Sardonicast - Sardonicast #81: Music, Judas and the Black Messiah, Taste of Cherry

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

Support the Show for $2 a month and receive all future episodes early at https://sardonicast.com and https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Buy Sardonicast T-Shirts, and other merchandise at https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast. Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Ralph's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ralphthemoviemaker Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/YourMovieSucksDOTorg Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Ralph's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ralphsepe Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Ralph's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ralphthemoviemaker Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Fan art: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/lttkpn/as_far_back_as_i_could_remember_i_always_wanted/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/lrq92b/thought_sardoonicast_could_do_with_a_redesign/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/lshrvb/minimalistic_boys/ Timestamps: 0:01 Intro 0:35 Golden Globes Reaction 7:53 MUSIC (Spoilers) 25:22 Judas and The Black Messiah (Minor Spoiler) 39:57 Taste of Cherry (Spoilers) 1:11:56 Ebert’s Taste of Cherry review (Spoilers) Q/A Section 1:22:18 What was your first experience with your favorite director? 1:25:30 You often say a movie is too long, but what about films that are too short? 1:30:50 Has there ever been a project you’ve been passionate about but ended up dropping it entirely? 1:34:52 If you were to recommend a video game instead of a movie for the podcast, what would you choose? 1:39:24 Pick out a movie you don’t like and try to give a convincing short review of why it’s actually good. 1:42:17 What is your thoughts on Kanye and what is your favorite album of his? 1:47:17 What do you think of Wandavision so far? (This was recorded before season 1 finale for those curious) 1:55:50 What do you guys think of the Luca trailer? 1:57:53 Ralph recommends “The Indiana Jones Quadrilogy Trilogy”

Three, two, one. Hey, y'all, Scott here. Actually, no, I lied, it's Adam. Hey, it's Adam from your movie. Sex, this is Sardana cast. We talk about movies and stuff. Hey, how's it going? Who else is here?

Hey, what's up? Hey, I'm Ralph de Moomegger. And I'm Alex from A.G. And, yeah, I like the Scott the Was reference. Nice one. Yeah, there we go. Very obscure. It's a little hidden gem.

Is it obscure? He's kind of popping off, isn't it? I know, right? It's got more subs than me. Speaking of obscure things that nobody actually knows exists, the Golden Globes were yesterday. Oh, yay. Everybody forgot within hours that they exist. Yeah, it was over Zoom.

Oh, I didn't watch. Did you see any of it? Yeah, none of us watched it. No, I forgot it was yesterday, actually. Like Alex just mentioned, I was like, oh, my God, yeah, the Golden Globes were yesterday. Wow. Yeah. I was doing my Twitch stream.

Because I do my Twitch stream every Sunday. And so, like, people were reading out some of the winners and stuff. I forget most of them already. But, yeah, people ask me, like, Adam, are you going to do a live stream reaction to the Golden Globes? And I was like, no, I don't do reactions to awards show that don't matter. I only do ones that actually matter, like, the Oscars and the 420 Awards. Like, fuck off. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, did you have any thoughts on the winners? I mean, Nomadland won best motion picture. That's the one I probably have the strongest feelings on because, like, I don't understand the hype of that movie. I really don't. It's fine. I've seen a lot of other movies like it. It didn't do anything particularly amazing. It wasn't like, there wasn't anything mind-blowing about the way it was shot.

Like, yeah, I love Francis McDormon, too. But, like, she didn't do anything like so out there. It's like, yeah, she played a person that was of lower income than you'd expect. But, like, I don't know. It just, it didn't go anywhere. But, yeah, we'll move on. from that, I guess you guys haven't seen it. I'm just like really underwhelmed by that movie.

Well, yeah, I've heard mixed things about it too. Chloe Zal won for Best Director, too. Maybe they wanted to give it to her. I would have preferred Fincher. Did Francis win for acting? Best actress know was Andrade for the United States versus Billy Holiday. Interesting. Okay.

I haven't seen that one, so. No. Me, neither. I think the best pictures are like the only ones worth talking about. Yeah. Musical or comedy? Yeah. Like, best animated picture was soul.

Why is it three categories, drama, musical, or comedy? Yeah. Well, it's like two categories. One of them is musical or comedy in one category. Drama is its own category. Why just musical or comedy? It's like, you're missing so many genres. Those are, like, very different things.

It's like, best horror or animated. Like, you might have, I don't know, there's some overlap sometimes. And then you have fucking movies like The Martian winning. for musical or comedy when it's neither of those things. It's like, yeah. What a fucking garbage awards show. Yeah, it's not really a comedy. Like, I guess it's kind of a comedy.

Because that has two like funny lines in it, yeah. Yeah, it makes less sense than the award categories at the 420 awards. It's like Shakespearean where everything was like a tragedy or a comedy. Like, that's the only two things your movie could be. It's so stupid, yeah. Nothing in between.

But, um, Borat actually won the best, I guess, musical or comedy. That's a good musical. They did have a song in it. Yeah, true, true. That Wuhan flu song is actually not nominated for an Oscar, but it's on the short list of things that are eligible to be nominated for best original song of the Oscars. I would just love that. That is fine.

Yeah, we don't know. The Oscar nominations will come out eventually. Things that actually matter, but still don't, depending on how philosophical you want to get. But, you know, people actually pay attention and it affects the careers of people. at least. Golden Gloves doesn't affect shit. It affects people's egos and nothing else. It's like a drunk rehearsal. Yeah, obviously soul

one best animated. Yeah. Who said that? Somebody said that. Was that Ricky Jervais? Somebody said that about the Golden Globes and I can't remember who. Well, that's a drunk rehearsal? Yeah. Somebody said that. I think it was a comedian. I don't know.

I feel like everyone says it. Yeah. Isn't that the only reason people who normally care about the golden globes? to dunk on it. The host, like, bit. Yeah. I don't know. Who hosted it this year, I guess, if it was on Zoom.

Yeah, nobody talked about it. That was like the only times the Golden Gloves was fun to watch, and interesting was with Reggie Jury. And I'm sure we've talked about this before. Yeah. But yeah, he just roasted them the entire time, and it was awesome. So, yeah, the Nomad Land and Borat, those are the big winners. Yeah, those were the two.

But then best animated was Soul. Yeah. That's what we were going to get into. So no one. No Wolfwalkers Not even the Crudes You know I love Nick Cage Yeah

Oh yeah I guess Sol was the best one For me I didn't see when Wolf Walkers I mean Yeah Wolf Walkers would be my fave Between the two of them I would sooner watch Wolfwalkers I mean I've already seen Wolfwalkers twice

So yeah They just always give it to Pixar It's like come on It's the default If you haven't seen the movies And also even if you have seen the movies I'd imagine most people like Soul better There's like a big push from like

fucking Josh Gad and some random YouTubers to try and get Soul nominated for Best Picture They're like, it's time And yeah, I don't know It's already got it same category The amount of different voices saying that Make me feel like it might happen Just because it's like, okay, there's enough people

Like the Oscars might reflect the general public on this one You know? I wouldn't be surprised if Soul got a nomination for Best Picture. I'd be a little disappointed, but not surprised. Yeah, at least it's not like if Onwood was winning. That one, if that was winning over something like Wolf War, because that would genuinely annoy me. Yeah.

I do like Soul a lot more than their recent films. Yeah, I can understand the Soul one. I didn't love the movie, but like, I'm not going to be like, no way, like Green Book. Like, I don't understand that one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. There's Best Foreign Film, too, which went to Minari.

That went to an American. American movie. They've got to make up for parasite. Now all the foreign language awards are going to American films. You got to balance it back. Tip the scales back in the right direction. That's kind of fucking awful, though, right? Because now, like, Minari is classified as only a foreign language film and not, like, it's in that bubble, which A, devalues it psychologically for many people.

people and B, then it's like, okay, now you're kind of obligated to give Minari the award. And then you're kind of fucking over the non-American films that are in foreign language. Is there really that big of a difference between watching a film with subtitles and not watching a film with subtitles? Does it need to be categorized that way? Like, I understand if it's like, yeah, you want to have a section that highlights films from another country that aren't heavily marketed in America. Like, I get that, you know, expose people to things they might not have heard of.

sort of thing, but like foreign language film for Minari just seems like a weird place to put it. It's like technically it's true. It's a foreign. Much of it is in a language that is foreign. There's some English in it, I guess. Whatever. I guess they found a way to give the foreign language category to American films. I always knew you'd do it.

Because that's what's going to happen in the Oscars, too. Like, we all know that that's going to happen. Yeah, Golden Globes are a good sign of what the Oscars are going to do. I don't think music is getting nominated for any Oscars, though. Music. You want to talk about music? Yeah, good segue. Yeah, great segue.

I haven't seen this film, but I want to hear you guys talk about it. And it's like just listening to like what it's about. I'm like, yeah, this sounds pretty bad. But you guys go ahead. Yeah, I'm interested. Go for it, Alex. I made a whole video on it. I don't know if you saw it.

I'll let you leave. No, I haven't. Yeah, so if you've heard of music, it'll be because it's Sears movie that's caught some flack lately for its um it's being called ableist in its depiction of the titular character of music who is someone with autism and there's drama over the a lot of choices behind the kind of production and business arrangements and what it basically boils down to is this really incredibly predictable comatose uh vanity project yeah coming from Sia, where it's hardly even about autism in the end.

Like, it's mostly about the main character's sister. It's like this really boring drama about her and dealing drugs and finding this other man. And it's more about the other character's drama because they kind of wrote themselves into a corner really. Yeah. How they decided to frame the movie. It's not the struggles of being autistic. It's the struggles of having to deal with someone who's autistic is what the movie is. It's like, okay.

And then she pretends like this is made like out of love for artistic people. I was like, oh, you can say that. Yeah, because the whole debate around this movie comes from, apparently one of the stories was Cia did originally have an autistic actor in the role, but had to let her go over complications with the actor struggling with the intensity of filming on a set. But the way I kind of interpret that is more, well, maybe if you. didn't have it pointlessly be a musical and actually made the story like true to like the concept in some way and actually explored the idea of a person with autism in some way and actually how

that affects things in a dramatic or yeah you know reasonable way I could I could be down with that and fine with characters you know having mental illness and we're going to be talking about you know and maybe later on that handles the subject and a well it's kind of a rule book on how you should do it as opposed to here where it does just feel really uncomfortable a lot of the time when they are trying to explore anything remotely delicate when it comes to autism. Apparently they even had to edit in a warning at the beginning because there's a whole scene dedicated to how you should handle someone with autism reacting. Two scenes.

It's like the only arc in the film is like you should restrain and lay on top of them until like they stop breathing basically. Not, I mean, that's a little exaggerative. But that's the criticism, though, is like, you shouldn't do that because people can get exfixated, right? It's like, you can literally kill someone or seriously harm them by doing what the film tells you to do. And when I heard about that, when I heard it like, oh, yeah, there's a scene of someone

restraining someone with severe autism and people got mad about it. I'm like, oh, okay, whatever. Like, maybe you can just remove it. Like, how bad could it be? And then I watched the film. And it's not just that in a scene. It's like the characters in the film are explicitly telling the main character the Her sister or whatever to do this and it's like very instructional. It's like here's how make her feel safe and like lay on top of her and blah blah blah blah blah

Here's what you do and then scenes later it's like now it's your turn He's like teaching her how to do it and it's like Wow holy crap I didn't think it could possibly be that bad like it's so explicit And for see it to come out after him just be like I didn't know that it was a bad thing to do that. I listened to the wrong people. It's like, well, that kind of completely contradicts your claim that this is some sort of like passion project of yours. Like, if you didn't do any research and this is a subject that you were pretending to be passionate about, like, this is the biggest core element of your film, really. It's like, it's the only arc.

Like, how can you not have known that that was a bad? If you ask somebody random on the street, they might not know. you're the one that decided to write and direct this autism movie right you're not just some randy i think her motivation becomes pretty clear when she shows up in the movie herself playing herself with this absolutely bizarre came spoiler i forgot she was australian until that point oh yeah we're spoiling c's music everybody just just when when you transitioned into the movie ralph just saying the title. I mentioned it last episode, but the title bothers me so much. It's in reference to the titular character. The name is music. From memory, I don't think they really explain it too much

as to what. She likes music, so that's her name. Yeah, it is kind of all that surface level, but I was reading that supposedly originally the idea for this movie was that it was supposed to be a kind of standard drama and the whole musical side of it was not going to be a part of it, but then and $10 million were added to the budget and Cia was able to kind of combine it with an album release for the big buck. So I think that's where this all kind of comes crumbling. An entire album's worth of songs.

