EP.33 Oscar Snubs

Join Tyler and Justin as they analyze the Oscars 2026 nominations, rank the best picture contenders, and discuss notable snubs like 'Children of Men' and 'Aftersun'. Discover insights into filmmaking, acting, and the Oscars' voting trends. Justin and Tyler analyze the Oscars snubs and highlights from various movies, discussing performances, directing, cinematography, and more. They explore what films and talents deserved recognition but didn't receive nominations, offering insights into the industry and their personal favorites.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Hello, hello. Welcome to Newbies to Movies. I'm Tyler and I'm Justin. And this is a podcast where we like to talk about new movies on this week's theme being Oscar Snubs. This is we are recording this two days after the 2026 Oscars, representing movies from 2025 just concluded. I thought it'd be a rightly time for us to talk about Oscar Snubs, also in like the frame of the conversation of the Oscars this past year or uh a couple days ago, but also for um just overall Oscar Snubs of all time. But first we're gonna start off how we usually do and just talk about some movies that we've been watching lately. Justin, you want to start?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, I really dove into this week and just watched every Oscar movie um that was nominated for Best Picture mainly this year. So Frankenstein, Train Dreams, Blue Moon, Hamnet, Songsung Blue, Secret Agent, Sentimental Value. I just went in and watched all of them, which I'm sure we'll talk about more later, but that's mainly all I was doing all week, getting ready for the Oscars.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Um without giving anything too away, because right after this we're gonna like collab rank the best picture nominees. Like what anything that you want to point out about any of the movies?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Or yeah, Hamnet was my favorite by far. Um I had already seen F1, I had already seen Sinners, I'd already seen One Battle and Marty Supreme. You know, I know those were like the top three candidates, I think, for most people. But Hamnet was actually probably my favorite movie of the year if I had to pick one just off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Yeah, I remember when I first saw it all the way back in I think January is when I saw it. I like told you, like, I was like, dude, this movie will wreck you. I remember seeing this in theaters um on a random Thursday because I was like, oh dude, it's available. Let me like go see in the theaters is rifle justice. And I was locked in, and I think everyone in that theater was just bawling their eyes out, like for two different scenes, like from the middle scene and the end scene, like people just could not hold it together, and I was one of them.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Which to be able to do that in a movie, like yeah, pretty much smack dab in the middle, and then the ending as well. It just shows like how well you've built up the characters, how great acting there is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

And also like you're crying for two different reasons for both parts. Like the middle, you're crying out of like sadness, and the ending you're like crying out of like, wow, this is just like so beautiful, like how this is coming together, and like how one of the greatest pieces of literature ever like is all focused around this reason, which is just insane. But yeah. Awesome. I also was watching all the best picture nominees. Uh this I already watched a bunch of them before, um, but specifically Secret Agent and Frankenstein. I'll let know what I feel about it when we do the ranking, but I'll call out two different movies that I just decided to start watching, which is from the director S. Craig Zoller. He did Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Southblock 99. Very gritty movies that are just like right in your face, and they don't give give a crap about gore. I'm pretty not I don't really care about gore. Gory stuff doesn't really b bother me at all. But I will say both these movies, I I had to look away and I was grimstone. I was like, oh. And like I'm and I'm have watched all the Saul movies, and I think these are even more gory than those in a way of like just actual realism gore compared to like uh kind of a horror-like one. Uh specifically Brawl and Sellbach 99. I really liked it. Vince Vaughn is the main character, and seeing him do a role that isn't a normal comedy, but rather be this like really intimidating guy that like really just found himself down a bad path, but is trying to find his way back for his uh for his pregnant like wife. And it it just really surprised me that he had that kind of performance in him. Um, but really want to call out Brawl and sell Black 99. Really like that movie.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, you don't really see him in any other roles besides like pretty cheesy, corny comedies, but yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah, I highly recommend anyone uh she gotta be prepared. Like it's just straight up, like some of it's just brutal, uh brutal action pieces. Cool. So yeah, our first exercise is gonna be ranking the the top ten, or like ranking one through ten, the best picture nominees, being ten of the movies um throughout this. So the way that this is gonna work, we're gonna do it in a collab way, so like team A and team B, um, with team A having picks one, three, five, seven, nine, and ten. And so having six picks while B having the other ones, kind of to make up for it because if you pick number two, number one's already decided for you. So having an extra pick for that other team, and then each team having just one veto. But cool. So I'll do the random wheel generator and adjust it. So do you want the the team with more picks? I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah, yeah, I'll take that. Okay. Honestly, not even to like go for number one. I just want number 10.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah. Um awesome. So I'll so all the nominees I'll just list out real quick being Sinners, Hamnet, Mari Supreme, one by after another, F1, Train Dream, Central Mount Value, Secret Agent, and Frankenstein. And begonia, sorry. And begonia.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Begonia, yep. So number 10, I'm gonna start out with sentimental value, and that's gonna piss a lot of people off. But I got nothing from this movie. It was really boring. I could barely stay awake and I watched this at 10 o'clock in the morning. I went to bed on time that that night before, too. It's not even like I was tired. I just could not get anything from this movie. And maybe it just wasn't made for me, but that's my number 10.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Um, yeah, this this definitely gives off like a vibe of a very artsy kind of movie. I mean, it's focused around these different actors, um, with his dad that's a director that wrote a screenplay that he wants his daughter to be in, really about his family home building up. But again, that's a very like art-focused like way of telling a story that I feel like it I I rated this personally a four and a half out of five stars. So I enjoyed this movie. But for me, I really enjoyed a lot of these movies to first start off with this. But that the performances is why I ranked it so high, because I think all the four performances I were like that went up for Oscars, being Renee Renez, Stellan Skarsgard, Inga, It's Bader Lilius, and Elfanning, like all of them I thought were just insane performances, and like that really took over the movie for me. But the story for itself, I think the middle of it just like really didn't gravitate towards me. I don't know. It just didn't dragged the middle. Yeah. Um, I saw this the day after seeing Hamnet, and it just didn't affect me emotionally as much as because I it I all the motion was drained out of me the day before. So like I didn't really have much to give that day. Um I also just didn't think that there was much to get out of it. So I'm I'm you know I'm fine with keeping this at 10 because yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Might have had a similar thing. I watched The Secret Agent the night before, and so maybe I turned sentimental value on, not expecting subtitles, and I was just immediately like, I can't do this anymore. Yeah, yeah. Because not that it's a bad movie, but even the secret agent had me engaged the whole time, even with subtitles. I could follow and keep up with it. I couldn't with this.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah. I mean, I was pretty engaged in it, I would say. It just um again, the performances are what shines out in this movie for me a lot. I know a lot of the podcasts that I listened to is rated this like their one or two, but I think that's again, that's a more art focused kind of movie, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah. Um, so number nine, I'm gonna go. Uh I get nine, right? Yep. Yeah, I get Frankenstein. Damn, if this movie wasn't probably the most beautiful movie out of all of these, it looked amazing. Makeup design was amazing, and I mean it won for all of that, but it was way too long. And I I have the same issue with sentimental value. It just really starts dragging in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah. I yeah, I'm not gonna lie, this is my least favorite movie out of the 10 by far, just because I thought this was probably one of the most boring movies I've ever seen in my entire life.

