

it was more of a, well, we're like deep into the 70s now, like technology evolved. It's just different style of filmmaking, yeah. Yeah, different style, yeah, well, different intentions, like the, there's the charm of, like, the rear projection and stuff like that, and there's, it's more of an angle, yeah, on the, the dialogue and the characters interacting in that scene and the way we don't get the same scale like you do in that, the flexing of the environment of the 70s stuff and the way that's integrated. even though there's still loads of beautifully put together environmental

like on location shots in Wages of Fear it's just is all just kind of ramped up in Sorcerer for me by direct contrast. I like that the set pieces are kind of different too. Like, you know, in Wages of Fear, you have the driving fast stop down the road, you know, set piece. It's also different like, The Wages of Fear is more in the desert and Sorcerer is all in the jungle.

Yeah, I'm not going to, you know, spoil the set pieces. and wages of fear. I do think, Adam, you should, like, I would give it some time before you watch it, just say that the story's, like, fresh again in your head. But Sorcerer has, like, the once they get on the road in Sorcerer, and all the stuff before that is fascinating and beautiful and mesmerizing and the score and all the explosions and action,

like, it's a jam-packed first hour. But once you get into the second hour, and this is just a two-hour movie, you know, it's really not that long. It goes so fast. I was shocked re-watching this when I, I was like, fuck, it's already almost over like that. It really moves, you know.

Yeah, it's, it seems like it has very different goals from the original, from what I can tell. This is maybe the only film I can think of where the explosions are fun. Because all of these other movies, like people just throw them in and it's like you're supposed to be impressed, right? And there's such a pretentious kind of expectation of spectacle to go along with it. But it never feels meaningful. It never feels impactful. Like, it doesn't even... So many movies just have random explosions,

especially from, like, I don't know, 90s, right? In this film, every explosion was, like, fun and exciting. And it's not just purely because of, you know, the context of the movie and what the plot is and where these characters are. It also has to do with how it's shot. There's something particular about the way that... that the color feels in this film where the flames,

both from fire sources and explosions, really pops out from the frame, from the rest of the colors within the frame. There's something really kind of eye-catching to the colors in this film, but particularly the explosions. And that might have something to do with it. But, yeah, I was having a blast

watching this movie. Nice, nice. Yeah, the color is brilliant. Everything is sweaty. Like, there is no shot of this movie that isn't covered with some kind of grime or layer of sweat. So sweaty.

I love to, in the wages of fear, they're given, like, proper trucks to drive. Like, whereas in Sorcerer, I forgot. Like, they have to put these fucking trucks together. They're building the trucks of these guys. And, like, that montage with Tandrean Dream of them building the truck. Like, every shot is so gorgeous

of this grimy, broken down, disgusting monster of it. The trucks are characters in themselves. They feel like the way they're designed at like the art direction, it looks like they have mouths. Like they're, they're, they go personality.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, honestly, like, I wasn't sure the criterion cover of it is such a, it's such an extreme close up that I wasn't really sure what that was. Um, beforehand. It almost looked like, uh,

okay, that's like, okay, that's like a painting of a truck even. Yeah. Yeah, it almost looks like a face sort of thing. Right. Like, almost like a totem pole style face.

Yeah. You know what I mean? I think, like, on this watch, I was thinking a lot about, like, this idea of we are in hell. And it's all these characters from different countries, but they're brought to this unnamed, unknown town that clearly has some kind of, like, dictator that is being propped up, you know, by Western countries or whatever. We're in an oil town. where like the political analysis and the critique is a lot more on the nose

and wages of fear. You have like the dumb American guy who's just like, I don't care about these bastards. We got to go blow up this. You know, we got to go fix our oil pipeline, whatever. And in Sorcerer, it has that too, but I just kept feeling this sense of like, this is the hell that we have created in the global South. Like this is like all the posters of the

dictator in that town. The sequence that moved me so much watching this and is so shocking is after the explosion of the oil pipeline and they bring the bodies back of all the workers there in the body bags, the charred corpses and the

silence of these people and just the crinkling of the body bag as they're bringing these guys out of the truck. And then it's just, it's so deeply like immediate and this like full depiction of a real hell that has been created in in this in you know Latin America so yeah but also kind of tactile and believable especially the way it was shot put together with the way like extras were used in

tandem with the actors you know and love yeah it makes it kind of feel organable organic believable as an environment. And I noticed that too with the wages of fear when they were talking about like, oh yeah, Americans will just go wherever there's oil and this kind of stuff that wasn't really mentioned in the same way.

It kind of feels like, yeah, that is the French kind of way of interpreting this kind of story. Whereas the freak and kind of sorcerer way is a different flavor, a different angle. Yeah, I like the way you put it. Maybe pointing inwards a little bit more.

Uh-huh. Yeah, I love that. There's some great dialogue scenes in the original. I feel like Sorcerer, though, would work if there was no dialogue. If it was just all visuals. Yeah. It's just that kind of film. Like, you just don't need it.

And, like, like, and we can get, I don't know, do you guys want to get into spoilers and talk about some of these specific set pieces? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So the bridge sequence is like the standout. That's like the, yeah. everyone talks about. It's insane.

It's totally insane. It's incredible. You just can't believe what your eyes are like registering because it feels so real. It's almost like this movie was made at the perfect time where they had the means in the budget and the balls. And like a director insane enough and enough cocaine to be able to be like, let's go out and film this. Not enough regulation yet. Well, yeah. Like, after safety.

