What Are You Watching?

79: New 2022 Movie Reviews

December 10, 2022 Alex Withrow & Nick Dostal
What Are You Watching?
79: New 2022 Movie Reviews
Show Notes Transcript

Nick interviews Alex about a ton of new movies, including "Triangle of Sadness," "The Banshees of Inisherin," "The Fabelmans," "Glass Onion," "Bones and All," "Tár," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Armageddon Time," "Sr.", and more! The guys also discuss the new Sight and Sound movie poll and the Film Independent Spirit nominations.
Follow @WAYW_Podcast on Twitter and Instagram.
Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
Send us mailbag questions at whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Hey, everyone, welcome to what are you watching? I'm Alex Withrow, and I'm joined by my best man, Nick Dostal. How you doing there? Second banshee? I'm fucking excited to be here. Did you love that fic? Like, oh, yeah. I've never. I don't know if I've ever heard that used in a movie at all, let alone, like, 100 times. It was great. Oh, yeah. And that's what's great about that is like, that's all that's McDonagh's plays, like. All of these things. Exactly. They all say fake. Uh, welcome, everybody. We've had two huge episodes in a row with the Saving Private Ryan commentary and then our Quentin Tarantino breakdown, both a ton of fun to do. We appreciate everyone who's listened to those, but need a little break in terms of the heavy, heavy hours long content. So we're going to have kind of a piecemeal episode today and and we're going to talk about a lot of new movies this year. Most of them are fall 2022 releases. Of course, no spoilers, but these are movies that are in the conversation right now. People, if anyone's seeing them, they are talking about them. A lot of people in my life have been asking me about the movies we're going to talk about today. That's the long and short of it. And last year I did a number of like mini sodas and they would be, you know, 15, 20 minutes. We're kind of just comping those all together for this episode. So that's what this is going to be. But we're going to talk about some fun stuff today for sure, but how you feel talking about some new movies. You know, man, I I'm feeling a feeling a little left out because I think, like maybe many of us, that I have not seen a lot of these movies. And I think a big part of it is the fact that this is a good conversation to have is like they may be out in theaters right now, but they're going to be streaming in about a month. We're going to use this list today for people like yourself, because most of our dedicated listeners know that I am a film lunatic. I see most everything. I cannot help myself. I go to the theater once or twice a week. I always have. If it's a new big streaming movie, I'll likely check it out. So I see everything. You have other interests and priorities and obligations, which I totally understand. But we're going to release this episode on December 10th. Most of the movies we're going to be talking about today are have like just been in theaters and they are going to be able to rent online for like 15 bucks, like in a matter of days. The fable means you're going to be able to rent that in a matter of days if you want to pay the 15 bucks, that 15 bucks is still cheaper than paying the movie theater cost. But a lot of people are also going to see that $15 price tag and go, well, shit, like in another month or two, it's going to be on one of the eight streaming apps I have. So should I just wait? So this is the movie predicament of our times. People are largely not going to the theater anymore. They are waiting. So it does kind of lend itself to being like, Well then what is the driving factor of going to see the movies in the theater outside of the fact that it's a better experience? Sure. But I think this is the question of our time. This is what is bringing people into movie theaters. Yeah. So what's interesting is that a lot of the movies I'm going to talk about today, I did see in the theater to mostly bare crowds, not all of them, but mostly. And this is I've never really seen anything like it because movies are are we allowed to say that they're back like from COVID? Like are movies back in the theater like they're being released? I mean, there's major releases. Avatar two is going to come out in a few weeks and that's going to be all the rage. Like, I don't know if movies are quote unquote, like back officially, but if they are and if we're all agreeing that they are, then this is not good. Like we just went through the worst box office Thanksgiving in movie history. No one went to the movies this Thanksgiving. And that's a really, really popular movie weekend. So it's you people are just hanging it, hanging at home, putting this streaming thing on, you know, paying the five or 15 bucks to watch the new movie, you know? Yeah. Or even worse, waiting even longer for it to show up on Netflix or HBO or anything like that. And Avatar is going to do very well because I think the people the movies that people go to choose to see in the theaters, this is just what they are now. They are this is they are all spectacle. And so, God damn it, Bones and all I. I just like I like. So in L.A., there are maybe more than any other movie I've seen for, like, the last month. There are more posters for bones and all floating around. Oh, where then? That was always usually a bad sign to me. That usually meant they were like trying to overcorrect. And then I saw the movie and I'm like, Oh, this wasn't really that good. I'm going to talk about Bones and all of today, this movie Rocks. I can't wait to see it. Like this is one of the movies. Like, we'll go through it like, you know, this is one of the movies that's probably the top of my list, along with a couple other ones, because you have strongly pushed them. But I've always wanted to see that one. But I find it interesting that like, okay, so in L.A., in a giant film city, this is the movie that's getting the most exposure in terms of driving around and wow. And it's the same poster. There's nothing different because, you know, sometimes they like marketing will throw up like a few different types of, you know. Things. I like that. I think it's fun. Yeah. But same thing. The image is in my head like every time I. Yeah, yeah. It's just burned in there. So I don't know if that's a marketing strategy to try to get people to be in the theaters for this. I don't know. I mean, it's in theaters now. It's in a lot of theaters for in a weird art movie about Young Cannibal Love. We'll get there. We'll get to a lot of new movies. First, we're going to talk about some fun new movie news that just happened, the Sight and Sound poll in 1952, The Sight and Sound Crew. They asked a bunch of critics what the best films of all time were, and they published the results. They have done this every decade since. For the longest time, Orson Welles's Citizen Kane was at the top spot, rightly so. Then, ten years ago, in 2012, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo took over as number one. It was really controversial at the time. I mean, controversial for, like, movie nerds, you know? Yeah. Twitter, all that. Yeah. A few days ago, we got the updated list and I just want to go over this top ten real quick because there are a hundred movies, but we can go through the top ten because we got some huge surprises on a a list that is usually regarded as highly intellectual, a little bit stuffy. Which it is a. Little bit. I mean, there's so much world cinema here. Like, I get it. Most people haven't seen all these, but they took some, some huge risks with the update and I was just really impressed. I don't agree with everything that's okay. Just really, really impressed. So I couldn't. Believe that there's one movie that didn't even make the top ten on this list. That's an every top ten list. Okay. So we're going to all right. We'll get there. First, let me do the 2012 top ten just for context. Then we'll move to 2022, 2012, number ten, eight and a half. Number nine, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Number eight, Man with a movie camera. Number seven, The Searchers six, 2001 A Space Odyssey five. Sunrise four The Rules of the Game three Tokyo Story two Citizen Kane one. Vertigo. That's a pretty standard list for a list like this, which is to say very few new movies. Again, this is 2012, but we're not seeing anything from the you know, the 2000 eighties or nineties on there. Let's go to 20, 22, ten years. Ten years. Yeah. Number ten, singing in the rain. Number nine, man with a movie. Camera number eight, massive surprise, Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. That's wild number seven, another relatively new movie, Beau Travel by Claire Danes, probably her best movie, holding tight at number six, 2001, A Space Odyssey. Number five Another Crazy New One In The Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai. What