The Big Picture - ‘Us’ and the Best Movies at SXSW, Plus Sebastián Lelio on ‘Gloria Bell’ | The Big Picture

Episode Date: March 12, 2019

Sean, Chris, and Amanda convene to talk about their favorite movies from the SXSW Film Festival—including Jordan Peele’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to ‘Get Out’ (1:05). Then, Sean sits down with ‘Gloria Bell’ director Sebastián Lelio to discuss working with Julianne Moore and John Turturro and the calculus behind remaking one of your own films (55:30). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Chris Ryan and Sebastián Lelio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Guys, did you know that not all alcohol products are required to list their ingredients? Wait, what? It's a true story. And that was news to me too. You know, Bud Light, Chris, Amanda, is changing the game. They believe that we deserve to know our beer's ingredients. Do you know the ingredients in beer? No, what is it?

Bud Light is different. Just keep that in mind. They put their ingredients right on the label, on the packaging. Bud Light is brewed with hops, barley, and rice. That's it. That's the holy trinity right there. That's the holy trinity. You know what's not in it?

Corn syrup. There are no preservatives, and there's not a single artificial flavor in a Bud Light. So find out what ingredients are in your beer that's Bud Light. Enjoy responsibly. AB Bud Light Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins.

And I'm Chris Ryan. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the South by Southwest Film Festival. We're doing a little punk rock podcasting in a home right now, so please forgive our echo. We got Kai McMullen on the ones and twos. And we're talking about this raft of movies that we've seen. Guys, we've been here for a few days. Chris, you were a member of a Talk the Thrones panel with Mallory Rubin and Justin Concepcion. How'd that go? It went great. It was actually like very clarifying to do it because I realized like what the season is going to be about, I think more clearly now than I did before we did it. Who's going to die at the end? You know, that's one of the most asked questions I've had in Texas.

Yes, I have asked you that many times. I don't know who's going to die at the end. I'm afraid that some of the people we really like are going to die before the end. I think probably all of them. Okay. I'm not an expert, though. This would probably be a more popular podcast if we just talked about Game of Thrones. Instead, we're going to talk about some movies that we saw here.

Amanda, were you a part of any panels this week? No, I was just a freeloader. I saw movies and ate tacos. It was great. Shout out to Austin. You've got a great town. This is really one of, if not my favorite film festivals. I've talked about it before on this podcast because it is as much a film going as partying,

as being a cineast, as understanding new voices, as seeing familiar faces. So the movies we're going to talk about today, which we will not spoil because virtually none of them are out yet, but we'll just share some enthusiasm for them, talk about what we liked about them. We've each chosen three movies. Is there anything else you guys want to say before we dive in about the South by Southwest Film Fest? I think that we'll be talking a lot about the, well, I guess I'll term the South by Southwest Film Fest? I think that we'll be talking a lot about the, well, I guess I'll term the South by Southwest bump. And so that's something to keep in mind while we're talking is just because we feel so warmly

towards this city and towards this festival, sometimes you get a little bit, it goes through some sort of like filter when you're in the Paramount and you're watching a movie with like, almost like 500 people or however many people that place sits and you're just rocking out to a movie. It's not like watching a movie with like almost like 500 people or however many people that place sits and you're just rocking out to a movie it's not like watching a movie i think anywhere else where

you're just like oh that was good let's go talk to my friends about this over a quiet drink this is like people have been drinking all day people have been getting free stuff people have been waiting and waiting and waiting to see these movies and then when they see them they they go berserk and it really does affect like how you feel about it in a way that I think is maybe a more sincere experience than going to see something at the Arclight and being like, I liked that. B minus. Yeah, it's a unique thing because I'm inclined to bring a pound of salt to everything. You know, to say, well, you know, I'd had three Lone Stars.

Everybody was really screaming a lot. They were laughing loud. They were hitting at every laugh line. Is this movie better than I thought it was? On the other hand, it's just a fun way to watch movies. That's part of the reason why we like movies is because they're fun to go to, right? Yeah. The freeing part of this has been for me, it was obviously fun to see some of the bigger movies.

We are going to talk about some of the bigger movies here. But like I said, since I didn't have any panels or other public obligations, I was just bopping around going to movies and there is something very exciting about getting to see a bunch of stuff. And no one has really told you what's important and what's not and what's going to be in the discourse

and what's not. And you just kind of, that sense of discovery and also just being like, huh, seems interesting. I'd like to watch this. I guess, I mean, don't cry for us at all,

but in our jobs, we don't do that as often. And movies are great. Shout out to movies. You all, you guys also, the two of you just came off this like kind of grueling award season and you get down here and you see small movies and directors get up there and they're like on the verge of tears because they can't believe like anyone is about to see their movie. Yeah. And it's actually quite moving. I had a great experience seeing Green Book 2, which I just thought was really moving. And the filmmakers obviously really put their hearts in it. I think that the discovery element is right on.

I mean, like sometimes you're following the White Rabbit and sometimes you are the White Rabbit at a festival and you evangelize for something. So Chris, what's something that you found that you didn't see coming? Yeah, I mean, I actually saw this a little bit before the festival, but it's Olympic Dreams, which is a film from Alexi Pappas and Jeremy Tyker, who made a movie called Track Town a couple of years back. And this movie is, I saw this with Amanda, and it's just like a little miracle.

They shot Olympic Dreams in Pyeongchang during the 2018 Winter Games. And it's about a cross-country skier who kind of arrives at the Games and then has like a moment of real self-doubt and also self-discovery about what it means to pursue a dream and pursue a goal for so long that you don't really know what to do with yourself

after you quote-unquote have achieved it. And so she's, Alexi Pappas plays this character Penelope and her competition is like the first night, first day of the Olympics and she has like basically time to kill. And she meets and has a relationship with a dentist, a volunteer dentist working at the games played by Nick Kroll. And it's basically a kind of mumble, mumble, Corey rom-com set at the Olympics shot while the games are going on. It was a part of the Olympic

artists in residence program. So Alexi and Jeremy were able to make it while the games are going on. It was part of the Olympic Artists in Residence program. So Alexi and Jeremy were able to make it while the games are going on. There are real Olympic athletes in the movie. Most of the dialogue feels largely improvised in terms of it's like a really living, breathing thing. And it was just really unexpected and has a completely different sensibility and a real heart. And that's exactly what you're talking about in terms of that discovery. You're like, wow, I just, I just feel like I've just, I just found a little, like a small little miracle. Yeah. It's a little bit like it's Olympics lost in translation in some ways, which is a sentence that means so much to me personally. And I never would have thought that anyone in the world would be like, what if the relationship and loss in translation,

but at the Olympics, because the Olympics are dope. And that's what this movie is. And, you know, Chris and I walked out and we're just startled by the amount of stuff they got from the Olympics. They're the behind the scenes, they're in the athlete's village, they're in the cafeteria. We learned a lot about the medical services available at the Olympics and dental services because Nick Kroll does play a dentist. And if, you know And if you get really geeked out about the Olympics every two years, as I do, that's very exciting. And in the middle of it is this really lovely relationship. Yeah, it's a complicated relationship story.

Yeah, a moving little story. I just got off of a run where I've just been watching so much TV. And for really practical purposes, a lot of television winds up settling in very similar settings, whether they're shooting, you know, Louisiana for New York or Louisiana for, you know, Northern California or whatever, wherever people shoot or shoot Atlanta for Indiana. And then there's a lot of like interior studio set work that gets done. Every scene in this movie is shot in a place where these people actually live or work. And to see a character in a film walking in the opening ceremony and actually having an emotional

reaction to being in the opening ceremony is a different kind of movie. It actually is movie magic in its purest form. Did you say also, we should be clear that Alexi Pappas is an actual Olympian. She is an Olympic runner. She completed in Rio in 2016. She is an Olympian and also makes great movies at the Olympics. What sport is she participating in? Cross country running. Long distance running. In the film as well? No, she's a skier in the film. She plays a skier

in the film because it was the closest thing that they could find in the winter games that kind of matched her training regimen and everything else. Did they have any regret about not being able to do the summer games? I mean, they didn't, they, I think that they,

they wound up being like it, we regret it because it was very cold and, uh, it like our cameras froze and it was hard to stand outside for sometimes. But I personally think that the winter games are incredibly visually arresting because you've got like slopes and it's, and people are wearing jackets and all bundled up and it's like, I think the cold adds something to the, the movie okay interesting olympic dreams that sounds

good yeah is that coming out has it been acquired i think it's i think they're getting distribution or hoping to get distribution now and you can hear an interview i did with nick and alexi and jeremy on the watch that's going up i think monday okay amanda did you discover anything this week well i don't know if i did you discover anything this week? about a young girl in the Midwest played by Natalia Dyer, who you may know from Stranger Things. I do. And she goes to a Catholic school. So you've in like the early 2000s.