Like, let's just do it. real, just fucking do it live and film it. And they had like a rig so that they could sway the bridge and everything and huge wind machines and everything. But you forget like how the immediacy of weather is so powerful in cinema. And you just don't, you don't have that anymore because it's messy and it's time consuming and it's expensive. And but when you're actually putting money into like what you see on the screen instead of

doing it in post, like, yeah, you get sequences like this. And the choice of the shot composition. and the direction where you get some POV shots of like the guy directing the car over the bridge, you know, as he's like looking down into the water. It's just the choices are incredible. And then they do it twice, you know. So it's crazy. Yeah.

I do want to mention about the soundtrack, the score, Tangerine Dreams. It's not overkill. Like most of the film doesn't have a score, but when it shows up, it not only feels so interesting to hear and kind of ahead of its time as well, for sure. Yeah. Like it doesn't feel like a 70s score.

It feels like closer to an 80s, like a mid-80s score even. But it also feels so versatile and distinct, each track that appears in the film is like, oh, wow, you're doing something entirely different, and it works really well. So loved the score. That was a really standout feature to me. It added a lot. Great to listen to. Yeah, the score is incredible.

Those shots of just the plumes of fire going up with that score. It is this kind of dreamlike vision of hell, and it kind of gives this surreal quality to a movie, which is interesting because it's such a tactile movie. it's so tangible and the suspense sequences are so well directed and and like storyboarded basically but it doesn't it never feels storyboarded or you know like choreographed because it has that also documentary immediacy like friedkin has this ability also in like the exorcist and his other movies where it has this like hitchcockian sense of suspense and clearly was meticulously planned but he's not so like possessive of the frame so that like you have this shakiness this unstableness like everything just happens to fall into place perfectly um and it is just amazing like i'm thinking of the the tree

sequence when the tree is blocking the road and having to get the pour the nitroglycerin out and blow up the tree it's just um love that sequence oh my god it's so good yeah just the whole underlying tension from that simplicity. Like it's such a simple, like keep it simple, stupid idea with all the kind of complexity coming from, yeah, the editing, the way you put it together, the sound design, the closer by the wheel snapping through the wood and, yeah,

the way it's all kind of put together. Yeah, for this premise, I don't really know how you could do it much better than this. Like it's kind of like a perfect kind of adventure, A to B nature. Yeah. Movie for me, you know, like, what else would you do?

It's really like a simple narrative that like anyone can follow along and enjoy. I was kind of, I was thinking while I was watching it, like this movie is perfect for being able to capture both like film heads and film bros. You know? Yeah. Like people who are looking for art

and people who are looking for like explosions and, you know, maybe some gangster hits and people that look like they're from reservoir dogs, you know. Like there's a little bit for everybody except maybe women. It's very sweaty men movie. Yeah. Perfect. There's just something about, there's something captivating about watching someone doing that slow, delicate movement,

knowing that like a good experience. explode at any second. Like, how could you not want to watch something like that with that as a core threat in every scene of the movie, basically? Yeah. Some kind of explosive. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And the moment is, it's so shocking when the other truck explodes because it's just so out of nowhere, you know, and it makes you realize like, oh, yeah, they could just blow up at any second. The tire pops, you know, there's some revolutionaries out there on the road. That kind of tries to steal their shit. But that moment is brilliant. And I just, not to keep pulling it back to the wages of fear, because Adam, I know you haven't seen it.

But there's that that moment happens also in the wages of fear. But it's different in the sense that you never even see it blow up. You're in the other truck the whole time. It's brilliantly done. There's just a flash of light and you just see the explosion from a distance. And I found that in a way almost more upsetting and more effective because you never even know how their car blows up. You don't know if it just burst into flames, you know, like it's really shocking, especially for like the 50s. I don't know.

What did you think of how the other truck blows up in this film? Did you think it was kind of? Well, so as a person that was watching it in a way where like I'm, yeah, I'm captivated by it. But I'm not like in like a super complex narrative or anything, right? And so when that happened, like, I did laugh at the tire exploding. Well, just the shot of the tire exploding. But it didn't, like, diminish my experience. I was just like, oh, that's kind of silly.

Like, and also, I don't know, you say it came out of nowhere. You say it came out of nowhere, but he does kind of like, you know, I'm talking about my wife and then die sort of thing. So it's like, you can't anticipate it just a lot. little based on the editing and dialogue. And perhaps the trope wasn't as, you know, overdone at the time how films are communicated. But you know, it was... The second they start talking about their personal lives, then it's like, oh, you're... Yeah.

Just like two days from retirement or whatever you want to say. Like, I don't know. And so the movie as a whole, like, didn't really feel silly in that sense. It was just that part. but I don't I don't dislike the movie in any way like I don't like it any less because of that scene it's just a part of it and just a funny moment for me okay

I would have been funny to watch this with you and hear you laugh at that moment oh well I recorded my watching so you can skip to the times down I mean you know I'm glad that you guys you enjoyed it because I do think this is something that I guess it's being more appreciated it now over time. But it's one of those unique films.

Yeah, like you're saying, like Aguirre like Fitzgerald, like Apocalypse Now, that's just like for some reason, there's the cocaine or I don't know, but that's some reason in the 70s, if you were like an Auteur filmmaker, you had to go into the jungle and torture your crew and your actors to make something really memorable. I'm not saying we should be doing that now

or we need to be doing that now, but it's something, you know, you see something real on. screen and your your body, like, reacts in a different way when you see real shit happening, you know. And it makes something timeless. If you tried to do that now, you would immediately get, like, blacklisted after having, like, 10 Google Docs talking about the experience before it's even over.

Like, there's no way you could do that now. As you should. I mean, yeah. Like, you shouldn't, I mean, I don't know what the crew or actors actually went through on the set of Sorcerer. I don't know, like, what kind of the situation was. I know that they had a big book. So it's conceivable that things were better.

