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Paul Thomas Anderson vs. Ryan Coogler: The Best Director Showdown · Yeah Buddy! Podcast

0:46
Yes, yes, yes. What's going on, world? It's your man, Buddy Rambo.
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We are back at each other with another episode of the Yeah Buddy Podcast.
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You know how we do like every episode. If you're our returning guests,
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thank you for tuning back in. And if this is your first time, tune it in.
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How we do every episode is I bring one of my friends from the entertainment business in.
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We sit down, chop it up, talk about what's going on in the entertainment business
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and what we got going on in our respective journeys here in acting,
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comedy, filmmaking, whatever it may be.
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This episode, like I said, we continue the one buddy after another journey as
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we go through and follow one battle after another as it goes through the awards ceremony season.
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Last episode, we talked about Best Picture.
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This episode, we're going to go and dive into Best Directors.
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But we can't do that without, of course, our co-host that's been along this
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journey with us, Mr. Brandon Larson. Brandon, how you doing, man?
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Hey, I'm doing great. I hope everybody's doing great out there too I appreciate
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you guys tuning in Yes sir So last episode we talked about best picture we felt
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about where we felt one battle.
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After another fell on that scale
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of from those 10 films this time
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now best director best director is different
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than best picture because now we get to the individual categories now it's
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down to five five directors so
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who do you think well let's go down the list of
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the best directors nominees yeah I can give
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you that absolutely so you've got Paul Thomas Anderson one battle after another
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Ryan Coogler Sinners you've got Chloe Zhao for Hamnet Josh Safdie for Marty
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Supreme and then Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value,
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Your question was who I would like to see win.
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Personally, I think Paul Thomas Anderson is the guy.
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I think he's got to be the guy. I mean, he's had 14 Oscar nominations since
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1997, and he hasn't won a single Oscar.
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So I think if anything would mean
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a lot to him is to win that Best Director category
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because to win
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best director is like the
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whole idea of you know
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you your leadership you you
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have a vision for the film so i think that that would be meaningful don't you
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think that would be something that he would relish in this moment yeah i think
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we talked about that kind of like the whole this whole series tracking the film that this movie,
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was basically made for him to win the best director award especially when you
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look at him putting 20 years experience into it this is his award right here to lose,
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But I don't really see that happening.
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But I wouldn't be surprised with seeing it. I don't really see a surprise upset.
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Like if we're talking about maybe coming from Sinners, I probably was able to
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catch up with the other films that nominated for Best Director.
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So yeah, I definitely see that probably being his award to lose.
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Yeah, and it's going to be a tight competition because all of these directors
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who are listed that are all strong contenders for this award.
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I mean, Chloe Zhao has already won two Oscars.
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All of the other contenders have not won an Oscar.
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But I think the real question here is, do you give the Oscar to somebody for
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their whole body of work or do you give it for this one film?
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Are you judging based on the one film
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because i think if you're judging it on the
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one film this is stiff competition because ryan
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coogler did a phenomenal job directing and
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he deserves to win right yeah like no question to me that ryan coogler doesn't
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deserve to win not only for best director but also best writing oh yeah so for
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me i would like to see ryan coogler take it down for one of these.
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If it's not best director, I think he should win for best writing.
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No, I like that input how you said whether, and this is why I feel that if it
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is Paul Thomas Anderson is to lose is if the voters do tend to,
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their votes sway that way is, okay, we're just going to give them a legacy or
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like a longevity Oscar, kind of like how they did with Leonardo DiCaprio with
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the Revenant or whatever.
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But if they was to really go back and just, like I said, who directed the best picture this year,
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stylistically wise, like cinematography wise, being able to tell the story cohesively
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to where the sound matches with the story, the story matches with the editing,
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and all that type of stuff, that's why I say I would give it to Riot Kugler.
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I would say necessarily The upset because there's
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no upset In this category but Like I
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said just business wise You could tell that
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Warner Brothers Put a lot of effort into making sure that this was
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The year that Paul Thomas Anderson won best Director I think Paul Thomas Anderson
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is going to win for Best director point blank the guys Got 14 nominations And
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I broke it down from Writing he's won He's had six nominations for Screenplay Alone,
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four nominations for Director, and four Oscar nominations for Best Pictures.
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So you total that up to 14. He's been doing this for three decades nearly, right?
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He also won for Golden Globes.
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So he won for his writing and directing in the Golden Globes.
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So I think he's got a strong case for his body of work, but also,
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also for this film, particularly because I think that one battle after another had strong direction.
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Clear vision, right? No question.
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Same with Ryan Coogler though. Same with all of these individuals.
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I don't think there's anybody that's not deserving of.
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Whether you didn't like Marty Supreme or not, I think the direction was good.
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I would have liked to have seen
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Benicio Del Toro, Guillermo Del Toro from Frankenstein, maybe get a nod.
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But he's also won Oscars, too.
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We can dive into that later in the podcast episode. but let's make a reminder
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that of like, you know, maybe snubs directors that we thought should have been
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nominated or could have possibly been deserving of a nomination, but did it.
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But yeah, I mean, we can talk more about Paul Thomas Anderson,
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you know, and his body of work, you know, from Magnolia to there will be blood.
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What would you say? What was your favorite Paul Thomas Anderson film?
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If you were to say there was a standout for you.
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Oh, honestly, So I think the only one that I have seen is Boogie Nights.
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Okay. For me, it was There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis.
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I thought that was his strongest, and he was nominated heavily for Oscars for
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that. And I thought that that was probably his time to win.
