The Big Picture - The 20 Most Anticipated Fall Movies and the Winners of the Telluride Film Festival

Episode Date: September 7, 2021

Sean chats with Amanda about his trip to the Telluride Film Festival, an annual launchpad for Oscar contenders. He talks about the best films he saw and the scene in Colorado (0:30). Then they discuss what to look forward to for the rest of the movie year (44:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Get ready, yeah. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the rest of the year in movies. On today's show, I'll chat with Amanda about my trip to the Telluride Film Festival, the annual launchpad for Oscar contenders, a welcome wagon for internationally renowned auteurs, and an abundantly beautiful American town.

We'll chat about the movies, the scene, and what it means for the rest of the year in movies. Amanda, I went to Telluride. I left my home. I was there for four days. It was pretty wild. So I have a lot of questions about this because I knew that you were doing this. I had a lot of questions when you announced that you were doing this. But I haven't spoken to you since you got back. So let's start here. You drove to Telluride. I drove. Yes. Here's why I drove. From Los Angeles, in order to get to Telluride, you can either drive, which I did, or you can get on a chartered flight, which flies into Montrose, Colorado. And then from Montrose, you drive to Telluride, which is about another 90 minutes or so. So getting there is very

challenging. There's only one, maybe two flights a day out to Montrose. And also they only leave on certain days. So in order to go on this trip, by the time I was ready to book a flight, I would have had to have been in Telluride for about six days. You know, I've got a newborn at home, six days in Colorado, not gonna work. So I chose to drive. But four days worked.

Ish, ish. Okay, all right. I think on the one hand, it was clearly very challenging to not be at home for a couple of days, but then as things evened out in my home, I felt like I was missing out on some of the movies because I left a day early. So I didn't get to see as many of the movies as I normally would have seen and go into the festival. But

that's neither here nor there. What I did do is drove 12 consecutive hours on the way there and on the way back to get to Telluride, which was a choice by me. So set the scene. What are we listening to on the 12 hour drive? Well, okay. On the drive out, here's what I did. I woke up at 8am and I got in my car and I drove to Warner Brothers and I saw the movie Dune. Yeah. I wondered about this. I knew that you saw Dune, but I didn't think it was a telluride. So it was not a telluride. So you had a pit stop in Burbank and then you continued on to Colorado, two of our nation's greatest attractions, Burbank and Colorado. Continue. So I saw Dune, which is a two hour and 40 minute movie, and then got in the car and drove for 12 hours. What was I listening to?

You're a sociopath. God. I was listening to many of the podcasts on the Ringer Podcast Network. Okay. I was listening to a lot of rap, as I often do on these long drives. I was going to say, are we going to get a Donda check-in or a Drake check-in from you? Sure. I was thinking about talking to Chris Ryan about this later in the show, but I listened to both of those records. Have you listened to Donda or the new Drake record? I have listened to all of the Drake records several times, and I have listened to about 25 minutes of Donda once.

Yeah. Donda, I got to say, I've been going through a long and pain breakup with Kanye over the last five years, and I think we're done. because I think that this actually signaled to me officially that while he just made an effort to return to his strengths he still is not speaking to me powerfully Drake on the other hand I thought that was a perfectly pleasant album I thought was on the ringer music show put it well when he was like this is very mid-tempo so I wish there was a little bit more high energy but it was was solid. So I listened to plenty of that. And I did something very amateur. I've driven to Nevada many, many times because I've gone to Las Vegas

many, many times in my car. And I did the thing where I had half a tank of gas at the beginning of my trip and started driving and then got to that part of Nevada where there are no gas stations for like 75 miles at a stretch. And my car got down to the 30 miles left on the tank sign. Mm-hmm. And there was no gas station within 45 miles heading east of where I was. Mm-hmm. So I had to circle back. I had to turn around, literally drive over the gravel on the highway, circle back, go back to a small town 15 miles out of the way, going in the opposite direction. And that was like, I lost 45 minutes on the trip of an already 12 hour drive just by screwing up that badly. I was like, I don't know if I've ever been as mad at myself as I was in that moment. It was painful. So you and I have the same car. So I just want you to know, you know, that that alert lies to us. It just like absolutely lies. It's like 30

miles for 30 miles, which I know because I just drive around Los Angeles just being like, oh yeah. So if you're in Los Angeles and you challenge the system and you don't, you run out of gas, then you're in Los Angeles and you probably have a gas station within a mile.'t you run out of gas then you're in los angeles and you probably have a gas station within a mile if you run out of gas on a 12-hour drive in the middle of the mojave desert which is where i was right you're in big big trouble you made the right decision and i think probably the the even righter decision would have been to stop at the town at 45 miles and had i been in the car with you i would just like would have been yelling at you so i understand why were mad at yourself. I'm glad you didn't get stuck in the desert. That would be really bad. It would have been really scary. The actual gas station that I went to, which literally was in the center of the Mojave Desert. And I know that because there was a sign that says you have

now reached the center of the Mojave Desert. I love those signs. Had no running water, this gas station, no bathrooms, no nothing. They did have a nice dinette and yet no bathrooms, which I found very strange. Nevertheless, the gas also was, I think it was $5.50 a gallon. I think I spent $100 on gas, which was crazy. But that's what you can do when you're the only gas station within 65 miles. Anyhow, I eventually did get to Telluride and started seeing some movies. What was your favorite podcast that you listened to? Ooh. Wow.

Play favorites. You know what? And we'll find out who listens and who doesn't. So on the Ringer Podcast Network was my favorite podcast? Any podcast that you, but if you want it to be a Ringer Podcast Network, that's okay. I listened to so many episodes of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show and The Mismatch that I had not heard. I was like way behind on both of those shows. I listened to a lot of those. The best pod I heard the whole weekend was WTF republished their episode, their interview

with Ed Asner, who passed away. That's nice. And he was fantastic. So grouchy and so interesting. So I really enjoyed that. Amanda, I must have listened to 20 hours worth of pods. And you know me, I listen to 2X. So it was crazy. You still listen to 2X while driving? I do, yeah. I'm just trying to churn through. I'm trying to be aware of everything we're doing

here at The Ringer. That's a big part of my job is just having awareness. Yep. You've told me that many times. And that doesn't make listening to a podcast 2X alone, not a 12-hour drive to times, and that doesn't make listening to a podcast 2X alone on a 12-hour drive to Colorado normal. It doesn't. But now we all know, so that's good. Do you log the podcast that you listen to? Do you have a secret podcast spreadsheet that I don't know about? No. In fact, it's the opposite for movies. When I'm done with them, I just want to delete it forever. I don't want to ever think about it again. I've powered through. Okay. So you arrive in Colorado. What time of day is it when you make your jubilant entrance into Telluride and also what song is playing?

Well, because I left at 1245 PST in the afternoon, I arrived at 245 Mountain Time in the morning. So there was no celebration waiting for me. There was no jubilant music playing. I was very quietly sneaking into my Airbnb so as not to disturb the person with whom I was sharing a living space. So there's no scene at Telluride at 2.45am? No late night activations? No. Telluride, as you may or may not know, is a very small mountain town, a wealthy community that welcomes in these people annually. And no, it is primarily older folks who attended this festival

and they were not waiting to rock out to Donda with me. That was not a part of the trip. At their loss, I guess. Everyone could learn a lot, probably. Everyone had to be up bright and early to start going to see movies and that's the fun thing about Telluride is it's like every screening started 9 a.m you better get ready from 9 a.m to 1 a.m there are movies rolling throughout the town okay so you

mentioned the old people give me besides old people's rude the the the seniors who have arranged their life well so they can be in a mountain town watching movies all day because that's their passion. What is the rest of the demographic at Telluride? Good question. It's generally a casually opulent experience

at Telluride. Obviously, it's primarily the patrons, these older folks that we're talking about, the residents of the town of telluride and then folks like me press media journalists and then also obviously people from the industry you've got distributors actors filmmakers it's since it's such a small town you know for example barry jenkins was the festival director this year he helped program a lot of the films that were there and you could just see barry walking down the street or in a

coffee shop. I saw Barry a couple of times, just said hello. And, you know, everybody there is very friendly. You know, you could run into Kristen Stewart on the street there and it would be very normal. And, you know, it's hokey to say, but it is an authentic celebration of movies. The people that are there really want to be there.