But still, if you're in the jungle, in Sean Fantasy and James Gray, there's an interview where they talk on the criteria in Blu-ray. But James Gray made the movie Lost City of Z, which is a great film, in the jungle. And he talks about how, like, in the jungle, like, it's just miserable no matter what, no matter what happens. Like, the jungle does not want you to be there. So there is no way you're going to have a good time. That's why when the Rock shoots his jungle movies and jungle crews and all that, they're in front

a big CGI jungle because I don't think the rock wants to be hanging out in the Dominican Republic getting his facing his face in by the machines. Do you imagine them putting like Tom Holland in like a truck and like a body of water and swing

it's really funny. Tom Holland is in the Lost City of Z. Very epic. He plays the kid. Yeah, that's funny. That's funny. Yeah, I consider this to be kind of like a vibes movie

like in in the same way that perfect days is a vibes movie but a different vibe right so that one's just like a nice calming like you know quiet but you know dude listens

to classic rock sort of you know it's a nice vibe and this one is like a bumpy road trip with explosions vibe a bunch of a bunch of bunch of unlikable

well not unlikable but like just not good guys a bunch of bad guys having a bumpy road trip where they explode things on the way in the jungle yeah trying to solve a problem yeah it is a fun vibe I love it I love how delighted you are like

oh this is a fun relaxing I was great this is so fitting oh I'm glad you had a fun time at the movies this blockbuster experience. I think you're talking about how unlikable these guys are

but I love how right before they take off on their trip like one of the guys just gets murdered and they're like, oh, this guy just murdered him they're like, well, we need another driver so I guess they're right. Yeah, yeah. You can be part of the crew.

Pretty unsuffly just budges in. Yeah. Yeah, there is something kind of fascinating about how they treat the characters because I do like that we're not given, you know, that extensive of a background and complex, you know, personality exploration. Like I kind of like that it's almost like a weird meta movie of them being like tools

for the narrative, but in a good way that feels like self-aware. And it's obviously not like taking away from what the film is intending on doing. it's not in conflict with what it's trying to express because it's just literally not trying to be that kind of movie absolutely yeah and then that gut punch of an ending fits so perfectly because you're just like yeah no he can't he's not allowed to live to survive this you know he's in hell

it's like the lany tunes where like the you see the animator's pencil start erasing the character right yeah yeah it's like no no no get back here it's like funny The original one's way of ending that is a bit more funny. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I won't reveal it because I do want people to seek out the wages of fear. I liked the ending of the wages of fear, but it is like, so it's very different. And it did get a little bit of a chuckle from it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, really, people need to check it out because it is while the same premise and like the same plot beats, it is completely different.

And different set pieces too that are equally. Genuinely, just as thrilling and intense, if not more so. And I'm saying that for a movie that came on in 1953. Because, again, the Sorcer is, yeah, like you're saying, Adam, a vibes movie. It's about the atmosphere and that the music and the grime. And almost that music video feel where it's like there's a lot of that editing. A lot of it is put together in the edit where you give a lot of montage. And that's non-existent from the 53 version.

And so, yeah, I'm just grateful to have these films. They're both incredible masterpieces, in my opinion. I mean, I give both of them 10 out of tens, honestly. Damn. Sorry, right. For a first watch of Sorcerer, like, I really couldn't ask for much more. I enjoy both these films. I probably give Sorcerer, like, four and a half stars, a nine,

and happily revisit that. And I'd probably give wages of fear like a four star. It might just be from seeing this same story, like, in like one big go. Seeing it twice back to back. It's quite a few hours of truck driving. But I like the premise. I love that simplicity. It's just such an interesting idea in these two different ways of interpreting it.

Awesome. First watch, nine out of ten. Nice. I mean, like, it could go. up to a 10. I'll watch it again for sure. Like I'll get the 4K Blu-ray when I'm not doing so many expensive things or whatever. But yeah, part of part of the editing that you mentioned, a big part of it is the sound design and sound design choices. I really do love when things are kind of cut in a way where you get like really, really like visceral, kind of maximalist like sounds

cutting with the visual cuts. They do that a few times in the film. There's other intelligent choices like, you know, explosion or sorry, no, it wasn't even an explosion. It was like a gunshot in the jungle. Makes a loud bang, yes. But they also remembered to have the sound of monkeys freaking out in the background. And you never see them, but it adds to the character of the environment.

And it's a realistic thing that would happen. Like, of course, yeah, animals would be freaking out. And they don't draw attention to it. It's just a nice part of the overall sound design and soundscape. Yeah, really, really great, well-made stuff. Very few issues I had at all. Nice. I'm glad you pointed out the sound design,

because I know you're a stickler for that stuff. And Freakin was, like, obsessive over the sound design. And I didn't watch it with good speakers or anything, so I would like to one day with a nice audio system. Yeah, do you guys like other Friedkin films? I know the big three are French Connection Exorcist. You guys have talked about The Exorcist on the podcast. We haven't talked about The Exorcist on the podcast. Not on a certain episode.

I saw it a long time when I was a little baby. A little baby. So I don't know. I would have to definitely rewatch it as an adult in order to have like a proper opinion on it. I don't think I've seen French connection yet that's on my blind spot I saw cruising a while ago that was fun

Is there another Friedkin that I haven't seen That I should Oh to live and die in L.A. That's another big one No yeah that's another one yeah oh no wait no I did see that I give that a 7 Yeah that's why I got confused because earlier I thought I might have seen the French connection but no it was to live in Dye in L.A.

That was good The most forgettable out of the ones that I've enjoyed from him, though. It's another vibes movie. It's a great. Visually. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think this is my fourth freaking. The Exorcist, French Connection. So, Killer Joe. I was weird. I haven't seen that. One of his later ones.