a spirited choice. Number four Tokyo Story number three, Citizen Kane. Number two, Vertigo Number one out of Nowhere Like a Hurricane. John Dillman by Chantal Akerman A movie you add I've repped. Since this podcast began. We've been talking about it. So many different episodes. And I saw this and I thought I thought it was like a joke, not because it doesn't deserve to be there. It's not my favorite movie of all time. That's okay. But I went. Holy shit. That's a great choice. The three and a half hour character study of the woman at her apartment. John David, what do you think. This is like mind boggling. I mean, I was like the first person to bring this movie up on the spot at some point. Because I remember you were surprised that I saw it. I was surprised because I've been talking about it forever. But we did an episode. It was like one of our earliest bonus episodes, hashtag women make films. Yeah, we got women making movies. That's I mean, we're talking years ago. And then we very recently talked about it on our favorite movies by women, about women, which was just like a few episodes ago. So yeah, you've been. I was very surprised you saw this one. It's kind of the personification of good slow cinema, slow cinema with intention, although I suppose who you ask on that, that could vary. Some people probably find this painfully dull, you know. But yeah, you've been repping it hard for. Years and and I can't say that like personally I feel like this is number one. However, the fact that it's number one on any list, especially something as reputable as this is just really a testament to like maybe go and actually see this like, yeah, like check this out. We've been repping it, but now that like this, this list has got this at number one, it says a lot. Which movie were you talking about that isn't here, but you're surprise The Godfather. Godfather? Yeah. Well, you got to keep in mind like that is interesting that it's not here it is number 12 this number. But yeah, but I think it's because this is an international list, whereas truth is just American movies. But yeah, yeah. Well, and for the most part, like I feel like any top ten list no matter where you are international, otherwise you're kind of floating around. There's always 2000. One is always in the mix. Citizen Kane is usually number one, if not number two. And The Godfather. I feel like those are like the four movies that are always kind of in some type of rotation for that conversation. So it's cool that other movies have kind of like taken that spot, but this is the first time I've ever seen The Godfather, not in a top ten list. It's a good point. It's pretty wild. Honestly, I'm just going to call out a few more things that we're going to move on. Only one Birdman. How dare they? Number 18, persona. There was one. I looked at it. No, on the directors list there are two. Not on the critics list. On the main critics list. All right. Let me look. Let me let me look. If you're wrong, I'm in a punch. You in. Now. And I feel like I saw this I saw persona on there. There was one more. I literally just search the word Birdman. And it came up twice. Once for persona and then once for Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca. All right. All right. Fine. Moving on, winner. And then sometimes lists like this get a little carried away like, a little bit. And if you go to number 30, it's portrait of a lady on fire. Like hell, yeah. Guys got me. But come on, baby, come on and test it. 30 What is eight and a half? Another 31 because they tied is Psycho City lights by Chaplin 36 those you know it's a huge flex like a huge. Huge flex. I love it. Oh, there's your number at 27. You're. That's your show. Jesus. Yeah, I watch that for the first time and covered. Not exactly crowd pleaser like not. All right. Well, we'll all check back in another ten years. Ten years. The latest list is on there when CODA is number eight. Oh, my God. Don't even. Oh, Jesus. Christ. I think the power of the dog will make it moving on. Okay. We are quickly approaching the Oscar season. It's here. You know, the Oscars are going to be in March, but we had our first big kind of foray into them. Our first little insight, the indie spirit nominations are among us. We're not going to go through all of them, but we're going to do some highlights real quick. Everything everywhere swept with eight noms total the most are look out for this especially in these awards to sweep and sweep big. I don't I just wouldn't be surprised if it won damn near everything was nominated for it. I've been saying this to you since like April or May. You have you think this movie will win best picture. The Best Picture Oscar. It will not win. Director. I think right now I texted it to you. It's going to I think everything everywhere you look at it, picture actress, supporting actor for sure original screenplay. And that's for I mean, you know, that's enough for best picture winning movie. Now I still don't believe it. Like it's like I hear what you're saying. You've been saying that since day one. And I would love it. I would love it. I just I, I see screenplay and maybe and maybe. Michelle Yeoh. Yeah, I mean, I'm talking to Oscars, I. Think. Yeah, I know it's I mean, it's just yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it'll take but it's, you know, that thing has legs like very few movies do of recent memory. It's an A24 movie. But that thing came out in theaters in March and is never going away. Whether it is for you or not, that thing is here to stay. And I like an indie movie having that much legs. I do too. I very much so. Some huge omissions before we get to what is here. Nothing for the whale, nothing for Armageddon time. Wow. I've seen Armageddon time. We're going to talk about in a little bit but nothing for the whale is concerning for its Oscar chances. You know, I haven't seen the whale yet. Neither of you. But it makes me I wonder if we're just going to get like a Brendan Fraser nomination. That's it. And that usually doesn't bode well for a win. But I don't know. We're going to. We'll see. We'll see. Okay. Back to the indie spirits. Bones and all did well for nominations. I just love to see it. I mean, Taylor Russell, who I adore, she got in there. Mark Rylance is in there for supporting performance. Ain't nobody ever seen a Mark Rylance performance like this. Holy God, it's. It's something to behold. Lead performance in supporting performance. That's it. Yeah. No gender. This is it. There's ten each. Will we see the Oscars do this? If I can do it this year, next year or the year after, I don't know. But these are these are cool nominations to see them. Anything from like the performances that stick out for you, Mia Goth being there for Pearl, which I called on the NC 17 podcast, I was like, I would nominate her for this. I love that she got in here. She has like a six minute, unbroken monologue and it's fantastic. I love it. Cameras just right on her face. It's really, really good. Yeah, there's some good stuff here. There is. But the only question I was going to have is I notice in the best lead performance, we're missing a little. Timmy C will challenge action. I don't know that's that's a tough one, too, because she is the lead of the movie Taylor Russell is it is her movie. He is not the star of it. He's a he's a supporting performance. But it's a it's almost leaning toward a lead. Mark Rylance is like a truly supporting performance in that movie. So it would be weird if Shalom was in category with him because Shalom is in the movie way more, but it's not his story. I guess I'll just put it that way. Happy to see Jonathan Tucker get a nom here. I love that guy. Yeah, I like that too. Palm trees and power lines haven't seen it. I hadn't heard of it until these nominations, but I like seeing him there. Jamie Lee Curtis, nominated for everything everywhere. Will she get her first Oscar nomination? I don't know. We'll see. It's really it's kind of fun to track, though. She's really into it. You know. I love her. Was. Yeah, I do, too. And then there was one movie in particular that got a lot of nominations. And I just watched it like two days before and I jumped for joy when I saw that. And that's a little tease for a movie on Down the Line because I loved it quite a lot. I think I know my favorite movie. Yeah, my favorite movie literally mentioned on this list anywhere. Genuinely, it came out of nowhere to me. Well, should we should we should we get into this? Let's do it. Let's get into these new movies we have. How many do I even put here? Choose too many. 14 things total to get through. But we are going to go quick again. There's not going to be any spoilers here. Maybe we should also say upfront that not all of these are full fledged, wholehearted endorsements. That's okay. I'm going to try to spin them to where even if I if they weren't really for me, I'm not sick. The point of this is not to sit here and trash