The Daily Zeitgeist - 2023's Most Underrated/Overrated Movies

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

In this special holiday episode, Jack is joined by Supers Producers Anna, Becca, Victor, Bryan the Editor, and writer JM McNab to discuss some of the most underrated, overrated, and appropriately rated films of 2023See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just

starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this very special year-end episode of

Dirt Daily Night Guys, a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into American shared consciousness. And it is Thursday, December 28, 2023. My name's Jack O'Brien, and I'm thrilled to be joined by my very special co-host, super producer, Ana Hosnia! Yeah, hi. Yeah. How are you? How the heck are you? Yeah. I'm good. Great to see you again you've been on the road on a journey you've come back to it to our shores uh we're thrilled to have you back

to talk to us for a very special movie episode yeah yeah glad to be back interesting you said our shores as if we are sort of an independent country here which we are not so maybe knock that off uh anna we today are talking we're taking a look back at the year in movies um a weird year in movies because of the strike i i realized how much i'm reliant on like actor interviews to like find out that movies are coming out. Um, sure. So we're casting a wide net of people who have seen movies from our shores.

Sorry. Was that yet? That was what you told me not to say from our independent land, a Republic of daily is like, guys, is that better um oh boy oh dear um first of all we're thrilled to be joined by the writer of our very show uh it is mr he does it all come to us from the great north it's mr jm mcnab hello thanks for having me yeah i love movies the mcnabba was happening that's how it's pronounced yes yes you're going to give us a uh canadian movie review uh because you so you you watch canadian movies i have to assume right we get

movies a little later so my best of 2023 list includes uh beverly hills cop uh let's see what else classic the train coming into the station we just got that that was scary blew me away yeah you hear about it and you're like no spoilers and then you watch it and it's like you can't spoil that thing man it's just scary no matter what yeah um everyone fled in terror yes um we're also thrilled to be joined welcome back to the show super producer becca ramo hello hello i'm back yay and i love movies you love movies you've seen so many movies um i have seen a lot of movies this year even though the strike was going on yeah i know you you are not as reliant on you don't just sit around watching cable tv waiting for leonardo dicaprio to be interviewed

to tell you that a new leo movie up. Being chronically online on TikTok. So I'm being served like every movie a second. I've never heard of that. An ad comes out. They're like, yeah, so I'm a TV and film critic and I've already reviewed this movie. So let's get into it. And I'm going to give you everything about it in 30 seconds. And I'm like, check.

Yeah. Gonna go. Oh, so that's what you're counting as having seen a movie, having seen a TikTok summaryok summary by a critic recap of the movie so i've seen everything yes um we're also thrilled to be joined by super producer brian jeffries hi it's me i am here he has seen 14 movies um this year only 14 movies ever so yeah this is my first year movie. We were all trying to figure out how many movies we'd seen. I think we came out 14 is the maximum that a human being can see.

In 2023. We're also thrilled to be joined by Super Producer Victor Wright. Hello. I love movies. I love consuming. Wow. How exciting. Are you lying? content are you lying he's never seen a movie before yeah um we have so just you know there are other podcasts that have like you know film critics who host um and you know that's their claim

to authority is that oh you know i watch movies for a living. We have on this podcast three different people who saw The Pope's Exorcist this year, which seems impossible to me, and yet, here we are. Oh, wait, I just remembered another movie I saw

and immediately forgot, and it continued. Just write it down, Brian. Don't forget um i did see the trailer where uh russell crowe says talk to my boss the pope um and that's i felt like that was all i needed to see he does say that in the movie that's the only review i need for that movie he does say it in the movie and i thought it was gonna be way scarier than it was it was super campy in my yeah the pope's exorcist but that's why it's so good because it's a perfect airplane movie you know you're gonna laugh a little about how bad the actors are you're like

russell crowe a like award-winning actor in this movie with the worst actress of all time. The mother in the movie is horrible. She's never been in a movie before. And she's like, my kids! My husband died and I was gifted this house in Italy. What do I do? It's haunted.

And then some Latino pope also comes in. Or not Pope. Priest? I should know. Who wants to follow in the footsteps of Russell Crowe, the Pope's exorcist. He wants to be the next Pope's exorcist. But he's a bad person.