Yeah, and I don't know about you. Yeah. But like the songs didn't do it for me. I don't know if it was just because of, yeah, the framing of it, just seeing the way it's implemented in the movie, how jarring it is to just jump into these music videos.

They are just effectively music videos. Yeah, it was weird. It was just completely unrelated to the movie. It was like time for a musical break. Yeah. Like, let's go into this alternate universe for a second. And then we'll come back to the movie. We're going to have a song first. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't mind the music. I liked the music.

I would have liked it a lot more. It would have resonated with me more and stuck with me more if it was Sia singing the songs. She sings a song for the end credits. That's the most memorable song in the film. The rest of them, like, she would have had to have composed for their vocal ranges, and they're just not as talented of singers as she is. Like, I love her music. I think she's a great singer, great songwriter. Those songs where she's not singing in them did not resonate with me particularly, but they weren't bad. I didn't mind them. I just thought, like, even compared

to, like, other music videos that she's made and had directing credits on, although she was never solely the director on any of these, but like, the ones that I've seen from her were like more entertaining, engaging, impressive, coordinated, more thought out than what appeared in this film. I don't know. It's just, it felt like it relied on this weird kind of like quirky, like, oh, we're going to have children's colored sets and this guy's got big pants. And like, it just, it didn't have to do with anything, really. Like, The music wasn't incorporated into the movie. It was very clearly slapped onto the movie and took up half the movie.

It was better than the narrative because the narrative was terribly written. It was just awful, but it was like it was a nice break from it. But it just, the two were clashing. They didn't compliment each other in any way. Yeah, totally. It makes no sense. Yeah. Because you go from that and then what's supposed to be a dramatic scene with,

we haven't talked about the, the side character, the guy from Africa. I thought that whole B plot was very strange. Yeah, the African-American doing a fake African-accent man. Yeah, and I mean, spoilers, but the way AIDS comes into play. I don't even remember. How did that happen? What?

Somebody got AIDS? This sounds so weird. Well, it was drama on drama, on drama, on drama on drama. Yeah. With that character, he not only did it, was it revealed that he had. had AIDS and was secretly buying like AIDS drugs but at the same time he also had I completely forgot yeah he had a brother who stole his wife from him and then like that's his arc in the movie is he he like sings it is we goes to sing his brothers I guess it's like his uh wedding for his is so

confusing but um that's that's hilarious yeah there's like no real point or payoff to it it is I feel like I'm always contrasting to 30 reasons why, but goddam, it's the same thing we did to Justin in the last season. It's like, what is a drama? Like, Sia doesn't know what the fuck she's doing when it comes to writing and directing, but especially writing. Like, this is one of the worst written things I've ever seen. Like, it's just, it's so awful. It's like a caricature of, like, what an actual movie script should be. It feels like the worst example of any kind of, like, hallmark lifetime bullshit.

But she's, like, with so much more, like, vanity, like so much more like self-importance in this project. And it's just so embarrassing. Like, I don't fucking believe her when she says that there was another autistic actor that they worked with at first. Like maybe they had considered casting one or something and started working with them. But it's like, that must have been like before it was even turned into a musical or something. Because this project was worked on for a long time. Like I looked into a lot of stuff on the wiki. Like, not only was it not supposed to be a musical, like the main. actor was supposed to be a male.

It was like completed filming and the editing process took four years because supposedly Sia could not find the right editor and she's like none of them could just bring the vision that I wanted and it's like okay well did the last one you find do it? I don't know

like you can't blame them now the movie's out. Yeah that's not a good sign is it? Yeah it's a lot of fucking weird stuff going on and it's like what especially makes me feel like either she didn't give a shit about the first actor or them being autistic, which I don't even have a strong opinion on.

You can play someone who's autistic if you're not. You can play a gay character if you're straight. I don't care. But I think she used that as a defense when she was getting heat for it on Twitter. And whether or not that happened, it's just like kind of weird that she winds up ultimately casting her, like, her muse sort of like her little, uh, the girl. I don't know if I want to say she's grooming her, but like she was in like all of her music

videos. I don't know their relationship. This is speculation. There's rumors. I have no fucking idea. Tabloid shit. But, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, like, this is, like, her girl that she's, like, raised. It, like, if she was Michael Jackson, Maddie Zaliger's McCauley Culkin sort of thing, you know, like, just hanging out a bunch. Like, it's a lot for an adult and a child. Yeah. Either way, it's a bad excuse, isn't it? For, um, job. Justifying this story. It just seems like a classic case of a project, like being steamroll because of who's involved. And then they have like a completer project at the end and they're like, oh God, I guess we have to release this now.

It's been years. Yeah. Somehow it just got made. They got the $15 million together and it's just, see it was attached. So they just handed it to it. I wonder if they're going to make their money back. Because like, geez music's good. I mean, like, how much does she make off the album?

You know? I think I read it's bombing. Like if the album is a part of the profits, I guess. Yeah, I don't know how that album associated with it is, like, reviewing and tracking and doing or how related it is to the movie, even. Because I don't really haven't listened to the music side as much. So I'm not really sure on that regard. Yeah, it was fucking train wreck.

And Kate Hudson's character was really fucking annoying, really bland, really, like, everything about her was predictable and just irritating, terribly fucking written. Oh yeah, the whole like her working with autism speaks thing. I was going to correlate that to like... Ah, yes. The way that autism is treated in the film is very much how autism speaks as an organization and especially in that like terrible fucking ad they made,

directed by Alfonso Cron, which is just like really awful. That's right. Yeah, it is horrible. It's like, that's basically the way that they treat autism in the movie where it's like the main concern isn't even the autistic person. It's the family member of them where it's. where it's like that's the narrative is like, damn, it sucks to have someone in your family who's autistic. It's like, that's the fucking movie and that's the ad, right?

So even though Cia's like, well, they just came on like four years after it was finished, I had no idea. Again, it's like, oh, I have no idea about anything that's going on with my own passion project. Like, okay, you thought you could fart this one out. There was a quote from her after she had co-directed the chandelier music video, her saying, like, you know, I tried it out. being a co-director and I thought, yeah, I'm pretty good at this. And she just decided she was going to make a movie.

Like, okay, maybe there's more to it than you think. Yeah, that's exactly how it feels. Maybe try directing your own short film or music video without a co-director first. See how that goes. But even then, it's like the directing's not the worst part of it. It's the writing. Which obviously, you didn't write a narrative for chandelier. Like any of your music videos, like you can write songs, even though one of the

fucking songs in the movie has terrible, awful lyrics that's just really annoying that one with It's like, we are so insecure, humans are insecure, we are so, it's just like bad on the feed. I was like, really? Like, this is like, I didn't know lyricism could be that bad. It's just fucking awful. But what were the musical numbers supposed to be communicating? I don't know. As part of a story or like a message.

I was so confused during those moments. I don't fucking know. Is it supposed to just be like a celebration of life from the autistic perspective? I'm like really confused. It's so weird. Because like, it's almost as if the implication is like, the music world is where she's free sort of thing. Like, I think that was supposed to be the implication. Like, man, I can't do things good in real life.

But when I go into my head, there's actually a lot of stuff going on more than you think. I think that that was kind of what it was going for. If that's what she was going for, though, that's just so condescending. I know. The way it's presented in this movie. It is really weird. It's just a, the movie wasn't a good idea. It just wasn't, it wasn't a good plan.

Yeah, that's what I mean. It seems like any normal person who wasn't Cia presenting this idea to a studio, you'd be like laughed out of the room, but it is just a, who's attached, who's involved. I mean, that's probably how she got greenlit was adding the movie. I mean, it was like 10 million more dollars. Like, I don't know, like the details to all the funding for the movie, but like, you know, that's what the producers wanted. They were like, okay, well, no one's going to fucking see your dumb piece of shit

unless you fucking write music for it. Like, who do you think you are? Yeah, I did want to give it the benefit of the doubt before I'd seen it, you know, when the drama, like, first popped up. But like, man, you give it like a chance and then you watch you're like, oh, so just everyone was right, basically. Yeah, it just sounds really bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's all.

awful, then don't watch it. What'd you give it out of ten, Alex? I will give it a one, a one star. Nice. It's just, it's awful, and I wouldn't blame anyone for being offended by it. It's on that kind of level. Nice. I'm giving it a three out of ten. I didn't think the music was too bad.

I didn't think the directing was the worst thing in the world for someone's first feature. The writing was the worst thing in the world. It was, like, worse than I could imagine someone, even for their first feature. writing? Yeah, it should have just been a concept album. Just fucking do, you know, my chemical romance the black parade. They managed to tell a story about like someone with cancer, you know? They didn't turn it into like this weird fucking thing, you know? If you wanted to make your concept album, you could still be doing the vocals, write some songs. It could be the vaguest fucking lyrics in the world and then you could just slap on like, this is about autism if you really wanted, you know,

and then you could have done like, I don't know, similar or equivalent music videos that you would have wanted to direct yourself anyway. I don't know why it had to be this whole other thing that's just this gigantic train wreck that will forever tarnish your reputation. But okay. Yeah, nearly two hours long to criminal.

Wow. I don't think I'm missing much, but I've seen the Alfonso Coron thing. I know, right? I don't think I've... Yeah, that was really bad. Holy shit. I couldn't even believe you made that. Yeah. Yeah, what year would that have come out?

2009. Oh. Yeah. His autistic son was born before then. He was just going through a divorce, so I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, you feel it in that video. God damn.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was brutal. Ralph and I saw a film called Judas and the Black Messiah. Alex did not get a chance to see it because there are some issues with his country. No HBO. Yeah, I guess it's HBO Max exclusive. Yeah.

Golden Globe winner Yeah What did it win for? Daniel Kaluua Or is Daniel Kaluuya? Kualua. I'm so tempted to say Kaluah every time That is a coffee liqueur drink

It's Kuyula The guy from Get Out Oh he's great Oh I love him Yeah He was very good in the movie He was probably the best part Him and Jesse Plemons as well

Who's like a government agent He's getting a lot of roles Which is good Yeah And main roles too Like he was in Breaking Bad like in a minor part I'm like oh I really like this guy He's a really good actor the Todd character and now you see him in everything and it's yeah it's really cool I thought like Keith Stanfield was great too yeah of course him and Daniel were my two favorites

His character was way more like he kept his cards kind of close to his chest you don't really know what's going on with him all the time And that's like it's a thriller about like an undercover guy so I did like that part of it Yeah you don't really know a whole lot about him you know enough But, yeah, there's a lot of mystery to him. Yeah, we're not going to spoil it because Alex hasn't seen it. Yeah. It is based off of a true story, which I wasn't super familiar with beforehand, maybe because I'm not American, and it's mostly an American political thing.

So the events that happened in the movie, the narrative events were not things I was expecting. And it worked pretty well dramatically for me. I don't know most of the history either. I know Black Panthers, of course, and like the vague... There's some things, I guess, I recognize. There's a huge part of the film that's just about, like, the police and, like, government officials. Like, who's a Martin Sheen playing in the movie? Oh, he's playing fucking J. Edgar.

Jay Edgar Hoover. It looks like a super villain. Oh, yeah. He was good in it, too, yeah. A lot of the film was focused on that as well, yeah. And that's stuff I more resonated with. I didn't think the film was as good as I think other people, or, like, people think is the best film we were. In what way? As a thriller, I didn't think it was, it didn't blow me away,

really. I found most of it just like, yeah, I'm going along with it. I like these characters, but I didn't really feel the stakes at all. And by the end, like the end of this film, I thought was, it kind of just fizzled out. When Daniel Kaluya was gone, I know, right. And there's like an awful lot of text at the end, like explaining the rest of the history. And I was definitely like left at the end, like, yeah, I really liked the film. It was very well. well acted, but I didn't think it had the emotional resonance it wanted to, for me anyway. I did get a lot out of it emotionally, and I think that, you know, a lot of, a huge reason of why I love the movie is, it's not just like a great performance piece with like many of

the performances being really great, but it's really, really well technically made. Cinematography is awesome. It's Sean Bobbitt, cinematographer, same guy that works with Steve McQueen all the time. Yeah, I really like the score. Yeah, the score was a lot of awesome. I spent a good amount of my Quicky complaining about the score in one song because it sounded like a song from Wolf's Rain. And then I come to find out that that one song

in the soundtrack was actually licensed from a 1970s jazz musician and they made a song that came out before Wolf's Rain and then people start sending me all these links about the Wolf's Rain composer Yoko Cano actually being known as like a pretty big plagiarist.