them. It's just to give my perspective and talk about who even if it wasn't for me, who the movie could potentially be for. I'm not talking about any movie today just to go. This sucks. Don't see it. I mean, one of them almost got like one of those out here, but that's okay. But anyway, I also want to say that most of these the reason why I'm talking about them here, just for me personally, the majority of these are not going to be on my top ten of 2022, and that's okay. That's why I'm talking about them here. We may be talking about them again because you'll see them before Oscar time, but. All right. But let's get into it. I'll start. I'll kick it off with one I really just loved with all of my heart. I've been waiting for months for the right time to talk about it. Ruben Ostlund Triangle of sadness. Holy God, it's available to rent now for like a fee. 15 bucks at home. I would highly recommend it. I imagine it'll be on Hulu as part of the Hulu neon deal. I don't know when, but I'm going to buy this movie. I'm going to watch it all the time. Jesus Christ, this thing won the Palme d'Or. It con this year. It's the second movie in a row for ÖSTLUND to win the Palme d'Or after the Square in 2017. That's pretty crazy. He made a movie called Play, which is really, really good, very unique, highly encourage people to check that one out and force majeure and the square, which are both absolutely outrageous. Triangle Sadness is his best movie yet. To me it is a hilarious takedown of the 1%. It's split into a few distinct parts. In the first part, we meet a model influencer. Couple things aren't going that well, and part two is them on a yacht cruise for the insanely wealthy. This part contains one of the funniest sequences I have ever seen in a movie. I unfortunately had to accept the fact that I was going to have to wear glasses in late 2018, 2019. It just it's part of getting older. It's a, you know, long story, not just eyesight. I talked about that thing in the Captain Phillips memorable. Never mind. Fuck, since I don't have glasses just because I have bad eyesight. I have glasses because they had hit in the face too many times so I was getting it anyway. I glasses my point is I've never since having my glasses had to take them off in a movie theater because I couldn't see because they were fogging up and I was blinking tears. So I just like had I took them off and like basically threw them in the next seat and was just dying laughing for like 20 minutes and could not catch my breath. And it was not all of us in the theater would do this. There's probably 40 of us and ten of us where I mean, we were beside ourselves, making everyone else laugh, just fucking dying, laughing. So it was a glasses off movie. I'm glad I got you this thread a little bit. That's okay. I that this is why I think it was the funniest thing is because it's not. Uncommon for us to go off on tangents about personal shit that's happened. But the fact that in. Your side quest. You you you brought up the need to reference and we talked about this in our Captain Phillips episode like this. Yeah, this is how much movies mean to you is that you can equate describing it too much. Why you need to wear glasses to maybe potentially bring this up in a previous episode. Yeah, I was jumped 25, got rocked in the face too many times, detached retina, all sorts of crazy shit and yeah, just need my right eyes little jacked up. I reference getting jumped when talking about Captain Phillips several episodes ago and the shock I felt afterwards. So I'm just yeah, it's all connected. This is how it's all connected. You all connected. It's all to say. Tribal said is fucking hilarious movie I promise. The third part is virtually no fun to reveal in this form. You got to go see it. Jesus Christ. Triangle of Sadness also has a great soundtrack featuring the legendary top tier J. The album what it's album time. No, it is not yet on. I've been waiting for you to see this movie for months and I've been holding this back. I've been holding this back, this album. Be so much to us. How do you say his name? Todd Tier J. Todd. Todd Terje. Yeah, Todd Terje. It's album time, baby. Dude, I jumped out of my seat when this song came on. Like, I just jumped out of my seat, and I'm not going to tell you what song, but I went, Oh my God. Like, I didn't even know what else to do about this music. Like, Oh my God, great soundtrack. All sorts of shit like that. Oh, my God, I have time. I literally have goosebumps. So for anyone who might not understand why that's so meaningful is anyone you know, if you've got 45 minutes out of your day, you can get it on Spotify, you can get it anywhere. Music is sold. It's just music at Apple Music. Anywhere, anywhere. Just do yourself a favor. Find it's album time by Todd Terje. A look at the cover and then just put it on and just listen to the whole entire thing. It won't take long and your life will be changed. You're welcome. If you want to do it. And not a totally normal, sober state of mind. Not that that's something, you know, we would ever advise, but I don't know. It might open the album for you a little bit. I just heard people have done that before. It's what I've heard. That's what I've heard. Triggered said is I loved it. I loved it. You will see this one before. Like I don't know if it's going to do Oscar wise. A lot of it's in English, so I don't think it will even count as a foreign film. I don't know, screenplay, maybe? I don't know. Let's move on to one. You have seen, though, Banshees Banshees event Sharon by Martin McDonagh. We did see this one, How to Begin. We basically said if we both really like it will do its own episode, it'll get its own deep dove episode. And you know, listeners didn't get that episode. And I think that's kind of telling of what we thought about it. This isn't to say that this is a bad movie by any stretch. Not at all. I thought it was decent. Okay. And I got it. I'll stop there and let you go. I mean, I just got to start by saying that Martin McDonagh is my favorite contemporary writer today. Like, yeah. Whether it's his films or his plays, I think that man is just an absolute God. This is, in my opinion, the closest that he's ever come to putting one of his plays on film. This feels just like any of I mean, even a similar title. I mean, you've got the lieutenant of Inishmore, the Banshees of Sharon. I mean, it's a very, very like when I saw the title, I was like, Oh, it's I wonder if we're going to get more and of his play type stuff. And that's exactly what we got. As much as I liked it, I just kind of feel that the stakes didn't feel quite as high, and I think that is where some of the tone got left. But that is being very, very nitpicky on my end because I still think that this guy is he's still my hero today. But yes, I think there's this is the reason why we didn't go all in and do an entire McDonagh episode, which is still something we could do. Yeah, I need. Myself like a little McDonagh of course. Correction, because In Bruges is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, but it appears that he is not really interested in doing that type of movie anymore. That that I think that was just kind of a one off. And I went in with the thing we encourage people to not go into a movie with, which was these expectations of like this is what banshees it's going to be in Bruce part two. And it's not that and it never pretends to be that. It never does. And I really appreciated its dedication to tone. It's so for Lorne and Cold Barry Keoghan is again the highlight of anything he's in. I thought he was great in this, but I think everyone can expect some Oscar nominations. I think the movie and the performances might be a bit too sparse to win anything. We'll see. But I also don't think this is the movie people needed to rush out to the theaters to see. I think this is one that's fine to watch at home, you know? Yeah, I agree. Even though it's got some sweeping, beautiful shots of Ireland, I've always said that Martin McDonagh is like the best person that balances really intense drama with really hilarious comedy. Like he finds the humor in everything. That could be the most disturbing thing, and this is all they're like. His tone is absolutely all over this good movie. I mean, it really was there's nothing there was nothing about it or whatever. I don't want to I don't want to talk about that or something. It's definitely felt like one of his plays, like a filmed version of his plays. And I haven't read all of them, but I've read most of them. And yet that's a really good way to describe it. So I will say for the record that my father would disagree with me very heavily on that movie. He loved it and he loved, loved, loved. The next one I'm going to bring up, which is and that is Steven Spielberg's The Fable Men's. Yes. I want to start this by saying that mileage is going to vary based on who you are when you see this movie. Again, my father