Latest / Table Read / Featuring: Filmspotting Podcast | The End of Oak Street, plus Tony and Late Fame | #1077

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Featuring: Filmspotting Podcast | The End of Oak Street, plus Tony and Late Fame | #1077 · Table Read

• 0:21
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• 0:45
  Speaker 2: What kind of a show you guys putting on here today?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: You're not interested in art?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: No, Look, we're going to do this thing. We're going
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to have a conversation from Chicago. This is film Spotting.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: I'm Josh Larson and I'm Adam Kempenar.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: I think that our neighborhood, our homes, our host street
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: has moved.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Now the hell is not even possible.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Get out of the run, Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, and dinosaurs.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: That's what you get from the End of Oak Street,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: which opened wide last weekend. It's the latest from it
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: follows director David Robert Mitchell.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: We've got a review, plus the Anthony Bourdain biopick Tony
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and Willem Dafoe in Late Fame. That more ahead on
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: film Spotting.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Film Spotting.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Josh.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: We don't often get into spoiler talk in our main
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: reviews here on the show, but I think the end
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: of Oak Street may demand it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: What say you shocked? I was genuinely shocked at the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: event that I think you're referring to. Did not see
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it coming even even leading up to it, did not
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: think it was going to go that way. And yes,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: not only do I think we need to discuss that,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: but the repercussions, yes, are what I particularly want to
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: ask you about.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: So we'll definitely do that absolutely later in the show.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: After that, the Anthony Bordaine biopick, Tony Late Fame with
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Willem Dafoe, A Magical trip to the Field Dreams with
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: producer Sam. I'll have a little recap of that, and
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: then we'll end the magic quickly by playing Massacre Theater.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: A reminder that Film Spotting is now a video podcast.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: You can watch us talk over at YouTube dot com
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: slash film Spotting.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that way you can track the development of the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: larsen On Film studio. I finally had to lose a kid,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: but gained a home office, which means a dedicated recording space.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: It's pretty generic now, you know, mainly storing extra house plants.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: But we're going to get there, Adam, Well, we'll professionalize
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: it a little bit by little bit as we go.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: To be clear. You know where the kid is. They're
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: just off at school.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. By lost, I mean got rid of.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Up first, the End of Oak Street. Despite having made
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: only four films, I'm not a David Robert Mitchell complete us,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: but I had a hunch that a little bit of
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: research validated. That hunch had to do with the filmmaker's
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: penchant for temporal displacement. About his debut feature, twenty ten's
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: The Myth of the American Sleepover, one reviewer said this,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: no characters have a cell phone or a computer. A
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: boy has an actual world globe in his room. The
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: girls at a sleepover play on a Ouija board, and one
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: girl discovers another girl's been sleeping around by reading her
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: diary in a dresser drawer, not on Facebook. Mitchell, the
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: writer continues, has said he was attempting to make a
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: film that telescoped fifty years of teenage suburban nights into
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: one timeless quilt. Mitchell's breakout twenty fourteen's It Follows is
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: equally elusive. We see wired landlines, old school cathodraid TVs,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: and a mix of cars and clothes from various decades.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Linda I. Young Leu, a faculty member at UMass Boston,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: authored a paper you can find on Academia dot Edu
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: titled out of Time The Uses of Anachronism. In it follows,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: among Leeve's key takeaways, the film's aesthetics invoca blend of
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: past and present, fostering a critique of lake capitalism's consumerism.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: With Under the Silver Lake, Mitchell finally anchors himself to
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: a fixed time, not that it makes us or his
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: protagonist Andrew Garfield Sam feel any more secure. Released in
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: twenty eighteen, we know it takes place in August twenty
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: eleven thanks to the presence of an LA weekly issue
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: dated as such, plus pop culture references and technology appropriate
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: to the era. However, there's also plenty of vintage technology
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: and pop culture ephemera, and Mitchell himself told Deadline dot
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Com it's specifically supposed to be happening in the summer
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: of twenty eleven, although it's not a real summer twenty eleven.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: It's a fantasy, a nightmare version of it. That fantasy
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: nightmer concoction led Bright Wall Dark Room to characterize Silver
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Lake as one of the rare post postmodern noirs with
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: its overt pastiche of the Bernard Hermann school of composing,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: implying that Sam's perspective is heavily filtered through the classic
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: films that seemed to be perpetually playing on any available
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: television right on Q If a few years longer between projects,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: then maybe expected comes the end of Oak Street, arguably
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: an overt pastiche of the Steven Spielberg school of filmmaking,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: set precisely in the summer of nineteen eighty two, the
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: period that saw one of the Maestro's greatest triumphs et
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: What besides, the setting, which includes some time travel back
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty million years, makes it so Spielbergian.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: I don't know. We could start with the giant teeth
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: on the poster dinosaurs. I know Nerdy's second grade Josh,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: who is never tucked too deeply away inside you immediately
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: recognized that the giant scary one was an alvosaurus, not
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: a t rex. You got that right, Josh.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I was just mesmerized by the feathers.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Okay, but let's be honest, Mitchell might have just called
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: this movie Jurassic cul de sac. How about family dysfunction
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: and divorce. Seem to have the idyllic family living on
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: the idyllic block with son Brian, older daughter Audrey played
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: by mild Asses Mazie Stella, and rambunctious but lovable dog Starbuck.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: But Anne Hathaway's Denise is disenchanted and actually contemplating splitting,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: while Ewan McGregor's Gregg is delivering pizzas to make ends
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: meet after being laid off, a reality he's been keeping
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: from the family. Michael Jacchino's sweeping score is undeniably and
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: wonderfully John Williams esque. The way the Platts have to
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: fight off domestic supernatural terror was reminiscent of another eighty
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: two film that Spielberg had his hands in, Poltergeist. I
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: even occasionally had flashbacks to back to the future, and
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: not just because of the time traveling. Spielberg executive produced Future,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: and as the story goes, was Robert Zemeckis's only early supporter.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: The bottom line is there is a lot happening, including
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: copious composition, lens and framing choices, kids on bikes that
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: transport us to a different theater, in a different time,
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: in a different place, watching the work of a different director.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: That different director, of course, made his own movie this year,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Disclosure Day and the End of Oak Street has something
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: else directly in common with it, as well as a touchstone,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: like Close Encounters of the third kind, something that could
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: get lost, admits all the Dino stopping popcorn munching fun
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: a discourse on faith, Josh, This question seems entirely unfair
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: to Mitchell, since I know that a month ago when
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: we named our top five films of the year so far,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: you had Disclosure Day at number one. But tell me,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: is it possible that the End of Oak Street is
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: actually the best Spielberg movie of twenty twenty six.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I see what you're doing here, trying to push my buttons.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Uh huh, I mean, let's not get blasphemous, good sir,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: that's a ridiculous question for me, for the reason you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: just laid out. Yeah, Disclosure Day, it's not my second
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: favorite film of the year. Yes, Teenage Sex and Death,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: but I have not dropped it to the level to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the level of the End of Oak Street, which which
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: we'll get to. What level that is I still, having
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: now seen Disclosure to day twice, I think it's near
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: top tier Spielberg, and by that I mean second tier.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I put it in that group below the masterpieces. If
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the End of Oak Street was a Spielberg movie, and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at where I've ranked all of Spielberg's, I'm
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: afraid I would have it pretty low. I'd have it.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I would call this a low I'd call it a
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: near low tier Spielberg movie. So maybe second from the bottom.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: We're not in you know, hook territory here, but you know,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: things are pretty thin. The family dynamics are pretty thin.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: And there's a key example of that. There's two actually
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we've talked on the show, Adam and the various Spielberg
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: lists we've done. I forget if it was scenes. I
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: mentioned how Spielberg is a master of family meal sequences.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: N Street or the End of Oak Street gives us
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: two of those, A breakfast and a dinner, so perfunctory,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: just laying out the exposition and what we need to
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: know about each character. Nothing like the rich, complicated emotional
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: dynamics that you find in a Spielberg dinner scene, like
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the opening pizza scene from E. T I think the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: characters overall are pretty pretty generic, and the dialogue they're
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: given isn't all that helpful to either. So much exposition here.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: For me, though, the key distinction is that when it
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: comes to the Spielbergian wonder here, I found it to
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: be pretty watery wonder pretty just not crisp, not overwhelming,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: never approaching the transcendent, which is when Spielberg is at
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: his best. I think all the touchdoones you called out
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: are good ones. Didn't think of Poltergeist that You're so
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: right once they're actually in these houses and having to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: defend for themselves from these creatures. What was interesting to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: me about this movie, though, is a different Spielbergian connection,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: a second degree connection, and that's JJ Abrams, who is
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a producer on the End of Oak Street, and I
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: was also thinking as much about Spielberg's films while watching
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the End of Oak Street. I was thinking about Abrams
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Super eight, a movie he directed, a movie I liked
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: quite a bit, set during the same time period, right
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: right up around the same time period, also features a
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: wild mashing of fantasy and reality. That movie, to me,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and I know some people just said it was a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: knockoff of Spielbergian techniques and story narratives. To me, I
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: thought it had it pulsed with a sense of astonishment,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: which is the key for me. For Spielberg, it had
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the excitement of adolescence. It was a group of friends
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: who were the main characters there at the possibility of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the other worldly and Super eight. Those friends were making movies,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: so it was in love with the power of cinema itself.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: It was about the human experience of the fantastic, and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: this is mostly about displaying the fantastic, which can still
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: be fun. But I think what elevates Spielberg and what
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: someone like Abrams was able to tap into with Super
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: eight is focusing on that human experience. This is something
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: that really clarified for me in doing my dissertation that
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I just wrapped up, which Spielberg was a part of,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: and in trying to pin down what is it about
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: his evoking of transcendence, the transcendent experience, whether it's the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Alien movies or Jurassic Park, I realized how much time
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Spielberg spends on faces during these scenes, human faces, and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I even clocked that first dinosaur scene in Jurassic Park
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: where they're out in the jeeps and they encounter the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: dinosaurs close up. It's a two minute scene, and or
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: might be a three minute scene. The point is more
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: than double the time of images is given on the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: faces of Grant and Sattler as they're experiencing the wonder.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Half that time is given on the dinosaurs themselves. So
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the special effects the thing that everyone thinks about first
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: when it comes to Jurassic Park in one of its
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: key wonder sequences, double the time is spent on the humans.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: And I didn't have time to clock any of this
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: while watching the end of Oak Street on my first watch.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I'd be curious to do that if I watch it again.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: But I certainly felt that this was more interested in
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the largely cgi effects of these creatures and putting them
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in this space, this cul de sac, as you said,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and how bizarre and disorienting that is. And there's a
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: lot of fun there right, But where it does fall
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: short is capturing that sense of wonder and transcendent that
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the best of Spielberg can do. You know, it's unfair
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: to ask other filmmakers to be able to do that,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: but I think Super eight came a lot closer than
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the end of Oak Street for me, I can you know,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I can speak more about the other thing which I
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: noticed too, is the dropping of these these questions about
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: do you believe in God? Because that is something that
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: was a clear part of disclosure Day. We'll talk about it,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but but yeah, for you, how did it work as
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: a Spielbergian exercise?
