B&R at the Movies
B&R at the Movies
Episode 165. Stillwater (2021)
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On this episode of B&R at the Movies podcast, Berry and Robin are on the road in Oklahoma and are watching the 2021 film Stillwater. This film is about a father who travels from Oklahoma to France to seek justice for his daughter who has been in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit. The film is written by Tom McCarthy, Marcus Hinchey, and Thomas Bidegain. The film is directed by Tom McCarthy and stars Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, and Abigail Breslin. This story will tear at your heart and makes you think of how you define family, love, and loyalty.
Alright, everybody. Welcome back for another episode of BR at the Movies Podcast. I'm Barry.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Robin.
SPEAKER_00All right. So this week uh we are off the rails. We are totally different. So we are recording on location. Ooh. And where we wrote, where we wrote, where we have mom.
SPEAKER_01We're in Weatherford, Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_00Weatherford, Oklahoma. So we've come out here for to go see the Tom Stafford uh air and space museum. Yes. That we will be seeing tomorrow. Yes. Um, but we did not want to miss a week of recording. Right. So we wanted to make sure we got an in the episode. So this week, um it was I ended up choosing the film, and I decided that we're going with the 2021 film Still Water.
SPEAKER_012021. Oh, yeah. 2021.
SPEAKER_00So not that too old. No. Five years. So I decided to go with this film because we are visiting Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And I looked up films in Oklahoma. And I was severely disappointed. So I so I found a couple, but it was trying to like surf through them. So and then I saw this one come up, and um, I had never seen it. I don't own it, so I did a rental on my phone. So I could I saw we could watch it today. Okay. Um so this is starring uh tell them the title first. Yes, just uh Stillwater, still water still water, yes. Which uh we drove through a town of Stillwater coming here, but we don't know if that is part of it, might be the name of the town for the for the title of film.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because neither one of us has seen this, right?
SPEAKER_00Right, so we'll find that out. And who's in it? So stars uh Matt Damon.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Matt Damon, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so he is he is the lead, and then uh Camille Cotton, I think is how you say her name. Uh Abigail Burslin. Um, yeah. Um I'm looking at the cast and I'm like, I'm I'm not really recognizing like not a bunch of people jumping out. So uh written and directed by Tom McCarthy. Um, so uh we always talk about you know writer-director combo that we enjoy. Um he was the writer of Spotlight.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_00He was the writer of The Visitor that we both that we watched, The Bongos, the Bungle Play. Oh, I love that too. So so that's who that's who the writer is. So we've seen a couple films by him, so we already kind of trust him a little bit already. So so we're gonna go from that.
SPEAKER_01But it's it's Matt Damon, huh?
SPEAKER_00Matt Damon, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, he's not he's not a sure thing for me. Right.
SPEAKER_00Matt Damon's kind of hit or miss for you, and I know I know that. So I don't know. So hopefully this is a hit. I hope so.
SPEAKER_01Fingers crossed. I really want to like his movies. I really do. I've I've watched so many, like he either started them and just like I can't stand it. Yeah. But you know, that's just me.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, he kind of goes through ebbs and flows with you because it's like, you know, he you know, he had like Goodwill Hunting that you like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, that was an obvious, yeah. Liked him in that.
SPEAKER_00I mean, who who wouldn't? Right.
SPEAKER_01But I was trying to think of what other movie of Matt Damon's that I like.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. I can't think of me to live.
SPEAKER_01I bet if we looked at his list, you might you come across the what's in my head is the stuff that oh no, I didn't like that one in it.
SPEAKER_00Well, he he kind of he kind of has he kind of stretches. He goes, um, he does like kind of like an artist kind of pieces sometimes. He goes for like the talented Mr. Ripley kind of kind of roles, and he'll kind of do something more mainstream, then he'll do something more action-based. So he's yeah, well, in the Born movies and all that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I did like the first Bourne movie, obviously. Yeah, it was good too. So yeah, so I mean I don't I haven't written him off. He's not right, he's not in the category Brad Pitt.
SPEAKER_00Right. You just you just don't identify with every choice that he makes. So we'll just go with that.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, but you know, okay, good. Well, I'm glad we're kind of watching his film. So let's see what that's about. So why did you choose it?
SPEAKER_00So I chose it because I looked up Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01Is that the only reason you chose it?