absolutely loved it. Said it was one of his favorite movies in years. I thought it was very light, very easy, very soft. I did not think there was any real tension. You know where it's going. Does anyone watching this movie not know what happened to Steven Spielberg when he grew up? You know, okay. The main stake of the film, the main tension is a divorce. And that seems like it was the central trauma of Steven Spielberg's real life. So he's reframing the divorce of his parents and how that kind of motivated him or at the same time, he was motivated to become this genius filmmaker. And that's it. That's it's the story of young Steven Spielberg now. It's a very wholesome movie. It's a very warm movie. It's just very easy. It's something that you could quite literally take your whole family to. It's PG 13, but it could be G-rated. I mean, genuinely, there's nothing bad about it. And what I told my dad is I said, you know, I understand that my tastes veer towards a little more extreme. And this is not an extreme movie. And fair enough, if you grew up on the Spielberg we grew up on where we've really seen him make movies about divorce, childhood kids, E.T., Jurassic Park is about a man learning to become a father. Like we've seen these spectacle movies of this theme. The fable means it's not a spectacle movie. There's no aliens. There's no robots. It's nothing like that. It's just a very simple, emotionally naked story. And I appreciate it for that. I'm trying to think of where to begin here. I will say, this isn't just me. I went like the day after Thanksgiving and people in my theater were not into it. They were. It was people of all ages, older folks. Older folks were a little confused. I heard them whispering a few times going like, Is she supposed to be nuts talking about Michelle Williams? Because she kind of acts, quote unquote like crazy a lot. But that's never like mentioned. So I was a little lost on what the tone of her was supposed to be. There's some I'm not going to go into the sequence because I know people are going to see this movie. There's a sequence that takes place at prom that is genuinely one of the oddest things I've ever seen Steven Spielberg put on screen in terms of like what's on film, how it all plays out. It's not a funny sequence at all. It's meant to be very serious and dramatic. A lot of people in my theater were laughing like a lot, and I was kind of laughing and I didn't really know what he was going for. And it's just, you know, the best parts of the movie are the first and final 5 minutes. So make sure you're, you know, paying attention when you hit play and make sure you're paying attention as it ends. I feel like I'm being a little too hard on it. I don't intend to. It's it's a Steven Spielberg movie. It's well-made, it's well-shot, it's well-acted. There just aren't a lot of stakes for it, that's all. So that's my thought on the film itself. And then I kind of want to go into the way people have been receiving this, which is more baffling than anything, because when I was sending you my text, like, Yeah, man, it wasn't for me. I had no idea that this was again going to be a massive box office bomb for Steven Spielberg. I mean, West Side Story is one of the biggest bombs of his career. That movie absolutely tanked. So has the fable means no one went to see this in the theater. My screening had a good, healthy crowd. My dad set his screening at a healthy crowd. But the Spielberg movies are not events anymore. It's wild. It's a shocking turn from our childhood. When I waited in line, I remember waiting in line in 1993 for Jurassic Park, for the current Showtime to end, because you set the wait line back in the day. And I was just out there with my mom on the street for like 2 hours waiting. That's how much of an event it was. And I can't ever imagine we're going to get back to that. But, you know, that's what we're we're living at a time when Spielberg movies are just tanking. They're not losing a little bit of money. They're losing millions upon millions of dollars. And all that said, I think you could very easily see Spielberg win his third best director Oscar for this. I do. You know, it's it's funny because like we talk a lot about how, you know, the death of the movie star is a real thing right now and how sometimes directors actually have more of a selling points to their movies. Yes. You know, a Christopher Nolan, I mean, doesn't matter who's in that movie, actor wise, you're going to see that just because it's a Nolan movie. Spielberg used to be like that. Spielberg was one of those directors for decades where it didn't matter what the movie was, he would always have a giant star in it for the most part. But you were going to go see it and now, yeah, we don't really have that relationship with it. I think purists do because he's Steven Spielberg. But in the last ten years with the movies that he's put out, have they have they been relevant? Not in terms of like, you know, like what's going on today, but just with audiences, has had Steven Spielberg maintain relevancy over the course of his career? People like his movie Stick it now. Yeah, yeah, yes. You know, the Steven Spielberg's ready, ready player. One made a shitload of money. That's true. Nominated for Oscars. Bridge of Spies won Oscars. Lincoln won Oscars. War Horse. Jesus Christ War Horse. Nominated for a ton of Oscars. Like his movie, it's Steven Spielberg. His movies do well. But I also want to say that I don't think West Side Story or the Fable means box office numbers are necessarily indicative of audiences turning their back on him. I think maybe the audience for Spielberg movies now are just fine to stay home and watch at home. Yeah, and I get that. But I'm telling you, folks, you keep doing that. You keep making that decision. They're not going to let Spielberg release movies in theaters anymore. Do you think I'm joking, but I'm not. I'm not, dude. 75 years old, but he's still going to have more movies in him. And it we could be seven, ten years from now. And Spielberg is releasing movies like Just to Netflix like nowhere else because no one is going to the theater to see them and maybe they're a hit. If he does Netflix originals, I don't know. Movies make significantly more money from the movie theater. So if people are if this is what people are putting down, like I'll go see Top Gun, Maverick, One Marvel Movie and Avatar two. That's all I'm going to go to the theater for a year. Yeah. Then, yeah, we could be in trouble. That's all. That's all. Yeah, absolutely. This actually leads kind of directly to the next movie, which is Glass Onion, A Knives Out Story by Brian Johnson, which is I, I just missed I missed the news on this one because this was out Thanksgiving weekend. This has never happened in 2022. I had trouble seeing this movie because every Showtime was sold out and I was like, What the fuck is going on here? This movie is going to be on Netflix. I did a little research and I found out that just to appease Johnson, Netflix put this in theaters for one week only. That's it. They're just going to put it in theaters for a week. So everyone flocked to go see this. And this made a lot of money in theaters. My screening was sold out. Every screening that I was looking at a bunch of different theaters, they were all sold out. So that's interesting because it's like, why not leave this in theaters for a little while to make a little extra money? But if you like knives out, you'll like glass onion. I guess that's what I can say. Knives out is not the biggest movie like for me. Yeah. Johnson is someone who relies very, very heavily on other directors, on other films, previous films, just as Tarantino does. Johnson's a director, pays homage a lot, and he's very quick to give, you know, praise to those movies he's borrowing from. I tend to like the movies he's borrowing from more, I suppose. I remember when Knives came out. I absolutely loved it. Yeah. And you and you were like, no, no, I mean. I get it. Yeah, yeah. Added I got it. I got yeah yeah. That was my biggest question going to this one is, is like if, if someone like me who likes knives out will that translate to this. Bones and all? Luca Guadagnino, this is a fucking movie right here. Oh, Jesus. Christ. It is so well-made. It is such a vibe. It is set in the eighties and actually feels like it. Like it's not overdone with the clothes and the music. Is this Taylor Russell show? I adore her. Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark Rylance, Timothy Shalom. Wow. There's some other really fun cameos in it that I was like, Wait, is that. Oh, cool. Now, like, very, very famous people. But people that indie fan movie fans will recognize this is a young cannibal movie. Yeah. It was. As I was watching, it was pretty easy for me to see this as something other than just cannibalism. I think movies like this and zombie movies are often an allegory for something else. I think the cannibalism and bones and all could be heroin addiction. It could be the impending AIDS crisis. None of that is in this movie. That's I think there's just any number of reads that you can apply to it. And so it looks stunning shot on film. Like it just it actually it was fun to watch and, like, fun to look at. Oh, God. Here's another selling point for me. Luca was a huge fan of a little movie called Waves, directed by Trey Edward Schulz. That is why he cast Taylor Russell. That is also why he hired Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to the score. And what a score it is. Wow. Wow. So good because they did the score for Wave. So Bones and all is like a it. This is where it gets tricky because I want to say like, oh, it's not that bad like that. It gets pretty, pretty raw. But I got it, you know. Yeah, I liked it a lot. We've seen way, way, way. Worse movies about this topic. We've talked about the cannibalism topic out its ear. It's it's cannibalism movies like it's this it's going to week was not yeah this was not one of the most intense ones but it was just I really understood it. I enjoyed watching it. I wasn't like, oh, not too much. Like I got, you know, I just enjoyed it. Taylor Russell, be in every movie. I love you. Oh, my God. I love her. And she's great in it. She carries the show, carries it. Oscar nominations. I don't know. It's out there. It's like it's like Suspiria. Like you did Suspiria. You know, the movie's out there. They're saying, Call me by your name, which, like, wins Oscars. This is not that. All right. All right, here's here's a good question. Maybe we should have been doing this the entire time. In your opinion, Bones, and all outside of how we always believe that every movie should be seen in the movie theater. Yes. If you were to give a little bit of leeway to some of these picks as to what could be seen in theaters and what should absolutely be seen in theaters, where's Bones and all? I yeah, probably the number one that I would recommend people do see that I'm talking about today like I love Triangle of Sadness that's already gone. People missed the boat on. Yeah. So I missed the boat. Didn't watch idiot drill. So that one's gone. It would have been great because you're, like, locked into it. Yeah, bones and all. Just because it looks so cool. I mean, I think that would be one where you're like, in there and you're just kind of stuck with it. Like, if you want to look away, you can't. And you know, it'll all be over soon. But again, it really wasn't like as bad as other cannibal stuff, one that I think people can definitely wait for home and it sounds like they are going to is tore by Todd Field his first film in 16 years. Todd Field who made In the Bedroom in Little Children two movies we absolutely love. I would love to see more movies from him. He's been working. He just had it sounds like a number of scripts that he got paid to write and they just they just didn't get to the green light. And that happens all the time. He was just stuck in it for six years. Tara Wow. This is control. Control controlled filmmaking, amazing cinematography, amazing lead by Cate Blanchett. I think best actress is Michelle Yeoh's to lose. But Cate will be in the running long film about a famous classical conductor and the troubles that come her way. I appreciated my time with the movie. It's like 2 hours and 47 minutes and it is a flex. If you've seen it. The first 5 minutes are a huge, huge flex. Some people in my screening were not pleased. It felt like shocking and I was like, oh, wow. Oh, you're you're really doing it. Okay. Oh, boy. Okay. And people just were not please, in my theater, I'll put it that way. Hopefully that sets a little intrigue. But this is a sparse movie. This is not as tight as in the bedroom or little children at all. This is like I've heard a few critics and podcasters say this is easily going to be their number one of the year and they're just going to watch it like every few months. Learning more about it. It Left Me Cold is a something that say for a movie to criticize it. I've never really understood that criticism. Like I think some movies like horror. The intention is to leave you cold. So left you cold. That's not really a knock on the movie because that's the point now. Now, if you don't want to see a movie for 2 hours and 47 minutes, that is ultimately going to leave you cold. Tara is not the movie for you, and I get that. But I dug it. It's it will not be on my top ten of the year. That's all. That's all. I saw it when it came out and having having a little trouble with my memory recall of it, which for me is very unusual. It means if it's in one ear and out the other as a few other movies I'm going to talk about it didn't have good staying power for me, that's all. Yeah, but yeah. Extremely well shot. Let me be clear. Like extremely Jesus. Who shot it? Florian Hofmeister. Great DP. I mean, it looks there's it opens with like an incredible oner that lasts for a really long time. It's actually available online. I saw it cruising on a film Twitter, trending on film Twitter. So go watch that. You know, it's not going to it's the beginning of the movie. So it's not going to give too much away. It'll just be a good kind of tiptoe into the movie. But wow. Yeah. Interesting movie. Very confident. Here's one. I'm pissed off about. Really pissed off about. All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Edward Berger, truly stunning World War One movie. That absolutely no one. Is talking about. No, no one. No movies on. Netflix right. Now. Yeah. For free. It's there. I guess, because it's subtitled that's keeping people away to better movie the 1917 sorry. The battle scenes. This deserved to be mentioned with the Normandy sequence in Saving Private Ryan and I am not exaggerating this is a I'm not exaggerating. I'm not the first person to make that comparison either. Everyone who's seen this movie is like the fuck the hell was this thing? I went to the theater to see it I knew was going to be on Netflix. But I mean, it's a truly great war film. It's really shameful that more people are not watching this. This is not a dull or slow movie, despite the fact you might have to read a little bit. I mean, this thing is war carnage throughout just right up until the end. I loved it. It's such a well-made war movie. And it is it's baffling that if if it's really because it's foreign, it is not a good enough reason. This thing is right there on Netflix like it's if you like war movies, you fucking love this movie. I promise. I promise. Question Is this a remake? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The bulk of the book retells the book of the Rich. Text, but yeah, there's a film from the thirties that is a really, really good movie. And yes, it is a remake of that and is an incredibly well-done remake of All Quiet on the Western Front. Like it supremely impressed me, didn't expect it at all to the point where I'm pissed that more people are watching it. Like pissed. It's literally been all quiet on the western front. Be going for today. Yep this is it but I'm watch. But if everything that I've heard is that it's amazing. Like I've just heard nothing. Like, there's not someone who has seen this movie that's like, I didn't like it. I've rarely heard, like, truly, truly great things about it. Didn't Dan like this? Yeah, he did. He did? Yeah. A really. Good movie. Yeah. We have a buddy Dan who goes to see movies and will ask me, like, what should I go? Should I go see? Perfect. Actually, I didn't even mean to do this. You know, with people in our lives are us movie obsessed people. We have like a movie with our friends. You know, like you associate that movie, you have buddies who, like True Romance is their favorite movie. Like, whatever it's going to be like. It's that movie with Dan and I. Dan is like a fucking lunatic, you know? I mean, it's hard to give context for, like, him as a human being, but he's he's very spirited individual for whatever reason, beyond all recognition. The man loves ad Astra, which I do, too. And it is not the type of movie you would expect him to like and like. That's a movie together. Like I got home for Christmas. Like, we have a really, really strong connection over that, which it's not a movie that you would expect like a psychopath to have a strong connection to. But I bring all this I bring all this up because last week I'm talking to him on the phone and he's like, Hey, you did tell me how was Armageddon time? And I went to fuck his Armageddon time. I was like, Oh, oh, my God. I that the James Gray movie with Anne Hathaway I Oh, I totally forgot. I saw that. Yeah, I guess I did not not I didn't really like it it's the ultimate in one year out. The other movie for me this year I, I pay attention when I see movies like I go to the movies like this is my thing, folks like I love this shit and you know, we're seeing directors venture into the past with these very