So early 2010s or something? He hasn't been good in a while. Did I say French Connection? Yeah. And then, yeah, sorcerer. So there's still a couple of... big ones to see, but I like what I've seen so far. All right, cool.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like The Exorcist is a no-brainer. We can't watch that at some point. Yeah, this movie was like imperfect days. Shout out to movies from the 70s. I like 70s movies. Yeah. I think I'm more likely to enjoy, like, a film that people are saying is good from the 70s than I am from, like, the 80s.

Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Well, something in the air. It's probably lots of drugs. Well, it was before Star Wars, like, ruined everybody's brains and got people to start enjoying slop that's not even good. Also, it was before Heaven's Gate, which is, you know,

off remarked as the moment the studios shut down all of the directors doing whatever they want bullshit. Oh. Yeah, there was just a level of freedom and, like, respect for the autour doing whatever they want. It was before fan movies. Kind of, yeah. IP slop.

Thanks, George Lucas. But then, again, now, considering where we are in the 2020s, you look back at the 80s and a lot of the studio slop looks amazing. It looks like the most gorgeous films and, like, creative. Like, it's funny now. The ones we remember, yeah. The ones that we, yeah, E.T. Survivorship bias.

that we like in Indiana Jones. But in hindsight, when you look back at older decorates, yeah, you're just filtering for the stuff that's good. I mean, also the 70s, there was unimaginable garbage being produced every year. I feel like I would enjoy unimaginable garbage from the 70s more than a lot of other decades.

There's something charming about the 70s in terms of like the filmmaking technology, right? Like the audio and the film stuff. even. Cameras getting smaller. There's something that I like about it and just the way things are

edited together, I guess also in terms of like effects work, like practical effects and like compositing and etc. Yeah. It's also the first decade when you think about it of like directors who went to film school getting into the industry. Because before then it was all directors

working up through a studio system And then now it's like you have Spielberg and Coppola and Scraese and guys who like studied film in a totally different way. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of interesting. There's, I do kind of want to point out there's something, even in Sorcerer, there were like a couple extras in the movie that were black. And there's something about 70s film stock where it just does not pick up black skin very well. or it's like, you know, at the beginning of one shot, it's like, I don't even know a person is there. And then just suddenly like, oh, okay, that's a person.

What the fuck? You know, we hadn't figured it out in terms of like capturing that on film with lighting especially. Like it's just, it was, it was an issue with, with film of that generation, turned people in the fucking Cheshire cat. True. Yeah, it's interesting how that was definitely an issue. in the 70s and still is kind of an issue sometimes, um, other for different reasons.

I mean, now cameras are actually thinking about that. Like people, the, the production is now considering that there might be more than one skin tone that exists. Which is, you know, great.

Like, it's great that that's a thing that people are thinking about now. Now everyone is equally hard to see in a, uh, a night scene. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, thanks for the wreck.

Yeah, of course. I'm glad you guys liked it. Yeah, that was a great one. We'll move on to questions, I guess. Yes, please. Yeah. Let's do some questions then from the Southerncast community. Head over to the suggestion thread over on the subreddit.

If you want to leave questions for future episodes, just like, Just Too Good, did shout to Sarah. Right. Criterion announced today that K-pop demon hunters and Frankenstein will be a part of the collection. The film community online seems to have mixed reactions with this news. what do you think about this announcement? So people are upset, I guess. My reaction is, do you want criterion collection to exist as a company?

For the next five to ten years? Yeah, it'll certainly, yeah, it'll probably instantly be their most sold. Yeah. Like, Blue Rail. I'm happy. You have to remember, like, they have some random stuff on there, right? Like, doesn't Armageddon has, like, a criteria. Classic.

Not anymore. So it's like, out of print. Yeah, it's officially in the collection. And the run. Yeah, it's like if you want them to keep doing cool restorations of movies that no one's heard of, then they're going to have to make some concessions to this. And it's not even like that they're bad, horrible movies that don't belong in the Criterion Collection. I think people get hung up on the idea of the Criterion Collection only, you know, releases great films.

And it's like, no, they're just, you know, one among several, you know, getting the rights to certain films and releasing them in their own versions, you know, it's like, uh, I don't know, it's, it's not some kind of like, mark of high quality. They're just, there's plenty of shitty movies in the Criterion Collection. Yeah, it's always seen as a stamp of quality. I mean, it's, it's not, but there is kind of like, I understand the argument that there is kind of like an implication based on the way that, A, they've named their company, like, it's a collection rather than like just a, you know, that's like, what is this other one called? There's one that's like called something classics or whatever.

But anyway, it does kind of market itself as a curated selection of movies where if you were to do a blind by you're anticipating some degree of like artistic merit and quality or prestige. Yeah, yeah, like that it fits some sort of consistent, you know, mold, but not in the way that like every movie is the same, but like, oh yeah, this is like a weird movie or like an artist with a voice breaking boundaries or was culturally relevant and significant at the time. These are new releases.

I don't think Frankenstein is going to be talked about much in the future sort of thing. But Guillermo del Toro has like a spotlight. They love him. Like Wes Anderson, you know, he gets his movies in there. And K-pop Demon Hunters is a huge phenomenon, you know, that's culturally relevant. Yes. It's not like a boundary-breaking film, and it's not, like, you know, taking a lot of risks or anything. But it is something where, like, I don't know, maybe I'm just dreaming.

Maybe this is just, like, speculation. I'm hoping that this might just be a situation where it's like a good faith continuation of a relationship between Netflix and criterion. Because, you know, I like that there's a marriage story criterion, right? I like having physical media of anything that would only ever be on a streaming service otherwise is a good thing, whether that's criterion or something else. So I like that, you know, it doesn't have to be Killers of the Flower Moon. It doesn't have to be, you know, like an art housey film. F1. But I'm hoping that with this relationship and if they're both mutually benefiting from it, hopefully that means that Criterion will be able to convince them to do some other titles.

