Boomer Has It!
Two writers, two cities, two opinions on culture and politics from a boomer perspective. Veteran creatives JB Miller and Jim Gialamas, reporting from London and New York, offer up a surprising take on a world going somewhere on a handbasket, if not a steamer trunk. All aboard.
Jim Gialamas is a writer and former journalist, widely acknowledged as the cultural mayor of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. JB Miller is an author, playwright, and former New Yorker now haunting cafes in southwest London. Drawing on their transatlantic dispatches, they meet here to figure out what the flip is going on.
Boomer Has It!
The Odyssey Reviewed!
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It’s the biggest film of the year, adapted from a story that’s in the public domain…because it’s almost 3,000 years old! This week, Jim and JB dive into Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey—the latest epic from the master of the very long, very serious movies. Did it live up to the myth? (Odysseus, phone home!)
Plus, Headquakes where we explore a trip The Tate to discuss James McNeill Whistler and a low-effort, low-brow beer cocktail. Roll up your big wooden hobby horse and join us!
Boomer Has It!
The transatlantic podcast you never knew you needed.
About the Hosts Boomer Has It! brings together two seasoned writers from two different worlds to find common ground (or a good-natured argument) in the middle of the Atlantic through an unfiltered boomer lens.
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Two writers. Two cities. Two opinions. One perspective you won't find anywhere else.
Hi everyone. Following up on our recent pod about returning to the movies after the success of two semi-independent films, Backrooms and Obsession, we are returning today to talk about a bona fide, unadulterated, eagerly anticipated Hollywood blockbuster that's driving moviegoers to theaters like Ancient Greeks storming the city of Troy. That's right. We're talking about the Odyssey. And this is Boomer Has It. I'm Jim Jelamis in Brooklyn. I'm JB Miller in London.
SPEAKER_02So you saw this film uh what pretty much when it came out last weekend. I just saw it this afternoon. My impression of it is fresh in my mind. Your impression of it has um has had more time to circulate. But um, we thought we would start out talking about Christopher Nolan's career, the director, because he's truly one of the few named directors we have who can open a film by his name, not just the cast, or even more so than the cast. You can say that maybe about Stephen Spielberg in the old days, you could say that about Kubrick. But I think he's the one that I mean, and and Spielberg's name hasn't um hasn't been that hasn't sparked the box office in the last uh five or six years, but Nolan has. So what can we say about Christopher Nolan's career up to now?
SPEAKER_00He's a British director. I wonder if we should start at the beginning. I mean, with memento, but what I can say is anecdotally, I find that he's highly, highly revered among a certain class of theater goers. And I'm I'm not exactly sure how to break it down. Um, but I I in my day-to-day life, people talk about Christopher Nolan like people talked about Steven Spielberg at one time.
SPEAKER_02Why is that? Why why do you think Nolan is the one that sparked people's imagination? His films maybe are unlike anyone else's films, so perhaps that's one of the reasons. They're very ambitious. He paints on a broad canvas. He's like one of those great some history painters from the 19th century that was the widescreen epic work of its time. But he he paints on a he directs, he makes films big. He makes big films, and this is a big film. But but he started small. Actually, following was his first film, which was a very low budget film, which I think took him maybe a year to shoot on weekends, and then Memento, which is very how would you define that? I really like it.
SPEAKER_00That's a creative, it's a sort of I want to call it, yeah, you might call it a genre bending film, but you also might call it a structure bending film, right? Films are are written in a three-act structure and in a in a linear direction, but this one goes backwards, starting with the opening scene where we see a hood played by Joey Pants, Joey Pentan, and a bullet in reverse firing from the gun, going into the gun. God, I'd forgotten that. It's not so long ago. If that didn't dazzle theatergoers in in independent movie houses at the time, I don't know what would have.
SPEAKER_02That was a great announcement from I actually was at Sundance in 2001, and he was there with Memento. That was his first breakout hit. And I remember going to this small event where there were four or five new directors standing on a little stage, and he was one of them. And we had no idea he was the one that was going to be, you know, 25 years later, really the most celebrated, probably the most celebrated filmmaker of his of his generation. That's probably fair just for the size of his films and the uniqueness of his films. Um, he's the local British boy who made good, who uh I think lives in America, maybe has a home in New Zealand or something, never carries or doesn't have a phone or an email address, but I think always has his passport in case he needs to jump on a plane when World War III breaks out. Um something like that.