They really want to see the movies. It's not sceney and like not full of parties. It's also very conquerable because it's effectively about a mile running north to south. And so you can get to every single screening within 10 or 15 minutes. It's not like going to the Toronto Film Festival or even when we go to Austin for South By. And sometimes you've got to walk all the way across town or across a big bridge to get to another side of town or take an Uber. It's none of that. There's no Ubers. Everywhere you want to go, even the farthest theater, the Chuck Jones Theater, you can take a gondola up to the mountain village and see the films that are playing up there. So it's all very manageable and everybody is mostly very happy. This year,

there were, of course, fewer people there because of COVID and the Delta variant. In order to get into this festival, in order to be granted entry into any screening and get a badge, you had to be vaccinated and you also needed to have tested negative for COVID-19 within the last 48 hours. So that also thinned the crowd a bit. So you had to upload your card? No, you had to bring a physical document that showed you were vaccinated and a physical document that showed you tested negative just to get the pass in your hands. So that was very comforting. That said, every single screening, you had to be masked

entirely. And frankly, unlike say Cannes, and I heard from a lot of people at the Cannes Film Festival, the French sat down and they just pulled their masks down. Almost everybody, with the exception of the people who were eating, and there were some people who would eat concessions during the screenings, people were masked and they were respectful. It was not weird. I only really went to one outdoor gathering and even then people were pretty fairly spaced. So I actually was not as psyched out by that aspect of things as I thought I would be. Yeah. I mean, that's reassuring. Would that everything in the world were like that? It would. And certainly movies and regular movie theaters, it would make

a lot of things a lot easier. I would have, I probably would have seen Shang-Chi this weekend if they were actually checking the cards at the door and people were actually wearing their masks, but guys, they're not doing that. And to be fair, I don't really think it's reasonable to ask that of your average local movie theater that's hanging on. That's what you get when you have all the money that Telluride does. But it seemed like a very relaxed vibe. From here, it was interesting to watch Telluride and the reports from Telluride and you just being like, bury me at Telluride. Which we noted and we wrote down.

Your loved ones have taken that into account. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You'll have to fly me out by a helicopter to get there. That's great. I actually have always wanted to be on a helicopter. So we'll play the Jurassic Park theme song like they do in Hawaiian helicopter rides. Because I never, I didn't get to do that when I was last in Hawaii.

I really want to. And then obviously Venice was going on simultaneously across the world in venice which is in italy and thank you for that well you know pro italy on this podcast thank you to italy always and also i didn't want anyone to confuse it with venice beach but venice is the glitz and the glamour and the red carpet and jessica ch Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, like basically almost making out in public, which which you did text me. We were like you were in Telluride. I was here in Los Angeles and there was still a conversation to be had about that glorious 50 seconds of red carpet footage. That was wonderful.

Yeah. But so Venice seemed to be the the glamorous party, like where Kristen Stewart was. I believe she was there in a lot of Chanel. Celebrities like movies are back. Look at us. And then in comparison, Telluride seems to be this nice thing where people who just like really want to see movies go like quietly see a bunch of movies and look at some mountains. That is definitely the vibe. Kristen Stewart did actually fly into Telluride after Venice.

Many of the people who had films kind of simultaneously premiering or premiering one after the other, Jane Campion, for example, who had The Power of the Dog there, which we'll talk about, she was in Venice and then she flew to Telluride to be presented with a silver medallion. There was a tribute to her at Telluride. But it's very laid back. Whatever Kristen Stewart was wearing on the red carpet, I saw a photo of her wearing like a punk rock t-shirt and cutoffs when she got to Telluride. It's also so beautiful. I mean, not just the scenery, but like 68 degrees every day, balmy, the sun is out. It's just, it's like one of the truly perfect places on earth. I really love it. And then everyone literally goes inside into a Wunderlist room for 14 hours a day.

Yes. But it is fun when the screening ends to get up and then walk to the other side of town. You basically have to walk through town to get to the other side, you know, to get to the Werner Herzog Theater or something like that. And you get to have that moment. I mean, I've logged more steps in the last four days than I have in six months because you're on your feet all day unless you're not on your feet and you're watching a movie. And everybody there, yeah, is rocking Patagonia and wearing a hat and wearing sunglasses. And it's just, it's very, very different. It's not like LA. It's certainly not like Venice. It's not

like Cannes. It's not like the New York Film Festival or Toronto. It's a totally different kind of experience. And frankly, one that I feel feel like i needed even though i felt like i abandoned my family a little bit too in the meantime i mean it's your happy place you like it i'm glad that you got to go i'm glad too i saw a lot of good movies too yeah do you want to do you want to go through them yeah so you made a list and as i said i was following telly right i was following venice home, looking at my phone a lot like you do. And it's, you know, 2021 and you haven't left your house in 18 months. And so I know which movies premiered, obviously. I mean, I do, guys, I'm doing my job. I know which movies were at the film festivals and have the general reaction, but I did find myself being resistant to wanting to know too much and trying to not read the

reviews. And frankly, I know things about Power of the Dog and Benedict Cumberbatch's character that I'm like mad about already. I'm like, I don't want to know until I can see them. So we're going to talk through these and I will ask you questions, but please don't go too in depth because everyone listening and myself aren't going to be able to see these for at best a couple months maybe a month in some cases yes i will i will try to avoid spoiling these things as much as i possibly can the power of the dog in particular is a slow burning movie with a lot of revelations in the second half of the film and i've been surprised by the way that

like critics and reporters have been writing about it because you really don't want to know too much before you go in. I mean, that movie in particular, I would say that had the big Saturday night premiere. Jane Campion was presented with the silver medallion. They did a kind of a run through of her work. Also, let me just apologize for misidentifying her as Australian on the show last week. That was she's from New Zealand. I think I had the movie Sweetie, her first film, which is set in Australia in my head. But apologies to the people of New Zealand and the people of Australia. We have a lot of

great listeners in both of those lands. Nevertheless, so she premieres this movie, which I thought was really, really strong, or possibly the best movie that I saw at the festival, in part because it features incredible performances, in part because of some of the thematic and storytelling choices that I don't want to get too far into. This is a Netflix movie that is coming out in December. It's certainly an Oscar contender. It's not necessarily the front runner that I thought it was going to be based on the way that it plays out.

It's actually a little bit more of a genre movie. It's got a little bit of There Will Be Blood in it. It's got a little bit of this sort of like the hard kind of anti-Western feeling to it, where it's not necessarily traditional heroes in black hats. Just tremendous, tremendous performances

from Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. Everybody in the film is good. Cody Smith-McPhee, Jesse Plemons, but the two of them, you'll, there will be a lot

of Oscar conversation about that. Yeah, I thought it was notable that they were the two with Jane Campion in Venice. Kirsten Dunst just had a lovely time in Venice, according to Instagram. A lot of captions in Italian

about like, where are my children? But, you know, in a funny way. So good for her. I mean, this is where I ask you, is my hero, my number one, Kirsten Dunst, finally going to win an Oscar? Is it possible? I don't know that this is the kind of part

that you win for, but it is the kind of part you get nominated for. Okay, all right. So we shall see. It would not be at all surprising if she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but this is a very, very, very good film. Also, a couple of notable things

about it. One, Johnny Greenwood did the score, which I did not realize until I sat down. This was the second film in a row I'd watched in which Johnny Greenwood did the score, neither of which were the PTA movie. It could be an amazing year for Johnny Greenwood. I don't actually know if he's doing the PTA score but I assume he is and then um Ari Wegner is the DP on the film and Ari shot Zola as well and has shot a couple and shot the Girlfriend Experience television series and has done some really cool things in the last few years this movie looks

amazing um I believe it takes place in Montana I don't know where it was shot i think it was shot overseas actually but um just a a breathtaking movie that is effectively takes place largely at a ranch that overlooks this mountain range and what takes place in the mountains is a big part of the story so fascinating fascinating movie um i really liked it i'd just like to remind you that like neither you or chris even bid me up on power of the dog in the movie auction you guys just like sat there and you're like yeah jane campion she's pretty good um that's all i can say is good job by you you did you did you did wonderfully getting this film because it's really good thanks very much it's exciting that there's a jane campion moment again i mean I it's wild that she has not made a film since 2009 bright star. And that was in sharp relief watching this tribute to her because they

showed clips from all of her films. And she was so active throughout the nineties making an angel at my table and the piano and the portrait of a lady. And then she, she did do, I think 24 episodes of top of the lake, two seasons of that show. And she talked about it at this presentation and was just like I I think I prefer two hours to 12 hours and me too me too

yeah exactly I thought of us when when she said that so that was very exciting um that was probably not the noisiest movie at the festival though I think it was kind of the biggest premiere but the noisiest movie I thought based on the conversations I had, was King Richard. It seems that way. Everyone is like, oh, wow, remember Will Smith, the greatest movie star possibly of all time? Yes, I do. Thanks, everyone else, for showing up to the table.