And then I see all these other videos of like her ripping off that fucking I want to take you on a roller coaster song from The Matrix. I'm like, holy shit. So I'm going to look into this more. Everybody stay tuned. Wow. But, yeah, the score was awesome.

Yeah. I really liked the score. It was just so, yeah, there's just one jarring moment where I was like, why am I, I'm being reminded of an anime, but it wasn't even the movie's fault. It was fucking Yoko Cano's fault for ripping off the song in the first place. God damn it. Yeah, really great score otherwise. Yeah.

Awesome tones. It was like two different composers, and I don't know if they both kind of did their own thing because it did really feel like there were a couple different tones in the soundtrack throughout the film and I'm wondering if they just they both worked on each of them or if they worked on two different ones exclusively because they didn't clash too much but there were kind of like you know there was one kind of like distinctly more like jazzy kind of like noirish one and then one that sounded like a bit more kind of like experimental like these kind of weird sounds I would have to watch the movie again yeah more like improv jazz yeah I don't

know. But I thought the score worked really well. There's like these string instruments that like suddenly like abruptly stop. And I thought that added like it made the scene a little more intense for me. Because it's like, you know, this unexpected score like just messing what you're bringing a little bit. Yeah, Jesse Plymouth's character, he's another character you don't learn an awful lot about. He's definitely not as bad as like most of like the other, I guess like Hoover or other white characters in the movie, but he's like basically just manipulating the lead character. And so I thought he was pretty interesting, like the shades of gray to him. How like, you know, he was helping the lead character, but also, you know, he basically entrapped him in this situation that he

can't get out of. And it's because that system was so fucked up that, you know, they were able to take advantage of this guy. And it is a pretty fucked up story that I didn't know about. I just thought like the whole experience was like really super professional. Like it's the overall presentation is like indistinguishable from some of the greatest movies really. I thought the violence was really well done. I thought that the editing was really well done. And yeah, like perhaps this I would rate it much higher if, you know, it was an even better

story, you know. The issues I had with it were like really, really minimal. there was like maybe one part that was like that felt a little convenient but it's like I don't have any real reference to like what the actual events were or if they really communicated that properly or took a bit of liberty with the script

I don't really know very satisfying violence and parts of this film that are like really emotionally brutal yeah the shootouts there's not a lot involving the main characters though you know so there wasn't like a lot of intensity. I thought those scenes were well done. Like, you're totally right. All the production design, the way the film is shot, it's really sleek and professional. Super well done. Yeah,

it is super well done. I don't want to take away from that. I guess it's also just a subject matter, like, you know, racism in the institutions and police brutality and all these things that it's been a subject matter that's kind of been explored a lot the past few years. And, you know, I don't think this film is like the most revolutionary take on it necessarily. Like, Fruitvale Station we had, Mangrove, like all these other films. And it's just like, yeah, I've seen this a lot recently. And this is really well done. And I really like the approach they take into it where it's more of like a crime story and they're all there like there's these morally gray characters. There's, you know, these shootouts. And I'm like, yeah, it's very sensational. It's very

exciting. It's good noir. But yeah, it's just there were some, it just didn't, it wasn't 100% for me. And I some, I might not even know why. But, you know, it just wasn't hitting me as much as I would have liked it. I felt like it was unique enough to justify its own existence. Yeah, I didn't feel like I was, I never got the impression like it was like just like swimming in the sea of like other movies about, you know, racism and police discrimination, etc, etc, etc. Like I didn't feel like it was just like indistinguishable from the rest of the pile. I felt like it was there was enough going for it for sure that really made it stick out to me. And again, like, it's a performance movie.

And not only are all the performances great, but they're very detailed, too. And what I really love about the acting in this movie is like Daniel Kuyula and Lakeith Stanfield. Yeah, thank you for saying it right. They're playing characters that are totally not like what I've seen them do before. And that's what I really love. And that's what really makes me respect actors. Like, the great performances to me are not people. essentially being like, okay, well, how do I cry? It's how would my character cry? There's enough

like details and subtleties in their performances where I'm like, oh, you're talking completely differently. Your body language, your posture is like completely different. And there's enough of that in this movie that makes me pretty confident that like this is hugely due to the directing as well. Like it's a big collaborative effort. It's not just like, oh, you just hired the right people and, you know, they gave it their all and just independently of the directing. like this is a very well put together project overall. Just everything works together great. I do agree that it could be better narratively, but like watching this movie, I'm like

really just fucking hyped for whatever this director makes next, honestly. Like if this is the quality of material that he's putting out right now, like for sure. Yeah, it sounds great. Yeah, I bet his next thing will be even better and I'll like it more. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward. Shaka King is the director's name. Yeah, he's only directed one other film in 2013 called Newly Weds.

Positive to Mixed Reception. Sounds like a romantic comedy. Looks very indie Sundance, 370 ratings on IMDB. Other than that, he's directed some shorts and some TV episodes for other things. But, you know, if this is like him when he's got the right resources and the right people to work with, then fuck yeah, I'm down for whatever this guy makes next. Yeah. I don't have much else more to say about it But yeah wouldn't this is something I wouldn't be unhappy with taking home best picture

Yeah I guess I wouldn't be either well I mean what what would you Tenet Yeah if that gets nominated I'm fucking laughing Well I guess tenant works as an action movie this is something totally different I like this film a lot I don't have much more to say about it ultimately I would much prefer this to win over Nomadland or what it what is Is there another one? If Saul wins, I'm going to throw a fucking fit.

Yeah, it does seem better than most of these kind of award-baity movies. It didn't feel award-beady at all, by the way. Is there another one other than Nomad Land that has, like, a cinch to probably win, maybe? The Trial of the Chicago 7, promising young women. Chicago 7 maybe? Fuck, I don't even want to watch that. Yeah, like that one. Looks so bland.

You want best screenplay, Aaron Sorkin, like, no way. Yeah, because he has a name. Yeah. Yeah, it's like politics, you know. Exactly. That's why people put their names on media campaigns and on signs, and, you know, that's why sons of presidents keep getting elected. It's because the most familiar name always wins. And a lot of the time, if you're just a fucking American, or, sorry, Hollywood foreign press voter or Academy Award voter, and you don't bother watching the movies anyway, they're just going to go with the most common name.

Yeah, the awards aren't selling the stars. The stars are selling the awards. They just nominate the same people every time, because, like Aaron Sorkin. Meanwhile, I thought Jack Fincher probably should have won for a Mank. So you have HBO Max. Yeah, back to this. I do, yes. I do now, too.

It's not in Canada, but I've cheated the system, and I have some excellent workaround. Oh, okay. Taste of Cherry is on HBO Max, so that's why I watch that as well. Oh, really lucky. Is HBO Max isn't in the UK, Alex? It's only in America. It's supposed to be coming. Yeah.

And latter half of this year, but I got to wait until they get that together first. They're expanding. I just, yeah, it seems like Canada wouldn't be for a while. So I'm using an Americans account and a VPN router. Yeah, and it works. Yeah, that's how you do it. That works, yeah. Otherwise, what, you don't want me to give you money?

Anyway, what would you give Judas and the Black Messiah out of 10? I like this film a lot. Didn't blow me away, so I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 for now. Upon rewatches, I might raise it to an 8. Really, I can't take away from how technically well executed it is and how good the performances are, because really Jesse Plemons and Lakeyce Stanfield and Daniel Kuluya, I believe. Kulahua, Daniel Kauula, were really good. Kaluya.

Especially him. I could tell he gained a little bit of weight for it, and I looked up pictures of the real guy. I'm like, yeah, these people... I think I've been pronouncing it wrong this entire time. Oh, yeah? Yeah. But you weren't right either. We were both wrong. K-A-L-U-U-U-A.

That's amazing. It's almost Kaluah, but it's like, yeah, at the end. That's all I have to remember it. I don't know how I'm going to do this. This is going to fuck me over so bad. I'm never going to figure it out. Kaluya. I thought it was Kuyla.

Daniel. Because I knew it wasn't Kalu. I was called Daniel. I knew there was a Y in there. Danny. Danny boy. Danny boy. Yeah, I give it.

an 8 out of 10. I loved it. I'll watch it again for sure. Probably be, I mean, yeah, it'll be on my best of the 2020 list. Is it a 2020 film? I guess it's a 2021 film. Nevermind. It's a 2021 movie. I would think it counts for this year. It wasn't even released anywhere in 2020. They were going to release it last year, but it got pushed back. Yeah. And the Oscars decided that they're doing fucking 2021 Oscar movies anyway, so. Damn. That's kind of annoying. They should just fucking, I'll complain about that later I've complained about this before they should just nominate this

I mean they said they were going to consider 2021 movies so they should nominate I know but that was like they called that so early when it was like I don't know what was that fucking May of last year before like

yeah you're just like ah fucking James Bond is getting moved let's extend the Oscar eligibility like okay you didn't know anything that was going to happen they screwed themselves yeah you're right

making me angry. I guess it's time to talk about the film recommendation. It was my recommendation. Spoilers for Taste of Cherry, directed by Abbas Kiarostami. I've seen a few of his films. I believe this is Ralph and Alex's first cherry being popped by Taste of Cherry. I would probably say it's my favorite of his that I've seen so far, if not. at, you know, close second, but yeah, probably my favorite.

It's my highest rated out of the ones. Yeah, I guess I should probably give a synopsis. It's an Iranian man driving around, looking for someone to hire to bury his body after he kills himself. And the location that he kills himself is a hole that he's already dug under slash next to a cherry tree. And, yeah, I want to know what you guys think of it. Alex, you start. Loved it. It's very simple in its kind of concept, but the thought-provoking nature of it, what it gets you thinking about.

And by the end of it, I suppose we're in spoilers. What really stood out to me was that ending that really drove home, the kind of idea of the movie. It really reminded me a bit of stalker in the way. It's quite slow, really long shots. It's about these characters on their kind of journey on their own. mission and most of the the interest comes from just people talking through their differences, really, because really the hook of the film is set in an Islamic country where suicide is a big no-no, even more so than here in the West. So it adds an extra layer of complexity to the

situation that this main character is in, because the movie kind of leads you on at first. They almost sell the main character as if he's up to something in the fair. People are scared of what he's proposing, but it's simply because the idea is such a big no-no in society that he can't really broach the idea and talk about the mental side of it in any way. And it never really goes into the details into why he's motivated to do the thing he wants to. And that's a crucial part of why the movie works. You can kind of project your feelings onto him and follow through the journey. in ways that would make sense to you and go down the same thought processes that the characters do. We're talking about the kind of contradiction that comes around with the religious laws that say,

well, if killing yourself is a crime or against the rules, and then does that make suicide a crime as well? Are you killing someone? But then there are certain things that bump up against each other with that. I loved all the different characters that he comes across and how it brings out certain aspects of life. and the struggle that the main characters going through. It reminded me a lot of other movies that we've talked about and Solonacus actually under the skin as well

with that style of kind of mixing the real-life naturalist way of shooting with the people that almost don't feel like actors kind of communicating. The driving scenes, yeah. Yeah, I've kind of been going on for a while. What did you think of? Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the characterization of like the lead because, you know, we don't know much about him. But there's all these other characters that you follow.

Well, first, there's a young man, and then, like, a man who's around the same age of the main character, and then an old man. And I thought they were very well-defined. And how the main character reacted off of them, I think, showed, like, a lot of his character as well. Like, when the old man's talking, there's a point where the main character just doesn't even say anything.

