This Had Oscar Buzz - 231 – Force Majeure

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

We’re taking another dive into the Best International Feature category this week to talk about one of the biggest world cinema successes of the past year, Ruben Östlund. Though he made films before it, 2014 catapulted Östlund with the Cannes premiere of Force Majeure, a dark satire of masculinity, and relationships dynamics, and fight-or-flight impulses. The film … Continue reading "231 – Force Majeure"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. No, I didn't get down when I am. We want to talk to Marilyn Heck. I'm from Canada water. Are it safe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They know what they do.

Papa! Papa! Hey, Harry, Harry, it's a long, it's long. It was quite shocking. Everyone is fine. I mean, they know what they're doing. He got so scared that you went away from the table.

What? Hello, and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcastman that is in trouble. Every week on this head Oscar buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we're here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with the only thing I'd reach to save from an avalanche instead of my family, Joe. I'm very honored by that, Chris, and thank you. Thank you for that.

He cuts to my husband being like, he reached for his phone and his friend. His podcast? God damn it. While he, you know, hugs our plant babies or something. Oh, my gosh. So right off the top, I feel like we should brag a little bit because we are not doing this episode. We didn't plan this episode. We sure didn't.

After Ruben Usland did so well with the Oscars this year. All right, Allison Williams with your pristine pronunciation. We'll get to the Allison Williams. We'll get to the Allison Williams. But we were like, you know what? We could just do force majeure. Like, why not? We could talk about the past year of Triangle of Sadness, blah, blah, blah.

I think we both looked out the windows and were like, Snow, let's talk about force majeure. But no, we planned this episode before Triangle of Sadness netted those three Oscar nominations. Somewhat surprisingly, it had been in the conversation forever. It had been sort of like an early prediction for picture and director and that a lot of people moved off of it because it did not do very well in the precursor season. To the point when those nominations happened last week, was it last week? What is time?

Almost a week ago. Six days ago, yeah, five days ago, yeah. To the point when those nominations happened, nobody was really predicting that that 10th slot, the presumed 10th slot or the presumed fifth director slot would be triangle of sadness. Right. But at the second that they were announced, it's like, well, of course. Of course it is. Yeah. And this goes back to your theory that you've been floating around.

Sometimes we do know things in October. The caveat to that, though, is some things. Because I immediately was like, tell that to the women of women talking, how much we knew in October. Because, like, we were really predicting. But in October, the women of women talking, there still was like, oh, well, is it this? Is it this? You know. Yeah, but I think the certainty.

Conventional wisdom was someone would be nominated for. that movie as yeah the same conventional wisdom that held about tarangels satness held about you know women talking is going to get at least one supporting actress nomination we should say as of this recording yes you know who's right about women talking the aARP movies for grownups awards giving their supporting actress to judith ivy who should have been the supporting actress contender for that movie all along hugely deserved a hugely deserved win for judith ivy it helps offset the fact that the mfrogies named top gun maverick their best film which do better emphrages um for But you take the good, you take the bad, and you take a win for Judith Ivy, no matter what.

Also from our text thread this morning, you are very smart about this. I was complaining that good luck to you, Leo Grand, won best... Grown-up love story. Grown-up love story. And I was like, but it's not a love story. And you countered me with... It's about her learning to love herself. And that I endorse.

Just as valid as anything else. All right. We are talking about force majeure, which we... was the movie that sort of put Ruben Ostland on the map. He made features before. He had. It was not his debut feature, but like, nobody was really talking about it. I don't think that they're available in the States, though.

Yeah. He was. So a lot of people think that this is his debut feature, and it's not. It's not, but it is the movie that, for all intents and purposes, put him on the map. He's a Swedish filmmaker who, one of the interesting things that I learned about Rubin Oslund was he worked at a ski resort when he was younger, if not a teen, than, like, in his 20s. And, like, that's where a lot of the inspiration came. He's made ski documentaries. He's made ski documentaries, in fact.

So, yes. And, in fact, some of the most sort of visually arresting scenes in this movie take place on those ski slopes. I think he films the act of skiing actually very well and very sort of, like, you know, interestingly. That scene, even not even the whiteout scene, although the whiteout scene is incredible towards the end of the movie. So cool. But even the one where it's the long shot of him. And I'm just going to keep calling him Torman Giant Spain from Game of Thrones because that's his character in Game of Thrones, but Redbeard.

Him and Redbeard sort of, you know, skiing down the mountain from that, in that very long shot, and they're sort of like making parallel paths down the mountain and the snow is sort of powdering up around them. It was beautiful to look at. Like, get this guy to the Winter Olympics and just sort of, like, have him film all of the Nordic events. When the Winter Olympics are back in Sweden, Ruben Usland will be the, whatever you call that role, the Danny Boyle.

The Zhang Yimu and the Danny Boyle, right, the guy who directs. the opening ceremonies for sure. Did you see by the way, our friends... The opening ceremonies of the Sweden Olympics will be everyone pissing and shitting everything. Our friends at Blank Check are doing a series on Danny Boyle right now, and did you see that

one of their Patreon bonuses is going to be, they're going to do the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremonies? I can't fucking wait. I'm so excited. I love that opening ceremonies. It's so over the top, but absolutely wonderful. Anyway, back to force majeure.

This is a movie that sort of dovetails, interestingly enough, with sort of like my sort of career, I guess, in an interesting way, where this played at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival, which was my first. I've talked before about this, how I covered that film festival after having getting declined for press accreditation. So I bought a bunch of public tickets and just sort of had the Atlantic. that was my first year as well 2014 no that that's what I had to do my first year

oh yes yes yes yes yes we did the same thing in our respective first years but I remember because of that because I was sort of like going on public tickets I was a little bit I had to make my plan ahead of time and normally the thing that you can do with TIF is sort of like pivot and you know maybe I'll see this public or press screening instead of this press screening and you can, you know, sort of be a little flexible, and you're less able to do that on public tickets. And so I had paid attention to Can Buzz, but not, like, as close attention as I maybe pay to it nowadays.

And so when Force Majure played in certain regard at Cannes that year, and, like, it got some attention, but, like, it really was overshadowed by a lot of other things it can. It wasn't even, like, the level that, like, after Sun got this year playing out of the main competition. at Cann. It played Critics Week. It played Critics Week.

And so I remember the first I really had heard about Force Majure was at TIF, where it was it was one, it screened early, as many of the Cannes selections do. And a lot of people were talking about it and got a very lot of chatter. And I was very, very, like, I couldn't get a ticket to it by that point. So I was very, very sort of like bummed out that I missed out on seeing this. It was sort of the very first experience that I had with this sort of, you know, TIF buzz, you know, circulating around about something.

Probably the kind of TIF movie. I mean, I don't know if the schedule's that old are still available, but like rings like the type of thing that does really well there and partly be cut after Sun this year was the same. They book it in all these small venues. So because of the word of mouth

is strong enough, it becomes this high demand ticket because it's not, you know, adequately programmed. But so that movie then was like very, very much on my radar from that point. I ended up being able to see it later on in the fall. And I really like this movie. I don't know how you feel about force majeure. I know Ruben Oslind is a filmmaker who people have a lot of very complicated feelings about, good and bad.

I tend to be much more positive on him in general, and I really, really do like this movie quite a bit. I am net positive on Rubin Usland, and probably net positive on this, definitely net positive on triangle of sadness, net negative on the square. probably not net negative on the square, probably full negative. Yeah, you seem to be a lot more negative on the square than I am. I like the square just fine. It's my least favorite of the three of those. I think Triangle of Sadness is maybe my favorite of the three of those. I really, really likes Triangle of Sadness,

even though I find the third part of it to be a little repetitive and superfluous. But in general... The problem with I think that, and especially for you, is the climax of the movie is the middle. Yeah, the middle portion of Triangle of Sadness is, some of the most spectacular and exuberant and fun. He spent six months editing the vomit sequence. That's why it's so funny. It's so, so funny. It's so, so funny. But anyway, I think force majeure is a much more, it's less of like the peaks and valleys, ironically, for a movie taking place on a ski resort. But it's an idea movie that carries off its central idea, I think, very, very well. It's a sly comedy. that, like, you see the difference between European and American sort of comedic sensibilities in the difference between force majeure. Another thing that is interesting to talk about for this movie.

The American remake of Downhill, one of those movies that didn't cause the pandemic, but that opened so close to before the pandemic happened that sometimes in your mind, you're just like, oh, God, like, that was... I think it was the second to last movie I saw in a theater before lockdown. I could see that. I could see that being true for a lot of people. I... That's a movie that got really, really poor reviews.

And I liked it, I think, better than the consensus. Okay, so I'd forgotten this about downhill. And maybe it's because everybody was in a weird place. Downhill got a D cinema score. Yeah. That's kind of wild, but maybe it's also... It doesn't surprise me. It is Will Ferrell.

I think downhill is more overtly dramatic and less comedic than Force Mure is in terms of what the balance of that movie. Downhill hit the exact wrong spot in the middle between people who saw that movie to see Will Ferrell and Veep essentially. And, you know, Julia Lewis, Louie Drives from Veep play a broad comedy and the other people who saw it were people who loved Force Majure and wanted to see, and were a little bit sort of like arms crossed being like, show me what you got, American remake of Force Majure. And it was too much of a remake of Force Majure for the people who came to see a Will Ferrell movie. and it was too much of a Will Ferrell movie for people who came to see something as good as force majeure. And so it hit right in the wrong place in the middle, and nobody liked it. It's the way, way back guys, and they also did The Descendants with Alexander Payne. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, yes.