But yeah, it seems like people really like this. Yeah, so I actually saw this movie in July before my daughter was born and was forbidden from speaking about it. It's pretty darn good. And it's really crowd pleasing. And Will Smith is amazing. And if I had to lay money down right now,

I would say he will win best actor. And that's, it's pretty exciting. No one deserves it more. No one. I just, I'm a little bit speechless. I'm a little bit flustered that the idea that

Will Smith could actually win an Oscar for playing Richard Williams in a tennis biopic. It's, it feels too aligned with my interests. You know, it's like, it's a little bit the feeling I get after watching the House of Goosey trailer. Like, can I trust this? Is this real? Are you actually giving me what I want? I was reluctant to even communicate with you about this movie when I saw it because I know it checks so many of your boxes. There's so many things going for it that now it's probably like overinflated. When I sat down to see it in July, I was like, this will probably just be middle of the road and I won't really care about it.

And it is very down the middle. It's very conventional. I don't mean that as an insult. There actually are not a lot of, as we often talk about on the show, conventional biopics like this, sports dramas like this, you know, character studies like this. But, you know, Will Smith, some could say he's a little bit kind of performatively over the top in the way that he adopts the character. But like, that's what wins Oscars. And he's captivating the whole time. That's also what Will Smith does. It was in the kind of commentator awards,

watcher stuff that I was reading positioned as the crowd pleaser in this year's race, which is usually a red flag. It's usually like danger zones, like straight ahead, but haven't seen this movie yet. So I'm keeping my heart open. I do want to say,

I didn't go to tell you, right. And I haven't seen this movie, but I did spend the whole weekend watching the U.S. Open. And that was a great film festival. If you guys are not watching the U.S. Open, it's extraordinary. Pretty much every tennis player you've ever heard of, with the exception of Novak Djokovic, which like whatever, is out of the tournament, either because they were injured or because

they're really old, in the case of my belovedger federer or who's also injured or um they got bounced by like an 18 year old but the number of matches where these like really charismatic 18 and 19 year olds are just absolutely leveling these supposed top players in five sets it's awesome like turn it on it's so much fun that's all if you are interested in seeing something like that you should also check out king richard because there are some sequences that resemble that very thing um you'll like king richard if you don't i'll i'll be stunned i'll move to tell you right full time if you don't like okay well that might solve everybody's problems all at once but um i guess the other thing about king richard's that's interesting is at telluride

it seemed like the best actor race kind of firmed up pretty clearly uh with the oscars later this year you know peter dinklage is appearing in joe wright's adaptation of cyrano de bergerac called cyrano a musical with music by the two twin brothers the desner brothers from the national a lot of people were like oh peter dinklage i forgot he's amazing i love him um did you see sarah no i did not see sarah no um i well it was largely an issue of timing and a lot of people who saw it even people who were joe wright doubters and joe wright is a real 50 50 kind of heads or tails kind of filmmaker half half of his movies i think are brilliant i think like atonement and hannah are brilliant. I'm fascinated by his Anna Karenina.

He also directed The Woman in the Window this year, which was no good. Darkest Hour, which is kind of middling. So people said that this was sort of a return to form for him. I'm not terribly interested in the Cyrano de Bergerac story. Are you? No. I mean, I feel like I've also seen it adapted so many times at this point. I would say the real warning flags for me were musical and to Dessner

brothers. So I'm not, I'm not a big national guy. Who is his agent and what's going on? Bryce or Aaron Dessner. One of them. Aaron is the Taylor Swift guy. I guess.

Yeah. You don't pay attention to this, but he's really gotten a lot of burn from the Taylor Swift album. Yeah. I mean, get money. That's all I can say to those guys. Get money. But Cyrano, I would say was fairly well received. And then of course, Benedict Cumberbatch and the power of the dog. I would be surprised if he was not a big time contender. Then Joaquin Phoenix returning

to playing normal people in a film called Come On, Come On, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And then Jamie Dornan, who also stars in Belfast, this Kenneth Branagh film that we'll talk about, too, who I thought was very good and who was probably the on the ground charmer of the festival. He is the person who took a lot of photos, kissed a lot of babies while he was there. He's a lovely Irish fellow, and he really made the most of his time. So all four of those people, five of those people could be nominated there's obviously a lot to come for the rest of the year but thought that that was notable as is often the case the best actor race is loaded because hollywood tips towards men right yes that feels like a good segue into oh i guess it was cutting a few some of the themes that you've identified

including films about dads yeah if that were not the history of hollywood well there are two there were two big two big dominant i guess themes or visual appeals here one is black and white movies there were a lot of black and white movies this festival there's been a lot of black and white movies this year belfast the kenneth brown on movie which was often described as his Roma and I guess blanks Roma is a new subgenre of movie which is to say a very personal reflection of

a childhood seen through the experience of like a traumatic time in a foreign country in this case Northern Ireland come on come on was in black and white the new Mike Mills movie the French

Dispatch has long stretches that are in black and white that flip very quickly between color and black and white and then already this year we've seen malcolm and marie we saw passing at sundance we got the tragedy of macbeth coming later this year i don't know why black and white is back but it is back maybe something about the pandemic maybe just happenstance then dads kids i i'm not sure what it's about. King Richard, of course, is about a father to four girls, two very notable girls in particular, Venus and Serena Williams.

Come on, come on is about a kind of surrogate father that Joaquin Phoenix plays to a young boy. Belfast is about this eight year old boy living in Northern Ireland and his relationship to his parents. The hand of God is Paolo Sorrentino's new film, which is a Netflix movie. He's the director of The Great Beauty and creator of The Young Pope. And that is a fascinating personal remembrance.

Another movie that I don't really want to share too much about, other than to say it's about his time in Napoli as the great soccer player Maradona comes to Napoli and what it means for him and his family. Petit Maman, the new Celine Sciamma movie. And then I saw this movie, Cow. Can I tell you about Cow quickly?

Yes. Okay. Cow is a documentary by Andrea Arnold, the very gifted filmmaker, Andrea Arnold, who people may know from Fish Tank or Big Little Lies season two, right? Yeah, though she mostly got screwed out of Big Little Lies season two.

So this is a return to something significantly more austere than Big Little Lies. It's a documentary about a cow. It's a female cow. It's not a male cow. And, uh, this cow lives a very complicated,

quiet, dull, punishing, scary, bizarre life. And the film is basically shot entirely like on the cow's face. Like it is the most intimate portrait of a cow, virtually a wordless movie.

It's a hundred minutes long and it's deeply, deeply traumatizing. It's very much in the spirit of Gunda, the pig movie that came out last year. But, uh, the first night that I was there on Thursday night, I missed something at nine o'clock.

And so I went to go see this movie at nine 30. And, um, I don't want to say I regretted it, but it was, it was, it, it, cause it I don't want to say I regretted it but it was it was because it's very powerful and very well made but it hurt and it's also about parenthood yeah because the cow in the opening sequence of the film gives birth and then gives birth later and the birth is also I wouldn't say the birth is traumatic but it's visceral it's darned visceral

if you've never seen a cow give birth because it it's it's all there it's all there amanda um those are some of the themes i mean how do how should we talk about spencer because i think i oh yeah i don't want you to say anything so spencer is the pablo lorraine biopic about princess diana it has been compared to jackie before and then also after screenings. And it stars Kristen Stewart. And I read that Kristen Stewart is definitely going to be, she's running, if you will, for an Oscar. And will almost certainly be nominated and could win, right? That's it. Is that correct?

That's all correct. Okay. I don't want you to say anything else. Like, I honestly. Should I say whether I liked it? No. This is the one movie where they can show it to me. If they want the time on this podcast,

they could show it to me. And that the publicists have actually been like extraordinary, extraordinarily helpful and they're doing their best, but we're not talking about it until I can see it. I'm sorry. I'm a subject matter expert on this and we're not going to talk about it until I see it. So just let me know guys.