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And so looking at this film now, do you see one battle after another for him
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being this potential? Like, do you feel like this is his moment to win something?
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Oh, yeah, I think that's what I think that's how it's all going to play out.
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It's just the opportunity for him to actually just be able to be on that stage, give that award.
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I mean, give that accepted speech, that whole spill, you know,
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his chance for him to be celebrated.
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That's just that's just that's just plain and simple. I feel like that's just
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how it's going to play out when it comes to the other films, though. So,
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I could see why it would, why it would, why it would be favored while the other
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was outside of sinners, maybe like if we're going like with Marty Supreme and
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stuff like that, like, you know, you could point out that the direction was so good that like.
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Like, damn, like these characters are really unlikable. You know what I'm saying?
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Or the, or, you know, the direction with sentimental value. Cause I was trying
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to, I was trying to watch that earlier.
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And I didn't realize that But it was, like I said, almost like a foreign language
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film or whatever. React that was subtitles.
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I was like, I downloaded or streamed the wrong movie. I was like,
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what the hell is this? I was like, I'm all bad.
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And then I just saw, that was a movie. Some movies that you kind of like,
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there's movies that you want to watch.
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And then there's another movie that you have to pay attention to watch.
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I had to pay attention to watch that movie just because it kept switching out
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in different languages and shit.
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Like that i was like oh my gosh oh for
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sure yeah it's way and then you're paying
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attention to the subtitles more than the actual film like
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you're reading it so you have to do this kind of back and forth with your eyes
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where you're watching the movie but you're still trying to pay attention to
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what they're saying so i feel you on that and but but overall what did you think
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of this newer So we've got some newer directors.
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Joachim Trierer is the one we're talking about for sentimental value.
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This is a younger director as, you know, all of these individuals are coming
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out with a few feature films within the last five years. Um.
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So, how did you think he did? Because I think he's somebody that could be somebody that's up and coming.
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How old was he? Because I don't know how old he was, but for him to be able
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to capture the relationship, like, father-daughter, stuff like that.
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If he wasn't like an older guy or something like that, then I applaud him even
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more for being able to capture those emotions.
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He's around our age, the director for this film.
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Also, Ryan Coogler's around our age.
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You've got these younger directors who've got strong visions,
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and they are just now starting.
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With Ryan Coogler, I remember Fruitvale Station was the first film that I remember.
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What was your first impression?
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I worked on Fruitvale Station my name is in the credits at Fruitvale Station
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my name is in the credits at Fruitvale Station oh wow that's awesome yeah yeah yeah.
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From a bird's eye view see Michael Michael B.
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Jordan and Ryan Coogler work together and stuff like that so that's um that's
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experience just being able to sit back and kind of just like watch two people be in control.
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The chemistry content wasn't there, not at the point where it is now,
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but you could definitely see.
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How we say Spike Lee and Denzel type.
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You could definitely get that feeling on the set that they definitely had something.
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Yeah, and from there, because that's like, I feel like that was his first,
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would you say that that was Ryan Coogler's breakout film?
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Like that put him on the map? Oh, that was the movie that shot both of them into the mainstream.
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And that's also something that's pretty cool to see, too, just seeing two people
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be so down to earth, just being about the work and being super professional.
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And then a year later...
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They were on the cover of like entertainment tonight or entertainment weekly
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and all these other different types of magazines and, and, and whatnot and all this type of stuff.
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So just be, just even just being able to see that, just see if people just careers just skyrocket.
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Cause when people say like, it just, it just happens like that. It just happens.
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You know, Michael B. Jordan had been bubbling for a while and stuff like that,
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but you know, should have to that mainstream to, to sit there and kind of,
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Like I said, be able to watch it from a bird's eye view. Yeah, it's crazy.
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Yeah. And I mean, this wasn't that long ago. I mean, this was in 2021, roughly.
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And so you've got three Oscar nominations for Ryan Coogler for Sinners Alone.
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He had two previous nominations.
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One was for Best Picture, Judas and the Black Messiah.
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And he also had a nomination for
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best music written original song
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and it was lift me up from black
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panther wakanda forever so yeah
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i think rihanna rihanna did that song that i think um
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judas has a black beside i think he produced that one
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but it's saying here that he got nominated for
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best music written so i
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found that to be interesting that that ryan
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coogler had that nomination for that interesting so
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in total he's had five oscar nominations since 2021 not bad for five years right
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like so and sinners clearly is i would say his best work wouldn't you agree
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like If you total all of his, I've seen most of his films.
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And so out of everything I've seen, Sinners was his strongest.
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Yeah, and he has pretty strong catalog.
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It kind of got going back to when he had got the deal for Sinners was announced,
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the Steelers, let it keep the franchise rights in.
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I was all like, I was like, he's probably the only director outside of Christopher
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Nolan that has the track record to demand that type of deal.
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You know, because, you know, Fruitvale Station won all types of awards at Sundance.
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And then his first four like he revived the rocky franchise
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yeah absolutely he he did then black panther of course we all know what happened
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with black panther so even just his catalog even when he was you know black
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panther 2 and all these other side products that he's been able to do like yeah
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he he's probably the only director.
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That could probably demand that type of studio deal. I just feel like this is
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also Ryan Coogler's time to shine in the Oscars.
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I feel like he's going to take down one or two Oscars in this.
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He's going to. And I really feel that way. And I think that he's,
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for me, it's between Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler for me at this point.
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How do you feel about that? Yeah.
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It goes back to how you were saying, And I know it's like with these being like
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younger directors that are being nominated compared to with Paul Thomas Anderson.