He's just, like, just listening. And I took that as, like, almost, like, giving in to the old man just like lecturing him or like trying to convince him not to kill himself. I thought the movie was really powerful. And I'm glad you mentioned the ending too, because I thought the ending's really what tied the whole thing together and made the drama more palatable for me. Because I thought the movie was really dour and really sad for the most part,

especially in that final, I guess the final moment of the narrative where he's like lying in the grave. It's like, oh, fuck, this is so like what's going to happen now? And then you're kind of taken out of it with something a little, I don't know, lighter, but it makes you realize that you're just watching a film. And yet the emotions it gets out of you and the things that makes you think about are very real. And I think someone who is thinking about these, like struggling with depression or any sort of, you know, issue where they feel insecure with themselves or sad with life, I feel like if they watch this film, they would change their outlook. hopefully at least a little bit. I feel like it is a film that has a power to help people.

And that's why I like it. That's why I think it's a good movie. Yeah, it doesn't condescend or oversimplify. No. The heavy complicated concepts it is wrestling with. And the main character is so set on his mission that they literally, no one can even sway it. Yeah, there's that. Like this whole movie, he just goes, he goes along anyway.

Like, they tell him, don't do it, don't do it. And he just keeps driving his car. He keeps finding people to, you know, pick up and say the same thing to. And it's like, man, this guy really must be so lost, like so just defeated with life. And that was really sad. He was just really sad to watch someone even in that state. And again, it's a character in a movie, but still. I love the way the film is shot, too, especially in the beginning.

It's very just, it's in his car. It's like two shots of like him driving and then the passenger side. And it's very simple. And yet the backgrounds would change. And I love the locations of this film as well. They were very interesting. Like the gravel kind of digging sites. And then when he like meets the old man and it starts getting, I guess the old man gets

to him a little bit, gets him to change his perspective a little bit. There's like more life in the background. They like start going into the town. You see more people. And I thought that was like, I thought every choice like that was very purposeful. everything felt very purposeful to me Adam I could tell you love this film so I like to hear

what you want to say about it a little bit One of the reasons why this guy is my favorite well sorry one of my favorite directors He's not suddenly my favorite director He's one of my favorites and I'm really interested In seeing more of his catalog But one of the big reasons for that Is because he's

Always constructing his films Very much in a way where he does get you as the audience member to think about things. And it's not just like a nonsense like, ooh, this must mean something about you're confused now. Like, now you have to think. You know, it's something where so much of it is just so intentional and purposeful that like on a second watch, you get so much more out of it. The themes and ideas are tied into how the film is presented. the language of cinema, the way that things are communicated, the way that things are shot,

are all done so in a very purposeful and intentional way. It's very meticulously constructed, is what I should say. And when you look at his later works like certified copy and like someone in love, those films look like even more beautifully shot. Like, the precision of the filmmaking in those two movies is just, like, impeccable. Like someone in love is very slow. I wouldn't recommend that one unless you're going through all of his works. But certified copy, I would recommend for sure.

It's a really good movie. I believe I've seen certified copy, actually, but it's been a long time. Like, I have to watch it again. There's so much intent and purpose in what he does. Yeah, I felt that way. Yeah, like, I'm glad that I've seen a few other things from his catalog before watching this because like it not only helped me to be more aware of that element of it before getting into it before you know being halfway through the movie and being like wait a minute it also

was a nice fresh reminder of why I love his films because I hadn't seen one for a while it's been several years probably but yeah wow it's uh something I really really enjoyed the performances were great especially the main actor lots of subtlety and, you know, very clear intent in the way that his character was reacting to certain things, you know, like so many points in the movie, you can very clearly interpret things about his performance. Like, okay, like his mind is somewhere else right now. Like somebody's trying to convince him not to kill himself. You can see when he's registering to something that they say and when he's not.

And, you know, those ideas are also expressed in more blatant ways in the film, like when he literally almost drives off the road because he's so focused on other things, you know, either looking for someone or the thought of him killing himself that he's literally veering off the road and other people are trying to help him, which if you think about that, like, that's also kind of like symbolic for what's happening in the film. Like they want, they want him to stay on the road. And later in the film, they even call life as if you're like on a train, which is an idea that they kind of get into. And I'm thinking of ending things also. Like, it's a philosophical thing. But whether it's a road or a train, like you're on a track or a road somewhere from beginning to end,

and you can veer off at any moment in time. You can try to help someone get back on track. Someone's only going to help themselves as much as they want help, but it is possible to help someone in that situation, I guess. There's a lot to think about, a lot to chew on. Like, that just scratches the surface. Like, when you mentioned that the age of the characters goes from young, to his age to old.

Like that's, I didn't even think about that when I was watching the movie. So on a second time, I'm going to be thinking about how that plays into what is being communicated in the film, you know,

and how those characters are reacting. And, you know, perhaps he's hinting at the idea of experience and wisdom as being something that mitigates these sorts of suicidal thoughts or tendencies.

Because what really stuck out to me, sorry if I'm rambled, a bit, but there's one other, like, huge idea that I want to get across. The biggest thing that stuck out to me watching the film in terms of, like, its symbolic presentation was the idea of perspective and the idea of different circumstances and different contexts altering what otherwise would be the same thing. And that's an idea that they very clearly communicate, especially with the older man in the truck, is like, he's pleading with him, like, you just need to change your perspective, you know?

Like, I was a bit, he talks about how he was going to kill himself, but then a gooseberry tasted so delicious that like, it lifted his mood, and then he thought about the sunrise and sunset and things that had already existed in his life beforehand, but just the way that he was thinking about those things in his life completely changed his mind as to, whether or not he should continue on living. And this is reflected in the actual filmmaking itself. So the entire 20-minute-long intro before we even learn what the main character is doing, the intentional choice of keeping that hidden and having the entire conversation in car ride

and him looking for people, the entire choice of that being revealed later is, in my interpretation, it's to coincide with that exact idea and theme of changed perspectives. So you see him looking for people, you see the exterior shots of the car and the conversation, blah, blah, blah. Then you see the same thing happening again later. And because of the different context, because of the information that you have in your mind, there's a completely different emotional experience to what's happening. So, yeah, like, if you don't know that's what he's trying to do, you know, you might think,

oh, he's looking for someone to do some odd job, or he might be looking to commit some sort of a crime, but you didn't think he was depressed. Each of the three characters that he has in his vehicle, there's this mirrored way of presenting the shots where these same visual ideas get reincorporated. Every time they get closer towards the cherry tree and away from the construction or away from the town,

it goes to the exterior shot where you don't see, them anymore, but the audio continues, the conversation continues. And, you know, in one way, it's trying to communicate like, okay, every single one of these conversations has a different context, even though you're seeing essentially the same imagery, you're going to have a different emotional experience. But it's also kind of communicating that, like, from a distance, if you take away the audio, like, if you're not there with those characters, from a distance, it's just like a fucking car driving. There is no emotional weight to it. If you, if you're you were to just like that could be happening to anybody you could see a car on the street today like that

conversation could be taking place you don't know what's happening to them right so it's this this entire super awesome meta idea of perspective altered perspectives changing your philosophy it works so well in the film it's perfect in how it's presented especially in the ending which i'm sure i don't even need to explain maybe one of you would like to talk about it but it's not only perfect for the film and the ideas that it's trying to communicate, but that's exactly what depression is. Depression is like a lens, right? And for some people, it is a chemical imbalance. For other people, it's completely situational. But what people don't realize is, like, people who have suicidal thoughts, it often feels incredibly justified. And the way the main character justifies it in the movie saying things like,

yeah, I'm hurting those around me, I'm hurting myself. Like, he knows because he's thought about it, but what he doesn't understand is that there's a lens. which he's thought about it. Like, there's shit that I can think about, like, every night before I fall asleep of just, like, terrible fucking things that have happened to me and just, like, awful, you know, experiences that I've had. And depending on my mood, depending on, like, how these external forces, these chemicals in my brain are treating me at that given moment in time, it'll be the difference between, like,

that being, like, the biggest fucking deal in the world and just keeping me awake all night, or me just being like, ah, whatever, it doesn't fucking matter. move on, like, look towards the future. Like, you're entirely dependent on these chemical reactions in your brain that completely influence the lens at which you view the world. So it's just everything about the movie is just like not only super, super perfect for how it's presented, not just in the context of the film, but in the context of like real life. So I just think it's amazing.

I'm glad you brought up the repetition, too, of like those car driving scenes. We talk about repetition a lot. There's the, like, every shot you said is the same of the car driving down the road. And then toward the end, it's like the same shot, but it's like a night. Yeah. So it's kind of like a, I don't know, dark. Like, it gets dark. Like, this is when he's going to, you know, do the deed.

Yeah, they're completely different context each time. Yeah, yeah. I thought the film, like, not that it was funny, but there were some light moments of levity, like when the kid ran out of the car because he was really freaked out by like the proposition. made like I thought that was funny. Like that's like a totally normal reaction you would have like yeah he's fucking terrified of this guy It made sense and it was funny. I love how it cut back to him to show how far he had ran without stopping It was like turning around the fucking corner of the fucking mountain or whatever

Just like holy shit he didn't just run away. He like ran forever Yeah, it was funny. Another thing I really like about this film is that it mostly plays out in real time It's mostly just you know It doesn't rely on cutting or huge time jumps. It just shows you this guy's last day or maybe last day, maybe not. Well, yeah, you're never given the concrete answer,

are you? Yeah, yeah. But going back to what Adam was saying a bit earlier as far as just selling this idea of depression and really getting across how it is, how it weighs on someone. For me, the scene where that kind of side of it came together was when the main character was having the discussion with someone in one of the car journeys

where he's talking about. You can empathize, you can try your best to understand, but you never will actually know what's going on inside my head. And that was one of my big overall takeaways from the movie. We mentioned the ending where it does do the, like the Holy Mountain kind of fourth wall break where they're showing a scene being shot from the filmmaker's perspective. at the end.

And what I kind of took away from that was it was almost them directly acknowledging the limitations of how the film itself can only go so far exploring an idea as complicated as this and not overindulging, not over explaining, going into the motivations, because there is this infamous Roger Ebert review of this movie, which I had a quick read of earlier. And I found it very interesting because I really did feel the complete inverse of every point. he was saying, he was saying, well, how are you supposed to connect with the main character where you don't get the motivations? But yeah, I just don't believe that to be true.

I got a lot of character from this, but it's in more subtle ways, like Ralph was saying, through the subtlety and the performance, through the way, once you find out what his plan is and just the dialogue and the way he's kind of teasing out and trying to figure out through his singular motivation, his one driving factor. And it's the saddest story imaginable around it. and it does highlight a lot of cultural stigma and just the whole mental health side of things. And for a movie from 97, I think it's very tastefully done.

Yeah, I thought that this is, you know, just my interpretation, because what I was hyper-focused on was like the, you know, different lens repetition element. And there's a lot going on in this movie. Like there's many ideas being communicated at once very clearly. And so when I was looking at the ending, I was thinking like that's just another way to change a perspective is like, okay, now you're seeing the same events through another fucking like layer of reality, really, like through

another dimension almost like this is a completely different context, but it is the same things that are happening when when you look at events that are taking place, you could depending on how philosophical you want to get like you could treat the own events in your own life as though they are a film, you know? I think, who was it? Was it Bill Hicks or George Carlin? I forget which one, but they were saying, one of their quotes was like, life is like a roller coaster or something.

Like, it's, you know, just using that as kind of like a metaphor for life. And in many ways, it is true. Like, you can disassociate yourself as much as you want to from things that are happening. And also, I mean, like, it's important to be able to understand that, like, it is possible to see things in a different way that, like, no matter, how fucking awful and how logistically justified you are in being miserable, it's always going to feel rational no matter what your circumstance is if you are depressed. But for many people, whether it's a chemical imbalance or just situational perspective disorder,

a lot of this can just be considered like a trick, like filmmaking. Like a lot of this can be the lens that is dictating your, mood you can look at in that way and just be like, you know what, it's not fucking real. Like, yes, there are real things that have happened to me. Yes, there are like terrible, awful things that I'm always going to remember for my life. But the trick is just how much it should overwhelm and consume you. Like the amount to which you're letting it or perhaps maybe not letting it, but the amount to which it is influencing your life, the amount to which it is crippling.

you, I think that there is some level of control over that in terms of perspective and how you're viewing the world. Because I want to be careful, obviously, saying, like, you know, there are people with chemical imbalances that, like, obviously need to take medication for this to happen. But perspective can do some work. It really can. Yeah, even if you're not, like, depressed, like, even if you're just upset or, you know, going through grief or anything.