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Before I get there, can I just say, picking up
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: from our conversation last week about teenage sex and death
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: at Canton Asthma, the only regret I have from my
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: theatrical experience with Oak Street is that I had to
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: watch it alone and I didn't have the opportunity to
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: turn to someone next to me and say split diopter
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: the first time Mitchell used it, we were the next
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: seventeen times I was.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Just gonna say, you mean the split diopter party.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: It wouldn't have been old for me. I don't think
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: it would have ever gotten old. I would have done
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: it every single time. It would have done definitely annoyed
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: a few people in the theater. And also, picking up
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: in that conversation, we were talking about Sophie and how
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: watching Camp Miasthma, my daughter Sophie, the film Spotting Pa
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: that this was a learning experience for her. She saw
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: that first one. I think the first one is when
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Denise Hathaway is talking to the neighbor, Missus Huddleston about
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: her book, and Sophie said she saw it right away.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: She also saw it alone and couldn't say it to anybody,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: but she knew it. She saw it was a split diopter.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: It's when Mitchell is trying to make sure we know
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: he uses the lens to make sure we don't miss
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: the tension between Denise's individual aspirations and her obligations to
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: the family in that shot.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, yeah, And that's an interesting one because
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: it must be using that technique, but there's a little
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: more distance you're seeing Denise's face and then you're actually
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: seeing out through the window too. The culd a sack
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the box part plays and he also uses it. I
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: like your explanation for why he would use it there.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: That makes sense, But then he also used this is
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: it for the older neighbor she's talking to, And it's
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: just it's a yeah, I mean, we can dive into
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the split diapter party where this far in we might
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: as well, and then get back to your question. It's
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: an over use of it that I'm still trying to
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: puzzle why, even in that scene, why use it with
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the neighbor as well, because the neighbor is having a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: different psychological experience of that conversation.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Yes, but she represents to Denise. She represents to Denise
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: that freedom I think.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: So it works, okay, but the split diapter is all
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: about putting you directly in the foreground, in the psychology
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: of that face. So again, yes, I can see that thematically,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: but in the moment, all of a sudden, I'm thinking
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: more about the neighbor and what is the neighbor's emotions,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and that's completely different. I know they're having a conversation
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: about Denise's work, but my goodness, when that family conversation
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: everything's gone down, they're in the living room panicking about
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: what to do, and we get another split diapter. I
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: couldn't keep track of who it started with, what they said.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: It goes around the circle.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was asking myself the same questions, Okay, what's
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: the what's the thematic emotional, psychological reason for using this?
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: And I came up with some answers. You know this,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: each of them has their own response and perspective on
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the experience. It's commonly used to amp up the tension
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: because it is disorienting to ask you to focus on
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: two things at once. Yeah, that all makes sense to me.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know why he didn't include overlapping dialogue then,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: which would enhance that. It's very much where we get
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: a shot and one character says one clear point of view,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: and then in the background another character off for something else.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know, to be honest with you, even though
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I can see some of that rationale and maybe you
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: have some stronger ones, it did take me out of
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the movie in a way that some of the more
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: ostentatious techniques of a film like It Follows did not,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and worked in concert with a theme I have.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: A super super profound rationale. You're ready, Okay, it's really cool.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: I thought it was really cool in terms of my
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: response to the movie, and getting back to the question
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: I post to you, I can agree with you overall
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: on your read certainly of Spielberg and even my feelings
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: about Spielberg, but disagree with you on this movie, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: it's really great to put it in those terms. I
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: didn't think about where I would put this movie in
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: my Spielberg ranking. What would keep this from being top
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: tier Spielberg is that I don't think there is no
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: nor do I think Mitchell is seeking wonder. Maybe yeah,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: it is unfair because it would be one thing, Josh,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: if there were moments I recall from this film where
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: I thought Mitchell was seeking the transcendent and was coming
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: up short. And I don't recall that ever. So that
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: is the way I think he is specifically, despite all
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: the similarities, all the parallels that we've already drawn, that
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: is the way specifically I think he is diverging from
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: spir So I don't think this movie is top tier Spielberg,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: and I don't think it's even as good a film
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: as Super eight. I'm with you on that, but I
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: will get blasphemous I suppose and say that somehow the
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: best Spielberg movie of twenty twenty six isn't directed by
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Steven Spielberg. That is how much fun I had with
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: this movie. I, of course, was not as high on
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: disclosure Day as you. One of the things we can
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: discuss in spoiler talk anyway we can get deeper into
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: it is whether this film is truly just pure summer
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: entertainment with satisfying resolutions and no larger questions to ponder,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: And whether than my use of the word just is pejorative.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Maybe you're a David Robert Mitchell stan and you love
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: It Follows, and you love Under the Silver Lake, and
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: you love how those movies are full of ambiguities and mysteries.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: The latter I haven't seen it from what I understands,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: requiring you to decode it. And here, the End of
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Oak Street is ostensibly a textbook crowd poleaser. Maybe that
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: bugs you. It is a crowd pleaser. I enjoyed it
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: for all of the reasons I do love many of
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Spielberg's crowd pleasers, the combination of drama, of thrills, of heart,
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: and of craft. I think the degree of difficulty here
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: is quite high, because you could fill your movie with
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: a bunch of homages, and it would feel very trite
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: to try to pull out the same combination of drama
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: and thrills, heart and craft that no one other than
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: maybe Spielberg has done before, at least so consistently, and
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: to come up short. You'd have something that was not
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: only trite, but very possibly quite dull. And this is
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: probably not a stretch to say this, but I imagine
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: this movie playing like Gangbusters for plenty of audience members
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: who have no relationship to Spielberg's work whatsoever. And I
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: think where you should probably disagree the most, because this
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: speaks to my having a deeper investment in the heart
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: and in the drama of the film than you is.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I think Mitchell does it largely just based on fundamental
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: storytelling that it comes back to character, it comes back
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: to dramatic irony. I don't think the family dynamic is
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: as thin as you think it is. I think that
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: there's enough weight here because I like the touch that
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: everybody in this family has a secret. And these aren't
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: you know, suburbia blue velvet ants crawling on a bloody
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: cutoff ear in the green grass while you know, below
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: a white picket fence type secrets. There's nothing dark or
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: sinister about them, but they're real and they do subtly
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: tear away at an individual's and a family's psyche. The
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: way the dad, Greg is hiding that he lost his
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: job and he's taking these pizza delivery shifts. Why is
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: he doing it? Because he doesn't want the family to worry,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: But what's that doing. All that's doing is just leading
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: to more anxiety in the family. He's got a little
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: something stashed in the garage. He also knows what Denise
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: is up to in the basement, but he's not letting
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: on about that. Right She's hiding that she's writing this
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: book in the basement, that she may also want to
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: leave Greg and her kids. She may also want to
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: leave them to be a writer. But you can go
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: with the kids too, Like Brian is at that age
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: where he's testing the boundaries a little bit. He's smoking cigarettes,
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: he's lying about that he's in some trouble in the
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: neighborhood that he's not facing. Audrey, I want to mention
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: this scene. I mentioned Mazy Stella and she I didn't
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: immediately recognize her. I just immediately recognized. I feel like
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: I've sort of seen her before, and she's really good.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: We learn what she's hiding about her identity in a
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: scene that, as often is the case with these great
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: music moments, it's a candidate for me Josh from Music
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Moment of the Year and Moving Moment of the Year.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: The scene where she goes to the garage and she
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: puts in a cassette, and that's That's pretty much all
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: I'll say, except to further explain that it's just such
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: great economical storytelling. It's set up by one earlier quick scene,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: but that's just laying the foundation for it. The reason
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: why that's so great is because it functions. Its function
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: for the audience is to reveal something about the character
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: we didn't know before. But Mitchell here is a smart
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: enough writer and director that that's the subtext. But the
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: text is within the context of the movie. Why is
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: that scene occurring? And it feels not just logical but appropriate.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: It feels necessary that someone in Audrey's circumstances, with all
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: of this insanity swirling around her, in a quiet moment,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: would seek normalcy. Putting that cassette tape in the car,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: in the garage, sneaking away like that that song playing
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: transports her back to nineteen eighty two. For those three
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: to four minutes of Steve Winwood Magic, things are okay
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: with the world. But it's also tinge for this overwhelming
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: sadness because you have to consider what she's thinking about,
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: what we know she's thinking about that's not spelled out,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: but we get it. And also that she has to
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: be considering that she may never be leaving this place,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: and what is she never going to get to experience
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: all that's going on with nothing being said at all,
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: just what she's doing in that scene and what the
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: music's doing. And then finally I'll say that none of them,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: none of them in the family, are talking about what
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: they all know to be true, which is that this
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: family does seem to be falling apart. So for me,
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: those secrets they provide something substantive for us to latch
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: onto and that that gave me investment enough and in
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: what's going to happen to this family and that dynamic?
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Anybody else did that weird light last night?
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: The weird light.