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I mean, shoot, this might be Paul Thomas Anderson's last chance to win a Best
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Director award. I think so.
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All these other directors like Raya Coogler, the Safdie, Chloe Zhao,
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they ain't going nowhere.
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Their filmography is about to just grow. and Chloe
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Zhao she's already won for best director she's
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she's already won for best picture I
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got to check out her work in Nomadland so
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I really want to check that out but I did watch what she did for Hamnet and
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I was extremely impressed by her directing and I think that she She has a strong
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vision and she also makes a case as why she's nominated right now.
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And so I can't take anything away from her vision, what she was able to make
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me feel during the course of watching this film, Hamnet.
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I thought it was a strong film. It's a contender to win top three,
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top four films this year.
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And she makes a strong case for me.
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Mm-hmm. If I said, Hamlet, that's the one I'm going to have to go back and re-watch
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because I did, I said, I watched that one kind of late at night.
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But, no disagreements here because I even said, I think I believe when the Golden
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Globes was announced that it had won Best Drama, I think it was that,
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that's going to be one of those that, because they, just like with all these other pictures, man.
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They did their homework as far as like campaigning and what it takes to win
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an Oscar and everything like that.
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It's really going to come down to how the Academy chose us to vote.
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And one thing I noticed is that something that happened different this year
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is usually the Golden Globes is kind of a precursor to the Oscars and even like
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the Actors Awards to some degree, but not really this year.
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You know, they kind of, what they have in Delroy, Lindo being Oscar nominated,
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Guillermo Del Toro being left off. Right.
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It's very interesting to see how the Academy will choose to vote.
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It's kind of like they're just doing their own thing this year rather than just
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following what everybody else is doing.
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Yeah, and I think, you know, talking about more about this Josh Safdie,
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you know, we both watched Uncut Gems.
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If you kind of pair up those two films that he's directed, Marty Supreme and
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Uncut Gems are very similar films. It's similar structure.
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It's got this sport. I mean, for me, I liked
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Uncut Gems better just because I believed
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it more and I felt like kevin garnett really helped
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support that film whereas this you've
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got timothy chalamet having to
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be the athlete right for
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ping pong and i just i don't
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know i you know this wasn't really one of my favorite films
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but i'm trying to think in terms of the direction
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of the film and i think it was strong direction
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I don't think it was bad direction I just I wasn't a fan of the film and so
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you're trying to separate those two items when you're thinking about this critically
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and I guess my question for you would be do you think that,
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Josh Safdie was you know a credible nominee yeah I think so just because.
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Directing-wise, he did a really good job directing a movie that I didn't want to watch.
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He did a really good job at directing and guiding these characters that I did
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not like. I was like, I can't really get along with these characters.
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But I'm still sitting back here watching the whole movie. I'm watching the story
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unfold, see how it's played out.
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Even if I was sitting back and was like, man, I really don't want to see this main character win.
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Sit it back, watch it. And that's what I say he's really good at as a director
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is he's really good at making you sit back and invest your time emotionally
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into these unlikable assholes.
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People who, and I think to some degree we're like that kind of like in real
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life, you know what I'm saying?
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Where there could be all these sort of red flags about somebody,
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but you still don't really care.
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You're still just going to kind of invest your time in that person until they
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screw you over. Then you're like, ah, damn it, I'll do it.
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I knew it all along, but I didn't trust my guy. For sure, for sure.
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Everybody knew at the end of Uncut Jim's AFSL was going to get shot in the head.
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We all knew it was coming. We knew it was coming for him. We were just surprised when it happened.
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Right, right. Or you were hoping that maybe it wouldn't happen to some extent,
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but you weren't really surprised to see that it happened. Yeah. No, I hear you.
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Yeah i'm just i'm curious what you think in terms
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of like ranking these directors you know
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who you feel was the strongest i think i
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kind of heard you say ryan coogler was the
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strongest for you is that right yeah like
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i said just that jukebox scene that jukebox scene alone i feel directing that
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that scene i'll i'll go back watch the behind the scenes if that was like a
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one take or whatever like I'll tell you when they do the tell the story of music
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and blues how it's all connected like just that scene alone I'm like should win.
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Best director ward just because being able
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to just i feel just being able to tell just to be able to
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tell a story from that standpoint like he able
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to like we're telling a story within
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the movie it is still at its all just flow and i was like yeah that scene alone
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i was like what i i think should win him best director we're just talking about
22:58
comparing movies yeah i agree with you wholeheartedly I think that Ryan Coogler
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was the strongest director this year.
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I would also say that Paul Thomas Anderson did an awesome job.
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I'm not going to knock him for anything that he did, but I just think that it's tough, right?
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Because there's that political aspect that we talked about where it's like,
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do we judge somebody on their body of work or are we judging them on this one film alone?
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If I'm judging it on the one film alone, the one film alone, I'm going to,
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I got to go with Ryan Coogler. And one thing as a filmmaker,
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as a filmmaker, I'm always going to lean into the person that's creating something
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original rather as opposed to somebody that's, you know.
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An adapted screen player, you know, some other story like, like sinners was a rich is legit sucker.
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That was just a thought in his head and he was able to turn it into this.
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Whereas one battle after another was an idea that he read and said,
24:10
okay, I could turn this into this.
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Exactly. Yeah, you're exactly right. And then, you know, looking at these three
24:18
other directors who are younger as well, they've got so much talent too.
24:25
Like there's no denying that, that we're going to see more films from them.
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You've got somebody like Chloe Zhao, who's won already.
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And here she is nominated again. So she's going to be a contender.