Yes. For me, I just think that their vibe is not for me. I will say I like Jim Rash a lot as a sort of a. comedic voice. I will, like, full disclosure, I've met him at least once and seems it's a lovely person. And so, like, maybe that's like, nice people. And they're funny actors. I think downhill is not entirely successful, but has more high points than people kind of gave it credit for. I think Julia Louis Dreyfus is giving a good performance in it. I of course, I love Miranda Otto. I think Miranda Otto is a scream in that movie. We've had this

argument before. I think Miranda Otto is fucking ridiculous. I, I think she's awful. I, she is ridiculous in that movie, and I loved every second of it. I think she's great. I think she's absolutely wonderful. Also, like, that, she felt like such an American convention to add to this movie to try to make it Americanly funny,

because there's not a full analog for that character in force majeure. Sort of. Not in the way that she behaves. No, not in the way that she behaves, but like in sort of like in her function in the plot, right? It's a recontextual. It's, you know, a re-imagination of that character.

Yeah, but in a way that I think really works. Yeah, well, we agree to disagree. Yeah, I think it makes that movie even worse. But, like, it also couldn't be more, you know, trademark stamp, American remake because it ends in this, you know, it ends with this cathartic, you know, outpouring between the husband and wife. and that's entirely not where this movie goes. Right. Ocelain's force majeure ends in the opposite of catharsis, right? You are like, you are at the least cathartic place possible.

Literally stuck on a cliff. Wandering down this endless winding road into a rapidly setting sun kind of too. I kept getting very, very worried as I was watching that. It was just like, it's going to get dark at some point, and like any car coming down that hill is not going to see you, and you're going to all be just very much trouble as you're walking down there. this road. It also reminded me of a personal story incoming. I'll get it out of the way before we get into the plot description. So when I was 20 years old, I don't know if I've ever told you

this story. When I was 20 years old, my dad and I were driving from Buffalo to Albany just before Christmas to pick up my brother from college for winter break. And halfway through right around Syracuse, traffic had sort of slowed to a crawl because it started to snow, and snow had sort of started to accumulate on the throughway a little bit. And a car tried to zip up around the traffic along the inside rail and caused a tanker truck to jackknife onto the minivan that my dad and I were in. And so this tanker sort of like, you know, swerved its cab and tipped over and fell onto our minivan. And sort of like...

Your final destination toad. Essentially, yes, because the other thing about it was traffic being at us crawl was essentially what saved us, because what was coming up in the right-hand lane was a bus. And if traffic had been at full speed and that bus hadn't been able to veer off into what was essentially like an open field on the right side, that bus would have teaboned us. I really don't like this story So it was one of those things

If you ever have a thing Where you can hear your brain talking to you Which sounds very like fake My brain said to me in that moment Like be prepared turn to your left Your dad's gonna be dead And he was fine I was fine

We were like all like inexplicably Absolutely totally fine And so we like Nonpower windows The magic of roll down windows Because I was able to roll down my window and, like, headfirst, like, dove out the window and, like, pulled my dad out. And, like, the ambulance that came up was, like, we saw that.

We thought we were pulling dead bodies out of the car, whatever. And everybody in the round, like, the people who were on the bus, because we actually ended up, like, going on to the bus for a while and, like, just sitting and waiting for traffic to clear out because they had to, like, somehow get this, like, big, huge truck off of the road. So we're sitting on the bus, and the people on the bus are, like, what's your license plate number? I'm going to play it in the lottery tonight. Like that kind of a thing. So eventually, we get cleared off of the road. We get sent to the closest rest stop on the throughway. My cousin's husband drives my brother in from all the need to meet us.

And my brother shows up, classic college kid with, like, his stereo under his arm and a garbage bag full of dirty laundry into this, like, rest stop because he had to wait an extra hour. This rest stop in the middle of the throughway, they all literally thought we were moving in. And then we waited for my uncle to come from Buffalo two and a half hours to drive us back home because my mom didn't have a car and, you know, all that. So the spot where this movie, this intersects with force majeure is. So my uncle is driving us home. And like, thank God, what a wonderful thing for him to do is driving the three of us home. But my uncle, very much like my grandfather, is a lunatic on the road. And I didn't know that until we were in the car with him, post-traumatic stress sort of, like,

and settled in. And, like, I'm white-knuckling it the entire two-and-a-half hours from Syracuse to Buffalo. And, like, it's December 20th, you know what I mean? So it's like, it's, you know, the weather's not great. And he's just like heedlessly driving. Because, like, he didn't just get traumatized by anything. So, like, what does he care? And he's just sort of, like, absolutely oblivious and sort of, like, driving us back.

And, like, that to me was scarier than anything that happened in the accident, because the accident was over before we knew what happened. So, like, that's what I was thinking of while watching that scene in force majeure, where the camera's on the wife and the wife who has been traumatized by this, you know, incident, not only the fright of thinking that you were going to perish in an avalanche, but then sort of the unmooring of learning that your husband ultimately isn't going to be there for you if something really bad happens. So she's traumatized and she's so shaken by the poor driving skills of this, you know, van driver or whatever that she makes them stop and like makes them let them all get out out of the street. And like, I didn't not relate to the idea of just like, just let me out right here. I will walk. So that's what that reminded me of. That scene is another one that is filmed tremendously well because you're like, the camera is in such a place where like you're almost looking over the edge. of the road, like, into the mountains ahead.

Like, you're so close and it's really, really, really stressful. Really, really great scene in that really, really great movie. Thank you for indulging me with that story. No, it's not an indulgence because I think that that was kind of necessary to contextualize the movie, because I'm maybe the awful person that I'm like, well, yeah, he's just fighter-flighting. It doesn't really Matt, like, you're taking it to personally. He can't really do anything.

But, like, having that level of emotion, the people you care about in that type of dangerous situation. It is actually a real thing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was in the shoes of the life in that one. Like, there was like, you know, it is, it is, you know, and the way that they film the quasi avalanche is also really good because, like, again, like, this movie uses white out very well in those two different spots.

And it's not really snow that comes upon them. It's almost like the mist of snow of this avalanche that overtakes them. But you can't see anything. everybody's sort of running around. It's this moment of terror. And to find out that like, and we are, of course, seeing it from an objective position. The camera never moves, right?

The camera is fixed on this thing. And so what we see... That whole one-er makes it feel like you're watching security footage or something. Yeah. And what you see is not only does this guy run, but like essentially like moves his one son out of the way a little bit. It's just sort of just like, he doesn't shove him. But he just sort of like is like, you go here and like,

I'm out of here. It's just, and it's very funny. But it definitely did bring back memories of that drive back down from our accident on the throughway. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What a moment. What a moment in time. What a movie. What a movie?

I really like it. Yeah. Should we get into the plot description maybe? Yes. Let's do that, which I haven't prepared, so I'm winging it. Forgive my sweetest pronunciations, but we are here to talk about. for Smejure, written and directed by Ruben Usland, starring Johann Bachunk, Lisa Loven Kongsley, Clara Wettingrin, Vincent Wittengrin, Love When Actual Siblings are cast as siblings in

Yeah, yeah. As Joe mentioned him, Redbeard himself, Christopher Hivzhu, Karen Myronberg, Faber, and the one and only Brady Corbett. Yes. God love him. I've forgotten. He always, my notes are literally like when you least expected. Brady Corbett because like he just does sort of just like he does tend to like show up in these movies and you're like oh right I forgot I also feel like one of downhill's missed opportunities it should have they should have Brady Corbett in that movie as well for one seat yes they absolutely should

uh the movie premiered in uncertain regard to can in May 2014 also played tiff and then opened limited October 24th 2014 mr joseph read Are you ready to give a 60-second plot description? Yes, let's. All right, then your 60-second plot description for Force Major starts now. All right, so Tomas and Abba are a married parents of two who go on a family vacation to the French Alps at a ski resort, and almost immediately one of the early things that happens, they're on a terrace eating breakfast, and one of the controlled avalanches happens, and it gets too close to the thing and all this sort of, it looks,

like it's going to overtake them all. And in the panic of it all, Tomas pieces out and runs out on the family and then everything is fine, it's not really an avalanche. And so he comes back sort of sheepishly, and nobody talks about it. And it really, really throws Eba, and in all their interactions with everybody else throughout

the rest of the weekend, she keeps bringing it up, she can't believe it happened. He tries to deny that that's what he did at first. Eventually, he cops to it, and it like, it throws their entire marriage off of its axis. It throws their friend's marriage, or relationship rather, off of their axis. And it profoundly destabilizes them to the point where they can't really enjoy themselves for the rest of the ski weekend.

And Tomas, like, tries to help her when they get whited out on the ski slopes at one point and, like, thinks he saved the day, but it still hasn't really worked. And by the end, they get out of this little van down the, down the winding road and walk themselves because nobody trusts anybody's ability to get them out of a scary situation anymore at the end. Your 15 seconds going over time was like a rising snow mist. Whiting out the episode. All right. So what was your experience watching this movie for the first time? How did you... I'm pretty sure.

I honestly can't remember the first time I saw it. I would have seen it at some point in this Oscar season. So maybe I had watched it later on VOD or I did see it in the theater. I honestly can't remember, which is very strange for me. I'm the type of person that can not only tell you what theater I saw something in in the circumstance, but, like, the actual auditorium I was in. So I'm very surprised by that for this movie. Yeah.

But, yeah, I, my feelings about it have never really changed. I always feel like, this is maybe the fourth time I've seen this movie. And it's always because there's a thing about his movies, where it's like there's a thornyness to it and there's a thorniness to it. and there's a thorniness to what I feel works or doesn't work for me. And I recognize that in other people, you know, kind of mulling over his movies. And, like, there's a feeling like maybe it'll improve,

maybe I'll resolve this thing that doesn't work for me. And I usually end up feeling exactly the same way about his movie. He's one of those filmmakers. You would see, like, the Cohen brothers get tagged with this a little bit, or sometimes Alexander Payne, who gets tagged with this idea that he despises his characters or sort of like sits in moral judgment of his character as sort of like an aesthetic choice. And I don't necessarily disagree with that in any of those cases, nor with the Coens, nor with Alexander Payne. It's never been a problem for me. Maybe I'm just a judger person by nature. I don't know if that's the defining thing, though.