SPEAKER_00He's he's in New Zealand, he's in a safe spot.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah, that's not a bad place to be when uh Armageddon happens, but um not everyone is so lucky to have um trinationality and a private jet waiting for them. But anyway, be that it is made, so it's nothing to do with his work. Um, he's an interesting guy, interesting director.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I you know, I'm I'm I'm at a disadvantage here because I can't talk about his past work other than Memento um and having walked out of Oppenheimer because I found it dull and uninspiring, and something else about him that we ought to talk about, which is his and what I did see Inception. I did see Inception.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, Inception. Okay, that was a big one. What did you think of that?
SPEAKER_00It was a big one, and it was you know, it was a little sort of like it was all a dream. Um that that sort of that kind of conceit bugs me a lot, and great performances, great actors, um, like Oppenheimer, like Memento. No, Memento had a laugh. These films, they don't have laughs.
SPEAKER_02They're pretty filmmakers, yeah. Yeah, he's a serious film, serious filmmaker, yes.
SPEAKER_00But it there was one laugh, and this may be the one laugh we attribute to the whole the whole portfolio of Christopher Nolan. It's when the the famous amnesia wakes up in the middle of being chased, and he says, hmm, I'm chasing someone, aren't I? Oh, wait, someone's chasing me. That's good, that's a good joke.
SPEAKER_02No one's played, no one's made that joke before. So that's yeah, that's I'll I'll give him that one. Absolutely. So, anyway, would yeah, we all know Nolan's uh very successful, he's ambitious, he surprises us. Um, but this one was so anticipated that when the casting was announced, it stirred a controversy in the predictable places that is on the right wing. I have a friend who hasn't seen the Odyssey who's still railing about the the casting. It's colorblind casting, and people are upset about a black actress playing the woman who's supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. How is that possible? I mean, it's just sort of almost was that pretty much racism on its sleeve, or or was that I didn't even know how to argue that I didn't even know how to place that in cultural context. Well, I mean, or there are no Greek actors in it, and you know, there were there are complaints, right?
SPEAKER_00Um and it's it's all there, you know, these are sort of tired hackneyed complaints from the usual suspects, right? Uh colorblind casting, which has been with us. How long? How long has colorblind casting been with us in in sort of commercial formats? I'm talking about TV and movies, not experimental theater or even you know, Shakespeare festivals where routinely directors mess around with casting. I mean, come on, yeah, Ridgerton. How long? How many zillions of viewers? What a success.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think um it may it might be more common on stage than it is in film so far. I don't know. It's certainly been good going on in London Britain for a while. Um, and I think I think I think the embracing of colorblind casting is partly generational. I know my children have no problem with it whatsoever. They're growing up watching colorblind casting, they go to a lot of theater and it doesn't, it doesn't, they don't have any issue with it whatsoever. So I think it's partly generational. Um, I think if there are, I think if it if it obscures the author's intent, then then it's then it can be um problematic. What I found problematic about the controversy was people were treating this as if this was a real story. It's a fable. Um, it involves you know a cyclops and monsters, and it is, you know, it was the cyclops was not played by an actual one-eyed person. Um you know, it just seems the more you look into this controversy, the more absurd it is. Just right? It's just maybe we don't need to discuss it any further, but it's it's noted. We've noted it. But I I will also note that the controversy seemed to dissipate completely once the film opened. All the people criticized it about the colorblind casting hadn't seen the film. Once the film opened, I think that I think the controversy would have continued if um the film had not been received well, but it's gotten fantastic reviews, it's um enormous, it's the biggest non-animated film opening of the year. It had a 264 million dollar uh worldwide opening last weekend, and it's been fully embraced. And and um, and so I think no more controversy about that, yeah, as far as I can I can see. What do you think its impact's gonna be? Before we talk about it critically, what what impact do you think it's gonna have? The the success of it. If it didn't, if it wasn't successful, it wouldn't have any impact, except that no one would make any more Greek drama or you know adaptations, but it was successful, is successful. What do you think is gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00Well, if anything, it's it's signaling that the Hollywood blockbuster is back. Um, it can be done with the right, the right casting, the right director, the right cinematographer. Uh, when done right. And this was this has all the makings of a blockbuster. Five stations, gigantic budget.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but I think bigger than that, it's a blockbuster that's not a franchise, you know, it's a non- not yet. Not yes. What else could it do? The Iliad maybe next, but I don't know. Odyssey part two. It's not, you know, Batman, it's not Marvel Universe or DC Um Property IP, it's not Bond, it's not uh, although it has Jason Bourne in it, it's not a Bourne film. Um, it's it's its own thing. And that is what that is what Christopher Nolan did early in his career. He was making Batman films, Batman films. Uh but um starting about 15 years ago, he started making unique, um, unique drama, unique films. And I I I think the impact maybe will be um producers less frightened of non-franchise material. Is that fair?