24:37
It seems like every year, if she's, if she's, you know, coming out with a new
24:41
film every year or every two years, I mean, we're going to keep hearing from
24:45
her. Like she's not going away.
24:48
She's at that point. Yeah. She's at the point to where every,
24:51
every movie she puts out, she's probably going to be nominated for best director.
24:55
Oh, absolutely, because I think you can tell in her level of detail.
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And I think this was interesting, too, that a lot of directors also edit their films.
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What do you think of a director being able to do both?
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Like, would you give them more props if they were able to do both,
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or do you think that they should just stick to one thing?
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I think if they could do it.
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Hats off to them because it's just making sure and reassure that the story that
25:29
you want to be told is being told.
25:31
So if you know how to do it and can do it, hats off to you.
25:37
But then I also feel that in the post-production process, that's where collaboration
25:44
and input also really comes into play too.
25:47
Because you might want to get somebody else's opinion as far as which take works best here.
25:53
It's almost like having somebody review your movie before it's actually made.
26:00
Somebody to give you insight and input.
26:03
I also think it's important, too, if somebody also produced the film while directing
26:08
it, which would be, that's a lot of work on somebody.
26:12
But with that said, you have more creative control.
26:17
As a producer. Like if we think of the chain of command, who really has the
26:22
control in making a movie?
26:26
All the way up until you get onto the film set, I would say the producer.
26:29
But once you're on the set, then we're talking the director.
26:33
But then after that, that's all back on the hands of the producer.
26:38
Because pre-production, you need the producer to actually produce the movie.
26:43
And then post-production, you need the producer to make sure that movie gets seen.
26:47
And what if the producer doesn't like the job that the director is doing?
26:51
At any time that director can be fired.
26:57
Right? So I know you've had some... Oh, go ahead.
27:02
I'll say, and that depends too. You know, I'll say maybe the director,
27:04
you don't want to just have any type of confrontation anyways,
27:08
but it could be a situation to where the producer could be the problem.
27:13
Yeah, absolutely. It could be the producer that is the problem.
27:18
And that even when that's an issue too, that's still because
27:21
of problem now too because as as the director
27:24
you you and this
27:27
is why it's important to get paid as an artist you know say get paid up front
27:32
because now as a director you have a producer that's basically basically holding
27:39
your your career for hostage yeah because you know as a director you,
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You may only do, depending on the project, two projects a year.
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Actors, if we get on a roll, we get on a hot streak, we could keep on working,
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keep on working, keep on working.
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But director, man, you working on maybe two projects a year,
28:01
somebody holding up your thing, man, you'd hold me up for the next six years probably.
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These are all great points. Now, you have had experience directing, buddy.
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In your experiences what do
28:14
you think made a good director what kind of takeaways did you have what did
28:20
you learn this type of thing that you can apply when we're thinking about these
28:25
other directors like Ryan Coogler who are at the top of their games what does
28:31
a director got to do to get there.
28:35
I'm not sure because I mean I would
28:38
classify myself as somebody that's directed something but
28:41
i wouldn't classify myself as a director but
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what i would take away from what i learned from directing is that
28:48
well one i'm a i'm a i'm an actor's director
28:51
so i i know going in i'm
28:54
a lean my strong suit is being
28:58
able to get the best out of my actors but
29:02
i don't know shit about lighting or sound or
29:05
anything like that you know i was like so right that's where
29:08
that's where the collaboration process as
29:11
well is i'm trying to make sure that my ad
29:14
or if i want to have like a co-director with me that's something that i know
29:18
that they could take care of like i'll let you handle the lighting you know
29:22
you talk to the sound department whatever cameras all this type of stuff y'all
29:26
can handle that i just want to make sure that me personally that i i know i
29:30
can get the best performance out of my actors.
29:35
I think that each director has their strong points, you know,
29:39
and I think with Paul Thomas Anderson, he's got a way to work with his actors.
29:45
He worked really well with all of his actors.
29:48
Clearly, you can see by the performances that we saw and also cinematography,
29:55
like the guy knows a camera really well.
29:58
So he's able to pick the shots and
30:01
there's a lot of discussion in terms
30:05
of what who makes the shot list
30:08
is it the director or is it the dp so
30:11
it kind of goes back and forth like who you know and who storyboards and and
30:17
and that so that kind of discussion is going to happen hopefully early in the
30:20
process right for pre-production that you've got to have those things decided
30:25
and and And especially when we're talking about that,
30:29
everybody's collaborating together, right?
30:32
And are we all working towards this vision? Is everybody on the same page?
30:38
And I think what you saw with all of these films was that that was the case, right?
30:46
Like these are all decent films, right?
30:51
Stellar, the best films of the year. Whether you liked Marty Supreme or not,
30:55
it still was a good movie. It wasn't a bad movie.
31:00
I think it's personal taste, whether you like something or dislike something.
31:05
But I think all of these directors are very much...
31:11
Well, this is well-deserved for each of these five contenders.
31:16
Oh, yeah. Like I said, yeah, everybody's deserving of winning.
31:20
Anybody, like I said, nothing would be considered upset.
31:26
It's just going to come down to old guard versus new guard. Do they want to
31:31
give Paul Thomas Anderson one?
31:33
Because he's really the last director of his era that hasn't really won that best director, Oscar.
31:38
So do they just give him this, and now it's like now it's
31:41
time to usher in this new new generation of
31:45
uh of directors because i mean just like when chloe zell ryan coogler anything
31:51
ryan coogler decides to jump in front of the camera you know i mean behind the
31:55
camera directed producing that's about the academy award nomination same thing
32:01
with the sack he got everything he looked at that dude is probably going to be.