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: The wind was blowing all crazy, startled with streaked down
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: and barking.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: Could have been light from a helicopter or a UFO A.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I think it's the case for you. With this movie
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: is where I can intellectually understand all the choices that
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: are made, and yet they none of them are resonating
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: with me in It's almost like I can see the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: structure rather than feel the structure. Now, the case of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the scene with Audrey and the car is different. It
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: stands out. It's a great sequence for all the reasons
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: you described, and almost makes me wish that this entire
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: movie had been about her point of view and her story.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: She seems to be given the most interesting experience that
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: is unique in its own way, even as it is
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: embedded in the universal experiences of someone that age. The
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: other family members' issues just felt so perfunctory in how
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: they were presented. Audrey's scene is presented beautifully as you described,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you know, without any sort of dialogue or a back
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: in forth between husband and wife. We've seen a variation
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: on a million times. I wonder how much this is
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a matter of performance. These are two lead actors, Adam,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that you know, we both like quite a bit. We've
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: praised Anne Hathaway, you know, for some of her other
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: work this year. You and McGregor we've gone back to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: with since Train Spotting, and in our recent revisit or
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: a discussion of Train Spotting, talking about how good he
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: was there as a as a breakout star. I don't
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: know if it's the writing. I don't know if it's
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the suburban eighties Dad, that's just not a good fit
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: for this, Scott. I don't know what it is but
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: there is I couldn't figure out why he was in
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: this movie, and Anne Hathaway somewhat similar, though she gets
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: to bite into a little more stuff as the movie proceeds.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: She has a bit more interesting of a backstory, the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: fact that she's writing this novel in secret. There's more
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: to dig into there. I don't know that the movie
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: actually does be beyond wanting to give her a as
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you said, and maybe for some viewers that's enough. I
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: do wish it had been explored a little bit more.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: But this relates to something I wanted to ask you.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: The performances, and I do want to hear what you
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: think of those performances. But it does make me wonder
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it connects with the question you asked, which is really good,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: is what was he looking for as writer director with
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: this movie? If he's not seeking that transcendence, that Spielbergian transcendence,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: which I think is fair and doesn't have to what
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: was he seeking? I wonder if this was really if
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you asked him at heart, or asked anyone involved in it,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is this supposed to be a dark comedy, like a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: really dark action comedy, Because for me, when the end
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: of Oak Street operated at that level, it was really clicking.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: And that doesn't necessarily need a rich family dynamic that
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: needs more types that we can place as the gears
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: start churning in a more humorous vein, that needs leads
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: who are more comfortable in that vein. And so even
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: someone I don't want to get into recasting, so I'm
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: just gonna throw out one thing. But because this was
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: David Robert Mitchell, it made me think of Under the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Silver Lake, and even someone like Andrew Garfield, who I
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: don't think we think of first as a comic actor.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: He's incredibly funny and Under the Silver Lake in a
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: fresh way I hadn't seen him before, and even him
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: in the role of the father here might have brought
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a little goofiness, a little unexpected even zaniness that I
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: do think the movie is going for. I mean, there's
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: a great shot, speaking of the camera work here, there's
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: a great shot early on after the chaos has broken
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: out and Greg and Denise are running through the neighborhood
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: trying to find their kids, but we see them in
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the foreground is another family who's come out of their house.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: They don't know this is going on yet. They're getting
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: into the car, and the camera just slowly pans to
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: reveal across the street behind them, Greg and Denise sprinting
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: across all the neighbor's yards f these dinosaurs. That's funny.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: There is the moment of the two dinosaurs mating in
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the background, that's darkly funny. I think when light actually,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I mean it's kind of light, and it's lightening the scenario,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: I guess, is what I would say a dark scenario
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: is bringing a light touch to it. And then when
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: we get to our spoiler conversation, I think that's particularly
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: where this movie wants to or I feel like has
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to become quite dark and humorous, and where
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: it ends, to me only works if you see this
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: movie as a dark comedy. If you see it as
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: anything other than that, I think the ending is kind
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: of a disaster. I went with it because I enjoyed
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the end of Oak Street not as the year's best
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Spielberg movie, but as a quite funny, dark, insane comic fantasy.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: That's where this movie is clicking.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: I like how it ends, but I also like the
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: possibilities that the end opens up, which we are going
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: to talk about, and I understand why you potentially want
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: to read it that way. I can only tell you
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: that the experience I had in the theater was not
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: one where I thought that David Robert Mitchell was going
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: for a darkly comic experience. I think that there are
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: moments of comedy, and there are moments where I laughed,
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: and certainly there are moments where maybe you don't expect
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: that you would be laughing, and so I get that
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: that's usually the term we would put on it. But
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I still can't help but think, and maybe this is
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: just me going off my first reaction. I just saw
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: it two days ago, that that doesn't really mean anything.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: It's not like it was just two hours ago. But
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: I am still processing my reaction. I still see this
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: as David Robert Mitchell mostly trying to give us a
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: very entertaining, action packed experience and succeeding now on the
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: p pformances. I'm with you that I had a similar reaction,
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: unfortunately to McGregor, and some of that is I fear
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: that the character as written is supposed to be a
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: bit bland, in a bit ineffectual. You know, there's a
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: moment in the movie where Hathaway, her character says, listen
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: to your father, and that's actually supposed to be a
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: big moment for both charactures, whether whether or not the
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: camera draws any attention to it, and the camera doesn't,
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: that's actually a big moment because she isn't She isn't
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: someone as the mother who is usually telling the kids
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: to obey what the father is saying. She wears the
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: pants in the family, she's driving the car, she's got
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: the shotgun. She's the one who is handling most things.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: And I do think that McGregor's performance then, as a result,
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: it's as if he taps into that a little bit
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: and and plays him a little boringly. Hathaway, though, I think,
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: is pitched at exactly where this movie needs her to be,
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: and that includes needing her to be able to sell
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: the terror that this family would feel, including when we
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: get one scene in particular that I think is one
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: of the great set pieces in this film, when let's
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: just say a creature invades the home and none of
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: them are aware of it. It's one of those scenes, Josh,
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: where I noticed it wasn't just me, there were other
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: people in the theater. We were all squirming in our
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: seats when a director can make you squirm in your
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: seat because you're actually trying to maneuver as if your
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: movements would help the character move. If you can do this,
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: maybe the character will notice what's behind them. That is something,
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: and that is how you That is how I felt,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: certainly watching this scene. There is a moment at the
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: end of that scene where I'll put it this way.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Hathaway's Denise goes to town, and Hathaway plays that with
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: the same conviction she would play The Odyssey or any
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: other movie, any other character she's ever played. You believe
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: that every single protective instinct is coming out of her there,
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: but not only that, every ounce of anger that has
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: built up in her up to this point from the
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: family dynamic, but also through whatever they're experiencing, every ounce
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: of frustration, It is all coming out of her in
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: that moment this release. And I actually do think there
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: aren't that many actresses on Hathaway's level who can deliver
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: that type of Catharsis in that moment, and I really
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: appreciated it in her performance there.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's doing the stuff we haven't seen her do before,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: especially in that scene. She's one hundred percent committed to it.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I think she also works a little bit better because
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: for me, she's tapped into the vein of humor too,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: whether it is signing away to kind of not directly
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: undercut her husband, but you know, give us a variation
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: on an eye roll. You're over his ineffectiveness, And yeah,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: I think she does work quite a bit better than
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: he does.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Well, let's talk a little bit then, before we get
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: to spoilers, can we talk?
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: Well?
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: I also have to tell you what I think is
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: the great, the great screenwriting misguided misstep of this film too.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: The misstep Okay, oh yeah, there is one I almost
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: thought I couldn't forgive Mitchell for so I have to
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: get to that. But since I brought it up in
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: the setup and I know we're going to diverge on this,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go ahead and say it. What I
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: do think it has on Disclosure Day, as absurd as
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: it might sound, since that film takes place in a
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: more recognizable roam world in Oak Street has a bunch
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: of dinosaurs running around. Some of the choices of the
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: characters and their actions with this one major exception I'll
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: get to are more rational and believable here. The other
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: part is what I alluded to before this dialogue about
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: faith elements in Disclosure Day, there were elements I appreciated,
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: But Spielberg also makes the conflict there quite literal. Right.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: It's in the form of the Sister Mara character and
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Neeve Houston's Jane, and they are talking directly about their
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: faith or lack thereof, and what all of this means.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: In Oak Street, you have characters who represent different sides
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: of that conflict in a way that seemed realistic to me,
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: especially since I know which one of the characters I am.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: This family has been dealt a terrible hand. The only
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: real possibilities seem to be die pretty quickly and gruesomely,
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: survive for a bit, but suffer. Okay, both of those
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: are bad or long shot. The longest shot, they'll be
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: magically saved. Some members of the family express a faith
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: in effectively a higher power, and they'll be magically saved.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: And why because it they have no rational reason to
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: believe that, but it comforts them and it's how they
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: want to live their lives because the alternative seems to
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: only hold at best negativity and at worst sorrow. What
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: about the people out there getting eaten? One of the
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: characters says at one point that also, I have to say,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: is one of the great theological quandaries. It's the beginning
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: of thought and but and it's quite funny. And it's
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: quite funny. It exactly pleasy. Stella, God's not gonna let
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: us die here. You only go to Church of Christmas.
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: And now you're telling the kids God's looking out for us.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: What about the people who are out there getting eaten?
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: The other characters are pragmatists who see false hope as
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: the great sin to be avoided. I found that conversation,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: and I do mean that actual conversation, but the larger conversation,
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: because it's something that the movie is speaking to, not
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: just in that scene. I found that conversation to be
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: very compelling. I liked that it made me think about that. Now.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: I'm not suggesting, Josh that David Robert Mitchell is giving
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: us the end of Oak Street because he wants everyone
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: to come away with his treatise on faith. But I
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: like that. I liked that it was wrapped up in there.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I yeah, I wish I could have seen the tentacles
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: of that conversation and the rest of the film. To me,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: there are basically two conversations like that that are dropped
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: in kind of come out of nowhere. I found it
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: to be more imployed to give extra shading to Greg
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the father's inefficiency helplessness. Of course he would be the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: guy who says, you know, God will save us or
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: whatever he says. And then here's more dark humored. This
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: is where Athway is like greatly go to church on Christmas, Chris,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: and you're pulling this out. So I thought that was
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: funny too. Yeah, I just didn't see it. As I didn't.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: It was a curiosity to me like that, where is this?
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: And I know it's there's a callback with the neighbor,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: the young woman who goes to private school there, like
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: is she go to Catholic school? And then the neighbor asks,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: I think, Audrey, do you believe in God? When she
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: asked her to me, that was like, oh, well, this
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: is random again, And I know you could extrapolate that
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: to ask these larger questions that you proposed there. I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: don't know that the movie really, as you said, also,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: is that interested in doing that regarding disclosure day, you know,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: which it is curious that both of them at least
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: touch on this issue. I my preference is that Spielberg
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: had let that play more in the background. I always
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: would rather have it be something that, yeah, I know,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: you know, not that bliss it. However, why I did
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: like it, about why I did like it in Disclosure Day,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: even though it worked in that way, is it was
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: much more directly woven into the characters' backgrounds, who they
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: were as people. I mean, this isn't the first time
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Jane brings up the Houston character faith. It's not out
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: of nowhere like Greg here. It's because we know she's
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: already shared that she considered being a nun at one point.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: And you know, these are much more richly developed characters
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: in general and specifically on the question of faith. She
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: has a relationship with the other nun. And here's the
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: other thing that Spielberg is And again this is coming
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: out of just being deeply embroiled in his work, realizing
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that he has always been a believer in belief. And
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: what I mean by that is he's less interested in
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the object of the belief. The belief could be a fairy,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: it could be a dinosaur, it could be an alien,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: but what he believes in is the human act of
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: believing in something that's unbelievable, and he his special gift
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: is getting you in the theater to feel like you
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: could believe as well. And that is one of the
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: main questions. I don't remember if we got into this
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: that deeply in our initial conversation. That's one of the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: main questions that Disclosure Day is interested in, is the
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: value of believing in we did it's unbelievable? Right, Yeah?
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: So again, is it a little too literalized and Disclosure Day?