It's not, I don't know if he judges or hates his characters. I just think his characters are more what they represent or they're more conceptual than they are actual people. If anything, that's what's best about Triangle of Sadness in his arc of movies as some of those people do actually feel like real characters to me and more than just what they represent for the narrative. I don't know, though, because. I feel like Aba and Thomas, I get what they represent in this movie. This is very much just sort of like watch as the toxic masculinity

like, you know, envelops this family. Well, and especially within the frame work of a heteronormative marriage. I mean, you're talking about the type of nuclear family that is all in matching union suits. Like, he's predicting the old navy of it all. Yeah.

They look like a Christmas card on their vacation. Like, they're that type. of nuclear unit. Yeah. And what I do, one of the things I do appreciate about force major is when you see these type of marital strife movies, and I think downhill kind of dulls the edges of this, that normally when you see movies where a husband and wife are at odds in a certain way, it usually comes down to infidelity.

Yeah. And that has become so absolutely fucking boring to me. Yes. And this finds something else. And something that I think, you know, real couples kind of do have to, you know, reconcile at some point, you know, impulse that you can't really control or how you handle crisis situation. Well, it's almost like the conflict in this movie is at the root of it what a lot of infidelity conflict. conflict is when you take away the sexual aspects of it. And like not sometimes infidelity, the root of that is, you know, jealousy or insecurity about, you know what I mean? Like,

why are you, you know, do you not want me anymore? But sometimes it, the root of that is this person who I took for granted would be there for me and support me and be loyal to me and be dedicated to me, you know, as are the kind of precepts of marriage. the presuppositions of marriage isn't and has revealed himself, himself in this case, to not be those things and the devastation that that can wreak on the partner who has been, you know, betrayed. And this is a betrayal in not like an active, you know, betrayal, but in a betrayal of everything that Ava thought that he was. I mean, every bit of security that you, like one of those things that you enter into a marriage, in part because you're in love, of course, and in part because you want to sort of like dedicate yourself to somebody. But it also, I imagine, saying this is somebody's never been married,

I imagine that part of it is this sense of security and this sense of we are going to support each other and we are going to, you know, be there for each other and be dedicated to each other And to find out that that is not absolute, I would imagine, would be not the most heartening. Or that it's subject to other things, like instinct, you know, not things that you might not be able to control. Right, right, exactly. But it is this sort of like when the chips are down kind of a thing. But I think that's what's fascinating about when it moves into Mott's and Fannie, who are the friends of theirs who also then, their relationship kind of becomes, It's like catches astray, right?

Where all of a sudden they... Well, it catches that thing of when you are not the George and Martha, but you're the Nick and Honey and you get caught up in another couple's fight and you unpacking it and, like, you know, makes you have your own fight. Right, right. And so, and they, and it's their fight is even funnier almost because literally the thing that she says is, yeah, I think you'd do that too. You can see where he would be incredibly offended by that, where he's like,

like, I haven't even done anything wrong yet. and you just assume that that's what I would do, and your ex-fucking boyfriend would do better, like that whole conversation, which I think is so funny. Basically, huge portions of force majeure is the first 20 minutes of triangle of sadness, which is partly why that first 20 minutes, while very funny, is tedious.

Oh, I like the first 20 minutes. It's the last half hour of triangle of sadness that I find very, very... Yeah, but Tali Dillon is so fucking good. This is, but this is why I, sort of my appreciation for her is muted because I'm like, you could lop off that last part of the movie. I just don't like that portion of the movie.

But wait, what I was going to say, oh, so Tomas and Mots, who are like friends, right? They're the reason, their friendship is the reason why these two couples are sort of, you know, interacting with each other. And they end up, like, they go skiing later and do this, like, weird, like,

you know, scream therapy thing on the slopes. And then one of my favorite scenes, though, is after that, is where they go on this weird little, like, almost like snow beach and, you know, sit on the lounge chairs and whatever and are having a beer. With the snow beach mist around. Yeah. What, like, pop? Isn't there like a pop song or something that sounds like Swedish pop is playing? Yes. Yes.

And they're flirting with these two young women. And it's sort of like making the both of them feel better about themselves. and then the women are like, oh, we, you know, we weren't buying you drinks. We thought we were buying drinks for somebody else. And, right, it's buying them drinks, right? That's the misunderstanding. And whatever it is. And they're like, oh, and like not being mean about it, but like, collaterally, like, you know,

it can't feel good to just be like these women who you thought were interested in you are like sorry. And like, and Matt's gets very, like, demonstrably. like, oh, are you fucking with us? Or are you, you know, trying to, you know, play a joke on us or whatever. And they have to get, and this whole thing, again, is filmed statically from a distance. The camera doesn't move up, so you only see, like, the torso and below of these other guys who come over and are, like, trying to, like, you can tell, like, a fight is maybe imminent between these two guys who are going to, you know, pummel Tomas and Matz for, you know, being mean to the women or whatever. And then that gets, like, calmed down in a way where it's like toxic masculinity, toxic masculinity, you know, young bucks on the, in the forest or whatever, like clattering with each other. And again, it's one of those things where it's almost observed like a nature documentary almost.

It's just like, look how the wounded male ego behaves in nature kind of a thing. I mean, the nature documentary vibe. but to what Usselin finds funny is a good thing to point out in discussing his comedies because I think it's something that grates on a lot of people and really graded on some people

with Triangle of Sadness really graded on me with the square in that there is a level of smugness to what he is doing. Like, whether that bothers you or not. For me with the square, it bothered me less because I think smugness in the realm of, like, the art world, I'm like, yeah, I'll say, I'll, I'll accept that. You know what I mean? I'll accept that as an aesthetic.

On the same token, though, smugness in the art world is, like, the most obvious satire. That is true. That, well, and that's why I think it's my least favorite of the three of them. Like, I don't think it's saying anything particularly, particularly profound. I just, I didn't, I wasn't turned off by it. Right. I will say. It also features Elizabeth. with Moss playing a crazy person, and that's always fun to watch. In the least appealing sex scene I have maybe ever seen. This movie, my favorite comedic scenes are when he's pretending to cry. Yes.

He's really good. He's really, really good. And then there's also the sequence where he is like the exact opposite, and he's uncontrollably sobbing, and it's so absolutely pathetic. It is. Well, and they keep cutting back to her, and she's just sort of like, okay. She's like, oh, my God, stop.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's almost it's the same, her response is essentially the same as when it's like, oh my God, stop, you are not actually crying, and oh my God, stop, you are being in it. You're embarrassing. This is embarrassing.

Stop this. Yes. I mean, and again, sort of like what you're saying with the square where it's like it's not necessarily breaking any ground to like at this point even in 2014 to show that like the male ego is a fragile thing and and like this is almost like our men okay the movie like that's that could be the American title force majeure is just our men okay um but it is it feels like it sequences are well done and it strikes and like the notes that it strikes feel um intuitive and feel like it's not

they're not false right they're not it's not striking false notes I think he's an incredibly like talented and you know precise exacting filmmaker who is not often interested the most interesting things sure yeah or like

who is interested in saying the obvious thing most of the time sure that's fine though honestly like I don't always I don't always need that and maybe I'm like, you know, I'm giving him more rope than he deserves, but also like I've enjoyed more or less the act of watching all three of these movies and I think especially in this one, or I guess particularly in this one because this is the one

I just watched, the filmmaking is interesting to me. The filmmaking is like the choices that he makes are apparent. And I'm not somebody who always notices, like, subtle filmmaking choices. So sometimes you do have to, like, hit me over the head with sort of stuff. But in that way, I think it's all really

effective. I want to talk about the white out scene, though, towards the end of the movie, because I think it's the best scene in the movie. Yeah. Where all of this has happened. He's now had his, like, big uncontrollable sobbing scene where, like, she's lost all respect for him. They've, you know,

turned to their friends into squabble, you know, unwittingly turned their friends into squabbling monsters and their children have been just like on their little devices the entire time and all the sort of dynamics are set up and they go for this like it's their last day. They're going to go out on the slopes. They're going to try to function as a family like they were before and we'll see if it's possible.

And the father and the kids get a little bit out ahead of Abba and she it's a very foggy day out on the mountain and all of a sudden she can't see them the camera's in the perspective of Aba and all of a sudden it's just white it's just clear white and she can't see them and she's not calling out for them is the other thing

like he's calling out for her and she's not calling out for them and you sort of wonder it's just like you know in Claude of Sills Maria another movie that was at that TIF and that can that I did see at that TIF

where sort of Kristen Stewart disappears into the cloud in that movie like never to return I almost thought that like that was going to happen

to Abo where all of a sudden it's just like oh she's just going to like slip away forever and yeah the kids are going to be buried in snow or she is or yeah right and then eventually he goes off into the mist to like find her and then he comes back sort of carrying her and he's done

his masculine duty for the weekend and now he feels you know better about himself and it's just visually it's very very compelling to watch yeah what did you think of that scene i've talked no i i mean i love that scene even seeing it multiple times and i don't i forget if there's a one-to-one scene of that in downhill like if they recreate that scene i feel like they don't but or they do it in this type of like set piece way that's not the whiteout. Because ultimately he goes and saves Ava.

Saves, I'll put in question mark. Like, you know what I mean? He thinks that he has saved her, right? That's what's the point. And that's what's frustrating about the American remake is like, yes, it's not the perspective. He thinks he did this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that sequence is great. Every time that I've seen this movie,

I forget how it turns out. And it it's so well conceived that it feels like watching it for the first time each time you don't actually know it feels dangerous enough that it's like oh do they kill the kids in this machine does the wife go off and do her own thing or something you know it does it feels alive in a way each time that i've watched it that you know anything could happen Christopher, come in off of the slopes. We've got to talk about the Vulture Movie Fantasy League for a second. Leave your family behind. I'm actually not on the slopes.

