Sardonicast - Sardonicast 223: The End of Oak Street, Tony, The Beast (2023)

Episode Date: August 31, 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 intro 2:41 The End of Oak Street 46:59 Tony 1:05:37 The Beast (2023) 1:54:08 Questions 2:23:20 recommendation + outro

Three, two, one. When there's a pigeon, you see it and it's good sometimes, but in the room maybe somebody dies or something. That was a quote from Tony. Oh. I'm Adam from your movie sex. Wow, that was nice. Yeah, the tiger.

I'm Alex from I.E. I'm going to go with the hunt the beast. Those who know now. Mm. Nice. Nice. I guess I don't know. You'll have to.

explain that one later on. It will come to you eventually. No, I do remember that. I do remember that, but I'm going to have to think about exactly what that's from again, and it'll come to me. Is it from the bionicle movie? No. Close.

Pretty close. It was from The Beast, 2023. Yeah. Great. I should have caught that. Yeah, hi, everyone. I'm Jake, man-carrying thing channel. And guess who got up at 4.30 a.m. to watch Adam's recommendation.

That's a choice. The Beast right here. It was kind of a choice out of necessity because life is insane right now. But I got to experience it. Anyways, we'll get into that later. How are you guys doing? Pretty good. Yeah, so what you're saying is you went Beast mode because life went Insanos style.

You know, I thought what would Mr. Beast do? He'd probably, he'd be like on that grind set watching Art House French cinema. at 4.30 a year. He's the king of going Beast mode. Everyone knows it. I'm going to just let everybody in on a little secret here. Our group chat photo is literally Jimmy Donaldson of Mr. Beast. And it's been that way because we started the, well, because I think it's because

the first episode we did together, we were talking about Beast games. And I was just looking at that photo today thinking like, should I change it? Because we were just, we were just meming on about that Death Grips Beyonce photo. And I'm like, this would be a nice update. But then I tried and it couldn't fit MC ride in the frame. And I'm like, I don't want to crop out the only black guy in the photo. Well, Beyonce is also black. But she's not a guy.

So we'd be losing representation. You know what's funny is that Nadia saw like the chat thing pop up. I got a notification from you. And she was like, is Mr. Beast messaging? I'm like, basically. Yeah, it's just on Mr. Beast themed group chat. Don't worry about it. Yeah.

There's a half. truth to it. Some people who are way more important, way more important than Mr. yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. So, yeah, yeah, we also fucking end of Oak Street. We did. New fucking three name director guy who's not the other one. D.R.M. True. David Robert Mitchell. Thank you for helping me. There's like a few. There's um. Pick it for Name man pick a first name. There's the guy who did short bus, you know John Cameron Mitchell. That's a very similar When they both got Mitchells in them. There's the guy who did I think crecia is like a three name guy the fucking

I'm gonna double good got a double check this hello I'm tired you're right triple check it Guillermo del Toro John John Abrams Trey Edward Schultz I was right creesh is the three name boy three names yeah we all saw it you guys saw it a while ago I actually saw it like yesterday um okay because it's his third film too

David Robert Mitchell I mean oh shit you're right I don't know it's one of the things I like about him each one of his films has been quite distinct oh yeah that's very true the previous one and he's kind of been I mean when did the under the Silver Lake come out was what

2018 yeah he's been dormant for a while And I remember in like question segments towards the end of some previous episodes, like this film, the end of Oak Street or it was called like Flowerville or something before kept coming up. And it's like, what is this film? And I assumed it was just going to be like another kind of horror film or like, yeah, you mentioned Cloverfield with the JJ Abramsling. That was a bit kind of concerning. And it was there were a couple of things about it that were like, I don't, I really like him as a director, but he's only had the two features and this looks kind of weird and the name's really bad. But it has dinosaurs in it. And what is this?

And I kind of wound up really liking it. There's this weird thing this year where the two most kind of like Amblen Spielberg-y, literally being Spielberg, are like kind of more two of the most divisive films of the year so far. But I really liked a lot about this. They kind of made dinosaurs scary to me again and proved this like, it's not even hypothetical. Like in the 90s we saw with Jurassic Park. It was like, oh, you can make a good dinosaur movie. cool. And then it's just impossible to do ever again until this movie, I guess.

And yeah. Bring back Chris Pratt. Yeah, they felt like animals. They were like recognizable and used in ways that were kind of scary and the kind of sci-fi spin was, I don't know, we'll do a spoiler section and I'll get into my critiques of the movie, but this was way better than I thought it looked and was more in line with the DRM movie than I was anticipating. I wasn't Sure, is this just going to be like him coming out of director jail and trying to prove something again? Or does this actually feel like a movie made by him? And it does. It actually feels like it has his personality and is doing something a bit different.

How excited were you? Like how many points of your overall rating was it worth that they were feather dynos? That was at least one star. Gotta be real. I knew it. It's just like, why can you do that? And then you... I know, right?

This just proved that you can do it. And also make them. scary. Like that's part of what I like about dinosaurs as a concept as a thing. It's breaking the stigma. Yeah. They're freaky. Like if you have like a good imagination or have this like really cringy memory of going to like the, what is it called? It was like a giant old like um botanical garden that had like these plants from all around the world and there was this like dinosaur exhibition thing going on at the same time and there was this guy who was kind of like

dressed up in almost like a fur suit thing as like a dinosaur. Sure. It was like way more realistic and it was like giant. So he had the silhouette of a dinosaur and was just like running around this park. And I was like young enough and it was triggering like a fight or flight in my head like seeing something that size like moving around. I was like ever since then I've been kind of hunting that feeling I guess of trying to be scared by giant dinosaur. Oh okay. Well you could go to conventions.

you could find it you could you could start be the change you want to see get a big dino fur suit a feather suit start stomping around and then other people will be like whoa that's cool and then you'll see more and then you can dip out you're saying you're saying Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom didn't satisfy that that birch for you oh yeah I forgot about that yeah then thanks remind of me you're welcome which one was that was that the thing I think we're doing with that shit. Chris Pratt? One with Scarlett Johansson.

That was the Gareth Edwards one. Oh, that's funny. I still didn't watch it. It looks horrendously. But they're like, they don't even care about the concept of dinosaurs in those movies. They're just like these, they're like stickers. They're like a symbol. They're not even animals.

They're like action figures or something. You know, they're like controlled through like radio and chase like dots. Like they're like weapons. It's like, it's way more interesting if they're benevolent and they're just these animals. existing. So then the question becomes like, okay, how do you get human beings to interact with these things in a way that isn't a theme park, Jurassic Park type thing? Hence this movie and the angle they have to take. What do you think, Jake? Well, I like when dinosaurs eat things and smash things. So I really love this. So yeah, that's my review. Okay, sweet. Good review. Thank

you. Yeah, I like when the big dinosaur ate the people and then smash the things. And, you know, that's kind of all I really need. But then the movie wanted to have characters that aren't like the most interesting or fleshed out. But they are characters who have arcs, you know, and they interact realistically with each other, which is a really low bar. But this movie achieves that. And I forgot that, you know, dinosaurs can be scary when you actually care about the people that they're chasing. And I really loved that it felt like a very high budget, a Twilight Zone episode. It felt very like Bradbury-esque.

It felt like it was trying to do Steven Spielberg Amblin stuff, but not trying to be like beholden to this nostalgia and not trying to just throw in references. It felt like it was just trying to be a type of movie that used to be a thing, you know? Yeah. Tonally, it reminded me a lot of poltergeist where it's like, oh yeah, this is kind of like nastier than I thought. But it also has this kind of like upbeat John Williamsy score. Does Michael Giacchino do the music in this? Yes. I feel like.

Okay. He did. Yeah, very John Williamsy. And then it's like 90 minutes. And it's just a really fun time with great set pieces. And it has an ending that kind of leaves you thinking a little bit more than, you know, I thought I would about it. Yeah, I mean, it was just a fucking blast. It's exactly what a summer movie should be.

And it's a shame that it's, you know, not being seen by everyone in the world, you know? Everyone in the world should watch the end of Oak Street. What about the beginning in the middle of the movie? Well, they can watch the beginning of Oak Street. That's going to be going out onto digital soon. I don't know. They're releasing that as a comic book. Are they?

Okay, this is what everyone's waiting to hear. Okay, you know, we've heard from me and Alex. I don't think it's a shock that we wouldn't like this film. But Adam, everyone wants to know. What did you think of the end of Oak Street? Yeah, now everybody's been asking me about this, it's so weird. Because I guess it's kind of like a controversial thing.

And a lot of people are kind of, when they see something being positively received, there's a good chunk of people that are waiting for that catharsis of like an expected like, oh, he's going to shit on it sort of thing. And they're kind of waiting to not feel crazy. And I do have my criticisms. I didn't dislike this movie overall. It was hovering between like a five and a six the entire time. And, you know, I guess we'll get into spoilers later.

but like, you know, there's some things that happen like kind of near the end where I was like, okay, like I started getting more comfortable with what it was in like the second half and it went in directions that I'm like, okay, yeah, like I respect that sort of thing. And so yeah, at the end of the day, you know, it's it's a positive, a positive rating from me. I do disagree that like the characters interacted with each other naturally, especially in the first half of the movie. Like, there was a lot of really, really clunky and just like unconvincingly performed dialogue. Just, yeah. And the kids were very annoyed. They weren't like the worst actors ever. It wasn't like horrendous. But they weren't great. And I very much

dislike the whole, the kids are just going to throw themselves into danger just to keep things going. Trope. But, you know, it happens. And yeah, it. If it's trying to emulate the whole 80s Spielberg-y type film, then I guess it's a bit more acceptable in that sense. It did prevent me from like rooting for the characters. But I still have fun. I like the concept a lot, actually. Yeah. And it's a tight like 90, what is it?

It's about 90 minutes. And it's just in and out. And it's got some really fun set pieces. I guess I like the characters a bit more than you did. I feel like I bought into the family dynamic. And, you know, my parents are divorced. So it's like, yeah, hell yeah. This is, it's very spillbray.

Not that I'm not. Oh, yeah. I'd say if your parents are divorced, you'll probably enjoy this movie more than others. But, you know, maybe not. Yeah, it's a really good time. I liked Anne Hathaway a ton in this movie. I thought she had the most interesting character. Ewan McGregor is someone you just kind of want to root for.

I like the dynamic of him kind of being a doofist optimist. And she's just kind of like, there's dinosaurs. There are dinosaurs here. And it's like, why are you telling them that God is going to save them? We don't know that. I just love that. Yeah, yeah. That's a dark scene.

It's very dark. It's very dark. And I love that. it sometimes takes moments to kind of sit with the characters. Like the daughter character, there's one scene where she's just sitting in the car in the garage and she's playing music. And I kept thinking, oh, this is going to be like a suspense scene. A dinosaur is going to creep in or something because she's not paying attention.

But no, she just sits in the car and listens to Valerie, you know, and it's just kind of like a moment where you sit with that character. So I love those little touches. Well, yeah, wasting the car battery. I thought she was going to kill herself with that. with the exhaust, but, you know. Oh, true, actually. There are some, and then there is, there is one moment where I literally felt like there's no way.

Like, they didn't just show us that in this movie. And you guys know exactly what I'm talking about when something happens to a certain character. Well, let's, we can get into spoilers. I mean, although I remember, I specifically remember watching that moment and going, wow, this is incredible. I can't believe they just did that.

I don't know how I feel about this. But in the back of my head, I imagined Adam just cackling within just laughing hysterically because I'm like I know exactly what you're talking about Oh yeah I was I was anticipating that

I'm like well they're setting it up like you can't somebody's got it there's often a dark side of me and this little voice in my head that's I just know it's Adam whenever there's a moment

that is on your shoulder over the top yeah it's like the angel and devil on my shoulder I've got Alex I've got Adam in the back of my head thing what are they say about this And in that moment, I'm just like, oh, this is devastating. And I just kept hearing Adam laughing hysterically. God damn it.

We can talk spoilers. Damn. One thing before spoilers just want to throw out there. How much money are they losing by not simply renaming it like dinosaur street? Yeah, literally just something like that stupid because... Veloceraptor lane. They wanted to be cute with like the marketing and obscuring a bunch of it. kind of, I guess, in Cloverfield sort of way.

Yeah. See, I don't even think I watched a trailer. So I'm going to have to look at, like, how... See, here's the problem. I knew it was a dino movie anyway, because the posters have fucking dino shit on it. So what are they obscuring then? So if I'm looking at this trailer here,

like surely they show dynos in one of the trailers. Yeah, the trailer just didn't sell the concept very well. It didn't really sell what was good about it. And it's like, I'm just kind of questioning how they fucked up the big CG monster movie that usually is just a slam dunk, no matter how bad it is. But I'm seeing people saying this is like the worst film they've seen in years. And it's like, dude, maybe the marketing trick to you or like, I don't know. I come out of this stuff from just a different angle than like a lot of people the way they watch movies.