Fair enough. That's completely fair. We can do an entire hour on this movie. you want there is a lot to discuss i can't wait um where should we go next should we should we talk about the kenneth brana reclamation project i mean you can try for to me forever kenneth brana will be the person who broke Emma Thompson's heart in like 1994, 1995. So he can try to reclaim whatever he wants, but it's an affirmation. Fascinating figure. Last time we saw him, he was playing Andre Sator in Tenet and looking a bit doughy while getting murdered on a boat with Elizabeth Debicki. He was much like his star. Jamie Dornan was in very cheery form until I could be seen all over the town, whining and dining people.

And Kenneth Branagh as a filmmaker is probably best best remembered as an interpreter of Shakespeare. You know, as a you know, I think he had a very famous Hamlet, a very famous Henry V. He's done Love's Labor Lost. He's adapted a lot of Shakespearean works for film. But in the last 10 years, he's taken a really odd path. And I don't know if this was like a financial decision or if he's actually interested in this stuff. But these are the last seven movies that he's directed.

Thor in 2011. Jack Ryan's Shadow Recruit, which I know is one of your favorites, Amanda. The 2015 adaptation of Cinderella, which I believe starred Lily James. Yes. Murder on the Orient Express, which you and I saw in Pasadena with several of the people who I think I saw in Telluride who were octogenarians. And just which absolutely shatters the Hercule Poirot canon, but continue. All is True, which is a riff on the Shakespearean story, which I did not see.

Artemis Fowl, the absolutely disastrous Disney adaptation from 2020. And then the twice delayed Death on the Nile, a sort of, you know, somewhat sequel, air cube, R.O. story in the vein of Murder on the Orient Express wedged in between Artemis Fowl and Death on the Nile. He made this small movie, Belfast, black and white movie about the troubles in Northern Ireland between the Protestants and the Catholics that is flawed and interesting to look at. And certainly like experimental as Kenneth Branagh films go, a lot of odd framing and staging, a lot of intense photography in the movie.

There are times that where it is like the most happy-making movie you'll ever see. There's a lot of Van Morrison on the soundtrack, and it's focused primarily on an absolutely winning eight-year-old boy. And his relationship to his parents, played by Jamie Dornan and Katrina Bife, and his grandparents,

played by Judi Dench and Kieran Hines. Kieran Hines is phenomenal in this movie. He also could be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. So charming. And the kid is pretty sweet. It's a little bit in contrast to the absolute horror happening in the country at that time. And that's sort of the point of it.

But it left me feeling a little queasy. Like this kind of pie-eyed young child kind of winning his way through the world while these terrible things are happening um nevertheless we'll see if people will forgive kenneth brana you won't forgive kenneth brana but maybe uh let's be let back into the record emma thompson has somewhat you know and she married willoughby so it worked out for her who's willoughby okay you saw sense and sensibility okay so remember the guy on the horse who marian kate

falls in love with but then he turns out to be a scoundrel and so then she marries alan rickman which is like you know probably the right move do you remember this you watched this movie i do i do remember that okay so the guy on the horse oh yeah yeah yeah emma thompson is married to him in real life i see greg. That's his name? Yeah. That's great. And I think Kenneth Branagh's remarried too. So maybe they can live happily.

Yeah, I think they're okay. How are people... Where will people be able to see Belfast? It's out November 5th. Focus Features in theaters. So it'll be making the rounds. It's a real typical kind of like art house, older crowd fan favorite, I think is what it will turn out to be.

It made a lot of people very, very happy at Telluride based on who was going to see it. A lot of like cooing, a lot of ah-ing, a lot of like oh-knowing from the audience. You know, good sign. I don't know if it's going to play as well for Oscar voters or for maybe hipsters listening to this podcast. Are we calling our listeners hipsters now? I'm a retired hipster. So how about retired hipsters? Okay.

I'm in dad mode. Yes. No, I know. I think we should just like, you should have a segment each episode where we just like play the Home Depot theme song and you can do whatever dad stuff

you want to do. But I just, I don't know whether the youth who are listening to this identify as hipsters. It's fine if you do. They I don't know whether the youth who are listening to this identify as hipsters. It's fine if you do. They probably don't. This podcast has been described as a normie movie podcast, which used to hurt my feelings,

but now I'm like, you know what? That's fine. If normal people love this show, that's fantastic. I love it. And I'm not talking about Sally Rooney normal people. I'm talking about true normies out in the world. You okay with that? Have you read the Sally Rooney book?

I have not, no. I did see the television series. Oh, yeah. No, but there's a new one out today. Oh, no, definitely not read then. Imagine if I had finished the new Sally Rooney novel. I don't know. You do weird things.

You listen to podcasts on 2X. For all I know, you have one of her buckets. I do not. I promise you. I missed the very important movie at the festival, which is called The Lost Daughter. This is Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut. All I can say about it is people came out of it

and they're like, this is the real deal. As a filmmaker, and Olivia Colman will be nominated for an Oscar again based on her performance in the film. That's really, that's all I have about it. It's an Elena Ferrante adaptation, right? It is, yes. Yeah. I have not read the work upon which it is based

but that gives you a sense of the vibe at least and also here's the thing Olivia Colman just gets nominated now she's like the new Meryl Streep very much so and Jesse Buckley my beloved Jesse Buckley plays the young Olivia Colman in the film too and a little bit of Oscar buzz for her as well so we shall see. With that one, I missed a couple of other movies. I mentioned I missed Cyrano, I missed The Lost Daughter, I missed Red Rocket, which I really wanted to see the A24 new Sean Baker movie, which

featured apparently a great many walkouts at Telluride, which I don't necessarily think of as a mark of dishonor because the last film that played Telluride that had a lot of walkouts was a little movie called Uncut Gems. So if it's hitting a similar vein, this is a movie about a porn star who's like a complex kind of red hat Trump America figure who is very unlikable, apparently played by former MTV VJ and scary movie star Simon Rex. Incredible. Very much

looking forward to that movie. Maybe we can do an episode about it later this year. I didn't see A Hero, which is the Asghar Farhadi movie, which was just, again, just a schedule fuck up. So I'm really excited about that. I think that's an Amazon film coming out later this fall. Can I just very quickly go through the best stuff I saw?

Yes, you can. Okay. So The Power of the Dog I mentioned. Fantastic movie. The Velvet Underground is a new documentary from the great todd haynes i talked to todd haynes at telluride we'll feature that interview on the show later this year it's what's on the label it's a it's the most complete documentary history of the famed lou reed john kale mo t Tucker band, how they intersected and were related to Andy Warhol and the factory, that whole downtown New York scene

in the late 60s and early 70s, and kind of what they mean to culture. And it is a Todd Haynes documentary, which is to say it looks, sounds, and feels different than every other movie. And I highly, highly recommend this movie. You can watch it at home on Apple TV Plus on October 15th, which is nice, though I would recommend seeing it in a movie theater, honestly. I believe that was on Chris Ryan's first

movie auction slate. It was. So you're telling me that I'm just getting my ass kicked in all the movie auctions? Yeah. I mean, I just was going to do a little scoreboard right now. It's one Amanda, one Chris, and no Marvel movies on the list so far so you have nothing yeah funny thing they didn't premiere any mcu movies to tell you right this year really a real change of pace for them um other stuff i loved come on come on uh i i choose to not be objective about this movie i think that's good i think it's important like the the mic like in addition to you know home depot theme but also the the Mike Mills of it all. He really speaks to you guys.

And I think he's a lovely filmmaker, but it's good to be honest and upfront. Yes. Come On, Come On is about a radio journalist producer, an Ira Glass type, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who has a complex relationship with his sister, who has a young son. When his sister needs to leave her young son for a few days, Joaquin Phoenix's character comes to play a kind of surrogate father to this nine-year-old boy. And they spend some time in New York and Los Angeles and New Orleans and all around, and they build this incredible bond. Also, the two siblings, Joaquin and Gabby Hoffman,

who plays his sister, the complexity of their relationship is driven by the death of their mother. So, you know, as somebody who just had a child whose mom just died a few years ago, like it was just a crazy echoing experience

watching the movie. Mike Mills, just an absolute sweetheart of a guy. The first person I ever interviewed on the big picture as well. So, there's a lot of circular touch points.