Like, I would love some kind of physical release for I'm thinking of ending things, right? That's a Netflix film. Like, it sucks. I don't have a physical release for that. Like, I wish. But we'll just have to wait and see. It still has nothing. That's so.

Yeah, yeah, it sucks. Hmm. So, yeah, it's, I understand, I understand the argument, but the reality of the industry makes it so that it's, it's not like a thing that I could be mad. about really. No, whatever keeps the lights on. And yeah, I mean, these are movies that are getting a physical release. I think that's cool that Criterion is a place for that.

You know, where streaming services are like, hey, let's give this a physical release. And then, yeah, and then this is funding however many fucking, you know, smaller films and unknown films that get restorations and get releases. So I'm like, do what you got to do, man. You know, keep the lights on, please. Yeah. It would be, you know, and also, I'm sure there's like. a bunch of film heads that might even just love kind of the almost kind of like ironic meme

nature of owning a K-pop Demon Hunter's Criterion Blu-ray. Yeah. Oh, it's going to sell so many copies. Like, one of the things that Matt Johnson has done historically, he used to do it a lot more, is he would make like fake criterion DVDs and Blurays of his own movies that are just clearly not authorized. And so it would be like, yeah, for the dirties, he had a whole bunch of different parody covers for it.

The DVD release of the web series that is out of print, at a fake criterion thing. So, like, you know, there is, like, a level of, like, meme ability to it. And, yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if Nirvana at the show the movie got a criterion release on.

I would love that. Neon. Do it. Make it happen. Yeah. Does Neon have any criterion? I'm sure. Parasite.

Oh, Anora. Anora. Anora and Parasite. Parasite. Yeah, yeah. Recent criteriaians. Yeah, so it could happen. Sentimental value.

It was just an accident. Yeah, here we go. Yeah, they got a bunch. Nice. It's that weird space of like these, it's like marketing, blending with like being pretty good at what they do, kind of like the whole branding of the criterion closet. And yeah, it does have this air of prestige.

And it's kind of like, A24, well, they used to be maybe not to the same degree, but they kind of built up a good brand of like, yeah, we do kind of like the best merch and this kind of stuff. It's like crazy overpriced, but it has this air of like, oh, it's that thing now. And then it gets like a reputation and people don't want to be it. And then it gets film bro, and it's like this whole thing. Yeah.

And it's a gateway drug. Like the reason why I got into film, honestly, was like the Criterion Collection, because I'm looking at this in these DVDs and blurs and going like, oh, let me try this because it's part of the Criterion Collection. I'm learning about cinema and all these different directors. Like, it's super valuable. Yeah. Honestly.

Well. You know, I do, yeah, I want to see fucking House Party. Mercy. CP in the Criterion Collection. You. Madagascar. Criterion, yeah. I should watch it as a bar.

All right, next question. Let's do this one from Jizzus. Sorry, Jizzes? Jiz. Yes. Like, Jesus, I guess. No, that's great. Jizus says, to what extent, do the conditions under which you watch a film,

cinema versus home alone versus with others, influence your evaluation of it? Are there any movies that you thoroughly enjoyed at the cinema but hated at home? It's obviously going to have an effect, like a midnight madness kind of vibe. is going to be different to a seeing something serious at 12 a.m. or something. But as far as like something I hated to that, that degree, that contrast. No. Maybe it. Well, actually, I did have to say hated.

I had an experience like that. There you go. Yeah, I had an experience where I hated a movie and then loved it. But it wasn't a theater experience. It was I watched David Lynch's Wild at Heart in a class in 2015 and a film class. And I really did. did not like it. I, for some reason, I was just like, I didn't, I was like, oh, this is mean and smarmy and, you know, violent and gross and everything. And then I ended up watching it, you know,

I think last year for the second time. And I loved it. So that's also a difference of like perspective and growing up, you know, and having a new view of art. So that's more rare. I don't think like specifically watching a movie in a theater or at home is going to change it to that degree, although it will absolutely have an effect, especially if you're sleepy or if you have other stuff on your mind or anything. Like, there are movies I know I would probably have enjoyed more

if I had watched it in a better frame of mind that I can be like, yeah, it's a good movie, but I had a bad experience. Well, yeah, I mean, like, it's not, to me, I wouldn't say that there's anything that would make the difference between, like, love and hate in terms of how I'm rating the film.

But it could be how I rate my experience with the film. You know, like there's plenty of movies that I save for watching on digital on my watchalongs channel where I can voice my perspective out loud because I kind of know it's going to be

the type of movie where if I'm in a theater, I'm just going to be saying, get me out of here in my head the entire time, feeling trapped, not being able to express my gripes with it because there's people I don't want to disturb. And then also like, yeah,

do I walk past everybody? Do I fucking like, leave the theater. Like some things are just so much easier to digest in, uh, in like an at home environment or even in a like quasi social environment. Um, but it really depends on the movie. Like, I love the theater experience. I, you know, I'm obviously championing doing that for Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie and tons of other films like, um, you know, Surratt is even something where I would say like watch it in a theater, right? Like, it's got really great. And, sound design and like powerful um you know like like if you're listening on really good speakers and also

you know it doesn't even have to be a comedy where the audience can play into your experience with the film it could be a serious movie where like the deafening silence of a moment is like part of your experience and that's you know it shapes your perspective of your experience of the movie but not necessarily the movie detached from the experience and if you know it shapes your perspective of your experience And if you can differentiate between those things and just be aware that both of those things exist simultaneously, then you're fine. I have an interesting variation on this question is like, would, are there movies that you don't want to see in a theater that you have seen at home that you wouldn't want? Because I have had that experience, okay, where I have, like the movie Ron. I love the movie Ron.