Like I was mostly curious, like what this looked like from the Robert Mitchell kind of standpoint, like him making a moving again and obviously they're being dinosaurs it's like appealing to me it's like what you're going to do differently with that i guess sorry i didn't mean to do no no you go i guess before we get into spoilers like i'll get into a few of my grapes um because yeah i mean like it it it felt very weirdly tonally clunky at the beginning and i understand that they were like especially with the music trying to emulate this sort of nostalgic almost like kind of optimistic 80s film. But it also, like, I think part of the reason why it felt so weird and clunky is because, like,

it didn't really feel like the other elements of filmmaking were, like, matching it or, like, pulling its weight. It kind of felt like the score was, like, dragging the fucking sled in that direction sort of thing. It was boldline parody. like yeah I was trying to read a similar thing I didn't dislike it I was just like knowing the dinosaurs are going to be involved like where what is this setting up how is this going to pay off yeah and then I guess even with like um I kind of felt very strongly at the beginning that like the way that they were setting up this neighborhood it never really

felt like a real neighborhood to me um it always very much felt like a set and if it wasn't that still also a bad thing that it felt that way. You know, there were, there were, I felt like this weird lack of like establishing shots. Like when she gets to the library, it's just like, it just starts with a shot like through the window. And I found myself wanting to like get more of a feel for like the actual environment, the space, the town. And eventually like over the course of the film, it does feel.

like you get a bit of your bearings in that sense but um just starting out it yeah it didn't feel convincing it just felt like really fake and phony and then paired with the very clunky kind of shitty dialogue um which you know to the film's credit it did eventually wind up kind of like getting more into and repairing itself like the characters did wind up getting more fleshed out when they start having like their arguments, Ewan McGregor was, I guess, drinking earlier and she smells it on his breath. Like that was a moment where I'm like,

okay, now I'm like getting into these characters and I'm glad to see what they're exploring here and it does feel authentic. But like before that point, there was this distinct lack of like authenticity or genuine nature of how things were presented that it just like it bothered me a lot. I think what worked for,

For me, and I recognize that like tonal challenge. And I think maybe that's a lot of what people are going in with expectations of like it feels kind of like it could almost be a parody at first. And I think when I really bought into the movie was when I realized like, oh, this is being very earnest. Like it's really just trying to be a classic version of this. And it's not really doing what a lot of movies like this might do that are set in the 80s that are trying to do with Spielberg pastiche.

It doesn't feel like it's doing it tongue and cheek. It doesn't feel like it's trying to modernize it or anything. It feels like it's just like, you know, it reminds me of when the Cohen brothers tried to do a tackle a certain genre, when they're like, we're going to do a noir like, you know, the man who wasn't there. And we're just going to do it and see if we can do it. Like I love that exercise as a like filmmaking exercise, and that's what this felt like to me. Also, from what I understand, a lot of this movie was like there were reshoots and I'm pretty sure it was much longer and it was cut down. That's what I've heard. So that's

Sounds like it's it's been kind of like a work in progress for a while Like I don't think David Robert Mitchell was just doing this Solo from you know in terms of like getting notes from the studio Yeah was involved you know I mean it's a big production Like exactly this is this is his highest budget film For sure

Yeah no it's like it is something that by the end of it I was definitely feeling like, yeah, you know what? I hope that this is successful. It doesn't seem like it is that successful. Yeah, I don't think so. But yeah, I respect and appreciate that it's like, okay, this is just trying to tell a story. And even if there are elements of the story that are derivative, it's not like a fucking IP movie right now. Like that's nice that we can just have a movie.

Yeah. I mean, it's going to do crazy on YouTube shorts in a few months. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. It'll make back its money. It's just about made its budget back looking at its worldwide gross at the moment. It's kind of unfortunate.

I kind of hoped it would, because this is almost one of those concepts you could just kind of reuse, like have sequels and this sci-fi McGuffin appears and just take something somewhere and you could change the setting or whatever. And it just doesn't seem to be connecting outside of certain kind of fan bases. Do we want to do spoilers? Do you want to get into it? Right before spoilers, I just want to talk about the split diopter shots of which there were many. And some of them were done really well for sure.

But it felt like it was robbing the experience of the film when they were spammed during like the emotional quiet sit-down shots. Like when they were all like sharing the last of the milk sitting on the floor and having like this really, you know, this very serious emotional conversation, I felt like it was too distracting at that point and just kind of like taking away from the intended experience of the scene. Whereas like pretty much every other usage of it was fine. Like it was good. It was nice and interesting. Yeah, just that one scene bothered me a lot. It was kind of a weird choice. Yeah.

Yeah, for that scene. It was just like, why did you do that? You just seeing the back of the kid's head. I'm like, is it important that the back of the kid's head is in total focus right now? I don't know. Right. Yeah. Okay, yeah.

Spoilers. All right. Okay, yeah. Was this whole like ending, do you think, like, a tact on reshoot situation? Because I kind of felt like the film had wrapped up, to be honest, and was like, you could, like, roll credits here and I'd be pretty satisfied. Because I had this feeling the whole time about the concept of like, right, a bubble appears, takes whatever's into the bubble to prehistory. It's like, okay, this film doesn't have the vibe based on the intro that they're just fucked and they're all just going to die. So it's like, okay, there's got to be some carrot for them to like chase to get out of this.

And they go with, there's this recurring like bubble that keeps sort of appearing and gives them a chance to get out of the situation. I say, okay, that's kind of all I needed. But then the last section of the movie is them kind of going to this time travel kind of stuff with some weird implications that you're kind of nudging at, Jake, with like, they've got like multiple copies of people. And they were like 15 minutes before the event, like the return to the bubble at the end. So they have time to start saving people. And there's the kind of undoing the boldest choice in the movie. but when the E. McGregor character is eaten by an all the source, it's like, whoa, you actually did that?

Wow. Right after the fucking sledgehammer. Yeah, before he gets eaten, he knocks him out with the sledgehammer. Very temporarily, which was, I was about to get mad at, but then where it went, I was like, you know what, this is fine. Yeah, so that was like, that added to the fear factor to me, I felt like, wow, they're actually willing to take out a major character. But they're like a massive actor. cool let's see where this goes how can you how can you wrap this up and they just couldn't commit to it they kind of had to undo it and i'm in a weird place it is kind of weirdly like spillblok's later's

film where it's like that ending i'm just not sure how i feel about that because i loved all the like middle section and them just surviving in this place i didn't really need the more indulging into how that is possible or why that happened or you still it still doesn't like over explain it particularly, but I don't know, I just felt like it was kind of wrapped up, but um, how did you guys feel about that? Wrapped up at which point? Like when they get into the pool? Like, when they go through the bubble, like, I would have been happy with it just ending there. Like, they got, they get home, they're in the pool. That's the joke with them falling in the pool. Like, you could just end it there. Like, I didn't feel like the plot needed much more outside of,

oh, we need like an uplifting moment that doesn't leave it with, they just lost their dad and everything's fucked. Yeah. No, I do like the complexity of it. at the end, because it does give you more to think about. Like, it's weird. Like, I don't know if it, like, elevates the film, per se, but it didn't make it feel, like, unnecessary to me, let's just say. Hmm. I mean, as an incompetent dad who would definitely get eaten by a dinosaur, I needed him to come back

to life. I was really bummed about that. So I'm like, oh, yeah. Of course. I also felt like, yeah, you got to get the dad back. and it's convenient enough where it's like 15 minutes before the one thing that I

in my mind as I watched it I was like okay yeah like her old self and her kids die probably you know like of course That pisses me up conceptually I thought she was that A lot of people get hung up on the time travel stuff because it's like

for me anytime time travel enters into a movie I'm just like fuck it it's time travel it can never make sense ever so I'm like let it just be what it is all right the dad's back, they're happy. But then I was talking to Nadia after we watched it, and she was like, yeah, there was a double of the neighbor girl. That's what it looked like, and I wasn't sure if that's what it showed me.

I'm pretty sure that is, like, confirmed, like, that is what's happening now. Yeah. So it would have been possible for Anne Hathaway to save herself and her kids as well. But we just don't know. But, you know, did she ultimately make that selfish choice when her character throughout the movie is battling between making the selfish choice of, you know, splitting up family or trying to do her own thing, you know. And at the end, she makes a selfish choice in a different direction. Or I don't know if you could call it a selfish choice, but she just makes a choice for the

family in a different direction that in some ways might be damning her past self and her children. Well, it is selfish because fucking Ewan McGregor would love to have two of the same wife. Come on. Twins. I don't. Twins. Clothes. Sorry.

Sorry. But it's like, come on, her fucking kids did, like, she has children that are just like dying, slowly fucking getting eaten by dinosaurs and starving to death now. There's like other versions of herself and her kids that like don't even have Ewan McGregor around. They're like, where'd you go? He wasn't that helpful. Is that like an intentional darkness though?

I'm like trying to unpick like what the intention is because does that mean it's kind of, you mentioned the scene where they were talking about the difference between E. you and McGregor and Hathaway's character where you and you know what I think God's gonna like save me oh yeah and Hathway's like we're fucked but then it kind of turns out that god does basically save Ewan McGregor's character towards the god is Anne Hathaway what if with Ewan McGregor out of the picture in this other reality she is able to fulfill her like no yeah we actually have to like be good at survival and he was the only thing holding her back and she just becomes like fucking tomb raider or some shit.

And she's like, she starts like a new empire. She saves everybody. She becomes like a cult leader. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, Laura Croft like fights dinos, right? All of history changes. She calls her past self and instead of telling her to like leave, she just gives her some

like helpful tips. She's like, there'll be like a fire in like two days. Watch out for that. But you know what to do. Lock and load. Go grab the gun from. the old woman's house. She's giving her cheek codes.

It'd be like a planet of the apes thing where it's like they return to the, you know, their reality and then suddenly she sees like giant ancient frescoes of Anne Hathaway's face and like statues where it's like, yes, she was the began our civilization in prehistoric time, you know. But then you're just spinning out of control. You got to wrap. You can't have doubles. You can't have doubles.

Just don't even worry about it. Don't get into it. You know, okay. You tease at it. Yeah, they do it. Let's get, let the movie be over. That's how I feel. Let's turn it into primer next one.

Yeah, yeah, we don't need that. We got dinosaurs. We got fun dinosaurs. What else do you? Yeah, I guess that's my issue. I just want to be focused on the dinosaurs. That's the hook of the movie. It's like surviving this insane situation.

Dino. I don't want to be thinking about time travel and like the house and wise. I don't care really. That's not what I'm here for. But it also didn't ruin the whole thing for me. I'm just kind of in a weird place where I kind of need see it again to see how that intro feels now and if the surprise is taken away from that death scene and some of the stuff that like took me off guard if that's kind of hindered somewhat

by that weird ending and I wasn't sure at first with the whole like setup and the like street party and everything how much of it with the kind of weird disconnect and the kind of emptiness that you're talking about where it almost doesn't feel like it was almost It feels like a pastiche of like the 80s, like Americana, idyllic thing, like, how much of that was built into the thesis of the movie with like the, the imagery of having these like spectacular dinosaurs out of time on something so like humdrum and mundane. There's something like clever and thought provoking about that just in and of itself, like seeing the stegosaurus's like plates, like just moving above the roof of a house and like. a big rotting corpse that's been like gnawed on just like on this bland driveway and this kind of stuff was like this is cool is this like making some commentary on how like atomized me we are and

the kind of fakeness to like the suburbia against like this is what it used to be like this is like the nature and there's like a lot to think about there um so yeah they don't even stand a chance for one second i mean i kept thinking like oh maybe they'll rally together the neighbors will like pool their resources to try to survive him. Nope. Everyone is just dead. Everyone is completely doing their own thing. And the bully fucking catches the boy like in the middle of the night when he's on

the solo mission to save the dog. The bully's like, you know, broke my brother's arm. And starts beating the shit out of him. The other kid behind him crying. That was great. But like very dumb. Yeah, I actually didn't mind that moment. I was like a, because it gets difficult for me like critiquing people making decisions.

in a situation that's like it's just out of fight or flight like what could anyone do here and that's one that I was okay with that kind of bully he'd lost like all his family and was just like I don't know he just seemed like he was on edge and that basically had nothing to lose

but like going out to try and find the dog and like our main characters doing that sure that didn't feel like justified that felt like one of those this just has to happen to get things moving even though I felt like I don't remember feeling like frustrated about the kind of equivalently aged characters in the original Jurassic Park.

They felt like children, but not like the dumbass is just for the story to like move for the next fence because there's already so much danger. It's not like they needed to really force them into that situation. That felt kind of just like, we have to have this dog through line so the dog can have like a hero moment. Yeah. But that was an amazing moment. That was so, the people in my audience cheered.

It was so stupid. I love that. Yeah. People cheered. Then the dog come running in to save the kid. The stupid kid who doesn't even know how to time his jumps. Okay, can I just say something? That pissed me off at the end when they're jumping into the portal.

And it's like the portal is open for like five seconds at a time. It's just like time your jump better, man. Here's the problem. It wasn't opening and closing at a consistent speed. Yeah, it was random. So them even thinking that they could time it, like based on what was shown, was just not even possible. Just get good.

I don't know. They suck that. I mean, yeah, they, like, there's no way you could time it. Because it didn't, it didn't have, like, a consistent open clothes, which they should have figured out when they were, like, counting out loud. But I guess they're delusional. It looked easy to me. It looked easy to me.