I'm at the bar. Oh, yes, we've talked about this. Right. We don't do the slopes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, leave your family behind. We're going to talk about the Vulture Movie Fantasy League for a second. It's been a few weeks.

I was on vacation. Once the Oscar nominations happened, there is a sort of, of decided lull in the season anyway. So I went on vacation. We skipped a week. But we are back to talk about the Vulture Movie Fantasy League. We are, as we record this on the precipice of the next sort of phase of the season, the Directors Guild announces their winners tonight as we are talking, and then the BAFTAs are tomorrow. But we'll deal with that next week. So for the moment, we want to talk about what was the subject of our newsletter this week, which was once again talking about the best value selections of the season, which is movies that for the point totals that they got and the cost that it took to draft them, which were the best payouts.

So, Chris, talk to me about the top movies on the list. Did you have any of these top 10 movies on your team? I'm trying to remember my team. I have to admit I have let my team go. Yeah, you're pretty far back. I didn't do so well. I did have a few of these. I have Fire of Love.

I have Banches of Insharon. And that, I think, is it that I have in my team. However, the top one, which I want to talk about. The top movie by far. Like, literally, like, almost 100 points ahead of the number two team in terms of points per dollar, not total points, but points per dollar. It's almost 100 ahead, which is crazy. I feel like, at least late in the season, I have sounded like a cheerleader for this movie. You have, actually.

I assure you, I am not. I was just assured that this was going to be a movie that does very well. We are talking about all quiet on the Western front. Surprise, a BAFTA success leading into surprise Oscar nomination success. I finally watched it last week, this past week. Okay, what did you think? better than I thought, but not as good as nine nominations would have you thinking it is. I think of the two, I still would probably prefer something like Sam Mendez's 1917 to this

if we're talking about immersive World War I movies. This, well, quite on the Western Front obviously comes from the perspective of the German soldiers. it is really, really brutal at times. Like, there is some really gnarly, as you would expect, like the, you know, the trench warfare in World War I is sort of, you know, rightfully talked about as some of the most brutal of modern warfare ever. And that's on the screen.

Like, you know, Edward Berger puts that on the screen. I think the stuff that I tend to like best is sort of the juxtapositions of the soldiers kind of the all-quiet part, right? The parts where it's downtime and they are you know, in this sort of like countryside or they like steal a goose from a farm or whatever. And then there is also the stuff that they kind of added that isn't in the book, which is the

armistice negotiations with Daniel Brewer or whatever, that I find a little superfluous to the rest of the thing. But I think I think it's good. I was kind of prepared to hate it and of sort of, it's a long movie, so I was prepared to sort of, like, grind my gears through it. It wasn't, that was not my experience. But, uh, I definitely am someone who hated the movie. The kind of brutality that you're talking about, it was so over aestheticized to me. Yeah. To make me kind of feel like it's luxuriating in it, in a way that I felt like this movie. It's showing off for that stuff. I can see that, yeah. Is trying to talk out of both sides of its mouth. It's trying to.

to be god of war video game, but also be like, but actually we're, uh, you know, anti-war type of movie. And that there are scenes that like feel like cribbed from 1917, not to give like Sam Mendez too much credit for like inventing stuff or whatever, but like the scenes where he's like running across no mansland or whatever, like there's a way to do that that doesn't look exactly like that sort of famous shot in 1917, that sort of oneer. And I know all of 1917 is supposed to be a oneer, but it's not. really. But yeah, I get, I think I get why the crafts departments all sort of like went for all quite on the Western front, even though it's kind of funny that in this year that the Oscars

went for so many big movies and big blockbusters and big sort of like crafts, bonanzas or whatever, that a movie would show up in every single category feels like that kind of belies the competitiveness of those categories this year, the fact that like, you know, Elvis and everything everywhere, and Top Gun Maverick, and Avatar, and Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, and all these big movies ended up being big Oscar nominees, and even stuff like Babylon, which is not like an action blockbuster, but is like an aesthetic bonanza, right? So the fact that something like All Quiet on the Western Front showed up in every single one of them, I tend to chalk up to smart campaigning on Netflix's part in that Netflix sort of

settled on this one as their movie, much to the degree where I wish they hadn't. I wish they had maybe tried to push Glass Onion as their number one movie, but we've talked about that before on this season. So... I'm curious what your thoughts are for this movie in terms of,

will it be able to maintain this lead as the per capita selection choice for this game? Because I do really wonder how much it can actually win. I think it's going to do better at BAFTA than Oscar in terms of wins and points for the game. Well, if you look at the rest of this top 10, so you're looking at stuff like there are movies on here like a love song, which is the Dale Dickie West Studi movie from last year's Sundance that was a dollar to draft and pulled in 55 points,

which is like a pretty good per per dollar value. It's got to Independent Spirit Award nominations, so there is a chance. I think it's an outside chance. I don't think Dale Dickey is winning an Indy Spirit Award for this movie, so this is probably where something like that tops out. I think you are also looking at that for, I don't think After Sun is winning anything else from here on it, although I guess it'll probably win DGA for first feature for Charlotte Wells tonight, actually.

But what else? The Elvis Mitchell documentary is that black enough for you, which gets here entirely on the virtue of being a perfect score in Rotten Tomatoes. It's got 50 points for that. Good movie, fun movie. I don't think Living is going to be winning anything for Bill Nye, unfortunately. Hustles Not Winning the SAG, Best Actor for Adam Sandler. What? So the only movie is in this top 10.

Like RRR will win probably, I think, Best Song. Fire of Love. I'm questioning that. Fire Love probably won't win Best Documentary Feature. But even if RRR does win Best Song, and I get that, like, it's lost a lot of steam, so maybe it won't win Best Song. But it's only one award. I think the movies in the top 10 that you're talking about that might be able to take the per dollar prize from All Quiet would be either Elvis or Banshees have been a Sharon.

As I told you in Katie this week, I won't believe that Banshees is completely out of best picture until you've been banging this drum you've been banging this drum since probably Tiff which is that nobody doesn't like banshees of an as Sharon except for that one guy who wrote that article for Slate about how it

it um tokenizes I guess the Irish experience um and then but you've been sort of banging the drum of like this is your preferential ballot champion because it is if anything beats

everything everywhere, I think it's... On the virtue of it being sort of maybe a lot of people's second choice or a lot of people's, you know, third choice. Nobody's last choice. Nobody's last choice, right. And I think that has some merit. I do feel like it's losing a little bit of

steam, but it's tough to... I mean, this is the part of the season where everything seems like it's losing steam because nothing's been happening. Right. And people are looking for stories for things, like all these people saying, well, maybe Top Gun does have a chance at winning Best Picture And it's like, no, it doesn't.

People are just looking for things to talk about. And I will say, this was something that the IndyWire podcast talked about this week a little bit. Trying to read the tea leaves of the nominations luncheon, the Academy very graciously put the entire nominees' luncheon photo lineup on YouTube, which I watched entirely because, of course, a friend and previous guest, Pamela Ribbon, got to be there and hobnaub with all the celebs. she had guys I know that Pam is my friend and I watched it sort of with a very very biased heart but like she's genuinely having a better time than anybody except maybe Kiwi Kwan like that's basically the only other competition she's just having the best time it was so lovely to watch her did my heart good but anyway you can sort of try and read the tea leaves of the nominee luncheon

in terms of who the room seems to really respond to when they like when their name is read for their nomination and what's the like a plazzo meter, right? And everything everywhere got a ton of applause for almost everything. But Colin Farrell also got a big, big, big round of applause there and was sort of, he also like at one point is like, you know, joking with the photographers, they're lining up for the, for the picture and whatnot. And he's just sort of being incredibly charming. And I'm trying not to get my hopes up for a Colin Farrell Oscar win. because I would love it so much, particularly given the competition. I don't not like Austin Butler, but I would much rather Colin Farrell win this Oscar than Austin Butler.

I was thinking for the longest time Austin Butler was winning, but like at this point, I think a lot of that gas is out of the engine. I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. I think he's probably still the favorite. I'm still not, I still don't think we're out of the woods with the Brendan Fraser thing. Like, I will not stop being on guard about that until... No, I mean, you're right to be that way, especially when it's like, even if he's third place, he's a very strong third place, I would guess he's going to win SAG. If he doesn't win SAG, I think it's over for him. So if you're out on Austin Butler, if you're out on Austin Butler, because I know you have previously made a claim, either on here or on our text to it, I can't remember, that Elvis could win the most Oscars of any.

movie this year. Have you backed off on that? I was saying Elvis is going to Dune. I do think that that's possible, but I think thinking that that's possible has also helped me realize that it might be Colin Farrell simply because what else is Banschie's going to win easily? Supporting actress, maybe. I don't know. It's not, I don't think that's going to.

That's not a thing. I'm bracing myself. And that's the one where it's like, I really love Carrie Condon, and I would, in a vacuum, love to have her win an Oscar. But like the shitstorm that would result of that for Angela Bassett losing an Oscar is not something I think is worth it. And I'm hoping that does not happen. But I don't think that's going to happen. We'll see. I think the fact.

I do think Elvis is probably, I mean, Catherine Martin is about to win another Oscar. You think two? You think both costume and production design? I would maybe wager Elvis getting the makeup. Oscar. Do you not feel like under the guise of, oh, no, that's right, everything everywhere all at once is somehow not nominated in production design, even though it has the most production design, which I think is insane.