So there are some Lady Bird vibes here, but in the best of ways. And she logs onto AOL one day and winds up in sexting with a stranger because she doesn't, or I guess cyber sexting in 2000 and what have you on AOL with someone that she doesn't know because she does not know enough about sex or lust, you know, or anything about human needs because her Catholic school has taught her to fear sex. And it is kind of spin balls from there, her own sexual discovery. And it's mostly about masturbation, but in like a really nice way. It's not a gross out comedy. It's like, it's a sweet story about finding out that sex is not bad while also thinking

that you're going to hell because you go to a Catholic school. Should note that Tim Simons of Veep plays the priest and teacher who teaches the whole class that sex is terrible. And he has fun with that. It's fun. It's a very sweet, funny movie.

It did have that moment of everyone in the theater was really laughing. There was a lot of AIM chat humor that really, really spoke to me. And we'll talk a lot of AIM chat humor that really, really spoke to me. And, you know, we'll talk a lot about, I guess we've already been talking a lot about film references that mean a lot to us, music references that mean a lot to us personally, because they're from a specific time. But I got to tell you, this was like 2002, 2003. Mandy Moore's candy is like blasting heavy. And I was just like, this is my time, friends.

And it was, I thought it was just really well scripted and made and kind of is what it is in a lovely, delightful way. And to your point, I was seated directly behind the director, Karen Main, and that was so exciting to watch and to watch her kind of get excited as the audience really is laughing at those lines. So it was a very fun thing to watch in a festival setting, but I recommend it to people. It's Lady Bird, but sex and funny. It's great. Lady Bird, but sex.

That's great. Put it on a poster. Masturbation, but in a nice way. Well, it is, you know? We've got a lot of taglines. You should get in touch with Karen May and share some of those with her. We're going to talk a little bit more about the ladybird effect later in this show.

Yes, we are. It is the thing that is sort of happening in the movies right now. My pick is a movie that both Chris and I saw called Villains, which is sort of a dark horror comedy thriller, I guess, written and directed by two gentlemen, Dan Burke and Robert Olsen.

And it's a difficult movie to talk about because it is larded with some twists and some strange storytelling choices. But it's very fun. I was trying to figure out, Chris, what is the sort of tonal comparison? You know, there's like a little bit of Coen Brothers in there. It's like Coen Brothers meets the early Tarantino and maybe Tarantino ripoff era of the mid-90s so natural born killers without the uh like kaleidoscopic hallucinogenic filmmaking

yeah it's shot more straightforwardly and but it has that really really really dark humor so it's played straight but like has a lot of laugh lines. And the performances, I think, basically make this movie. Yeah, so the movie stars Bill Skarsgård, who people may recall, although they won't recognize him, as Pennywise from It. He's also in Castle Rock. Yeah, Castle Rock. Micah Monroe from It follows.

Keira Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan, who is Chris's spirit animal. Keira Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan play a couple who own a home, but the film really opens on Bill Skarsgård and Micah Monroe as two young, dumb, full of thrill-seeking convenience store robbers, essentially.

Confused 19-year-olds on the lam, trying to make a big score of, I guess, like $380 from a convenience store. They have real Tim Rothamanda plumber from Pulp Fiction vibes, but they do their own spin on it. And it's, yeah, it's one of those movies that it's really, really, really hard to pull off.

And the filmmakers behind it are pretty interesting. Actually, it's, I believe, Dan Burke and Robert Olsen, if I'm correct. Yeah. Their past work has been basically on really low-budget genre stuff. They worked on Stakeland 2, which is kind of, I wouldn't say like a cult. People really like the Stakeland movies. I like the Stakeland movies. They're just like modern vampire movies.

And then they made a movie called Body for like $50,000, which is essentially like we found a body. What are we going to do about it? And this movie is similarly restricted to one house. But the level of inventiveness they have in terms of

making the house feel very expansive and not feel claustrophobic or more importantly not feel boring is really impressive for these guys. And this was a blacklist script. It's been around there for a little while but they really knocked it out of the park. Yeah, the reason I mentioned the Coen Brothers is it has a little bit of blood simple

and like tactile, very small, intimate setting. But also tonally, there's like a little bit of Barton Fink, like over the topness to it that I thought was pretty unique. And I thought it was a really fun movie. It's kind of a classic South by movie. South by is really good at kind of the midnight genre movie. And even though I saw this at 3 p.m., I still felt the kind of buzz of people just being like,

I just want to see a movie where somebody gets their head blown off. I just want to see a movie where a bank gets robbed. I just want to see a movie where two crazy kids go on the lam. And, you know, you can have your sort of thoughtful coming of age, yes, God, yes movie. You can have your head gets blown off movie.

And, you know, you can also have like a big movie star movie. Chris, did we see a movie star movie? Yeah, we saw Longshot. This is the movie that I can't tell if this movie might be the worst movie ever made, but I would never be able to tell because watching it, I was like,

this is like seeing the who at Wembley. Here's the log line for this. Charlize Theron plays the Secretary of State of the United States of America. She works for Bob Odenkirk's president, who is an actor from television who now wants to get into films. Can't imagine what inspired that.

She's going to run for his presidential office, but she feels like she needs to improve her sense of humor. So she winds up bumping into and then hiring Fred Flarsky, who is played by Seth Rogen, a sort of muck-racking journalist for basically a village voice type newspaper, RIP. The Brooklyn Advocate. Yeah.

And she winds up hiring this guy she used to babysit for when he was 13 and she was 16. It's a very funny scene. I have a flashback for that. And they wind up traveling the world together in her capacity as Secretary of State and sparks fly unbelievably.

And then the movie is about how unbelievable it is that Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen would wind up together. And it's got a ton of laugh lines. O'Shea Jackson Jr. is in it and basically dunks on every scene that he's in. Steals the movie. June Diane Raphael is hilarious in this movie. She is.

It's hysterical. I definitely laughed the most and the loudest I have in years at a movie. And then the last act of it is basically reverse pretty woman and is incredibly moving, I guess.

It's really weird. I don't know how, like, this might be, like, the best thing I saw here, but I also just haven't had, like, I'm leaving my body and the movies are just amazing moment like this in a while. Yeah, I mean- Am I overreacting to it?

No, you're not. I think that the Saturday night slot at South by Southwest is a very coveted spot. And that's for a reason. Because of the thing that you were talking about, Chris, where it's like, yeah, we've just kind of casually been drinking Lone Star since noon. By the time you get to 11 p.m.

and you've got a big, broad, crowd-pleasing comedy, people are ready to have a good time. Plus you've got just a really funny script. And Jonathan Levine, who's worked with Seth Rogen before on 50-50, and he made The Whackness and a handful of other movies, who has a really good touch with studio comedy. And I don't know, Amanda, I was just so struck both in the movie and on stage after the movie by Charlize Theron's swagger

at this stage of her career. She is just in an amazing kind of charisma control. We should mention that the movie ends, the last song that plays in the movie is like, this is the best song ever. I don't want to give anything away. And then Jonathan Levine walks out. They ask him one question.

He's like, I'm hammered. Yeah. I can't talk about this. And Seth Rogen is wearing an all blue suit. He looked great. And Charlize Theron is is wearing like an all blue suit he looked great and Charlie's Throne is wearing a sequined mini dress it looked great and it's just like I as well I'm also hammered and they're like yeah we're all too like kind of messed up to talk about this movie we're so overwhelmed so we're just gonna have boys to men play a concert right now and

boys to men walked out on stage and played Motown Philly and another song. It was I'll Make Love to You. I'll Make Love to You and we're handing out roses to people in the crowd. And people in the crowd were actually losing their minds. You know how it's like sometimes you're like people film too much? I was like, you guys better film this because this is not something that ever happens. It was authentically fun. It was

premeditated and arranged, but it was authentically fun. It's very easy to be cynical about a broad comedy about seth rogan and charlie's there and falling in love but boys to men who play a part in the movie which is why they performed uh just doing motown philly at the end of a long day of movies was just an incredible capper um amanda what were your reflections on the movie when you saw it aside from the fact that like charlie's thorn in this movie is like stunning i mean she is objectively one of the most beautiful women in the world but even in this movie i was like holy shit yeah they really play that like there's

sometimes where you see her and you're like is she green screened onto this movie because she's so luminescent yeah and then seth rogan's beard is like kind of ratty, you know? I mean, the lighting, the styling, everything that they did was amazing, but you know, I live for a studio rom-com. I was kind of like, okay, so not dissimilar to Olympic dreams. I was like, great. So they made a movie exactly for me and boys to men was in it. And I have told many people this weekend, including Kaya, our producer who doesn't care because she's like two generations too young for this. But my first cassette tape was End of the Road from Boys to Men at the age of six. So again, I was like, great. Paint by Numbers, Amanda movie just for me, injected into my veins. Also a little bit of American President sprinkled on there.