Because he had sex. And priests aren't supposed to have sex. Not on my watch. Not my Pope's Exorcist. All right. That was not the most successful movie that came out this year. Shut up. It wasn't even the most successful exorcism movie that came out this year.

That's true. Although the other one didn't do that well, did it? Yeah, that's true. It was also bad. Yeah. And it was bad it was so because the reason i like the pope's exorcist is because it is camp the exorcist believer is just boring schlog you know just nothing so when russell crowe comes out and he's like john mcclain just being kind of an exorcist, you know? Yeah. Then oh, okay, I could buy that. But Believer

is so boring, you know? They should have had the end of Exorcist Believer have Russell Crowe show up like Nick Fury. Putting together a team. Putting together a team, yeah. Yeah. Fast and Furious

Eyes, the exorcist universe. Not enough, not enough, on enough, wow, I can't speak, not on enough lists from the Google Doc.

I didn't see enough Fast and Furious on the list. Well. Came out this year and it was really good. I was shocked to remember that it came out this year. It was the number five

movie at the global box office pulling in $704 million, but it didn't even like crack the top 15 in the United States. So this was the year that like the fast franchise officially ran out of gas. That's right. It's a car flamworth, um, at the U S box office.

Nobody, nobody care. Well, that wasn't one of the first movies to like really first big movies to come back after the pandemic like that people were actually actually wanted to see that was past nine nine yeah oh was that nine that was nine baby yeah that was like the first shit in like may i think yeah i'm i'm missing some time they're cranking these babies out yeah um and maybe because fast nine was bad oh yeah because fast nine they went to space right that was the space yeah it was like

they went too far they were like how how did we go so far we strayed so far from the plot but they brought it back in fast 10 i don't think people gave fast 10 a fate like they didn't trust in the process that Fast 10 would be better than Fast 9. Fast 10 is a two-parter, right? There's another part coming out. I will reserve judgment until I see part 2.

Spider-Man across the universe, or across the Spider-Verse, also a two-parter. Like, first part of a two-parter. And Mission Impossible. Yeah, and Mission Impossible. the spider verse also a two-parter like first part of a two-parter which i was surprised yeah yeah and mission impossible yeah across the spider verse is like very much like it just ends in the middle of a movie plot just like oh well i guess we're out of time here um well we'll do another one um and it's very like the fact that it was as successful as it was like both successful box office wise but also just i think it was widely agreed on as like a very

successful film is is pretty wild i think we're more on board with that because of streaming maybe um but though that that sequel won't be out for a while i don't think because they were saying it was going to come out next march and then i think hayley steinfeld or someone said she hadn't even recorded her lines for it yet which would come before the animation obviously so yeah we're probably not going to see that in our lifetime yeah um just generally did you guys feel like there were any movies that i mean i guess we're already discovering that but movies that like kind of snuck up and surprised you or like came out and you didn't even notice they came out um yeah i i got i got one for sure what's that uh

so it's a movie called cobweb it's a very small horror movie that came out the day that Oppenheimer and Barbie came out and just no one knows. Oh yeah. No, I don't. I think it got a theatrical release, but yeah. Like who would know? Yeah. Do you think those producers were trying to like make Barb and Heimer web happen?

I don't know what they were thinking. It's like, i guess they couldn't it's not up to them when it comes out or whatever but i would have i would have moved yeah well maybe they were like because the strike was like impending they were like well this is yeah before a strike while the iron's hot yeah July was a wild time. That was also when my favorite film of the year, I guess we can talk about our top ten, The Sound of Freedom came out.

Jack. Not on mic, Jack. I can only cut around so much, Jack. I'll only talk to you guys about how good that one is off mic. That is one that one is off mic. That is one that came out though. And it is in the top 10,

I think top 12 us box office. It feels like it came out forever ago. Every time I hear it, I'm like, didn't that come out in like 2020? Like, I don't know. It feels like it's always been there.

Like the Bible, Becca. I feel like people talked about it for like four months and it was only in the theater for like six weeks maybe yeah well all right well i was just gonna say when they were talking about it they were talking about like theaters in quotation marks like sabotaging the film or something yeah right it was never about the movie movie was about like some conspiracy Around the movie the movie being sabotage. Yeah, well the people who planned the plan Demick needed something else to plan

And so they planned, you know Stopping that movie from being as successful as it should have been it should have dusted Oppenheimer and Barbie in my opinion. Um Should have dusted Oppenheimer and Barbie, in my opinion. All right. Do we want to go through the critical top 10? Should we go through the box office top 10?