I don't, I really don't know how I would talk about this movie without just saying, like, I was completely knocked out and moved by it, even though it is very soft

and ambling and gentle and nice. And that's the kind of movies he makes. But, one thing, you may have heard a song

at the beginning of this episode. It's a song by a band called the primitives it's called the ostrich it's one of the first recordings lou reed ever made when he was working for pickwick records hearing that song is a big part of the velvet underground documentary and then there's this incredible moment and come on come on where we see this like helicopter drone shot of new york city and then these kind of flashing documentary images of new york when the characters go to new y. What is the song that is playing? The Primitives, The Ostrich. I was like, that is an amazing moment of synchronicity between these two films that you can see on back to back days. It's Telluride Film Festival. Anyway, if you like Mike Mills' movies, Beginners,

20th Century Women, you will love Come On, Come On. A couple of other quick ones. The Rescue was probably the documentary breakout of the festival. Amanda, this is like a harrowing, fascinating movie. Chai Vasarely and Jimmy Chin, who directed Free Solo, directed this movie. Oh, right. Oh, I know what this is about, but I kind of blocked it out because it already stresses me out. It's very stressful. It's about the, I believe, 13 boys who were trapped in a cave in Thailand.

And the people who rescued those children and how they rescued them. And I didn't know anything about this. I had not read a 5,000 word takeout feature about this story. All I know is just kind of the beginning and the end of the story. So the movie features a ton of archival documentary footage that was captured in the moment. And there are recreations which i usually hate but i didn't even realize they were recreations until about an hour and 10 minutes into the movie that's how elegantly a lot of this stuff is done the men in this movie who volunteered to do this are beyond heroes it is amazing what they did

amazing that the risks that were taken it's a it's a fascinating movie it's a national geographic release definitely will be in the best documentary conversation so well made it's crazy how basarelli and chin have very quickly like amassed this reputation as these like adventure documentarians but um very very impressive and often harrowing movie um and then the last one is a movie that i can't wait to talk to you about because you and I talked a lot about nonfiction. The Olivier Assayas movie a few years back. Bergman Island is the new film from Mia Hansen Love

who was once partners with Olivier Assayas. And it sure feels like they're in dialogue with each other. Yes. This is a movie about a couple,

a pair of filmmakers who visit, I'm sure I'll get this pronunciation wrong so forgive me, but Faro, which is a small island in Sweden, which is where Ingmar Bergman, the famed filmmaker, lived and worked. And they visit to, you know, one of the filmmakers played by Tim Roth speaks and presents there and shows some of his films. They both go there to write and kind of unwind.

And then the film takes on this kind of metatextual, auto-fictive feeling, much like nonfiction. And it's a really interesting movie about relationships as you grow into adulthood. The only thing that I know about this movie, which is totally out of context, please don't give it context, but our friend Gilbert Cruz of the New York Times, who is at Telluride, texted me just to let me know that there is a music cue of Winter Takes It All at some point in this movie.

And that is a great favorite of mine, particularly because Meryl Streep just absolutely screams it at Pierce Brosnan at the end of Mamma Mia. So it's nice to see that cinematic tradition continuing. And I'm really looking forward to it. One last thing before we start talking

about kind of like the rest of the year in movies. I saw The French Dispatch. I feel like I have been waiting for five years to see The French Dispatch and I loved it and I felt like

every other person I know either hated it or thought it was blah. When you said that there were walkouts um I don't remember what people walked out of earlier Red Rocket yeah right um I I had read that there were some walkouts at a French dispatch and I was gonna ask and then I was like no I don't want to know I actually don't want to know if Sean didn't like it or if all of these whiners are correct but you enjoyed the French dispatch I did I I hope you like it too

you might not um i'm not spoiling anything to say that the movie is organized like an issue of the new yorker it's an ode to the new yorker the structure is telling multiple it's an anthology movie and so it doesn't maybe have the same satisfying sensations that you know moonrise kingdom or the grand budapest hotel or these movies where wes is sort of like there's a sense that he's evolving into a more emotional person and that he's evolving into like a more complete storyteller. I don't think people will say that

after they see this movie, but my God, he is so amazing at making images and creating characters and building a world. It's unbelievable. And also he's got the best actors in the world coming in for two and a half minutes to participate in his movies.

Will it be your favorite Wes Anderson movie? Probably not. I thought it was a lot of fun, and I look forward to talking to you about it on the show. Okay. I'm really relieved to hear that. Okay. So that's Telluride. It was really fun. You mentioned Gilbert. Gilbert and I hung out quite a bit this weekend. I had a great time with him. I had a great time just seeing people. Amanda, people are so cool about the podcast in Telluride. One, everybody was like, where's Amanda? Oh, that's so nice. Hi, everybody. So keep that in mind. Two, I was like, Amanda has been blocked by the state of Colorado. She's no

longer allowed to visit. So that was why you weren't there. Why? What did I do? I mean, it's true that I don't really like mountains very much. I think arms dealing, right? You were trying to get AK-47s into the state. Frankly, just being ungracious about everything that their state has to offer. I would much rather be at the beach. But it seems like you guys all had a great time. That's very kind of everyone. Well, one day we'll have to go there and do a show and hang out because honestly, masked up people stopping me in the street, telling me how much they like the show, which is truly the most, the sweetest and most gratifying thing. I really made my heart grow. So thanks to everybody who stopped us. And also just nice to see like the people that

are in the media and in the industry that I know that I haven't seen in two years. And everyone was so relieved. This was the first film festival I've been to since Sundance 2020. Most people, this is the first time they've done anything of note like this. So there was a real sense of rejuvenation, I would say, throughout the festival. And I'm grateful to the people who were so nice and who were okay with me not wanting to shake their hand. You know, a lot of fist bumps, a lot of elbow bumps. And that was fantastic. Well, that was true before.

But now you've really got cover for it. That's true. That's so nice that I no longer have to touch anybody ever again. Yeah. Okay, so rest of the year, like out of the fun. We just went from like a personal high for Sean and like the possibility of movies and community and everything's great.

And now you got to come back and live with the rest of us. Those of us who were just on our couch being like, show me Top Gun 2, god damn it. Yeah, they're not, huh? They're not doing it. What the actual fuck, Paramount? Get your money together.

Like just hire someone, figure it out. Let's give the listeners some context. While I was gone, Paramount announced that they are rolling back the release of Top Gun Maverick to 2022. They're also rolling back the release of Jackass Forever. They're also rolling back the release of Mission Impossible 7 to later in the year in 2022. Now, this sucks, obviously.

No one was more excited for the release of this movie than you and Bobby Wagner. I was probably in third or fourth place. And so that's a huge bummer. What's interesting about the timing is this was before Shang-Chi was released. And Shang-Chi was a hit. Shang-Chi is doing well. It is beating the expectations that many had for it.

Now, there are a lot of reasons for that. It's a Marvel movie. It was only available in theaters. Hey, maybe put your movie in movie theaters, by the way. That might be a way to make money in movie theaters. Hope you're taking notes, streamers. But, and it did so well, in fact, that Sony, which had considered moving Venom, Let There Be Carnage, into 2022, has now moved it back to October 1st.

So now we're in this weird place where it's hard to know what can be successful and what cannot be successful. Because in October now, we have this incredible little run over consecutive weekends where on October 1st, we now have a Venom movie. On October 8th, we have a James Bond movie.

On October 15th, we have Halloween Kills. And on October 22nd, we have Dune. Now, Dune is going to be available day and date as well on HBO Max, but those are four pretty big movies over four consecutive weekends in October,

even in the face of the Delta variant, which I think is primarily driven by the big success of Shang-Chi. How do you feel about the way all of this is starting to roll out? Just pissed off that I'm not valued as a customer at the movie theaters. But also, I mean, here's the thing. Shang-Chi was a great success, and that's great news because I know people were really enthusiastic about that movie, and I know movie theaters needed it. And I couldn't go see it because I am still not running out to crowded movie theaters where they're not enforcing mask stuff on opening weekend. I just I have some personal restrictions. I can't do it.