Oh yeah, of course. And so I had a delightful time and was then like, okay, this is great for me. Do that millions of other people want to go to the theaters to see this? And then your reaction to it were kind of confirming that, yes, they do, which is exciting. Most of the people who asked me like, what was my favorite thing I saw this weekend? I told them Longshot. And they're like, either what's Longshot, which I don't know it bodes that well for the so far the marketing like hold it has or like huh really I would never would have thought that you know like they yeah I mean they still have a couple of months I think it's out at the end of May I hope they don't very recently yeah recently it's had a few years it

was known as Flarsky yeah which is Seth's character's name I gotta say I'm really glad this is the best part about seeing a festival movie is that you just go in so blind. And I had not really watched the trailer for this movie. Please take our recommendation seriously, but maybe don't watch the trailer because they just put so many laugh

lines and moments. And I did watch the trailer after and most of the movie is in the trailer. And it actually has a pretty good story. So I would recommend people just go see this if you if you trust us i think the thing about long shot this is a phrase we say all the time they don't make movies like this anymore but they don't make movies like this anymore i've been we've been bemoaning the death of the rom-com and the studio comedy for a long time and some of our joy is just and hey this they made a movie like this for us

again. And they do pull it off. It hits all the beats. I don't want to spoil anything, but there is a resolution that is moving and funny. There are the cameos and the friends who steal the movie. It's got a great soundtrack. Yeah. Soundtrack's awesome. Yeah. And Chris, you said this to me almost immediately after the movie ended. I think in some ways we take Seth Rogen a little bit for granted. He just very rarely makes a bad movie. You get the sense that, and I don't know if this is the

post-Jud Apatow thing or just Point Grey is one of the producers on the movie, his production company, Charlize's company is also a producer on the movie. It just feels like they are constantly working on the movie in a good way. It's like you have a good script, but then when you're in the room, because you know how to make something funny in real time, and you can tell when you watch an interview with these people, Charlize too, she's freaking

hilarious. I'm sure that they figured out what this movie should be in real time. And the reason we've heard about it for a long time is because I'm sure there were a lot of iterations of it. But I mean that in a good way. Oftentimes when you say that, where you're like, oh, well, we've heard about this for many years, means it has problems. But I think that they actually just found the right movie in the movie that they made, which was really fun to see. Amanda, what's another one for you? Should we talk about Beach Bum? Yeah, let's talk about the Beach Bum.

So Sean and I saw Beach Bum, which is the new film from Harmony Corrine, starring Matthew McConaughey as a hard living Florida resident, primarily in the Keys. Well, he splits his time between Miami and the Keys, named Moondog. He is a poet, a raconteur, a just fashion icon, which is not surprising in a Harmony Corrine film, but this really takes it to another level. And a user of substances on an extremely regular basis. And it's a Harmony Corrine, Florida dream, I suppose, of a movie. An astral tone poem of a film.

Not a lot of plot. No, but there is a plot, which is, I guess we shouldn't spoil it. I don't want to spoil it at all. It's episodic, I thought. It kind of moves through various stages of Moondog's life in his late 40s over a condensed period of time. And he's just this singular kind of dude you come across. And we see him at times reading his poetry in front of a Jimmy Buffett audience. We see him reading it in front of slightly disinterested smattering of

local Florida residents. You know, it's kind of unclear who this guy is, how he makes his bones, what his relationship is. The movie though is kind of chock-a-block with interesting and fun, famous people playing either exaggerated versions of themselves or slightly askew characters. Isla Fisher plays his wife in the movie. Snoop Dogg plays his best friend and R&B singer named Lingerie. And he goes by Ray. And Jimmy Buffett does make an appearance. As I said, there's just an incredible Jonah Hill cameo as his literary agent, I believe. I think, I mean, agent, yes. And he is technically a poet who publishes things. So I assume he dabbles in the literary, though I don't believe the Jonah Hill character has ever read a book. Jonah has read many books, but the character is not supposed

to be a literary wonder kid. Yeah. And it doesn't have the thing that most movies, especially movies like Longshot have, which is, you know, in Longshot, the movie is defined by a quest. The two stars of the movie, you know, Charlize's character is on a quest to become the president and Seth Rogen's character is on a quest to find a new job and become a successful journalist and tell his stories. You know, Moondog is just, he's just living L-I-V-I-N, you know, he's just, he's just like a classic McConaughey character in a lot of ways. It is sort of the, it's sort of the pinnacle of what he's been driving towards. I don't think that that means it's the best Matthew McConaughey movie. I don't even think it's the best Harmony Curran movie, but it does feel like a kind of summation of two things that they've been driving towards.

It does feel, if not literally autobiographical, then like certainly borrowed from Harmony's life and experience. And it's kind of an expression of who he is and how he relates to art and life. And it is, if not the pinnacle of McConaughey, then kind of peak McConaughey. It is the essence of- It's not necessarily his apex mountain. Yeah. I mean, I still don't know what apex mountain is.

It is among the lower range of apexes. Yeah. It's just like this persona of McConaughey that he has been building towards. Like in every paparazzi photo of McConaughey shirtless on a beach or like doing pull-ups in random places or whatever, you know showing up on a scooter to things I mean Moondog doesn't do any of those things I don't know if he could do a pull-up but this kind of free spirit let it flow like hey man yeah vibe of the world it's like that aspect of McConaughey is very much in this character and it is like a really heightened and beautiful

expression of it. I was surprised by how romantic this movie is. It's very funny. Sean and I were walking in, we saw it together and I was like, I I'm curious to see how I respond to this because I haven't seen spring breakers since it came out like seven years ago and really liked it at the time.

And then I'm wondering how that aged and you know, I maybe that's not something that I need to investigate, but harmony is obviously provocative and there is a lot of weird screwed up stuff in this movie, but I found it sweet and ultimately open to life, I guess. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, Spring Breakers famously was kind of like a South by Southwest mega hit. You know, it premiered here. I think it's only the second movie that A24 made. And there was an incredible marketing campaign behind it.

But the first time people really saw it was seven years ago at South by. And I don't think that The Beach Bum had quite the same effect. And I don't think it was kind of intended to. You know, it's tonally a little bit pulled back. It's only Harmony's really his sixth movie, which is crazy. Obviously, he's been a screenwriter and he's directed commercials and he's done all kinds of stuff over the years. But in a lot of ways, I actually thought it was his most accessible movie in part because of the stars that we're talking about, but also because, you know,

Spring Breakers is a very weird movie and it's kind of upsetting. Yeah. It's kind of violent and it's, it's dark and it's impressionistic. The beach mom is like, there are just scenes where Matthew McConaughey and Snoop talk to each other. Like that's just, that's just really fun. I'm curious to see kind of how this movie is received in the world. Uh, I think on the one hand, there's a huge expectation because of some of the names attached on the other hand, it's like go in and just try to chill out is probably the best way to do it. When harmony came out and introduced the movie, he said something to the effect of this movie is about the elusive search for the moment, for the ecstatic moment. And you get the impression that kind of like low-boil hedonism is his lifestyle.

Yes. And that's what this movie is all about. And I really liked it. Chris, you're like a low-boil hedonist, right? I am. Yeah, absolutely. How do you feel? Are you excited about The Beach Bomb? I am. I can't wait to see it. I mean, he's just one of the most interesting filmmakers of our generation or of our adult lives. And to know that he's still kind of following his own path since kids is kind of remarkable. Should we do a Gummo rewatchables? Yeah, that would actually, do you think that that would, would that be the lowest ranked rewatchables ever? Probably right ahead of proof of life, would be my guess. I just laid that up for you.