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: For me, yes, I would agree with that, but I
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: think it is much more thoughtfully and skillfully woven into
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: that movie than it is here, where it struck me
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: as an oddball curiosity to have those two scenes kind of.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: Dr See, that's the exact opposite of what I'm describing,
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: because for me, that's exactly the type of conversation I
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: believe that family would have in that moment, precisely like
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: they have it there in that scene. It did not
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: feel to me at all like some contrived moment the
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: screenwriter felt like he needed to have in order to
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: elivate like script I guess just.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: A couple of more suggestions about what their relationship to
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: this was before maybe even in production design or crisis.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: Like this, bring these out, bring these types of conversations.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about as a viewer, you know that so
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: that you're kind of being the landscape is being set,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: the seeds are being planted, that this might be something
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: that's going to come up in some way, rather than
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: it subtenly being dropped in, you know, forty minutes or
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: whatever into the movie.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: I guess, okay, let's get onto something that I struggled
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: with my Yes, my David Robert Mitchell. It follows embroidered
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: nitpick hating to is going to come out with the
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: asterisk that like my it follows thoughts, it's not a
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: cinema sins like Nitpick. And I'm going to explain why.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: The key difference here is that while this choice sends
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: the movie off track, fortunately it turns out it wasn't
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: a permanent detour. There is a point and obviously I
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: don't think this is a spoiler, and I'm going to
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: be I'm going to talk generally about it enough that
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: if I thought it was a spoiler, I would save it,
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: and I'll save part of it actually for spoiler talk later.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: There's a point roughly an hour in where Mitchell clearly
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: decided that either a it was going to get too
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: stagnant if I didn't get this family out of the
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: house for an extended period of time, or b it
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: was going to get too stagnant if I didn't gym
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: up gin up some heavier emotional stakes or see both because.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: This is this stybuck Starbucks.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: Or he has one of the family members make a
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: decision that accomplishes both of those things. That is nevertheless
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: one of the dumber, least believable things I have seen
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: a character do ever on screen. And yes, it does
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: involve the dog, Starbuck. And you can say, first, you
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: can tell me how much you all love dogs, and
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: so you bought it. You can also understand how far
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: I just don't get for your dog exactly. You can
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: also tell me how how Mitchell sets it up in
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: earlier scenes. In retrospect, that just feels exactly like that's
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: what it was a writing ploy to try to justify
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: this insanely stupid act. And as if that wasn't bad enough,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: what follows is then another character, a smarter, more mature
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: character that's the sin doing something equally stupid. But here's
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: what I think is here's here's the compound on compound.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: What I actually think is the greater sin. What frustrates
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: me most, what elevates it from from nitpick to the
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: level of what I'm saying is I think misguided narrative
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: judgment is the reason both of these characters and this
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: maybe gets back to where we diverge on this movie
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: overall a little bit. The reason both of these characters
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: make this decision, or the reason that they're in a
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: position to make it, is why because their parents are
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: having a screaming match in the other room. Setting aside
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: the fact that they're fighting, isn't enough for me to
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: believe that either kid would do what they did, especially
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: the older, more mature one. We're yanked as viewers out
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: of that fight so we can watch the kids do
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: what the screenplay needs them to do. But the family
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: dynamic and the tension which starts with Greg and Denise,
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: for me, isn't just window dressing, as I argued. It's
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: the foundation of this movie. It's crucial to this movie
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: working as well as it does. And this is a
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: huge moment, the moment when the secrets are finally laid back.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: Greg and Denise deserved to get those things off their chests.
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: We deserved to hear them get those things off their chests.
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: And somehow Mitchell literally and figuratively turns their voices into
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: the adults from Charlie Brown. It becomes background noise that
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: allows what the plot to move forward. It's it's contrived.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: It undercuts the emotional thrust of the movie. I wasn't
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: sure I was going to be able to get over it.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: I was in part because of another decision Mitchell makes
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: to salvage it, which which I'll get into. But I
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: was struggling with that for a while.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Isn't isn't this the movie showing its hand laying its cars?
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: Potentially? I knew that's where you were gonna go with me,
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: like I said, And it had enough of its its
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: hooks in me by that point that I could overhear it.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: For me, it was it was like, this is the
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: movie we're in. Like it didn't surprise me. I disagree
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: with you that I agree with you on Audrey's choice
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: to follow Brian, But hey, come on, Brian, you know
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: risk reward. He's he's that age he's still learning to
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: calculate things risk reward and Starbuck needs help. What are
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: you gonna do if you're out? What is he? Thirteen?
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Fourteen year old boy?
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: And he's old enough. He's old enough.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Let me before we do spoilers. I wanted to one thing.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: I was asking myself and see if either of this
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: resonates with you, you know, what else is this? What
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: else might this movie be interested in? Because obviously at
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: this point you found more in it than I was.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: And so I was looking for things, and I thought,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: is there any sort of commentary going on here? Maybe
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: there's the one shot of Brian after it all goes down,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: he grabs the encyclopedias from his bedroom and he's looking
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: in one of them, and we see a page that
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: says something about greenhouse climate, and so part of me
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: is thinking, okay, is there some sort of environmental you
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: know thing going on here? I didn't find any more
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: threads to pull on. Maybe you did. I don't know,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: there's another option of social commentary. I did think this
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: beginning this long opening setup of this neighborhood and the
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: block party that was going on and on and on.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: For me, I'm thinking that this has got to be
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: some sort of commentary on you know, the United States
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: basically being stuck in the past. The movie set in
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: the past, so somewhat related to nostalgia, but possibly even
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: more pointedly related to recent dialogue about America being better before.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: And it clicked for me when that overhead shot of
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: the entire neighborhood like a circle, isolated amidst the prehistoric landscape,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, Okay, maybe we're getting something here about
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: isolationist America. Like America doesn't want to just go back
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: to the nineteen fifties, let's say, but it wants to
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: go back. We're so behind the times in the United
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: States because we're looking backwards, we might as well be
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: in the prehistoric era. Is there any thing there? I
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: don't know that I found many more threads. Possibly, I
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: think that's a little more interesting. But did anything like
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: that register for you or either of those strike anything.
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: No, Josh, I think it's entirely possible. David Robert Mitchell
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: just wanted to make a blockbuster that really entertained people.
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: I do think in this case that shot though, that
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: shot though, that shot though, was really interesting because it
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: made me think, even though ultimately aliens are not part
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: of this movie, there is something clearly cosmic going on,
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: and that shot overhead of the cul de Sac, it's
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: a very odd, oddly shaped circle, like a good circle.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: It looks it looks like a crop circle. Makes it
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: makes you think that, of course Oak Street in this circle,
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: this neighborhood was the one that was picked out. It's
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: a nice little bit of design or at least set
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: choice there. You're like, though, that what is interesting? Unless
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: I'm overlooking something something that is interesting about I think
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: it'd be very I think it'd be a bit of
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: a stretch to suggest the movie is trying to make
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: some climate change argument or really wants us to think
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: about it. But that that moment stood out to me
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: as well, where he gets out the encyclopedia and he's
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: reading about dinosaurs, because the director shows us what he's reading,
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: and he reads something about about the climate and how
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: it's going to get very hot greenhouse climate. Yep, the
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: greenhouse climate. But then, to my recollection, the movie doesn't
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: do anything with that. I thought that that then was
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: going to lead to some kind of revelation later in
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: the movie where the way they get rid of the
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: dinosaurs is by doing something with the climate. It it
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: doesn't factor in so as far as I recall, So,
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: why does that? Why is that shot in the movie?
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: It is a It is a good question.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we miss something. Listeners can tell us if
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: there's an environmental reading or yeah, America stuck in the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: past reading.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, But I will say this as we transition to
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: spoilers for the people who are are not ready to
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: listen to that yet. What we are going to talk
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: about in spoilers I want to talk about, as you've
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: hinted already, the ramifications of the ending. I also want
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: to talk about Denise as writer slash god. Okay, where
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: that's where we're going to go. Let's go ahead and
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: close out the review proper of the end of Oak Street.
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: If you've seen the movie and you would like to
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: agree or disagree with with one of us because we
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: see this movie differently, you can write in feedback at
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: filmspotting dot net get out of that run, Josh, spoilers
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: on the end of Oak Street? Where would you Where
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: would you like to begin? So?
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: As boring as he was, I was sad to see
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Greg get it.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that is you know.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: I also feel like I should say I haven't I
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: haven't had time to sit down and write, which is
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: where I finally know what I really feel about a movie.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: I'm leaning positive on this movie. I did enjoy it
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: really Yeah as an experience. I mean, you're trying to
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: claim its Spielberg. Well, how am I going to get
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: on board with that?
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: That's nuts?
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: But yeah, not top to Spielberg, Josh, just this movie.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: And I think one of the best sequences is Craig's
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: death because it is exciting. It is again darkly funny
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: that what is he on a sledgehammer? I think, yes,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: so just the ludicrousness that a sledgehammer to the nose
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: of this what what was that? An alisauris now he's
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: going after.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: Okay, so nerdy Josh didn't know that.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, I didn't get into dinosaurs as a kid. I don't.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I think we were too old for that.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: That didn't really start till in Earnest till Jurassic Park.
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: Well, I know, so I was into dinosaurs way before
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: Jurassic Park. I was into dinosaurs right about the time
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: this movie is set nineteen eighty two, but I was
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: familiar with Alice at.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: That point anyway, So he takes the sledgehammer and knocks
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: the thing down, which got a laugh out of me,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden chomps is this was
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: my thought process at him the alsours chomps his foot,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, oh, no, it's like below the knee. Josh, yeah, yeah,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: you're right, it's I mean, it's severe. And my first
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: thought is, again like a screenwriter writing thought, is like,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: how are they going to write around this?
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: Now?
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: For the rest he can't hop around the rest of
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: the film, he can't.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: And then nope, nope, he gave us who's the guy
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: the lawyer in Jurassic Park? He just gets swallowed there, Yes,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: And I think I laughed at that as well. I
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: did feel bad, sure, and I do. That's where my
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: interests started to peak in terms of the dark humor
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and the implications for the family dynamic. I will say,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: got a little more interesting after that, Okay, which I'm
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: guessing is where probably you'll go look.
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: See So that's so fascinating because I can tell you
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: that my experience it's in the theater is that when
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: you watch a gigantic dinosaur on screen bite somebody's leg
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: off and blood starts spurting out and they're screaming. There's
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: a part of you that can't help but laugh a
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: little bit, even if it's internal, just kind of chuckle.
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: But the moment when that dinosaur ate greg All, I'm thinking,
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: this is, this is at least how in tune with
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: the movie. I was Josh and the family when that,
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: when that dinosaur ate greg All. I was thinking about
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: was I was feeling it like Denise and the kids
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: were feeling it. I was crushed. I was crushed on
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: the kid's behalf. I was in shosh like they were
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: a monster. No, I understand. I'm just saying that I
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: didn't have the darkly comic take on the film.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: I think about, think about, think about how many of
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: the other kills in this movie are punchlines. Though, yeah, Adam,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: like with the neighbors and stuff, and so this is operating.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I know it's the character you know even better, but
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: it's operating in that vein.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: But but you say that, and I think it's such
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: a fine line, and I think even Mitchell was probably
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out where that line was because we
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: hate that neighbor. And I want to talk about this
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: in a second where I want to go with the
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: ending that neighbor is a loser jerk. And if you
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: asked us early in the film, do we want to
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: see him get eaten by a dinosaur? We would say yes.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: And there's a part of us. Even as he's shooting
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: at him, I was thinking, Oh, I kind of can't
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: wait for them all to swirl around him. But then
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: when it happens, he shows it happening from the perspective
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: of Denise and Greg, and Denise and Greg are nothing
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: except purely horrified. Sure, And so there I'm purely horrified.
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: I'm not laughing at him getting eaten by the dinosaurs, right.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that one. Yeah, because they're involved, which goes back
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: to the Spielberg human experience thing I was talking about. Actually,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: because they're in Valve involved, it's seen through a different lens.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: And certainly Greg's death is too, of course, because the
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: kids are right there and she's right there, and as
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: you say, that's what I'm thinking is about, is they're
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: watching this. But it's also curious because I was noticing
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: how is that scene going to play too, because to
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: me it did have that dark comic element. But she
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: does cover their eyes and drag them away and start
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: talking to them about other things. So it's definitely meant
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: to play that way.
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, before maybe we get into the heavy stuff,
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: because I don't know where exactly you want to go,
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: whether or not it coincides with where I want to go.