personal films. I already talked about the fable since Peeta made a semi-autobiographical coming of age story with Licorice Pizza that a lot of people absolutely detested. We love that movie. Go figure that we had the Fable Mines. Now we have Armageddon Time by James Gray. And I think upon reflection, when I actually remembered that I had seen Armageddon time, I think a little bit of my issue is that I'm watching these movies, Fable Mines and Armageddon Time and getting a sense of like, this is my story and it is very, very important and my story deserves to be seen by all. And these are good, simple stories, but I don't know if they're quite as important and life changing to the audience as the real events were to the filmmakers. Yes, I think it's a very specific distinction. I'm not saying these aren't well-made movies. I'm just saying like divorce can be really, really hard again. But people like you and me have we've gone through a bit more in life that our central trauma is not that our parents split up. Like it just I respect it for some people, that is. But that can make a, you know, somewhat corrupt and damaged person like myself. Watch a very, very soft divorce movie, the fable means and go, Oh, that was it. That was easy. Okay. Yeah. Are you ready to, like, go to dinner, Grandma? Because Grandma wasn't upset by that movie at all. Like, grandma is going to be upset by marriage story, but she's not going to be upset by the families. And I get that not everyone wants to see marriage story Armageddon time. It's kind of the same thing. I'm like I've, you know, diversity and inclusion, racial tension. We've I've seen this story like a bunch a whole lot recently. This didn't impact me more than anything else. But again, James Gray is a supremely talented filmmaker. And I'm not trying to say that this is a bad movie. I'm not trying to say that at all. I think some people will find a lot of value in it. I definitely did not need to go to the theater to see this. I can I can say that. But, you know, check it out when it's on streaming if you want. But very weird for too like Rep Ad Astra, which I think is by long and far his best film. So many people would disagree with me on that and then just yeah Armageddon time wasn't I don't know wasn't really for me again mileage may vary. Do you think that it's movies like this because you know the stuff that they're talking about is important stuff like you just mentioned like all like inclusion, diversity. Are people actually receiving these messages through these movies? I don't know. It's a good question. I don't know what the core message of like the fable means is, for instance, that mommy and daddy might get divorced, but you can still follow your dreams and grow up to become the most famous filmmaker of all time, I guess. I mean, I don't, you know, Armageddon. No, but I don't I don't know. I don't know what to call. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from it. Yeah, I've seen 110 divorce movies and I think the takeaway is that divorce sucks, particularly for the kids who are being ignored during it. It does. It sucks. It's not the hardest thing I've ever gone through. That's okay, though. People don't need heavy handed. Dead serious cannibal movies all the time. I get it. Yeah, I get it. I'm not saying that we need to live in a world with, like, extremist, absurdist works of art. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just, you know, we all have limited time. There's 24 hours in every day. So if you're going to watch movies, I'm trying to guide people, which ones that I liked and for what reasons, that's all. But I want people to watch movies. Period, period. Well, yeah, 100%. 100%. I'm just wondering, when it comes to movies like like Armageddon time where like I saw the trailer for it, let's just go this. All right. That trailer is about as standard as trailers get these days where everything pretty much is given away. Yep. And I am also left with just being punched in the face about racism. And racism is bad. And I. Yes, I knew that. I knew that. Yes, bullying is very toxic and bad. Like I knew that. I'm not trying to be hard on it. I'm not. No, no. Just saying I've seen this before. We all have. We've all seen it over and over and over. Yeah. And that's what I'm like that what I'm. What I'm wondering is just like with a movie like that, where that's what I'm getting from the trailer, then I'm like, What's going to change when I, after I see the movie? Like, Am I going to walk out of that movie with a new, profound thought or and maybe some people do like me, maybe. Yeah. So I'm not going to take that away. I don't know. It's a weird thing. All I know is like, I see sometimes movies like this and then I'm like, I see what it was doing, but it just didn't. And it sounds like the same thing for you. Like in one ear out the other. Mm hmm. I don't know. Like, that's. Well, here, I'm actually going to extend the conversation because this does we perfectly into the next film that we're going to talk about, which is, she said, directed by Maria Schrader. And this is this is really the best example of what I'm talking about right now. This to me was a very odd movie. I'm I was genuinely not sure who this movie was for. It plays very long at 2 hours and 9 minutes. And it's mostly because anybody watching this movie, you know exactly where it's going. I mean, does anyone listening to this podcast not know what happened to Harvey Weinstein, anyone? I mean, it's there and there is no more attention to the film than that. Like, we need to take this guy down through journalism. And again, does anyone listening not know what happened to him? So I actually think a person would have a much more insightful time actually reading The New York Times articles that Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey wrote about this subject about Harvey Weinstein and John Klein and I on Twitter were actually talking a few days ago about how like with this movie actually be better as a documentary. And I really think, well, yeah, I think it'd be way better as a documentary. Like, I would love to meet these real women and like hear their stories and I don't know, I was just watching this the movie. Like, technically it's full of some of the oddest cutting patterns I've seen in a movie in a while. Like, for instance, in the very beginning, Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan are walking into the New York Times offices separately. They're just like going about their days. They've gotten their coffee. They're like, you know, walking to office. When I tell you this scene of two women walking to an office is cut, like taken. Three were there. It's like, I don't know, 20, 40 cuts just to see them. And the music's swelling, swelling. And there's horns and we're going and they're walking to the office and I'm like, Holy shit, are they about to fucking start a war? Like, what's going on? My pulses racing tonight and they're just walking to their office. That's it. They just walk in and I'm like, What the hell did you do that for? Like what? Why you rack it up? All that tension of them just walking into, like, sliding glass doors. Then they start their day and there was. They weren't walking to anything. They're just walking to their job. It was I found a lot of like start trying to build tension, like literally out of nothing. They're not rushing to meet a deadline. They're just going to the office. It it was is a lot of tonal stuff like that where I was like, what the hell's going on right here? Is it trying to possibly I mean, I've never seen the movie, so I'm just going, Oh, what you said, Yeah, yeah. Is it is it is it possibly doing a thing where it's like for women just even getting to their office in days can be that tense? Just because they're. Women, I have no idea. They don't look upset at all. They just have like blank expressions on their face, like they're walking to the office, sipping their Starbucks. Listen. Okay. Podcast or headphones. There's no catcalling. There's no it's nothing like that. There's nothing you know, it's like. It's just too busy. Women who have lives, who have families, who have lives and husbands and it there's walking work like there's not. All right. It's walking to work, man. There's no car accident happens. I just rewatched every Inarritu movie. Like what? He cuts like that. There's, like, some bad shit's about to happen. Like songs about getting to an exit or, like, someone's about to die. Is this two women going to work? I don't know. Doing on I'm pointing out this next movie because I need to take my own advice, which is that I really need to see Park Chan Wook decision to leave again before fully commenting on it. Because this is a very sparse, very unusual, very deliberate movie. It's gorgeous, but there wasn't a lot for me to latch onto just right away. But but I really have a strong suspicion that that may change when I watch it again, and I