But it's it's nice that it's back. It also made like half what a Marvel movie would have made before the pandemic. Right. And that like probably doesn't matter for Disney that much. But I guess for Paramount, which is just like has no money and has had no money for a long time. They I guess they can't go for half, which is a bummer. So it's it's funny. It's a little bit like who is doing well enough that they can take a bit

of a hit right now and kind of go on like covet successful terms and i guess sony can i i'm i'm really nervous about james bond i'm really really nervous yeah and so no time to die still scheduled for october 8th we're a month away from that movie coming out it's been speculated that that movie could not afford another delay because of how many times it's been speculated that that movie could not afford another delay right because of how many times it's been pushed because of how much confusion that could create around a movie like that you know it's been said also in the in recent days that a film like top gun maverick especially for paramount is just too big for a streamer it like it literally one you've got the tom cruise factor he's very powerful in determining where these movies go and how they play but two you know they held out jim ginopolis

the the paramount ceo held out and put a quiet place two in theaters and it did really good good business i mean that's gonna end up being one of the five highest grossing movies of the year more than likely now that was before the delta variant and that film did go to paramount plus after six weeks but top gun i think they want to maximize profit on a movie like that and so what the true difference between that and venom let there be carnages i don't know the venom movie made like 800 million dollars that was a huge huge film and has the the potential to be a huge film franchise. It's not so radically different from Top Gun, despite where Top Gun lives in our heart. So it's an interesting contrast of terms. Well, there is one difference, which is I think like the assumed intended audience,

which respectfully to Venom and to Mal Suri is I think for Venom, it's teenage boys. And for Top Gun 2, it's a bunch of people who remember Top Gun 1. And Bobby Wagner is a shining Gen Z person who loves Top Gun and respects it and was devastated. So I don't mean to slander everybody, but there is an age differential and that probably correlates to a box office willingness differential. But the other thing is just it's May. It's so far away. And I understand that like we only release movies and either made a June or September December now. I like you don't get good movies at any other times at the box office, but it just honestly

felt like getting kicked in the teeth. I've been looking forward to it for so long and it's like months and months away again. It's very disappointing. In the meantime, we are going to get the Toronto Film Festival, which will be half virtual and half in person. Neither you nor I will be attending TIFF. I do want to make a note about TIFF though, which is that Ringer Films has two films premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. You're sort of attending TIFF. Like you're participating as a producer of those films.

I am. I'm really, really excited about this. I can't believe I'm not going to be able to go. I just, I feel like the risk of getting stuck in Canada for two weeks with a newborn at home is not really going to work out for me. But the first film is Jagged. It's about Alanis Morissette,

specifically during the sort of her rise in the release of Jagged Little Pill, her famed album, which actually you spoke about on 60 Songs That Explain the 90s about a year ago with Rob Harvilla. Yeah, that's true. I did. One of my very favorite podcasts here at The Ringer. You revealed some things about yourself on that pod. That was a very formative album in a lot of ways. And if you would like to hear more, you can listen to that podcast. I have to tell you, I've heard from a lot of people who I don't otherwise know who had a similar experience, a similar educational experience from You Ought to Know. So I was just shining a light on what a

lot of people went through. But I love that album and I can't wait to see that film because I think Alison Klayman, the director, is a very talented filmmaker. Brilliant filmmaker. I'm really proud of that movie, too. I hope people like it. So it'll premiere at TIFF, and then it'll appear later in the year, much like our Woodstock movie on HBO. The second film is also a hoot. It's an absolutely fascinating movie. It's called Listening to Kenny G.

It's directed by the great Penny Lane, one of my favorite documentarians. She directed a movie called Hail Satan three years ago. And it's a portrait of Kenny G, the world famous oft mocked wildly successful instrumentalist kenny g so both of those movies are hitting at tiff and then of course lots of movies premiering you know last night in soho making a north america premiere uh the humans the nate 24 movie is premiering there i think dear evan hansen is premiering there. A bunch of other stuff. So we'll talk about the stuff we're able to see, which is not as much as we would be

if we were in Canada. I don't think I'm going to go to the New York Film Festival, which kind of pains me. I've gone many times in the past. I don't think I'm going to be able to travel for it. But some cool stuff happening there too. And I think when we start getting into the other movies that are coming out for the rest of the year,

a lot of the boxes will be checked off there. You know, we're going to see the tragedy of Macbeth, Joel Cohen's new film starring Francis McDormand and Denzel Washington. We'll see Parallel Mothers stateside that debuted at Venice. This is the new Pedro Almodovar movie. Kind of want to do an Almodovar episode.

Would you be up for that? Maybe in January? Yes. That could be a lot of fun. He's obviously made so many great movies. And a bunch of other really interesting... Memoria, the Pichupong Verisethical movie is coming to

New York Film Festival. So maybe if the distributors out there want to help Amanda and I out and share some of those movies with us, maybe we can talk more about them if we can't make the trip. Let's talk about the movies we know are going down and what we know about them. Just to give the audience a sense of what the movie world will look like, theoretically, assuming nothing else gets pushed and what our show will look like over the next

three months. Okay. I'm ready. Here's what we know is coming out. Yeah. This fall, Dear Evan Hansen, September 24th. I'm seeing it soon. This is a musical. It had a very successful run on Broadway stars, but Ben Platt, I don't know what to think. I don't know anything about it. I haven't seen it. All I've seen is just the trailer and what people have said about the Broadway run. Doesn't look like a Sean movie.

I don't think it does. And I know that it doesn't look like an Amanda movie. Speaking of the US Open, two years ago, I believe Ben Platt did a solo performance at the opening ceremony of the U S open, which is yes, a tennis tournament. It has no need of an opening ceremony, but they do that. And I just, I really just wanted to watch, watch Roger Federer play. So that has colored my perception of what I'm about to see. And so I'm trying to disabuse myself of those notions and see Dear Evan Hansen with an open heart.

But again, I mean, we love movie musicals. We did a whole podcast about them this summer that I recommend you check out. But the modern movie musical is miles away from what I have loved in the past. So I'm just trying to figure out how to reconcile those two things. Yeah, I am as well. We shall see.

I will go in with an open mind. I don't want to prejudge anything. Other movies that are coming out. October 1st, Tatan. This is the film that won the Palme d'Or this year. Julia Ducarno. Amazing filmmaker. Made a movie that I would not recommend to you, Amanda, called Raw.

Tatan, I've've heard is really fascinating, gorgeous, complex, challenging movie. Really looking forward to that. The last duel. Yeah. Talked about it a lot.

October 15th, Ridley Scott, Ben, Matt. Can't believe it's happening. It's truly happening. You're going to do a whole episode about the Duel and Ridley Scott and dynamic duos. Got a lot coming there.

Last Night in Soho, also in October, mentioned that. Edgar Wright, very warm reception from that movie in Venice. I think kind of your typical Edgar Wright kind of split down the middle where the people who liked it really, really liked it and the people who didn't like it were like, this seems pointless to me. I love Edgar's movies, so we shall see. Did you see the Lily James Matt Matt Smith, Gondola photos? No.

I just, it would seem that co-stars have something brewing or else they have something brewing for Venice, which maybe is the theme of Venice. See also Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. Exciting. Very exciting. I don't, I think Oscar and Jessica were just, that was a little performative fun.

I think so as well. And I don't, Matt Smith, I'm a massive Matt Smith fan. I think so as well and I don't Matt Smith I'm a massive Matt Smith fan. Are you? Oh yeah. Prince Philip. I mean he played

Prince Philip on The Crown obviously but he just has some serious charisma and it was definitely coming through in those photographs so I don't know whether it was just

more red carpet whatever but Were you a big fan of his run on Doctor Who? No. I don't watch Doctor Who who also i think i just said lily james which who is his ex but obviously it's anya taylor joy oh yeah oh so anya taylor joy yes smith we're having some energy yes yeah yes in the gondola on the way to the red carpet i

apologize he was dating lily james for a long time and then i didn't think it was that interesting i was like pretty messy and then for a while it was like he was photographed with claire foy and maybe like they were together and they did a play i mean he has sort of a co-star thing going um i saw your claire foy in a movie i tell you right by the way which we didn't talk about called the electrical life of louis wayne which also stars benedict cumberbatch which i thought was okay not not not amazing but i thought claire foy was fantastic yeah she's one of our great actors. She's really great. Okay. Let's talk about the late year awards contenders. I had a few people who work in the biz come up to me and be like, the PTA movie is happening.

I don't know anything about it. I don't even know what it's called, but I'm supposed to be working on it. So just so you know, it's happening. It's happening. That's great. So that's one for you in the movie auction column. One for me. Great.