And I mean, that's why a lot of people, you know, doctors, medical professionals will say that like one of the ways to combat depression is like proper diet and exercise. It's not just because like, oh yeah, keep your mind off of like all the shitty things that's happened to you in your life. But like these are external forces happening that are inflicting your mood basically, right? If you have proper diet and exercise and it's not a cure all and all be all or whatever. But it can help. It really can help. Yeah, gut biomes super complicated. Yeah.

Like, it's fascinating just how not in control of ourselves we are. You know? Like, every single thought that you think is, like, rational. It's like, yeah, if we're talking about the objective facts of something, it's rational, but, like, whether or not it's worth ending your life over is not rational. And that's the trick. That's the lens that is clouding your fucking world. and you need to take a step back and realize that, like,

dude, it's just like this fucking movie. You know, like, there's a director influencing the things that are happening in the film, much like the emotions are influencing things happening in your life. You know, he's telling all these actors what to do. Like, you might not be in control. And depending on how you want to look at that philosophically, you can decide to, like, be miserable about it and be like, oh, nothing matters. Or you could be like, yeah, fuck yeah, nothing matters, you know?

Yeah. That's an interesting interpretation of it. I kind of got the same thing from the ending, a change of point of view. That makes it... It doesn't deflate, like, the drama of the film or the message of it. It just, I don't know, it just made the film a lot less dour. It just made it, you know, I don't want the film to end with just, like, the main character killing himself. And, like, that's all I was supposed to get out of it.

I think the ending just kind of tied it together. I thought it was an experimental ending that worked. It was the best way it could have ended. It was definitely risky. Yeah, it was risky, but it does work Yeah, it was very risky That's why I liked it too I was like very, it's very jarring

When it cuts to, because it's very low quality footage And you see the actor And he's like, oh yeah, he's smoking a cigarette, he's fine Yeah, do you want a cigarette? Abbas? Yeah, he's fine, he's right there. Yeah, yeah The alternatives to that were like

Sappy happy ending, depressing, kill yourself ending Or cut straight to credits without revealing Which would have just felt bullshity. So this is like the best way could have. Yeah, true. That is, yeah.

It's like the only appropriate way to end it. It subverts all the obvious ones. Yeah. And now you're left to actually think about and contemplate the ideas of the film and like what it's getting at. And I also love how at the beginning of the film there's this long section of completely, not silent, but like no music opening credits where you just hear like the traffic, you know, he's driving around.

And it's like kind of just like this, a little. depressing tone despite they're not being music, but just like weirdly real and like obviously the intentional choice of not adding music is an implication of the tone itself. And then the end credits where it's like, okay, we're seeing credits again. But this time it's like fucking happy, you know, like loud orchestral kind of, you know, like just a fun, almost like poppy rock song. And it's like, holy shit. Like that's another way that the film is communicating these like different lenses of perspectives. Because, you know, at the beginning of the film, it's like, okay, that's clearly a less positive emotion, but at that point in the film,

there was no talk of suicide. At the end of the film, it's like really close to a potential suicide, but because of the music that's playing in the credits, like, that's completely influencing someone's emotions over it to be like the opposite of what you'd expect, right? So it's all, it's a lot to think about. It's very philosophical and very purposeful. I love it. I don't have any criticisms with it. So I'm not sure. There was like one, fucking nitpicky thing because when he was like driving really fast and somebody said something along the lines of like

oh this fucking got a death wish because he was like driving crazy I don't remember what the line was but then the same guy you can hear him at the window yelling something after but he's like driven so far by that point and he's like so fast where it's like what is he like in the car next to him and it's just not showing it this doesn't look like two lane traffic and I was thinking about that I was like this is like such a tiny

little fucking nitpicky criticism but then by the end of the movie when it was like the movie it was like the movie itself is admitting it's a movie. I'm like, okay, well, I guess that doesn't matter anymore. So, so, because it's a movie in the movies universe. I guess there's some details, yeah. So, yeah, there was, there were a lot of, like, little details that I thought were really cool. Like, there's a scene where the main character's talking behind, like, a glass window. Yeah, yeah, realistic audio. And the, the sound is actually, like, from the camera. It's, like, muffled through glass. I'm like, wow, it's like an excellent little detail. Yeah. That just adds to the world of

the film. Yeah. The sound in general was really good for that kind of stuff, like, being interrupted by car honks in the background, like wild dogs in the background. The way that the actors respond to that makes it so clear that it's not just incidental, that it is like an intent because, you know, he goes behind the glass and the other actor says, like, sorry, I didn't hear you, right? Like, they have to repeat themselves because of, like, the actual noises in the universe, which is just, like, super fucking realistic. I love it.

Yeah, he feels like very much like a lot of my favorite filmmakers, and he is one. There's elements of Michelle Hanukkah in his films, for sure. Not saying he was inspired by Hanukkah, but they both have a lot of the same, I guess, ways of presenting films. They have the same discipline in many ways. I think that's the best way to say it. Very intriguing. Yeah.

I just love it. Full-provoking, yeah. Added a bunch of his movies to my watch list. Oh, awesome. Oh, man, there's some weird ones. I think I mentioned this one before, but, like, I don't know if you guys who he was when I said this, or if I said it before in the podcast. There's a movie called Shirin, and it's literally just like a bunch of Iranian and French actresses and just

like single shots of each of them and they're in like a movie theater or whatever, or maybe they're watching a play. It's either a play or a movie and I couldn't figure out which one, because you never see the screen or you never see the stage. Oh yeah, I remember you saying about this. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just literally shots of them reacting to it and you can hear the audio from it and you don't ever see it. And I didn't watch through the whole thing because it was like just... That crossed the threshold of like experimental versus entertaining for me.

Maybe I'll give it a chance again someday. But like he is such a fucking crazy experimental director. Like he's all... I mean, he's dead now, but he was always doing really out there stuff. Like really original, really unique things. His movie close up, which is really great. but I would say the story behind it is like kind of more interesting than the movie itself is like he took an event of a real event of someone impersonating someone else in lying to a family

and then he took the actual people from real life to play as the characters that they were in real life but in his movie and so there's like like just a bagillion layers of like meta shit going on where yeah but like without the understanding of that happening then it's like not as purposeful of a movie. It's so weird. So weird. He's crazy. He has another film called 10, which it kind of sounds similar to this.

It's like 10 strangers go in a car. Oh, yeah. With like a person and just have a conversation. I'm like, yeah, that sounds interesting. Yeah, I'll watch that for sure. Yeah. I haven't seen it. There's something called the Coker trilogy.

I don't remember which films are in it, but Criterion has a box set. That's him? Yeah. Oh, I didn't even know. K-O-K-E-R trilogy. I don't remember which film. are in it. I haven't seen them yet. And yeah, certified copy and like someone in love are both criterion, but would not recommend

like someone in love unless you're like a fan of his because it is kind of slow. And then his last movie, 24 frames, I wouldn't really recommend, period. He died before it was finished. And, uh, yeah. And like, if you looked in the credits for Taste of Cherry, he edited his own movie. So I don't know if that's true for all of his movies, but like, yeah, 24 frames was kind of like, I don't know if it would have been that. if he was still alive when it was released or not.

You can never tell. Because he's had like hits and misses in my opinion. Some things are like really out there and some things are a bit more straightforward. But there's always something like either respectful or intriguing. There's always something like that's there to appreciate. What's interesting about this director is he's like one of the biggest Iranian filmmakers. But the Iranian government, because he was big enough by the time they realized he was making thinking movies, they never outright, like, charged him for, like, making thinking people movies or, like, they never outright banned him. They just, like, made it difficult to, like, screen his.

They just, like, didn't approve screenings of his film, so he was more of, like, an international director. Whereas another Iranian filmmaker, who I really love, Ascar Farhad, he. he makes movies that are like a bit more safe for you know like they're great I love him a lot very talented but he doesn't make movies that like the point of them is to get you to think about like the ethics of suicide and stuff you know like he doesn't that that's not like the point of his movies is to like challenge your perception and your worldview and the way of thinking and i remember askar fahaddi at like a q&A at tif Toronto Film Festival i think one of his producers or somebody there said that the Iranian government had like officially declared him Ascar Farhadi as Iran's best filmmaker of all time or something.

I'm like, good for you. But in my head, I was kind of thinking like, yeah, of course they wouldn't say that about like Kiarostomi, you know. Like he's been, he's been around for longer and more relevant for longer, like for the Iranian government to suddenly be like, hey, we're, we're publicly supporting a filmmaker now. It's like, oh, you could have done that the whole time. But, okay, I'm not surprised, I guess. Yeah, me neither. Yeah, that's strange. Love him. Excited to check out Coker Trilogy. I'm going to actually scroll through some of these notes.

I kind of wanted to get into Roger Ebert's monstrosity. Yeah, yeah. Do it. I read that too. Yeah. It's so confusing. It wasn't, no, it's not one of his best. He mentioned him being a homosexual or something?

Yeah, I guess that was his interpretation of the beginning. I don't know if I missed something. But he's like so insistent about it. I didn't really pick up on that. I mean, I could be wrong. I've only seen the film once. Yeah, I could be wrong. I think he was reading into it a bit too much at the beginning.

Yeah, it quickly dispels that. Yeah. He didn't like the fact that we didn't know a lot about the main character when I thought that was fundamentally why the film worked. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the biggest reasons. So, Roger Ebert gave this film one star, I think. He hated it.

And what's weird about this is like, I opened the review hoping to get like an understanding of why he didn't like it, but left just more confused than I came into it. He asks rhetorical questions that have very obvious answers pretending as if they don't. And it just leads me to believe like, he starts the review off by saying he talked to other film critics who loved the movie and he's just flabbergasted for why they did. but I get the impression that he clearly didn't have that much of an in-depth conversation with them if he didn't really understand these basic things about the movie.

So one of the quotes from his review that stuck out to me was, What purpose does it serve to suggest at first he may be a homosexual? Not what purpose for the audience, what purpose for body himself? Surely he must be aware his intentions are being misinterpreted. And why must we see Kiarostami's camera crew, a tiresome distancing strategy to remind us we are seeing a movie? And it's like, he's asking these questions that like, A, even if you wanted to interpret that he was like a homosexual at the beginning, credits rolled and I already had explanations in my head, really obvious interpretations for why they didn't reveal the suicide thing at the beginning. And I talked, I rambled about that extensively already. Like, that's a very clear choice to me. And then the choice at the ending, like, we have had several interpretations us just talking together right now about why that would be the case. And things that like I feel like really add to the movie. And I'm. I'm pretty confident about the ideas that it's getting at, right?

It's not like, there's no reason you could possibly do this, you know, sort of thing. And what's really sad about this review is like, I think it was like five episodes ago or something. There was like a question about like bad film criticism and my answer was like, yeah, I'm really not a big fan of people that take like 20 paragraphs to say like essentially like two or three points that they could have just said in shorter amount of time. And that's what this review was where it's like a lot of print media critics. where it's like, yeah, you have credentials. You went to film school, I get it. But, like, a lot of them just like pretending as though they're, like, creating some sort of, like, poetry with what they're doing.

It's, like, trying to find, like, a recipe online, and you hear someone's fucking life story. It's, like, tell me what you liked about the movie and why or what you didn't like about the movie and why. Like, I get it. You want to be better than, like, a fucking stupid meme letterbox review. I get it. But, you know, you don't have to, like,

bullshit the entire thing. He said three things. He said it was boring. He didn't understand two things. What was the third thing? I don't even fucking remember. Oh, yeah. The only other thing I got from it was like, he's like, you can't criticize me for calling it slow because I saw an eight-hour documentary called Taiga and I liked that. Okay.

It just reads like he was in a bad mood when he wrote it. Yeah. That's all it reads like. So strange. Yeah. Do you have anything to add about the? fucking Roger Ebert review? I don't think so.

I think it was a miscalculation. I mean, he's entitled to his opinion. I'm not going to call his opinion wrong. If he doesn't like it, he doesn't like it. I think his score is just a little too low. Like, even if he had those criticisms, of course, that's his opinion, but, like, really one star? I'm never going to disagree with someone's score.