do want to watch it again. That's the thing. It's a lot of movies I'm talking about today that there wasn't really something for me to latch onto and it's in one, you're out the other. And you know, I have a few words on it. Hopefully we're not being too snooty, but you know, there's a few words and go with God. I hope. I hope every movie finds its audience. This one, I'm going to see you again. Decision to leave is the handmaiden which we talked about recently. It's not Stoker. It's certainly not old boy. This is way more muted than anything he's done before. But it hasn't left my head. I'm like, Hmm. I definitely I'll see this one at least one other time before drafting my final top ten of the year. So it's like kind of in that range, that kind of gray area. Yeah, what was that? But there was, you know, it's like Drive my car. There's a lot to that. The first time I saw it, I was like, Whoa, this is way bigger than I thought it was going to be, but also way more human. And yeah, it was. It's a good movie. If you like Park Chan Wook, you're like decision to leave. It's just. It's a different vibe, not an action vibe. No, no. Well, and that's cool too, because sometimes it's cool to see directors just can't do something completely. Yeah. Yeah. Ballpark from what they usually do. All right, we're we're rounding out here. We just have three to go, and then we're going to get to. What are you watching? Nice quick episode today. Well, this is the toughest movie I'm talking about today. And I bring it up cautiously. It's called Soft and Quiet, directed by Beth de Brujo. All right. 90 minutes long. Takes a few minutes to settle in. But we gather very quickly that this movie, soft and Quiet, is about a handful of white suburban parents who are having like a group meeting to kind of complain about how society is going to shift. There are alt right talking points, there are MAGA talking points. And I was like, Why do I need to watch this movie? Like, I don't give a shit about these people. I have no idea why we're hanging out with them. And then things start to take a little shape. And I'm mentioning soft and quiet for two reasons good news and bad news. The good news is that this movie was shot all in one take. No bullshit. Oh, wow. No hidden cuts takes place in real time. It is an astonishing technical feat. No digital trickery. They really did it. And everyone is game cannot take anything away from that. The bad news is that this movie leads to some of the most disturbing fucking scenes I have seen in a movie in years. Jesus Christ. Thank God I watched this at home. I actually had to mute it. That is. Wow. So rare for me. Muted. I texted you after going like. Yeah, I remember this. This is the fifth. Or sixth type of movie like this that I've seen in recent years, a movie directed by a woman in which they're watching Irreversible and going, I see your irreversible and I raise you. And I mean, like. They're pushing the envelope in terms of human depravity on screen. And it's like, this isn't stuff that takes place in a fantasy world. I'm thinking about, like, soft and quiet. The Nightingale. Jesus Christ, that fucking movie. It's tough. Soft and quiet is a tough movie, if you like. Irreversible, the Nightingale murders. If you understand the type of extremist movies I'm talking about, this goes there. It's not as bloody as those movies, but man, jeez, I don't recommend this one for you. I recommend it for very, very few people. It's a very, very dangerous film. But I had to bring it up for the technical feat alone. But I it's a tough one. One of the toughest movies I'll see this year. God. Yeah. Yeah. I can't say can't say. I'll be rushing to that one. Yeah. All right, two more really quick that I just watched their new streaming releases, The Wonder, directed by Sebastian Liao. He did Gloria, a fantastic woman disobedience with Rachel Vyse and Rachel McAdams. Gloria Bell. This is a Netflix movie that just came out. It's about a nurse, Florence Pugh, way better here than in something like Don't Worry, Darling, she's great. In this movie, she is hired to watch a young girl who reportedly has not eaten in months. How is this possible? Wow. Is she being nourished from Christ himself? Very, very fucking cool. Be getting into this movie, I promise you hit play on Netflix. Watch it for 5 minutes. You will see what I mean. If that's enough to keep you into, like the movie, it's like an hour and 45 minutes long. It was for me because I had no idea what this is going to be. And I went, Oh, I'm in shit, dammit, dammit. That was really that's very brave what you did there. Everyone will know exactly what I mean. Ten sec. This is not obscure. You will know exactly what I mean. 10 seconds after you put it on. Really cool, big swing. I liked it. I liked it. The movie's like, okay, but it starts and ends in a very brave way. That's all. Cool movie Senior directed by Chris Smith. It's a brand new documentary on Netflix about Robert Downey Senior. I watch it this morning. It's very touching. It's Robert Downey Senior was a wild, avant garde director. We talked about Putney Swope a lot. And Episode 51, I love that movie. It's a riot. This is a really touching tribute from Robert Downey Jr to Robert Downey Senior. They have a very healthy and lively relationship. It's a great document for his dad, just a real testament about creativity and the father son bond. I really liked it. Easy movie, 90 minutes. Easy, easy. Wonder if that'll get nominated for best documentary. I don't. I don't know. Let me call. I started watching stunts. Oh, yeah. The Jonah Hill one. I basically made the decision, like my black and white documentary that was like produced by a famous person is going to be senior. Is it going to be that person? And I've heard really good things about that one. I've literally put it on. And then it was one of those ones where it became too interesting. And I knew what was in that time and I was like, Oh, and watch all this right now. TV This is a movie podcast. We don't make room for TV too much. I did watch a great show recently called The Bear on Hulu Popular show. It's about a young chef played by Jeremy Allan White. He's one of the stars of Shameless, which I've never seen. He is absolutely fantastic in the show. There's No. Shameless. No. Have you? Oh, yeah. I mean, I stopped it like season four or something like that. My dad loves that show. He like binged. He had never seen it. He watched like there's like, what, 11, 11 seasons. You watch it all. So many. Yeah, yeah. But he's great and he's great in the bear. He plays a young chef who has excelled in fine dining, but after the suicide of his oldest brother, he moves back to Chicago to run the family's sandwich shop on Hulu. Eight episodes. Each episode is about a half hour long. One of them is damn near real time. All one shot. It's so it's just the tension. It's like ratcheting it up. It's so fun. You're like anxiety building. The final episode is 45 minutes long and wow, some of the best use of Radiohead I've ever heard in a movie or a TV show. Any fan of that band will get chills watching this final episode. And then I know I mentioned this to you in person last time we saw each other, but just this this show, genuinely, I watched all one sitting and it genuinely made me understand the plight of my brother a little more. And that's it's a rare thing, you know, a very rare thing. And I found it to be tremendously moving. I don't know if it was trying to be moving, but it's kind of like one of those shows for like, you know, if you know, you know, like if you've lost a brother this way or someone this way, it might hit a little harder. And it does. And they do it right. And I really, really liked it. I really liked it like a lot. Like in a. Lot, you know, you're someone who's in touch with all of these these feelings and emotions and understandings about life, that when something like this hits you, there's got to be a reason as to why something like in one ear out the other it doesn't. Yeah. When the points are, are very important to be made emotionally. Yeah. And there's someone who could watch Armageddon time that could be like the most profound movie they see this year. And that is when you're out the other, you know, we usually keep things like really positive on the pod as it relates to movies because I want people to watch movies. We both do. But every movie I mentioned today, they do have their specific audience. That's why I wanted to bring them up. There's some people who can watch, she said. And that can be like be a game changer for them. Like it really could disablement. My father and stepmother loved the fable means there's an audience for every movie I've talked about today. If the things I said about the fable means makes it seem like a movie, you're going to like. Like, Well, okay, I want something a little easy. Go check it out. Go check it out. You want something a little, you know, easier to