unknown 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

I and I and I'm not like a hater against Frankenstein. I won't I don't think that that topic or that character is really drawing out for me. I'm like, I wasn't even excited for the bride that came out like two weeks ago. Um, just like it's just not a very exciting character for me, but also like the movie itself, so just it just didn't have me.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I didn't at all. I think one of the big problems is like there was certain plot points. Um, say for example, like him being born and trying to figure out what it is to be human, that got dragged out for like 45 minutes. I checked the time. I was like, oh my god, I get it. Like he's he's basically a baby in a super strong monster's body. I get it. You don't have to keep showing me little things that he's like trying to learn and understand. We've seen this. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Once it got to like the monsters like story arc of it all, I was like, dude, we're only halfway through this, no way. I was like, come on now, what are we doing here? Um, yeah, it just didn't really have me. It won three Oscars yesterday for um set production design, haircut or haircut and like makeup styling, um, and something else. It did look really pretty. Yeah. Um, that's kind of what Del Tor is known for. Um, so I'm not that surprised about it. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So for this next one, it's gonna be my pick. For me, I feel like I just have to go with what is next on my list, which is begonia. Okay. For me, this movie just doesn't hit. Um, this was number nine out of mine. I I think I like Yorgos movies. Like I really like poor things, but for me, this is just not as well done. And I think the ending, some people either love it or hate it. And I'm one of those people that I don't think I hate it. It just it's like, okay, it's weird. Like it just doesn't hit hard for me at all.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah, my issue with the ending specifically in this movie is I think Plemens would have gotten nominated for best actor until you realize that he wasn't a crazy person. He was just a normal guy. Like he was right. So the ending really takes that away from him and his character. And I think that's where a lot of people have an issue is like oh, we were just being misled the whole movie. It seemed uh a little cheap, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Yeah, it got it didn't get nominated for that much, really, other than I guess Best Picture and Emma Stone. I thought Emma Stone was good in this, but like Plements is the movie, like he takes over the movie. This is not one of Emma Stone's great performances. I think Chase Infinity got snubbed for being nominated. I thought she deserved it way more than Emma Stone did for her role because the whole movie, one battle after another, revolves around Chase Infinity, and she didn't get the love for that. If I had to take a swap, it would be Emma Stone for Chase Infinity. But yeah, for me, Begonia just didn't hit that much.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Um Yeah, no, that's fair. I had it a little bit higher on my personal ranking, but um I'll go ahead with number seven. I have The Secret Agent. Now, I liked this movie. I understand why it's showing up showed up a lot at the Oscars. Obviously, best picture, Wagner Moore for best actor. Um, but I think at points it can get a little sidetracked with its plot lines. I felt that in the middle, but I still really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was a nice like crime action movie and doing some research on it, just kind of them wanting to tell the story of kind of a corrupt government in Brazil and seeing that for on like a specific story rather than a grand scale whole country event, a pretty cool way to do that as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yeah. Definitely just had me lost for the first half of the movie. Um, and that I think that's what really took away from it for me as well. But there was I mean, Ragnar Bora won a Golden Globe, and then like really no love after that, which I did the whole best actor race itself. We could talk about when we get to who won with Michael B. Jordan, but like it the race was insane, like I feel like compared to most years. Like the Golden Globe winners were totally different from the SAG winner, and then the sag winner ended up becoming the guy, but the critic's choice was different, so it's just like it was all over. I felt like the whole race was.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Yeah. No, it was pretty wild. I think like that's what I'm saying too. Like, I think any other year Jesse Plemens gets nominated.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Yeah, but there's so much to give out this year. Yeah. Like there's so many good, like, lead acting like lead actor performances. Yeah. Talk about lead actor performances. For me, for number six is gonna be Train Dreams. Wow. Okay. So this is at this point from like seven, seven of these movies, I'll I all rank four and a half or higher. So I I really enjoy all these movies. It's just like which one would I come back to re-watch more? You know, that's how I was ranking it. If I like all these on the same level, which one am I gonna actually come back to probably for five years from now compared to other ones? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

You wouldn't watch Train Dreams again?

SPEAKER_02 12:52

I would watch F1 and one battle after another more. I think it's easier to watch. Yeah, but uh Train Dreams is so good. Train Dreams beautifully shot, also great lead acting performance from Joel Egerton, who also didn't really get any love. He was at the he was nominated for a critic's choice, and that's about it. That's all he really saw. Um it's a movie about like taking grief, but also like, I don't know, this is like the story of life. And sometimes life doesn't move just because stuff happens to you, kind of thing. And like the whole ending in the movie is a beautifully shot movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Um immaculate score, too. I mean, really beautiful. I think I need to get this one off the board because this is shouldn't be sitting here still. I'm gonna get rid of F1. I enjoyed this movie. I just think it's such a like blockbuster style movie, and I don't think it deserves to be on this list for that reason. I mean, there's some really beautiful movies. I don't I just don't think it deserves to be that high. I mean, is what I'm saying. I would take it personally, train dreams over it, and yeah, that's pretty much it. Also a stack tier. F1 was good. It was really good, but it's also kind of just like a popcorn movie, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah, it's a very fun movie. I think one of my favorite theater experiences watching it though, I saw it in IMAX, like in a 4D theater. So it's just like really cool to watch in that way, with like it's shaking as it's driving. I also think the cinematography is just is also insane. The sound editing, like in that kind of theater, it straight up sounded like you were at a f like a frickin' race, which was just insane. Which I thought was.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

See, compare that to compare that to we were watching Laney that weekend, your your parents' dog, and I'm sitting in Ty's recliner, and just those speakers up there, man. Your neighbors probably felt like there was an F1 race going on at your house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Um I think Brad Pitt is giving a good performance, not one of his best performances, but I just think the idea of the movie, and I I don't know. I just it was a really fun movie. Like super fun.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

I can't think of the kid's name, the the other driver, the young driver that kind of hot. Uh Indress, yeah. Yeah, everybody wants him to play Black Panther, and I wouldn't be opposed to it.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

No, you would I I'm looking forward to see whatever he does because he was by far like the standout in the film for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Snowfall, too. He's in Snowfall. Everybody says he's amazing in that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Okay, so number four for me. I think me and you have like the same top three. I'm sorry. This is gonna this could be either hated on or just understanding, but I'm gonna take one battle after another here. Which is crazy. For me, this is a four and a half four and a half star movie still. We did this movie on the podcast before. It won Best Picture on Sunday, best supporting actor in Sean Penn, who didn't even show up. Um, don't even think he's the best supporting actor in that movie, but anyways, I think Del Tor is way better in the movie than he is. Uh, but it deserves all the love that it's getting. I'm glad Paul Thomas Anderson's also getting the love he's finally getting after all the movie. He's just he's just a weird guy that wants to make some weird movies about some weird dudes. And you know what? Who's gonna take that away from it?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Did you see what he said when he got up there? He's like, dang, you guys make a guy work hard for one of these. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Um, and then he probably should have looked right at Timmy, and Timmy would have been like, God damn it. Yeah, we really like one battle after another on this. It's it's top four. It's just I couldn't put it over the other three for me. Any other year it's top movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Especially the last couple of years for sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Yeah, yeah. Um, it's a winner for best picture. Like, yeah, I'm not gonna be one of those people like, no, this should have won no. I think it any of these four I would have been happy with winning.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Exactly. They all could have won any other year. Yeah. Number three, I'm gonna take sinners.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

So maybe use my veto here.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah. Okay. How do I want this to go?

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Yeah. Now you gotta make a real tough choice. I'll take Marty Supreme. Okay. And you know I love that movie. Yeah. I mean, so do I.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

It's a five-star movie for me.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yeah, really great movie. Didn't get any love with the Oscars, which I thought was interesting, and maybe that has to do with the whole press tour and everything kind of forcing it into the Oscars. But I really enjoyed this movie. I don't really give a shit what Timmy had to say about the uh ballet, but yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Um Yeah, I think the way they did the press is why it was so commercially successful, why it made so much money. But I think that's also why it got no love at the Oscars. To be that like egotistical and like prideful slash just like cocky through a press tour does wonders because that's what the movie is, but the academy clearly did not recognize that or like it really, other than the nominating them. Um the thing about him coming out with ballet that wrote that interview is from like 2019 with Matthew McConaughey.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

I feel like it was kind of taken out of context too. Yeah. I think he was kind of saying like the movies um are headed on a downward trend, just like ballet had. I was like, what is he's not wrong. Do you guys not like look at statistics?