I'm never going to say that someone's score is too low. If they, if, even if someone, like, completely misinterprets a movie, like, to try and get someone to, like, like, like something that they don't like, and it's just like an inherent thing. like depression, you know, it's a lens that you're viewing things over. You never know, right? There could be just certain things about the movie that he just, like, found distasteful. It doesn't always have to be rational.

It can be like a gut feeling about not liking the movie. I'm never going to change someone's mind on that. However, what I will complain about here is that, like, if a review of a film is supposed to inherently inform others about why you liked the movie and why you disliked it, then this is a fucking awful review because I don't understand. Yeah. Like, if it's to help other people understand how you felt about the movie and why, this is an awful review, if that's the purpose of a review. If the purpose is just the bullshit about nothing for 20 paragraphs, then it's a good review, I guess.

Well, yeah, the critique of the ending to just propose that it's acknowledging itself. Like, that is a valuable statement in and of itself. Like, if you just interpreted it, like, charitably. I mean, you don't even have to interpret it charitably. I would say like a neutral interpretation is like Yeah To just not be as uncharitable as possible is all you have to do Yeah that's what I mean it just like you just like you just decided

Yeah he wasn't hungry for charity that day Yeah Kiaristami probably like released a disc track on him like two days before and he was like Nah man Yeah well other critics responded to Ebert's review too Oh yeah? With a lot of the things we're saying It was like, yeah, what the fuck you're talking about, man?

Probably one stuff. Yeah, like, I will forever defend people's rights to have, like, different opinions on movies. Like, I don't care if you like something or dislike something. From Ebert especially, this, you know, biggest name and film criticism of all time, to write a review where it's like 20 paragraphs of him talking about nothing. And then saying, it was boring, I watched an eight-hour documentary called Taiga. And why did they do this when it has such clear answers? And by the end of it, I don't even understand why he dislikes the movie. It's like, okay, fuck.

Yeah, that's the problem. That is the problem. Just, it has no concept. It's just that's Roder Ebert. Yeah. It's like he just, it's like he gave up on the movie. He's like, eh. And he's just like, rode off.

He hated it so much you didn't want to put his thoughts to words in a concise way. And I guess he didn't see the lasting effect the film would have. Because obviously, years later, people still watch it, talk about it. Yeah, and this actually tied Palm Door with another movie. a Japanese movie that I've already forgot the name of But this is probably more tested time for this film Yeah, it's just so simple Like there's no element of it that

It's perfect I don't even see that dated ever Yeah, it is perfect Even like you said, there's no music Yeah, it is pretty perfect An element I didn't even mention It's only a PG It's an incredibly serious subject matter

Doesn't need to show any violence Or indulge in any stupid stuff To get the message across And the runtime It's only an hour and a half That's exactly what it needs to be. Yeah. It just suits the story so well, never stays too long.

Unlike Eber, I don't think the film is boring myself. But, yeah, great stuff. Yeah. First 20 minutes are a little slow, but it's entirely justified in the context of the film. The main actor in this went on to star in films like Zero Dark 30 and A Most Wanted Man. I guess he played some terrorist characters. It's my assumption. I think I remember him the most wanted me.

And the kite runner, I think. Oh, yeah. I just recognized his face and I had to look up the IMDB. Yeah, same. I had the same thing. But, oh, yeah, like, Kiarostomi, like, casts a lot of non-actors. This was the main actor's second film ever, which is crazy. Wow.

And then another crazy thing about the filmmaking in this movie is, like, at no point in these shot reverse shot car scenes, at no point is the actor actually talking to the other actor. literally Kiyah Astami in the other seat every single time. And the way it's edited together, especially with the sound design, I was thinking like, I know two cameras probably wouldn't fit there, but it feels like they're just swapping between A and B camera just because it flows so incredibly that it's just like even knowing that he's talking to the director and not like the other character, even knowing that both of those

characters are doing that, it's like the illusion still works really well. And perhaps, again, based on other things that I've talked about already, you could argue that there is some sort of like maybe philosophical purpose to the actors talking to Kiyar Astami and not the other characters in those pivotal scenes, right? And how the director is influencing what they're doing. Yeah, that's that meticulous editing you're talking about. So great. Yeah, I can't wait to watch this again.

Super realistic, very, very genuine, levit to pieces. Yeah, not manipulative at all Even like I said the real time thing There aren't even real time jumps in this movie Yeah, it gives the view a lot of credit It helps the atmosphere Yeah, yeah Anything that's like trimmed down

For the story that they were trying to tell Would feel just more like fake And it's so important that it feels real We're good to talk about ratings I would just say A fucking 10 out of 10, it's great It's a classic already for me It's perfect

loved it I'm gonna watch more of his films I'm gonna give this one a nine out of ten for now or four and a half out of five for a letter box for the memers yeah I'm right there with you Ralph possibly could go up on rewatch

but there is as we've said in the conversation there is a lot going on in the movie yeah I don't want to put the foot before the horse yeah so many comments you guys have said I completely missed on my first watch so yeah I can't wait to go back very dense perfect implementation

I want a simple idea. Can't stop thinking about it. Yeah. Let's do some questions then from the Sardonicast community. Yes. If you want to ask us, your own questions, head over to the suggestion thread in the subreddit. Just Too Good is going to start us off the legendary Lego YouTuber. What was your first experience with your favorite director?

Oh, man. Your first experience. I think Funny Games US was my first Hanukkah experience. I actually remember it was probably in 2007 I was looking at really, really low quality YouTube trailers for horror movies just going through those and saw that and it looked interesting. The trailer was like a very clear imitation of like Clockwork Orange

style trailer. Yeah, loved it. And then I don't remember if I saw like one or two more from that director, but very quickly before watching all of his films, I did like a marathon. I like bought every one of his movies that was available on like DVD through like eBay and stuff. And I did like a fucking 20 hour Hanukkah marathon.

It just went through all of his movies like, but not in order. Just like I interchanged, you know, old new, old new, old new just so they, you know, in case his older ones were more boring or something. but yeah. I guess for me, Kubrick, right? I saw a Full Metal Jack at first. It's a pretty easy one to get into for like a casual viewer

because it's just like a comedy war film. And you don't really have to see all the buried subtext underneath it to like just enjoy it as like a comedy. And yeah, I thought it was awesome. Pretty much from the first 10 minutes with the drill sergeant and private pile and all that. Yeah, I love that shit. And I believe after I saw Clockwork Orange, that was my second, And then from there, yeah, I just binged all of them.

Yeah, for me, I have a vivid memory of the first time. I might have actually said it before on this podcast, but I was like a kid on family holiday in Cornwall somewhere, staying in some Airbnb or whatever. They had a pile of VHSs. They had an Airbnb when you were a kid? Well, you know, the equivalent, like a hotel, whatever it was. I was like, what?

Yeah, Airbnb, well, they had. they have VHSs in a part Yeah the copy of the Big Lebowski was there Stuck it in When you're like a young Young kiddie that that kind of humor I hadn't really seen something along those lines And I don't know

Ever since then when I revisit it I just discover new things about it And I just love the range of the Cohen so much And it's buried into my mind That I had my experience So that was like your first more adult comedy that you saw? I'd seen adult comedies before, but they'd always been more crass, you know,

the comedy is almost like, I don't know how to describe it really in the Big LaBalcque. So yeah, Big LaBausque is more like artful. Yeah, a lot of the comedy just comes from like the confusion of it all and just like the mess of the plot and how it just puts everyone down this mess of a story. Yeah, and just the dialogue and everything. It's just so funny to me. Dang. Good question. Just too good.

Silver Monkey Nighting One has one for us. You often say some movies are too long, but what are some movies that are too short? I don't know if there's such a thing. I guess so. Yeah, I was like, when I was collecting the questions, I was trying to think about this, and just how rare I find it to be a complaint of mine. I kept thinking about recent films I'd seen even that I'd considered to be fairly short, including, like, St. Maud.

Certainly like an hour and 20 minutes long, but that's one of the reasons I liked. the movie was because of the brevity of it, it's very rarely a complaint for me, but I don't know if I had to choose something. There's that animated film 9, I remember. It was really short.

Oh, yeah. Tim Burton thing. Yeah, it definitely felt like a short that had been like stretched out and then needed to be a bit more sort of development and expansion on the ideas for it to really... Okay, it was a short, apparently. Yeah, what was a short? And then it was like

extended into the future or whatever. Oh yeah, it wasn't even Tim Burton that directed it. It was just his name on it again. Shane Acker. Yeah, yeah, just sort of looked liked one a little bit. Producers, Tim Burton. I think I thought of one. Have you guys heard of the film Jonah Hex starring Josh Bolin and Megan Fox?

It was a giant piece of shit. It was a DC movie, is it? Oh, was that the fucking Neville Dean and Taylor movie that I didn't see? It's 81 minutes, right? But the last five or six minutes? minutes of the movie's like credits. So the movie's probably like 70 minutes long. It's awful. Oh yeah. It's barely feature length. Neville Dean and Taylor wrote it and then somebody directed it.

Yeah. You could tell they cut that one down though because the movie was just so awful. They just had to make it like it as short as possible so people could just get out of the theater soon. Taste of Sherry, Jerry was very short 99 minutes and that's one of the things I liked about it too. That it was very, you know, very serious subject matter but it didn't it flew by. Yeah, it didn't hold you there too long. Maybe a film like Gene Dealman, I would have liked more if it was a little shorter, you know? I 100% have felt that films were not properly explored before. I don't know if that's necessarily a length thing, though. Because I very much felt like, okay, well, you essentially ended the movie at where this should have been like the end of the first act. And then you should have done more with it.

But you would have had to restructure the movie. Like, who knows? maybe it would be better if it were three times as long. It could just be a really long movie. I don't know. I'm just trying to remember examples of movies I felt that way about, but I've definitely felt that way. Movies that don't reach like their fullest potential.

Yeah. I feel that way about Krisha. And I really like the film Krisha. Kresha? Kresha? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I wish it had continued past the ending,

and we'd kind of gotten some, I don't know, something else out of it. Yeah, but so low budget. Yeah. You can't complain too hard about that one. the first film, yeah. Yeah. That was just like a minor complaint of mine because I was thinking a lot of people love that movie.

I like it. Oh, it's so great though. It's like, I think that's a great filmmakers movie in the same way that like the Evil Dead is, you know? It's like a proof of concept of like doing a lot with a little. Yeah. And then you see waves or something like that. Oh, yeah.

I feel that's a huge improvement. Like that's so fully fleshed out. And by the end of it, I was very satisfied. I feel like Christian needed some kind of epilogue or something. something, you know, whatever. Yeah, that's actually a good example is waves. I did feel like the story ended earlier than I wanted it to.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Really? Okay, so we're like polar opposite. No, I love waves. I love it, but without spoiling it, there's a character's story that essentially we don't see anymore, and I was hoping for a bit more, I guess, exploration or resolution because the new

situation that that character finds themselves in, I feel like I would have loved to have seen that tackled in the same film. Where it felt like, it felt like two acts of a movie and I would have loved to have had a third act, even if the movie was like even longer, I felt like that probably I would have loved that. How long was waves? Let's see. It was two hours, 15 minutes. If they made a three hour movie and they tackled what was left up to interpretation and

gave me some sort of exploration or resolution with that storyline that I probably would have loved it even more. I love the movie, but yeah. Yeah, I could see what you're saying. Yeah. So there we go. You help me think of one. Thank you.

You're welcome. Trevor Schultz, good director. Yep. I briefly ran into him at Tiff outside of waves. He was going down an escalator, and I was walking down the stairs right next to him and had a conversation. And the concept of walking down the stairs. stairs as someone's going down the packed elevator and talking to them at the same time was

hilariously awkward but it's funny it was worth it i'm sure if i ran into him again in the future and said hey i was that guy that awkwardly talked to you while i was walking down the stairs and you were stuck on the escalator going down i'm sure he would remember that because it was so weird but he says nice ggg375 this one for us i often hear about youtube as a starting big projects only to get discouraged and scrap their videos. Has this ever happened to the three of you? Has there been something you're really passionate about only to lose interest in and not make a video? People think that I've done that, but no.