You did. I wanted to just talk very quickly about Running with Beto, which I thought was a very interesting documentary made by our friends at HBO. And the movie is going to be on HBO shortly. And we don't really know what the future holds for Beto O'Rourke at the moment. Some of us thought he might announce his candidacy for the presidency at South by he did not do that, which I think was probably a savvy decision. I think it was savvy. Well, I don't know. I'm not really weighing in on sort of his political future. But I just think that like a party festival where like Lone Star is the currency of the day is not necessarily the perfect platform for that announcement.

You disagree. No, I guess I hadn't really thought about it like that. But I would think that here's a documentary about what made my run inspiring, and now I will run again would have made some sense. Yeah. I mean, I think grammatically. I think when people see the movie, and part of the tension of the Beto campaign is that he lost.

He lost to Ted Cruz in the Senate race. We know the ending of the movie in a lot of little bit less cynicism, even though I thought Beto has this kind of halo around his head at all times in the media. And there are a couple of moments in the movie that show you like, it's hard to run a campaign. And sometimes you have to be mad at your staff. And sometimes you have to say, you know, you're screwing me on this. You need to help me out more. I'm overworked or I don't know where I'm going or what I'm saying. And the dynamic between him and his family family I thought was really interesting and intimate and kind of value neutral politically. I think it's just a fascinating look at a person who probably is going to be in the American life a lot more in the next 5, 10, 20 years. And you very rarely get a document like this that shows them, not warts and all,

because that feels like an odd way of positioning him, but just unvarnished. And in some ways, it's inspiring, even if you don't believe in him. And in other ways, it's just kind of a fascinating, magnifying glass over something that we think we understand, but we don't always understand. Yeah, for sure. Funnily enough, though, I feel like he was the second most popular politician in town this weekend. Who was the first? AOC. It's true. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman from New York, was here. She was performing opposite Talk the Thrones.

Yes. At one point, there was a panel about the future of basketball featuring Chris Bosh and our former colleague, Kirk Goldsberry. Then there was Talk the Thrones. And then there was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And somehow,

we got more than a dozen people to come to Talk the Thrones in that environment. You have a beautiful house. Yeah, but it was just like, it was amazing. The line for her panel talk was apparently unprecedented. It was quite long. It was very stressful to navigate around it. I went by the Paramount when her movie was being screened

and it was like an absolute madhouse. And multiple people started conversations. Have you seen Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez? Did you see the movie? Did you hear, did she around? Like, it seems like it was,

it's just interesting to be in Beto country and have, have somebody else be the apple of everybody's eye. There was, uh, I moderated a panel with some folks from the New Yorker yesterday. And in that room, AOC was supposed to do another session and she was not feeling well. So she had to cancel that session, but I guess maybe it was not

messaged effectively that that had happened. So, you know, after you do some of these panels, people come forward and introduce themselves to you. They're very sweet. They want to have a conversation about the thing you just talked about or whatever their lives. And there were a couple of people that came up to us while we were chatting with them. And then there was someone who came up very excitedly over to me, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed. I was like, is AOC happening in here? I had to

break their heart and say, unfortunately, she had to cancel. What's another movie that you saw that you liked, Chris? I'll just shout out this movie, Mickey and the Bear, which was something I went into with very little expectations or just not knowing a ton about. It's directed by a woman named Annabelle Adonagio who was an actress on the movie The Show, Bull, the CBS show.

She left that series and sort of pursued a career in filmmaking and I believe this is her feature debut. And it is a story about a young high school girl living in rural Montana with and caring for her veteran opioid-addicted father, played by James Badgedale. And she wants to get out, and she can't decide if she can leave her father behind.

And it's just basically the setup for any Bruce Springsteen song. It's incredibly well done for a first feature. But just in general, the sense of place they shot it on location in Montana is astonishing. The vistas are amazing. The kind of depiction of life where basic services are not completely guaranteed. And you can just see the tension about between the, the, the population and the medical community in terms of like,

I need my pills. I need to be cared for. I also don't want to be told who I am and what to do. That's fascinating. And just her and this girl's ambition, the girl is played by Camilla Marone and her ambition to get out of town. And while also having to basically live the like two lives, one of being

like a teenager and the other being a caretaker is is really well done also um this is the third film this year that i've seen with james badgedale that i've really really liked and they are all kind of variations on the same character which is pretty interesting what character is that basically like rust belt maniac um midwest maniac it's he played in donny brook he plays a uh meth addicted sheriff and uh standoff at sparrow creek he plays a militia member and in this movie he plays this opioid addicted veteran this is the best performance though and it's one of the best performances i think i'm going to see this year he does like angry loud drunk guy with emotional problems in a way that's very, very, very in tune

with that kind of person. I would recommend this film alone just to see that. But also Camilla Morone is amazing and the filmmaking is really good. Amanda, do you know who Camilla Morone is currently partnered with in real life? I don't. Leonardo DiCaprio.

Oh, I was like, I know this name. What movie was she in? Oh, that's what it is. Yeah, she was in a movie last year, really cool movie that Augustine Frizzell made called Never Going Back about two young women who were close friends trying to figure out what to do with their lives. A little bit of a ladybird partnered film. You could pair those two together. Amanda, should we talk about Booksmart now? I'd love to.

You want to break it down? What is Booksmart? So Booksmart is directed by Olivia Wilde and stars Beanie Feldstein and Caitlin Deaver as two kind of type A goody-goody high school students. It's the day before graduation. Beanie Feldstein plays Molly, who is the president of the school class. And straightA student. She and Kaylin Deaver are the good kids who have studied and worked hard and not partied to achieve everything that you're supposed to achieve in high school so you can go off to college and be great and become a Supreme Court justice. And on the eve of graduation, discover that pretty much everyone else

has been having a good time in high school and is still going to manage to go off to college and do great things. And so they embark upon a classic one-night quest to live high school to the fullest before graduation and hijinks ensue. And so it is a teen party film, like the classic one night,

we got to experience everything. And it goes through many different scenes and characters. You get a real slice of the high school life. There is like a whole world that is created in the course of one night. And it is also a story of friendship between Beanie Feldstein and Caitlin Deaver's characters and really it's really quite moving. Yeah, it was very, very fun. And a similar effect to the long shot effect where you're just in the room and you're like, yeah, this is like a good movie to watch at this kind of a festival.

But also I think that all of its influences are on its sleeve in a good way. Olivia Wilde came out after the movie was over and she was like the breakfast club, dazed and confused. Like, you know fast times at ridgemont high she was completely unafraid to just say i i need to make my version you know the 2019 version of that kind of movie is it set in like present day it's set in 2019

i think the one thing that is particularly notable about it that differentiates it is it's very modern you know there are a lot of lgbtq characters in the movie the movie's politics are very progressive and left um it's very much about what young people are actually like living in los angeles in 2019 well it's an extremely idealized version it is and it's it's like an mtv version in a lot of ways like it's loud and it's pop and it is um you're right it is romanticized a little bit. Well, because I think like the politics aren't even interrogated. They just live in a world where, you know,

teens are out and pursuing relationships and it's, they're extremely diverse cast and no one's even thinking or talking about it. That's just kind of how the world is. It's also a world where they're just going from amazing to party, to amazing party house in los angeles and like all of the kids are going to ivy league schools so it is just a like very like wealthy idealized version of the world but a nice happy world it's nice to live in a place where we don't have to like hand ring over whether a teenager feels comfortable pursuing a you know

same-sex relationship right and it, it's the kind of movie where all of the influences are at your fingertips there. There were a couple, you know, there is an inevitable super bad comparison that will be happening for the next five months as this movie, people see this movie because Beanie Feldstein, of course, is Jonah Hill's little sister.

And she's just incredible in this movie. She's just like instantaneous movie star. I was really struck by how awesome she is. Yeah, I mean, it's that comparison as well, because you just are watching a career happen in real time. Not that Beanie hasn't already had an extremely accomplished career, but it's Beanie Feldstein's time. Yeah, she's in the center of the movie for the most part.

But also, there were other movies that I was struck by, not just Superbad. The movie is co-produced by Gary Sanchez, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay's production company. Although I think it's identified as Gloria Sanchez Productions in this movie. Oh, is it? Did you pick up on that? I didn't. And I thought of Project X.