SPEAKER_00Or or was it how I found it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but was there anything that said, oh, that might be good?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it has Matt Damon in it. So that's a good enough reason. I intentionally did not watch a trailer. I have not watched anything. Okay. So go into it completely cold. I s I read just the basic IMDB description of it, so which you know didn't really give much anyway too. But yeah, so pretty, pretty cold on this one.
SPEAKER_01So we'll pretty recent too. So this will be very interesting, actually. Okay, all right. We'll see what see what happens with this one.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, we are gonna go dive in and check out Stillwater and then come back a little bit, talk about it. Okay. All right, we will be back in a little while. All right, everybody, welcome back. We just got done watching Stillwater, and uh, since this was my pick, I'll let you go and take us away on this one.
SPEAKER_01Oh, goody. Okay. Um it was it, I think it was good. I mean, right? Really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm with you on that. It was it was well done.
SPEAKER_01It was kind of it seemed like a long movie because it was kind of the pace was really slow.
SPEAKER_00It it spent a lot of time going nowhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I was kind of wondering, and then really it was like is this movie about the father? Is it about the the daughter? Is it about you know, and then most of it is in France, so it's so funny where it's like the beginning Oklahoma movie, and then two parts of it in Oklahoma the very beginning, the very end is like so funny. And I think the the title is not a good one. It is very misleading, it just didn't make a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, the I mean, and the only connection is that obviously it's the the town that they're from, right? But then um And the necklace, right, and then her necklace, and then it's it's like that's it. And I'm like it it uh I don't know, it's a weird, it's it's the title really doesn't make much sense to me either.
SPEAKER_01So it's like I did like Matt Damien in this. I I thought he did a really good job.
SPEAKER_00I was really I thought I thought it was definitely an interesting role for him because it's subdued, it's really real.
SPEAKER_01It was I mean, yeah and um obviously all the locations, real locations. Right, right. They were very, you know, precise about that. Everything was a real location.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it did feel very real and very grounded, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00It was a slow burn of a film though.
SPEAKER_01It was, yeah, you know, and and but then you know, I'm watching it's like, where are we going? I don't understand this ride you're taking me on, you know.
SPEAKER_00What's going on? And then I still don't fully Okay, so there's a there the plot, the whole plot. There's a lot of like interesting plot holes or just plot just not unexplained.
SPEAKER_01What happened to the guy in the basement?
SPEAKER_00His so the girl his his girlfriend found the guy and released him.
SPEAKER_01But why wouldn't he go to the police and say this guy just you know kidnapped me and kept me and right, right? Well, I mean, I know I know this is in France and it's and things can be very different there, but hello.
SPEAKER_00I mean, don't know. And it's like, and that's why I kept thinking too.
SPEAKER_01I was like, oh, so now I was thinking she's gonna get out of prison and he's gonna go in.
SPEAKER_00Right. And that's literally what I thought it was gonna be. That he's gonna get he's yeah, he's gonna have the evidence to be able to get her released, then he's gonna go, he's gonna go in for it for kidnapping the guy, and then at the end it's like she's coming to visit him, like you know, or something like that.
SPEAKER_01Well, and the whole thing is she wasn't innocent.
SPEAKER_00So she was, but not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean she was complicit.
SPEAKER_00She was complicit, right? Yeah, I mean, because she gave him the necklace to be able to get her girlfriend to leave, is what she said, and then he said that it got out of hand and she died.
SPEAKER_01And that's what and yeah, so I mean she didn't commit the crime, right?
SPEAKER_00But she was she was part of it, she's culpable for the couple of things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean, I have no sympathy for her.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay, now that actress.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Is she is she the little girl that's in Mrs. Doubtfire?
SPEAKER_00She's the girl that's from Shameless. Um, she's not from Mrs. Doubtfire. Shameless?
SPEAKER_01I've never seen that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I can I can check. Let me see.
SPEAKER_01I mean, uh see. Come on. I could be wrong. Me, really, because I'm looking at her girls, okay. I've seen her in other things when she was very young. So that's what I'm picturing.
SPEAKER_00That's Abigail. That's Abigail. So I know we're from Zombieland. Um, and let's see, a little Miss Sunshine, Sun.
SPEAKER_01Little Miss Sunshine. There you go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Definitely maybe.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yes, there you go. That's where I'm thinking of. Definitely maybe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. With Ryan Reynolds. Okay. Okay. Mystery solved for me. Thank you very much. Okay.
SPEAKER_00All right. That was enough of the connection. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01Uh but I thought she and the acting was very good, I thought.
SPEAKER_00It it everything was like taken like way down, and like and like just like like it was like no overacting in it.