It's great, Kurosawa film. I saw that at the Castro Theater in San Francisco one time with the, pretty full crowd and they were not able to to deal with the tone of it. Basically they were laughing at scenes that was supposed to be dramatic. Yeah. No, yeah, that happens so much.

Because it's, oh, they're Japanese actors and they're acting big and they have big expression. That's all right. Yeah, why are they even there? So there are movies like that and I've heard about rep screenings of like Blue Velvet, David Lynch movies especially, where people can't deal with the tone, you know, and they laugh at things that are not supposed to be funny.

And that would drive me, It made me so pissed. I hated that experience of seeing Ron. It fucking ruined the experience because people are laughing in inappropriate time. So that's something I hadn't really considered until that point where it's like, yeah, some movies I don't really think are better in a theater unless you have a really good audience. Exactly. It can really fuck it up. I would say any movie is great in the theater as long as people aren't fucking like inconsiderate and disruptive.

but at the same time, I will say, like, as a person that often has emotional experiences that are not aligned with the emotional experience of those around me, right? I've thoroughly thought about, like, you know, what are the ethics of, like, laughing at something in a movie, right? Because if these people are genuinely laughing and that's just their emotional experience and reaction to it, then, you know, technically that's no different. than them laughing at Nirvana the band the show or like a comedy movie. There could be, you know, depending on the person, like, I guess an elevated consideration for, is this something that I think other people will be taking seriously? Maybe I should try not to laugh very loud. But if the entire theater is like that, and you also feel that way, then it kind of gives

you permission. Then you're not even really thinking about like the one out of 50 people or whatever that might be thinking like, oh, shut up. well, everybody else is, like, laughing, you might just be thinking, oh, yeah, this is a communal experience where we're all sharing the same emotion. It happened to me in, like, fuck, what was the movie?

Like, I think force majeure, which is a funny movie, but like the crowd was literally, I swear they were laughing because they found their accents funny more than anything. And so every line was like, ah, ha, ha.

And like, this one's kind of serious, though. Like, this moment's kind of sad. And so, I understand exactly what you're saying. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's like something like like, something like like something like laughter. You can't really help that much. Like there's I I laughed a little in the iron lung.

You know, like I couldn't help it. Like it's just it's a thing and I just can't, you know. See, I'm used to it for like horror movies, but for like seeking out a screening of like a Kurosawa classic. I know. being thrown off by that. That's that strange. I don't.

I do not understand. There's an interesting conversation to have. Yeah. And it was quite a few people who are, I'm just like, guys, can you not like read the tone of a film? I do think it is just like an immaturity

level of people who aren't like, I mean, yeah, it's annoying. But also, you never know. You never know with an audience. Sometimes it enhances a movie

in a lot of ways. I saw a lot of Altman movies that I'd never seen with an audience. With an audience, when the AFI in L.A., they did, screening of a bunch of his movies. And I saw Nashville, I saw shortcuts.

I saw three women. And three women, it, like, enhanced a version of that movie because there were so much more laughter than I expected in a good way. And it made me realize that the movie was a lot funnier than I expected. That it was okay to laugh at some parts of it. However, a movie like shortcuts

was way darker and more disturbing. Like, I heard people gasp and, like, groan during moments when I was like, oh, wow, yeah, this is kind of fucked up, you know? So it totally depends. That's the live experience. You know, that's what is great about movie theaters is that there's that unpredictability where you're really engaging as a group, whether you realize it or not. Yeah.

You're sharing a social experience. Yeah. Totally. Even if you're all silent, like, that's part of it. Yeah. It's why I could watch like an agro grip drift with the whole crowd. That was a great frightens lift. Yeah, that was amazing.

It's a bit of an aggrift. But that's, yeah, the experience was like a 10 out of 10 when the actual film was like, unwatchable garbage. What was the latest one? What was the baby one? Yeah. Baby, yeah.

Baby, something. Baby, brain. Baby, no, it was baby invasion, right? That with the crowd probably would have been funny.

I wouldn't have mind seeing that with the crowd. That would have been funny. Yeah, but I watched that on my phone carrying my son as he enapped. You know, so like, yeah, it's not as funny,

is it? Very different. Yeah, you got the four. experience he held a baby. I did. I did. Yeah. Baby invasion. I like I like calling it agro-doctor one foot at this point.

That works too. Just as elegant. Fantastic for four. Four. Fan forestic. Oh yeah. Fan forestic. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Next question. Yeah. Let's do this one from I find a good one. Oh. Entropid ad says. Hi guys, thank you for your individual content as well as this podcast, big fan. How did all of you grow up in relation to religion? Was your family, did your family pray before every meal?

Just go to church on Christmas? We're not really participate at all. Thanks again for all the laughs and recommendations. It's kind of gets asked a fair amount, actually, as far as recurring questions. I love our movie podcast where we get asked about the philosophy of our religion. It does kind of inform opinion something. times this sort of thing. Sure.

It's kind of interesting to know. I don't know. I never really went to church growing up. I guess like at school you would do, you'd pray an assembly and stuff like that, but I was never, I was raised religious or a regular church goer, sure. No, yeah, neither have I. I mean, I didn't really, you know, movies were my church. No.

I think, like, I, I, there wasn't that, like, I, there wasn't that, like, community aspect with like my family. I do think like if it is like a generational thing of like having connection to the church, it's like a big community thing that you're just kind of obligate or do, but we didn't really have that. Yeah.