So yeah, I think you're right that Elvis will probably win production design. And, yeah, probably costumes. Costumes on the virtue of, like, for the same reason that, like, people who play real people win awards, people look at that and just be like, I remember those costumes. Not that Catherine Martin isn't a phenomenal costume designer Would deserve the world But I think awards voters can vote for the right people Awards voters can vote for the right people

For perhaps the wrong reasons Or at least for perhaps more shallow reasons Than we would like them to That's crazy that everywhere all at once Did not get a production design nomination There's so much production design in that movie It's crazy I'm gonna plead the fifth

Hater, hater, hater, hater. Okay, but it is interesting think that we're talking about these possibilities of what Banshees could win and what Elvis could win because I do think that there's a strong potential that they could overtake

All Quiet on the Western Front to be the like point. They could. There's a lot I think Elvis. There's a lot of points on the board for the Oscar win. Elvis with a better shot than Banshees just because Elvis was only a $10 buy, whereas Banshees was

a $20 buy. But Banshees at this point has the second most total points of any movie. It's only behind everything everywhere all once. It's been a tremendous movie. And Banshees has a legitimate shot at Best Picture, which Elvis, we can agree, does not. Right. So I think in general, though, like, you look at like Elvis's point per dollar is a 51. Banshee's point per dollar is 49.5. Allquite on the Western fronts is 143. So, like, there's a lot of ground to make up for there. But, But, again, we just listed off a bunch of categories that All Quiet on the Western Front is nominated in. And I don't think either of us think it is a strong...

We think it's winning international feature and probably that's it? I mean, there's maybe sound. I do think maybe if something does beat Elvis in production design, it could be All Quiet on the Western Front. I still think Elvis is winning that. Sound has four best picture nominees in its lineup, which like... The sound branch tends to follow. best picture. That's why I thought everything everywhere was going to go. But even more so this year,

because as I mentioned, like, there's so many big bombastic movies in that best picture lineup. So Alquiet does have a shot, I think, at cinematography, because there is so little best picture at play there. Um, and like, we've talked about Darius Conjee,

who's never won before. He's not going to win this time, unfortunately. But like, no one's talking about that. Well, and, yeah, and it's Bardo. Like, I, I don't see Bardo getting an Oscar on its on its loan nomination. Same thing for Roger Deacons for Empire of Light. I

in that category am rooting for Mandy Walker for Elvis, another Elvis Craft nominee. This is another thing that I'm like, it could be Elvis there. Mandy Walker would be the first woman to ever win for best cinematography, which would be rad. And also, like, she's done tremendous work. I remember wanting her

to get a nomination for Australia back in the day, speaking of, like, Baz Luhrman. But, like, Mandy Walker's done the cinematography for Shattered Glass and Jane got a gun and hidden figures. The Mountain between us.

She was the one who shot the goings-on on Fuck Mountain. So, yeah, exactly. All right. I mean, okay, what's the, how many points do you get for winning documentary? Because is there a shot that Fire of Love if it wins, overtakes it? Hold, please. Being that it's already in second place.

I don't think it's going to get that many, but hold on a second. Well, I look this up. we were talking about the doc feature lineup before you got on here and it's really strong this year I was not so bullish on all the beauty and the bloodshed even though it's one of my favorite movies of the year its chances and now I think a lot of my concerns have gone over that hump because it was the previous winner thing she got through to the nomination I thought that this was a movie that rich people would not be able to identify with, but it is also a movie

about an artist, and I think they identify to that. Right. See, so the thing, so if Fire of Love does win best documentary, it'll get 75 additional points, which would put it up to almost 200. And then is, does DGA have a documentary award? Is it, is it in line to, I don't think it's going to win that one, but I don't know. I do think Fire of Love is not Indy Spirit nominated. So, like, that's not points it'll get.

Right. I think the Oscars are its best chance. So, like, winning that Oscar would get it from 57 points per dollar to almost 100. But the thing about it is, all quite on the Western fronts, 143 points for dollar, is not going down. It can only go up. Like, there is fluctuation only upward on this list. So, it's, again, it's a lot. But, like, you know, as you mentioned, you get so many points in the league for winning Oscars.

Like, a best picture win is a lot. a hundred points on its own. You know what I mean? So there is, there is room to maneuver there upwards for the other movies on this list. But anyway, we're going to be back next week to talk about the BAFTA results, which I think are going to be, are going to have a lot of people, as they do every year, have a lot of people talking. I think every year the BAFTA has happened and everybody sort of rushes to declare that everybody who won the BAFTA is going to win the Oscar. And it often happens. Last year, oh, I wrote a that, what did I say? I wrote it in the newsletter. Why don't I just read from my own dang

newsletter? Last year, the BAFTA's matched the Oscars for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director. So, four of the top eight categories, BFTA and Oscar matched. So you've got a good chance if you win the BAFTA to win the Oscar, but you are not guaranteed. So it should be interesting, I think. We'll be here to talk about it next week. Anything else you want to add, Chris, before we sign off and go back to the slopes? Uh, Oscar for Pam. Oscar for Pam. We love you, Pam.

All right. Bye, bye. And two, three. Ah! There's also that scene that is very brief where they go to that, like, nightclub in the resort. There's a nightclub sequence in downhill, too, and it does not go as hard as this nightclub. You remember way more about downhill than I do. I can't hang with clubbing in Sweden because it's like shirtless men basically doing a mosh pit.

in this very enclosed space and there's like water it does not seem fun to me it feels like it's half sauna half nightclub we're like like is this just a thing you're doing to like sweat out toxins or something like that like what's going on right are straight people okay our straight men okay um once again i ask oh here's the thing i wanted to ask and i was going to ask this up front have you ever skied are you a ski person absolutely not okay same well shoot i mean it looks pretty I love snow. I would go... I love snow, too.

Here's the thing. I would go on a ski trip. I would not leave the lodge deck or whatever. This is why... I have multiple bottles of wine. It would be great. This is why we're friends. We need to figure out a way to go to a winter excursion.

Make a friend skiing trip. And let all our friends go ski and we sit back in the lodge and like, I'll pray ski the entire time. That's what I want. That's entirely what I want. Absolutely 100%. I want to sit. I do desperately need some type of friend trip.

So this sounds amazing. I want to sit in a stone cabin where there's like a big sort of like atrium or whatever where we're sitting there in front of a roaring fireplace. Everyone will go to the sauna club and we'll still be. And it's like hot toddy after hot toddy is coming this way. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

I'm glad we're on the same page there. No, I had friends in high school. Like our high school would do like weekend like maybe I guess it was like day trips or whatever or even like Friday evening. Like Holiday Valley was the sort of nearby. ski resort. You would go into, like, the sort of northern Appalachians. If you go south enough in Western New York, you're hitting the sort of like the northern part of the Appalachians. And so you would, you know, there was skiing to be done there. And I was never interested

in that. That never really appealed to me whatsoever. As many sort of like quasi-athletic activities. I would go, like, we would do a thing where like you would go to like the big, you know, park, whatever, like the state park around here. and go sledding on the big, big, huge, you know, the hill that you'd all go sledding down. But that was about it. That was about my experience with winter sports. I was also not an ice skater. I tried ice skating one time.

I was not good at it, and I decided that was it for me. That was done. Yeah, that's not for me either. That was not for me. I live in Ohio. I don't think we have shit like that. Like, we had Kings Island, Cedar Point. That's what you get.

Sure, sure, sure. I was also afraid of those things, too. can we talk about part of the reason why I wanted to do this is to talk about the snub video oh yes we talk about this I know that it's gotten meant since the nominations have happened for triangle of sadness this has gotten mentioned on other podcasts and such let's go chronologically though through that so this movie premiered season because we are talking about a then foreign language film now international film yes international feature category, which is

the second time we've done this? Probably. This, I think, is actually an interesting case, because this movie starts and in certain regard. Doesn't win the big in certain regard prize. It doesn't. It wins the jury prize, which is like third place, whatever. Yeah. Has a good festival run,

gets strong reviews in the U.S. It's Sweden's submission. Well, and this is one of those years where some years, the foreign language winner is pretty well apparent, and it's like who else is going to get nominated Right. This was a year where all of the precursor prizes went to different things, right? Where Bafta gave it to Wild Tales, which is this like quasi-anthology story, very, very watchable. It's very sort of like, it's uneven, but it's very entertaining. Very entertaining. The Indy Spirits gave it to Eda. The Globes gave it to Leviathan, which is this sort of very kind of depressing movie about Russian corruption. Two days one night was in the mix, the Dardan.

movie two days one night, Marion Cotiar ends up getting the best actress nomination, but that movie didn't even make the short list for the Oscar. Doesn't make the short list, and that probably helps propel her nomination. To the point you wonder, would she would a different nominee have happened if that movie had made it through to foreign language? Right. Ida ends up being the somewhat unlikely winner in that by the time the Oscar nominations happened, voters had settled upon Ida as like the featured foreign language. contender where it gets nominated for other awards. How many

total for Ida? Was it like three total awards? Two. It was just foreign language in cinematography. It was foreign language and cinematography. It's also the movie, or it's the film that I always say was the reason why Cheryl Boone Isaacs ended up slipping up and saying dick poop because she was so concentrated on pronouncing the names of the Ida cinematographers correctly.

Lukash Zal and Rizard Lensuski see even I I would probably say Dick Poop too because I'm so she's she you can hear her pronounce them so

carefully and she's very very studious about it and then like her brain was like well that's it for today I'm out of here

and she says dick poop and it's tremendous Dick Poop but so anyway so force majeur makes the short list

of nine along with eventual nominees Wild Tales from Argentina Estonia's tangerines a movie that I definitely saw and don't really remember much about.

Wasn't there also that movie released at the same time when Tangerines actually made it into theaters, like in a general release the same time as Sean Baker's Tangerine? Sean Baker's Tangerine was 2015. Okay, so yeah. Yeah, so 2015. So this movie doesn't make it into theaters until like this roughly the same time. And people were like, what are we seeing?

Are we seeing the one about sex workers? Right, Leviathan, the Russian movie, was an Oscar nominee. Timbuktu from Mauritania, which I saw at the Chicago Film Festival that year with our friend Nick Davis, I really, really loved Timbuktu. I was very... Of the eventual nominees, that would be my choice to win. It also, I was very, very adamant that that movie should have been a costume design nominee, because the costumes in that movie are really, really gorgeous.