Have you guys seen Project X? The house party movie from 2012? All-time Miles Teller performance. It is an all-time Miles Teller performance. And that's just a very dumb, loud, but pretty fun house party movie. David Jacoby's favorite movie of all time. It is an all-time mild stellar performance. And that's just a very dumb, loud, but pretty fun house party movie. David Jacoby's favorite

movie of all time. It is. And there's definitely some Project X in this movie too. That sort of relentless quest to try to figure out

what it means to have a good time when you're 17, which I think is just a timeless execution. That is the essence of Dazed and Confused. It's like, where can we go

to find the right party? And that's just always going to work. Also, you know, Olivia Wilde, of course, is married to Jason Sudeikis, who was in the film. Will Forte is in the film. Lisa Kudrow is in the film. There's all of these supporting players surrounding them that are just ace in the hole comedy figures. And nothing helps a comedy than like, oh shit, I love that person. That feeling that you get when you're watching one of those movies. Yeah, that happens during Longshot too. Lisa Kudrow's in that. Alexander Skarsgård just completely mocks himself. Andy Serkis is in it. Yeah. Oh, that was Andy Serkis in Longshot. Wow. Oh my gosh. Putting it together now.

Anything else you want to say about Bookstore, Amanda? Yeah. We should just say that it is written, there are several credits, but Katie Silberman, who you may know as the writer for Set It Up, which is a movie that we at The Ringer really enjoyed. Ringer Hall of Fame, yeah. Yeah, it's just kind of a rom-com career is also happening in real time. I thought that was the exciting thing about Booksmart, in addition to the established names that you just mentioned, and Olivia Wilde, who is a very successful actress, now director, but it's a lot of young people who will keep doing things from Beanie Feldstein to Katie Silverman to Caitlin Deaver. It just,

the list goes on. We didn't talk about Billy Lord. You want to talk about Billy Lord? Yeah. So I got a chance to interview the cast and Olivia of this movie before I saw it. And Billy Lord came into the interview room and she was, she's like living on a slightly different realm of reality. She just, she was kind of, she glided in. She had a sincere charisma, a kind of presence that even in the presence of Beanie and Caitlin Deaver and Olivia Wilde, who is, you know, incredibly famous and accomplished. There's a, there's a, a Billie Lourd galaxy around her. Like a vortex. Yes. And. The Lord galaxy around her. Like a vortex. Yeah.

And. The movie uses that well. It certainly does. Is she like the cool girl? Is she like. Not exactly. Okay. She's kind of a character I've never seen before.

Well, I thought that she was, you know, and I don't want to compare this too much to Super Bad. It has a DNA, but it is its own movie, but she is the. McLovin. Yeah. She is. She is the McLovin. That's hervin. Yeah, she is the McLovin. That's her role.

She's kind of the McLovin in reverse. Yeah. She is a hyperkinetic, everywhere at once kind of person, whereas McLovin is all recessed and overcompensating and a nerd. Gigi, I believe her character's name is in the movie, is profoundly confident and weird and always popping up at the

right time. And it's just a really fun performance by a person who has a unique energy. Yeah. And I will say one of the ways in which it's not super bad and which I think it's really quietly meaningful and also means that this movie will do really well is that they're all very confident, all of the girls. This isn about you know they are trying to make up for lost experiences but it's not like they have no sense of self or no goals or no ambition they are all very comfortable in their skin and you don't really see that as much for teen movies especially women in teen movies or girls in teen movies so no and it's also just a like a lot of the movies we've been talking about, a real music movie. The soundtrack is overloaded.

It's largely hip hop, largely stuff in the last five years that's been released. But there's some LCD sound system mixed in there. There's some Anderson.Paak mixed in there. It feels very modern. And like I said earlier, a little bit kind of MTV smash cut,

doing a lot. The editing is very aggressive, but in a way that I think if you go in with the right mindset, you'll really dig the movie. Speaking of music and the way that it's integrated, Chris, you and I saw us on Friday as the sort of opening night, big announcement movie.

This is so difficult to discuss. Us, of course, is Jordan Peele's new movie. Yes. His followup to get out. I'm just going to say modest Also, of course, is Jordan Peele's new movie. Yes. His follow-up to Get Out. I'm just going to say modest, salivic words.

Here's what happens. As soon as, I haven't seen it because it was hard to get into and also I'm a wimp when it comes to, though I will see us. But if you guys get too close

to spoiling anything, I'll just kind of hit the buzzer like an, you know, and then you have to reset. Well, I think it probably would be a huge mistake to try to talk about the plot beyond what people know from the trailer,

which is the movie is essentially about Lupita Nyong'o's character and Winston Duke's character who play a man and wife. And they have two children and they go to Santa Cruz for a beach vacation. And whilst there, they encounter... Great whilst drop. Thank you very much.

They encounter a family of doppelgangers that look just like them. And terror ensues. That's the pitch for the movie. Funny games ensues, basically, yeah. Funny games, yeah. There are a lot of comparisons to be made there. If you are patient and wait a couple of weeks,

you can hear Jordan Peele and I talking about this movie on a podcast we spoke over the weekend. We didn't get too far into the kind of what happens too because we don't want to spoil it for everybody.

But I thought that, Chris, this was a fascinating way to follow Get Out because in some ways it feels like a logical next step. And in other ways,

I think he kind of moved away from some of the obvious tropes he could have pursued. Yeah, absolutely. Or at least didn't quite specifically articulate them. This movie absolutely hinges on the plot in a really specific way. And you can't really talk about the plot of the movie beyond what Sean just said without absolutely giving it away. But I don't want to say something that would be unfortunately a spoiler. I would say that I felt like the movie had a hard time keeping its grip on what it was sometimes. I really enjoyed watching it. And I think it's got like these incredible

scenes and incredible performances. And I want to see it again, like almost immediately, but I'm not so sure. I feel like it hangs together totally. But that being said, it not hanging together is still very far ahead of most movies. Us trying to figure it out is still way better than your average movie or even your above average movie. The thing that I was really struck by, aside from there's obvious themes

that people are going to want to talk about, and in particular, it has a kind of twisty ending that is going to be puzzled over a little bit is just how much even from Get Out which I think we all loved and have talked about endlessly on this show and others on our network how much Jordan has improved as a filmmaker the way that this movie looks and moves and the way that it uses music which is why i mentioned that earlier and some of the sort of set pieces and the the visual cues there's a lot of symbology and a lot of things crossing over that are meant to fit together in the movie that you're meant to think about and examine you know when we walked out i said there's kind of a fine line between hitchcock and m night shamalan and you got to be careful when you try to tell a tell a story that like pulls the rug out

from you. And I thought it was successful. I thought it was maybe not Hitchcock. That might be too simplistic a comparison, but I really like a movie with something to say that's also not afraid to say it. After the movie, Jordan came out and was just very direct about what he said the movie was about. Almost too direct, I thought, in identifying the theme of the movie, which we won't spoil. I think it's notable that the two letters in the title are U and S. That's not a mistake. And I thought it was telling that the person, one of the people- What does that mean? United States.

Oh, okay. And one of the people thanked in the special thanks towards the end of the film was Steven Spielberg, who I think is probably the biggest influence on this movie in a lot of ways. Yeah. And like a lot of movies that we saw here, again, wearing its influences on its sleeve, we see a handful of movies, literal VHS cassettes of movies. I have to note, there's a Right Stuff VHS box in this movie. Oh, that's so funny. And there was, of course, a Right Stuff VHS box in Captain Marvel. And what are the odds that

the VHS copy of the Right Stuff gets shine and two big March releases? Shout out to Philip Kaufman. It's incredible. Look for him. Rest in peace, Sam Shepard. I think Us was successful. It's really, really, really hard to follow a phenomenon like Get Out. The one thing I'm very curious to see is whether it has the kind of, not just the cultural impact, but the kind of memification that Get Out had.

There were a few things that were kind of spring-loaded into that movie that could be pulled out and that could be sent out into the world at large and re-envisioned by its fans. And there's a part of me that likes that stuff and there's a part of me that is a little skeptical of trying to find the movement inside the movie.

Do you think that this is going to have... Do you think people will desperately be trying to unpack aspects of us to, to, to meme it. I think that it will probably be more hotly debated than get out is, was, I think people were just like almost uniformly like, this is just an incredible feature.

This is an incredible act of filmmaking. And I think with us, people will be a little bit more like what there was going to be a lot of interrogation about what it's about and what it was saying and whether or not it said it successfully. So I think as a movie, it works very well. I think as a statement, it's a little bit more complicated. This is sort of silly because we can't say anything. Can I ask something for the horror averse among us? The trailer is terrifying and just like really creepy, but where is it on the scale? You should ask him because my nerve endings are dead.