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yeah. It's just interesting that that they came out. There's definitely like some people are saying that like dude, they like they created like a stride of like hate towards him for the past like month. Because he didn't seem like he had all the momentum in like January, February, and then he just lost it all. And then it was Michael B. Jordan's from there on. Pretty much the SAG, the actors' awards was really where he took over. I think it may look at look at it in a couple years and be like, why didn't we really recognize Timothy Chalamet for his best work? Because this may end up being his best work of his entire career. Because like, I don't know, it it's just a phenomenal performance.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

I don't know, dude. Pictures from Dune came out today, and everybody was like, Oh, this is why he was sitting there laughing the whole time at the show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

For me, number two, I feel like you're gonna probably veto either either Tori or like the choice that I make, anyways.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

So I'll just do it how it's gonna be, anyways, with Sinners being number two. Dingo. Because I knew if I did Hammett, you would have picked it, you would have vetoed it. So yeah. Sinners, the most nominated movie of all time for the Oscars. Just amazing story itself. Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor. No one saw that coming at the Actors Awards, and then he had the probably the biggest standing ovation at that awards ceremony, even more than Harrison Ford, who got achievement ward. The crowd was going crazy for him. And then at that point, I was like, oh wow. I think I think the tables are turning. I think I think this is his to lose now. There's some point within the last week, everyone was like, Is Center's gonna make like the move and like win best picture? It didn't. Still won a bunch of awards. Ryan Cougar got his original screenplay. I love this movie.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

So yeah, no, I love this movie too. Again, I just think it's so stacked this year. And I hope we're this lucky every year, right? Like, what a great problem to have.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Yeah, really great movie. Yeah, everything was pretty amazing in this. The soundtrack, the cinematography, screenplay was amazing. Characters were so distinct, uh, which I feel like we don't talk about a lot in movies, is just having such separated kind of caricatures being utilized in film. Sometimes they kind of just merge in and end up falling in line with backup characters. But we've seen it with all the people that they had nominated, right? They had pretty much somebody in every acting category.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah. Yeah. And then Black Panther 3, it's gonna probably be one of the biggest hype movies of all time. Yeah. After this came out, right? Brian Kingdom's like on the top of the world right now, the hype around him.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah. And then number one, I'm gonna take Hamnet. This is just my personal favorite, which if you showed me this list before I had watched any of these movies, I'd probably put Hamnet at eight or nine just based off the looks. I had no interest in seeing this movie. I had no real interest in this genre, Shakespeare, anything like that. And maybe that's why I'm so high on it, is just because I'm so shocked by it that it was something I'd never be interested in. But wow, was it not amazing? Everything again, I mean, we could say the same thing. Characters, cinematography, soundtrack, everything was just so well done in this movie. And Chloe Zhao, yeah, absolutely killed.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Yeah, some of the best child acting too out of like really anything I've seen. Noah Jupe was insane again. Um, and then Justy Buckley won like 44 awards this award season for that role, which is insane when you think about I've heard I haven't seen The Bride, but I've heard really bad things about The Bride and how like she can still dominate while like one of the worst movies of the year came out while and she's a star of that one. So just speaks to her performance, which is just you know, I thought it was interesting too.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

She was talking about how she just had a young girl, which she was probably going through the pregnancy during this filming. And so, like probably utilizing a lot of emotion and feeling that she was, you know, gaining becoming a mother during that process. That was really cool to see too.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yeah, all the actors like that one other other than of course Sean Penn, I really liked their speeches too. I liked her speech about motherhood. And how this is for all mothers, and then like it's Mother's Day in the UK. DJ, like right when he started off being like, what's up, mama? I was like, dang. I was like, that's cool as shit. Like, how can you not root for this guy? You know? And then Namie Wagan was so like so cool too.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah, that was cool. And Conan was pretty hilarious. The one I had a problem with was somebody from K-pop Demon Hunters. Uh was like, you know, I'm so happy to win this for people that look like me. Like Bong Jun Ho didn't win Best Picture for Parasite. That kind of blew my mind that you wouldn't know that. Going into the Oscars.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

That was like what they did at the time. Yeah. I think the way they didn't phrase it the best way because I think what they meant was for kids. Because it's like kids are not going to watch Parasite. I would hope not. Yeah, maybe like young teen girls. Yeah, exactly. Dude, even dude, even like boys, like dude, people are obsessed with this movie.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Like, no, no, no, no, I know.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

It was good. But yeah. No, yeah, I get what you mean. I don't think it was the best phrasing by them.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

I immediately was sitting there like, Parasite?

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Yeah. Awesome. Cool. So uh this week's movies we did based off of Oscar Snubs. I really like how I chose these movies were movies that weren't nominated for Best Picture. Um, they may have gotten very minimal love by the Academy, but I really looked up like what's the biggest Oscar Snubs of all time for Best Picture? And these were two of them that we haven't seen before. Um, a lot of the other ones that have been nominated in the past, we have seen before. So we wanted to really reach out there and try to find two being Children of Men and After Sun. So uh Justin, if you want to start off with children of men.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Yeah, yeah. Um, I knew nothing about this movie coming into it besides the fact that I saw Julianne Moore in it, which is interesting, we'll get into later. So following the plot, it's uh basically in infertility is threatening mankind with extinction. The last child was born, what, I think 19 years ago, which you know gives you a solid 50 to 60 years uh ideally until humankind's gone. So there's um a lot of different moving parts in this movie, um, but it basically follows like kind of like a rebel group who is um trying to, you know, get somebody to safety, get them out of England and get them to what they think is a place where they get they're trying to, you know, make humans give birth again. So it kind of follows that rebel group, who's on whose side kind of action. I gave it a seven. I thought it was an interesting plot line, but I think the characters really started to build up on me, and I was getting pretty not lost, but just trying to figure out who's on whose side, what's going on at any given point in time. It definitely cleaned up towards the end, which helped a lot. But even then, you know, there's a scene at the end during a huge battle going on around our main characters, and I'm like, who's even fighting right now? Um I had a hard time kind of distinguishing that. I know it was the kind of poor immigrants that they put into a little small town, um, and then the army, but I'm like, why are they fighting the people that aren't armed? That was or are they fighting somebody else who just showed up? Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