They need better rhythm. They were rushing and dragon. Rushing and dragon. Dragon. What is this fucking, so there's, like, an AI ad from, like, a, dude. AI dog podcast that Warner Bros. Or whoever did? Yeah.

Somebody retweeted that's the company that made the movie. It was like a desperate marketing campaign. Because that's like a popular style of content now. It's like fake podcast clips of like cats like podcasting and shit like that. So I guess they were trying to hop on to like, oh, let's have the dog who's like the main character of the movie, I guess. On the podcast. Yeah. Yeah.

The AI dog podcast. You don't even have to write anything. You just prompt your podcast. This is horrendous. I'm watching it right now. It's so bad. Yeah. It shouldn't be hard to market this movie.

Okay? There's like a million shots of Anne Hathaway shooting dinosaurs and holding a shotgun and like saving her family from dinosaurs. That's the movie. That's how you market the movie. Anne Hathaway holding gun shooting dinosaurs. Boom. There you go.

You don't need a dog, AI dog podcast. I don't know what's going on at Warner Bros. Yeah. They seem to really not know how to market this as well. The person who made the decision to give money to the AI dog podcast to promote the movie is probably the target demographic of the AI dog podcast and is like 70 years old thinking, oh, I love this, not understanding that everybody hates that shit. Well, that it's even an ad.

They just think that is the content. It's like, the utter. They're just happy with that. Yeah. Yeah. I found it. I did find it very funny when the kid fell through the portal. No, no, that was a good moment.

They delivered. I had a few surprises like that. It was like, okay, you're willing to do that to these characters. Yeah. There is something kind of twisted about, it's like, comically twisted some of the humor they get from like this horrible situation where you will see like a group of other survivors in the background being chased and it's not really the focus of the shot they're just there in the background and there is something oppressive and scary and like

there are a bunch of horror sequences that really get into me the uh the whole giant snake the titanaboa thing it's like a real thing that existed the way that was realized the uh the way that was and seeing that kind of like squeezing through this house. I thought that was a great. Yeah. Horrible sequence. I did enjoy when the film just decided to turn itself into like anaconda for a bit. Because I'm like, okay, yeah, you're actually utilizing the concept in a way to just like do different premises within the concept.

Like it's fun. No. I loved how many different, yeah, the variety of the creatures. It really feels like a monster movie. Like you got so many different types of dinners. dinosaurs and why not use them? Why not try all these different things out? You know, it's really fun getting to see the variety. It's not just a velociraptor, Velociraptor, Velociraptor, chasing you, you know, like, you know, although if one of the kids trained to the dinosaurs,

like the velociraptors and use them for good and them good guys, then, you know, 10 out of 10 movie for me. But that's the end of Vote Street, too. saving that. Where one girl just is really good at gymnastics and like kicks him into submission. Domesticating the feather raptors. I feel like this movie would have done that though. I feel like that's something this movie would have done.

You know, it was kind of weird because it was teetering this line between like shit posty and sincere where when I'm watching like the she takes the Polaroid of him in front of the dinoes fucking. And I'm just like, man, this feels so weird because like it almost feels like it belongs in a different movie from different characters doing it.

And by the end of it, you know, like having that at the end just framed was kind of nice. It was like kind of worth it or whatever. But yeah, no, there's just kind of, there's some weird tone stuff going on in this movie where it doesn't feel quite balanced in the way that it should be.

It's not, it's not juggling them even half as well as like your average Korean movie, you know? Like right, although like that sex scene you just mentioned, I thought that was like a good use of flipping the tone and a way you weren't anticipating. Because the whole buildup to them are like these scary sounds coming from through the trees and they're like, fuck, we've got to deal with like this horror situation. And then it's like a rugpole. And it's this like funny scene brings out a different side of them as characters. they have this cute little character moment in the horror. I thought that was like really well done with the tonal stuff.

Okay. No, I'm with you there. Yeah. I like, I like that they killed Ewan, but I was also thinking like, right after it happened, they had to make the decision of like,

okay, the big Dino just killed Ewan, McGregor, but these other characters either have to get the fuck out of there right away or we give them enough time to have that like, no, and like don't look sort of moment where they like do this mini processing

and we as the audience can kind of like feel their trauma in some way before they slowly walk away. But the second option, which is obviously what they went with, kind of just had me thinking like, okay, well, like this dinosaur eating Ewan McGregor, like Ewan McGregor could fit in its mouth. Like, I don't know. It seems like every animal on the planet except humans. Like, just fucking, you know, just scarf something down because the priority is get thing in digestive system now.

But the dinosaur was like fucking, you know, just taking his time with it, like fine dining, you know, like eating some hors d'oeuvres. I'm like, okay, you're given, you're given that time for the character moment. But it was, it had me thinking about it. It took me out of it for a bit. Fair. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't have that much more to say. I mean, I just, dinosaurs eating people. I don't know. I feel like it just executed what it was mostly trying to do very well. And it was just a really entertaining movie. Yeah, how patience. Yeah. No, I didn't regret watching it. And I hope that, you know, even though this wasn't like a big success,

I hope David Robert Mitchell is able to do some more shit. I think he's doing like a sequel to It Follows, maybe. Is that actually in production? Yeah, they follow. They follow. Yeah. Don't know about that. They follows. Them's following.

And then he's also got something in production called Evergreen Pines and the Fading Summer. Adventure Mystery with Jim Carrey. And this is according to IMDB. Yeah. We don't know. Okay. So it looks like, yeah. I mean, he's got some things in the works, which is good.

good for me. Jake, have you seen Under the Silver Lake? Oh, yeah. I love Under the Silver Lake. Yeah, that one's a really polarizing film. Like, a lot of people hate it. I'm surprised. I mean, yeah. Yeah, like, really hate it. Mark Kermode compared it to like Southland Tales, you know. Yeah, just such an insane comparison to me. I feel like that film has only gotten better with time. Like, I was thinking about it just the other day with like it's so like

conspiratorial and like anxious. I feel like that would just connect even. Even better know with the setting and everything. It's pinch on totally like pinch on. Yeah. And I mean, seeing Andrew Garfield beat up a kid in the street. Yes. Like when I,

something that helped with that movie too when I was watching. I was like, oh, this guy's just a total asshole. And I love that. The movie's just like, yeah, let's go with that.

Yeah. No, it's a total, God, I love that movie. It's really great. I'm glad you like it. Also,

it follows is great. Yeah. No, I mean, for me, it's like three for three. I'll just go wherever this guy wants to go. Seems like he picks really interesting stuff. And they follow. I know it's, I mean, they're going with the pronoun stuff. And if it's going to be woke, I mean, whatever.

If it's woke, it's woke. They may do it follows woke. Go damn it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, like, It follows was arguably more woke with the it pronoun because there's not a lot of people to do that. Right.

Usually, you know, some kind of like furry or something. something might do that. Was it follows the film that kind of kicked off the kind of elevated horror sort of trend? It was in the era. I mean, it was that and like Hereditary. I think Hereditary was maybe a year before. So It Follows as 2014 or maybe I'm wrong. I feel like it was slightly before.

Hereditary is 2018. Okay. It follows is four years before. So that could be absolutely correct. And then yeah, yeah, it follows was not even a. 24 was it gosh I can't remember I think it might have been like neon or something let's see uh no it was none of them the radius wow okay what so just like yeah not like a big thing okay interesting and it was at con too wow I'm shocked his first film gets into

con that's cool um yeah yeah no I like him a lot and all three I enjoyed. I would say this is easily the worst of the three for me. But still worth watching and, yeah, not really disappointed. It's better than I actually thought it would be based on the reception. Yeah, I'd probably agree it's maybe his weakest film. But as I was saying earlier, like, they're all so different and are scratching different itches. I feel like for what it's going for.

it's pretty unique in this space. Whether it be like horror films that are kind of unique and take themselves seriously or just having dinosaurs and a budget this big and not feeling like this big studio mess. Even if you do think it is a mess, it's because it's like it feels like an individual script. He's the only credited writer and director. That was cool. And for how like brisk it is, I thought the character work was pretty decent, especially with the lead two characters.

Like the whole writer backstory was surprisingly good. Frank Hathaway. I liked that touch. And the whole like pizza delivery, like hiding the situation with his job and the alcoholism for you and McGregor. It was like, this is cool that they managed to get this in the. Yeah. Even though that, yeah, this is so brisk.

And really it's not the focus of the movie. And you're like getting invested in this married couple arguing. And it's like more distressing than the dinosaurs eating people. And I thought that was kind of cool. Yeah, I'd like a nice range of emotions. Surprised me. Definitely, I really need to see it again for I can really feel. Because for me it was more in the kind of six to eight kind of range.

And it was just like fluctuating a lot depending on like, oh, I didn't love that decision. But then it would do something like, wow, you did that. Then it wouldn't commit to it. And I don't know. This was cool. I liked all the split though up to stuff as well. I've been rewatching six feet under, and that also uses the split dial up to like constantly, which I didn't remember really. I would have been too young to notice that when I watched it too.

Yeah, it's like in every episode. I was like, whoa. That's interesting. I don't remember that, but cool. Yeah. But yeah, no, I'm here for him. I think it will be as long as he keeps being allowed to make movies and work in the studio system. Like, I think this would be an interesting standout.

I'll happily revisit too. We love you, David. You got it. You got it. Keep going. Don't give up. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Was that your dinosaurs? There was a penguin, which is a descendant of dinosaurs, I guess. I give this an 8 out of 10. Hell yeah. All right. Well, I'm giving this a 6. Six out of ten And if wormholes

exist they would not be like that because the earth is not in a fixed position in space We're moving very fast through the universe actually Right I didn't even think of that We've got six, seven eight I think I said seven Fucking Carl Sagan or some shit

Mm-hmm All right Two of us saw Tony Tony And And uh... You're sorry guys Alex

They're making him tonyless Out here Yeah I have to choose between this or miasma I chose Sure The one that appealed to me more I honestly I don't know much about

Anthony Bourdain I do like all of Matt Johnson's movies So that would be the appeal For me like seeing how he'd tackle A kind of subject I'm kind of sick of Like these just constant like biopics But You've seen the movie

you guys tell me. Did you watch Blackberry? What's the like about this? Oh yeah, I really liked Blackberry. Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was a good approach to a little bit more of like a niche topic. I was like, what are they going to do with a Blackberry movie? But you kind of forgot like how impactful that product was and how much it kind of touched the world.

I was like a cool angle to take that by a pick. But what's the angle here? What is the angle? Well, I mean, like it's a very solid. easy to like biopic, where it's something that I feel like I could have watched it with like my parents and they would have liked it a lot, even though it's, you know, it's got, it's not like so safe that it's like offensive in that sense. But it's a very like, palatable, generally like audience friendly sort of thing. And this is the first film that he's made,

I believe, where he's not doing his mockumentary style. So that was interesting. You know, it's, things are a bit more stationary, right? Things aren't moving around as much. And what's funny is like, you know, there's a good chunk of it where I'm like, you know, I could use a bit more wide shots, but then also it's like, okay, this is probably the widest framing he's ever had throughout like a runtime anyway. That's funny. Yeah, no, there were some, there were some really nice shots.

this but yeah it wasn't like mind-blowing like like ooh every shot's perfect sort of thing but there was enough of it in there to be like oh okay this oh i like this one i like this one um there was like a good chunk of the movie that was kind of like montage which made sense for what type of story it was communicating uh we're kind of seeing the uh the get out of being a fucking little brat stage of Tony's life, um, where, where you can see like the,

the parts of him that would translate into what we all know him for, uh, start to form and develop. Um, yeah, no, I liked it overall. Um,

what did you think, Jake? I had a great time. I thought this was a really, really solid movie. And, and the fact that I also don't know much about Anthony. Bordane really had nothing, it could have been about anybody, really, because it's just about a guy

trying to make it in the world. And, you know, it opens with a quote from Anthony Bordane that's along the lines of like, when I was young, I was stupid, blah, blah, blah, and I deserved an ass kicking. And the movie is about a character who, you know, it's, I don't know, I found a very relatable connecting to this guy who's young and wants to be a writer and wants and, you know, thinks he's hot shit. And like I can just step on whoever I want to get what I need in life and come into terms with what that entails. And there are kind of like paths that he can take as a character that he sees and the people around him.

And it's kind of by happenstance that it gets sucked into the restaurant world, which I found really interesting. It's this sidetrack that ends up becoming this passion for him. But most of the movies about him trying to get laid. And, you know, it felt very much like Richard Linklater movie, you know. It's like kind of a high-up vibe. Really, Stavros, Halkius is in this. You know, there's some really great performances.

Antonio Banderas is the standout. He's just this. Agreed, yeah. Charisma, you know, volcano. Like, he's so fun to watch on screen. And getting to see Anthony Bourdain, who in this movie is playing like this cocky, loser, asshole, jerk. But nevertheless, Dominic Sessa imbues him with this kind of like,

sad poetry in his eyes that you're just like mesmerized watching him. And, you know, I listened to an interview with Matt Johnson and he said something along the lines of like, when I make a movie, I want to love every character. Even, you know, the ones who aren't necessarily good guys, I want to be able to like them and like them and like them. And I'm rooting for them. And you get that sense with this movie. You know, there's a lot of love and what I like about like Matt Johnson's direction, which I didn't find very flashy or, you know, audacious. It's, It's like well shot, but it feels very performance oriented. And I haven't seen any of his other movies except for Nirvana.