SPEAKER_01And it was just kind of like really very purposeful. You can see that. Right. I I did like the little girl. She was fantastic. She quaked. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00She lit up the screen.
SPEAKER_01She was so natural. It's like, what?
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. And I'm I'm assuming, I mean, I don't she speaks French the whole time throughout the film, but then she also speaks some English. Right. Um, so I'm assuming that she's a French, a French born actress, you know. I'm guessing, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01But Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_00But the whole the So, like I said, like I didn't know anything about the film.
SPEAKER_01And exactly.
SPEAKER_00I picked it because it said that it was from Oklahoma and it's titled Stillwater. Uh-huh. And then it's like it doesn't hardly even take place in Oklahoma at all.
SPEAKER_01F halfway through, I'm going, This is hilarious. We're not in Oklahoma. We are in Oklahoma, but this film is not in you know, based in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_00It just barely Yeah, I kept waiting for it to go back, and then at the very, very end, and it finally goes back.
SPEAKER_01And why was I sad when they got back to America?
SPEAKER_00I just I just felt I was sad because uh yeah, because he got torn apart from the relationship that he's not, you know, he's not with the girls anymore in the world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it just it was like I but I care, I cared about the the characters, I really did care.
SPEAKER_00I think because there was enough build and enough time for you to actually care, and then for his daughter, that she knows she's she's a little bit, you know, she's in prison, so she's not really with them the whole time. She comes out a little bit, so like I don't I care about her a little bit, but not as much. Yeah. And because her plot is kind of like the backstory of the story of the I thought it was that was gonna be the main part of the story.
SPEAKER_01And so yeah, so really it is it about him?
SPEAKER_00It's really about him, yeah. And it's like and how he's how he's processing like what he's going through and how he's trying to hold everything together. And but he doesn't really make the best decisions.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's he's like he's very he's flawed, he's not a perfect person, obviously. Which makes him more of a well-rounded uh character because he's not perfect and he's you know well, and it it angered me a bit because the his daughter, his grown daughter, right, was saying how terrible a father he was. And here he is being such a good father to this little girl.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it just like it just pissed me off.
SPEAKER_00Well, it made me mad. And I understood that, you know, he was saying that, yeah, I I messed up before I was, you know, drinking drinking and doing other stuff. And it's like, and so he even said he goes, Yeah, I was a fuck up. I I that's what that was who I was, yeah. And but now he's making himself better, and I felt I felt bad for him too because he didn't have a chance to defend himself on it. And she's kind of just like put airing out his his past of just like, oh yeah, he's a piece of crap. And it's like, okay, no, he was, he's better, and he's he's better, but he's not the best.
SPEAKER_01He's not the best. I okay. This is the part I kind of liked. He never truly acclimated himself into France. He always looked so American. Baseball cap and the whole deal. It's like you just look American. He's still learning anybody else.
SPEAKER_00He's still yeah, he's the best.
SPEAKER_01So I was like, okay, I kind of like that idea. He didn't, he you know, he was there, he he was you know, he but he wasn't trying to become French. He would you know that that wasn't happening.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he had to learn a little bit of the language to get by.
SPEAKER_01I like how they had him really miss you know, the way he pronounced the words. It was like so American. Yeah, so yeah, that just never left.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I I thought that was really good. Um, it really kind of it really pissed me off though when he does kidnap the guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I'm just like, you're screwing up everything. You're screwing, you're screwing up the whole your whole life.
SPEAKER_01This is so stupid. What are you doing? Are you gonna then are you gonna end up killing him? I you know, I've just been like that. I didn't know and so and I don't know where the story came from. I mean, was it was it a novel once? Was is it based on true story?
SPEAKER_00I can check and was I threw my phone on the floor somewhere. Oh, there it is.
SPEAKER_01There you go, making noise. Yeah, making noise. I gotta get the phone. Because we're not in our regular spots where there's you know there's more of a room echo going on.
SPEAKER_00There's all kinds it's we're we're we're fish out of water. Um, so it was so writers were actually three listed. Tom McCarthy was the director listed as one. Okay, and then there were two others, Marcus uh Hinchy and Thomas uh Bijan, I think it's I say.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then there's another writer, uh Noah Noah Dupree. Okay, so you was it. Um so there's four people listed as writing as writing credits on it, but not like the novel by. It all says written by.
SPEAKER_01Written by, so it's like an original story.