So so the revolutionary group, spearheaded by Chihuatol Egar or Plays Luke. That was the same people they were fighting? Yes. So they were part of the revolutionary group when they first show up, and the girl's pregnant, and but they what they want to do with the baby, obviously it did not agree with Julianne Moore, who they end up killing her because they they don't have they're on the same wave. Julianne Moore's character, they want to get her out and to a safe place so she can have the baby safely, while they want to do it in front of the world to bring hope, what they think is bringing hope back to the world, but it's really an unsafe environment for the baby to be born and take that kind of risk. And so Clive Owen takes out on his own because he's like one of the last people that knows what it's like to like go through like hardship of having a baby in the first place because Julianne Mann Moore has a miscarriage. Um and that that's like kind of interpreted from that way. And then it's follows him trying to get her out of that situation, back into or back to like where Julianne Moore wanted to take her to a safer area while this revolutionary group is trying to get her back to show this baby in front of the whole world.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah. Okay. I guess I was just getting confused there at the end because I knew they were there, but I thought I thought they were fighting somebody else too. Because you know, from what we had seen, the revolutionary group wasn't that massive. It was just a couple people from what we knew of.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Yeah, I think they just they were fighting them, but they were also fighting them in a building that like other like homeless or like poverty people were just living in. So it wasn't even fair to them in the first place that they were just fighting through their area that they were living, and then the government was just like being, I mean, how anti-immigration they were like throughout the whole movie, which like this is a super anti-immigration or pro-immigration type of movie, just showing like the evil side of like not letting people immigrate.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Um, yeah, so I gave that a seven. Um there's I also gave a seven. I thought the characters were pretty well done. I think it's interesting to kill off Julian Moore's character like 20 minutes in. Um Clive Owen was a pretty good character as well. I thought it was interesting to see a hero not be an action star around this time, right? Because around that time there was just so many people were the heroes and they were the ones running around gunslinging, being the action stars, but he was kind of uh a nurturing hero, I guess you could say he was the one who basically just took all the risk with none of the reward. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah, no, I I really liked Theo, which is played by Clive Owen. I like I also like Jasper, played by Michael Cain. I thought that was a really interesting character for Michael Cain to play, like this stoned-out guy who ends up like sacrificing himself for the bigger goal of like because like the reason why him and Theo are so close is because he knows like Theo like gives off this tough exterior, but he's like probably like one of the softest guys in like the whole movie, like just how much he cares and nurtures. And then you understand that once you hear like they did have a like they were pregnant at one point, him and uh Julianne Mayor's character. Yeah, it's crazy how that like that whole sequence first off shot beautifully when they're like driving through and then she shot. Like that whole like lead up to the film is just like an insane like sequence of events, like all shot in one go. Yeah. But really, that's like the exposition of like the movie, just start it all up.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Yeah. Cinematography, I gave it a seven. I was very conflicted with the cinematography uh for this movie, because obviously you had good shots like that one. Then you also had the tracking shots um at the end, the final battle scene. It was like following our two main characters throughout the city for a whole 25-30 minutes, which is pretty awesome to see and pretty great. But I really just hate when movies put gray shading on a movie and just like call it good. Like it's so lazy and like I just I don't understand. You we've seen things like Blade Runner 2049, uh Dystopian Future that's supposed to be dark, and we've seen the whole array of rainbow in that movie. You can't sit here and tell me you're okay with just making your movie gray as shit. It's not cool, it doesn't look good. That really frustrated me as soon as I turned on this movie. I was like, here we go. And I know it's England. People say it looks like that all the time there, but I don't like it. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

I liked it a lot, but that's just mainly because the tracking shot sequences for Vermont you really did it. Um and for me, the colors didn't really take away from it. Maybe because again, I know it's England, so it's like that's just how dreary it would probably be, especially in like the world that it's in.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

So this the guy, um Emmanuel Lubeski, he's known for doing tracking shots. Um I've seen a couple movies of his, Choderman, being one of them, Gravity, Birdman, The Revenant, and he's doing a new movie this year, Digger, with also with Alejandro Naruto. But like a lot of those movies are known for tracking shots. So this is kind of like his thing, uh, which I think is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Yeah, so I liked it a little bit more, but and then with the dialogue, I gave it an eight. I think there's a lot of really good dialogue in this movie. I picked the one though from Michael Cain. Uh he said everything is mythical, cosmic battle between faith and chance. I thought that one was pretty cool. Um, you know, just in the the plot line of trying to just get this lady to safety and hope that she can have the baby. We don't even know if it'll work in the end. So it's um feels really hopeless. But you know, her key and um Dio are the ones really carrying all the hope of the world on in their hands, which is uh pretty important.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Yeah. Um I I really like it just because it fits into the themes without like their different lines throughout it to each other, even like in the smaller ones. Like as this Miriam says, as the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in, very odd, what happens in a world without children's voices to really like happen right at the start of the movie. It's just really interesting. Also, like the the side dialogues, like with the beginning of the movie with like the news reports about like what is a w what would a world look like with not having kids for 18 years? It's like they're like celebrities if they're the youngest, which is yeah, we all know is not good for good for them to be a celebrity if you if they're like the hope for the future.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yeah. Um, and then set design. I also gave this a seven. I I thought it was a fine-looking dystopian world. Uh, definitely some interesting choices for the advancements in technology, but I consider films like Blade Runner 2049, and I don't even need it to be that, but I just really don't understand this like just gloomy look the whole time. It's like you can add some color in here and still tell a great story. Everything doesn't have to be dark because it's a dark storyline.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Yeah, for me, I didn't really take much away from the set design. I gave it an eight. I I think it's definitely, I mean, straight up of the style design that I read up on it, it's it's like the it's anti-Blade Runner, so it's is rejecting those uh today like if you notice in this film, it looks straight up like 2005. It does not even look like uh future world, even though it's set in 2027. This was made in 2005. So you got 20 years and like there's like no real technological advancements s seen in this movie to kind of like orchestrate that, oh yeah, this would be like very uh advanced worlds. Like, no, it actually wouldn't, um, especially without kids for like that long.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

And then acting, I gave it a six. I thought it was fine at best. Very interesting to kill Julianne Moore that early, especially you know, I saw her, I was like, oh, she's you think you see somebody that big and she's gonna stick around maybe 20 minutes, 30 minutes in. And then Clive Owen, I don't know who that guy is, but he's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

Yeah, uh yeah, I really like Clive Owen's performance in this. Uh I've seen him in like a couple other things. So I've seen him in the born identity um and the inside man with like alongside like Denzel Washington in that movie. I I don't really see him in a lot of others, but I think he's a mainly British actor, so I'm guessing that's probably why. Yeah. I think uh Michael Cain was also really interesting in this movie to just see him like go out of his usual roles. I mean, like at the same time, this is right before he becomes uh Alfred in the Batman movies. So going right from this, uh and being Alfred is quite interesting for him.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

And then directing, I gave it a seven. I thought it was just fine. Nothing was special except the the tracking shots, which even then I'd probably leap more up to the cinematography for in the editing. But yeah, I thought that some of the scenes were pretty cool, but besides that, nothing grabbed me too heavily here.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Yeah, the actor Alfonso uh Quarion, he uh he did uh Little Princess in '95, E2 Mama Tambien in 2001, and then he did a Harry Potter movie, The Prisoner of Ask Band, who many regard as the best Harry Potter movie, and then Children of Men, Gravity, and then he won Best Picture and Best Director for Roma in 2018. So just quite a not a extensive like uh filmography, but a very interesting one, I would think, just because they these all seem like very different kinds of films. Yeah. But when you talk about like the dreary side of it, Prisoners of Ascaband is like a very dreary looking movie, very similar to Children's Band.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Interesting. So for soundtrack, I gave it an eight. I thought it was a pretty cool use of British punk and classic rock throughout the movie that stood out to me mainly. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Yeah, for me, the soundtrack was like nothing special for me other than it was good, but it was nothing that really stood out.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

And then themes, I gave it a six. Obviously, you have hope, faith, human resilience, but you really had a lot of opportunity to add more depth with these characters, and I just wish the characters themselves were a little more drawn out. Obviously, you have Dio and Key were the main ones that you got to really draw out, but besides that, Michael Cain, just a pothead, Julian more dead.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Um, and then the the revolutionaries were just there is definitely context given to her that just it wasn't explicitly like told to you, but like she straight up was like probably like she she was pregnant at one point, and that's why she felt so connected to that story and why she wanted to help her out.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah, but why do I care? She's gone 20 minutes in because her and Clive Owen's character are literally like married or like they were married at some point. They're like they're like that was the love of his life.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

That gets passed on to him. That's what I was saying.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

He's doing it because of her.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

He's I don't even think he's doing it because of him. I think maybe way towards the end, he's like, oh, maybe he's doing it for himself, but I think he's mainly doing it for Julian, like the pretty much like the entire movie.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Yeah, that's fine. But again, that's his character, and then Keith's character had good themes attached to her. Nobody else. I got nothing else from anybody else.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