Stop where we have? How about, does everybody want to just go around and give a stray observation about a movie they saw this year? Sure. A stray. Okay, Anna. A stray. Did you see any this year? Sure. Okay, Anna. A Stray. Did you see any Stray movies? Yeah, I would say every movie I watched was a Stray. I mean, there's two movies I saw that I would say really,

and this just might be from my perspective, sort of controlled the universal uh zeitgeist and obviously that was barbie and oppenheimer what and i do think now this also might be sort of my own perspective on things um that it was very hard i, this year to compete with those two films. Yeah. Now, is that sort of a crazy opinion? Now, so they were like, and I'm going out on a limb here. Successful.

Yeah, I feel like the rest of the year, like a lot of films fell under the shadow of those two giants, if you will. films fell under the shadow of those two giants, if you will. The Barbenheimer epidemic is sort of what we experienced, and thus you did not really get to enjoy other films. And then, on top of all that, a TV writers and actors strike happened, which then really, really sort of snubbed out a lot of stuff because no one could promote it you couldn't really talk about it uh to be in solidarity with the strikes so we had a very interesting year you know it came in so hot with barbie and oppenheimer and then it was just like oh radio silence you can't talk about anything else so

really no one had a chance yeah outside of barbenheimer and i was in such solidarity with the writers that i wouldn't even talk about movies in my personal life i was just doing i mean yeah that's what you're supposed to do jack yeah no you're being sarcastic but i actually do hope you were in solidarity so i i went and saw you know movies and then just came out and guilted anybody who was like talking about them to their you know you weren't

supposed to go see movies I think that's like the whole point of Strike is that right interesting yeah you weren't supposed to do anything you weren't supposed

to exist wow you're a bad person you were supposed to actually just figure out how to disappear just yeah I think I mentioned

at one point like I didn't realize Killers of the Flower Moon was out and like until after it was out and that's the sort of thing I would normally get up for but I really

it was really embarrassing how much I'm reliant on media PR teams because I almost completely missed that I mean that's understandable because it's an Apple production

and nobody, apparently, there's lots of good shows on Apple that nobody knows about because they... No one wants to pay for it? Of course, I don't want to pay for it. It's very weird because Apple is known

for their marketing prowess, but not with their TV wing, I guess. They want to keep it a secret. That's how you make something that's really cool. Actually, I'll shout out some Apple TV television I really enjoyed. On the streaming episode. You gotta save it. That's a separate episode.

The streaming episode? What are we talking about here? Movies? God damn it. Sorry. I don't know who I am, what I am. Okay, fine. I won't acknowledge tv at all i will say the barbenheimer stuff though i feel like even made me forget about what movies had come out pre-barbenheimer yeah like i really had to dig on a list and be like okay what was i

marketed what did i actually watch and like go into theaters like i forgot fast x was this year and i like made a big deal i took like 10 people to the movies we we did a whole thing it took me like six months to get around to watching fast x and i was excited to watch a fast like it just took me that long like magic mike's last dance I forgot about that one yeah that was this year so fun that was a great film like fun but we got to see um Channing Tatum really really sort of dance up on Salma Hayek which in my opinion was like worth the weird plot oh absolutely it was 100 that like 10 minute dancing and it was beautifully 10 minutes. They needed it to be...

It was not... It was savoring. You could just... And they gave it to you right at the beginning, too. They were like, we're in this. You don't have to wait. All right. Should we take a...

Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about some themes that we saw across the top movies of the year. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films

and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades.

Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions, like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is

usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it? Like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them boys. I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch.

She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better.

This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the black effect podcast network iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast the black effect podcast network is sponsored by diet coke and we're back and so i was just looking i was looking through the critics top 10 list like a compendium of the critic top 10 list. Metacritic used to do this. Uh,

then they redesigned Metacritic, uh, along with, with the overarching idea to make it a worse website, I think. And it's just like, not, they don't do that anymore.