And what I got out of this movie was like, oh, yeah, there's probably lots of improvisation, I'm assuming. But a lot of it's just like, okay, this is about the performances. And it worked really well. And the script is very kind of, I wouldn't say standard, but it is a, it's very screenplay-y in the fact that it hits the beats that it needs to hit. hit, you know? Yeah, yeah. Very much.

Loss in the second end of the second act, going to the third act, you know, all these things that the characters need to learn. And to me, it reminds me, I guess in the way like the end of Oak Street is an exercise in doing an amblin monster movie. This movie feels like Matt Johnson going, can I make this type of movie? And he does it extremely well, you know? It's, um, it doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it, it's a fucking good wheel. You know, it's a really nice wheel.

Right. So I recommend people watch it. It's a really good time, some really memorable moments. And yeah, I'm really happy I saw it. Yeah, absolutely. The lead actor, Dominic Sessa, was in the holdovers. Right, right. I think that was, yeah, that was like basically his kind of like breakout thing, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, it was his first role, I think. Oh, wow. Yeah, no. And he did a really great job in this movie. believable well-cast pretty much pretty much everyone was well-cast overall

the kitchen crew like everybody everybody was like distinct enough character but all kind of like fit the mold of this

stereotypical kitchen environment where you know not every film captures that the full extent of these types of characters and the rampant like alcoholism and cocaine addiction that just goes on in kitchens and seeing them

in this environment not just with the main character but especially with Antonio banderas who is like obviously not participating in the alcoholism and cocaine but is still just kind of like he loves what he does and he loves the food and he's serious about it and he's he's there to like just manage his business in a way that is beneficial to what he loves doing, you know? Like, he's, he's not quite like the stereotypical, like, Sensei sort of character or whatever, but there's, like, maybe hints of it there.

He's, like, a bit more reserved in that sense. But, yeah, he brings a lot to the movie. I would love to see him get some kind of a nomination for this, actually. Oh, yeah. He's wonderful. Him and Leo Woodall are, like, the two forces pulling. Yeah. He was going to opposite directions because you see Leo Woodall plays kind of like this.

You know, he's got the, this like James Dean. He's like bad boy. Like he's doing drugs. He's sleeping with tons of women and he's a total asshole. And immediately, of course, Anthony Bourdain is like, this is the guy. This is the coolest guy ever. And part of the growing up is realizing maybe actually Antonio Banderas is the wiser individual. And seeing their relationship grow and everything was just really sweet.

This movie reminded me in some ways of one of my favorite movies, which is super underrated. It's called Mistress America. Oh, yeah, I know I've seen it. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah, Noah Baumbach. And it's also about a writer, you know, trying to, like, navigate being young and having an idol that you have complicated feelings about. So, I know. I love movies like this.

And I feel like it, again, like at the end of Oak Street, it achieves exactly what it's setting out to do. and to want it to be a bit more audacious or bold. Like, yeah, I could understand that. It could have taken a darker turn at the end. It could have done things maybe, you know, a little more interestingly. But I feel like that's not really what it's going for in the first place. Yeah. My biggest criticisms with the movie, I think, would have to do with just like some of the sound.

The score I loved. I absolutely fucking loved the score. But was it Jay Mcarrow? Yeah, it was it was Jay. Awesome. I thought that he got canceled after shooting that. No, he's innocent. We were hanging out at the time.

His library school was on point. Okay. No, he, it's unfortunately just a scenario where it's like, oh, I love this score, but one of, of the themes they play too often within too short of a time frame where I was like, okay, this is like the third time in like 10 minutes. And then like closer to the end, there's like a really important character moment. And they bring back that same, you know, like the same one that's already been overused. And sure, they expand on it. But yeah, I found myself just being like,

man, like it's, it was just a scenario of like one particular theme being overplayed that did take away from like some of the more serious moments when they were, when it was brought back. Um, so I, I wish it had a bit more restriction, uh, in that sense. Um, and then, you know, the other sound issues is just like some fucking pet peeves that I mention in every movie like, okay, you're in a party environment. You know, the music, the music is loud on paper, but the characters are talking quietly over top. I would just love to see more films where they adjust the voices of the characters while they're filming on set to compensate for the fact that there will be louder audio later. And yeah, that's just a pet peeve of mine that I say in every movie. So this one's no different. very very few movies have actually considered I feel like I've only seen like David Fincher do that

David Fincher is a great example of that he does that and he cares about those details but it's not it's not the only example and there are some kind of creative ways in which that's been accounted for as well yeah no it's it's a it's a movie where I enjoyed myself watching it. I hope it does well. But I'm not going to like rush back to see it. I don't really feel

so strong towards the experience that I had in that film that I would quickly just being like, oh yeah, I got to see that again sort of thing. Yeah, no, I connect with Matt Johnson's other films more than I did this one. But I also usually tend to go for like the more subversive

and weird shit anyway, so that's not really a surprise here. Yeah, very good, very standard film that does enough to separate itself from the crowd and definitely isn't something that I would call like generic. I really enjoyed, there's some great editing in this movie. They work with the same editors still, and so that's not a surprise, where like the flow and energy of certain scenes. Like when there's like a really short scene with the main character and Leo Woodall, where they're at a bar and then just like all of a sudden, you know, one of the characters like just like attacks another one.

And the entire pacing of that scene is just so like quick and heightened and anxiety inducing that's like, oh wow, like I'm just like, you know, feeling calm and nice at one moment, but then just like absorbed in the heightened chaos completely, like really quickly. Yeah, the editing does a great job with the overall flow of the film. And also, I loved how at the end of that scene, the visual of the, you know, beer bottle gets broken on the side of the glass. And then you see the two characters kind of like concerningly slash longingly look at each other through the window with like that, you know, the beer coming down the window is just like a nice looking visual there. Like it was very aesthetically pleasing to me.

And there's a few shots like that that just stick out. Now it's really beautiful. Like there are so many beautiful shots in Cape Cod. it feels very grounded like it was all filmed there. And also the fact that it is a period piece set in 1975. You see the only reference to like the 70s besides like the needle drops is their Jaws is playing in one scene at a drive-in theater. But it doesn't feel like, hey man, remember the 70s?

Like it just it could have been like any time really. Yeah. How was the like biopic fan servicey kind of stuff if we're talking like Michael being the Oh God. How does it balance that kind of stuff? This was the best case scenario. He sounds just like his uncle. It was really restrained.

Yeah, no, I mean, like, I'm a person that doesn't know too much about Anthony Bourdain outside of which restaurants he recommended in Vancouver. But, yeah, in terms of, like, fan-service bits, I don't even know if I would want to call this fan-servicey. I'm not going to explain exactly what it is, but there's a line of, you know. dialogue right at the end of the movie where it's like, okay, like, it's like borderline parody towards it wrapping itself up in a nice way and kind of following the formula. It's like, okay, I get what you're doing. All right. Maybe that could be perceived as fan servicey. I'm not

sure. But it didn't, no, it didn't really feel like it was just doing fucking, oh, dude, Pride Rock or whatever. Like, it didn't really feel like it was doing that. Like a checklist of, right. Yeah. Are you talking about the moment when Gordon Ramsey walked in? Young Gordon Ramsey was like, I'm building an initiative. I'm building a team. I'm building a team. I thought that was cool. Looks like you've just entered Hell's Kitchen.

Say that again. What? You joke, but some of them have liked that. I know. No, yeah. This is, that's why I made sure to specify that, like, even though this is definitely, following the playbook like Jake said, it's certainly not generic

because the bar has lowered so much especially for biopic films that this one just being like what we would have considered to be like a nice standard maybe at one point or like the best case scenario without it being a masterpiece maybe, right? Yeah. Now it's just so unheard of

especially when you're doing a biopic film that it's just like oh fuck like it's kind of refreshing. Let's keep this confidential You want me to keep this kitchen confidential? That's what I'm saying. No, yeah, it could have been way worse. And that's not to say it or to like downgrade the quality of this movie. It was a really good movie.

I'd give it a seven out of ten. I don't know about you, Adam. You know, I would also give it a seven out of ten. And I'll say it's on the lower end of the sevens. There were some points where I was feeling like maybe a six. But yeah, no, it's seven for sure. maybe a solid seven yeah

everybody felt like they served a purpose and even though like as you mentioned like you know it was like he spends most of the movie trying to get laid

there was a part of me that was just like you know I wish they kind of expanded upon and developed the female lead a bit more like there was more to her um like there was enough into the movie where it's like, okay, well, her character serves a bit more of a purpose than just fulfilling the checklist of like, I gotta get the girl.

Right. Like, it wound up fulfilling more of a purpose by the end. And I was like, okay, that's good at least. But I do wish that, like, she was characterized a bit more. Even though the story is not about her, I feel like there's like small things that could have been done to just make her a bit more interesting. Like, give her a bit more, like. personality or traits. Yeah, I agree with that.

Yeah, no, fun time. Seven out of ten. So everybody watch it. One more tiny, tiny. I'll just talk about this in my review. I'll probably review it. All right, seven to ten. Cool, okay.

You convince me to check out. You're welcome. All right. Yeah, you better. All right. The Beast. a film from

2020 directed by Bertrand Bonello who I don't think I saw anything for before this point but this was a film that was at Tiff a few years back

and I didn't watch it because it was two and a half hours long and I didn't know anything about the fucking director And sometimes I don't want to take that risk. And it's gotten, yeah, it's gotten like mixed reviews from people, but pretty critically well received overall. And there's always been something about it that's kind of intrigued me. And there were enough people that have asked me my opinion on it. That it kind of fit the, it had enough things that made me go, I'm intrigued.

And this seems like it could be a thing that I would want to see that's different and unique and interesting. And so it's on my priority watch list of about like 30 or so movies. Where enough of it intrigues me to want to check out even though I don't know much about it, that I want to separate it from my like fucking 8,000 movie long watch list and just remember that there's things that I like, want to check out and so that's why we did the weird number game at the end of the last episode is because I was making you guys select something

from my priority watch list and we landed on this one and I had some mixed feelings watching this but overall I actually enjoyed it even though

seems a lot of people don't. So I'm curious to hear what both of your experiences were. Let's see it first. I will go first. I will go first and I will say what the fuck? What the fuck? By the way, 12 a.m. last night

realizing, oh, wait a second, this is two and a half hours. I'm just going to sleep and get up at 4.30. Jesus. Great, great morning experience. This movie is super interesting. and I low-key hated it, but enjoy... How did you stay awake? Oh, man, coffee.

I was eating a bagel. I actually took a nap halfway through. I was like, okay, I'm going to do a power nap. 20 minutes. I got back up again. I mean, yeah, me too. And I don't have like a little kid. And then I finished it right when I heard the little voice go,

so it worked out. And I'm in a good state of mind. This movie is a literary adaptation. I didn't realize that. Oh. Loose adaptation of Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle, which would, I guess,

mostly be like the stuff set in 1910, more or less, but it is kind of like... So I assume you got... I didn't know what the story was. Do you guys know what the Beast in the Jungle is? No. Is it Kimba?

So it's not Kimba. It's, um, I guess, it's a novella that Henry James, author of like The Turn of the Screw and the Ambassadors and everything, he wrote it and it's sort of about a character who, this is the Wikipedia summary, you know, this is just me reading from Wikipedia. It's fine. No, I'm not reading from Wikipedia right now.

I'm talking about, I read Wikipedia. Okay. Okay. So it's a guy who imagine, yeah, my brain is like chat cheap. Okay. A guy. He's a guy. And he's not in a jungle, but he met a woman.

And he's like, I had a vision of a beast that's going to kill me. And I'm so scared of this thing that's going to destroy me in the future that I can't be with someone. I can't be with you because I'm too scared of the beast, which we don't know what the beast is. But he ends up wasting his life. And it's like a parable of this story where he wastes his life. And he could have been with this woman having a whole life, but he was too scared. And in the end, he realized that the beast is his unwillingness to live life. Yeah.

So there you go. And that's kind of what the movie I think is grappling with, even though it turns it into a whole Cloud Atlas thing. Yeah, kind of. In cells. You said it. Hell yeah. There you go.