If I change how something ultimately winds up and turn it into something different than I thought it would be, I don't think that that's abandoning it. Yeah. There's a lot of projects that take way longer than I want them to. Lion King being a huge one. It's already like over two hours long and I'm just like, Mufasa hasn't died yet. But yeah, Synecatechi, that wound up turning into a project

where I wanted to explore the more meta ideas of it by having each part, you know, by there being a longer gap between each part as they go across. But I'll finish that after the Lion King. Yeah, I'm working on like a great TV shows video, but that's since changed because, you know, I was doing like some Japanese shows like, documentary. It's always sunny in Philadelphia. But then the Sopranos segment was like, you know,

six times longer than fucking the rest of them. So I'm like, maybe it should just be a Sopranos video. And then I got caught up with like the Tobol Blee thing. That took off. And then I, you know, I just put that project on side for the Steven Seagal movies and Bruce Willis movies. And that's just what happens. Like I get scheduled so much other shit that just gets in the way. And I'm still working on the Sopranos video now. And I wanted to rework it a little more because I wanted to be a little bit better. Yeah. Nice.

But yeah, I don't abandon anything. I just, I work on it until I feel it's actually worth putting out. Yeah. And sometimes other shit just comes up. Like, you know, that Tobolly Fleet took off so much. I'm like, I got to take this opportunity to review some other piece of shit like Stephen Seagall, you know. And I'll save Sopranos for later.

Oftentimes I'm forced to put something on the side burner for a bit. Yeah. It's just the way it is. And like, rethink about how I want to approach it without being like, you know, it's not canceled. It's just like, yeah, I might want to do something different than what I had originally intended on doing with it. Yeah. I'm still going to do something. Yeah, I never scrap anything if it gets far enough to be like at least in audio form.

I've scrapped like plenty of like concepts or ideas or like thought, oh, maybe this would be a good idea to make a video on. And then if it's like a certain movie or whatever and you watch it and it just. Nothing comes to you, no ideas come to you and you just don't feel the need to cover it. I kind of do it more like that. Yeah, sometimes it's just not enough to say. Yeah, you do hear about these YouTubers, though, that like they're like, get halfway through a video, then they just like stop or just give up or move to the next thing. And I've never been able to do that.

Like, it has to be like beginning to end full project complete type thing. Yeah. Yeah. There's some things that I think in my head, like, I would love to do that and even say, sometimes like, oh, I might make a video on this. And those can, you know, might happen someday or might not. But it's like something like a YMS review to the unfriended sequel. Like, I think that movie's hilarious and I have a lot of things to say about it.

And I would love to throw in more jokey edits in the computer screen like I did with the first video. It would be a lot of fun. But in terms of prioritizing that versus the other fucking billion things I'm juggling right now, it's like that's where the issues start to come in where it's like, shit, I've put my list videos on the side burner for a while. I haven't even done my fucking 2016 list video. You know, this Lion King thing has been taken forever. I just released an album last year that was done over the course of four years, you know? Like, I've attended like four different film festivals within the past 365 days. Like all these fucking movies that I still need

to talk about quickies and shit for, you know, podcast, gaming channel. And then just like regular life sprinkled somewhere in the mix. Yeah. Yes, a lot. Yeah. Zed Tar's 22 as one If you were to recommend a video game Instead of a movie Which game would it be and why? For the podcast For the podcast, yeah

Oh so it's gotta be something like impressive I don't know if that necessarily has to be the case Yeah I would pick something you guys haven't played Yeah even if it's recent I might like have to factor in things like That are short Yeah I was thinking about it More like digestive ones like

Like you can finish inside for example in the three to four hours and I feel like that would be an all right discussion. There's a lot to talk about there or like maybe a Bioshock, something like that. The original Bioshock is like 10 hours long.

Yeah, if you ever want to do that, if I can go for it, I might never do that, but if you too ever want to recommend a game, I'm totally down. Bioshock's a good one because those stories are actually really good, especially the infinite and the first one. The trippy, all the different timelines and yeah it was really cool that story

I would love to talk about Mass Effect but it is a big investment like that whole that whole trilogy yeah that's cool that's like Laura the Rings of video games on yeah well they're doing the remastered one soon I don't know how long it will take me to go through all three but yeah I'll definitely be playing that yeah I mean like there's stuff that all three of us wind up playing anyway like Last of Us 2 and uh... Spider-Man PS4 I would recommend uncharted I think the first

all four of them. I would recommend those. I'd recommend a portal and portal two. Pwital. Portal. I like Pettles. I like those. I think those moot.

Those are probably the funniest games I think I've ever played. The only reason you want to keep playing it is just to hear the dialogue and the jokes, which is such a testament to, yeah. And Wheatley and Gladys are great characters. Yeah. They were very unique and funny. Totally distinct. Life is strange.

Life is strange. Yeah, any don't-nod game. I've tried playing a couple of times. But just for a mean. Yeah. That looks really bad. I heard Detroit become human wasn't bad. I might recommend a David Cage game.

It's not great. It's probably David Cage's second worst game. I haven't played Omicron. It's not Beyond Two Souls. Beyond Two Souls was actually pretty bad. Yeah, Beyond Two Souls is his worst game. And Detroit's probably his second worst. Heavy Rain is probably his best.

I haven't played Omicron. Really? Heavy Rain's his best. Okay. I thought Detroit was his best. That's what people are saying. Yeah, I've never played. Cade Cage game, they just haven't interested me. Heavy Rain's fun.

I like heavy rain. It's fun. Yeah, it's goofy, it's silly. It's dumb. So the Jason one. Jason. Yeah. Like, in terms of trying to make like a dramatic choose your own adventure sort of thing, in many ways it is successful, in many ways it is stupid and hilarious, but I think it does

not only the best job at what he's clearly trying to do, but it's also just the most fun in general. Yeah, it's super derivative. He's never had an original thought in his head, but it's still worked for the most part. Yeah, the noir kind of tone works for it like you're investigating. I thought that was cool. Until dawn, that's like another good choice game

where your choices actually matter. Yeah, that one's really fun. And that one actually got like a really good cast. Rami Malix in it, Hayden Paneterre. Yeah, a bunch of girls are in shameless, like the cold bloom. The first four hours are a slog and then it's fun. Yeah, it's a bit of a slog. But I like the ones where your choices actually really affect the story. And heavy rain does have that. too. There's points of every rain you fail and like the game just won't like

there's a whole storyline that just won't happen or it'll happen differently. It's cool. I like that stuff. A game over is the failure of the game designer quote David Cage. I don't know about that. I know. I'd recommend maybe multiplayer games. I don't know how you talk about that

but definitely a different discussion. You can talk about it. Or even I love the Hitman games. I think those are really fun. I still need to get into this. The recent ones. Yeah. And you guys haven't played them.

Yeah, I've never played one myself. I've just watched people play them. Yeah. You're just, you know, you're not killing, you're killing, like, you know, the bad people. You're killing like basically the Illuminati. The game's version of the Illuminati. They're like evil businessman, oil tycoons or whatever. Well, if you ever want to recommend a fucking game for the podcast, Ralph, I'm totally down.

Yeah, I'd be done. You might consider it one day. See what the, uh, sards think in the comments. They're sardonites The sardines Yeah Sardines Zag Zom

too has a fun one Pick a movie you don't like And try to give a convincing short review Or why it's good That's stupid I don't know A bad movie, yeah So a movie I don't like

Those are very different things Because I can just pick a fucking critically acclaimed movie That I don't like and then just rehash what other people say about it and be like, okay, I know what I'm supposed to get out of this, but I didn't. And just pretend like I did. I could do that.

That's the easiest one I could do. If I read these four lines from this review, try and tell me what movie you think is. Okay. A beautiful mess. It is not difficult to see why this film was initially panned. It's messy, bizarre, and borderline incoherent at times, but it's also brilliant.

It is, in fact, quite possibly the apotheosis of postmodern cinema. Southline Tales? Yeah, you got it. Fuck. Oh, God damn it. Got it. Yeah, I don't know how to answer that question. That's fine.

I mostly just wanted to read that. Godi. Okay. Oh, do you have one, Ralph? Sorry. Godi is a great crime film starring John Travolta, where he really got into the role. He put on John Travolta.

or he put on John Gotti's clothes and smelled his cologne, it was haunting. And it brought a lot of believability. The question was for movies you don't like, Ralph. Oh, yeah, dude. What are you doing? Play the game, man. Why do you have that as three, Adam? I thought it was fair.

What's the extra? Yeah, well, what do you mean? I'm just kidding, because I have it as like a one because I literally think there's nothing about it. I didn't think it was like the most incompetent thing ever. I understand that there's like. like another layer of like why it's bad, I guess, like, from like a biopic standard perspective and maybe like culturally too, I don't know. But like, yeah, it was fucking dumb and slow and

poorly made in many ways. To suggest that Gotti is a one would to suggest that there are few movies worse than it. I didn't think that that was the case. I think that there's a very big spectrum of the quality of films, which is why I don't often go for the, extremes is because that I want to leave room for the actuality of other films existing that are far worse than it you know yeah yeah I was sorry I didn't mean to be condescending god he was just dumb yeah it was bad but and dumb it wasn't a one it was a 10 yeah I'm just trying to be funny okay is that it I did I did Alex did you say I don't know how I'm gonna answer the question so if I guess you guys still got to say one I have one um you'll

actually be able to answer Adam if you just want to do this from Bilal is cool one, two, three. Adam mentioned Kanye West's album Kid See Ghost last episode so I wanted to ask you Sardz What is your thoughts on Kanye West And what is your favorite album by him?

He's crazy and stupid Absolute narcissist Ego, the sizes, The fucking universe. He wrote a song about gold biggers And then married Kim Kardashian And now they're divorced What the fuck did you think was going to happen?

Kid Seagost was great That was also an album that was not just by him. It was him and Kid Cutty. So that might be why that one's my favorite. About depression, too. You know what? Actually, I kind of liked college dropout when I was younger, but I don't know if I ever listened to the full thing. I liked songs from it. I liked the workout plan and stuff. If that was on that album, I don't know. Maybe I'm fucking crazy.

Really, you like the workout plan? I did. I like the workout plan. Jesus walks is pretty good. Yeah. And like stuff he was doing like as a producer and collaborator was cool around the time. I'm like a, I'm pretty, it's really easy to get me to like a hip hop R&B song from that generation. Fucking slow jams was like his laziest verse of all time where he's like

I'm gonna bring some cool whip then I want you to strip she got a light skin friend look like Michael Jackson got a dark skin friend looks like Michael Jackson Laziest verse of all time the rest of the song is good and it's catchy twist us slow jams look it up

yeah because I like that album a lot it's just that one song is the that doesn't do it for me. I think it's purely a, uh, just a lyrical thing. And Kanye's whole, you know, Jesus is king. And like, he's like, filtered himself down now and he's like, doesn't have the sense of humor that that earlier stuff had. Yeah, he's like, Jesus is king.

Also, I'm Jesus. It could also just be pure nostalgia because like I, before listening to that Twist a Slow Jam song in the past five years, I couldn't think of a single thing bad about that song and it was only because I listened to it as an adult that I realized just how fucking awful Kanye's verse is on it and how lazy it is. So I could be completely wrong about the workout plan but you know I've got the melody in my head it's catchy it's you know I don't remember it poorly but there's a good chance that I could listen to it again today and think the same thing as you about it you know it could just be complete nostalgia goggles yeah because I was never

I kind of wrote off Kanye for a long time and it was only in the last like three years so we've bothered going in. So I have no nostalgia. And my favorite one probably is Life of Pablo, to be honest. Mm-hmm. Wow. I think it just summarizes him quite well. It's super eclectic and all over the place.

I've never considered him to be like a fucking genius like a lot of people do. I think he's a good producer. He makes interesting sounds and obviously knows music. Mm-hmm. And he's a mima, yeah. Yeah. He ever heard, which album is Poop de Scoupon? Oh, that was a single thing that you put out, didn't it?