And I'd seen, I think the top five, I think I'd seen all the movies in the top five and then a smattering across. You got your Killers of the Flower Moon at number one. You got your Oppenheimer at number two. You got May, December, Past Lives, the Korean film, and then Barbie coming in in hot number five um and then you know uh across

spider verse is in there uh at number 12 uh so i feel like i mean the one most notable thing is that like there's a lot of highly successful movies in the top 10 and that doesn't usually happen doesn't always doesn't usually happen um also the Asteroid City the latest Wes Anderson movie is like at number 8 I did not like that movie but people apparently liked it

it was bad I fucking hated it you gotta put something on the list I put that on the list we got this number 8 spot we don't understand. You gotta put something on the list. You gotta put something on the list. Like we got this number eight spot. We don't know what to do with it.

I made a category that was movies that felt so pushed that made me made it impossible to watch, which was Asteroid City. Even though I did watch it,

I put no hard feelings on that list. Anyone but you, the newest rom-com with what's her face, Sidney Sweeney, Ferrari, Flamin' Hot, Sidney Sweeney, Ferrari, Flamin' Hot,

White Men Can't Jump, and 80 for Brady. To me, those were supposed to be blockbusters. They looked so bad, I hated all of them. Yeah. You felt like they were pushed too hard? Yeah, like they were like, these are gonna be so fun, funny, or like some of them were Oscar baity, like I feel like Ferrari these are gonna be so fun, funny, or like some of them were Oscar bait-y.

Like, I feel like Ferrari's really big Oscar bait. And... I feel like the... If I had to summarize thematically, like some common threads, I'd say one is are we the bad guys?

Like, I know... I keep bringing up that Mitchellitchell and webb sketch where they're nazis and they're like wait are we are we the bad guys because they have like skulls on all their uh nazi uniforms footnotes of every show yeah you can because it's gonna keep coming up but like i don't know uh the Flower Moon, making ugly bad teeth Leonardo DiCaprio, the protagonist of that movie, is wild. I don't think there's ever been a more

unlikable protagonist since maybe Dan Santa for Santa University fans. Claims he can read and does look like shit, but the parts where he claims he can read aren't convincing um oppenheimer obviously the whole point is oppenheimer being like maybe that was

a bad idea and then like america as one just like raking him over the coals um you know may december obviously not a super uh charming or super like easy to like protagonist there's child predator and then you know a not very likable movie star um and then there's there's another one zone of interest uh that i feel like is a similar plot to barbie and i haven't seen i haven't seen zone of interest can you explain that one the subject is a nazi officer who's trying to create a little like zone of peace and normalcy right next to auschwitz like where his family lives which feels like an appropriate metaphor for i think i think it's trying to be a metaphor for the modern condition of an American. I'm excited for this one. I'm a big Jonathan Glazer fan.

Yeah. Barbie similarly lives in her own dream world that is mainly used to fuel consumption. It's obviously not as bleak as Auschwitz, but I feel like, I don't know, you guys were talking about the movie

Cobweb before we started recording and you said gaslighting and I feel like gaslighting is a like both coming coming to terms with being the bad guy of history and also like gaslighting and being gaslit like it seems to be seems to be a central thing that people are kind of coming around to that's so that's my theme of movies in 2023 i have one for horror um i don't know if it ever went away but i feel like exorcism movies or at least like religion and horror was kind of a big deal in 2023 i'm looking at the list here and it's like the nun to pope's exorcist that we just talked about the sequel to the original exorcist

and then even like we started the year off with knock at the cabin do you remember that movie yeah yeah yeah where it was a group of essentially religious fundamentalists torturing a like gay family and they were proven right and they're right yeah exactly and it's like i don't know it just feels like evil dead rise also different version but it's like kind of possession and exorcism and religion coming into horror um it feels like previous years it'd be more focused on like slashers or uh existential horror but this year religion felt very very big this year i don't know why yeah probably because of like satanic panic coming back a little bit or, you know, given the political climate, people reacting. Yeah. That's my take. I mean, I'm a trad, trad wife.