Yeah. No, I was thinking Cloud Atlas big time. Yeah. Through this movie. Another big kind of swing concept movie. And like this idea of ideas kind of transporting through generations and through different time and space. and it's very big with that kind of stuff

it's kind of like a if you threw Cloud Atlas Eternal Sunshine like a bit of Black Mirror 2001 in a blender and like mixed it up and I I found this quite tough to get through it to be honest I did not enjoy

this movie or my experience with this movie it was yeah this is all your fault Adam what the hell you chose it yeah It makes sense on paper that it would be more interesting in a cloud atlas kind of way where it's like this in a literary sense I feel like would make more sense than how it's portrayed on screen where it just kind of feels like it feels like it's carrying itself like it's more profound than it actually is and I didn't really find it that thought provoking or challenging and I wasn't confused by it. I was more just kind of bored by it like why you deliver it. it this way when I feel like if you kind of rearrange this or chop this up, you could actually maybe get it something kind of engaging or interesting because like this, I should be a mark

for this. Like the whole Eternal Sunshine memory kind of angle of like you've got three time periods being explored in this movie is a science fiction movie with it returning to this 24 kind of main timeline where there's a technology that AI basically rule the world, there's 67% unemployment. It's kind of like an inverse of a blade runner where it's not about like machines becoming humans. It's more like machines winning and then humans having to become more like machines and like lose that humanity. And it's more about that kind of dehumanizing nature of the automation that's going on.

And yeah, that's explored through the beast, which is manifested in the 1910 section through, yeah, this kind of more internal struggle with the main character and then flips at a certain point into being a beast envisioned in kind of a different more literal sense. And it's jumping around these timelines and there's a lot of talking about stuff that's very big and broad and high concept. And it just was glacial to me. Lord knows how you stayed awake for this joke, especially with that context of how you watched it. Because after like an hour of the movie, it was like, okay, now we're going to something that's actually speaking to me a little bit more.

Because every time it was going to the 1910 stuff, I just, I was just questioning, like, what is the hook here? There's like the mystery element of like, okay, there's this technology that can target basically your past traumas and your past lives and you have to relive them to address something to remove them from your mind whatever but it just doesn't really contextualize that in a way that feels very emotional or prescient and just kind of feels like meandering and just like changes directions

and it just kind of became a parody of itself at a certain point to me and I just couldn't take it seriously from it. Like, I thought the dialogue was all over the place and just kind of, it was, it was being so, like, self-serious, but it just wasn't landing for me with how big and important it was presenting itself. It just did not click for me. Right. Yeah, I feel like, well, there was a criterion interview on the criterion channel with the director, and he talks about how his two primary influences are Jean-Luc Godard and David Lynch. And I'm sure. Yeah. I can totally, see that. Absolutely. And, you know, like you, Alex, it felt like, okay, this movie's going for some big feelings of, like, romance and love. It's talking about love. Like, it's a movie about

love and finding your, like, soulmate through time. And, you know, it has this kind of interesting, like, narrative device in the future. They're trying to, like, erase the memory of past lives and to be like this soulless automaton or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, I can go along with this. But at a certain point, it does feel like, wait, I kind of need to feel anything and to feel engaged in the story. I would like to have some semblance of a character, you know, like instead of just people who have no personality, except for when it gets into the 2014 section, which at that point, it's a totally different movie. And one, I don't think mesh is well with the rest of it. It became funny, but also like really weird. And,

Not in a great way because of what it was like trying to do thematically where I'm like, okay, yes, on paper, this makes sense with the theme of love and not being able to. Like, in the interview, the director says it's basically about fear making it impossible to love. You know, fear is stopping people from loving. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, I totally see that. And you took the most extreme example of that and tried to pair it with the rest of the movie. I'm like, no.

Like, I just, it almost felt a bit edge lordy where I'm just like, okay. Yeah. Do we like. And also like they didn't understand like really the internet or like, are we unspoilers yet? I mean, yeah, let's do spoilers. Yeah. Because, yeah, basically the, I know it down exactly when it happens at the hour 15 mark it switches into being. It's what, set in 2014.

Yeah. And the character dynamics switch. It's now about a struggling actor and a stalker. And the stalker character I twiged very quickly was obviously based on Elliot Rogers. Yeah, I called that so early too. He didn't even mention women. I'm like, is this fucking Elliot Roger? I'm not totally certain, but this is, from what I understand,

he literally says verbatim things that Elliot Rogers said crap. No, absolutely. Which is a choice. That is a choice. And one that I found just kind of corny and like it just wasn't landing, especially when it's like directly contrasted with this like delicate 1910 period piece like romance thing. And I guess that's kind of the point is to kind of thrust you in the complete opposite and look at this dynamic now. But it just doesn't have what it takes to sell how charged that is like in in reverse. The dialogue wasn't working for me for me there.

the performances weren't clicking. There was something that, as I just said, kind of made it feel like a parody of itself when it was getting into that character and just seemed to be missing. It was using the darkness of someone like that in just kind of a, almost like a plot devicey sort of way. It didn't feel like it was interested in that person

like as a character or exploring the kind of tech side or the, that element of it, which is like one of the three. lines with the sci-fi angle. But it, it becomes really muddy with like what it's trying to say there, what it's trying to do with that.

It just doesn't feel like it's exploring anything particularly interesting and just kind of almost using shock value. Yes. To get feeling out of you. I was like laughing at some of the scenes of the aping, Rogers, like recording himself in his car. I thought that stuff was really corny. I just did not work

I don't know I didn't interpret the entire experience of the movie even like outside of that segment I didn't interpret the entire experience of the movie as being like entirely serious like I thought that it was doing something that was kind of like

tongue in cheek playful and like the intentionally awkwardness of like the editing with the pigeon or like the woman psychic on the you know, like on the laptop or whatever, like her performance is giving this very like eerie off kind of like Silent Hill vibes.

And it's complimented by like the ridiculousness of the things happening on her computer screen. Like all these weird pop-ups and shit and fucking like trash humpers is playing by Harmony Korean. And like it's evoking this like... Is that what that was? Yeah, that was literally trash humpers. It's evoking this like kind of

almost analog horror, nostalgia, 2010's internet sort of thing that you see actually more commonly used today in like internet animations now. I'm trying to remember the names of some of them. There's one called like homemade Gatorade and then there's like, yeah, there's a bunch of creators doing this sort of thing now. Yeah, no, it's, I feel like it has like a pretty good sense of self-awareness to the degree that like when I was getting to the point of this Elliot Roger Rogers I don't know if I know that that moment in the film like perhaps if I if I imagined it as like trying to be like super serious and trying to like thoroughly delve into and explore like the societal conditions that lead to that person

existing, then maybe I might have, you know, not been able to enjoy it. But I was kind of just like, oh, this is awesome. I like how weird it's being. There were enough clues near, like in the first half of the film to suggest that it would be something that kind of goes off the rails. And I was very much anticipating that throughout the film as I was watching it, you know, the opening with the green screen room and the data moshing into the title and, you know, not just the back and forth. time jumping, but also like, just like this, this inherent kind of like weirdness with how it was presenting itself, it felt like it was teasing just enough to be like, okay, we're going to make sure that you know that this is a weird-ass movie with more to offer. And in my mind, I was like,

okay, if this just meanders the entire time. If the second half was just more of the first half, then I would not really have enjoyed the movie. But I actually feel that like because the second half exists and because it's such a different direction, the intention from my perspective is that like kind of lulling you in and comforting you into like this expectation of how the movie is going to be in the first half has a bit more of an effect when it goes off the rails like that. I still do feel as though like the first half of the movie should have been at least,

15 minutes shorter. At least, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. Like, that would have definitely helped my first watch. But overall, watching this film, like, I'm intrigued enough by what the film was and what it showed and the ideas that it was communicating that I do kind of, like, you know, like, I want to watch it again. And I'm interested to see if I would still feel that way about the pacing of the first half

or if I would just be used to it with that added certainty of my expectation. But even then, I feel like the contrast is a fun idea on paper, but that first hour, 15 minutes before it gets to the more out there kind of choices, what is the urgency or the suspense? I just don't care about these two characters, really. And the sci-fi hook is just kind of put on, put a pin in it for like that whole section pretty much. It's not until later where you'd get a little bit more context or development into that. And it's like, yeah, there's this dollhouse company. And all of that texture just did not, it just didn't feel like I needed to be there for what the overall piece was trying to say for me.

Like I need more of a personality. I need like a Brazil. That's like a crazy, wacky film the entire time. And I feel like it's saying some like kind of similar things. It's saying a lot just in a more like creative, consistent way where this just felt like, yeah, it's making big, bold choices. But it's not feeding back into this central. kind of feeling that I'm looking for, especially with how long this is.

Like it, I, I, I would never want to see this again. Yeah. The stuff that it does that were interesting, I wish it had leaned into more. And it was like, like, the stuff with the digital screens and the how, like, you know, the green screen stuff, where she's like performing in front of a green screener, like, kind of interesting. The weird editing at, like, the climax of the movie with the stalker in her house, you know. and like, oh, wait a second.

I had to, like, rewind for a second to see if, like, my screen was, like, glitching. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, that's cool. That's interesting. I like what it's trying to say with, like, screens in the modern world and everything, if it is trying to do anything. But there wasn't really enough of that. And most of the movie felt like we're trying to do, like, a pastiche with these three different genres.

And it made me think a lot about David Lynch. And I've seen people compare the same to the return, which I think is not a totally apt comparison, although there are some, like, aesthetic similarities. But to me, David Lynch, when he's doing a genre, he really loves the genre. Like, you never get a sense that Lynch is trying to stand above doing a noir, you know. He doesn't think he's above Alfred Hitchcock. And I'm not saying that this director feels that way. But I wish that those sequences where it's like, okay, we're doing like an L.A.

stalker, slasher. They're supposed to be suspense. Why am I so sleepy? And it's not just because it's 4.30 a.m., it's because this is boring, you know. And like the beginning, we're doing like costume drama. There should be like there's one sequence where they're touching hands. And I was like, this is yes. They were going somewhere.

This is interesting. Yeah, that was steamy. That was steamy. Yeah. And I'm like, we need more of this. I want to feel them as characters. But then it does some corny ass art house shit, you know, where like there's a shot of the doll and then it cuts back to Leah Seidu doing an impression of a doll.

And I'm just like, oh, I hated that it kept cutting back. I'm like, come on. That's corny as fuck. Like, come on, we get it. Whenever it gave us those, like, flashback scenes, like, there's at least three times in the movie that I can think of, maybe four. Whenever it did that,

it always felt like it was so quickly after it had initially showed us that. You know, like her doing the doll face wasn't that long ago. An alternative idea that I had to that scene is instead of just, like, literally cutting back to it, just be like, member?

I kind of wished that like it went even further off the rails and did something even more cheesy, like like a slow fade with the doll superimposing over her face or something. Like just a very like off like somewhere between Lynch and Breen sort of choice. Yeah, I wish it had more of a personality like that or felt like more. So you're saying it feels like it has a self-awareness, but it feels way more self-serious to me. It's not really having much fun with its. setting particularly or you're talking about this scene with the the like burning building and they've got to they've got to escape a fire they're trapped in a building and even that sequence was like where's the i'm just feeling nothing there's no suspense to this i don't really even feel the danger

they're just kind of like dilly dally and it's like there's some cool imagery i'll give you that like i like the when they're both kind of drowned there and yeah there's something to say there but yeah it's the urgency like what is what is pulling me through this story like it's not like i need like constant action or anything like that. But all the films that kept reminded me of were like, well, I'd much rather be watching that were exported better in a, you know, in a Blade Runner or her or 2001, like all of these ideas that I just don't really get much of a payoff from the way they're kind of thrown around here.

Yeah, I felt the same way in the sequence where the stalker, Elliot Rogers, is in the house. And wait, can I say this? Because we're doing, are we doing spoilers? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we already said spoilers. Yeah, yeah. My bad. My bad.

Yeah, but when Elliot, basically Elliot Rogers is in her house and as a gun is about to kill her, she locks herself up into this, like, panic room or whatnot. Not really a panic room, but there's like screens. She's locked in there.

And she's like, I'm going to open the door because of love. And it felt like a, it wasn't being funny or corny. Like, it was like, it was trying to be like a sincere thing where it's like,

this is her love from a past life. And he happens to be Elliot, right? Why? You know, why are we, like, again, it has that edge lord feel.

like, okay, this is interesting to try to like, to include this in the movie, I've got to be like, okay, hats off. This is bold, you know, what you're going for here. But again, like trying to enmesh it and it does feel like there's this self-serious tone that always pulls away of like, I don't know if you're selling this, you know, like I just don't buy into any of this. And then finally in the third part with the sci-fi thing, you know, and how it concludes, I was like, man, it just, it wants to have this, like, sense of feeling, but it just left me so, so hollow. And almost, like, I almost laughed at the last moment of the movie. I did.

Like, okay. I straight out did. I was like, wow. If you weren't into it the whole time, then it's like, yeah, that part would be funny. I did feel like the intended feeling for much of what they showed. Like, I was at that ending, I wasn't like. I was very intrigued and like caught off guard by the choice

but not in a way where I thought it was like ridiculous and funny but just kind of like oh wow interesting and you know like with her like the the panic room sort of scene like much of it I'm saying the same things that I would in other movies of like oh you fucking idiot and like sometimes kind of like laughing at her situation but you know when it gets to like

her opening the door, the way that I was like kind of thinking about that is just, you know, so much of this movie is happening inside her head during this procedure or, you know, whatever the fuck the AI is doing to her brain in like an eternal sunshine sort of thing. Who knows exactly like how much of it is like literal in the sense that like, is that really, is that really a past life? Because it's all basically a simulation sort of thing is my kind of. interpretation of it, but maybe I'm wrong. I'll just have to look back at exactly what they explained.