And then Ida, which was the Pavel Pavlikowski movie that eventually won. So also on the short list were a movie called Corn Island from Georgia, a movie called Accused from the Netherlands, a movie called The Liberator from Venezuela, and then Force Major from Sweden, which, because that was a movie that had gotten some degree of acclaim from Cannes from TIF, most people sort of assumed was going to be a nominee. Yes, it was force majeure, once that shortlist happened, this was when the shortlist was only nine, instead of 15, as it is now. Yes. Heavily, heavily predicted. Meanwhile, it's, you know, racking up critics mentions throughout, you know, end of the year season and Critic Prize season.

It's nominated for the Golden Globe, although the Golden Globe was won by, what did I say? I just said it. Leviathan. Leviathan, right? This is also because it's interesting to talk about this race, too, because, like you mentioned, it was one that initially, I think by the time the nominations happened,

it kind of quickly settled into either. because of the additional nominations that it had or nomination that it had. The Wild Tales was in there a little bit. There were other high-profile things that were submitted, but not even making the short list. You mentioned two days one night. The Palm Winner Winter Sleep was submitted and not selected, though. If you've seen that movie, you can see why. It's three hours of people talking about politics.

Once that one won the Palm, people were like, huh, like, a... A lot of that movie's detractors sort of came out. Well, Traylon has had a lot of movies in Cannes, so it was partly like he was due. It is a really good movie, but like, the Academy is never going to respond to that movie. The movie that beat Force Mijure for the top prize in certain regard, White God. Right. Which I never saw, because I cannot watch Animal in Peril movies. I don't know why I'm so tender-hearted about it, but I am.

Yeah. The apparently horrible St. Laurent biopic. I would say, I saw St. Laurent. I don't think it's bad. It's not the greatest thing that ever saw. I thought it was pretty good. And it's, you know, it's sexy. It played Cannes.

And then if I'm remembering correctly, there was another St. Laurent biopic afterwards that maybe also played can. Oh, well, maybe I'm thinking of the lesser one. But anyway. Right, right. And then also from Canada, not water, but a movie that we both actually like, despite, you know, wide discussion of this filmmaker, Zabia Dilan's mommy. Oh, I loved Mommy. Which. My favorite of the Zavia Dilan movies.

I mean, for good reason. It's really, really impressive. And it's... You can see why he got so many chances because that movie is so strong. Yeah. And, like, it's so strong, but it's not like he's sacrificed his usual vision. Yes. Like, it is so purely a Xavier Dilan movie.

But it is, you know, maybe the best that, or the least, um, patience testing. Yeah. That his aesthetic, um, and vibe has. But it also has these incredible performances, too. It's, it's showy and aesthetics in a way that I think really works. And I think, like, jives well with the characters in that movie. Like, that is a movie where these very ostentatious, you know, at one point that the lead teen sort of spreads the frame from this, you know,

box frame to widescreen as he's lip-syncing to Wonderwall. And I think all of that stuff works. The last little, what you call it, montage, sort of like fantastical dream montage that the mother has of this imagined future for this kid, which is set to the same piece of music that they use for the series finale orgy in Sense 8, is really, really tremendous, and it made me cry. Also, though, I want to shout out, Force Major was one of the five independent movies recognized by the National Border Review, along with another, I believe it was another Swedish movie, because it's said in Sweden, at least,

which is Lucas Moodysons, We Are the Best, which is about a... Which I still haven't seen, but I know you like that and other people I respect really like me as well. I think you would really love it. It's about a band of these sort of young little school-age girls form a band, and it's really, really likable, and I think you would really like it.

But anyway, so the short list happens. Most people assume that Force Mjeure is, if not the top contender, like one of the top contender, like one of them up with Ida. And so Ruben Ostland and his co-producer, I imagine, um, decide to film their reaction to the nomination announcement. And this goes on for several months.

Okay, let's let's unpack it. Let's unpack this video. Yeah. Because from the beginning, uh, they were in the Trump hotel. Oh, in, in Columbus Circle? Uh, I believe that they're in New York.

It does not look like they're at, up at five in the morning. So I'm assuming it is the New York Trump hotel. The one in Columbus Circle, I would imagine. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yes. And you, for a few minutes, you're watching them go through the nominations,

eagerly awaiting the category that they're waiting for. And you do hear the dick poop announcement during this video. So this is interesting. But they're too busy responding to Eda being nominated in that category. And, like, the shade thrown to Eda is fantastic. It's one of those things where they know enough to know that Eda getting nominated in other categories isn't good for them because it makes Eda the front runner. They literally say like, oh, that's probably going to win now because it's getting nominated elsewhere. They also, there's a knock at the door.

I am somebody who knows the dick poop moment, like backwards and forward. And so I know it's coming. Once you hear cinematography, I'm like, they're going to say dick poop. And there's a knock at the hotel room door. And they both leave frame. And I'm like, no, it's going to happen. Like, come back, come back. But they're too distracted and they don't notice the Dick Poop moment, which is like the most tragic thing that happens in this entire video, actually, that they would deny themselves unwittingly this moment of levity.

But anyway, continue. Well, they're busy shading Eda, and then when they get to the category. I do kind of love it. It's bitchy as hell, but I love that they're shading Eda. Eda is mentioned first, and they kind of just look at each other, and then they go through it, and then they slowly realize they're not getting nominated, and they can, can't tell, you can tell they can't tell what order it's being announced in. Is it alphabetical? Is it alphabetical by film or by country? Right. Right. Right. And then they're like, oh, there's only one more. Yeah. Wild Tales is nominated for which was the surprise. Wild Tales was the one that most people were not predicting, I think, at that time. Because Wild Tales, while, like, is probably one of the more accessible of those nominees. It's a little crass. It's a little crass. It's a little, yeah. It is a little crass. Someone literally, like,

takes a shit on a car in that movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's like kind of violent. Yeah. It does not have snob appeal the way that the other foreign language films have snob appeal. Yeah. And so they don't get the nomination. And they go off screen.

They go off screen. The phone is ringing, blah, blah, blah. And then you hear them off screen and captions. And this is where I'm like, this is staged. They decided to make a joke out of it, but their camera. was rolling and they were off screen, they took it to make a joke. Either way, it is I appreciate it. I appreciate it either way.

Yeah. You hear Usland like sobbing uncontrollably, much like the character does in the movie. The producer is like, keep your clothes on, keep your clothes on. It's great. I love it. It is fake or not. It is legitimately very funny and true to the nature of the movie.

Yes. And I think, you know, it's interesting. You also have Pahlikovsky because of Ida and this, and Pahlikovsky would continue to have Oscar success as well. It's interesting that they're both together and that Uisland was being shady in this video. Yeah, they have both since now cracked the best director lineup for different movies, which is... Well, but it's also made... This movie helped, you know, get Useland through the door with Oscar people. And I actually think the video helped people remember him when, like, the square came back around.

And now for Triangle of Sadness. So it's like he... Well, the other thing about... In acknowledging it, it helped him get in the club. Yes. The other thing, though, about the square and then triangle of sadness is he has now joined the ultra-proseigious list of filmmakers with two palm doors to their name, which, like, I don't have... It's too many palm doors for him. I'm sorry.

And mostly, I mean, I feel... that way because I hate the square, but also like both of his palms felt like in when you look at those line of we know this about

the palm for the square is that it was kind of a negotiation between the team because everybody had wanted, or the jury because a lot of people had wanted BPM to be the winner and it didn't win. And it didn't

win. And some people, Almodivar, who was the jury president, has not named names, but has said that there were some people who clearly didn't get it because it's a movie about gay people. Was, and I think... Who are you blaming? Who are you blaming for that? It has separately come out that one of those people was Will Smith. Is Will Smith homophobic? I am not saying that. But Will Smith has been named as one of people who did not like BPM. But the square was seen...

That is why he should have been banned from the Oscars for 10 years. That already. Will Smith is also on the record of saying the one movie I liked that I saw in competition was Jupiter's Moon, Cornell Mundrosco's movie that never got U.S. distribution because everybody, critics across the globe,

hated that movie. And no one in the jury liked it. So I don't think Will Smith had generally a fun time being on the jury it can. Um, not a thing he would do again. Nobody talks about it, but like, he and Jessica Chastain were both on that jury and then they end up being those Oscar winners. Yeah. Um, that's also a fun can because Jessica Chastain comes out and says, you know, she was so surprised at the level of the lack of women represented in movies from, you know, some of the greatest filmmakers in the world. And a lot of people have chosen to believe she's talking about Hazalanovichus, um, for, his Godar movie. Right. But yeah, the square was seen as like the safe choice from that jury because it, you know, no one has really.

Sure. No one felt everybody kind of liked it and nobody hated it. I certainly am on the team BPM of that. BPM was one of my favorite movies of that year. But I will say, I'm absolutely should have that palm. The thing about Ruben Ocelain now having two palm doors is it's an incredibly exclusive list. He's the ninth director, or co-director, two have won the award twice. This is a list that includes Francis Ford Coppola and the Dardens and Michael Hanukkah.