SPEAKER_00That's an interesting, that's an interesting point. Although it not a franchise, but let's not forget that the Odyssey is a genre, a lost genre, called Stored and Sandal. That's true.
SPEAKER_02And just also it's also IP, known IP as well. But yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And as a follow-on, I happened to watch the great Harry uh Ray Harryhausen film Jason and the Argonauts the next night, which was just completely enjoyable. It's a film that keeps on giving. It has everything. Monsters, my uh you know, um, it it has sports competition between the the Argonauts who want to join. It has a it has a femme fatale in Medea doing a hoochie coochie dance.
SPEAKER_02It's got it all where do that sounds like fun. I've never seen I've seen clips of it, and it it had uh probably pretty advanced special effects for its time, which would have been what the 50s, early 50s, mid-50s?
SPEAKER_00It was uh 19 uh it might have been 1963.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Um, you know, it was uh for a lot for some people the special effects would look pretty clunky in that, but it's a looks like a fun film in any case. Um and who knows if the special effects and what we're watching now will seem will seem dated in 10 or 20 years. I think the music soundtracks are gonna get much more dated before the visual effects will. That's my point.
SPEAKER_00Actually, one note about the the special effects is um supposedly he nolan and um didn't use any until until it's can converted to vid digital, right? That the AI people sort of take over, but the cyclops, for example, was a was a puppet. And if you look at some behind the scenes, I didn't know that. Yeah, but the puppet and talk about interesting casting. The voice and face of the cyclops was Bill Irwin. Um the theater.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, I was I was wondering, I saw that Bill Irwin was in it, and I thought, who did he play?
SPEAKER_00Well, just for audiences, so audiences know Bill Irwin Irwin is a is uh uh uh celebrated film actor. He's on TV. He was also um Mr. Noodle, uh Mr. Noodle's brother and Mrs. Noodle's brother in Sesame Street.
SPEAKER_02I didn't know that. That's I I remember now you know a Broadway um was called Fool Moon, and he he was a silent sort of clown on stage, and he was brilliant. He was brilliant, and that was a very uh old-fashioned kind of approach. It wasn't you know fancy, it was just his own sort of clown skills. Um, yeah, all right. Well, we can I that uh that impresses me. That in itself impresses me the the the effects that were mostly non non-digital. Um let's get to our critical appraisal. Let's hear what did you think of it?
SPEAKER_00Um I I'm I'm afraid to say anything negative because my my wife and child loved it so much. Um I I I got swept up in the excitement. Um to me, any kind of dialogue that's occurring in in in with swarms of people about a three-millennial old text is a victory, a major victory. I love the casting. I thought it was fantastic. Uh, I thought Matt Damon always does great work. His his chemistry with um uh Ann Hathaway was was was very well it was it was uh evident to see that they had great they had great uh chemistry. Tom Holland I thought was great. Um the story oh what I really loved was uh the structure of the story, how it was told in varying perspectives, looking from the past to the present, some of the stories told through his amnesiac relationship with Calypso uh on a beach, um some of the stories told from the point of view of Agamemnon, who's dead, who rises out of the sand of Hades, some of the stories told from Man Hathaway's point of view. It's it's very good. It's very the the structure is very good. I won't quibble yet. Should I quibble now or later?
SPEAKER_02No, that we can quibble later. I mean, I um you want to know what I thought of it. I'll shock you. I really liked it. I I really like I'm not a Christopher Nolan fan, and I was I Well no, I I need to put out cold compress on my head.