But, you know, I was kind of feeling the whole her making these stupid choices was fitting into that same sort of like love over fear type thing in a way where, you know, they said that she's one of, she's within the 0.7% of people where the procedure just like doesn't even work no matter how many times they try. And so it's like there's an innate part of some part of her psyche that is so like desperate and longing and attached and wants to feel some sort of emotion that like despite these attempts to erase or recontextualize other things in her mind that that are trying to like be erased. despite those attempts, it kind of just prevails anyway. And even, you know, in those simulations or fantasies or memories or whatever,

like he winds up just like shooting her in the pool, which I found kind of silly because it's like it didn't even show them getting to the pool. It was just like, okay, well, I guess he just walked out to the pool and then did that. Like that was like a Sunset Boulevard reference maybe? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, no, like I was into it enough that like, I am very intrigued by it and not like laughing at it in a way. Like it's ridiculous enough that I feel like I'm laughing with it at points for sure.

And there's parts of it that are definitely like they trigger that this is stupid feeling in my brain. But the overall experience just doesn't, it doesn't feel like that's necessarily like not a part of an accepted intended experience. did you have a conclusive like emotional experience with the movie because it feels like it's trying to end on a gut punch but that's one of the things I was struggling with throughout its runtime was like this is it's kind of saying that it's about something really emotional but I'm feeling no emotion and the filmmaking was kind of reinforcing that of how like kind of cold and distant and yeah I like that in like a fincher or a Kubrick or whatever but there are other things that kind of prop it up and get emotion out of like different feelings but I really just felt nothing. Yeah. After a certain point, I was just like, what is, what is the angle here? Like, what is it trying to say overall that isn't just like a bunch of, it's just spitting, like a bunch of ideas that are interesting on paper, but just, it's like water

and oil. I was definitely feeling things. I wouldn't say, like, in a conclusive way. Like, I felt the film was, like, just more contemplative. And in that sense, like, there are aspects of it that maybe, you know, maybe my, you know, maybe my experience was aided by the fact that I was kind of feeling like this is somewhere between like a straightforward narrative with arcs and conclusions and a pure just vibes-based movie. And I think part of the reason why I felt like comfortably in that sort of in-between sort of area

is that like a lot of a lot of my experience of the film, sure, what's happening narratively is like silly and abstract. But at key moments, like when he's stocking her, the vehicles behind her, the choice of the vehicles that they were using and like how, how eerie like him and the black Jeep is behind her, also aided by the sound design and the score, which, as I say all the time, sound means a lot to me. And I found the score to be super varied, very, very interesting, capturing a lot of different sounds and tones and using a lot of different instrumentation.

But also, like, the sound design specifically in this movie, in the scene where they're in, like, the doll factory, there's some fucking crazy, like, ASMR level fully going on in that entire scene. And every single scene in this movie just had so much texture to the sound design. sign. Like, there was always something in the background kind of like aiding the overall soundscape and setting and like tone. The feeling of each scene was very sound heavy. Sometimes when they were cutting back between different scenes, there would be like really abrupt kind of tonal shifts because of the abrupt shifts in the sound.

Yeah, no, I loved the sound design in this movie. Like, really, really big on it. I noticed one scene, especially this, sound design usually doesn't stick out to me that much, but there's one scene in, like, the 1972 future club that they're at, where they're all dancing. And it's like the music is playing, but you hear very loudly, like, their feet on the ground and, like, the creek of the floor. And also, too, in, like, the period stuff, you hear, like the creek of the floorboards

and everything. and it feels like, I feel like that was a conscious decision. It has to have been. It definitely feels, it feels less like movie-esque than it does like we're recording something for real, you know. Yeah. And part of the reason why I feel like it has to be is it's kind of funny that we mentioned this earlier. The, well, my common gripe with music playing loudly and then characters talking quietly in that same environment. At the end of this movie, they did like a really weird kind of.

of like creative choice where like based on what they filmed if they had kept the uh the environmental audio the way that we would expect it to continue uh being heard then i would have had that exact same great but instead they went like completely in the other direction of like this isn't real and we're kind of like playing with that so they um they took the the song that was playing in the background and as soon as the two characters started talking to each other, they like dropped the audio of the background track, but not in a way where it would be like, oh, you just, you thought we wouldn't notice you turning down the audio? No, they intentionally like muffled it in a way where it's like we're drawing attention to the fact that we are changing the audio in this

scene. And thematically, I kind of like that the way that it sounds muffled. Like it literally sounds like the music is now underwater, which is, you know, drawing a parallel to the ending of the characters in the 1910 scene. And I like that that little editing choice was giving like a nice little cute, you know, attachment to that. I thought that it worked not just practically but also aesthetically and thematically. And yeah, it was doing some cool stuff. Have you guys seen a movie called Red Rooms?

Yeah, it was great. Yeah. French Canadian movies. Alex, you would like it. That movie, I think you would. Red Rooms. Yeah. Red Rooms.

It reminded me in some ways of this, especially like the 2014 section, except I think Red Rooms was a lot more successful at like, and it's trying to do very different things. But Red Rooms has this kind of very cold feel about it that's very calculated. And it's about kind of like modern violence and internet culture and obsession. Yeah, really, really good movie. This just reminded me of that a little bit. I thought it was going to be a little bit more like that. Maybe I went in feeling that.

I had only ever seen raving, like rave reviews about this movie. So I was a bit disappointed. Critically, it was really well received. It was, yeah. So you're saying the critics were wrong and don't trust the critics and this was a, trust the audiences. Trust the anti-fans. I think the elitist woke critics are, yeah.

They're proven wrong. No, I mean, look, maybe I'd watch this again one day and get a lot more out of it. Maybe as it is with a lot of filmmakers, like once you see more of their films, you get a sense of the stuff they're going for and their total style. And maybe I'd like it a lot more. I mean, I remember when I first saw Wild at Heart, I hated it. And now it's one of my favorite David Lynch movies. So who knows? Who knows, guys, you know, maybe it's good.

I just, it made me very sleepy. Yeah. I mean, you didn't have the ideal setup for it. But I would never be a person that says, like, that's why you didn't like it. I kind of hate it when people did that. I had the ideal setup and I probably disliked even more the J. To be honest. Yeah.

There's, I don't know, all these comparison points, they, all of them are just so much better and more interesting to me. Like this doesn't feel like interesting in a lynch kind of way. Sure, there's dreamlike aspects to it. there's some like non-linear strangeness to this timeline and a lot of good ideas. And yeah, in like a siloed off, there are good creative decisions here, like you said, elements of sound design and composition and lighting and all sorts. But it just feels like it's in service of something very cold and bland and uninteresting when it's trying to make out that it's about like something deep and emotional or vulnerable

and sensitive. It just feels like there's a lot of, like, creative in turn that's clashing against itself. So many of these, like, dystopian settings, even though they are a dystopia, they're kind of fun to exist in or to, you want to, like, explore around, like, every nook and cranny and, like, figure out, like, what is, what is going on here? But not in this one. It feels like, every new environment they show you is just, like, somehow less interesting than the last one. It's like, well, you don't really get a good impression. of any of them. They don't really feel like they link together by the end in any meaningful way.

The ending just kind of feels like a... Just a toot of air. Like, it just felt like such a non-pay-off. Yeah. It was like... Did you guys also get a QR code at the end of the end? Yeah, did you click on it? Yes.

That was funny. I watched it, yeah. That was great. It was on the QR code. The QR code had the end credits with a mid-credit scene. Really? Yeah. Oh, that's kind of cool.

Isn't that fucking crazy? It's so weird. What a choice. See, I was thinking, okay, you know, this is the type of movie where they're already playing into just the weirdness of like technology already. And so it's like, okay, that's a choice that at least fits for it. If it were like an entire scene or something, like if it was really gimmicky and they were like advertising that that's what they were doing, then I might have hated it.

But just with the end credits and like a fucking 12 second scene or whatever, I was like, this is great. And the scene was compelling enough for me anyway. Like if I wasn't taking this movie seriously at all, then I might not have felt that way. But yeah. Was it like the beast, we have to fight King. We have to. No, it was. The Beast, The Beast World Returned and Avengers Doomsday.

It was basically the character, the psychic on the laptop, and the laptops just open. in that house that she was sitting or whatever. And no characters are around. And the camera starts like slowly moving towards the laptop as the psychic is saying, no, don't go into the room 240 or whatever. There's only pain and despair. Don't do it.

And then you hear a gunshot sound effect and the screen goes like black. And then that's it. And it's kind of like to me, me it was like weirdly ominous and sure like there's a lot about this movie that like if it didn't capture the presentation as well I could imagine like a different director just just doing the same thing on paper and it feeling more silly to me but no yeah I liked I liked what it was doing and I think the tone was really well captured and again it might just be like a huge

sound design thing for me. That seems to influence a lot of my love and hate is a lot of audio stuff. Yeah, the QR code in the credits thing is probably the most creative bit of commentary on what it's going for in the whole film to me. That is saying more than anything in the actual film about like the actual tech and what it's exploring with that. Like, I was just rolling my eyes at so many different points. The like the pop-up scene with like Trump, Trump's going to be your president.

Oh, my God, this is fucking, this is lame. So much of it was like hitting me like that. Yeah, I mean, I'm curious. Adam, I imagine this isn't the movie, but has there been movies that are just, you're too normie for them? Like you out-normate the movie. What do you? Oh, as in like just a movie that's that I consider to be pretentious? No, it's just too, too out there. It's too much for you. I mean, it's, it wouldn't be a question of out there. It'd be a question of like whether or not it's like doing it well or fulfilling a justified reason for it to be out there sort of thing.

Okay. So there's like Quentin Dupier, I find to just be like random nonsense that's like trying to be funny and weird and just constantly being like, look how funny and weird we are, but ultimately not really like showing anything of value or having anything meaningful to say. And sure, yeah, you know, maybe there might be some people that find some things out of that. From what I watched, like Matthew Barney is another example of this. Leo Carracks is another example of this where it's like it almost feels like they want the aesthetic of Hutterowski. but without like really properly being able to communicate,

like their feelings in a way where it feels like an authentic experience from my end. And who knows? You know, there's plenty of people that do get what I would get out of a Hodorowski movie from a Leo's Karek's movie, but I just don't. And so when you don't connect with things in that way, like you do kind of inherently sometimes feel like, what the fuck is this shit? You know?

And it just becomes like an aggravating, annoying experience. So don't worry. Like I do feel that same thing that a lot of people feel with movies I like to other movies. But yeah, it just depends on the artist

and how much it connects with you. And especially when we're talking about really abstract ways of showcasing your feelings and expressing yourself. that's going to that's going to be like a difficult thing to quantify outside of

like someone just getting it because they connect with it, you know? Yeah. How do you guys feel about Jean-Luc Goddard? Are you, uh... I got to check out his classics. I watched the fucking goodbye to language in 3D and that to this day is I think

the only example of like a 3D movie that I've seen where like it's justified in being 3D because he was doing some weird fucking experimental shit like you you have like two different shots entirely in each eye some in some scenes and I was like whoa what the fuck he's using like fucking really uh basic shitty digital cameras and like I've maybe iPhones at the time I don't remember I think it was 2013 but no I still haven't seen breathless um so should yeah the only one I've seen is breathless a long time ago. Okay.

I definitely need to see more. Gotcha. Because I recognize some of that like Godardian. Like I just want to tear down what makes a movie a movie in this a little bit. And it felt clashing with the wanting to also be like the genre stuff. And I mean, for me, I haven't seen tons of Godard. I've seen like, I've seen Breathless. I've seen Weekend is a movie that I never want to see again in my life.

And yeah, I own it on Blu-ray. I think I've seen a couple others Um Sorry Ship it to me You know what No no no because I might change fundamentally as a person And then I love it

You know that's what I So buy every movie on Blu-ray That's what I Yeah That's what I try to do like I don't know I feel like if I'm clashing with a movie sometimes And it's not a movie that I'm like

Oh this is poorly made If it's a movie that's like I don't fundamentally like or understand what it's trying to do, but maybe one day I'll get there. Weekend is that type of movie. And for me, Godard is kind of like that in general, and I just need to explore more of his films.

But that tendency, I think, to like go, yeah, I'm making a movie that isn't a movie or like fuck movies and this isn't, you know. You know, like there are parts in some of his movies where it'll just be like a person sitting there talking about communism. It's just like, yeah, just like to the screen. You know, to the, and like,

It's just very much Some of his movies are like a time capsule Of like yeah this was the late 60s Anyways Rebellious Yeah I just I found that Gendarred slash lynch Inspiration in The Beast

To be kind of at odds with itself When Lynch is such a Like I wouldn't say sentimental But he's such a sincere Like filmmaker I don't know Yeah no I mean I thought that it had both But it wasn't

conflicting for me. It was part of what added to the experience was the, the, the, the clashiness was something that I think it was aiming to do and aware of for me. I guess finally, I'll just say like the, um, coming back to the like annoying, like flashback stuff, um, that I wasn't particularly fun of because it was just like, okay, well, is this just to dumb things down? I thought about that specifically in the home invasion scene at the end where it flashes back to the green screen thing at the beginning. And I thought about that being like, okay, well, this is one where if they didn't show the flashback, I don't think I would have picked up on that on a first watch.