Okay. Yeah, mine are a little bit dead too. I think there are moments in the middle of the movie that are genuinely frightening. There's a lot of Wes Craven in this movie, which is to say that there are like jump scares, but the good kind of jump scares. And they're very, very like cleverly designed. By the time you get to the end of the movie, I didn't walk away feeling like this is a horror movie. I felt a lot differently about it. Does that seem fair to say? Yeah, absolutely.

I would encourage people to see it, even if you're afraid of stuff. I think if you can handle James Cameron movies, Terminator and Aliens, you can probably handle us. Also, this movie's really funny. Winston Duke, particularly who people will recognize as M'Baku from Black Panther, is definitely the funny bone of the movie. And

Lupita Nyong'o. And Tim Heidecker and Elizabeth Moss are really funny. Yes, they're very funny. It's two friends of the couple. And Lupita is in the center of the frame the whole time. It's the first movie in which she is the star, which is mind-blowing to me. I don't know how we went. It's like five or six years since 12 Years a Slave, but this is her first starring role. And she's playing two parts, of course. And it's a hell of a performance. Is there any other movies you guys want to shout out from your experiences here?

No, you hated everything else. Everything else was subpar, not worth my time. Kaya and I saw Adopt a Highway last night, which is Logan Marshall greens, a directorial debut debut. It's produced by Jason Blum. It is not at all a quote unquote Blumhouse movie. It's about an ex convict who is trying to put his life back together after

getting out of jail. It's stars and is produced by Ethan Hawk. And it's got a really beautiful score by Jason Isbell, which I will definitely be copying as soon as it's available. I think I walked out and these guys walked out of Booksmart and Kai and I walked out of Adopt-A-Highway. And they were so happy. Kai and I were kind of like, man.

Yeah, your face gets really sad every time you talk about this movie. It's just a really somber movie. I mean, it has a lot of hope in it, but it's also a really like kind of, what a life's a bummer kind of movie. Yeah, I saw a couple of movies like that in a good way. Two movies that were kind of interesting, flip sides of the same coin,

Her Smell, which is Alex Ross Perry's, kind of like magnum opus about a 90s rock star named Becky something played by Elizabeth Moss and the sort of five stages of her life and career and what stardom and drugs and music can do to you both good and bad and I spoke to Alex and Elizabeth on and that'll appear on this show at some point down the road that's just it's the biggest and and boldest thing that Alex has done I'm a huge fan of his movies and what he does. I would highly recommend that, even though I don't think you necessarily walk out of that movie with a ray of sunshine.

Yeah, right. And I also really like The Art of Self-Defense, which is a very peculiar movie. I came over and yeah, this movie is really... I was checking it out at home. I spoke to the filmmaker Riley Stearns and the star Jesse Eisenberg about it while I was here. And it's about a man who experiences physical trauma and then to protect himself and redefine his masculinity, trains in the art of karate. Yeah.

The main character is played by Jesse. Alessandro Nivola plays his sensei. And there is just an extraordinarily unique and off-putting in a good way tone to this movie that eventually evolves into another kind of movie that I would recommend that movie's out in June. Amanda, anything else that you want to just give a quick shout to? Yeah, very briefly. I saw a movie called Run This Town, which was written and directed by Ricky Tolman. And nominally, it is about the Rob Ford scandal. Rob Ford, you may remember, was the mayor of Toronto and was

caught on tape doing some things that mayors don't normally do. And it is in many ways, especially in the first hour, kind of like a fun political journalism, maybe not thriller, but investigation. A lot of people are looking for that tape simultaneously. And then it also becomes a little bit about kind of the millennial experience and the millennial workplace experience. And, you know, I will say that I liked the journalism thriller part a little bit more just because for the first hour I was like, oh, dope, this is millennial Sorkin. And they are just bantering and they're all in the newsrooms. The main reporter in this movie is played by Ben Platt and his, Chris, you're going

to love this. His, his editor at the paper is Scott Speedman. And then the editor in chief of the newspaper is Jennifer Ely and Rob Ford is played by Damian Lewis in like a gigantic fat suit, like the largest fat suit you've ever seen. You can barely like, you really can't tell that it's Damian Lewis except for the voice. But, you know, so it is kind of a throwback, bantery, fun journalism movie. And then some other things happen. But it was interesting. It's definitely a movie made by millennials and like knows that and engages with that. And I think in some ways does it better than others.

But it was fascinating. The millennial consciousness movies are here. And I think it is definitely something that will be talked about a little bit more in that context. So I would check it out. The banter is great. One other thing that I wanted to point out about this festival, and you reminded me of it, Amanda, as you were talking about that movie, is even though we live in Los Angeles, the four of us and encountering celebrity is, is, is common in the places that we frequent. South by has a unique version of, Oh, there's that famous person. I was at a, the JW Marriott hotel and I watched it in very brief encounter between Scott

Speedman, who you just mentioned and Dan Rather, uh, who crossed paths, which was quite striking. And, you know, you go to these movies and it movies and you're sitting in a movie theater and it's like, oh, there's Olivia Wilde. Me in 2009, me in 2019. Sort of 2009, 2049. Yeah, right, yeah. Did you guys have any nice spottings that you enjoyed? Kaya and I at Adopt-A-Highway were sitting in front of Sterling K. Brown

and Andre Holland, who were clearly just there to support Logan Marshall Green. And like, we're hooting and just being like, yeah, Logan. And I, well, now at one point in the theater, Chris Messina, I think walked in. Although the amount of questions I got about whether or not he had blonde,

short blonde hair makes me think maybe it was just a Chris Messina lookalike. But he also seemed to know Andre Holland and Sterling K. Brown. And they did this thing where they were on opposite sides of the theater. And they were just like, hey, man, there you are. And then Christmas scene is there you are. And I was like, wow, to be this cool and attractive must be awesome. Because you can just walk into movie theaters and be like,

hey, man, fellow attractive actor, I see you. Everything is free. You should start doing that before all your podcasts. I'll do that, yeah. And man, any sightings for you? No, just the nice people who make the Veracruz migas tacos, which are as good as you've heard. Yes, perhaps the best film of 2018.

All of the Veracruz tacos we had this week. Chris, Amanda, this was fun. Thank you guys. And Kaya, thank you. Thanks again to Chris Ryan and Amanda Dobbins. And now here's a conversation I had last week with writer-director Sebastian Lelio about his new movie, Gloria Bell. Very delighted to be joined by Sebastian Lelio.

Sebastian, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Sebastian, my first question is very obvious, which is why did you decide to remake or reimagine a film you've already made? Well, that's a very good question. Actually, the more honest and shorter answer is because of my admiration for Julianne Moore. At the beginning of the process, I mean, how this all started, there was kind of like a funny misunderstanding because I was informed by

my team that Julianne Moore had seen the original film, loved it, but she wasn't necessarily interested in remaking it. And I wasn't necessarily thinking of that but she wanted to meet with me so I went to to to meet her and we had a coffee and we talked like for an hour and she was talking so generously and with such a deep understanding of Gloria's character and the story and the resonances that the story had in relationship to the current times. And I was very moved by her depth in her approach. When was this about? This was 2015. Okay, so this is well before A Fantastic Woman and the Oscar and everything. I was about to go and start filming A Fantastic Woman.

And then right after that, Disobedience, which was my first film in English shot in England. So I really wasn't thinking in remaking my own film. So at the end of the meeting with Julianne, I said, well, thank you so much. I'm really honored. And I totally get it if you don't want to do a remake. And she said, what are you saying?

No, no, no, wait, I'm terrified, she said, but I would only do it if you do it. And then I said, well, and then I would only direct it if you are in it. And so we hugged, and that was it. So that's really how it was born, from a very organic place, you know, of admiration towards her and of just following an intuition that this, well, sounded risky, dangerous and a great artistic challenge to try to actualize, in this case, my own materials and to make them hopefully vibrant and relevant again, now in the context of the United States. And in the meantime, well, off I went to make my other two films.

And then I was finishing Disobedience after shooting and finishing A Fantastic Woman. But before releasing any of those, Julian called and said, Hey, I have a window in November or December. Are we doing this? So we did. And by then, in the meantime, the world had changed. Everything seemed to have turned 180 degrees towards the Middle Ages. So suddenly, especially in the United States, the story of a woman of a certain age that is not usually observed by mainstream narratives and cinema,

a woman that claims her right to be seen and respected and loved and heard and her access to pleasure, etc. became suddenly urgent and even political again. I have so many questions about this because it's such an unusual thing to try to pursue. How much are you looking at the sort of the text of what you made previously with Gloria and then trying to iterate on that? And how much are you saying, well, this is a different story about a different woman theoretically in a different country at a different time? Are you trying to be faithful in any meaningful way to what you've made before?