I think Luke, Chibitol, Ariel Fuller's uh character, I thought he was like the main villain of the movie, right? Up until like the very end when he's just like when he like pleads to him, he's like, wait, wait, but like, was I doing the right thing? He's like, I I used to have a sister, I used to have a sister. You could tell like he noticed that he was doing something wrong, but he's like so stuck in the moment of like what he thought he was doing was right. And I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yeah, but I didn't even see him half the movie. He was there. Yeah, we found out he was the bad guy, and then he shows up for the baby for five minutes and he's dead. I just got nothing out of any of the supporting cast here, and it really frustrated me. Like it was just that basic, like those basic themes of human resilience, and then yeah, I felt like I was just watching any other action film. And then I feel like sorry, I feel like everybody's main issue in this was everybody had their own reason for surviving, and then that was it. There was no real in-depth dialogue or internal dialogue, I guess you could say, trying to understand more about these characters. It was just what's your reasoning for surviving? This is mine, this is mine, this is mine.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

But it's set in a world that like what would you be your reason for surviving if like no kid's been born for 18 years, then you know you're the last one. At some point, it has to like reality has to set in for them and being like, what else is there to this world? And like that is a very specific way to look at their life. Yeah, they know one kid, but they have a different view of how to resemble that hope. What they want to do is show the world the kid while Clive Owen's like, no, we need to nurture this kid and make sure that he's actually the start of this new world rather than you publishing him to the world and then like probably killing himself at like 17. That like literally happens that right at the beginning of the movie with like the youngest person in the world.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

I know, I know. Yeah, I don't know. I just didn't get it from maybe it was the acting that took it took away from me. Editing, I gave it a seven as well. I I like they kind of did some research. Um, they filmed it like a documentary style, which I guess tries to make it more real-wordy. Um, I like the long action tracking shots. I thought that was pretty good. And then obviously they used some sort of handheld camera for some of the shots, which is also pretty cool, especially in like a war scene. I like when movies do that.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Yeah, I thought the editing was pretty cool for me.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

What's the runtime of this movie? It's 109 minutes, and it felt like probably shorter than that to me while watching it. Like it didn't feel like an extremely long watch for me.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Yeah, it was fine. I didn't have any issues with it. I've been texting you this week because I've had a lot of I keep running into movies that we're watching, and I'm like, oh my god, why is it three hours long? But this one did do that for me. It was okay. So I gave it overall a seven out of ten. I thought it was fine. Just didn't grab me. Maybe it was the plot line, maybe it was the dreariness. I just couldn't get that invested in it.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

I gave it an 8.1 out of ten or eighty-one out of a hundred. So slightly above you. I I really enjoy, like, I think more so the themes and the plot this movie. Well, I think some of the dialogue points, uh, sound effects, and as well as the set design kind of takes away from me.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Overall, snub. Was that anything?

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Oh, it should have been snub.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Yeah, I agree with the I agree with the academy here.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yeah. I wanna I want to see what year it got actually um nominated and see like Yeah, see what see what it was up against. Yeah, so it's best picture nominees that year are The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen. It's pretty hard to talk about it when I only have seen two of these. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Um I haven't seen The Queen. It just sounds boring, but who knows, maybe it isn't. Little Miss Sunshine and Departed are really good movies, so I don't think those should be. Um I just have no idea if they're really good or not.

SPEAKER_03 39:13

I'm still snubbing it. I've only seen The Departed. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Okay, so the movie that I'm doing is After Sun. After Sun came out in 2022, so a post-COVID movie, uh a 24-focused movie as well. Um yeah, so the movie starts off or is really it's just a coming-of-age drama film, but really just follows like a daughter and the father on this like vacation that she's remembering from her past at this Turkish resort right before his first birthday. And uh really realistic, just a couple days while they're together. Um, that kind of leads into like later in the film, or I would say about halfway of the film, you realize why she is remembering it the way she is, because she's trying to see if there was any signs that she did that she missed out on like really just his depression and why he no longer is in her life.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Yeah, I mean No, no, no. I I knew nothing about this coming into it, just that Paul Meskow was in it, and I was like presently surprised by the plot. I wasn't expecting kind of like a a darker toned movie. Yeah. But I yeah, get into the plot.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Yeah, so the plot I gave it eight out of ten. Um I thought it was a really interesting way to tell a story, because like right at the beginning, you could tell that you're like, okay, where's this going? Because it's like camcord footage, but it's like, oh, he she's just trying to remember things from like the last time they were really together. And before you learn at the end of the movie that like he kills himself, because he's like writing to her about like, I hope you know I always love you. And like a lot of like the movie parts of the scenes that she never saw was like him fighting through it while she's like going having fun, playing like these pool games with like the other kids, having her like probably I think first kiss of her life. So it's just like a crazy time, fun time for her while he's just like at the brink of like exploding. And yeah, there's very very small signs that she could even pick up on, but we got to see behind the behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Yeah, I enjoyed this movie. I think Paul Mescal really came onto my scene this weekend with that in the hamnet. He was really breathtaking in this because you know he delivered such a happy, go-lucky kind of guy, especially in front of her. And then we don't know what's going on on his end really throughout the movie. We just see that he's clearly going through something. And those scenes with him alone were uh they had tough watches.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Yeah, because right at the beginning he's doing like Tai Chi self-help books. Like he's he's always smoking and stuff, but then like later in the he just gives up on like doing any like self-help like activities to really help himself out. Constantly the money being brought up as well throughout the film about how he doesn't have enough money to afford stuff. I think there's like one line, just like don't she was like, please don't act like you're gonna pay for something when I know you don't have the money to. And it's like, I'm not a parent, but like I know that that's like that's just like a bratty thing to say no matter who you are. And but like kids don't know what means like that, but it's just like heartbreaking to probably hear as like a parent. Yeah, I can imagine. So the characters I gave it eight out of ten. I mean, the two main ones are really like the whole movie, everyone else is like super side just because like there's on the vacation too with them. Um but Callum and Sophie, like it feels like such a father and daughter connection. I mean at one point they're like, Oh, your little sister. He's like, No, that that's that's my daughter. And they're like, Oh, oh, my bad. And he's like, Oh no, it's all good. Again, he really resembles well to what I think a lot of parents can sometimes recognize with of like putting on a front of like being this easygoing, like happy person t for your kids. But sometimes there's just everyone's going through their own thing and you just never know what each person's going through.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Yeah, one big thing I got from his character too is being such a young father. It really felt like they were doing a lot of kids' things together too, you know, dancing, playing games together, all that kind of stuff. So then to see him really have to face these real adult things alone, it just felt kind of scary for him, you know. Yeah. Yeah, because it's clearly that him and the mother are not on the best terms with each other.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

So it's like he really is on his own, even though they're trying to raise this child together, which sadly, like a lot of people in our generation do have to experience like a joint of experience of like growing some uh their kid or raising their kid. The cinematography I gave a nine out of ten. I thought this was beautifully shot. You had like the the going back and forth from the camcorder. Some shots are like you have to like look through the TV lens to understand what's going on because it's also through the camcorder. Like I remember like one towards the end of the scene, she's like, Oh, when you were eleven, did you expect you to be where you are now? And then he's just like, Stop recording. And then, like, I'm sure if she was looking back at that as an adult, she's just like, Wow. Yeah. That's painful.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

But yeah. I thought the shots too kind of about him, the the the kind of strobe lights dancing in like what seemed to be like a nightclub, those are really interesting too, especially to find out at the end that was where he was going was into the darkness, into his darkness. Um he was kind of collapsing to the the chaos of what was going on in his head. That was some really cool shots kind of leading up to that throughout the movie.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

What I read was that like that was the last clip, or like that was the memory of him getting lost in her memories. Like as that's going on, it's him going to the darkness, but it's also her losing the memory of him.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