Whoop-de-poop scoop. Yeah, that was bad. Yeah. I mean, there's, like, so much of what he does on these albums that, like, everybody gets offended if you don't give 10 out of 10 to. So much of what he does just feels like, yeah, this is different. Does that mean it's genius, though? Like, that's kind of how I feel about the majority of his work,

especially more recent stuff, is like, yeah, this is different. But I don't see where I'm supposed to interpret. that I have to like this from it, you know? Like, yes, he's a narcissist. It shows in his music and everything in his personality. Like, at least he's true to himself. Makes interesting sound. Yeah, it's, well, yeah.

It's the self-awareness in the wordplay that I enjoyed about him until recently. That's what really... He released, like, a single fairly recently called, like, it's a nah, nah. It was around Halloween of last year he released it, It was pretty terrible that one. Nice.

I like Life of Pablo, too. I think that's a really good album. I'd say my favorite's probably 808s and heartbreak. Is that how you say it, 808s? But that's probably my favorite one. That's the one I haven't properly listened to. Yeah. They recorded it really quick.

I think it was just like four weeks or something, three weeks. Yeah. There's nothing about Kanye that makes me want to listen to a full album from him. So Kittsie Ghost is an exception, and also it's like a half album. really. Yeah, it's really sure. Yeah. It's like not that many. It's not that long. Yeah, from that generation of nostalgia, I've been recently over the past a year or so

listening to a lot of Outcast, speakerbox Love Below album was fucking awesome. And that wound up making its way as my number one most listened to song of 2020 was Roses by Outcast and most listened to artists, according to Spotify. Spotify anyway. So if anybody's listening, Outcast,

speakerbox, the love below. Great album. Go listen to it. Gavin has one. I think only myself and Ralph can answer this one. One division. Do any of you watch it? If so, what do you think of it so far?

If not, will any of you watch it? Never. I've seen all of it apart from one, I think. The latest one I haven't seen. I'm going to watch it right after this. Okay. What do you think? Well, I'm a Marvel fan, I guess I say, well, like, I like these movies.

And I thought it was really good. I really liked the approach they took to it. It's in the MCU, but it's a TV show. So the format is slightly different. And I really like how they chose to tell a story. It looks really cool, like the effects. And if you know anything about the show, I guess, from like a synopsis, it's like, it's kind of like a 50 sitcom, or at least it starts out that way. And there's even like attention paid to making everything seem like a little more practical.

Like there's a scene where Wanda's like making dishes float and like cooking dinner. And it looks like things on like wires. Like, you know, it looks like how they would do the effect back then. But it was probably CGI. Yeah. There's like a lot of details in it that it's a really high production value show, especially like compared to anything else you'd see. It did remind me of Game of Thrones in that way.

And I think Disney Plus could really make some great high quality. quality content on that platform if they keep it up like this. And I thought Elizabeth Olson's really good. And so it Paul Bettney, too. I thought the two of them are great. Yeah, because I was concerned because I guess this is their first Disney Plus original show. Because they've released these Disney. Mandalorian?

No, Mandalorian. Sorry for the MCU, like stuff. Because they've released MCU shows before, like, Agents of Shield and Peggy Carter or whatever. But those are like, I don't know. they did not do it for me in any way, so I dropped them really quick. But yeah, with the, like, sitcom gimmick, as you're saying, Ralph, where, like, each episode is, like, a different decade of sitcom kind of parodied. Yeah, it's got, like, a mystery angle that's actually fun.

And it's not, like, a big investment either. Each episode is, like, 20 to 30 minutes, too, so. It's very light. I wasn't planning on watching it until I saw, like, everyone was talking about some certain spoiler in it, which. I found kind of fun and yeah I'm pleasantly surprised by it to be honest my only thing is I just

wish the the main two characters were actually kind of established and explored a bit more in the greater content because I don't really feel like Wander and Vision had that much in the movies proper like they're given way more in the show than anything they've really been given

in the standalone movies and even in the show itself there are a lot of other characters that start to come in and kind of distract from the most interesting part of the show, which is Wanda and Vision, just kind of living in full house or living in like any era sitcom.

Like, it's very fun idea. Although, yeah, without spoiling anything, they do bring a character from the MCU in, which I was, like, really concerned about at first, but I thought they were fine. It's not done yet, so I'd like to see how it ends. I might lower it slightly to, like, a three and a half, but as of right now, I'd give it four stars.

Just because of how, like, it's just so out there, you know? Like, I can't believe they're even making something this fucking weird, but God bless them. Is it only out there because it's related to Marvel, though? Yeah, that's what, of course, that's why. It's basically like, uh, don't hug me, I'm scared, or, uh, this house has people in it, or too many cooks. It does kind of have that horror, but it's also a very friendly veneer kind of idea. Yeah, something's up. So it has been done.

There's our, yes, you're right. These, these things have been done before. crazy because it's Marvel. It's like if you were to only watch Marvel shit, this would be the craziest thing you'd ever seen in your entire life. But they actually fit this into the universe and make it sense. I'm just like, I don't like the idea of

the only way you can get people to actually watch something that's a little weird is to stick fucking pre-existing superhero characters in them. That kind of fucking bugs me, honestly. I'm like morally opposed to this show. It's just like a reflection of the way that things are going and have been

going, you know? It's like it's a greater issue that I guess I'm more upset about where it's like, well, let's, uh, if you want people to watch fucking art, you got to stick a superhero in it. Okay. Nobody would watch this shit otherwise.

And it's like proof of that. Yeah, it's been this way for a long time. Damn. I think the, uh, the one division like, uh, original story has its fans, you know, there's some weird comic stuff out there. It's just, yeah. The, the way it's like

split up in the show is um the more creative stuff is in all the kind of fake wonder reality um and like all the stuff that's set in the proper mccc stuff is shot like a normal mccc looking movie so i think that's how they yeah are able to put the more creative stuff in there switching letter box like you know sometimes it's four by three sometimes it isn't yeah very again for marvel it's out there yeah if you got a big successful brand like There's no way you're not going to keep pumping movies and content out. So I appreciate that Marvel makes, they've been keeping this up for so long and the universe is relatively consistent and the quality is relatively consistent. Like the fact they made this show actually work like in the context of Marvel in a way that I was like, oh, okay, yeah, I can buy that.

Bringing inside characters. Like, I was actually like, holy shit, this is pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like watching with my dad. And they mentioned like, they mentioned something from Black Panther, like the material. like the material they have, like the stuff the Wakandans use.

It's not animantium. Vibranium, yeah. And my dad's like, oh, yeah, it's vibranium. I remember that. It just shows me like how well they've established this universe that like all of these little things that have, that we've picked up on or like always reincorporated, always coming back. And you look at like what DC's doing, they literally can't even make one film that makes sense,

like at all. They've got like three different jokers. Yeah, they have three different jokers. They're making a Snyder cut now. That's four hours long. It's like, you know, the movie's out already. Coming out soon. Yeah, I just, I appreciate how well Marvel pulled it together.

Wanda Vision's like a mini-series. If they fucking ended at episode 10 and promised to never make more, then I might start checking it out. Yeah, who knows? But if it just keeps going on, I'm just going to keep patiently waiting like I did with Game of Thrones and then theoretically just never feel guilty about not starting. Yeah. because then it gets bad.

I am worried about that, that the quality of the show will go down. And I've even noticed the first few episodes are slightly stronger than the rest of it, I guess, because they already got people hooked. Yeah. I hope it is just a mini-series, because I've noticed a lot recently that they just, it's a mini-series until it's successful, and then they make a bunch of seasons after and just make it all up, you know, like big little lies. It's like a 10-episode pilot.

Yeah, they're going to do with Queen's Gambit. I'm not opposed to these shows. It's just if you want to make a show, make a show. Don't try to trick people. Like, or, I don't know. Yeah. Like, the second season of Big Little Lies is so just, like, thrown together. Like, it's not based on anything.

It's not the same director. It's just, like, a bunch of shit. Like, whatever. Just keep it going. Well, I mean, the story seems fairly high stakes. I don't even know how they can even do a season two, to be honest, based on what I've seen. Yeah. And Wanda's in Dr. Strange.

Like, she'll be in that. So she'll be off doing some other thing. Yeah. Not connected to this show. Dr. Strange 2, aka Spider-Man 4. Yes. Yeah, I don't know. As far as like pulpy cereal stuff is concerned,

I think they're doing a pretty good job. Yeah, I think it's really fun. It's not quite like taste of cherry. I wouldn't... It didn't change my life. It didn't change my life. But for what it is, I think it's super well done and entertaining.

Yeah. Like, families are going to fucking love it. Yeah, I might check out a bit of it at some point. I'm just not going to rush to see it. I just thought Elizabeth Olson was really good. Just like funny. I like her. Yeah, I do too.

She wears a lot of like, clothes that like show off her legs. I'm like, oh, that's a great little touch. Oh, is that what you like about? Yeah. Lots of like nice outfits she's got on. All right.

Okay, let's end on this one from a movie guy 2004. Any thoughts on the new Pixar movie Luca that dropped the teaser recently? Oh, is it like Italian now? Can you take what I'm doing? Is that what they're doing?

Have you not seen this trailer then? I have not, no. I've seen stills from the trailer. I think I've seen maybe a clip on Twitter. Like the animation looks distinct, which is good. Yeah, the art direction's really stylized. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't really seen the trailer for it, but no, wait, I've seen bits of the trailer.

Yeah, they fucking, like, TF into fucking stupid fishmen. Yeah, I had a bit of a soul original trailer reaction where I love the idea of this little Italian village story. Yeah. Then it has to have the fantasy element, but it depends what they do with it, I guess. I'm willing to check it out just based on how the character design

looks distinct from other Pixar movies alone. I'm willing to check it out just for that reason. I was happy to see that. Yeah. I like them doing something a bit visually different because I've had so much annoyance with just how Pixar movies just look the same all the time. I like that.

this is kind of like almost looking like uh it kind of reminds me of like pop-eye or something like character yeah yeah yeah interesting very exaggerated features i think it looks yeah looks yeah looks pretty cool i'm just watching like the trailer on my phone yeah i do prefer the human designs over the like fish things though personally but we'll see what they do yeah i haven't done to us like yeah yeah that does look kind of dumb doesn't it yeah because they like nail it with the the human character Who the fuck knows what this movie is going to be like? It's probably not going to be amazing. I hope it's good.

But it's probably going to win an Oscar. Actually, maybe it might be like Onward. You never know. It'll just get nominated instead. No real thoughts on the trailer. Just character design looks more distinct. It's about it. We'll see what it's like.

All right. I guess that about does it for question time. And I think we have a recommendation for Mr. Seppi. From me? Yes. Oh. let me pull up the list here Let's hear it

Alright so are we in the mood for a trilogy I'm just gonna ask that right off the bat Depends how long it is I guess Uh Sure Sure Let's fucking do it Okay so I'm gonna recommend a trilogy

That starts in 1981 Directed by Steven Spielberg It called Raiders the Lost Ark And so I guess the trilogy Is the Indiana Jones trilogy So we'll be talking about that Okay Did you say it's a trilogy

That's not a trilogy Ralph? What are you talking about? Yeah, we don't have to watch Kingdom of the Crystal Skull We don't have to watch that Oh, okay Yeah If you want to go ahead, I'll watch it Okay

I don't count it Indiana Joneses Indiana Jones By Mr. Spielberg Awesome Okay, awesome So if you don't want to be spoiled For the three

Good Jones movies Supposedly watch them before the next episode comes out. These episodes come out every two weeks. You can support the show and get these episodes early by going to sardonicast.com and signing up for premium or patreon.com slash sardonicast. $2 a month.

You'll get these episodes early. Also, we got merch. Also, I want some more fan art. Draw some more fan art. You can either post it on a subreddit or post it on Twitter. If you're on Twitter, use the hashtag Sardonicast fan art and then I'll see it eventually.

If you want me to see it sooner then probably post it on the subreddit. Reddit.com slash R slash Sardonicast. Post it there and it might make it into the YouTube upload at the beginning. Don't draw anything that would get us demonetized or else I might not pick it.

There's some that are like a little explicit. I'm like, well, I like the art, but... Just a bit too far, yeah. Yeah, I can't put that in the first three seconds of the video. I wasn't aware of these. It was like, I don't know Some of them are a little too much

All right Thank you for listening Catch you later, y'all Bye Take care everyone Bye bye bye bye Take care