But I feel like there were other ways to basically, my ideal version, version of it would have been one where they didn't cut to the green screen room at the end, where just via recreating like her body language or maybe some dialogue that you would, you would be like, oh, wait, is this the thing at the beginning? And so the solution would have been just to like make what she was doing even more distinct. Like have her say something that would just be like so weird and unforgettable. Like at the beginning that calling back to it at the end would be like, Oh shit, she is doing the exact same movements.

And then you would have that like appreciation for the details in it. But still, I mean, like it was, it was, to me it was compelling. Like, to me it was a very weird and cool and interesting to think about. And I would love to watch it again. So sorry that's, sorry it was a long, boring movie for both of you. But I was right for my sake. This was a great conversation. I liked talking about it actually.

Yeah. Yeah, no, it was good. A good conversation. Yeah, I give it a high seven for now, and we'll see what it turns into on my second watch. But I would love to watch again. I could totally buy it on Blu-ray or something, so. Okay. It's on criterion.

It is. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not really interested in revisiting this movie anytime soon. This isn't one of those. Maybe I'll go check out the director's other work, because if it's anything like this, and I'm not going to be enjoying it. Yeah, I don't know. Probably the best scene in the movie to me was the

You Are Dead advert on the green screen. I thought that was quite clever. And there is like there are qualities to the movie. I can understand why someone might like this, but it just felt like a bunch of like clashing tones and kind of a lack of self-awareness, honestly. It just didn't click together for me. Yeah, I honestly have more enjoyment.

Like I read, um, Elliot Rogers. like Wikipedia page after. I said like the whole like just quoting him verbatim like in the script and stuff. It was like I didn't know all this shit about his link to the film industry and like his dad was like a second unit director on like hunger games and all this weird shit. Like that was more interesting to me than the actual film. So it wasn't a complete wash for me. I give this like a one and a half star. Did not enjoy it.

Nice. All right. Yeah. It is a two star four out of ten for me. Yeah. Cool. It was co-produced by Xavier Dolan of Mommy Mommy

Mommy 24 20s maybe Jake you should watch that I'm very curious what you'd think of that movie actually I've seen Mommy I've seen it oh you have Yeah oh it's good I like when he I like when he makes this Don't spoil it no that's a spoiler we can't say that That's a spoiler yeah absolutely that's a spoiler oh my bad Mommy 24. Don't worry. I yelled loud enough that it should be fine, but the editor can make sure

by muting you if you actually do say something that is distinguishable. I'll just throw some other things in there to throw people. I like when the mummy eats mommy and then... I like that too. And then the mummy returns. Yeah. And Brendan Fraser is the whale in the movie. The daddy. Yeah, it was a good movie. It was good. I think that it's, I'm going to say, I've said this before. I think it's... I think it's responsible for every movie ever to continue showing fire as the thing that characters are trying to get away from and not the smoke. Because they're kind of just chilling. They're kind of just chilling and just like, well, the fire will eventually burn us here. And it's like, okay, you're in an enclosed space. Yeah. The chemicals of these baby dolls burning are like that's what's going to kill you. You don't have time. You need to leave now. That's exactly what. I don't, yeah, the fact that it's every single movie doing this, I think is probably leading to just a false idea in people's heads of what a fire is that like, unless they experience it in real life, they might, you know, they might just not take it seriously. Oh, there's a fire here.

It's like, oh, we got tons of time. It's not, it's all the way over there on that side of the house. Like, fuck you. No. We need to, we need more realistic fire portrayals. The smoke would fill up the fucking, the building in five seconds. Yeah. Right.

Look up the station nightclub footage unless, well, you shouldn't because it's terrifying, but if you can handle it, do that. Yeah. Yep, fire's no joke. Get your fire alarms tested. Everyone, audience, do that. Excuse the screaming baby. Sorry, everyone.

It's, yeah, it's almost nap time. Don't call me that. The fuck. I thought we were civil on this. I thought we were having nice disagreements about the bees. I was just a screaming baby. Yeah, about fire safety. Hi, I'm the fire safety screaming baby here to teach you about fire safety.

Fire baby. You guys want to do questions? Yeah. Yeah, want to do some questions? Do some questions then from the Saldonikas community. Head over to the suggestion thread over on the subreddit if you want to leave questions for future episodes, just like Joe Wendell-Brocks did, who says, is there a period of history? or historical event you'd like to see depicted in a film

that hasn't been depicted before. I thought it's something, if you guys want to have a little think. And this is thematic with the Oak Street Dino stuff. I think a movie about the Bone Wars would be awesome, which is like this late 19th century feud

between these two guys, paleontologists, you could do like a, there will be blood, kind of night crawler, kind of tone. It would be awesome. You could do something with that.

Yeah, you could explore that. Hmm. Yeah, I don't know about that. The Bone Wars, yeah. Okay, the Bone Wars. Man, I have to think. We should do an origin story for the Hershey's Candy Company. Made by Angel Studios.

Totally. Oh nice. Yeah, I love Angel Studios. They're my favorite. It can be about how they bought cabries over in the UK and ruined it. Oh, did they?

Yeah. They should touch on it. What the fuck? That sucks. Yeah, they should do like a movie about the origins of like the three companies that own everything. Follow the pyramid up.

How come I haven't seen like a really? good escape from North Korea movie because people have escaped from North Korea. Do they make movies about that or is it one of those things where like as soon as a documentary yeah I'm sure that they they're like interviews of people but like I you know like that that seems like a good kind of suspense thriller type thing that as long as it's not directed by like Paul Greengrass should turn out fine he's probably who would get the job.

He's probably listening. He just gave him the idea, fuck, he's making calls right now. Yeah. Wasn't that there was that woman, wasn't she, like,

claiming that she, like, escaped South Korea on, like, a bunch of, like, all the big podcasts, and it turned out to be the,

she went on Joe Rogan. Yeah, I don't even remember what that was about. Yeah, I don't even remember what country she's associated with. Like, that was just a weird thing.

Um, yeah. No, like I I'm kind of surprised that that's not the case. But if we were to see something like that, like I would want it to be in Korean language. And there's tons of great Korean directors. But it's like I wonder, I wonder if it's just something that they like wouldn't want to touch on or if they feel like that would be a potential political escalation to release or because they're like still at war technically. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know what happened with James Franco and Seth Rogen, so.

Yeah. Yeah, I was trying to remember the name of that movie. What the fuck was it called? The invite. The invite. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, didn't they have a bunch of issues? Oh, no, shit.

Was it actually called the invite? There's a good podcast. There's a good podcast series. I think the ringer did, yeah. Wait, wait, wait, was it called the invite? No, it couldn't have been. It has to have been the interview. or something, right?

No, the invite was the Olivia Wilde one. Oh, the interview. I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I thought it was just the invite to you. That's why, that's why Alex and I were freaking out. I said that so confidently, too.

It's like, it's like, it's the invite. There's something like, click to my head, I was like, no, yeah, it's called the invitation. Interview. The interview. The interview. The invitation is another film. There is a good, there's a good documentary,

a podcast series. That is all about the Sony leaks and the interview and everything that happened from there. I think The Ringer did it or something. You can find it. But it's a really good. It's like a seven episode series all about the Sony leaks because there is so much. It was a huge deal that like when that happened and so much public shit got aired. Yeah.

No, I remember. I'm trying to remember exactly what it was, but I didn't go through the Sony leaks. But some people shared with me elements of it that were basically my. my assumptions about things for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 being kind of confirmed. I'm trying to remember what it was. Maybe it was the Mark Webb. Yeah, they had a whole plan. You know, they're doing like a sinister sex movie and all this bullshit.

Some concept out that came out recently. They're weird plans from that stuff. Okay, I think I know what I would. Well, and this is recency bias because I've been listening on audiobook to the Rise and Falls, the Third Reich. And it would be really cool and interesting to see like a very detailed film. And it would be really hard to do, kind of exploring exactly the process in which the Nazis took over Germany in the early 1930s. like all of the maneuvering, all of the, like crazy shit to the point where, you know, Hitler is chancellor.

Like that would be super. And that'd be really hard. Like a mini series? A mini series or like a really long movie that would just like dive into the nitty gritty of like this is how, because it's super frightening. And I mean, it's insane how it happens and how it was allowed to happen. and how the Nazis were like normalized at a certain point. Oh.

It could happen. Yeah. I mean, you could just look at your own country right now. Yeah. I mean, that's why it's so, it's been hard to listen to.

I mean, honestly, it is, it is like the parallels are very, yeah, it can, it can have to happen anywhere. A playbook that you have to wonder if they're following

or if just that type of personality naturally follows. into the same like yeah I think that's what it is it just manifests a certain way yeah for me it's like just focus on a hyper niche we mentioned like BlackBree earlier something that doesn't seem like it'd be

that interesting but when you actually break it open it's like whoa there's like so much going on here yeah there's loads to explore with like just zooming in on some micro aspect of World War II of the World War of ancient history anything That's part of the problem is that the more niche something is, the less likely it is to get funding. Because literally the business decisions behind it are, well, how many people are already talking about it? And so if everybody...

We need to do something that's already been done because that's a success. It's like, fuck. Like, yeah, we're missing out on a lot of great stories. And there's probably people that have these hyperfixations that are willing to tell these stories in interesting ways. But it's just difficult for those artists to get money. So. Yeah. So it goes.

Oh, okay. Let's do this one from Nothing is Real here. Lately I've noticed that some of my favorite scores come not from traditional composers, but from bands. Off the top of my head, the Young Fathers 28 years later score, Toto for Dune, Wang Chung for to live and die in L.A., dove punk for Tron. This is a game, but health and my son. Max Payne 3. That's a good shout out. Are there any bands you'd like to see tackle a movie score? Did they mention Tangerine Dream?

That's another one. No, they didn't, but that's, I guess they've done a few movie scores and GTA. I'm actually seeing them live next year. I got my ticket the other day. Yeah. Yeah, bands like that are a good shout. Them mentioning like young fathers, like, I've gone deep into their discography now and their music. is actually incredible. They've got a

2023 album called Heavy Heavy Brough it's so atmospheric and like cinematic Danny Boyle knows how to pick them Yes We cannot forget

the arcade fired score for her Yeah, yeah That was great What about bands that haven't done one yet? Like for me Boards of Canada

They're They're brothers that make kind of like instrumental or atmospheric music. They released an album this year. They only released like four or five albums in total since the 90s.

Their stuff's really good. And in the end credits of backrooms, actually, one of their songs was used recently. Oh, yeah. Yeah, true. They're awesome. They're like perfectly line up. I don't know how you'd get them.

They're not very like public. They seem quite elusive. But they definitely have the source for like what you'd want from a film score. and the range for it to for the right type of project I would like to see the next Christopher Nolan film score be composed by the Shags

sure classic or fucking like what was this fucking thing that I found out about a week ago it was like backup fish mask or something what the fuck was this called

it was so weird. It was very shags reminiscent, but like with much more intentionality. It's like from the late 60s. I'll find it. It's in my favorites list on YouTube. Here we go. It's load damn you. Captain Beefheart and his magic band in the album's called Trout Mask Replica. And it's very simultaneously difficult to listen to but also intriguing enough that like I finished it. kind of ahead of its time 1969

yeah until the Beatles came around in the 60s like it just kind of rough to revisit some of it yeah definitely not my era disaster piece has done some great stuff oh yes we can a bit follows it's like more of like a name that you call yourself as a composer than because if it's like one person

then it's like is it a band I think that counts Okay Yeah musical artists already done a bunch of schools Yeah I love a Zuss piece Yeah yeah absolutely

Hmm Out of things that I listen to Maybe I should just peep My fucking dumbass playlists on Title Yeah I guess Charlie's done some film scores

But I didn't watch those movies Oh yeah Weathering Heights Yeah. Eif. Yeah, it really depends. Ooh, Apex Twin would be great. Apex Twin could do some great stuff for like,

yeah, like an elevated like even, yeah, you know, I wonder if this is true right now, but there was a point in time where Apex Twin was getting more, like, plays than Taylor Swift. Because nobody would recognize this because nobody knows these things. But like, fucking a shit ton of these like meme songs that are used in like TikTok or whatever are just AFX Twin songs because he's got so much of a fucking scope and range. Yeah.

All my like young cousins love Apex Twin. It's really weird. Nice. Yeah. It's cool though. He's like seen him live and stuff. It's cool how that can happen. But that's a good pick though.

Yeah. I don't think he's done an official score even though his songs have been used a lot in. Absolutely. TV and movies. Yeah. Apex Twin is top pick right now for that answer. Do you have any Jake? I seem to remember you didn't know who guerrillas were.

No, I don't know music. I don't know music. I don't know what AIFX Twin. I don't know what things are. You should stop reading so many books. Yeah, that's my fucking problem. I just, yeah. It's a trade-off.