SPEAKER_00I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_02I really liked it. I um it it was very clear filmmaking to me, and that's not how I always feel about Christopher Nolan. I find him a confusing director whose recent work I just never understand what's going on in the different layers of time, plays with time. This was clear, and this is I don't know the odd, I've never read the Odyssey. I you know, I know some of its stories, but I've never I've never really engaged with it like a lot of people have. So, but I I have no problems following it. I thought it was uh I was not not bored for an instant. I thought structurally it was really impressive, which is everything you said. I thought the cast was great. Uh, the casts makes total sense when you watch it, with one caveat I would have the one actor I thought was miscast was Charlize Theron. Because she just looked too modern to me. She looked too she her she looked too 20 21st century blonde with her cheekbones and her plucked eyebrows, and um uh and maybe she's never had any work done, but but but she just didn't look um timeless. Like all the other actors looked kind of timeless to me. That's why I like them so much. You know, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton as Cersei was fantastic, Matthew. She was fantastic, just so creepy, and so and and and and uh you know Matthew Damon was just perfectly cast. I didn't have a problem with you know anyone in it. Just Charlie's Theron just sort of took me out of the frame a little bit because she just seemed she just didn't. I don't know. What did you think of Charlie's show, but you know, she's I think you I think you're right.
SPEAKER_00I was I was looking at her face and her blonde locks against the blue sky and the beach. And I I kind of thought I I I I I have to agree with you. I think I think you put your finger on it, she she doesn't look like um someone in that time. Yeah, that was she had she, you know, she she had ragged clothes on, you know, beach the beach wear was of a time.
SPEAKER_02But I don't know why they I don't know quite why she was casting it, but everyone else, it was just great. It would just fit their characters perfectly. I agree with you about the chemistry between uh Matt Damon and um what's her name we played, uh Penelope.
SPEAKER_00Um uh and Hathaway.
SPEAKER_02And Hathaways, thank you. She was great, uh her look was great, you know, and you really felt that they were a couple and that they missed each other. Lupita Nyongo, who played Helen and Climptonestra, I just found it a little confusing because she's playing um sisters and twins and they were twins, they were twins, twin sisters, twin sisters, yeah. That's sisters, yeah, twins. Um, so you could explain how to explain why they look the same, but uh that always throws me the lip. I'm trying to figure out what I'm watching. But she was great, everyone was really good in it. Um and and it is do you know what I mean when I say it's it's it's clear filmmaking? Does that make any sense to you?
SPEAKER_00I it doesn't when you say clear me clear filmmaking, there's there's no ambiguity about about the storyline, how it's it's being shared. And I I agree. I I I love that. And you know, many many film goers were you know have memories of reading the Odyssey, either in an English class or a classics course, or maybe even a comic book, or earlier depictions. So you're constantly making comparisons to see how how the story is going to be told. And I I I agree it was very successful. I think Matt Zoller sites at Rogerebert.com called called the script a map. It wasn't a linear script, it was it was laid out in a non-linear way like a map does. Yeah, that's that guide map guides you, and I thought that was a a really cool observation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but Nolan can does that always oh not always too as um as effectively as he did this time. He he plays with time in in um his films, but this was this seemed clear. Also, it was very talky, and it didn't feel overly talky. There's a lot of it didn't feel like exposition, it felt like dialogue um to me, and and um it was visually impressive enough uh that it it the dialogue just didn't stop didn't stop the the momentum of performance. You know what I mean? I mean you have to almost think about how how talky it is because you may not you may not realize it when you're watching because it's not boring, you know, for a second. Um does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I there is there is talk in it, and it it's a good way to convey inf information. The casting was so good whoever was talking, I felt interested in hearing them. Yeah, whether it was Menel Dayus or even Intinuus, played by Robert Pattinson.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, you uh I I wanted to villain. He's a good villain. There's something creepy about him. Um, and he was good. Uh yeah, so there was there was a wonderful, wonderful um momentum to it, and and it It was uh I personally I don't know if I need to see it again, but I enjoyed it. Um, maybe I'd see it again if to be to be even clearer about the story because I've already gone through it once. I don't know. It's different.
SPEAKER_00You yeah, we saw it in standard format. So, what do you think would be an appreciable difference if we saw it in sep not only IMAX but 70 millimeter? And there's a lot to hear about the IMAX cameras and what a burden they were on the filmmaking because they're big and they're noisy, and at some point the actors had to use mirrors, they had to they had to rig mirrors so the actors could see each other in dialogue because the camera is so enormous. I mean, any sacrifice or a bird, that's a burden to put on on the on the crew. I wonder I wonder how it adds to the viewing experience.