Yeah. We're on trad wife talk. like when you when you sort of indoctrinate speaking of gaslighting when you indoctrinate children into religions with a lot of spooky imagery that's baked in that i feel like that's just going to be effective throughout life just pulling from that and throwing that in a film and like yeah that's gonna hit something you know deep in the subconscious probably yeah spooky um and did you guys see uh skinnamarink i did not i don't even know what you just said i didn't hear about it though it was like yeah it became a big thing on tiktok it was it's like a canadian guy made it and it's uh it's a horror movie about essentially the plot if you can call it that it's like a canadian guy made it and it's uh it's a horror movie about essentially the plot if you can call it that it's just like a kid uh like a four-year-old kid and his sister's

parents just disappear from their house and it's all it's basically like an art house movie like you don't even see any human faces really but it's very much like like what you're saying about like the things that scare you as a kid being religion coming back like this feels like a movie someone made because of they were able to kind of access the things that scared them as a kid like it feels like you're in a nightmare you had and like you know when you were six years old or something uh yeah it was it was uh so i'd read a lot about it but it was uh it was it was better than i thought it would be it was actually like uh i thought it'd be a bit more like an intellectual uh exercise but it was it was

really uh evocative i thought it was good and uh and worth checking out i heard completely mixed reviews on that one where they described it exactly how you did of oh there's not really a plot it's about like recreating a nightmare from childhood and half of the people i talked to absolutely loved it and then the other half just despised that movie so yeah i love divisive movie if your movie has a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, it's probably my favorite movie. There's something about 60%. Five Nights at Freddy's was the big horror movie success. Okay, I saw it. I don't know how I felt about it.

It was very... It was like a fun ride, but I hated the ending. I was like, really? This is how we chose to end the movie? I didn't see it. Apparently, it's like very culty. Like there's like a whole like underground community of people who are fans of this. Yeah.

And that's why I watched it because I kept hearing about this like people who are like making fan fiction and like all this stuff. I was like, what are they talking about? So I watched the movie and I was like, I still don't get it. And I was like deep on Reddit trying to figure out what the fuck is this about? Yeah, I still didn't get it. I guess it's based off a video game. And that's why now the video game lore goes so deep for so many years now that like you're

just you're in the dust. You're in the dust. Yeah. I was like, there's nothing I can do. I've just been sucked in and I give up. It's but I do think it like ties back to what you're you guys were talking about because it's a like chucky cheese style environment and chucky cheese style animatronics like come to life and kill right which i feel like it is probably something that occurred to a child who spent time around chucky

cheese well that's why they kill. Oh, you mean like in real life? Yeah, yeah. I was like, they're children. That's why they kill, because they want to indoctrinate another child. Right. Yeah, yeah. And like a lot of the, you know, not just in horror, but

you know, Barbie, obviously a childhood toy, Super Mario Brothers childhood toy. Like, this is the top movies at the worldwide box office. Barbie, Super Mario Brothers movie, Oppenheimer. We all played with our Oppenheimer action figures growing up. Absolutely. Our medieval scientists. Making a fight, Truman.

With laser sounds. Wait, speaking of games, I saw that you had jack on the dock one of the themes of being like brand movies did anyone watch the tetris movie there was a tetris movie yeah with what's his name um the guy who played an elgort yeah tetris edgerton no uh tetris edgerton yeah what you said what's his. The guy who played Elton John, right? Elton, yeah. You know what? I just realized what my

theme for this year was. Brand movies. How many brand movies were this year? A lot. There was Nike, there was Cheetos, there was Tetris now. Oh my god, I forgot about the Nike movie. Barbie was kind of... Mario was a brand movie. there was cheetos there was tetris now oh my god i forgot about the nike movie barbie was like kind

of mario's a brand movie it was very metal like mario is like you know a brand movie in the sense that it's like taking place in the world of the brand but like barbie is like a self-aware like meta commentary where in which the brand exists and people people are like, granted, nobody's making a claim that this is actually how Barbies came to be or anything like that. Well, I guess they did, right? They have a character who is the inventor of Barbies. So yeah.

It was kind of the ultimate brand movie and also the ultimate movie and the most successful movie. That's the theme of 23 is branding. I mean, basically Matt Damon plays the same character in Air and Oppenheimer. Yeah. The root of all evil is actually marketing. We're learning.