32:05
Academy Award nominated director material.
32:10
I mean, I'll, I'll be interested to see if he can branch out though,
32:13
because we've kind of seen the same thing from him, right?
32:17
Where we've gotten more from Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, and Chloe Zhao.
32:26
All of those three have a body of work where these other two are still.
32:36
Building their repertoire of film and
32:40
i kind of see a lot of similarities with
32:43
josh safty's films you
32:47
know marty supreme and uncut gems are very similar films
32:50
wouldn't you agree like it's and so i'd like to see him direct something else
32:55
that's you know maybe not of the sports vein maybe it's something different
33:01
and and maybe he has already but of what i've seen it's all been similar films,
33:10
no i agree with that and then the director for sentimental value what's what's
33:16
more so what's their kind of their history or their background with directing
33:19
you familiar with yeah yeah yo Joakim Trier is very new.
33:25
Like he's done one film before that in his, he's very good with characters.
33:34
I feel like his, I think he's got a really interesting way, especially with
33:41
the Norwegian roots, right?
33:43
Like he's, he's pulling from his own experience of where he's lived in Norway and in Oslo, Norway,
33:54
and he's creating these worlds that are of that vein.
33:59
I heard him talk in an interview where he spoke about.
34:05
Just the tradition, the Norwegian traditions, which are different from American types.
34:13
So I found that to be interesting in terms of how people are captured on film.
34:21
And I felt that, I think that's what made Sentimental Value so interesting to
34:27
me, was it was this newer world that I wasn't seeing, but also of the film vein.
34:34
But then you have that Norwegian flair that we don't get to see, right?
34:41
Because we're here in the U.S. So we don't really see it much.
34:45
And so I just found it just really...
34:49
Interesting his film and i felt that it was shot well i like the camera movements
34:54
especially those i can speak about the first shots of the film where you're
34:58
kind of seeing this house right and that's where it's going to be filmed and
35:02
so i just very much enjoyed where the camera was placed.
35:08
The performances that we saw from everyone renate
35:12
reinsvey was a standout stellins garzard
35:16
all these actors that you've seen that
35:20
was his daughter right yes the the main actress
35:23
renate rhines vey is the
35:26
main lady in the film and i
35:30
thought she did a stellar job you got l fanning dakota
35:34
fanning's sister with a nice role
35:37
that she plays an american in the film and so
35:41
i felt like that added another layer and
35:44
i felt like that added more tension so
35:47
he also writes his films too so i think that also gives him more props too like
35:55
if you've written the film you've directed the film you're fully invested in
36:00
this film and you clearly i think when you write the film you might.
36:08
Potentially be candidate to direct a film, wouldn't you say?
36:12
Like, if you've taken the chance to spend all this time developing the world,
36:17
who better to know it than the writer?
36:19
Yeah, no, I think that's kind of like the front-end question of how when you
36:24
asked about, you know, if you're directing a project, do you kind of want to edit it?
36:28
That's kind of like the front-end with, we were talking about like being a director,
36:32
is if you're a writer, you know.
36:36
Do you want to, that's the next step now in making your movie because,
36:43
like I say, throughout making the movie, making a process, you make,
36:46
I used to say three movies, but now I feel like there's four.
36:50
You make four movies throughout the process of making, you know,
36:53
one movie. There's the movie that's in your head.
36:56
Now there's the movie that you write down.
36:59
And that's, you know, whether it's the script, you know, the screenplay,
37:03
the budget, you know, anything that you really got to put pen to paper to,
37:07
that's part of the writing process of your movie.
37:12
Because that's going to affect now how you actually go out and film the movie.
37:15
And then once you film the movie now there's the movie that you edit and then
37:21
that's the movie that everybody sees so throughout that process you make four
37:26
different movies so when you're writing the movie you gotta really sit down and ask yourself,
37:30
do I trust somebody to to make this movie but you also gotta understand too
37:37
that as director you're not just making a movie you're,
37:43
you're managing a whole bunch of different other people and other different responsibilities.
37:49
And time organization and all that other stuff that goes into it outside the
37:55
fact that oh, I just want to make my movie.
37:58
There's a whole lot of selflessness, selfish selflessness that goes into being a director on a film set.
38:06
Absolutely. And, you know, everybody's coming at you. I've had the opportunity
38:11
to direct one short film.
38:14
And in that experience, I had every department asking me questions and I had to have answers.
38:21
You know rather than you know sure you can delegate
38:24
up to a point but if you're directing
38:27
you've got to have a clear vision you've got to have
38:30
thought about every logistic and
38:33
what could potentially go wrong and also changing
38:37
stuff up i remember you know we had
38:40
this long shot list and we couldn't
38:43
get it all done in a day there's just no way when you're on these bigger sets
38:48
sure there's more time but they still got to make their days right they still
38:52
have to make their days so there's not all this time and you've got to be able
38:59
to work on the fly because stuff happens.
39:02
A bird pooped on a car and we had to wipe off the car that delayed us because
39:09
you know what i mean because of the take before there was no bird poop so stuff
39:16
like that's going to happen on set and You've got to be able to rock and roll and keep it going.
39:20
And I'm sure that all five of these individuals are rocking and rolling with their team.
39:27
Because you and I both have, well, we both witnessed what Paul Thomas Anderson was doing.
39:34
You've gotten to see Ryan Coogler and what he's done on set.
39:39
And so these are the pros. And so I was definitely witnessing greatness when
39:47
I saw Paul Thomas Anderson at work.