SPEAKER_02Well, I yeah, I don't know. I mean, you'll you'll find out, you'll be able to report back to us soon because you're gonna try to see it in IMAX. I didn't know it's playing an imax here, maybe one or one or two places. Um, I thought it was a a surprisingly intimate um film in the sense of actors playing off each other. You didn't feel like they were acting off mirrors or that there was a huge camera on this on the beach. Um, it there are small moments in it that feel very emotional, emotionally affecting. Um, so I I think it's a terrific film.
SPEAKER_00Uh, I can't erect what were the moments that you thought were emotional?
SPEAKER_02Um oh gosh, there were there's just so so many. I mean, whenever whenever whenever um Odysseus is, you know, I just want to go home. I don't want to go home. You really felt it from them, these trials he was put through. Well, and you know, yeah, and I uh go on. Sorry, I'm I'm yeah, I know, and and he uh and and Elliot Page I thought was really uh well cast. There's something heartbreaking too. Heartbreaking about him. Um, and when um Odysseus is inside the Trojan horse and he can hear what's going on outside. Um oh, I don't want to give away too much. The the Trojan horse scene, which we've probably seen in other films or depicted in in illustrations, I thought was unique, it was really well done. It it didn't, it wasn't the usual horse on wheels. You see the um you see the Trojans haul it from the beach over rollers into um their their city. It's a hard road. And uh and and the the poor guys inside. That was really well done.
SPEAKER_00I also uh that was a kind of an ominous moment to me when they've finally erected the Trojan horse late at night, the city's lit by flames, by torch, and you see it open up and you see someone drop out of it. It felt ominous. Yeah. And I think maybe because you know, the the great store, what makes the Odyssey great as what makes great biblical stories so compelling are the flaws of the characters. And so Nolan has been building up the complexity of Odysseus, that he's he's broke broken some rules, he's made a lot of mistakes. And so not only are we seeing the fall of Troy by Odysseus dropping out of the, you know, on a rope out of this gift, um, breaking the rule of Zeus of hospitality and gift giving. It's it's not the ruin of Troy, but also the ruin of this man that will cost him 20 years of his life.
SPEAKER_02We yeah, and that that's you know that's shown um explained sort of towards the end. Um again throughout. Yeah, that's part of the structure of the of the film. I didn't I didn't get a sense when we first see the attack, the taking of Troy, that it was a sort of soul-destroying uh moment, as much as I felt that was explained later on. Uh anyway, I thought it was it was bravura filmmaking and clear filmmaking. I really and the rare Christopher Nolan film that I I heartily recommend, but thought was uh just brilliant.
SPEAKER_00Well, that was counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know. I it wasn't that I was expecting to dislike it, but I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. So that's you know what?
SPEAKER_00It's a it's sort of like a like I'm I'm happy to to be counterintuitive about a film when you know when it gets rave reviews from every every outlet in the in the world. Um, but I I was I was surprised. I kept reading reviews, advanced reviews, and how adoring they were of the film kind of it's just it's it stumped me. I couldn't I couldn't imagine it made me nervous about my reaction to it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I've been trying to think of other films of that are gonna be in the running for Oscars and and uh critical uh um you know welcoming. I don't know. I'm trying to remember what else has come out this year. I like Project Hail Mary a lot. Uh I think we both like that, but this was a film on a different, a different kind of film on a different level.