digest and kind of fun. Go check it out. Great ending to the fable means, like, truly great ending. There's stuff that's in it that's worth it. But yes, something like The Bear, when I just didn't expect it. And I mean, you start fucking start those strings and letdown by Radiohead and you just let it play for 5 minutes and I've I've watched that sequence like ten times since I saw that final episode because what's revealed in it is very significant to the characters in the show. But just letting it Oh my God, really good show. Very easy to watch, too. You know, eight episodes a half hour long, you're in, you're out. And you're absolutely right. Like these are movies where like, yeah, you can watch any of these movies. And if you get that from it, like then the movie did its job. Yeah, I suppose I'm speaking because I have not seen these and I'm just sort of looking overall at the state of situations that we're in with art in general. So a lot of my questions that I'm coming out with are not based on the movies themselves, more of just a general sort of like where are we right now? Yeah. And these are the movies that are coming out that are touching on it and just sort of kind of examining them from a speculation standpoint. It's like, all right, let's see. Let's see what's going on here. Yeah. Before we get into what are you watching? Just a slight point of clarification. Disablement, because it's not just about like Bill Hill. Mommy and daddy got divorced in Armageddon time. It's not just like racism equal bad. Yeah. I'm not I'm not I don't mean to be that like. And I don't either. I don't either. But I'm not trying to be disparaging of them. Yeah, we're not. I'm just, you know, it's a movie podcast and I don't like every single movie that comes out. Not everything is a full fledged endorsement. The episode after this and then the episode after that one, you're going to be two episodes in a row, nonstop endorsements, ape status. This is just you know, we just did Tarantino didn't say a lot of negative shit on that podcast, so we're just trying to mix it up a little bit. That's all we are. What are you watching? I can. I have a movie specifically planned out? It might be. It's like one of my favorite movies I'm going to talk about today. I'm so excited for it. I don't know if you had anything or if you just want me to take the reins. What would you want me to start first? Because that's what. I didn't know. If you had any movie to recommend. Well, I do. Based off of the director that's been talked about. Here, too. Okay. Okay, good, good. I want to hear it. I want to hear it. Essentially for the most part with all of these directors. These are all directors that have done movies before. So I kind of looked at the field of what you had seen, and I was like, All right, I want to pick one movie that I really recommend. And he hasn't made a movie in six years, and that's Todd Field. I got to go with little children. Yeah. I remember seeing that movie like when it came out and I didn't know what to do with it. Oh, yeah. What is this? And is a movie that never left my mind. I, I still think about that movie and I'm like, Oh, my God, that movie is just like, it's truly some of the most shocking moments, like when, when certain things happen, just like, cool off. It's, it's this excuse. Like, it's just trying to cool off. Oh, God, I love him. It's just it's just a really, really well-done movie that really kind of, like, tackles some of, like, the most extreme and upsetting realities of suburban, like, in, like. Yeah, and like that narration, like that front line narration is so good. And like, and then when Noah Emmerich's like in the car at the end in the narration is like, he could save a life tonight. Like it's just, it's so like, I don't know. Cool. What a weird vibe like that. Weird I don't know. I love but in the best. Yeah. Best possible way. Best short. Yeah. Good recommendation. I love that movie. And in the Bedroom, I'm going with a brand new indie film called Emily the Criminal. Yes. This is directed by John Peyton Ford. What the fuck? Where did this movie come from? Why is that one talking about this? It did get some indie spirit nominations. Aubrey Plaza for lead performance, Theo Rossi for supporting performance. They're both incredible best first screenplay, which is so well-deserved. Best news. You can watch this movie right now on Netflix. It's their go watch it. It's a 2022 on the ground that feels like a 1970s Cassavetes film. Trust me, I'm not bullshitting you. Here's the setup. Aubrey Plaza is living in L.A. She's trapped in student debt, and she, almost by accident, falls into of the very pragmatic but very steadily dangerous world of credit card fraud. The farther she pushes her schemes, the more dangerous it gets. Emily, as a character, is tough as nails. She takes zero shit, and I'm talking about dangerous shit that she's getting herself into. She always fights back. Her character is a New Jersey transplant, and Plaza really plays with that accent and attitude so well in a way that it's not over the top, and we all know how easy that could be. We loved her in black Bear and she is great. In the second season of White Lotus, which I am enjoying so much more than the first season, she's so good that she's next level and Emily the criminal like, I had no idea she had this in here. I had no idea that one of her biggest inspirations was Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes and Woman under the influence that is all on full display here. I had a feeling that what she was doing with the Monotone Parks and Rec, I just always had a feeling that was a bit I'm like, Yeah, or This is it. This is just like how she is. Happiest season was the first time I went, Hmm. Is there something else here, bear? She's just, like, going nuts. It's kind of like opening night, the Cassavetes film. And this, she just. She's carrying the entire movie. And I believed it all. And the bit that character's gone and the deadpan monotone that's gone. She's like a real life person here, and this is one of my favorite performances of the year. I this movie, this movie asks, like nothing of us. It is not confusing. It's just a genuine, well-made city thriller. She visits places we used to go to a lot in L.A., like, she's driving by and it's just so cool. I love Emily, the criminal. I loved it and I'm so glad I put it on. I'm just so glad I did. I loved it. You would really, really like it, too. She's one of my biggest one eighties I've ever done. Oh, yeah. Like that. That was. That was someone where I was like, I just don't get it. I don't like that. I don't get it. I got it. I didn't really like it. But then you're right. Like then, then? Then it started to change. I started to see some of her work and I go, Huh? All right, all right, then. And I think that just kind of shows it how much range that she has. She can she can kind of do anything. So she has kind of quickly become one of those actors that I will go and see whatever they do just because they're doing it. She's fantastic. She's kind of crossed into Abbott territory a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's definitely I think that's kind of what she's venturing toward. So I would put, you know, triangle sadness in Emily the Criminals, my two favorite that I talked about today. I really, really liked those. And there are there's something in every movie I've talked about today for someone, you know, there's an audience for all these films. So if I if one wasn't necessarily for me, it doesn't mean you should stay away from it. Just kind of. Now you have a little more information to go in to the movies with. Go see boats and all the theater if you can. That'll be great. It'd be awesome if people said, Yeah, I hope you can too. I think it'll I think it'll have some staying power hopefully through Christmas. But that was a lot of fun. Thanks as always for listening and happy watching. Hey, everyone, thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex Withrow dot com Nicholas Dose Dotcom is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at what are you watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter at WRAL. I w underscore podcast Next Time is all about the new movie Bardo Inarritu. His new film will be on Netflix on December 16th. We've both seen it. We loved it. I loved it. A lot to say. Stay tuned. And away we go. Are the greatest films from the sight and sound. Yeah. Just go all the way to the bottom and you'll see the nice top ten there. You want to go with the top ten. Yeah, we'll just go to the top ten or also be here. I'll fucking de. Yeah I got them in the right fucking scene in there. I mean I love to go sing in the Rain is a good musical. It's a diegetic music. All the music's in it. And you don't know. I even like musicals. I mean, all the music in it is, like, actually performed there. Never mind. Whatever. Are you ready for the truth? Yeah, baby. Yeah.