Well, I went through the entire spectrum of possibilities while approaching the challenge. And at the beginning, I was like, oh, I'm going to use this opportunity to change a lot of things. And then I realized that this was in a certain way, not too dissimilar to when a play is staged again by a new company, you know, or, or, or a song is, um, there is a,

there is a cover, a new version of a song. So, so you don't deform the original melody. You just add whatever the new band or theater company has to offer, has to bring to the piece. So when I realized that, I really started enjoying it because it all became about the subtleties, the cultural nuances, trying to get the cultural texture right, and then using the time to really have the luxury to work with great detail with the great group of actors that the film has. So I think it's not about reinventing. It's about honoring what made the first story work, but at the same time, try to look for new sparkles, new discoveries,

and especially to find new things because what we are observing this time is not only a different cultural context but a different group of human beings that are interpreting these roles, especially Gloria, human beings that are that are interpreting these roles especially gloria you know because this is such an a strong portrait of a woman because we see her from every possible angle going through the entire emotional spectrum she's always framed there's no one frame in the film where her body is not at. So if you change the actress slash woman that is interpreting the role, then in a very subtle way, but in a very deep way, somehow everything changes.

How much time did you spend in the US when you started writing this and then started making it? Did you feel like you had the sort of command of this, maybe some of the differences of the character in Gloria and the character in Gloria Bell I did come um three times to LA and spent several days here um driving around with someone that was explaining me um the mysteries of this uh I think you captured some some real LA stuff I mean this is a hard city to to grasp. It is. Because there are so many cities within LA.

And of course, I had been here many times. But it's different when it comes to try to portrait it in a film. But then I was just coming out of my experience in London with disobedience, where it wasn't too dissimilar. I had been in London many times and I had to try to understand it. But then you really focus on the needs of the film or the story. So you don't have to understand the entire city in order to make it work. You have to just learn about what's essential to the story.

And it was an interesting process to find the translations, like the L.A. translations to what the story was asking or demanding. I thought you really captured even just the kind of mundanity of sitting in your car and listening to music and then losing yourself in the listening to music. There's something very precise about that. What about the other people that were in the film that are not julianne did you encourage them to watch the first film and and compare notes or did you say let's make this an entirely separate project if you can no i think it happened naturally uh the fact that

they read the script and then they wanted to to watch the original film um but then we we never talked about the original film again it was kind of like a way for them to i suppose to to understand the the general tonality but then we were so to say flying solo if you know what i'm trying to say like we were not like going back to the original film while shooting, not at all. Was there any part of you that feared the repetition? Or did at any point did you feel like, I'm only going to be able to make so many films, so I feel like I may have already told this story.

Did you ever have any sort of doubts about doing it this way, even though you got a chance to do it with Julianne and do it in a new city? Was there any? Oh, yes. Yes at the at the beginning i i um i had some natural resistance coming from within um because there is this um understandable prejudice against remakes because usually remakes are made by usually usually, in general, by a different director, especially American remakes. And they somehow, for reasons that are never the same, but they end up kind of like betraying the soul of the original story. And of course, as a creative person,

you want to have the feeling that you're moving forward. So I was like, I was so busy with my two films that I was about to shoot, that that made sense to say to Julianne, you know, I will make these two films first, and then we can get into this new adventure and When actually after shooting a fantastic woman and disobedience, I felt that I was in a place as a filmmaker where I could afford the luxury of

revisit my own materials and trying to resignify them and and Actualize them but then I was living in Berlin and I met with my most radical cinephile friends, maybe hoping that they would say to me, don't do it because, you know, for whatever reasons. And I remember my friend Paz from Berlin Film Festival said to me, wow, that sounds so great. Do you love Julianne moore and i was like of course i mean i adore her i think she's one of the greatest actresses working today but who

does his own remake i said to her and she said to me well exactly you know what if you can make it really live again wouldn't that be kind of like in a certain way like a shock to the establishment you know yeah uh i think you did that and that was really exciting as a as an artistic talent and as a as a challenge as a creative challenge yes what was your is there an emblematic julianne moore role that you love the most that you say that this is the actress that I love like your favorite oh it's hard to name just one just one film but I would say um safe and then Magnolia uh two of my favorites as well so so great and and then I really like um you know what I I always like what she does. Like, even if I don't like the films that much necessarily,

she's always so excellent. It's always a pleasure to watch her on screen. And it was a real luxury to be able to work with her and to film her you know um what was the what was the process like tell me about it because she is she has that cliche thing where she tends to disappear into the role you know she becomes the person that's uh you you tend to feel that so what what is it like to work with her what is the conversation like are you talking every day about every move that you're making or does she sort of have a conception of the character in golf and bring it on set? No, there was a lot of conversation, especially at the beginning of the shooting.

But I never felt that we were struggling to find the right territory. I remember when we were doing the first custom tests and light test, you know, and Julianne put on the first option of spectacles, of glasses, and then did something with her hair and the light moved a little bit and suddenly we all felt that, wow, Gloria is there, you know? And, uh, and she looked into the monitor and it was like, yeah, okay, there's Gloria. I know. And there, there is a magic to that, you know? I mean, I think that comes from her, well, the mysteries of her talent, you know? Uh, and then during the shooting, um, there was great complicity. And I was always feeling that after each take,

it was all about looking for more refinement, more subtlety and more layers. So it was really, really, yeah, a pleasure. You know, I felt like i was watching the film each time i i would uh film her and i would forget to say cut because i was like into it what about john turturro i think this is a uh really really strong performance from him and i i thought he was an inspired choice for this character so how did he end up becoming a part of this i mean of course i i love john torturo and and there was something exciting about this combination this um cinematic couple you know because it's it's an unexpected choice i think

the only time if i'm not wrong that they have been together in a film is in the biggie yes but they never shared a scene so uh this is the first time that they are sharing a in a film is in the biggie yes but they never shared a scene so uh this is the first time that they are sharing a frame a scene you know so so we've never seen them together and they are such a great you know couple of um and then john is um capable of um you know reaching level of complexities that are super delicate. And the role that he's playing is a hard one because he's playing someone that is really trying to be better and to move on to the next level.

He's changing and he's willing to grow. And I think he's really like falling in love with Gloria, but maybe she's just too much for him. And of course he has his issues and he's hiding a few things. And in a certain way, he's representing a type of masculinity that is perplexed and lost and is maybe slightly weak. And to do that with dignity is quite difficult. and lost and is maybe slightly weak, you know, and to do that with dignity is quite difficult.

And I think he really, well, nailed it, you know? Yeah, there are so many, one thing I love about your films, there's so many unspoken emotions that you're getting across, that your actors are getting across. It's not always on the surface, especially, I thought specifically with the Turturro character here, and in part, I think you're right, he is able to convey something so complex. Do you have to have a conversation about that and say, here's what the character is feeling

in this moment, but there's no dialogue for that feeling. You just have to show us that there is insecurity and also rage and also excitement all at the same time. Is there a literal conversation about that? No, I think, I mean, sometimes, but I think it's just probably something that happens because of the type of dynamic that I tend to try to offer in a film set. You know, I hate tense sets. I get tense.

How do you keep the set loose? I don't know. I mean, I just need them to know that I will take care of them, that they can dare and be foolish and be brave and try things out and that I will protect them at the end in the editing room and there's no, you know, no one will be judging anything, that the shooting is a moment for creation and exploration and et cetera. And I would love to feel the same level of trust coming from their side, you know, like that they will jump off the cliff

and really trust that I will take care of them, you know, like that they will jump off the cliff and, and, and, and really, um, trust that I will take care of them, you know, and, and once that is there, then, um, then I think all kinds of subtleties are, are, are, are suddenly, uh, possible to grasp by the camera because they are, they are somehow, um, stepping out of their comfort zones and and and they are trying things out and and um so things um there is a certain yeah complexity and a very uh lively quality to what they are doing that the i think that the camera tends to love that you know because you're watching so many things happening at the same time, as you were saying.