39:49
I think the guy is a phenomenal director. I really do.
39:53
And they make it look so simple. They make it look so easy. They make it look
39:58
like they're really not doing anything on set.
40:00
You know, like they're just whispering in somebody's ear.
40:03
And then somebody else goes and runs and tells somebody else to do something.
40:06
And that's it. But like, no, they...
40:08
Yeah, so many different things that they have to manage outside of just trying
40:14
to get a really good shot in.
40:17
So let's talk about some snubs. Is there any directors that you,
40:22
let's say a prize, because everybody who was nominated was deserving of being
40:28
a nomination, but was there anybody up on there that you wish you would have seen get a nomination?
40:33
Yeah, I really felt Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein gave strong direction in that film.
40:42
Personally, I enjoyed every actor's performance in that film.
40:47
I loved the art direction.
40:50
I loved everything about the film.
40:53
There wasn't anything that I didn't like. And so for me, that would be the one
40:58
director that I felt got snubbed in a way.
41:03
But then again, he's had so much success with Pan's Labyrinth.
41:09
He's, he's, you know, the shape of water. He's, he's done so many great films and he's won Oscars.
41:16
So he's, he's, he's achieved everything there is to achieve and everything at
41:22
this point is just icing on the cake for him. But I just felt that Frankenstein was a strong film.
41:29
And I really hope that it wins an award.
41:33
I don't know who I would replace. I guess Josh Safdie I would replace.
41:42
But then again that's a rough choice that they had to make that they could only
41:48
nominate five people and with the five people that they nominated I feel they
41:55
did a fair job the academy is who I'm speaking about I feel that the academy did a fair job,
42:01
But Guillermo, I felt, was well-deserved for a nomination.
42:07
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so none of them really surprised me.
42:12
And yeah, I don't really see anybody getting snubbed. I would say maybe Frankenstein,
42:18
but I could see why they didn't do it.
42:21
But I could say maybe one other snub.
42:25
I'm a butcher's name, but the director for Begonia. Okay. I think that's Milo something.
42:33
That's one of those movies that's just so far out there. I think that people
42:39
didn't really know what to do with it.
42:42
Emma Stone got nominated for Best Actress, but as far as Best Director goes,
42:46
they're like, bro, like, all right.
42:50
We've let you have your fill of weird movies. We're going to give to somebody else now.
42:56
Yeah, and all of these directors, I felt, did a stellar job.
43:02
There wasn't anybody that didn't do a fine job where you could say somebody got snubbed.
43:09
But for me, I still think Ryan Coogler's the strongest, right?
43:15
And then I'd probably put Paul Thomas Anderson next, then Chloe Zhao neck and neck.
43:22
Then I'd put Yoakim Trier, who did Sentimental Value.
43:25
And then I'd put Josh Safdie down at the bottom. If I'm going to rank the five
43:31
right now for you, that would be my ranking.
43:35
And so I think it's a toss-up between Ryan Coogler and PTA. I think PTA is a
43:43
strong director, but in terms of whether he's going to win or not is yet to be decided.
43:50
We don't really know. And if we're speculating, I feel he's got a strong chance.
43:58
And I think the right thing to do would be to give him the win for best director.
44:07
And then I give best writing to Ryan Coogler.
44:11
There are two different categories for writing.
44:17
Right. Yeah. I think I'd have to give Ryan Coogler for best writing though,
44:22
because there was strong writing in that film and as well as the direction.
44:28
So it's like, if you want to, how can we appease everybody? How can everybody
44:33
shine in this? How can everybody get something?
44:36
Yeah, like where it's not all Paul Thomas Anderson or not all Ryan Coogler because
44:43
I think you need to award both.
44:45
Wouldn't you say? I mean, you can't award everybody.
44:49
Can't award everybody. We just got to give it to the person that's the best at this point.
44:54
We stop being cookie cutter about it and we just got to give it to the person.
45:00
Who just had the best for that category.
45:03
I feel Ryan Coogler, best director,
45:07
then stop being a cookie-cutter about it and be like, yeah, you know what,
45:11
Paul Thomas Anderson, you had your chance with There Will Be Blood,
45:14
all these other films, man, but hey, Ryan got you this year,
45:19
bro. It's okay. Don't worry about it.
45:21
You'll get an honorary one. If he does, he's going to get three Oscar nominations because, I mean,
45:29
the only other way that paul thomas anderson would get it is if one battle wins for best picture,
45:38
so i think with ryan coogler getting best picture directing and writing do you
45:45
think that he could take down all three oscars do you think that's a possibility
45:50
or is he going to win two out of three I see him winning,
45:55
two I'd give him two out of three.
46:01
To those i mean one of them be for best original screenplay
46:05
and then for best man
46:09
best picture best because because when you talk about best picture not only
46:15
was it critically equated but it has the box office success to to match it and
46:19
if that plays a big picture if that plays a big picture and you know the they're swaying as far as,
46:28
Best Picture goes, I mean, I could see Ryan Coogler winning Best Picture for
46:33
Sinners and then them giving Paul Thomas Anderson Best Director,
46:38
you know, saying, hey, you directed a really good film.
46:41
Right. But picture-wise, this was not only a sabbatical masterpiece,
46:45
but this was a box office smash.
46:48
Y'all lost us, buddy. You know, Sinners was cool.
46:52
Sinners did us good. Yeah. I think for me, it's like, you're absolutely right.
46:58
When you take an account of the success at the box office too, for sinners,
47:03
you've got to, I think at that point,
47:06
you've got to consider that as a potential for making a decision like this,
47:13
because one battle after another didn't do well at the box office.