Ken Loach has won it twice. Billy August. Billy August is the one where people sort of point to, and it's just sort of like on that same level. And nobody likes either of that. Billy August is won two, Pele of the Conqueror and what was the other one called? Not the non-musical Le Miserab, even though I believe Billy August did direct that. It's not the, I always want to say the bus jester. It's not the Bostonians. It's not the House of the Spirits. It's the best intentions,

it's 1992. Best intentions, yes. So that's another one where it's like, it's not like it's all killer, no filler in the multiple palm winner list. But a lot of people really hold that idea that like winning a second palm, like all these greats. He's very young too to have two palms. I believe he's 50. Sure. Or close to 50? Yeah, almost. He's 48. We'll be 50 this August. Or we'll be 50 this August, or will be 49. He doesn't jump ahead two years. That's not how it works. He will be 49 this August. But yeah, so this is

it's definitely a thing where people sort of like, that's why most people didn't think Triangle Sadness would win the palm because they're like, they're not going to give Ruben two. That might have been true in a year where previous palm, so many previous palm winners were not in

competition like they were last year. Yeah. Well, and you look at what the thing last year was, there was a lot of movies that got good but not great reviews, right? Where, like, Decision to Leave, Parktown Walk's Decision to Leave, got good reviews, but not like spectacular. Yeah, nothing was universally beloved. I think, honestly, I think to do it again, there's a chance that if people knew that

EO would end up being this sort of like unlikely crowd pleaser and, you know, sort of favorite throughout the year, maybe EO ends up winning the palm. But, like, it's movies like James Grace Armaged. end in time, which, like, good, but, you know, complicated reception to that, or what else were the other sort of well-regarded, Kelly Rikert's showing up, which had a bit of a muted reaction, or, like, obviously, like, Claire Denise stars at noon, was not universally loved. Holy Spider had a very complicated reception. Listen, it prevented close from winning the palm, which would have been, like,

egregiously bad. Was that the one that won the Grand Prix was close? It tied the Grand Prix with stars at noon. That's right. I forgot about that, which is weird. The past two cans, you've have a lot of these ties and a lot of things that have come out semi off the record about the jury deliberation is a lot of these ties were to kind of appease, you know, not division, but, you know, really strong feelings that certain jury members had about certain movies that weren't widely felt.

So that's why something like Titan and Triangle of Sadness have ended up winning the palm because they were broadly liked across the entire jury, though I would argue Titan is a much better palm win than Triangle of Sadness. I know that not everyone agrees with that. I sort of put them on a level with each other. I think I appreciate them maybe to the same degree in different ways. but perhaps to a same degree. There was also Broker, the Hurokazu Coriata film, which he had just won.

Also a recent Palm winner. I was going to say he had just won the Palm the year after. Actually, Oestland won it. So, yeah, there was, it was an interesting Cannes Film Festival. I will be very, very interested to see what the lineup ends up being this year. But we will talk about that at the future date. We'll see if Scorsese is there or not. Indeed.

And if the Lanthamos is there or not. What were the other sort of awards, and have we sort of gone through everything else that Force Majore ended up winning? It doesn't end up getting the Oscar nomination, and that, unfortunately, is sort of like the end of the line for a lot of these foreign language films, where it's just sort of like, well, you know, seasons over a little bit. We could talk a little bit about that actual can, because also in a certain regard, aside from White God, which we've mentioned already, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigpe Yes Which played as one film, right? It played as the combined film

This was before it got separated into his and hers I believe that was the version that I saw Was theirs, was the... Did you see it at TIF? No, I saw it at a press screening at one of the like, you know, regular New York City press screenings. I saw the theirs version

which is both of them, but it's not three hours long. Oh. I don't know. Maybe that is what I also saw. Now, I genuinely can't remember. I remember having a feeling of, should I go see the separate ones, too?

Because I remember hearing, like, you know, maybe, you know. I've always had the curiosity for it. Yeah. All I remember from that movie is Isabella O'Pere having really nothing to do. And it's like, wow, Jessica Chastain really did just, like, convince her to do this movie for her. Yeah. It's weird that also that Viola Davis is in that movie.

Like, it's just... Yes. Yes. Yeah. And I also remember the Sun Lux score, which they just have their first Oscar nomination this year for everything everywhere. Yes. This is 2014 can, though, is a pretty good, an interesting can, even when it's not stuff that I loved.

Like, on the record, it's saying I don't really like Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, but, like, that's an interesting movie to have in your can lineup. incredible Julianne Moore performance. Julianne Moore as Lindsay Lohan at 50. But there's movies that, like, it's interesting when there are movies from filmmakers who are quite notable. And it's like, there was an Adam Goyan in a movie in that lineup that, like, I don't have any. Which one is it?

Because a lot of Adam Goyan stuff in the past decade is supposed to be abysmal. Well, it was the captive. It was the one with Ryan Reynolds. The Ryan Reynolds one. That one's supposed to be really. embarrassed. With your beloved Scott Speedman, though, was also in that movie. And I do believe Rosario Dawson. You're correct.

But also, that was the one with Goodbye the Language, the Godard movie that was filmed in like weird, like magic eye, like, sort of that had that very, excuse me, that had that very distinct visual language. Foxcatcher, Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher

which ends up being a an Oscar success in some sort of peculiar ways, in a way that I've only seen that movie once. I found it a little snoozier than I wanted it to be, but I really like certain aspects of it. I think Ruffalo is tremendous,

and I think Channing Tatum is actually really good in it. I think Corral's the least... I think that movie's great, but it's so clear that they had a trouble getting a reasonable running time for it because the scuttle butt on that movie is it was almost going to be... Not almost going to be released,

but when it was pushed off from the year before, it's because they were having trouble getting it under four hours. Yes, that I agree with. Other movies at that can, Mike Lee's Mr. Turner, a really, really, you know, impeccably shot by Dick Poop, but also just like a really tremendous movie. And Timothy Spall should have been... Robust Oscar nominations, but not Timothy Spall.

Timothy Spall should have been nominated. He was really tremendous. We've talked about Mommy. We've talked about Leviathan. Oh, all right. Also, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, correct me if I'm wrong. But I feel like, and maybe I'm thinking of a different movie of hers, but was Naomi Kowas' movie Still the Water really buzzed about as a contender to win the palm that year?

Because I feel like... So much has come out about her in recent years. Oh, do tell. I'm ignorant of all of this. There, she had some stuff come out either around the time of last year's can or around then that she might be a monster. Oh, no. Oh, God. Like, perhaps Lidiatar proportions. Oh, gosh. Well, there we go.

But I feel like one of those years, people were really, really thinking she was going to maybe win the palm. And I don't know whether it was this year, because she's been in the canned competition. None of her movies have ever made real huge waves. And I think still the water is one of the ones that maybe got, like, a Grand Prix or something. Okay. She almost never has U.S. distribution. I saw, I think it was called Vision. I saw at one of the TIFs that I've gone to,

the movie that has Juliet Benosh, and she fucks a man who turns into a tree. Sure, great. I was like, I was like, I understand why her movies don't have U.S. distribution. I would also say, also in certain regard, is Ryan Gosling's Lost River. Have you seen this? movie.

No, I didn't. It is... Okay. I've heard enough. I have seen a growing contingent of people online saying that it is a great movie and I am like you guys are punking all this. In my mind... It's a barely functioning movie. In my mind, it's so tied up with what was the...

Reffin. Yes, but what was the Reffin movie that was really bad? Only God forgives. So it's so tied up in my mind with only God forgives that I sort of like dismissed them both in the same bucket and just like I have other things to see. I'm not, I should. Congratulations to anyone who sees any type of meaning in this movie. I thought it was not fully embarrassing because the visuals are like compelling. Like it's well shot, but it's, it is a vacuum.

And I, I don't know. I don't know what people want if they really like that movie. All right. What else? It is how Ryan Gosling knows Sertia, though, because he cast her in that movie. I believe that's the movie. Okay. And like that, it doesn't go around anymore because people know how to say her name now.

But when the clip was going around of Ryan Gosling correcting people on how to pronounce her name, that's why. Interesting. I want to run down a few more. It follows, played International Critics Week that year at Cannes, one of the best horror movies of the last 20 years. It's one of my favorites. I've seen it so many times. It's tremendous every time.

Selene Shyama's Girlhood played director's Fortnite that year. Our beloved Pride, Matthew Warkas' Pride, played director's Fortnite that year, The Tale of Princess Caguiya, Whiplash. These were all director's Fortnite movies.

So good for that festival. It's a strong one. I will say, there's a lot of Frederick Wiseman's National Gallery, which is the one

movie of his sort of like recent run of like long poetry of municipal institutions movies

that sort of process documentaries sort of gets slept on and I think it's really, really good. There is a...

I haven't seen this one, so maybe I'll catch up to it when I have five hours. There's a gentleman who gives student tours in that movie that I wanted to propose marriage to by the end, because he's so sweet and charming, and what a good movie that was. Fred Wiseman

movies, underrated comedies. Honestly, yes. Just really, it was one of those things where I remember there was so much hullabaloo about how long at Berkeley was, and I remember being like, who was going to take five hours out of their day to go watch, like,

people in committee meetings about whatever. And then I watched, I think I watched that first. What was the one that came right after that was in Jackson Heights. Yes. In Jackson Heights is maybe my favorite. I think it is too, but like all of them together at Berkeley and Jackson Heights National Gallery and Ex Libris, the New York Public Library. All of them. Monrovia as well, Monrovia. I still have to see a Monrovia, Indiana, but also that too. this sort of collective work of the institutions that make up the world that we live in and it's institutions higher education and art and you know public library and Jackson

Heights is very very much about like community building and like on the ground like community work in these very sort of you know and it all of it together is such a heartening portrait of the ways in which we all build a society. It sounds very sort of like cheesy to say it that way. But, you know, I love them all. I genuinely love them all. I could spend an entire day just sort of, that would be an interesting day. It's clear to your entire schedule and just watch all the wise ones and just sort of like luxuriate in American process. Have you seen the French strip club one? No, I forgot one. I mean, calling it a strip club is maybe a little different. It's more of like a cabaret exotic

type of thing. It's before this stretch of movies. Why do? I think it's called Wild Horse. Okay. I forget what it is, but it's also a really good one. All right. Nice. Should we move into like wrapping up our Force Majure notes before we move into? Yeah, what else do you have to say about Force Majure?

Let's see. I want to hold on a second. I, because I called him Torman, Giant's Man because that was his character's name in Game of Thrones. But I do want to say, his name is Christopher Hivejew. hide you, I guess, the guy who played mats. And he really is tremendous.