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: I do just want to go back to I said,
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: Mitchell salvaged the misguided narrative choice, right, And that is
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: simply that just about I swear, just about the time
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: I was thinking, if the rest of this movie is
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: me having to follow the kids and the parents not
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: being able to reunite because of that fight, and Brian
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: jumping out the window to chase Starbuck, and Audrey chasing
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: after Brian without telling the parents that she's going after him,
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: it becomes the fruit of the poisonous tree. It's just
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: gonna sink the entire rest of this movie and maybe
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: retroactively everything that came before it. And right at that
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: point I was thinking it, it's like Mitchell was reading
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: my reading my mind, and and they see they see
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: the parents outside the window, and they open up the
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: doors Mom, Dad, and they see each other and they
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: get back together. It's like if I had to go
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: any longer with them not finding each other, Josh, the
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: movie was probably sunk.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm I'm glad for your sake that you didn't
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: have to experience that. Yeah, I think the reuniting of
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: the family at the end via this very elaborate glowing blob,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: which you know, I guess we just accept that's all
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: we're gonna learn about that. Yeah. You know. One of
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: my quibbles about the movie, too, is or hesitance, as
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: I should say, is that it's kind of like half
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: a high concept that he's come up with here and
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: he didn't kind of finish it because this portal's just
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: glowing there and the.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: Sheaves Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan is a wise man, Josh,
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: what's the deal?
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, But yeah, it's there to reunite the family.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: But here's my question for you. So they steal this
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: other dimensions Greg, that's it, right, the father So and
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: again I was kind of chuckling at the implications of this,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: just because how I had keep it into the movie.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: You're a s they steal What about the other dimensions? Audrey?
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: This is the question Denise and Brian, Right, Apparently this
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: just means that Greg never comes home, Dad never comes
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: home from surreptitiously delivering pizzas the dinosaurs invade, and whatever
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: happens to the three of them happens the three of
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: them alone. So they've stolen this dimensions Greg. I also like,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, here's where it's got to be meant to
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: be sort of funny. The fact that Jeanette, the neighbor
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: girl who ends up with them for a long time,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: she runs away to steal her entire family, including her
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: other self.
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: She go back earlier, Josh, so.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: In the in the happy ending, No, I get how
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: it happens, but in the happy ending, I saw that
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: as a punchline, that there were two Jeanettes, just like,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: this is our new family life, right, is we get
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: a bonus Jeanette? Now, yes again, all of this You know,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: I think for me only works if it's a little
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: bit of a joke asking you to say, yeah, you
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: know what we Here's how I felt, how I experienced it,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: and I enjoyed this experience. Yeah, we put a portal
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: in our movie. Yeah, that means the family gets together.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: It means Greg was stolen. You know, we're at the
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: end of the movie. This is what we want, and
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: it was what I wanted as boring as Greg was.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: He's back good, they're in better terms, have sometely fine
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: with it. I had a good time coming out of
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: the theater. But yeah, because I was locked in in.
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: That vein jokes the right word in that in that context,
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: I mean the movie is is playing in that register.
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: Certainly by the end of the film, I think, I
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: mean it is a dinosaur movie and it's about wormholes,
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: Like it's yeah, we know what we're we know what
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: we're dealing with here. And and just to be totally clear,
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: even though if people are listening to this, they they
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: have seen the entire movie and they've probably thought about
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: all of this. What you were saying is exactly where
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: I want to go. This isn't really a time travel movie.
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: This isn't Back to the Future or The Terminator where
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: you go into the past and your actions can change
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: the future.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: This is a multit being a multiverse.
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: This is a multiverse.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: I hate to say it.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: It is so at the end, even though I just
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: said it's not back to the future, it's kind of
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: like they returned to Hill Valley. Because I love how
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: they see the time on the clock and they realize
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: that they have.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: Times, the biggest clock I've ever seen.
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: That's right. Yes, they have time to change what will happen,
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: but not entirely. But they have some time and things
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: are going to change, or or they can change things.
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: But the event the wormhole is going to happen. So
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm not patting myself on the back here. I
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: assume most viewers put it together. The crumbs, where the
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: breadcrumbs were laid from the very beginning of the movie,
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: the references to the pizza delivery, the phone number on
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: the top of the car. We can put two and
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: two together that she's going to go to the phone
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: booth and she's going to call the number, she's gonna
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: have the pizza delivered, and theoretically he's going to arrive.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: Daddy is of course alive, reuniting, tears, rejoicing. Wow, it's
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: like it's like Lazarus. Lazarus risen from the dead, right,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: But in so doing, they have they have changed the
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: events in this in this multiverse. It's been created because
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: returning Denise, returning Denise, Audrey and Brian. So let's call
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: him Denise Audrey and Brian.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: Two.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: They're with Greg one and Denise Audrey and Brian one.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: They all went to the wormhole without Greg one. They're
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: all without their dad.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: So they've got this guy.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: No, they don't have a guy. They don't have a guy.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: Oh no, yeah, they don't have a guy as I'm
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: reading it exactly. So in our world, in our world,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: what we're called, Denise Audrey and Brian too and Greg
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: one are living happily ever after with two Jenettes, and
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: and aren't they all really they are? This is the question.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: They're just Denise, Audrey, Brian, and Greg They're not two
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: and one as far as they know. They're all just
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: the family. But this is the kind of question that
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: sci fi movies has been posing forever different versions of
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: multiverse versions, Are they really the same? But to them,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: to the three members of the family, it's just like
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: they're reuniting with the only dad they've ever known. So
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: that's interesting to ponder. But in the other world, Denise,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: Audrey and Brian for however long they survived, which I
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: know I'm just spelling it out. I said that, Josh,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: I'm just making sure people understand because I think it's
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 3: really fascinating. For however long they survived, they did so
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: without their dad now came home. Now, think about that.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: Think about that from their perspective. Maybe they ultimately, once
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: they put things together, they decided, hey, dad never came home.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: That means he probably never got sucked into this wormhole
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: and maybe at least he's safe back on Oak Street.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: And so maybe they think about that and it makes
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: them feel good, or maybe it just fills them with
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: overwhelming sadness that they they don't have their dad with them.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: So effectively, they lost they dad, They lost their dad husband,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: just like the others lost their dad slash husband. And
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: You're right, they just stole him. The other ones just
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: stole that Denise.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: Denise probably wasn't too worried. I mean, at that point
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: in the narrative she had blatantly said I can handle
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: a lot more than you think, or something like that,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: probably more than you more than you think. Yeah, she
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: might not have been too worried. I don't think they'd
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: started to reconcile yet. So yeah, it's again, obviously we're
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: seeing it through You're just seeing it through a more
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: emotional moving lens, and I'm seeing it through a more
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: comic lens, which I think is to the movie's credit.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: I think that's when it's working best. And I see
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: this ending as kind of kind of like a final
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: punch line, even as it does raise some of these
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: interesting questions.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: And the question that I still haven't fully been able
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: to reconcile is to what extent, Because if you think
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: about this, it it's pretty heavy and it casts it
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: certainly casts a shadow over the happy reading of the
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: end of the film, which I don't see how you
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: read as anything but happy. It's it's like the back
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: to the Future ending where everything has now been not
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: only set right with the world, everything's better than it
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: previous was than it previously was. She's the writer, she
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: wants to be everybody's happy. The daughter got into Cornell like, yeah,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: they all have boyfriends and girlfriends like everything else. Everything
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: is perfect with the world. But if you now start
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: thinking about this stuff, it's it's not all perfect with
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: the world. So does David Robert Mitchell want us thinking
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: about that stuff or does he want us thinking about
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: how happy everybody is? And then the other part of
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: this is what I'm what I'm just also intrigued by,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: is is that the fact that the movie takes time
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: to show us not only is denis a writer. But
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: the name of her book right is called isn't it
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: the True Story, The True Story of the End of
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: Oak Street?
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it has it has a two word title, shoot,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't write it down, and then that's I think
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: that's the subtitle, is the True Story of the.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: End of Oaks ste and and so she also says
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: at one point to to Greg when he says, well,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: I found your book when they're when they're fighting, and
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: she tries to say, oh, no, it's not it's not true,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: it's not real. It's a story, like she's just an
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: inventor of stories.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: Well. There are different versions then of the end of
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: ok Street, including now this different version of how things
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: would play out with just the three of them in
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: this multiverse without Greg and and So I have two
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: things I want to mention. One is I had a thought,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: which is, if Mitchell had been really ingenious and I
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: would be first in line obviously to see this, he
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: would have simultaneously shot the other end of Ooks the sequet.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: He would have simultaneously shot the Move, the Move, the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: second movie version, the alternate multiverse version with just the
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: three of them without Greg in the end of Oak
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: Street and that movie would come out a year from
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: now and I would go see it.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think that partially speaks to why this
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: does feel like half a high concept to me, is
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: there's still that potential there by this ending. Here, here's
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: a question or here's a development that would have been interesting.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: What if the Denise, Brian and Audrey Who's Greg had
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: been stolen? What if they jumped through the portal ended
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: up in the same dimension as stolen Greg. Who's Greg
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: gonna choose which which family? I mean, Greg's got Greg's
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: got some heavier right to do, and I don't know
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: that he's up to it quite fir.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: No, No, he probably is not up to it. So
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: then here's the last part I said. Some think about
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: Denise as God. Any writer is a creator of a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: universe and is creating life, is creating characters, and can
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: can dictate who lives and who dies and how life
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: plays out. Isn't isn't Denise doing just that? As we describe,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: She's deciding the fate of Greg, She's deciding the fate
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: of Greg one, and she's deciding to some extent, the
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: fate of the alternate Denise Audrey and Brian as well.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 3: But more than that, the whole thing on the television
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 3: when we get the stories of the two year anniversary.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: MM.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 3: She not only chooses to save Greg one, but she
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: has time to save three other people. Does she saves?
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: She calls the librarian, she calls Missus Huddleston, and she
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: calls the neighbor. So it's very interesting that those are
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: the three people and she calls those three, she calls
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 3: those three who who she then saves by telling them
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: to come to the hill, just like she does with Greg.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 3: So one of those three is obviously someone she's very
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: close with, Missus Huddleston, one of those people we know,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 3: one of those people we know she is at least
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: collegial with, and she would consider a friend and also
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: gave that woman, gave up her life for them. So
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: clearly she feels like she owes her a debt the
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: librarian a.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: Very positive librarian portrait. I mean, come on, only good information,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: and yes, a good information.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: That she gets eaten by an alligator, a gigantic prehistoric
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: alligator for for the kids, Josh. Would Debbie do that?
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: No?