Oppenheimer is about the creation of the American brand. Maybe. I don't know. But I brought up Tetris to say that it was awful. It was awful. It was some of the worst acting I have seen in a long time. I was shook at how bad it was. I really love hated the plot hole of like Taron Egerton's character marrying this Japanese woman and like living in Japan and basically working for his own Japanese gaming company with his wife. And that's kind of, I mean, obviously it's based on a real story, but

point being he is married to this Japanese woman. They have children. He speaks no Japanese. They live in Japan. He speaks no Japanese. He speaks only English to his children. His children only speak Japanese to him. So it's clear he supposedly in this universe understands Japanese, but he obviously the actor did not want to learn how to speak any lines in Japanese or didn't have the capacity. I don't know, but I thought it was

the biggest plot hole that he had this Japanese wife that only spoke in Japanese and his children only spoke in Japanese and they lived in Japan and he couldn't speak any Japanese. He'd like talk to Japanese and they lived in Japan and he couldn't speak any Japanese. He'd like talk to Japanese. I mean, the people of Nintendo, he like went and talked to them and he came in there with his American energy in English and they all spoke to him in Japanese.

I was like, what is this? Are we sure that's not historically accurate? Because like, I know people who like only speak to their parents in English, but then their parents speak back to them in their native language. I don't know. I don't know if it was historically accurate, but I thought it was very funny and very off-putting that he just kept being so American, storming

into these rooms, being like, I need to get shit done, and I will solve these problems and be the best business person ever. And Russia and Tokyo, and was just like, in his American way, and be the best business person ever in Russia and Tokyo and was just like, in his American way

and refused to learn any of the cultural touch points or languages of any of the things that he did. But let me know, guys, if that was historically accurate. I was just off-put. He played the tall, skinny Tetris block, right?

He went like this? Yeah. The L. Maybe that actor was just like you know not gonna learn a second language for the tetris movie that's absolutely how i felt about it like it felt like a rocket man 2 on the back burner yeah like it felt like more that he did not want to and or was not capable of maybe jizzing up a little you know japanese jizzing versus uh it being historically accurate and it just it felt like when you watched it that's how it felt and it felt off-putting i love the level of historical accuracy that you were checking for in the tetris movie it felt so off-putting.

The way the kid spoke to him, the way he spoke to his wife. I was like, how are you moving around in Japan just being an able American? This isn't how I remember Tetris. This is not how I remember the story of Tetris. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and look at some more trends

and final thoughts. We'll be right back. and look at some more trends and final thoughts. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.

And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and L.A.-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Never happen again. career, you have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil.

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The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. And we're back. And, J.M., you had another good trend that I noticed. I guess I didn't notice it. I was confused by, in a recent one, I saw the trailer for the Mean Girls musical, which completely hides the fact that it's a musical. And so it just seems like a remake of Mean Girls,

but without an original take on Mean Girls in any way it's just like and the trailer's like from the mind of tina fey i was like yeah no that was the whole point of the first mean girl what the fuck are you guys doing here it's a musical now and it's also a hit on broadway so what are you complaining about yeah i'm complaining that they're hiding the fact that it's no it literally says mean girls the musical on all the posters and if you're checked in the trailer doesn't have any songs in it. There's no songs in the trailer

and they did the same thing with Wonka apparently. This has been a cultural commentary on TikTok. They talked about it with the color purple too. They don't show musical parts usually in trailers. It's just sort of a given. It's a musical.

I do think it's because musicals have not been doing very well. West Side Story and In the Heights both did bad. Tanked. Yeah. Horrible. Yeah. But pre-pandemic, there were some big ones. Like the Hugh Jackman plays a circus guy.

Oh, The Greatest Showman. The Greatest Showman. That was a big hit. Yeah. I mean, that was fun.man plays a circus guy. Oh, The Greatest Showman. That was a big hit. I mean, that was fun. That was a good one. I had no idea The Pope's Exorcist was a musical for you guys. I mean, Russell Crowe. We remember Jean Valjean.

One of our great musical performances. Because it's like, he brings the energy of like, if you ask me to just sing, like that's kind of, it's like, it's very talk singing.

Yeah. Yeah. Nah. Well, the guy historically wouldn't have taken voice lessons. So why should I be able to sing? So why should he? Well,

he has a band. He's a singer in a band. He's one of our great musicians. Oh, yeah. One of our great singers. He's one of our great Broadway stars. But yeah. So I don't know.