SPEAKER_00I'm guessing, and I'm thinking like maybe one, like maybe the one guy like helped a lot with the French, and maybe one guy was more doing something else.
SPEAKER_01Maybe maybe, maybe.
SPEAKER_00It's kind of hard to tell, but yeah, it's and it's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I mean I am so on the fence. I I don't know. I can't really say I liked it, but I can't really say I didn't like it.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm with you on that. I'm I can I can go I'm it I thought it was very interesting. Glad we watched it. But it's yeah, I'm not about to rush out and buy it.
SPEAKER_01No, and it and and I did like Matt Damon in it.
SPEAKER_00I I have to admit, I did like his acting in this because he shifted a gear, he went he was in a different gear, he was doing something different, and I like it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I liked it. His his character was very this is just him, this is me.
SPEAKER_00It's so funny where it's like I'm looking for character arcs on this, right? Oh yeah, okay. So he he does go through like this change, you know, through slight, but it's not he didn't go through like this massive, like metamor, you know, yeah like life altering change. Yeah, it's like he just went through life, which is like more relatable than it's not like you know a big life altering. Yeah, it's like and then in the end, I'm like I'm I'm looking for the cliche of like, okay, now the woman comes back from France to see him and brings the daughter and they get together and it's all that kind of story.
SPEAKER_01It's it's not so not that story, and it's like yeah, and it just yeah, but again, I think they were trying to make it real, yeah, and it and did feel real.
SPEAKER_00That makes so much more sense with the other films that he's been involved with where it's um like the visitor, where it it feels very it feels very grounded.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're talking about that, yeah, because he made the visitor, yeah. And that that's another one. It just feels very real. It's all on location, yeah. It's you know, it's about the people, it's very much about the the feelings of the people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see that. I see that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but um, yeah, uh I gotta say, I mean, it's like I'm I'm glad we watched it, but um I'm I'm it's a one it's a one and done. It's kind of a one and done for me. I I didn't but I can't say I hated it. No, because but it's it's it just took a long time to get to know what I was getting a little antsy. It's like I swear, I don't know what the runtime was on this one, but yeah, it felt a lot longer than what I felt every I felt like I felt every minute of it, and it was like two hours and nineteen minutes, and that that checks that checks out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, it'll feel like a full two hours and nineteen minutes if anybody watches.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think like if it's a film that's going places, then yeah, then you you feel like you're kind of like you're going along and you're going, but it didn't go anywhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, really. We went on a ride and we didn't get anywhere. Right. We didn't, we just ended up right back in Oklahoma, and there you go. There you go. Yeah, it's just like okay. So yeah, it was it was it was an unusual way to tell a story. I love the location though. I love the I love it was beautiful shots, absolutely. I like inside the apartments and in the basement. I mean, it just you just felt it all, and and that was really well done.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely and and in Oklahoma too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I felt Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_00Right, exactly. And it's like, and I like that they didn't both locations weren't like excessively like prettied up.
SPEAKER_01No, none of it was pretty up. This was not pretty.
SPEAKER_00It was it was in France, no, Marseille.
SPEAKER_01No, this wasn't the pretty all the graffiti all over the walls, it's like, where are we? Yeah, kind of thing. So so yeah, I think that was obviously purposeful too. Oh, totally, yeah. So yeah, and and yeah, it's all I mean it was good, but it wasn't great. It definitely wasn't great. I can say that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I yeah, I would I would say the same thing, where it's like, yeah. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. A little not not really disappointing because I don't always like Matt Damien's movie, so I have to say I love I he is a good actor, and this just shows that yes, he is truly a very good actor.
SPEAKER_00And you definitely feel those emotions. So I like I like that aspect of it too. So all right. Well, we're kind of a mixed bag all over this one.
SPEAKER_01I was thinking, I mean, and and again, though, it's one of those films that we watch, and it's like, yeah, people should probably just watch it and try to make up your own mind about this one. It's it's not a waste of time, no, but it's very different.
SPEAKER_00It's yeah, yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it it it definitely is. I mean, don't you're not speeding along through this, you're not it's it's definitely a slow burn to get there, but you know, yeah, but I always think, yeah, people should watch, you know, make their own opinions and then you know they decide what they want.
SPEAKER_01So yeah.
SPEAKER_00So all right, we'll go ahead and wrap this one up. Okay. All right. Well, thank you everybody for listening. Make sure you guys go check out Still Water. And until next time, I'm Barry. And I'm Robin, and we will talk to you guys later.