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: I didn't think so. I don't think she'd go that far,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: but then she also saves the neighbor. Yeah, so so
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: how do you how do you explain that choice choice
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 3: to save mel.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: The cynical answer, and you've given this a lot more thoughts,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: you probably have a better one. He's the only other
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: neighbor that we've met in.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: The movie that I did think about that. I mean,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: of course, that's.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: It's kind of funny that it's him, because it's ironic, it's,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: you know, not what you would expect. It's the last
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: person you'd expect. So it landed for me as a
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: bit of a joke.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think that that's that's there. I
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: think the other way, I suppose you could look at
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: this cynically, but I don't know if cynical is the
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: right way, or just to call it human nature. They
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 3: are the three people she knows that she sees die.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: The other people in the neighborhood that she sees die,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: we don't know for sure that she has any personal
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: personal connection to And so if you were in her shoes,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: you might also be inclined to save the three people
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 3: you see die. That you make sense, and I think
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: that that's I think that's part of it. But also
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: just something about her actually being neighborly. Even though she
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: doesn't like him, she does the neighborly thing and saves him.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: I like to read it that way. Sure, even though
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 3: he doesn't deserve it. Yeah, it's yeah.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking about her having this sort of
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: power in this being her story. Did she did she
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: kill Greg Off? Like at some at some level she
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: is she making the decision. No, that's David Robert Mitchell.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting well, I mean, I'm getting all confused.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: But think about this. This is still this is still
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: just Greg. This is Greg one. Greg hasn't gone through
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 3: any of this stuff. He's still the lame Greg from
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 3: the first half of.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: The May haven't had their confrontation, their concessions there.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 3: He hasn't gone through any of this this adversity that's
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 3: made him a better man. He's got some work to
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 3: do still, She's got her work cut out for him.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 3: That's our spoiler talk on the end of Oak Street.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 3: And as I said in the film Spotting Family Discord
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 3: earlier today, I thought that somehow, without knowing, without having
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 3: an inkling of what your thoughts were about this film,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: I thought that it was possible that somehow this movie
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: might end up being, with spoiler talk, one of our
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 3: longest reviews ever. And here we are for an hour
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: on the End of Oak Street.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: What was that? The Tree of Life? What was our No? Yeah, no,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: it was Odyssey, right.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 3: The Odyssey the Tree of Life? Yeah, somehow, David Robert Mitchell,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 3: who knew.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: This is not the best Spielberg movie of the year,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: but it is the longest Odyssean conversation of the year.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 3: I guess we'll have to pick a Spielberg movie to
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: try to outdo this one. At some point. I'll give
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 3: you that. I'll promise you that at some point, Josh,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 3: thank you. Do encourage you to share your feedback, especially
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: after all that spoiler talk. Tell us how we should
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: be reading the End of Oak Street feedback at filmspotting
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 3: dot Net.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: I've got to tell you quick story about my showing
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: of the End of Oak Street. Caught it middle of
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: a day I think it was Thursday. And you can
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: tell who the real movie diehards are. You know, weekday
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: middle of day screenings, you usually have other people are
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: there by themselves and the lights come up or the
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: credits are rolling, and this guy a couple of seats
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: down for me just kind of leans over. Maybe you've
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: had this too, although I don't think you take quite
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: as many notes as I do. But I had my
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: notebook out. He's like, hey, I noticed notice you're writing
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: some notes or are you like a movie critic or something?
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: Does it you get this every once in a while,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes when you're in a theater and he's so, I said, yeah,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: I'm actually, you know, do this podcast? Really nice guy,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: He's said, he's part of a film group that they
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: get together regularly and talk about the movies that they've seen.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm actually going to shower his name. He's
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: on Instagram. We traded trader profiles ABC dot nephew, so
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: follow him if you're intrigued and keep up with his
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: movie talk. But it's always nice to meet one of
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: those hardcore film fans in the middle of the day,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the week. If you're one of
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: those folks and you see movies that frequently, that devotedly,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: then you should become a Regal Unlimited subscriber, because that way,
• 1:12:40
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• 1:12:49
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• 1:12:53
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• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna have to DM him on Instagram. If
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: you sign up for Regal Unlimited using film using the
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• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: code film Spot twenty six to receive your discount. Adam,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: it's been nice to see so many people joining the
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Film Spotting family recently. I'm guessing maybe the sale we
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: have going on to become a family member is part
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: of that. We are offering twenty percent off membership through
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: August thirty. First, you just need to use the promo
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  Speaker 1: Filmspottingfamily dot Com. So yeah, some new folks coming in,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: but let's take a few minutes to thank people who
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: have been members for a while now. Membership, of course,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: is the single largest source of support for film Spotting.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: It's the main reason we get to keep doing this.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: So thank you very much to family members Ernie Dusson
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: in Tampa, Florida and Alex in Valpraso, Indiana.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: Ernie says, I've been listening for many years a review
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: he got wrong. Your top five concert movie list was
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: extremely flawed. No Woodstock or Monterey Pop. How dare you?
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: A movie I credit with becoming a cinophile two thousand
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: and one A Space Odyssey. My mom let me stay
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: up late to watch it on television at about ten
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 3: years old. I didn't understand any of it, but I
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: was hooked.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: I have no excuse, Ernie, I did homework for that
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: top five and Woodstock did it make the cut, so
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: still needs to be seen by me. As for Alex
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: Batman Versus Superman with Michael Phillips as the first episode,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: I recall listening to a favorite show reviewer. Top five
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: tough to choose, but I think I learned of Coconata's
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: Columbus through the show and that is now an all
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: time favorite, So I'll go with that. A movie I
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: credit with becoming a cinophile Knowing with Nicholas Cage from
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, directed by Alex Proeus. Watching with
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: the director's commentary track on a portable DVD player during
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: a family road trip is what first opened my eyes
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: to the art of filmmaking. Okay, a random film or
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: filmmaker that I love The Her and Horse. Where is
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: the Blatar Marathon? Oh man, Alex you I've given up
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: on that ever happening. Just I know thength of these films.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: It's gonna take a lot to convince Adam.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 3: So I just sit here and act like you've been
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: pushing for a Bellatar marathon behind the scenes.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: I'm I brought it up here and there, and I've done.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: I've seen the turn Horse, I've seen works Harmonies.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 3: I've seen the Man from London. So I've got to go.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: I don't think either of us have had the no, no,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: the fortitude to take on yet.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: Look at it this way, I'll do it. Let's look
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: at it this way. No, no, I don't want to
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: do it. Look at it this way. The positive is
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 3: we already have the name of the marathon awards the
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 3: Potato Peels. This is true. And and the thing about
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: the Belatar Marathon is that it starts, but it never ends.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: It will just take up the entire rest of the shows,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 3: the entire future of the show. Josh, however, it's just ongoing,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: so I think that would be a problem and we
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 3: can't actually do that. Alexn Sorry, I just want to
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 3: make sure I was clear on something. Did you say, Josh,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 3: that you watched Woodstock didn't make the cut Monterey Pop?
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 3: Is that one you still need to see?
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen either of them.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, I seen either. Okay, I did your homework,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: but you didn't get to either of those. Yes, Woodstock
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 3: was on my homework list. Ah, I did watch other
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 3: movies for the first time for that one, but didn't
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 3: get to Woodstock. Okay, Well, we do have I'll say,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 3: I think maybe I've plugged this already, but we do
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 3: have a great movie deathmatch for fans of concert movies,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: a great movie deathmatch coming up. The first Monday of
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 3: September stopped making sense versus the last Waltz, So look forward,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 3: Look Forward, to that one.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks again to Ernie and Alex for their support for listening.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow them on letterboxed. Ernie is
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: at hard Tale sixty seven. Alex is Alex the Great eighteen.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 3: You can learn more about joining the Film Spotting Family
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 3: at Filmspottingfamily dot com. Early in ad free listening, wherever
• 1:17:23
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• 1:17:26
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• 1:17:33
  Speaker 3: Spotting Family Discord. Hey, it's just like a message board.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 3: Don't be scared of it if you've never been on Discord,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: and it's a great group of people, definitely nothing to
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 3: be scared of. You also get exclusive opportunities like being
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: part of Film Spotting Family Madness, naming the best films
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 3: of the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties. Josh, we are
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: down to the championship match. Yeah, saw this and it
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 3: did come down to the Wizard of Oz versus Sherlock Junior,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 3: two films that are in the film Spotning pantheon, which
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 3: seems only appropriate.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: Seems appropriate. I like the matchup. You know, Keaton obviously
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: chosen by listeners over chaplain to represent the great genre
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: of silent comedy from that era. I don't no. I
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: can't wait to see how Keating fars against the Wizard
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: of Oz though. It just seems too big of a
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: task even for him to knock Oz out. But you've
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: been paying closer attention to how these matchups have gone
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: so far. Am I under selling Sherlock Junior?
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 3: It's going to be very tough for Sherlock Junior to
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 3: overtake the Wizard at all his might? I will say that.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 3: But you still have time to vote. As you are
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 3: listening to this, we encourage you to do so. And
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 3: if you were an early Film Spotting Family voter, you
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 3: may not have had a chance to vote in the
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 3: third place matchup. I forgot that we do normally put
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 3: up a third place poll, so you do have a
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 3: chance still to determine the third place winner. Is it
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 3: m or is it city Lights? So please do go
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: back and vote in that contest if you haven't already.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 3: August Josh, the monthly bonus show you're going to get
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 3: is a Blind Spotting review. The poles are still open
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 3: there too, but it does look like it's going to
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 3: be Kiyoshi Kurasawa's cure. I think nineteen ninety seven. I'll
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 3: finally get to say I've seen a Kiyoshi Kurasawa film.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 3: You'll get to say you've seen two if we do
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 3: that film.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited about that. I was happy with any
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: of these picks, but this would be a good one
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: with the samurai and the prisoner still in theaters too,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: and kurs how on people's mind.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 3: I like that if you want to hear that conversation
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 3: which includes producer sam and all those other benefits just
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: joined the film spotting family at film spotting family dot com.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 3: Don't forget to take that twenty percent discount that's running
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: for a couple of more weeks here. Use the promo
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: code summer you work in Akoju before Sorry. Yeah, we
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 3: open Wednesday to Sunday.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: Started eleving a What time is it?
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 3: That means that you're here at ten forty five?
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 4: Eleven is late?
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 3: Anyone late?
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 4: He's five?
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: You know I can cook too. Tony is the new
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: biopic about the early restaurant career of the late chef,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: writer and TV personality Anthony Bourdain. The movie's directed by
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 3: Matt Johnson and stars dominic Cessa as Bordain, best known
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 3: for his role in Alexander Paines The Holdovers. Annoyingly, Josh
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: Tony has not yet expanded to my region of the world,
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: which means I have not yet had a chance to
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: see it. But you have seen it. Johnson, It's worth
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 3: noting did also make my favorite film of the year
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: so far, Nirvana, the Band, The Show, the Movie. I'm
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 3: curious whether he brings any of the inspired madness of
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 3: that film to this bio pick. But also as someone
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 3: who is enough of a Boordain fan that I once
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 3: ordered The Crab back at Swan Oyster Depot in San
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 3: Francisco solely because on Parts unknown he called its buttery enterds,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 3: unicorn juice and a touchstone in my worldwide wanderings. Is
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 3: there any chance that two Matt Johnson movies are going
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: to make my top ten of the year.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Buttery innards, Yeah, buttery its yeah, Okay, well, yeah, that's
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: what they are.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 3: Unicorn juice. Doesn't that sound delicious?