Any other trends? Any other movie observations that people want to make? Can I name some movies I liked? Yeah. May, December. I didn't understand anything that was going on great film so unnerving like yeah it's it's a really i'm gonna watch it piano music fucking freaked me out yeah i don't know why todd haynes decided that was the choice but i think he was just trying to go

like full camp i don't know what was happening because i was like what's what do we no one's well here yeah and i think it worked because the music made me feel unwell yeah and i think that was the whole point um is it a comedy sorry i'm just asking it's not a comedy no it's a drama it is very drama okay just describe it as a dark comedy. There's nothing funny happening at all. It's based on that lady who went to jail for having sex with her student and then marrying her. Which admittedly was hilarious. I will say Charlie Melton, incredible performance, have never ever thought about him ever in my life and i was like he is doing a lot i thought and that's it is that it though because i felt like i didn't watch a ton of riverdale he was in one drama

with like yarshi um it was like a while ago i didn't watch a ton like a metric ton of riverdale i watched a lot of riverdale love each episode like three to four times and i think he was also in what's it called the sabrina show um sabrina the new sabrina the teenage witch on Netflix. Oh, yeah. They had like a crossover, like Riverdale and Sabrina. Hell yeah. Crossovered. Don't pretend that you didn't watch far enough to see Jughead doing an alien autopsy.

Absolutely. Which is a thing that happened. It went so crazy. It was so sick. Wait, it goes that, like off the rails? Yes. Yes. Wow.

The set is also starred. That's what I saw him in, in 2019. Is off the rails? Yes. Yes. Wow. This guy is also a star. That's what I saw him in, in 2019. Is he Jughead? No. No. No, okay. He's, like, one of the jocks. Like, he's, like, a football jock.

Yeah. And then he's, like, a warlock in Sabrina. Oh, okay. Hell yeah. That's a good film. Yeah, and then I actually, you know what? This movie, I was surprised how much i ended up liking but no hard feelings it's hilarious with jennifer lawrence really it's

really really funny i was just shitting on it i know well unfortunately it's hilarious well unfortunately you're wrong watch it with hilarious eyes seen it i just was saying oh you haven't seen it i was like you don't get to say it's bad if you haven't seen it i just was saying oh you haven't seen it i was like you don't get to say it's bad if you haven't seen it i will go watch it for you it's really funny i was surprised at how funny i ended up like i i didn't i put it on being like i'll put this on the background and then i was just like oh my god i'm actually cracking up little tiki they did a good job uh and then you know dicks the musical hilarious if you had a chance to see that with uh josh sharp and um aaron jackson aaron jackson yeah very funny bowen yang's in it uh quiz lady with uh aquafina and sandra oh. These are the really enjoyed that one.

I have not. This is the first time I've heard of that. Oh, it looks good. I just missed it. It's pretty funny. Uh, joy ride.

I also really enjoyed joy ride, uh, which a lot of people like shit on, but I thought it was like a really funny movie. I thought it was fun. Yeah. It was a great plane. Good to watch.

I watched it on. Yeah. I watched it on a plane. I watched. Are you there? God, it's me. it was a great plane good to plane watch i watched on yeah i watched on a plane i watched are you there god it's me margaret on a plane um and that was fine um but just going back to the theory of religion i didn't realize the nun too was like a massive hit it was made 268 million dollars um all of those always get like just so much but not the pope's exorcist not that do we think why do we think what happened were people just not well people really love the nun one so i think you know when's the conjuring universe too right yeah it is so because there was not to spoil conjuring cinematic universe but there was like a post-credits scene where the main character from the conjuring

like answers the phone and it's like all right i'll be right there or something it's like oh shit they're really bringing everyone together it is the conjematic Universe. I'm telling you. Well, in that regard, I would recommend The Blackening. Very funny movie. It's a horror, kind of. And then also... Way better than the Scream movie that came out this year, too. The Blackening. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And then also, They Clone Tyrone. I feel like people slept on They Clone Tyrone. That was an incredible film. They Clone Tyrone was great feel like people slept on They Clone Tyrone. That was an incredible film. They Clone Tyrone was great. It just came right to Netflix, right? Yeah. That's a tough way to release a film.

And then I would also, yeah, Past Lives. Incredible. Past Lives is so good. Okay, I am going to have a controversial opinion. I did not like it. I didn't like it. And I feel like did not like it. I didn't like it. And I feel like I'm the only person who didn't like it. I really wanted to.