SPEAKER_00I just, you know, just the word to the convert controversy again. It was it was interesting. So the New York Times really made hay with this in in running up to the release of the film. They had classicists, they had translators, movie reviewers, cultural critics, and it was a lot of fun uh looking at their coverage of it. But A.O. Scott called called called the you know the the woke objection. He he called it a preemptive ideological strike against the film. And I years ago, I read an amazing profile of a classicist whose name is Daniel Hadia Heralta. Wow, he's um not white, he was raised homeless, and while homeless, I think he's he's of Dominican descent, and a lot of people in the Dominican Republic and even Puerto Rico, they have you'll hear them, they have names from from cla the classics, people named Anibal or um Leonida. And it's it's sort of this, you know, it's something it's the legend sort of survives in different parts of the world. And he grew up in in the libraries of homeless shelters. He became a classicist. He studied, I think he's at Princeton right now, it might have been Yale, Oxford, where he learned Greek and Latin. And he's been someone questioning why the classics, why? It's kind of an interesting question. It's because we all grew up with a classics department in our colleges and our high schools. Why does it exist as a standalone discipline? And as colleges face budgetary problems, you know, in the last 10 years, they've they've broken down their classic departments, they've broken them down into the English and history, which makes sense. But his his objection is that the reason the classics exist is to start is to praise whiteness, at least in 2020, in the 2020s. And I I won't go on too much longer, but the classics, the classics came during the Enlightenment, where intellectual thinkers in Europe wanted to say to the church, sorry, you're not in charge. Humans have the ability to reason and look at the classics, it proves it. Yeah, it carried us through the the formation of the United States.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, we go you. I don't want to go down too much of a of a um uh of a rabbit hole here. I I I I will just say though that colorblind casting doesn't always work for me as much as it should. Um and I I would separate um uh sort of Greek drama and Shakespeare, which I have no problems at all with colorblind casting. But when if you do like like a Jane Austen or Jane Austen-esque um drama with colorblind casting, I I trip over that because I just there you know, there were it just doesn't it doesn't read true to me and it's not honest for that uh for that period. And that's probably more my fault than the filmmakers' fault. But I I just I I just it takes me out out of it. You know, there was still um there was still slavery in the 18th century in in uh not in Britain necessarily, but you know, there were it weren't um people of color who were you know um British uh aristocracy or or upper class. So I just it I I I don't uh trip I trip over it the way I think Mike Sheldon probably don't. Um I think it's different if it's further away and it's more abstract. The society depicted is more abstract to us. Does that make I you may have a different a different reaction than I do to that, you know.
SPEAKER_00I think it's fair or something, you know. I I I think it's fair. I mean, I I it and I think I you have to attribute some of that to our generation. We're used to seeing things appear a certain way, and now we're talking about things like gender and race really being human projections. Um, they're they're sort of human inventions, and that's I think how your children and my child and a lot of people who like Christopher Nolan, that's how they view the world right now. It's not they don't they they don't hesitate, and they're it's different for boomers to learn from that, I would say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I I I agree. And as I as I'm as I said, I it's my fault more than but but I but to me it's easier with a with a you know a Greek fable or you know uh Shakespearean fable. Um but once the closer we get to to knowing more about how society um was operated in like the 18th century, say uh I find I just trip over it. And that's probably my my failing, but uh no problem with it whatsoever in um in the Odyssey. I mean it works, it works to its favor in the Odyssey, I think. Um without being in your face about it. It's you know it's it's more in the people who object to it, it's very much in their faces, I guess. Uh otherwise it just feels much more organic to use an annoying word, I guess, or natural. Is that fair?
SPEAKER_00Just don't use the word propulsive again.
SPEAKER_02Yes, well, all right.
SPEAKER_00So I would say it was propulsive.
SPEAKER_02The film was propulsive. I'll try, I'll try to keep that word under wrap. Let's let's go to let's go to headquakes. Do you have a headquake this week?
SPEAKER_00Oh, wait, I have to talk, I have some quibbles.
SPEAKER_02Oh no, you haven't discussed your quibbles yet?
SPEAKER_00These are about some of the details, and one of the details I loved, I love John Leguizamo. And who did he play?
SPEAKER_02I couldn't figure out who he was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was he was the blind, loyal servant read slave of Odysseus, the aged man who can't see, and who has an ancient dog with him.
SPEAKER_02And part of the story is that old? I couldn't believe that would he looked. I thought that was um then it's someone else.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well, he was good. He was great. Um, and but you know, there's an element in the story that appears it's a it's a true true part of the Odyssey, is that and it it was a great way for the filmmaker to that where Tom Holland could reveal it could reveal that Tom Holl that sorry Matt Damon was the Odysseus was his father and still alive, is we see the reaction of the aging dog recognizing Odysseus, the tail wagging until it goes still and dies. And that's that worked on the Odyssey, and it was also a feature in a film called The Return with Ray Fines as Odysseus, and that and unlike the Odyssey, the return is focused only on Odysseus's uh washing up on the shores of Ithaca and taking back his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02I didn't realize the dog was from uh was actually uh from the Odyssey itself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the other element I really loved was um it was an audio element, and it was when Odysseus would use his bow, he would pull the string and make it thrum consistently, so that when we have the final confrontation with the suitors, and we see him we see him pierce the aperture between all of the maxes and are we giving away a lot uh bringing the bow. Well, uh, you know what? Uh it's a pretty obvious ending. I mean, everyone knows how it's going to end, which is part of the the beauty of the filmmaking. We know how it's going to end, unless you haven't read the Odyssey. Uh so I I thought that that audio, that audio element of the thrum. Yeah, by the time he gets to Ithaca and we hear it, you're you've you're anticipating it and it feels good.