There's a scene where they're listening to Aba tell the story, and his eyes are getting sort of like wider and wider as she's telling the story. And he's just very funny to watch him hear it. I like that this movie used the same metaphor about how if you're on a plane and you lose cabin pressure, you're supposed to secure your mask before you secure your children's masks. Was such a metaphor that is used quite often in Fleischman is in trouble. and it's sort of at the top of my mind because of that. The screaming nightclub.

The white washing. Oh, I don't know if you'll agree with me on this. Oh, well, I'll save that for last. The other thing was during the scene where Ava is trying to get them to let the van driver to let them out onto the road, when she's finally like, let me out, let me out. She's making such a scene. And finally he puts a hand to where and he's like, okay. And then he goes to what he thinks.

is going to be the button that opens the door and the windshield wipers go, which is such a, like, classic joke format. But it works so tremendously well. I laughed so hard. But in terms of, like, doing an American version of this, and obviously Will Ferrell, I thought was pretty well unsuited to the role of Tomas. That guy, Johannes Bachrunkay, looks so much like Joe Swanberg. And I know you don't like Joe Swanberg. But like that's maybe the type that you want or like an action. that I don't really love, like, Ander's home from workaholics. I just want downhill to gender swap it. That would be really important. Because especially in an American context, I think what this movie does only seems more obvious, you know, and seems more gendered. That it's like, if you had Julia Louis Dreyfus reaching for her phone and skidaddling, it's not only funnier, but you could maybe have a more interesting sense. Well, and then you get into ideas of. like a man expecting the mother to be more protective of the children than maybe he has to be

and like that kind of thing and like that whole idea which isn't you know less obvious but also especially with those two actors maybe it would be funnier yeah um downhill a movie that i still after all that criticism think is pretty okay it's better than a d plus you know cinema score kind of thing but anyway um that's all i have what else do you have closing notes um Ruben Oslund is not only very good at Vacation Brain, as two of his movies have featured, much like White Lotus is about vacation brain on top of the other things that it's doing. He is good at what is very comically, I guess, sanitized or sterile about vacations. This movie uses a lot of classical music, but then when you hear, like, non-classical music in this resort or whatever, it reminded me so much of that Desiree song in Triangle of Sadness that makes me laugh the entirety that it's playing, because it's just like all chorus and elevator music, but like on a balcony. And it's very funny to be.

Yeah, I agree. All right. Should we move into the IMDB game? Yeah, would you like to explain what the IMDB game is for our listeners? Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress and try and guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice only performances or non-acting credits, we mentioned that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue. And if that is not enough, it just becomes a free-for-all of hints.

The IMD-B game, are you giving or guessing first today, sir? I think I will give first. Okay. So I, we were talking a lot about the Oscar year for 2014, and so I delved into the acting nominees that year. One of the winners that year for Best Supporting Actor was J.K. Simmons, and we've never done J.K. Simmons before, and he's been in 8 billion movies. So what were, what would you imagine the top four would be for J.K. Simmons? Whiplash. Correct, his Oscar winner.

Spider-Man. Correct, J. Jonah Jameson. His first appearance. is Daytona Jameson. Juno. Juno, you are three for three on Juno playing Juno's father, Mac MacGuff. You said there's no TV. There is no TV, there's no voice

performances. Okay, now we have pressure. Some newer stuff has been showing up. I am curious if being the Ricardo's would be there, because that's just his second nomination, right? Correct. Correct. I'm going to pull the trigger and say being the Ricardo's.

Incorrect. He is not there for his performance, as William Frawley and being the Ricardos. Okay, so maybe it's older than his Oscar nomination, though. I mean, I have Juno in there. What else would people have maybe, well, and Spider-Man? It has to be something after. What's the movie that he got real jacked for? He had an action movie or maybe a superhero movie,

and he got fucking ripped in a way that you're like, this old man should not be taking steroids. What the hell was that, though? I genuinely, I'm trying to remember. There's a couple of guesses that I have, but I don't want to say them because they may or may not be the correct answer. No, no, he plays so many, like, detectives and such. and he's in every Jason Reitman movie somewhere

I'll just say thank you for smoking It's not thank you for smoking All right so that's two strikes Your remaining year is 2016 Okay so it's after his Oscar Yes Would have been shortly after his Oscar I don't think he was back in Marvel

after the Ramey Spider-Man's. I will say, because it's not 2016, he has shown back up in the Marvel ones, as Jay Jonah Jameson. He's in the newer Spider-Man ones. It's a quirk of casting. Because the multiverse, the most annoying thing in popular

culture, the multiverse. Shut up and answer the questions. All right, come down. Okay, 2016, what are 2016 movies that he is possibly in? It's not going to be any of the Cannes movies. That is the year that Moonlight wins best picture.

What was he in that year? Not La La La Land, though I think he is in La La Land somewhere. Or a voice in La La Land. Is it La La Land? That's La La Land. He's just like a voice, right? He's in like two scenes. No, he's there.

But he's like, he barely does anything. It's a glorified cameo. Yes, La La La Land. That is what you get for Be in the Smart Marta asks about Marvel as you say not La La Land and I... I don't just hate Marvel for the multiverse. The multiverse is everywhere.

The multiverse isn't like a sentient thing. It's a concept that like a couple movies are done. But it is stupid. I don't think it is inherently stupid. I think you think it's stupid because you don't like Marvel. The only time a multiverse hasn't been stupid is everything everywhere all at once. I thought that that was a creative way to do a multi- I guarantee you there are other examples.

Anyway, what is your IMDB game for me? I'm sick of talking about this. Since, uh, I have been too nice to you, and you have pulling out some very difficult things for me. I decided to not be so nice this week because we're doing a filmmaker whose movies are not very nice, so why not? I went into Ruben Usland's cast list, and for you, I chose the, to me, very difficult to place Dominic West from the square. Okay. There is one television.

The wire. The wire. Okay. All right, Dominic West in films. Motion and pictures. Three motion pictures starring the actor, Dominic West. There's one movie that I think he's in, but I can't be totally sure. But I think he is. Is he in 300?

He is in 300. Is that one of them? Yes. Okay. All right. So two for two. Chicago? Chicago. Everyone in Chicago has it in their notes. That was my thinking. in so briefly, but like everybody

in Chicago. Dominic West is the answer to Christine Baranski's eternal question. Now tell us, Roxy. Who's Fred Casley? Who's Fred Caseley? Who's Fred Casley? Exactly. Tell us, Roxy.

Yeah, all right. All right, one more Dominic West. You're not getting a perfect score. I can tell you that. Well, then I guess it's not pride, even though I do love him in pride. Are you guessing that? No, I'm not.

You wouldn't say I'm not getting a perfect score if it was pride. Unless you're trying to fool me, in which case that's mean. Dominic West, what's a, what's a, what's a, what's a what's a what's a what's a what. The forgotten. Incorrect, not the forgotten. Damn. All right. Every actor should have a known for, and then they should also have a jiff in, like in their, next to they're known for, like a jiff that I remember.

for, and that should be Alfrie Woodard's where she just gets sucked into the cloud. It's great. It's so good. The best part of that, though, is it, it works as a gift fine. It works better as a video clip, though, because you really have to hear her, because she's, like, explaining the, like, she's unlocking the secrets of the movie, and she's so serious, and she's got to be, like, you don't understand. It's bigger than you think.

It's, roop, and then she gets, like, taken out. Plucked, like, from, like, an arcade gift, you know, the magic claw. It's like one of those. All right. Dominic West. I feel like in so many ways, I feel like he's in like anachronistic, like,

or maybe I'm just thinking of 300, a billion times, but like a Clash of the Titans thing or something like that. But I want to think of something that I like know for sure that he's in. I'm just going to throw pride out there and I'll burn the guest to get the year. Pride is incorrect. Your year is 2018. Hmm.

2018. It is a rebooted franchise. Oh. I'm guessing you did not see. Is it the bad Fantastic Four? It is not the Bad Fantastic Four. It is not good. I know that much.

And I didn't see it. I'm sure you didn't see it. Because really no one saw this. No one wanted this. Is it a Transformers? No. Truly no one wanted this. Truly no one wanted this person in this role.

Oh, God. I'm guessing he is playing the father of... It's a titular character, like, but we know her as this thing. It's not like a superhero name, but it is... And it's not the character. Right. It's like The Invisible Woman, but like... But like, if I said to you, character name, you would say, oh, title. Right. And it's a rebooted thing. It's not gem in the holograms, because that is someone's name.

It's action superhero. Yes. And it's a reboot of a franchise, but it's only the third time this character has been made on film. a cat woman no not a cat woman um that we have only had if you don't count is it like comic book superhero or like no but you're not far off um like literature like from no what's something that people tend to look down their nose at when it becomes a movie horror no oh that when it becomes a movie yes like a game like a board game uh what kind of game video game yeah laura croft he's larry Lara Croft's the father, Elisa Becander, Lara Croft, and Tomb Raider? Okay. Which Laura Croft is it? Who plays Lara Croft?

Alicia Vicander, right? Yes, everybody wants Alicia Vincander in action movies. That was her Oscar follow-up. All right, you had me. You got me. I did get three for three right off the bets. I'm happy about that. You did.

All right. Let's wrap it up. All right. I think that is our episode. If you want more, this head Oscar Buzz, you can check out our Tumblr at this headoscarbuzz. com. You should also follow us on Twitter.

it had underscore Oscar buzz. I had underscore Oscar buzz and on Instagram at this head Oscar buzz. Joe, where can the listeners find more of you? Instagram. Instagram, why do we keep saying that? I'm not, it's because we've added Instagram to the site boilerplate.

I am on Twitter and letterboxed at Joe Reed, read spelled R-E-I-D. And I am on Twitter and letterbox at KrispyFile. That's F-E-I-L. We'd like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mievious for their technical guidance. Please remember to rate like

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