So that's also what I read about that. Um I don't I kinda I kind of see it that way, um, especially at the end of the movie where it's like that is that final scene of flashing, and then it goes totally black, and it's like, is that does that mean that like she just forgets about like she just doesn't remember him really anymore? And like all she can't hold back on to is the camcorder footage, which is quite sad to think about, but yeah. But the dialogue, I gave it eight out of ten. I really enjoyed like a lot of their lines with each other, but there's a lot of face acting in this movie. That's the only way I took off two points because there's a lot of stuff happening that was not said with words, and yeah, you just had to interpret it based off of like how Paul Mescal was acting with his face.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Yeah, even um Sophie as well. I think she did a the the child actor did a pretty good job too at doing that. Um I think about this scene where she was kind of hanging out with the the older teenagers, um, and she's just kind of trying to understand everything going on around her. With only them talking, you could see that she was uh kind of coming to understand everything that's going on around her, which I thought was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

Uh my probably my favorite line is, and then there's this feeling once you leave where you're from, like where you grew up, that you don't totally belong there again. Um, it's off this conversation where she's like, I like where I'm from, and he's like, I don't want to be back there. Because he's like, I just don't feel like I belong anymore. Like that whole back and forth leading up to that quote of like once you move away, you never feel like you should belong in that place again. And I don't know. I feel like that's a pretty deep cool. Now getting into acting, I gave it a nine out of ten. I mean, they're just both really good at like face acting again, where you you could tell their emotions without like them having to explicitly tell you what is going on and what they're feeling. Especially when she's like looking at like the the older kids doing like interesting new stuff that she's never seen before, and you could see she's intrigued by that, but also confused. So it's like an intrigued but confusion look that I think is really hard to do. Um also because it turns out that in the movie that she is um gay, so when she sees like the two guys kissing, that's probably one of the first times she's ever s seen that in her life, too.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

I think also they just had like really good chemistry together. Every conversation between them, whether it was, you know, relatively harsh or whether it was relatively friendly and fun, I think like it fit well. Yeah, I agree. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Um, and then sound effects. I think this is like the one thing that took away from me, but that's just because it was not a focus of this movie. Yeah. It was like a super background thing, like there were just sound effects just wasn't a point of this movie. So I only could give it like a six. Yeah, I agree. Special. Um the set design, I gave it eight out of ten because I mean it was like a Turkish resort kind of place, but like they were clearly living in a cheaper place than everyone else there. They did not have like the all-inclusive part of it, but it just seemed like a like a normal, like just random resort that they decided to go to for like a weekend and that I thought was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 47:39

Yeah, yeah. It looked like you know, they fit in with the people that were there, but also the environment as well.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

And then directing, I gave it eight out of ten um for the overall directing. I don't think I've really ever heard of Charlotte Wells before. Obviously, if it came out in 2022, she and 824 is really known for giving new directors a chance at these different kinds of stories. But just looking at her whole career, I mean, After Sun is really her main thing, and then she hasn't really done anything after. So editing, I gave it eight out of ten. Uh again, this is not a very long movie, but it did like it didn't feel like a chore to watch.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

Uh some of the other movies we've done. It was uh yeah, it was 101 minutes, so it passes like the hundred-minute rule of like it it doesn't feel long at all, um, and very well edited.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Yeah, I I I thought the editing was particularly good, especially between the camcorder scenes, kind of the strobe light scenes, and then also the only thing I'd really want to say, and this kind of more on plot, I'd like to see adult Sophie coming to terms with uh her, you know, understanding of who her father was, but also becoming a parent herself. That might have been kind of cool if you wanted to add 30 minutes on of that, maybe towards the end. But other than that, I understand why you also didn't. You kind of leave it up to the viewer as well.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Yeah, because it cuts to her for a little bit, like for five minutes, but then it cuts back to like that trip. But it wouldn't be cool to like end the movie with like five to ten minutes, like her talking to her wife, just like about what's going through in her head as it's her birthday and like thinking about her father and stuff, you know, like a little monologue about it, about like Yeah, what this whole movie sums up to. Overall, I gave or like the the theme I gave a nine out of ten. Because I think I don't think I've seen many movies to touch on this of of this topic of like parents and like what they resemble to you as a kid, but like also what's hiding behind them, and then also tackling like how depression is like a disorder that like not everybody can defeat, and it really just takes a team and able to defeat it, and like no one can take it on themselves because clearly he was trying to take it on himself.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Yeah, no, he was, and I think that was what made the theme so interesting in this movie was we're solely seeing it from Sophie's perspective, right? We don't know what's happened to him besides some hints at financial trouble. We don't know what's really dragging on him, right? Obviously depression, but what uh what specific real life things can we grab onto that say, is it his marriage? Is it his financial problems? What's he really grabbing onto that's holding him down so much? And so just seeing it from Sophie's perspective was such a cool way to understand, like you you really don't know what's going on in somebody else's head, especially because we see him laughing, swimming, having a great time all the time. Um, and that's what she thinks too. She thinks nothing's wrong.

SPEAKER_03 50:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:31

It seemed to me like with a lot of the lines that he's talking to her, that was really brought up about like how she wants to live places, uh, what do you want to be and all this? And he he didn't have a belonging. Like he didn't feel like he belonged anywhere, or like anything that he had to himself, if that makes sense. Like he didn't have anything that like really drove him to um to be anything crazy or like um unique, I guess. I don't know. But yeah. That's just how I interpret it. Awesome. So I gave it overall 8.1 out of 10 or 81 out of 100. So pretty much the same score as children children of men, completely different themes, but like still centered around children, which is quite interesting that both movies do.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

Yeah. I gave uh this one an eight. Uh shouldn't that have been snuffed. That should be on there for at least uh editing, maybe, or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

I think let's let's look at it real quick. If I can find it, I might have won something besides Best Picture.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

I don't know, but no, as far as I'm concerned, I this was like the beginning of when A24 started getting recognized, really. But let's look real quick, 2022, or it'd be 2023.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

But yeah, because right after this year. Isn't that when everything everywhere all at once won? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Or is that okay?

SPEAKER_02 51:45

Yeah, so Paul Mascell was nominated for best actor, and that's all the Academy Awards was nominated for it. Brenda Fraser won that year. So the best picture nominees that year were everything everywhere all at once, all quiet on the Western Front, Avatar Way of Water, Banshees of Vienna Sheeran, Elvis, the Fable Mins, Tar, Top Gun Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Woman Talking.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

I'd put it over Fable Mins, in my opinion. Fable mans is good, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:10

I could see Fablemans or Elvis personally.

SPEAKER_00 52:12

I I really Yeah, Elvis should I haven't seen Elvis, but I could imagine it's probably a little bit better than that.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Yeah. Um awesome.

SPEAKER_00 52:19

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

So what we're gonna do now is like an Oscar Snubs draft. The way that this is gonna be is gonna be in the same light of a snub as if it's not nominated for that category. So the category is being best picture, lead actor, lead actress, best director, best screenplay, original or adapted, cinematography, and then wildcard, which can be any category that you just want to shine out about it. Again, it just was not nominated for that specific category. Cool. It's to the wheel, see you gets to pick first. Hey, I get to go first this time. Hey. Um, I feel like this is a very open draft though, to where like it really is gonna be like our own opinions about stuff. Um especially like the people that are just nominated at all for stuff.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

There's maybe one or two that definitely need to be taken, like one and two, but Yeah, I I think so too.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

With the performances, I feel like that's just like up to your person like what what do you think like should be loved more? Okay. I'm looking at it just from here. And I think a good practice for us was would be to look up the year itself and what would it replace? It doesn't need to be like, but I think that'd just be fun to do. It'd be like, okay, if you're gonna pick this to be it, what would it replace, you know?