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to return
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: to that. I think you're gonna love this movie, Adam,
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: and it's it's good. I enjoyed it. But yeah, given
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: your background with Boordain and enjoying Johnson's film, which I
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: also enjoyed previous to this, though very different energy going
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: on here, there is some anarchy here. This depiction of
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: Bordain at this age is one of a person trying
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: to find themselves and doing that all externally, not you know,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: not sitting in a room writing in a journal, but
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: living loudly with other people in their lives and making
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: mistakes and messing up their lives. And it is in
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: that sense something of an anti hero drama. I think
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: you can sense a little bit in the filmmaking style
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: actually the film Drain and the time frame this has
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: a nineteen seventies feel to it. I forget the exact
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: year that this is supposed to take place. But the
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: most consistent through line in terms of it being an
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: antiher drama is Sessa's performance. I think we were both
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: just incredibly excited to encounter him as a screen presence
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: in The Holdovers, couldn't wait to see what he did next,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: and this is a great part for him to just
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: double down on the lanky, uncomfortability that he brought to
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: The Holdovers, and here as Bordain, You just get the
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: sense that he does not care what anyone thinks of
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: him as a character or as an actor. He's not
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: pulling any punches here. And his physicality is so much
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: a part of this. One of Bourdain's instincts, This Bordain's instincts.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: His age is just to instinctively lie all the time.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: And I love in the physicality. It's almost like Sessa
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: has this very prominent Adams apple and I'm just imagining
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: like the truth getting caught in that in that Adam's apple,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: and it just the truth can't come out. This kid
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: just lies about his past, about who he is, who
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: he wants to be, And Susa is mesmerizing to watch
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: as that sort of character. The movie overall, you can
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: feel it sanding off some of the more unlikable qualities
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: that might come with that. The line a little bit,
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: the drug abuse, alcohol abuse. You know, there are bursts
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: of violence here that Sessa commits to, but that instinct
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: in this character fades away as the movie gradually wants
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: this to be a learning experience. Summer that gave us
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: got us closer to the Bordained. You know that we
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: all treasure those who those who really followed his work,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: and so there's just something that moves further away from
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: a nineteen seventies anti hero drama like The Last Detail
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: or Scarecrow or some of these really bold they the
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: movie doesn't care what the audience thinks of the movie,
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: let alone the actor playing the anti hero. Tony does
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: care a little bit more Sessa doesn't. Tony does. Maybe
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: that's maybe that's fine for most people. I thought it
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: was maybe held it back a little bit for me,
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: but still good film, great performance, worth checking out, even
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: if you you know, don't know anything about Boordain. Really,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: I think it still would work for someone.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 3: I have been heartened to see that it's gotten mostly
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: positive reviews in addition to your positive review. So I
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 3: think this weekend is when I finally do get a
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: chance to see Tony as it is expanding wide. If
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 3: you have thoughts on Josh's take, email us feedback at
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 3: film Spotting.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: You're at Sacksburger. The at Sacksburger, right, the poet that
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: was a long time ago, You were brilliant. He wrote
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: a masterpiece.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 6: It's as if the poems were written yesterday.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: They're moving, they're scathing, they're timeless. We all think, so
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: my whole group, your group, and we both caught up
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: with Late Fame. This is the latest from critic turn
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: director Kent Jones previously made the documentary Hitchcock True Foe
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: and then more recently Diane. Late Fame is currently playing
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: in limited release. It stars Willem Dafoe as a New
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: York poet who's mostly forgotten work has been taken up
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: by a group of young artists. Now, Diane was something
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: of a showcase for Mary kay Place she played the
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: title character. I was very much about that character's experience
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: in the world and psychology. How did you think Late
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: Fame worked along those lines? When it comes to Defoe,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: I think a universally beloved actor with an enormous body
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: of work early in his career, maybe a few chances
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: to be center of a movie, but you know, not
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: so much more lately. I think we think of him
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: as a welcome supporting presence in movies. Here he is
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: center stage. How did it work as a showcase for him?
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 3: I haven't seen Diane, though I have seen other Kent
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: Jones films. In fact, he was interviewed here on the
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 3: show for Hitchcock Trufoe, that documentary, which I believe was
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 3: his first film. But hearing that about Mary Kay Place
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 3: and it being a showcase your reaction to it, that
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: doesn't surprise me. After watching Late Fame. I almost never
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 3: recommend a movie for this primary reason, and there are
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 3: other rewards here, but Willem Dafoe's layered, laconic, layered performance
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 3: makes Late Fame worth seeking out. That's what I think
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 3: the attraction really is here. And it's not so much
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 3: that I didn't go back and look at his filmography
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 3: and and break it down. It's not so much that
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 3: we've never seen Dafoe play someone so normal, I suppose,
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 3: but it still feels a little bit novel. And maybe
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: the Florida Project, Yeah exactly, yeah a key, Yeah, Yeah,
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 3: that's that's a standout too. There's no like that character.
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 3: There's no real melancholy to this man, this this poet
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 3: who's now a postal worker named Ed Sachsberger. But he
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: just plays him with such acceptance, he plays him with
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 3: a certain resignation. There's a there's a certain man that
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 3: he used to be and there's the man he is now.
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 3: But it's not as if you just understand with Dafoe immediately,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 3: the history that he brings to this man, the arc.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 3: There wasn't some transformation, just the just the art of
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 3: time and the idea or the sense that you become
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 3: who you are. And this this encounter with this very idiosyncratic,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 3: eccentric group of aspiring artists. I guess some of them
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 3: are our artists in their own in their own way
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 3: that that say they have discovered this book of poems
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 3: he wrote and and admire him like he's a genius.
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 3: This this jolts some recognition back into him of this,
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 3: this previous, this previous soul, that he was a man
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: who who like artists are, or or who like we
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: presume artists are, someone who who couldn't help but react
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 3: to the sounds and the sights and and the people
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 3: that he encountered, the experiences around him, and he funneled
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 3: all of that into his work. And that's that's just
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 3: not the person that that he is now. And the
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 3: way Dafoe brings all of that to this character, for
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: me was was something that I just found really enjoyable
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 3: watching Late Fame.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting you say he doesn't have a sense
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: of melancholy. I think you're absolutely right. I think you
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: know this character. It's not even that he's accepted where
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: his life has led as you describe it. The passage
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: of time is so good because it's just where he is.
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: But he goes about he's a postal worker. Now he
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: works out a post office, and we see him going
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: through his routine. And you're right, he's not trudging, he's
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: not sighning. This is just he's not better. He's not better,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: exactly right. But I will say what I liked about
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: Late Fame, in addition to de Foe's performance, was that
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: I did find it has an undercurrent of melancholy. And
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: so what you don't get here is this group rediscovering him,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: as they say, and bringing him back into a lying
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: and suddenly the fame that was short lived and went
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: away has returned and he you know, and not to
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: give away exactly where this ends, but it is not
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: that inspirational type story that it could have then. And
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: I think the melancholy that the movie does hold is
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: more about the dissatisfaction that an artistic life will give
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: if the satisfaction you seek is always recognition. And while
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: I think that's healthy, there's something inevitably sad about that,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: and I think the movie is true about that, and
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: so I appreciated it. I did find I did find
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: I struggled a little bit with this is a movie, Adam,
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: that I don't know if it needed, you know, another
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: pass on the screenplay and I'll mention it's you know,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: the people behind it in a second, or if it
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: just needed more screen time for some of these characters.
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: I did find this world outside of Dafoe and his
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: New York not as well lived in as I had hoped,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: or as unbelievable isn't the right word. But I did
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: find both the young men who are part of this
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: group and they call themselves the Enthusiasm Society, and obviously
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: they're supposed you're supposed to laugh at them a little
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: bit at the beginning. I didn't feel like the movie's
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: portrait of them progressed much past that. As a matter
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: of fact, it leaves the main leader of the group,
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: played by Edmund Donovan, I think really kind of does
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: him dirty where how that character ends in terms of
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: seeing them as kind of naive jokes. Now on the
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: other end of that, ed the defaux character hangs out
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: now with his fellow workers at the post office at
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: a Billiard's Hall, Pool Hall. And I also felt the
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: depictions of them were a little less lived in as well,
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: and some sequences of confrontation with them felt a little
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: stage And I just don't know if the movie needed
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: more time to percolate what it might be the background here.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: Now Kent Jones wrote the script for Diane, that's not
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: the case here. He's working with a very talented screenwriter,
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: Sammy Birch, who did May December here adapting in Arthur
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: Schnitzler novella, so clearly talented people at work. It's just
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: it felt like it needed to marinate a little more
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: until I experienced something that felt again. I just keep
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: going back to the idea of lived in. Maybe even
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: I guess I was thinking at him, you know, this
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: group of young artists, they're on the verge of being
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: Wes Anderson caricatures. But I think what you always feel
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: when you get those sorts of figures in an Anderson
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: film is the silliness but also also a deep warmth
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: for them and for their dreams. And I could see
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: the movie kind of wanted this that to be a quality.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: Here in late fame, but it didn't quite through for me.
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: Probably worth mentioning in terms of performance, though, Greta Lee
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: as well, who's an actress and a spiring actress, kind
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: of on the fringes of this group. Like Dafoe, who
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: gets a great showcase sequence reading one of his character's
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: original poems at a recital that this group sets up.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: She has a monologue there that's kind of a kind
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: of a showstopper, and she gets an earlier piece of
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: performance that's, you know, musical performance that's pretty incredible to
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: outside of those her character also feels a little you know,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: could have used more deepening. But in those sequences of performance,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: man does she pop. And as you said, Dafoe, so
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: good throughout.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 5: My book.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 4: It's an honor to meet you, mister sachs Perk.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 3: Of course this sick xactly how you would look. So
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 3: here is right here, but you will again. You might
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 3: think the boys are silly, but they have connections. I
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 3: take point about Lee, and those two stand out performances
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 3: are standouts. But I didn't know that Lee, just full disclosure,
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that she had that theatricality in her
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 3: I haven't seen that in her previous work, and to
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 3: see it come out here was startling in a good way.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 3: And I think the fact that she is playing such
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 3: a literally theatrical character, someone who is who is almost
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 3: acting like Norma Desmond in every scene in terms of
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 3: her bigness, To then have that offset by at least
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 3: one scene where we understand that this is someone who
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 3: is actually quite wounded and quite vulnerable, I thought that
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 3: that at least added some more depth to that character
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 3: that made me appreciate both performance and the character more.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 3: I do agree with your overall thoughts on on the
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 3: broadness of the two groups here, the two worlds that
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 3: he is trying to navigate. Maybe what you said about
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 3: Meyers the Leader and Edmund Donovan, he was someone I
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 3: felt like I'm not familiar with, maybe I've seen him
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 3: in other performances. Was very interested in him as a character,
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 3: and you can see how that character and the enthusiasm
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 3: that he brings for Sacksburger's work, how intoxicating that could be.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 3: You said that it kind of does him dirty. Maybe
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 3: you can clarify that, I don't know what doing him
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 3: dirty would be, because I really appreciated the slipperiness of
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 3: that character and that ultimately I don't know who he is,
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 3: and I don't think that's the fault of the screenplay.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 3: I don't think that character knows exactly who or what
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 3: he is. I think he is so struggling to figure
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 3: out what he is, what kind of an artist he is,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 3: what success is to him. There is a part of
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 3: him that is the real deal in so many ways
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 3: and an absolute fraud in so many ways. And I
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 3: think the movie understands that about him.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess I didn't find that complicated. I found
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: it simple where he registered as a phony pretty much
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: from the beginning, and there are glimpses here there of
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: where he wants to be something more authentic but only
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: knows how to fake it. And his final scene is
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: kind of tripling down on his phoniness and then he
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: just disappears. Yeah, you know, the final it goes back
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: to the Wes Andersonian warmth. You know, even that character,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: he's not a villain. But if there if there was
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: a villain in this movie, in this movie, in this story,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: it would probably be him. But even that character, you know,
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: to the points you're making that you picked up on
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: more these other sides to him. I would like to
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: have seen a warmth towards those desires of his rather
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: than repeated examples of his phoniness, even though there's a
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: great there's a really funny bit involving a command to
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: Alexa and his character that yeah, I got.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 3: Word, I got pasted. I got past the phoniness and
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 3: started to believe him the same way that ed does.