SPEAKER_02But those aren't quibbles. Where are your quibbles?
SPEAKER_00Well, here are the quibbles. Um he carries two talismen with him. One is a gift from Penelope, and it's a it's a rod-shaped black statue of Athena. And he also carries a chit. Uh it's a cylindrical, same size as that image of Athena. That's that's little sculpture. It represents um a ballot. He had recruited people for the trip to the Trojan War through ballot. Elliot Page as a young Synon, S-I-N-O-N, takes the ballot, and Tinuous cheats to avoid the war, and he carries both of these objects. I couldn't tell them apart. Maybe it's these baby boomer eyes of mine, but I could tell them apart.
SPEAKER_02They look completely different. First of all, the the the the little statuesque that Penelope gives um Odysseus is is gold, it's not black. There are different colors.
SPEAKER_00Are you colorblind? I think it I think it got smudged during the 20-year journey. Maybe that's well, he they looked the same to me. I couldn't pick them out. I'm like, there's this talys man, and there's tallies man. This one.
SPEAKER_02Well, I didn't that's a weird quibble. I didn't my eyesight's no better than yours, and I could tell them apart. Is it what other quibbles? Let's hear some more my main quibble is conceptual quibbles.
SPEAKER_00I I I loved it through the end, and I I think that the final confrontation with the suitors, that action sequence was just not great. It looked like a barroom brawl. I chaotic that chaotic, and uh and Robert Pattinson sounded like such a trite villain. Get them more weapons, don't let them go.
SPEAKER_02I agree with that, Quibble. I thought that uh that fight scene I'd seen before so many times. I mean, there was almost everything in the film before that I hadn't seen before, and that fight I had seen many times, and I thought that could have been uh more interesting.
SPEAKER_00I thought it was done better in the movie Shane. Uh some certain you know, all these westerns, sometimes you know, the stranger rides into town and he's mysterious, but he's at heart, he's good, and there's always a confrontation. I I thought it was done better in the film Shane.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's cathartic.
SPEAKER_00You really wanna if you really want to stay in the sword and sandal tradition, I think that the the Ray Fine, the 2025 version with Ray Fine, uh that ending is it pretty extraordinary. It's very well shot.
SPEAKER_02What's what's that film called again?
SPEAKER_00The Return.
SPEAKER_02The Return. All right, I'm the big Ray Fine's fan, so I'll I'll seek that one out. But I I think that last um action sequence went on uh much too long and was a scene, is it could have been borrowed from so many other films, recent films. So I was a bit disappointed in that, uh cathartic as it as it may be. But yes, I agree. I I agree with that quibble. Any more quibbles? That's those are my quibbles. That's it. Okay, all right, all right. Well, I'm with you. I I'm not I I'm not even sure if I like the film more than you did at this point. Is that possible? Well, you you liked it, you want to see it again.
SPEAKER_00I I I will go again. You know what? I I'm not like you. You you have a you have a way of rapidly absorbing culture and and formulating opinion.
SPEAKER_02I need to marinate a few days, like uh, you know, like a well, uh well, get back to me in four days, and maybe I'll hate it.
SPEAKER_00I don't think you will.
SPEAKER_02No, I don't think I will either, but but it's not like uh but I I sometimes rethink um initial initial impression. I don't think I'll rethink this initial impression. I think this uh this is a very impressionable film. Um, but I sometimes um yeah, can double down on uh if I'm oh I I often give films the benefit of the of the doubt. And I I have re-watched films that I did not like to see if maybe I was wrong, and I really, I really, really find that I am. I usually confirm my initial impression, not always, uh I have to give it a think to a film that changed my mind, but but usually I find I'm pretty solid in my initial reactions to a film. So I think it'll stay positive on the Odyssey.