House of Gucci. Also, we know is happening. Yeah. You can't wait, Amanda. You're excited. Just absolutely beside myself. beside myself the tragedy of macbeth we said this movie will be premiering in three weeks at new york hopefully it's fucking great i really can't wait to see it either speaking of musicals we know west side story is coming from steven spielberg at the end of this year i don't know what to expect i hope it's good I don't know why we needed to remake West Side Story neither here nor there

I feel that really deeply and like I said modern musicals I have some issues on the other hand Steven Spielberg pretty good I agree Tick Tick Boom is also a musical that's coming to Netflix this is directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda his directorial debut starring Andrew Garfield a favorite of this show

hopefully it's good we don't know Parallel Mothers I just mentioned this is the new movie Manuel Miranda, his directorial debut, starring Andrew Garfield, a favorite of this show. Hopefully it's good. We don't know. Parallel Mothers, I just mentioned. This is the new movie from Pedro Almodovar, one of the great living filmmakers. That's a solid collection of awards contenders. There's a few more which we will get to shortly. Before then, here are the big blockbusters that we know about. Eternals, we've mentioned this a few times on the show. This is Chloe Zhao's entry into the MCU. Spider-Man No Way From Home, arguably the most anticipated movie of the year by a great many people. Matrix Resurrections. Should we pause the podcast to watch the teaser for Matrix Resurrections that was just premiered?

Do you want to do that? Yeah. Do you want to do it and record what's happening? No. Gosh, like a watch along for the teaser? I don't know i just let's watch it sure will you send me the link uh yes i will i think this is just a teaser for the teaser i hate teasers this is just an image that says

the choice is yours and a red pill and a blue pill. Oh my God. And then they fade out. And then it says trailer Thursday. And then it says, go to whatisthematrix.com. Should we go to whatisthematrix.com? I think that was an old website that was active around the release of the original Matrix. Do you remember that?

Remember the internet in 1999? Were you on the internet back then? Barely. I was on AIM. What kind of chat rooms did you like to the internet back then? Barely. I was on AIM. What kind of chat rooms did you like to get into back then? I did not. I wasn't allowed to be in any chat rooms. I never had like Prodigy or whatever, you know, like the pre-internet.

I just had AOL Instant Messenger like we all did. I don't know. Did you not have AOL Instant Messenger? Were you not cool? No, I did. I just opened up What is the Matrix and I clicked the red pill. And now I'm watching what's playing out here. Oh, this is exciting. There's stuff happening. Here we go. Hang tight.

Oh, yeah. This is a teaser. I think this is Yaya Abdul-Mateen's voice. Bobby, I'm not sure if you should cut this or keep it. Oh, yeah, that is Yaya Abdul-Mateen. Okay. Oh, yeah. I'm not watching this.

I'm just watching the Zoom screen. I'm hearing. I'm seeing the Nebuchadnezzar. That's the ship. There's a ship in the Matrix? Oh, hell yeah. We just saw Neo with a John Wick beard, and then he's posing. This looks amazing. I can't wait for the Matrix movie.

What kind of ship is in the Matrix? The Nebuchadnezzar, the ship that they're on when they plug in, when they go into the Matrix. You mean the spaceship? Yes. I thought you meant like a Chris Ryan, like, you know, white squall, whatever. No, there's no Black Sea ship. I mean, like literally the floating spaceship. Isn't it amazing how many of those shows they make? There's like always some show where Chris is like, I watched guys like fight each other

and then like hide in a whale carcass for eight days until they got scurvy and it was awesome. Like every week. I believe you're referring to the North Water, which is the latest version of that, that is out right now. But there's always one. Yeah.

Well, I mean, Chris represents the common man. I'm just saying, like, I can't see one two-hour Top Gun movie and meanwhile, they're just like, here's another, like,

10-episode scurvy miniseries for you guys. Whatever. Can we go back to The Matrix Resurrections? I'm pretty fired up. Last time I got excited. Did you get it

in the movie auction or did Chris? I believe that I got it. Oh, that's right because then he had all his money to spend on Velvet Underground and and whatever weird shit he bought well he also bought a couple of movies that are definitely not coming out this year so that's tough for him I'm never not mentioning here on this little preview of ours uh Matrix Matrix 2 and 3 you know those movies are not great they had there are things about them that are interesting. First Matrix movie, perfect movie. One of my favorite movies. Yeah, it's good.

Matrix 4, I have high hopes for. Just Lana Wachowski directed it. Not a pairing this time. But Keanu, I mean, Keanu. Pro, very pro. Think about how far and how much Keanu, our relationship to Keanu has grown since 99. I mean, he really has come all the way around the circle of life.

It's kind of amazing. Pretty excited. There's also this movie Finch that is coming to Apple TV, which was produced by another studio that stars Tom Hanks. You know about this? It's like an AI movie, a robot movie. Right. But it was called something else. It was.

I can't remember what it was called. It's directed by Miguel Sapochnikik who people may recognize his work from various high stakes episodes of Game of Thrones he is one of the few sort of like major set piece filmmakers so that could be interesting here are the unknowns wait wait what do you want to talk about you just skipped right over Dune and the Sean Fantasy is over party. You just like went right past it and I wanted to have the Sean Fantasy is over party because it's really delightful.

Right. Okay. So let me let me see if I can clear this up. I tweeted something about Dune. I hate when people talk about their

tweets on podcasts, but I'm doing it. And I was just trying to mess with people. I was just I was trying to mock the nature of embargoes. I was trying to mock the nature of embargoes. I was trying to mock the nature of anticipation

for this hugely anticipated movie. I was not trying to convey an opinion about Dune, honestly. I think a lot of people thought I was trying to say that Dune is really bad based on what I tweeted, which was something to the effect of like, one thing I can say about Dune is it's certainly a movie. I'm not spoiling anything by saying, I liked a lot about Dune. It's certainly a movie. I'm not spoiling anything by saying like,

I liked a lot about Dune. And it turned out to, I thought it was a mixed bag. And we'll be able to talk about that in depth when the movie gets a lot closer to release, which is not for another six or seven weeks. And I don't want to spoil anything for anybody who's really excited about it.

And I don't want to make anybody who's excited about it feel bad. I just think it's a mixed bag. I think there were a lot of reviews that were like, this movie sucks. And there were a lot of reviews that were like this movie sucks and there were a lot of reviews that were like this is the arrival of jesus christ didn't even move it's kind of neither to me it's an interesting that is also what dune is about right it is like a biblical allegory very much a messianic story um i will say this again is not spoiling anything probably the single

greatest integration of practical production design with c CGI that I've ever seen in a movie. It is absolutely breathtaking what Denis Villeneuve and the team that worked on that movie accomplished. There are parts of it, especially in like the second act of the movie that are incredible. That are you have to see on a big screen because it was so powerful and so beautiful and so striking to look at. There are also a lot of challenges in telling the Dune story

and in a sci-fi story like this. And we can get into all that soon. I was just trying to troll people a little bit. And I think, so I went to a party on Friday night and I was talking to a journalist who was working there who I know a little bit. And he was like so I went to a party on Friday night and, uh, I was talking to a journalist who was working there who I know a little bit. And he was like, you're really getting dragged on Twitter, bro. And I was like, what do you mean I'm getting dragged on Twitter?

And he was like, you're getting dragged for your, your dune take. And I was like, I didn't have a take. I didn't share my take with anybody. And he was like, well, I saw it and I hated it, which was a strong take by him. And he was like, but just so you know, you're getting dragged. And I was like, I'm like, how can I get dragged for a tweet that doesn't have an opinion? So this is where we're at right now in the movie take economy.

I know. You want to join me in just developing some hobbies and not being online? I mean, in this case, it was my fault, right? I provoked it and I rattled the cage

for some reason. I think I just thought it was amusing. I think I saw a couple of early reviews and I was like, everybody needs to settle down. Also,

in what hour of your drive to Telluride did you send that tweet? Or was it like you're in the Warner Brothers like level four of the parking structure, send tweet,

like hit the road? I'll tell you what. I have been guilty of that in the past and I'm not saying I'm above it, but I didn't tweet it until the embargo hit,

which was on the third. Oh, okay. I didn't tweet it until the embargo hit, which was on the third. Oh, okay. I didn't tweet it right away. So in what movie line were you? Were you? Good question. Probably just getting ready to see Spencer,

you know, just getting ready to exercise some demons. Dune is worth seeing and worth discussing is my take on Dune. There is one really big fact about dune that i want to share with you so mad at you they're so mad can i share something really important with you dune is not dune dune is dune part one yeah i actually knew that already because a friend of ours saw it so i didn't know that when I sat down. And I feel like most people don't know that.