47:18
What did it break even? Maybe.
47:20
I don't even think it did that. I mean it
47:23
and so if it didn't do that can we
47:26
really give it best picture because sinners
47:30
was I mean I we both saw it
47:32
in the theaters now let me
47:35
let me ask you this would you went to go see one battle after another if I wasn't
47:41
in it if you weren't an extra would you have ran out to go see that movie as
47:47
opposed to sinners which had a draw because I didn't need much other than the
47:52
premise, and I was like, I want to go see it.
47:54
Oh, Ryan Coogler is directing and wrote it?
47:58
Yeah, I want to go see it, but for Paul Thomas Anderson, you might wait till streaming, right?
48:05
Yeah, because I got the bias, too, because I've worked with both of them,
48:07
though. I work with Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler, so there's that.
48:12
For me, the bias is no, I would not have seen Battle After Another,
48:20
Just as I said, I even did, normally I was like, what about nothing?
48:22
Because I once worked with Regina Hall. Oh, wow.
48:27
Yeah. I was more of a fan of Regina Hall and Wood Harris than Paul Thomas Anderson.
48:33
When people were speaking out about Paul Thomas Anderson, I had no idea who this is.
48:36
I'm trying to see Avon from The Wire, where he at.
48:41
Right, right. And I've been watching Paul Thomas Anderson films since 97.
48:48
So I I've enjoyed
48:51
his body of work and I I I'd
48:54
like to see him win an Oscar you know I I'd
48:58
hate to have him you know show up
49:01
and and not win one right like the guy
49:04
I mean if you're not going to give him best director give
49:07
him best writing for goodness sake I mean he's he's literally
49:10
been nominated six times for best
49:14
writing he's a great writer he knows
49:18
how to write scripts so if anything you got
49:20
to give him something don't you think yeah i'm not trying to i'm not trying
49:24
to be cookie cutter i'm not trying to say that you know that you know but i
49:30
think the guy deserves an oscar and then set him on his way yeah just get it
49:38
i don't mean it like that.
49:40
That's a joke, but no, I think he's an awesome director and I hope he gets one. You know?
49:50
No, yeah, he's going to win something. So, like I said, I feel like he probably
49:54
like I said, it's not going to be upset.
49:56
And we'll probably go back and forth with this all the way up into the Oscars
49:59
about you know, between Ryan Coogler,
50:02
and Paul Thomas Anderson as far as like anything any category they're nominated
50:07
in together it's really just going to be a toss-up going up to the awards season because.
50:13
Yeah, it's just going to be a toss up because there's so many different awards
50:16
that's going to sway, sway everything right now.
50:19
Because I didn't even like it took me like I was wondering why,
50:22
like sentimental value, because I get like the screen actors,
50:25
like the screeners for the actors awards.
50:27
And I was all like, so why the hell isn't sentimental value like even up here, you know?
50:32
And then then that's what I realized that. Oh, because it was filled all the way in Norway.
50:38
And it's, and I'm like, and then even like, it's not even like a foreign language film.
50:43
It's just a film that happens to take place in Norway. So they're like,
50:48
we're just going to speak the link, you know.
50:50
I'm glad you said that because that's got to be a harder road to get to the U.S., right?
50:56
If you're a foreign film and you're trying to sell, like if you're campaigning
51:01
a movie, it's got to be like,
51:04
exceptional it's got to be an outstanding movie for it to hit the united states
51:09
and make people want to see it with the subtitles so i think the oscar is what
51:16
makes people want to go see the movie because would we have heard about this
51:21
film if it wasn't nominated for an oscar.
51:26
At least took over the awards at the golden globes you know until at least until
51:30
i just that awards season came around,
51:33
yeah, I definitely wouldn't have half the movies I probably wouldn't have,
51:37
outside of Sinners, One Battle After Another, maybe F1,
51:43
Frankenstein up to a certain point, then that's about it, really.
51:49
But that's still a lot, though, considering that awards season,
51:53
they don't normally highlight those pop
51:57
culture movies or movies that you know usually award
52:01
season movies are tailored directly for award season it just kind of feels like
52:07
this year especially like i said this year especially they just took a look
52:10
around at what the best movies were that said okay we and each specific genre
52:16
because even the movie every movie is so good but every movie is so different,
52:21
And then you got me thinking about Adam Sumner who passed away, right?
52:27
They're going to recognize him for one battle after another.
52:33
And Paul Thomas Anderson's going to credit him in the work that he did on the film.
52:38
So I think that there's that emotional aspect to when somebody passes away there,
52:45
does that go into that decision to,
52:49
or I would like to know how the Academy makes these decisions.
52:56
You know, do they have a scale?
53:00
Like, do they have a way of grading these movies to be or the director or the
53:06
actor to to grade to be critical about it?
53:12
I think that made it at least a rule to where you could only vote for the movies
53:17
that you actually watch.
53:18
So if you don't watch all the movies, it's kind of like, that's okay,
53:21
but you can't vote for a movie that you haven't watched.
53:25
Yeah, exactly. I mean, that would make the most sense, wouldn't it?
53:28
But but actually, you know, it would be nice to know.
53:32
And I think that that's where like these when if the audience had a say in it
53:37
and they they watched it, it'd be neat to have that kind of people's choice vote.
53:44
But I just be curious to know how the Academy sits down and are they having
53:50
discussions every day about it or do they already know?