SPEAKER_00You know, you're you know what you're like? Your opinions, you're you're like a libertarian, you're always consistent.
SPEAKER_02Um well, I I've never been compared to a libertarian before, and I don't know how to take that. Um, yeah, that's the one thing we can possibly maybe like about libertarians is at least they're consistent, even if they're wrong.
SPEAKER_00Is that fair? Sure. I mean, I you know, I you can depend on a libertarian to be, you know, pro-drugs and open markets. Um, and maybe we have problems with that, but I can always depend on you to have a consistent opinion about work of art of some kind. Um, headquakes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, all right. Well, my headquarters, I'll be very quick about this one. I was at they went to the Tate Britain. This is a this is a London headquake. I was at the Tate Britain yesterday, and I went to the Whistler, the Whistler exhibit, James McNeil Whistler. I've always been a big fan of his. And the one thing I was wondering if they how was how were they bring in the the Peacock Room? And uh that's always fascinated me. The Peacock Room was a room that um Whistler created for his wealthiest um patron, uh Frederick Leland, here in London. And uh Leland was uh out of town when Whistler was doing all the work and running up the bills and was outraged with how much his dining room had been uh changed uh without his permission. And uh he severed all connections with uh with um with Whistler after that. It's a stunningly beautiful room, and uh Whistler painted peacocks on the wall, and it was to showcase Leland's ceramic collection. The uh room was sold uh after Leland died to the industrialist and art collector Charles Lang Freer in 1904, and it ended up in the Freer Gallery, a gallery that uh was instigated by Freer, uh mostly Japanese and Asian art, and it's in Washington DC, and you can visit it. I visited a couple of times, and the Peacock room is there, it's immersive. You walk into it and you feel like you're walking into Whistler's Mind almost from the from the late 19th century. But in the exhibit here, the tape written, they recreated it using uh photographic techniques that probably weren't even around 10 years ago. So they photographed the interior of the room that's in Washington, DC, and they recreated it in the in the um in the exhibit, and you walk into it, and and you know, you don't you don't know you have to walk right up to the wall to see that it that it's flat because there are these the these shelves with all these uh ceramics on it, and you feel like you're in the room. It was very well done. So that's my headquake recommendation to anyone who is in the London area um through the fall. It's the uh whistler whistler exhibit.
SPEAKER_01So highbrow. Wow, I don't know this eyebrow.
SPEAKER_00So I guess I have to match it with a lowbrow headquake. I was out at um my local cafe and I saw the bartender serve a Miller High Life, pour out some of it, and pour in um an aperativo called Aperol and a dash of lemon. And I said, uh what's that? And that's called a spaghetti. Why? Why a spaghetti? It's named after a character from an adult swim show that carries swim show? Swing wheel.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh, the Tim and Eric Awesome show, great job. And that character is called Spaghet, who is a prankster and always has marinara sauce on his mouth. Uh, so it's you know, this is sort of a poor man's aperitivo, which is you know, a parit uh or Aperol Spritz is you know a very sort of highbrow kind of drink. Oh, he tried it. Did he try it? Poor man's version. You know, I'm such a snob, I don't drink Miller High Life.
SPEAKER_02So I I Oh, happy I we want to hear how to taste like. Well, I'll I'll I'll I'll put that on my list. All right. Now you don't have to, but it just it would have been nice if you could report it that it tasted like like I don't know, uh apricots or something. And had a nutty peanut buttery kind of flavor to it. That was totally surprising. A little like chicken too. It tastes like chicken. Who wants who doesn't want a beer that tastes like chicken?
SPEAKER_00Wow, that's something something someone's gonna invent that. Vegetarians would like that, wouldn't they? Like their analog vegetarian chicken meal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because vegetarians can drink beer, I guess, uh without uh fearing that there's any meat in it. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00Well, isn't there yeast in it? Yeah, but that's not meat. I know, but it's a living creature.
SPEAKER_02Oh gosh, all right. That could be your next vegans can't drink beer, I think. Maybe they poor vegans, they have such a circum circumscribed life. Well, um, should we should we wrap it up? I think should we be sending people back to the cinema? And here's a good one to go back for. Um, so at that, I am JB Miller in London.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Jim Jelamis here in Brooklyn, New York.
unknownThanks.
SPEAKER_00Bye bye.