Like I, my family was it like I grew up like conservative household, but not like religiously conservative kind of, you know, that way. So, but it's one of those things where it's like years after, you know, now that I'm an adult, my mom will be like, man, we should have made you guys go to church,

you know, maybe things would have turned differently. I'm like, I don't think so. I'm good. You know, but yeah, so no, that wasn't really part of growing up at all, yeah. Adam? Yeah, my parents raised as Christian Lutheran, went to church, did the whole fucking youth confirmation thing when on like other retreats and summer camps and all the nonsense. And yeah, didn't, uh, didn't, uh, didn't stick, probably did some damage. Probably not the best, you know, mentally healthy thing to have a queer person kind of grow up, believe in God and believe that God hates them at the same time. But yeah, I mean, like, it's, it was a weird thing and just, I guess, like, yeah, culturally, it was in Alberta.

Bertha, the Texas of Canada. And yeah, I grew out of it. And it's an interesting perspective to have because there, you know, I don't, I don't forget the, I guess kind of almost like emotional and like meditative aspects of like religion, like prayer, you know, close your eyes. A lot of religions involve things that are kind of like beneficial to the human brain, but just with the label of this is from this specific religion when a lot of religions do it. So something like people singing together in groups has been shown to increase a sense of belonging in community, right? So tons of surviving religions have like hymns and songs, right? Darwinistically, if you were to look at religions today, you understand that a lot of the characteristics that religions today have, they're the reasons why they still exist, right? So the reason we don't still practice any religion that acknowledges like Zeus in a serious way is because people weren't,

the religions themselves didn't operate in a way where they had these characteristics that people would continue to pass down over time and have that sense of community. And, you know, instill an idea that everything good in your life is specifically from this religion and everything bad in your life can be fixed by it sort of thing, right? So it's an interesting thing to have experienced firsthand and know what it's like to believe in that as well. And it's also kind of just like weird and eye opening when you're out of it

to kind of retrospectively you know, look at some of the hymns and some of the chants verbatim saying things like we are not worthy. Like we worship you. Like just literal in unison chance of subservience to

higher powers including the church right and and like what is obedience of virtue like when you take a step back and just realize what the fuck like you're saying and and the fact that they get children to do this from an age where they're not even thinking about the words and just have them repeat it up it like throughout their entire lives like okay yeah like we can see why religion persists to this day that's fucking grooming right like quite literally right so yeah it's it's weird it's eye-opening and I yeah it was a weird experience it's part of my life I guess did growing up Lutheran do you feel like that has affected how you view art and like you know do you have like a different sort of connection

or like to to film and art and the art that you make and like the creative process oh yeah well if I didn't have a bad experience with religion, then a prince of Egypt would have been a 10 out of 10 instead of a 5 for me. That's what I meant. Yeah, yeah. I was thinking about Prince of Egypt. This is all about it. Yeah, so I was trying to get this to you. I don't know, because I mean, like, I think that any perspective that you have, any life experience that you have is going to translate into what you connect with about a film.

it's going to translate into either how you react emotionally to certain subjects being discussed or your level of being able to determine authenticity for something. So, yeah, the answer is yes, but not in any kind of like spiritual or moral way, but in a way where it's like, yeah, the experience, you know, if I'm watching the Jesus Camp documentary. Like there's a, I, I understand the type of environment a lot more, even though what I experienced wasn't as extreme as that. I still understand like the types of characters and like what it's like to be one of

those kids in a sense. Yeah. All right. Cool. Thank you. Yeah. That's a good answer. There's certainly lots to explore as far as filmmaking and different attitudes.

It's so weird how many people, because like it, when you're in one of those things, like, either religion or any sort of cultural thing, literally just like, if you're a United States citizen, right, is the same thing. You kind of grow up with the impression or like the default that your experience is like the normal default, right? That's kind of just ingrained into you. And so even considering like the idea of there being like multiple religions, it's It's like not even a thought that crosses your mind.

You don't think that what you believe in is a religion. It's, yeah. And so being an adult and having so many people that I meet and so many of my friends saying like, oh, yeah, no, I was never raised religious. It's just, it's so fucking weird to me because, like, if I were, if I were to guess when I was a kid or like, you know, even not even that many years ago or whatever, if I were to guess just how many people in my life I would meet. that were raised religious and then grew out of it.

I would have assumed most people. I would have assumed that a lot of other people had some sort of experience of their own self-reflection and introspection and working their way out of that and how it's affected and shaped them. But no, it's just a lot of people that are more well-adjusted than me didn't have that experience. It's it is wild because like even when you like let's say you reject religion or you don't believe in it. The process that your mind goes through and the habits, you know, are ingrained in you that are like hard to unlearn. And they affect how you do lots of things and interact with people and view art and everything. And like I was an interesting like I didn't grow up super religious, but I had, you know, I would have told you as a kid, I'm Christian. You know, I believe in Jesus and everything.

But we don't go to church regularly or anything. We don't do any kind of religious practice. We don't even talk about religion at home. Just a cultural label and identity. Yeah, exactly. Just like boring, Protestant, you know, whatever. So I would say that. But, you know, there's a time, you know, when my parents were getting divorced and I was

starting high school when I was like, I need something, anything, you know. And I was like flirting and talking to my other friends who were religious. And I'd be like, can I go to church with you? Can I do this? And I was at a precipice of a moment that's just like maybe I'm super Christian, you know? Maybe I need Jesus to help me. And I had a teacher who was like introducing me to films and like showing me art films and like, hey, you should watch, you know, you should watch Ron. You should watch some Kurosawa films.

You should watch Ingmar Bergman and stuff. And I became obsessed with film like right around that time. And so I kind of look at it as like this interesting precipice and like how I think about art and film and everything, how that's kind of become my life and what I, you know, am fascinated in. And it is kind of like, I wouldn't say it's like, I have a spiritual connection to it necessarily, but it kind of like fills part of that hole in your life or gives you a sense of purpose of like, I love art, I want to make art. You know, this is a sense of purpose. Yeah, exactly.