53:54
Hmm. I don't know. I think it comes up to,
53:57
I know how we do it with SAG is there's a group of people who,
54:06
I don't think they do it all year round,
54:09
but once it gets to a certain point in the timeline of announcing the nominees or whatever,
54:15
there's a group of people that they sit down and they vote for the list of nominees.
54:22
And so now however long that may take if it's a couple months or whatever it
54:27
may be there's a group of people that sit down and they vote for the nominees
54:32
and then once they vote for the nominees,
54:34
then they send it out to all the people that are eligible to actually vote so
54:38
for us it'd be SAC members for the academy it'd be the members of the academy.
54:44
Then we sit back and we vote on the nominees for the actual winner okay So that whole entire process,
54:53
as far as getting the nominations and the voting, we have about...
55:00
From the beginning of January, like the middle of January to the end of February
55:04
to vote for us to like watch everything and then put in our vote.
55:10
So that's maybe about like two months just for like voting for the nominee.
55:15
So then I could imagine maybe another three months just to figure out who the
55:20
nominees are actually going to be.
55:22
And then a month leading up to once we do our final voting for who the winner
55:30
is, it's like a month down the road is when no, not even a month down the road,
55:34
like a week down the road is when we have the award show.
55:38
So I think overall it might be about a four to five month process.
55:44
Wow. Yeah, that's yeah,
55:48
it's so much time that goes into all
55:50
of this and then to think of all the
55:53
preparation that goes into award season all
55:57
the logistics that people are having to do for this
56:00
but i'm really excited to see who's going to win and i do think it's going to
56:05
be between ryan kugler and paul thomas sanderson for best director i think those
56:10
two are neck and neck for me that's just my opinion no that's we're spot on
56:17
with that Yeah, we're spot on with that.
56:19
I'm excited to see what's going to happen, though, because if you're judging
56:24
from the body of work, you've got to give it to Paul Thomas Anderson just because he's done more.
56:31
But that's not to take away from anything that Ryan Coogler has done.
56:36
I mean, but you could also look at the body of work and be like,
56:40
Ryan Coogler has a smaller sample of work, but you could almost argue that he's
56:44
a more successful director with a smaller body of work.
56:48
I mean, he's got a billion-dollar movie, too.
56:51
He's got two different billion-dollar movies to his name.
56:55
Yeah, so then, like I said, then that can't be it either, right?
56:59
So what is it? If it's hands down who was the best director,
57:05
we both said Ryan Coogler.
57:08
We both said that. Yeah.
57:10
And I agree.
57:13
It's like the MJ versus LeBron debate almost. You want to go based off of the
57:17
longevity, or you want to go based off of the impact that was made when they was playing?
57:21
And it's like two billion dollar movies you know and right the impact you know the impact,
57:31
yeah wow yeah this is this
57:34
is going to be something i think it would be
57:37
exciting to see ryan coogler take it down for
57:40
both writing and directing and best picture that would be sign i mean if he
57:46
just took it down and then paul thomas anderson got it for best writing because
57:51
they're not going to be competing against each other in that writing category because,
57:58
those are two separate categories adapted versus original and so they essentially
58:04
could both win an oscar for writing yeah oh yeah i think they'll both those
58:09
are both of theirs to win and then And I said,
58:13
it's just going to come down like that directed, man.
58:18
And maybe this goes back to, I said, with them creating something like Ryan
58:22
Coogler having an original project as opposed to an adapted screenplay.
58:26
You could tell that just being on it from the beginning...
58:32
He really put his foot in that shit. He put his all into making that film.
58:38
And not to say that PTA did it, but just from the seed that sparked everything and took it from there.
58:46
He's like, this film's based off of my uncle as opposed to, I have a film that
58:51
was based off of something that I read.
58:55
The impact is way different. And we both agree that Sinners was a stronger film
59:00
than one battle after another. It, you know, because both had exceptional performances,
59:06
both had excellent directing, both had great writing.
59:09
So it's like, but then Sinners had better music. So it's like...
59:18
I got to give it to Ryan Coogler. So shout out to him.
59:21
Let's give it to the guy from Northern California. That's my vote.
59:25
Yeah, we're going to go with Ryan Coogler. I would not say this is an upset,
59:30
but just from the perspective of one battle after another being filmed up here
59:34
in Sacramento, we're going to technically call this an upset,
59:37
and we're going to go with Ryan Coogler winning for Best Director.
59:40
Let's do it. At the Oscars. That's our vote right there.
59:44
So we'll follow up with that and see how our prediction plays out next episode we'll go into,
59:52
we'll see best actor yeah let's do it best lead actor so next episode we'll
59:58
follow up we'll see who our picks are I think they were best lead actor seeing how Leo,
1:00:05
compares to the other nominees and then we'll just rock from there and stuff
1:00:09
like that so Brandon man you wanted to let people know before we end this episode
1:00:13
I just appreciate everybody tuning in and supporting Buddy and his podcast that's
1:00:19
what it's about so it's an exciting time with the award season and appreciate you guys listening.
1:00:26
Yes sir yes sir I appreciate everybody listening and
1:00:29
tuning in like I said if this is your first time checking
1:00:32
out the Yeah Buddy podcast I hope y'all enjoyed your
1:00:35
time hope y'all be back for the next episode and follow up with all the previous
1:00:39
episodes too man all the previous episodes is just as dope and if this is your
1:00:44
returning friend thank y'all again for tuning in please spread the word go ahead
1:00:48
and subscribe to us on YouTube subscribe to the website follow us Instagram,
1:00:54
my name has been Buddy Rami y'all I'll catch y'all on the next episode deuces.