I would like to know, I would like to know more music people, you know. I like Billy Elish. Sure. yeah I like Simon and Garfunkel nice hey they did the graduate

that was a good that was a good music graduate I kind of sorry I like hold my excuse me excuse me

I like Leonard Cohen I like Paul McCartney could pick yep okay I'm done go ahead what about Bill Dylan I was going to say like, there's something that's been kind of like itching in my brain

that I've wanted to see, but like by someone who knew how to make movies better. Like something that's kind of like almost like my chemical romance black parade. Because that feels like very rock opera-y, but like with that teenage angst as well. I want to see like a really angsty fucking musical that's not like, you know, that's not juvenile in its presentation for like directing, you know? Mm-hmm. You know, love me a good rock opera, for sure. Yeah.

Have you seen the Kyle Gordon, My Life is the worst life ever parody song? No. Oh, no. You enjoy it. It's like a parody of like my chemical romance, I think. It's very funny. Okay. Damn, I, Gabby, have some good suggestions in there.

Let's do this one from Lame Fields. I'm getting three cavities filled right now. What movie feels like the experience of going to the dentist and getting a cavity filled when you watch it? The Beast. Yeah, the beast, you don't want to answer. Recency bias. Yeah.

Another recency of bias one is Animal Farm. God damn it, man. How can you fuck that up so badly? That was crazy. Oh, I have a weird one. I have a weird one. Okay, this is Getting Your Cavities Filled. The movie Ghost Town by Ricky Jervase.

I remember that, yeah. That's the Getting Your Cavities Filled movie. Yeah, a lot of his recent output is Dentist tier. I don't think I watched it. Oh, no, I remember seeing a trailer and that thing, and that looks like shit, and then never watching it. Uh-huh. Okay, yeah, I believe that. A dentist experience.

Uh-huh. Yeah. I feel like I'd get it. that same experience probably yeah um uh i don't know fucking most movies and yeah your movie sucks yeah a bunch of shit that i could be watching right now that i choose not to for my own health and safety what's the last movie like you remember the physical experience

of being sat in that chair and you're like writhin, you're wriggling, because you just don't want to be there, and it might as well be a dentist office. This wasn't the last one, but this jumps out in my mind for some reason, death to smoochie, which some people love, but I remember just feeling like a get me out of here kind of experience on that one. Yeah, it's, yeah, what flashes into my head is semi-recent, it's Megalopolis. Yeah. was like to get me the fuck out of here like experience like every now and again i'll see like a clip

or like a shot from that film just reminds me yeah i get like i've got like PTSD for a fucking film it was uh it was rough yeah rough hmm i'm gonna go with lelo and stitch remake damn oh yeah yeah any of those those live action remakes is a good pick for this the moana remake was fucking brutal brutal Yeah What? Say it ain't so It wasn't goaded

It wasn't goaded You guys gonna watch the dog stars Ridley Scott's new movie I'm gonna watch it bomb Did I watch a trailer for that? I think I might have I keep seeing ads for it before other movies So that's all I can think of

It's just for What is this film? I keep seeing it a clip going around of the actors talking about Ridley Scott's process. Yeah. It's very funny how they try that they're like spinning it like yeah, it's amazing. He just like sits in a tent and he has all these cameras just like rolling simultaneously and it just like we don't even know what's going on.

It's just like constantly filming everything. It's crazy. He's just a master. Did I, like there's an article where Josh Brolin is saying like he almost left. He almost quit. Yes. Really? Yeah.

Yeah. He was like, I told my agent, I can't be on this. Like, I don't know what's going on. But I guess he persevered. We don't know exactly why he felt that way. But, you know. That's interesting. Yeah, let's see.

It's like based on a book or something. I'm seeing if I can find it, the reasoning. There are people who are real Ridley Scott shooters in the 21st century. And I just, I just don't get it. I don't know how you can watch Gladiator 2 and feel like something fun to mental has been lost. I don't know how he got that one past like the goalie because dude that film

he's just like an utter parody of himself at this point. It's just crazy. It's okay. I just wonder like what drives it at a certain point. I don't know. You're just making it to be making it. Like what are you saying anymore? What is what are you doing?

There's like as the dog stars. What are you talking about? There's an interesting. interview or article or something with his cinematographer that he did both Gladiator movies with. And of course, the first Gladiator movie looks like a million bucks. It's holds up so well. And the second Gladiator movie, the same cinematographer, talked about coming back to Ridley Scott after all these years because he doesn't work with him consistently. And he's like, things are so different now. I felt way out of like, I was like, I don't understand anymore.

Like we were filming stuff with like cables and boom mics and everything. Like everything's just in the frame. They're just filming everything and he's just like, yeah, we'll remove it in post. Like it doesn't matter because we're just filming as fast as fucking possible. Like it's crazy. I don't know why he does it that way. I'm looking at that. He's figured out how to turn into an assembly line.

Yeah. That seems like the style at this point. Yeah. No, I'm looking up that article and Josh Brolin almost quit because of that production style. literally that's why. Right. He said he had to get used to it and he's glad he stayed. It's funny.

He's like the inverse of a Tarantino where he's like, I'm going to stop making movies in case one's bad. Everybody's Scott's like, I'm only making bad. Like this is all you'll get. Or like the inverse filming style of like Fincher or someone. I'm going to keep making movies in case one of them is good. Yeah.

In case one of them sticks. And like they have huge budgets and don't really do particularly well. Jared Letto. I'm doing. doing a voice. That marker mode clip's so funny. Yeah. Oh, I'm curious about this one actually from Physical Ask 7298.

So it was some talk, some backchatter on us maybe talking about this on the podcast, but I don't think we're going to at this point. With the recently released EDP 455 documentary and upcoming movie Primetime starring Robert Pattinson, both being about involving Chris Hanson of the famous to catch a Predator show. I was wondering what your take is on the following. Is it ethical to shine a light on predators in the media? The examples of this being in the public interest, or is it always mindless sensationalism?

Yeah, so the Mike Clum, EDP-455 documentary came out somewhere recently. Oh, we were going to watch that. I forgot about that. Well, yeah, but then real movies came out. I literally remember last time we talked about watching it. Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of why I chose this question. Yeah.

And I was like, okay, well, you know, fucking Tony Miasma, right? Like all these other things. I'm like, do I really need to watch this right now? Like maybe I'll watch it at some point in the future. I don't know. Like I've already been so busy prepping for TIF and stuff. And I'm just like, didn't seem like the most productive use of my time, especially when everybody on the planet who's seen it is just saying,

This fucking sucks, and this makes me hate the guy, like the director. Alex, you did a review of it, right? Yeah, I put my thoughts on HETV. But to condense them, it was, because we talked about the boogie one when that came out years ago on Codontas. And that was a lot more complimentary than how I feel about this EDP one. The worst thing Boogie does is like crypto rug pulls and like, you know, He does pull a gun out, I guess, on someone who's on his, outside of his house. But that's kind of where it stops, whereas the EDP thing, as a subject, as a main character for a documentary, I don't know about that.

I don't think it's able to wield a subject as kind of delicate and fucked up without just sensationalizing it and turning it into this. I don't know. I just kind of escape this feeling that people just use. sensitive subject matter that makes people mad for obvious reasons to just kind of build brands for themselves. Like, it's just been done time and time again. And it has, like, Chris Chan cameos and Keemstar showing up. And it's like, what the fuck are we doing then?

Is that, like, is this serious or is this a fucking meme? Is this just like a drama slop thing? Yeah. It kind of is. Loll, cow, slop tube, but with better production? Yeah. Exactly. It's exactly that, yeah. Like, it has, like, at least production on par with the true crime bullshit on Netflix,

but that stuff sucks too. You know, it's all, like, just fluff kind of, I don't know, I don't know, it's good for us to just be kind of slopping in this. I saw a screenshot of the Chris Chan, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it just says literally Jesus under his name, right? Yeah, yeah, it's like a gag cameo, basically. So I was like, wait, so it's not like a serious. Just was like, it's a joke movie?

Like, it's a joke documentary? No, it's about like a child predator. Like, that's crazy then to have the... Yeah. Uh-huh. Like, it has, like, in the same documentary, like, therapists showing up and also reenactments of stories involving, like, child actors. Like, this is making me want to watch it.

It sounds so terrible. I'd actually kind of be curious to hear your take. Like, it is kind of... I don't know how different it's going to be. I don't know. For how popular it is, I don't know. I'd like to see more push back. Maybe I'll be like, this is great.

Yeah, 10 out of 10. Maybe. I'm glad that I found out that extremely dumb pedophile 445 had a sick mind. You know, it's an informative. Yeah. I don't know. I don't even know what it's achieving outside of just like building up Mike Klam as a name, really. And there are certain aspects to it, like, was he paid?

They said no, maybe? I don't know. For this? I know that anything, any money that the documentary names, any money that the, doc makes is going to like an abuse charity but I don't know how it's making any money when there's no way that videos monetized there's no fucking way considering its contents so I don't really know what is going on there there is just something self-serving I've listened to like Mike Clem interviews that like people have emailed me and stuff like addressing some of the

questions I had and a lot of it does just seem like didn't think about it that deeply he was just kind of going to what interested him personally. Yeah, I don't think it should be like the standard for this kind of thing. It's very convenient when your documentary is also a YouTube video, because then you can say when you're getting criticism, oh, it's just a YouTube video. But then when you want like the clout, you can say it's a documentary and just kind of pick and choose.

Yeah, I don't. I don't know if it's really achieving much. We'll see. All right. All right. How many more do you want to do here? Do you want to do one more? Yeah.

Let's end on this one from DIRP Potato. Have you heard of the film New Lie? Currently playing in China. It's an animated film made independently for $200 by a mother-sundooer with crude animation that looks like one of those not Disney films. The film has already made millions due to people seeing it because of its laughably bad quality and also because they want to support human crafted films as opposed to AIS. stop. What are your thoughts on this situation and would you see it in theaters?

I'm doing everything. I can try and find this footage. I found it on YouTube, like someone recording it from their phone. That's the only way most people have watched it outside of China. It seems to be the only way. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll wait. I've heard of it. I've seen screenshots. It's looking awesome. I'll wait for like a digital release. I don't think it's getting a theatrical release in North America. I would like it, too. Sure, maybe, yeah. Like, let's fucking meme it into the White House or whatever.

Is it even going to get, like, an official release over here at all? I mean, it'll show up on digital in China, and then it'll show up on one website at the very least, you know, like here. And someone will fan sub it if it doesn't have an official translation. But who knows, maybe it'll get, like, an actual official sub. Why not? Like, it's already made 900 times its budget back or something. You overtook what obsession?

Like it made like $3 million at least like a week ago when that fucking info thing was created. And it was made for like 10 cents or something. I don't know. Like it beat obsession for the percentage of... $200, I think. Yeah. Insane. Budget versus bucks.

It looks funny though. Like it looks like my kind of shit for sure. I wonder. Like it's... There's plenty of things that are funny. but not like hour and 26 minutes long funny you know?

Yeah. Yeah, I don't want a car's life type situation. Like that seems like that could be a get me out of here type film. Teeth pulling experience. Yeah. Yeah. I'd give it a chance. Looks charming.

Yeah. I'll watch it when it's not a cam rip. I don't watch things as a camera. It's not the experience that I want and you're not getting the framing, you know, you're not really getting the sound design. Yeah,

the YouTube video I found was all fucked up. Yeah. The sound design for new line. I did watch the pinata cut of the Rise of the Skywalker, and that's the only time. I think that's justified. Yeah,

I already bought a ticket. Probably a better movie. The pinion. It was. It improved it. I was like, damn, I wish this

I wish other people could experience this okay thanks for the questions everybody thank you yeah and oh yeah

no it's our guest recommendation we're having a guest I was about to I was like oh why aren't any of you talking about whether it's your record so we're having a guest on next episode

that guest being Sarah from just two film also known as Just Too Good, the Lego YouTube stuff, but she also does movie stuff. And she is recommending peppermint candy from Li Changdong. So it'll be our second Lee Chang Dong on the podcast, and I have not seen it. It's one of the ones that I have not seen.

And yeah, I don't know too much about it, but I don't think that it will have, the same things they kept you from fully enjoying the last leaching dog I think this will be

the better first impression so just wipe your memory yeah I enjoy the other one but yeah if you don't want to be spoiled

for peppermint candy watch it before the next episodes out these episodes come out every two weeks you can listen to them early by going

to sardonicast.com sign up for premium it's only a few a month. Also, patreon.com slash sardonicast. Also, you can hit the join button below for YouTube, but in order to get the ad-free episodes like everybody else, you actually have to click on the community tab because YouTube's stupid. So ignore the members-only uploads. Those are just early access to the regular uploads that have ads on them. But if you want ad-free, click on the community tab and make sure your notifications are on for community posts. All right.

You know, Adam, I admire you so much for having that memorized every time. time because I've listened to you talk about that every time and I you know it's it's just amazes me that you've got that you've got it down yeah it's like you got the rhythm there it's good you just go beast mode no it's a lifetime of trauma forces extreme vigilance it's a permanent survival mode so I appreciate it Thank you. Yeah. All right.

Have a happy fucking beast mode. Happy Beast games. Have a happy Changdong. Yay. Thanks for the saying everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye bye.