I love a 24. It felt like it was like a film buffs kind of movie, but I went in and I was kind of like, I don't know. It left me something to be desired. Maybe I need to give it another watch, but yeah, it's a little like slow i went the second

time i watched it was with another person who i was recommending it to and that's like the worst way to watch a movie because they're like oh god speed it up something better happen here fast um i think they ended up liking it but not as much as me but um i will say that that one also top five in critics picks and it also i feel like ties into the thing about like i don't know america not being a good place like our protagonist moves to america to be a pulitzer prize winner and is like i don't know falls back and forth for her childhood sweetheart but it's also like just his like very traditional korean energy as she puts it just so korean um but i yeah i think it all it all fits together of people just being like america fucking sucks man it's a very real story and i appreciated that about it but

it was i think maybe a little too slow for me and I wanted to love it more than I did when I watched it the first time. Yeah. I liked it. I thought they did such a good job. The optimal way to watch that movie is if you're full of crippling regret. It's the best. You're a feel for it. Yeah.

Some other shout outs. feel for it yeah um some other some other shout outs these are just films i enjoyed watching don't think too hard on it now because i know this whole goddamn podcast loves to think way too hard on the sequel to don't think twice don't think too hard on it

now yeah don't think too hard on it now i'll just do a quick round uh Theater Camp, Bottoms, The Outlaws, Mission Impossible, Asteroid City, Magic Mike 3. Those are my just, yeah, you know what? Whatever. It's enjoyable.

Put it on. Enjoy something for once in your life. I just feel like Asteroid City, I think I just want less of the framing shit where it's like, and then this was actually a play that he was put like it's just stop watching Wes Anderson movies

because he never changes it up it's always the same it's like people are like why is this movie exactly like all his other movies and it's like he's an actor what would be nice is if maybe just one time he did he was directing somebody else's material maybe that's not gonna happen you guys you have to let go of these sort of notions

go watch Scorsese like get out of here or maybe you don't go to Wes Anderson and be like let's see how he really let's see how he brought something original to the screen yeah I think part of the problem is he's too nice. Every time he works with an actor, they get along. So now he has casts of like 38 people. Yeah. I like that. I don't know, Edward Norton.

What do you think you should do in this part? I guess we can have a third narrator. I like that comforting aspect of it. You know what you're going to get with a Wes Anderson movie. Yeah, there's a certain comfort. I found it very comforting. I just, yeah, I was frustrated with one aspect of it, and I'm making that be like,

and that's why it sucked, which is definitely not true. It's fun. It's a perfectly pleasant film. That's all it is. The thing I go to Wes Anderson movies for is like a aesthetic like he creates a very good like specific aesthetic and this one he does an amazing job of creating like

a very specific like we've never seen desert storybook weird wes anderson and like this is a fun execution of that for sure this one felt the most like Texas to his roots. In my opinion. The part where Jughead has to cut that alien apart gives the alien an autopsy. It was so weird. Oh man, Betty's mom gets into a cult and the cult leader escapes in a rocket ship.

So crazy. There's nothing like it. That's wild. And the cult leader is Chad Michael Murray. Yeah, it's nothing like it. That's wild. That happens? And the co-leader is Chad Michael Murray? Right, yeah. What? Well, guys, that's a perfect transition

into our streaming review, which is coming next week. But for us, we're going to stop this recording and move right over to there. So that's going to do it. Thank you guys so much for joining Victor, JM, Brian, Becca, Anna.

What a lineup. Anything we missed? Oh, yeah, JM, you wanted to call out all the period sex that was happening. You said, if there's one thing, I have to call this out. You said you had a tight 20 minutes on period sex yeah everybody buckle up okay uh forget barbenheimer yeah no it just it happened in two movies and yeah uh it did feel like it's time had come when i saw it in fair play

which was a movie that i wasn't crazy about, but we covered on the show because it was like written by somebody who was like writing in the tradition of fatal attraction and stuff like that. But when it happened in that, I was like, oh, yeah, why hasn't that happened in more movies? That was fun. Good job. Good job by them. It may happen in more movies, too.

I haven't seen Wonka yet. We just don't know. We don't know. And there's no way to know. Alright, that's going to do it for the year end movies. We are back

with more year end episodes and we will see you guys then. Bye. Bye. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray,

former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in.

Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.

People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.