You're experiencing a voice and a vision and an emotion. Like art is communication of emotion. Like I think where we've gone in society with, you know, evolutionarily, we were in tribes. People knew the community around them. Right now everybody's just kind of like nuclear family, single couple raising a child instead of the village raising it. Or don't talk to anybody on public transit and then just go back into your home and you're in a box. And the entire way that we interact with each other socially has changed so drastically. But evolutionarily, we are social creatures where we do feel like there's something missing when we don't have a lot.

lot of these basic feelings met, these feelings of connection and community and purpose and belonging, right? Religion fills a lot of those, it checks a lot of those boxes for people because you get to show up and you're like, oh yeah, this is my identity and these other people around me have this identity and they're my community and you might do like, you know, participate. you're doing like a weekly thing. You have a routine. Again, like I said, you know, singing with people,

chanting in unison. Like these are things that do things to the human brain. Philanthropy or like charity work or whatever. Those things are just as beneficial without religion and can exist without religion. It's just that a lot of people just don't feel like they have the social permission to do something like that

because, you know, we're human beings and we kind of just do what we think we're supposed to and what other people have done. And if there isn't already a system set up where there's other people doing that and that's the norm, you're not going to do it. You know, some people might... There's some structure in place already. Yeah, yeah. So some people might find this silly, but I make comparisons all the time. Like, the furry community legit does provide a lot of those same beneficial features as religion does.

Like, I have a community. Right. right there's a lot of like positive social things that i get from my community that i wouldn't be getting and i almost feel bad for well i do feel bad uh for the amount of people out there that are not religious but but also don't have like a niche thing that like like still have a lack of community and the experience of you know queer people people is generally we've had to just create our own communities where there haven't been any. So if I were to give advice to people, you know, we have the internet now.

You know, it might seem daunting, but like find people with similar interests, even if that just means like, you know, do you like D&D or like board games or something? There might be a meetup, you know, you don't have to be queer to want to find a community and feel like you are starved for that, you know, basic human necessity. Yeah. Let's solve the loneliness epidemic. You know, like we should. Let's start a cult guys, but like a good cult, where we just hang out.

I was thinking the other day, like, you know, you can just, they just, the guy's name is just Andrew now. They just took away his princeness. Andrew Mountbatten. Like both, both y'all governments have weird Epstein shit going on. Where are you going with this? No, I'm going with, so, like, it's entirely arbitrary what we decide royalty to be, right? The way to be a king or a queen is you just say that you are.

And you can just say that you're not at any time. Like, there's nothing, like, oh, my blood's the best blood. At one point, someone just decided they had the best blood, right? They owned the most land. People make the argument, like, oh, but they bring in so much revenue from, like, tourism, right? it's more than they actually spend. So it's a good thing. Like, yeah, but you can say that about anything.

Yeah, well shit. You can say that about any tourist attraction. So why don't we start right now? I'm the fucking princess of Canada. We're deciding it right now. I'm fucking royalty. Okay? We got a cult going.

This is our community. It's people that also say that I'm the princess of Canada. And you can't fucking dispute that. You can't because that's reality. And we reject the reality of everyone else. Right. I don't know if at this point in our community Sardonicast community,

if even an ironic cult is great for them. That's good for me. Foster. Oh, whatever. If you could have come up with this idea a few thousand years ago, then... No, we can start now. We'll prove them wrong. We'll prove them wrong.

Yeah, where were you? I mean, I respect you as the princess. Princess of Canada. Be the change you want to see. That's... I'm so glad we came to this concluded. This is why those religion questions are so important. Exactly.

Yeah. Look at this diatribe It's all nonsense Like yeah Like who cares People fucking clown on Scientology And like Mormons

What? Because they're new That is why yeah Okay Ha ha look at what they believe Fucking everybody's a fucking Psychopath Every human being on this stupid planet

Um Great Alex it's your wreck right yeah it is my wreck um and i'm gonna go for this one from 1955 the knight of the hunter

i think jake has seen this Alex you made my day this is genuinely one of my favorite movies oh brilliant yeah awesome okay um I haven't seen it but it's been in my watch list forever man what's the opposite of spite wreck just like love wreck i don't know

love wreck yeah i just want to Share the love. A regular recommendation. 1995. 1955, Charles Lawton. Wait, Adam, have you seen it? No.

Oh, God, this is so exciting. I'm so fucking hyped. Oh, you're cooming. I love this movie. Okay. Exciting. If you don't want to be spoiled for The Night of the Hunter,

155. Watch it before the next episode. episodes come out every two weeks. You can listen to them early by going to sardonicast.com. Sign up for premium. It's only a few bucks a month. It's also ad free. You can go to patreon.com slash sardonicast and get the same thing. Also, you can click the button below the video on YouTube. It says join. You also get them early. If you want to listen in the, uh, have it play in the background. You have to go to the post section. That's YouTube's fault, not ours, but we, you know, it's a workaround and it's ad-free.

You like ads? Jake likes ads. He watched F-1 and enjoyed it. F-1 is a really good ad, to be fair. It's a really good series of ads. We also got a hard, sorry, Sardonicat, we got a heart on. We got a Sardonicast Highlights Channel. Check that out, subscribe to it.

I don't know. Yeah, do it. We got Normie Masterpiece stickers. YMSmerch.com. Yeah. I still need to get some of those. actually. I've got some sitting right next to me.

Okay. Well, you can give it to me. I'll be seeing you soon. I'll stick it right on your head. Perfect. All right. I guess that's it. Thank you so much, everybody.

Thank you for listening. Thanks, everyone. I have a happy sorcerer, everyone. Thank you. Happy, whatever. Bye, bye. Bye. Happy whatever.

Bye.