It's not only one emotion, you know, it's the overlapping of many, many things. And usually what they are verbally saying has nothing to do with what they are, well, probably feeling inside. Where does your interest in these female characters come from? Because I know that's sort of an obvious question, but it's now maybe four or five films in a row in which they're really at this, as you said,

in the center of the frame in every frame in your film. So why these figures, why are you drawn to them? Where does that come from? Well, you know what? I have been, um,

facing this question, uh, after making, uh, disobedience because, facing this question after making Disobedience, because I made the original Gloria, A Fantastic Woman, and Disobedience, and then they started to talk about the trilogy of The Strong Woman. And I was like, what? What are you talking about? It's easy for us to just put things in buckets, you know,

and just say, oh, he's that kind of filmmaker. I know, but I know it does make sense if you look backwards and connect the dots, of course. I mean, I haven't been making films about, I don't know, like aliens. Maybe your next trilogy. Maybe, but there is a tendency. But what I'm trying to say is that I haven't been operating strategically.

It has been the result of following an intuition and what moves me. There's something about, you know, taking these characters, in this case these female characters that are somehow on the fringes of either society or mainstream narratives and put them in the at the absolute center and and and these characters that uh usually should not deserve a film uh these films are saying to them you you are a film you know you deserve a film and and this film will be your film so there's aspect to to the approach that is kind of like a love letter towards these characters. But at the same time, it is an examination.

And so we get to see their lights and shadows. And it's not just, you know, it can be at times very tough. I'm talking about the portrait, you know, so you see all the dimensions of this woman. And there's something about that that has been really just inspiring. I don't know, exciting. Are these women pure invention or are they pulled from people you've come across in your life? In the case of Gloria and Gloria Bell, Gloria is kind of like a collage made out of bits and pieces of women I know. Some things of my mother, some things of many female friends of my mother,

and of the result of many years sitting at their table, listening, you know, drinking some pisco sour and listening to their anecdotes. Yeah. That I didn't know at the beginning that that could become film material. But I was always happy to sit with them and really impressed by their anecdotes. Because there is something about becoming older in a youth-oriented society, there is a cruel process,

a strange process of becoming invisible, especially in that generation. At least the stories I was listening to, I was hearing, they were usually related to men that weren't necessarily the ideal choice. You know what I mean? So there's something about that generation that seemed very interesting.

Yeah, it's the age of compromise too, right? You're sort of like, I only have this much time left. So the way that I move forward with the rest of my life, it's not going to be perfect. My mom was a single woman who had a similar experience. So I was projecting probably some personal feelings, especially in watching Glory Bell. There's something very precise about what you hit on there. Right, right. Well, there is that dimension, which is a certain urgency because raised under a group of values that are now kind of like collapsing.

Yeah. You can go to a club and go home with a guy and it's fine. Exactly. So the idea of marriage until the end of your days, it's not necessarily the only way now and then uh becoming i don't know close to 60 years old doesn't mean that you're going to you know have to retreat to your home and and and watch tv or read until you die and not at all i mean life is longer now and that brings, well, everything that life implies, you know? So there's more adventures, more romance, more problems, more challenges, more growth, etc. You also really focus on portraying, I think, the sensuality and sexuality of these women.

And that feels like it's a common refrain in the movies. You know what what is that about for you is that just about saying that this is the entire life of these people and this is also something that happens in their lives well yeah i mean for sure there is that uh that aspect to it because um if you're portraying the life of of a character in this case of these female characters, it would feel slightly like an omission not to take care of the, of the erotic dimension of their lives. Um, but at the same time,

there is a more, uh, kind of like political reason to it because for some, I mean, because I think that, uh, the, the,

the private is political you know it's kind of like the the the ultimate frontier of what uh of of where the tension between the commitments of the of society or of the collective collide with uh the individual desires and freedom. So it's the first line of a word. How do you call that? The front line. It's the front line, yeah. How did your career change after the Oscar?

I'm curious about that. Well, it's been quite strange because, you know, I, I, um, I made a fantastic woman and then right away I shot Disobedience and Gloria Bell. And then, uh, the Oscar thing happened. Yeah. So. You were savvy to line them up beforehand because you never know. Well, the thing is that I, of course, I didn't know that a fantastic woman was going to win an Oscar. And I thought right after winning the Oscar and when I had to release Disobedience last year, and now that I'm promoting Gloria Bell, I thought, whoa, I'm so blessed because I'm kind of like avoiding the problem of what to do after the Oscar. Yes.

And then I realized, I recently realized that that's not the case. But now I have to really after the Oscar. Yes. And then I realized, I recently realized that that's just not the case. But now I have to really deal with that, you know, and now the things I'm thinking to do today, you know, the things that I will start writing

are for me the films, the after the Oscar films. So... Is that going to change the dynamic, do you think? Does that mean more money, more opportunity, bigger stars? Like what will happen because of that think? Does that mean more money, more opportunity, bigger stars?

Like what will happen because of that? I think there is more interest for sure. More interesting interest for sure. And in many fronts, you know, I mean, I feel really lucky because there is interest from actors and actresses to work with me. And of course, it's mutual and then financiers. So it seems that it's going to be less difficult. Is this playing out the way you expected? Did you think that your career would progress in this fashion

and then you'd come to Hollywood? Not at all. No, no, no. What did you think was going to happen? I had no idea, you know, because you have to understand I come from Chile and our industry there is super fragile. It's very thin.

I wanted to ask you about that. Yeah, so either you do the films with your own hands or nothing happens. No one will ring you to offer you a script, for example. It's not how it works here. So my dream has always been to find ways to film all my life. And then the way in which that has been unfolding it has been really surprising but um i never thought okay i'm going to you know do gloria and that's going to be a pop film that

will allow me to enter into a system of uh you know whatever holly Hollywood or filming in English. No, that wasn't my way of thinking. I just wanted to make a film that, you know, to really try to reach out and connect. But that was the film that changed everything for me. That was when I became aware of you. Yeah, that was really when I learned who you were, started to see your films. So is this what you think this is what you'll do now

when you make films in America and English? Is that sort of your aspiration or will you could you return to chile or spain or anywhere else well again i mean i i um i don't know um the films i'm preparing now are are in english i would love to keep filming in in spanish but who knows where things will go. And again, as long as I'm able to tell stories that really move me and inspire me, I will be there. Either it's in English or Spanish or French. Are there kinds of films that you want to make? Obviously, you were joking about making an alien movie. But are there sort of like bigger, not tentpole necessarily, but like a musical or a Western or things like that that you aspire to as well? Or is the sort of character-driven, dramatic form the style that you like to work in?

No, no. I mean, yeah, I do have a natural tendency towards character-driven stories, and I love working with actors. But one of my dreams is to do sci-fi at some point. I'd love to see your sci-fi movie. Yeah, and I've always wondered what would happen if the way in which I direct actors... It's often missing from sci-fi movies. Well, they feel very real you know and unusually not always but usually um in in sci-fi films uh even in grounded sci-fi um there is

something about the acting style that feels like serving the idea as opposed to the story following the characters you know um of course there are lots of great exceptions, but I've always wondered what would happen if the vibrant quality of characters that inhabit some of the films I've made would mingle or mix with a sci-fi element. Like, how would that feel like? I'd like to see it. Do it. You can do that.

Okay. I end every episode of the show by asking filmmakers what's the last great thing that they have seen. What is the last great thing that you have seen? Well, I have to say that it's Roma. Yeah? What did you love about it? So many things. I mean, the gesture of going, Alfonso Cuarón's gesture

of going back to his childhood, his memories, and come out masters of cinema and a certain tradition. And I think it's quite remarkable the fact that a film in Spanish, in black and white, with a transcendental style, has been the film that everyone has been talking about. So it feels like cinema is back and it's relevant again. And that's really exciting. And if you add that, the spicy and quite disorientating component that that film was financed by Netflix, it only adds more complexity to it. And I think it's kind of like a good photography

of the crossroads that we are all going through in this industry. You know, they killed cinema 10 years. And now we are again in that moment where cinema is dying. And I really don't get why why netflix opposes to really give the films the chance to exist in in theaters i am big believer in the collective experience of watching a film i think that the cultural relevance of a film has a lot to do with

the theatrical experience and the entire circuit that that implies the critics the conversations etc but at the same time i do think that cinema is um it's not a stream service it's not uh it's not 35 it's not a format you know cinema is a language and as long as it's spoken and it's expanded it will be alive so in that sense So in that sense, I tend to be an optimist, you know, even though I'm very concerned. I just couldn't conceive a city without theaters, without film theaters. That's all. That's an open-hearted and empathetic answer. I like your films. Sebastian, thank you for doing this. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.