And I have to tell those people who are listening now, this is Dune part one. It's not the whole story of Dune. That really matters when you're watching the movie. That you know that. You know what I'm saying? You went from like, it's MBD. I don't like check my Twitter mentions to just like

it's dude part one like so fast just that just just work it out with me okay just you're not interacting with those people but you are

and you're free guy really jumped out just there yeah okay well that's not even spoiling anything I'm not describing anything it's dune part one amanda where's part two when's it coming out i assume after the box office receipts for dune part one and they're like hey we had a success and we're so excited to make dune part two which

has already been in production for forever there's so much pressure on this movie to be successful there's been so much consternation about it what are people going to do when they see the movie and it's over and it's only part one they're going to be like why isn't the title of the movie dune part one why aren't you selling it that way why aren't you telling us this is the first chapter in an incredible story am i wrong they did this with the lord of the rings it worked out great you're not wrong but just the anger that you expressed and like the concern when you were like people are gonna be like why did you name the movie this i mean jesus christ sean go outside everyone go outside i like i don't

disagree with you but if we have to be worried about what a bunch of free guys are going to say on the internet with respect to franchise titling conventions in a side, the most like doomed curse sci-fi series of all time. Like, of course, there's going to be a part two. Like, we're all grownups. We all know this. Dune part one. All right. Well, we can call it Dune part one on this podcast if it makes you sleep better at night. You know, it might.

Okay. Dune part one. It makes me want to jump out my first story window because it just never ends. You know, there's going to be part two and part three. And then there's going to be a whole movie about the worms. I know. Six Dune books. And there's going to be whole movie about the worms i know dune books and there's gonna be spinoffs about all the people and then there's gonna be like a 12-part snapchat series that like you know we have to blog about here's another thing that is not a spoiler about dune

just absolutely extraordinary beard from oscar isaac in this movie like probably the single most powerful beard i've ever seen. I'm excited for his fall. He's got a lot coming. Scenes from a marriage pod? I don't know. Aren't we all just living it every day in quarantine still? Well, speak for yourself. I have a beautiful child.

Just snoozing her way through the day. That's fine. Maybe, yeah. I think we should watch the Bergman movie and then compare it to the TV show. I think that'd be fun. That sounds great.

Let's talk quickly about a few other movies. Now, there are two movies that I think are tapped for Oscar contention that we know very, very, very little about. There's Nightmare Alley, which is a remake that Guillermo del Toro is making, starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett. We've not seen one frame from this movie.

No clips, no footage. It's supposed to be December 3rd from Searchlight. I don't know anything about it other than it's obviously a remake of a 1940s Hollywood film. Then Don't Look Up, which we've seen a vanishing few seconds of. The new Adam McKay movie starring

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. I think you and I are both very much anticipating this movie as fans of Adams and fans of those actors. And then I've gotten word, I don't know if this is true, but it seems like both The Tender Bar and Being the Ricardos are also coming out this year. Yes. So Being the Ricardos is the new Aaron Sorkin movie about Lucy and Desi Arnaz and the creation of I Love Lucy and their tumultuous creative and personal lives. And The Tender Bar, which is George Clooney's new film starring Ben Affleck. Now, those are both Amazon films. I don't know officially if they are coming out, but I have now heard from a couple of people that they are coming out this year, which would probably vault them right into the Oscar conversation and make for a much more fun pot

at the end of the year. Would you agree? Absolutely. I mean, just continue to give me all of the Ben Affleck content. Have you noticed, do you know that Ben Affleck has just like basically moved

into the Century City Westfield Mall? He's just there every day and photographed there every day. It's inexplicable to me, but I guess that's what he wants to be doing with his time. Do you like that mall? I mean, it's inexplicable to me but i guess that's what he wants to be doing with his time do you like small i mean it's it's a nice small good dining options but like i can't communicate to people enough like it's a mall you know there's like a paper source and a disney store

and like an origin store i think still do you know what origins is i don't what's that it's well it's like a you know kind of like body shop s don't. What's that? Well, it's like a, you know, kind of like Body Shop-esque company, but they had this like sea salt scrub in the late 90s, early 2000s that came in a big jar that was like a real thing. It was a pretty good scrub, if you ask me. I really thought Origins was like a store that sells MCU merch. You know, it was like Iron Man dolls and things like that. No, but they have like eight of those also in the mall.

Once again, it's a mall. And Ben Affleck is just like there every day because he's just wants to be in our lives. So maybe an Oscar campaign would be good for that. If I was Ben Affleck or really any famous celebrity with an extraordinary fortune, you know what I would do? I would not go to the mall.

I would move to Telluride and I would live there. And then I would die there. I would not move to Telluride, but I would not be at the mall every day. I would move to Telluride and I would live there and then I would die there. I would not move to Telluride, but I would not be at the mall every day. I agree. And like I said- I don't want to go to the mall just now by myself. I don't want to go there. I really don't spend that much time at the mall either, even though it is a nice mall. Anyway, it would be great to have him back, have him continue to be in our lives. The thing about The Tender Bar, well, number one, it's directed by George Clooney, who I love as a human and as a director.

I'm a little bit iffy on. But so it's adapted from a book by J.R. Moringer, who, Sean, do you know what book J.R. Moringer has coming out in the next year? No, what book does he have coming out? He's ghostwriting Prince Harry's memoir. Whoa. Yes, correct. You know, he actually ghostwr prince harry's memoir whoa yes correct you know he actually ghost wrote

a really good memoir he wrote he goes through phil knight's memoir and he also goes through andre agassi's memoir which is incredible and he's a terrific writer yeah and i've never read the tender bar but people speak very highly of it as well but just imagine the synergy of that movie being in the Oscar race next year while Prince Harry is just absolutely scorched earthing everyone, which you know he's going to do. Should be fascinating. Anyway. Should be fascinating. who wrote The Departed has not written a movie in six years since he had Mojave and The Gambler back to back but is a very talented guy as well.

I'm looking forward to The Tender Bar even if it's a kind of middling Clooney directorial effort whatsoever I still want to see that movie. Not totally sure it's coming out this year but hopefully it is. Did I forget anything? I'm so sorry about about top gun i know you're distraught yeah i'm i'm just very angry about that

and then mission impossible doesn't come for like two years that's a whole thing was it supposed to be a birthday movie for me and you again was it supposed to be in the summer or was it in the spring i don't remember honestly it might have been It might have been Memorial Day and it might be that Top Gun took Memorial Day. Because they don't really give us birthday movies anymore. So let's look at the schedule right now and see what our potential birthday movie could be. So here are the movies that are currently planned for the last three weeks of July 2022. Fantastic Be Somewhere to Find Them 3. Absolutely not. The New Jordan Peele film, Nope, July 22nd.

Open to it. Pretty exciting. Black Adam, which is the new DC movie starring The Rock. No. July 29th. And then, July 29th, James Mangold, Disney, they come together to make Indiana Jones 5 with 82-year-old Harrison Ford. But that's not going to hold because Harrison Ford still has a shoulder injury. He's been having a great time gallivanting through Europe while they've paused production, but that's not going to happen.

Just think about it. Me, you, our spouses, Indiana Jones 5, and then a big, bold sushi dinner right after that. Okay. I'm available. Okay. Um, until then, anything else you want to talk about here?

Any other movies you're excited about? Anything else in 2021 you're excited about? No, not really. I have to be honest. I like, I would like to see house of Gucci. I would like to see Spencer.

They took Top Gun two away from me. We'll see on West side story. I'm enjoying the last House of Gucci I would like to see Spencer they took Top Gun 2 away from me we'll see on West Side Story I'm enjoying the last week of the US Open that's my report okay well fun as always chatting with you Amanda thank you for asking generous questions about my journey to Telluride Colorado thanks to our producer Bobby Wagner for his work on this episode stay

tuned later this week on the big picture CR's coming back it's going to join me to talk about James Wan's new horror film, Malignant. Paul Schrader's The Card Counter. I think we're maybe going to create a movie dirtbag Hall of Fame. If you've got any entries there, you want to provide them in to feel free. But I'm not eligible for that, just so you know. Well, then I'll have to think harder.

Okay, we'll see you then. Bye.