SPEAKER_04 53:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

So for best picture, I'm gonna do that one right off the bat, and I'm gonna go with Interstellar.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

I don't know if this is what you were interpreting or Yeah, that's uh that was one of my two. Yeah, I think it definitely should have been nominated that year. Um I'm pulling it up right now to see which which one I would replace. But I think it was I mean, Interstellar is amazing. And the fact that it wasn't, I'm just genuinely shocked, especially because it's Christopher Nolan and the fact that Christopher Nolan didn't get love for it. So this year, Birdman wins, American Sniper, Boyhood, Grand Brudapest Hotel, Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash. Personally, what I would take off because I I've seen all of these movies. American Sniper, I would replace it with. I would way rather have Interstellar in there than American Sniper. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

Sorry, I'm looking at mine because I know I'm better take it here. Um I'm gonna take Amy Adams for a rival. Yeah. Yeah, that was my number one pick. I'm looking at it here. I haven't seen any of the other ones beside Lalaland. So I would honestly put it in in front of any of them. Isabella Hupp Huppert for Elle, Ruth Nega for Loving, Meryl Streep for Florence Foster Jenkins, and then Natalie Portman for Jackie. Yeah, it's kind of a miracle that she didn't get put in here. That's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Yeah, I mean, I haven't seen Elle or Loving, so I can't or uh yeah, I can't really speak on either of those, but and then you're talking about Natalie Portman and Meryl Streep, so it's like okay. But um but she's just amazing at a rival, so like the fact that it didn't get any love is kind of amazing for her. But then she was nominated for the master. Alright. But not for but not for arrival.

SPEAKER_00 55:27

Let me see here. I had one on my list, but I don't know where it went. Oh, yeah. Um I'm gonna knock lead actor out of the way. I'm gonna take Jack Nicholson for the shining. This was on my list as well. Yeah, I think we're gonna see a recurring theme with uh Stanley Kubrick movies, because I guess the Academy hates him from the research I've been doing this week. I don't know what their deal is. So let me see. Do you have the year of that movie by any chance? 1980. So 1981 Oscars see. Yeah. All right, Google doesn't want to participate. All right, De Niro Raging Bull, Peter O'Toole, the stunt man, Robert Duvall, the great Santini. Dude, I don't know what I'm doing. I would I would have put him in here. I mean, obviously that's such an iconic role.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Um I read up on that role because he was also on my list, and it's because they thought it was over the top at that point. They thought, like, yeah, they thought the performance was over the top, and that's why it was not uh picked. Sounds jealous. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. I feel like I could go to a lot of places at this point. I'm just trying to see where I want to go with this. So I just don't think we have the same things from the here on out. I'd be surprised. Yeah. So many different things. I'm gonna go with best screenplay with before sunrise. Yeah. Which we are doing next week on the podcast. So listen in if you want to hear more about what we think about it. But like this screenplay is insane, and like like the dialogue that's written out for this movie is just also insane. Like, yeah. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, we'll talk about it the next week. Yeah. Um and then I think I'm also gonna go a different route with cinematography. I'm gonna go with the Batman from 2022. I gotta pivot on that category. I had a feeling that you were gonna pick this, but I wasn't entirely sure. Well, I had that in Interstellar and cinematography. Yeah, the Batman is shot absolutely beautiful. I think it could also go for like if we want to go on a wildcore round, I think like the score also, the fact that a score got no love isn't a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 57:31

That's crazy too, yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's just beautiful movie.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

Alright, let's see. Okay. Um, I'll save that one for later. I'm gonna take I'm gonna take Christopher Nolan snubbed for best director for inception. And he wasn't nominated. Huh? He wasn't nominated that year? That's insane. That's from what I'm finding. Uh let's see. So 2011 Oscar Best Director Nominees. Yeah, that's kind of nuts. Okay, so Woody Allen got nominated for Midnight in Paris. Alexander Payne, the descendants. Are we joking? That movie was fine. Terrence Malik for The Tree of Life, Martin Scorsese for Hugo, and Michael, I'm not pronouncing your last name for the artist. Yeah, dude, he's gotta be on here for this. That movie was crazy. Yeah, that's insane. But maybe he was too young and they didn't want to give it to him. I'm look I'm staring at pictures of all these old guys.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

So yeah, it was came out in 2010, so it'd be the 2011 Oscars. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm looking at yeah. I mean, that's the King's Speech year, so like you say what you want. The King's speech. Am I looking at the wrong year? I think you are, but he still wasn't nominated for best director.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:49

So you it still counts.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

Okay. So, oh, okay, the King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter, Social Network, True Grit. Okay, that's a bit harder.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

Yeah, I think it's a little bit harder, but I still would have it over the King's Speech, because King's Speech is probably one of the most boring movies of all time. And true and honestly, true grit. I I like True Grit and Inception's a lot better. And both of those. The other three I agree with. Black Swan, the Fighter and Social Network are really special movies.

SPEAKER_00 59:18

Interesting place here. Um I'm gonna take Best Picture and I'm gonna take The Dark Knight. That's also on my list. Yeah, I didn't want to leave that out there for too long. Pretty amazing. Yeah, but I understand what it is, and it should have at least been nominated.

SPEAKER_03 59:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

I don't like this movie from a comic book standpoint. I don't mind this from a Christopher Nolan standpoint. Man, you have two we have three Christopher Nolans on the board. Yeah, but we're about to get a hell of a lot more, which is kind of nuts.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

Okay, so for me, I'm gonna go a little bit different. Let me make sure though. One just a quick sec. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with so yeah, I'm gonna go with director, and it's gonna be Steven Spielberg for Jaws. Yeah. That's good. Um gets nominated for Best Picture, but he doesn't get nominated for director, which I think is kind of insane, and probably they're like, oh, he's too young. That's probably how what they were thinking back then. But it's literally like the movie that started what black blockbusters are in the first place, and it's an insane movie. Yeah. There's the only thing I could think of of why it wasn't nominated was because they were like, oh, he's too young.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

Yeah. I feel like that's done way too much. Yeah. Maybe not anymore. We saw Ryan Cooper win the other night, but it's still he's 39, 36. Yeah, and Michael B.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

Jordan's like 39 as well. Yeah. Okay. So then for from here on out, maybe pick a different one. But for lead actress, I'm gonna go with Tony Collette for Hereditary. Horror movies got some love at this most past Oscars for weapons for Amy Madigan, but like this performance by Tony Collette is the best horror performance of all time. Like he came and changed my mind. Um, it's just insane what she does in this movie, and she gets absolutely zero love. I mean, look up what year um for the 2019 Oscars, which was a stacked year, I will say. Oh you know, that's the green book year, not the stacked year. Still a green green book hater over here. Nominees for best actress would be Olivia Coleman for the favorite, Jalitza Abarisho for Roma, Lynn Close, the wife, Lady Gaga, Star is Born, and Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? I mean, take out Lady Gaga, Melissa McCarthy, Lynn Close. I'll see take almost all of them out except for Olivia Coleman, and I'll be happy. And just put it between her and Tony Pollette. Like amazing horror performance. Is it my turn?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Yeah, you got best screenplay left, cinematography, and wild card. All right, I'm about to cook here. Um screenplay. I'm gonna take the big Lebowski. And I'd like to say that if we had to go back in time, I think a lot of people would put this on there. Um just for how different it is for the Cohen brothers. Um, and it's become such a cold classic, even though people didn't like it at first. There was 1999, it was interesting. The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, Bullworth, Shakespeare, and Love and Life is Beautiful. You can keep Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan, put Big Lebowski in there. Yeah. Do I have the right year again? Yeah, you do. Okay. So yeah, that one is money. Um, and then yeah, I'm gonna take 2001 as Space Odyssey for cinematography. That's one of my favorite movies of all time. What was that again? I'm sorry, you were breaking up. No, it's okay. Uh 2001 as Space Odyssey for best cinematography. Mine bogging boggingly, it lost to Romeo and Juliet. Are you kidding me? It didn't even get nominated. We're talking about Romeo and Juliet. What the hell? I mean.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

Hey, I've actually seen that. It doesn't look horrible. It's probably not better than 2001 the Space Odyssey.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:15

2001 is Space Odyssey looked better than Star Wars, and that's comes out ten years later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:20

I don't Yeah, this is also this is gonna be number two on my list. So if you chose the Batman, I was gonna choose that one. So it was right up there for me. All right, so my final two picks, lead actor. So like I have a crazy list on for lead actors, so that's why I've been waiting, because honestly, I'd be happy with any of these guys. But I'm gonna do it for the guy that, God forsakes, I hope that he does a good movie for the next five years and gets it finally, because I think he's one of the outstanding actors. Um, and it's gonna be Jake Gyllenhall for Nightcrawler. Yeah, that's a good one. Like we've done him on this podcast. We we both are big fans of him. For the last like five years, I don't think he's been doing the best movies, to be quite honest, especially Oscar-worthy type of movies. Yeah. But there was a crazy run from like 2005 to like 2018, where he was just having these insane performances and was not even close to recognized for them. I just think it's just a shame. It is a shame. Let me look up the 2015 Oscars to see who I would replace with him. I think it's the second movie I'm choosing from 20 for the 2015 Octors. But uh, they did not do it so well this year. Best actor, Eddie Rimene for The Theory of Everything, Steve Crell, Foxcatcher, Bradley Cooper, American Sniper, Benevey Cunbatch, Imitation Game, and Michael Keaton Birdman. But take Bradley Cooper or Cumberbatch out for his performance in Nightcrawler. I think he's better than all of those, all of those performances, and I've seen all those movies. I'd agree. Yeah. Nightcrawler, he's insane. Okay. So two movies from 2014, which is interesting. I'm about to add one more. Then for Wildcard, I wanted to go to like a different category. I didn't want to choose one of the categories we already did. Me too. And so for me, I did oh man, this is hard. Well, I'm gonna deal with one of the most iconic like scores of all time, and that's gonna be Halloween. Yeah. 1978. Um, the score for it. Um, I mean, it's just so iconic just for horror movies, but like it just in general. Like you know that you know the score when you hear it. And John Carpenter's really never gotten his love for it, which is kind of a shame too, for the movies that he like the thing as well never got any love, but let's see. Let's see just see what they they nominated this year for a score back in 79.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:32

Yeah, there's that makes no sense to me. Like Midnight Express. You have one of the most iconic movies of all time, and you're throwing out yeah, I guess it wasn't Iconics.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

Midnight Express, the boys from Brazil, Days of Heaven, Heaven Koweit, Superman. I could tell you I've probably only heard the Superman score in my life, and Superman didn't even win that year. John Williams didn't even win.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

So, like, all right. Playing games. Yeah. So for my wild card, I wanted to do the same thing. I didn't want to go. Down, you know, some category we've already been doing. So it shocked me to find out that the Lego movie didn't even get nominated for best animated film in 2015. Obviously, by directors Chris Miller, Phil Lord, who eventually did the animation for all the Spider-Verse movies, Project Hail Mary coming out next week. Um, and then the 21 and 22 Jump Street as well, which is kind of a goofy mix of movies. Um I really like the animation. I think it was so well done. We've seen Lego animation done, and then they kind of revolutionized it and made it um a little more three-dimensional, which we all know and love Legos for, which was cool in my opinion. So for it to lose to Big Hero Six, Song of the Sea, The Box Trolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, I Can Understand, and then the Tale of the Princess Cayuga. Yeah, I don't know. I don't even know what one. Hold on. Well, Big Hero 6 one. Big Hero 6 looked cool, not as cool as the Lego movie. I'll take it over all five of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

Yeah. I mean, I really like the Lego movie. I remember seeing it when it came out because we were like 13 at this time. So kind of that age to see that kind of movie. Awesome. Even then, like it holds up really well today, too. It's really funny. Yeah. Yeah. All right, we'll say our teams real quick, and then uh I have a bunch of honorable mentions I'll throw out there. But so for my team, Best Picture Interstellar from 2014, lead actor Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler, lead actress Tony Collette and Hereditary, Best Director, Steven Spielberg for Jaws, Best Screenplay Before Sunrise, Cematography, The Batman from 2022, and wildcard Halloween original score.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:39

Yeah, I had Best Picture, The Dark Knight from Christopher Nolan, leading actor, I had Jack Nicholson from The Shining. And then leading actress, I had Amy Adams Arrival. Best director, I had Christopher Nolan for Inception. Best screenplay, I had The Big Lebowski cinematography. I had 2001 A Space Odyssey. And Wildcard, I had the Lego movie and best animated feature. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

So yeah, I'll I'll start with my honorable mentions. First off, for Best Picture, I like some of these movies more than Interstellar, but for the year that Interstellar came out, Christopher Nolan was known for like 14 years at that time. It's just insane that he didn't get nominated for a best picture for that movie at all. Um, but I had Heat from 1995. It just got no love from the Oscars at all, so that's why I ended up not picking it, even though everyone that listens to this podcast knows it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Nope in 2022 was not nominated for best picture. Sam with the Zodiac was not nominated in 2007 from David Fenture. Lead actor performances I have Jeff Bridges for the Big Lebowski. I have Sasha Barron Cohen for Borat. Like that is such a unique performance. The fact that it wasn't even recognized, I think, is also insane. Comedy doesn't really get noticed all that much, but like it's Borat. I don't know. Yeah. Jim Carrey for The Truman Show, Adam Sandler for Uncut Gyms is just crazy snub. Hugh Jackman and Prisoners, and then Zach Efron in The Ironclaw. I also had on honorful mentions. Lead actress, I had Uma Thurman for Kill Bill, either one. And then Meg Ryan and When Harry Met Sally. And then for directors, I'm just going to list three directors in general, with Denny Venueva for Prisoners Sicario and The Dunes, not nominated for Best Director. And then Link Later for Before Sunrise. And then PTA, not for Boogie Nights. He finally won his Oscars two days ago, but like Boogie Nights is so special. Screenplay, Fight Club in 1999 didn't get nominated. The Dark Knight didn't get nominated for Best Screenplay. And then Zodiac as well. Cinematography. Some of these are like Parasite wasn't nominated for Best Cinematography, but one best picture. Mid Samar wasn't nominated. Secret Life of Walter Middy is one of my one of the more beautiful movies I've ever seen. That effect that it wasn't recognized at all. Watchmen and Tine, also really cool movie, the way it looks. And then some wildcard ones being Challengers, the original score for that movie. I think the movie's alright, but the score is just really good. And Nope for sound editing, like the sound editing and nope is really special. And as well as the Batman for score and Guardians of Galaxy also for the score.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:26

Yeah, you named a lot of them. The only ones I'd uh I'd add were um Psycho for Hitchcock. Uh never got nominated for anything. I mean, at the time that movie was very graphic, so I think that had a lot to do with it. The Lion King for Best Picture, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Uh Ridley Scott never won for Alien or um Interesting or never got nominated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:52

Um Jesse Plemens is going to be in the new movie Digger with Tom Cruise this year as a supporting actor. So I'm hoping that he's crazy in that movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

So he shows up as a supporting actor, and then like you see it in the trailer, like you're like, oh, Plemens is in it, and then he's in it for like five minutes.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:09

That's how every movie I see with him in it is. So I'm like, I was so excited to see that.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

We'll see, we'll see. I feel like he's gonna be a bigger part of that movie, but like also I have no idea what that movie is about. So I just know that director Inuratu gets a lot of love from the Academy, so I'm hoping I I'm hoping Cruz also gets some love because that man deserves an Oscar at some point because he's also like one of the actors of his generation. Awesome though. Oh, thanks for listening to this episode. See y'all next week. See ya.