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 3: And I think that's to both Edmund Donovan's credit but
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 3: also to Defoe's credit, right that I started to And
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 3: I don't even think it's a matter of succumbing or
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 3: wanting to believe it too much, though there's that element there,
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 3: without a doubt, there is that part of it because
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 3: you're seeing it through that character's eyes, through Sacksburger's eyes.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 3: But it's also that it's in the performance and it's
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 3: in the writing. To an extent. I saw enough conviction
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 3: in him, and I think there is enough conviction inside him.
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 3: There's so much truth in what he's saying.
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 5: But the.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 3: Fraudulent part of him is there. There's a huckster in
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 3: and you're right then at the end, the way that
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 3: the way that character presents himself. Ultimately, I thought push
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 3: that character too far. And you see something similar happen
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 3: with the Enthusiasm Society, even in its presentation of you know,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 3: the scene where they're they're telling ed kind of who
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 3: they all are in the lay of the land, and
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 3: they say over there, those are the influencers. And that
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 3: seemed to me like such a naive way, lack of
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 3: word of presenting what I can't imagine that even in
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 3: New York City there's actually a group of people who
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 3: sit around and call themselves or or think of themselves
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 3: as influencers, who sit around at the top of a
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 3: of a bar with their phones, and they don't sit
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 3: around in a group like that.
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: And what it did, exactly what it did, is it
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: reflected back on the caricature nature of the Enthusiasm Society.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: Is like, so, yeah, it meant to distinguish them, but
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: it really only mirrored it. So yeah, that wasn't one
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: of the strong points either, I think. But again I
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: think we'd both Yeah, I think we both still recommend
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: late Fame a lowly on the strength of the PA.
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 3: I'll just add that what you said about Melancholy, I
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 3: think is ultimately right where I was thinking. More is
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 3: that there isn't that bitterness in him? There isn't that
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 3: regret in him now?
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: But which is interesting.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 3: Yes, But the more he interacts, the more he does
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 3: think about who he used to be, the more he
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 3: does think about the life of an artist. I think
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 3: some of that melancholy, that there is more melancholy in
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 3: him than he may have thought. That there is more
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 3: wanting in him, there's more desire, there's more desires in
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 3: him than he may have previously considered. And so I
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 3: think that is what makes that character interesting. And I'm
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 3: sure when you're talking about his friends and maybe a
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 3: bit of caricature and how they're portrayed and some of
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 3: the writing, this is what I would say about Defoe's performance.
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 3: There's a scene where he interacts with them on the
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 3: occasion of a birthday for one of those factors, and
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 3: it gets a little bit overwrought, and I don't think
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 3: that the line delivery. I don't think that the line
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 3: that Defoe's character has to say is particularly believable. I
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 3: think he says something like you have no idea who
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 3: you're talking to, which the implication is this is a
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 3: point where Ed is finally, maybe for the first time
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 3: since he was a young poet in forty fifty years
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 3: is feeling himself a little bit, and his feelings of
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 3: frustration are believable. It's the way he expresses it via
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 3: that line are not really believed and that that's all true.
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 3: But still, Josh watching it, I'm giving Dafoe enough credit
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 3: that he says it with enough melancholy, he says it
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 3: with enough layers attached to it. It's it's subtle conviction.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 3: It's not so much force that I almost heard it
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 3: more like a question than a pure admonishment. It was
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 3: almost like he was while he was saying it, it
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 3: was like he was trying to get a grasp on
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 3: It was almost like it was revealing of himself. I
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 3: have no idea who you're talking to at this point,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 3: more than he was really trying to put them in
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 3: their place. So that that that told me just how
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 3: in tune I was with Dafoe.
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that That's was a key scene for me in
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: this notion of the movie needed to simmer some more
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: because so much happened in that scene. Whereas I loved
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: what it wanted to do, but I needed ed to
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: more slowly realize the things that the screenplay was asking
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: him to realize and portray in those three minutes. Now,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: to your point, Defoe kind of saves the scene, right,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: But he's coming to realization here. Maybe I don't fit
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: in with these guys who've been my friends for the
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: past twenty years and my coworkers as well as I thought.
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: And that's one of the things the screenplay wants him
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: to realize during this one confrontation at the birthday party,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: when in reality, like it would have been a long time,
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: many more scenes of this to be a developing awareness.
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a movie. We only have what ninety
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: to two hours, ninety minutes of two hours, But in
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: a movie as thoughtful and as quiet and as patient
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: as this, it's a bit jarring when those sorts of
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: realizations are expected to happen quickly in one scene.
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think that's exactly right, and I
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 3: will just give it credit. Though for me, the Miliu
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 3: New York in the Fall artists all that intellectual discussion,
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 3: the conflict of it being all of the quiet variety
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 3: that it is. There's no major drama here. Yeah, it
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 3: was for me, at least for the first forty five minutes.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 3: It was all just cat nip. This was this was
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 3: such such a movie. I felt like I hadn't seen
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 3: in a long time, and I was really enjoying it.
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: I love that it's either I mean, I would guess
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: it feels from the way people are moving through the
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: city like February. You know, you've they've got their coats
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: to be that they've been on for months and the
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: hat is just what defoe? You know that spoiler cap
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: like what you do now? And I love that sort
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: of It's somehow romantic without being movie New York romance.
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would fall, but it's not. It's not fall
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 3: like leaves are falling. It's not that romantic older trail.
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 3: It's colder. Yeah. Late Fame is out now in limited release.
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 3: We'd love to hear your thoughts about it if you've
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 3: seen it feedback at Film spotting dot Net. Wanted to
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 3: take a moment Josh to talk about an opportunity that
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 3: Sam and I had just this past week where we
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 3: got an email fairly out of the blue from a
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 3: Netflix rep, someone who we've known for a while who
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 3: does pr for Netflix. Actually, someone David Kuozo, who has
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 3: been a longtime listener of this show who knows that
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 3: I'm located in Iowa, and said, you know, the Twins
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 3: and Phillies are playing. MLB has done a couple of
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 3: games here at the Field of Dreams, which is in Dyersville,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 3: maybe an hour and a half from where I'm located.
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 3: And they said, Twins and Phillies are playing in about
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 3: a week. Would you be interested in coming to the game.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 3: And I said, well, yeah, of course I'm interested in
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 3: coming to the game. I like baseball, I grew up
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 3: on baseball. I love the movie Field of Dreams. I
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 3: have only been to the Field of Dreams once, but
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 3: it was a pretty great experience. When Sarah took me
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 3: for a milestone birthday fairly recently, I said, the only
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 3: thing is I gotta bring my producer. Can Sam come?
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 3: And they said they said, no problem. So Sam and
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 3: I are pretty excited. But Josh, we don't realize until
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 3: the night before when we get our tickets that we're
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 3: sitting right behind home plate. We're sitting in the second
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 3: row right behind home plate, Big Way, So we had
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to not only go and spend a few
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 3: hours at the Field of Dreams where it's one of
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 3: those movie sets where you get to get to actually
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 3: just walk around the field is the movie set, and
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 3: you get to sit on the benches just like they
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 3: do in the movie scenes. You get to walk up
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 3: to the house, you get to go to the pitcher's
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 3: mound and the batter's box and do the whole thing.
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 3: You get to walk into the corn and all that stuff.
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 3: But then you get to walk through the corn and
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 3: walk over to this new field that they've constructed just
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 3: for this game, okay, and sit down in this small
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 3: little stadium that only holds eight thousand people, and we
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 3: get to sit there. I've never had seats that good
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 3: for a Major League baseball game or any baseball game
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 3: other than maybe Little league. And we got to sit there,
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 3: and it was fascinating because we even had one listener, Josh,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 3: who didn't know about us going to this game but
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 3: just happened to be watching the game on Netflix and
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 3: sent me a note on Facebook and was like, I
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 3: see you on Netflix right now. Didn't recognize Sam because
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 3: he had his glasses on and a hat on, but
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 3: did recognize me sitting there in the second row. It
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 3: really was a great time just being able to hang
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 3: out with Sam for a couple hours, sit at the ballpark,
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 3: watch a great game. The Phillies kind of crushed the
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 3: Twins seven to one. Schwarber hit at least two home runs?
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 3: Did he hit three? I need to look back at
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 3: the box score. He hit at least two home runs,
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 3: including a leadoff home run right into the corn.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 5: Schwarmer with a shout out to the corn and line,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 5: kiss your buckets. Job.
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 2: What a way to open the ball game.
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 3: We had a great time. So I have to think
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 3: I have to thank David Ross, Lipschultz, It at Netflix,
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 3: Corey Rosen, they all made this happen for us, and
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 3: it's it's an experience we'll never forget.
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you guys got it in because I know,
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: whether you know, as it was across the Midwest last week,
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: weather was dicey and there was a question you might
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: not be able to make it, So yeah, go ahead,
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: how about that.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 3: We woke up that morning, as you know, we had
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 3: a film spotting production meeting that morning and the forecast
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 3: was so bad. Sam and I were talking about how
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 3: this is going to get called off, right, Like maybe
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 3: we shouldn't even drive there because it was it was
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 3: rain all day and it looked like into the night too,
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 3: and we got nothing. It stopped it. It stopped at
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 3: like noon and never started again, and the game happened
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 3: and it was beautiful. So thanks again to everyone who
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 3: made that happen. And if you do want to stare
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 3: at Sam and I as we watch a baseball game
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 3: and occasionally eat concession food, you can do that the
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 3: games available to stream on Netflix. It's very weird having
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 3: to be self conscious when you watch a baseball game,
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 3: knowing that your friends and family are watching the game
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 3: and watching you and everything.
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: Like, Sam played it right though. I like that he
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: has a disguise for he's so famous now as Film
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: Spotting producer, he goes out, he has to do the
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: baseball cap and sunglasses. There you go.
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 3: Some other business we wanted to take care of recently
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 3: in the Film Spotting feed. We have really enjoyed showcasing
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 3: some other shows that are part of our Inflection Network,
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 3: and we have recently partnered with a show called Table Read.
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 3: That is a great show. And you'll understand why as
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 3: you hear a little bit about the show, and as
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 3: you hear some of those shows, Josh, the show is
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 3: such a good fit with film Spotting that we're actually
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 3: going to be showcasing them over the next four weeks.
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 3: So Film Spotting listeners every Saturday or Sunday are going
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 3: to get a table Read show in the Film Spotting feed.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 3: So we thought, why don't have the guys from table
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 3: Read and the show title tells you a little bit,
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 3: gives you an idea what the show is like and
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 3: what the content is about. We thought, why not give
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 3: our listeners a little bit of a sense of what
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 3: the show is, who the people are behind it, why
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 3: we're featuring it in the Film Spotting feed. And that's
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 3: what we're going to do now. I taped a little
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 3: conversation with the three executive producers of Table Read, and
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 3: we would like to bring that to you now. All right,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 3: I'm very pleased to be joined now by the executive
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 3: producers of Table Read, Sean Sharma, Mark Nell, Jack Levy.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 3: Table Read a podcast that we're excited to be partnering with.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 3: Film Spotting. Listeners are going to be getting table Read
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 3: in their feed here over the next few weeks. The
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 3: podcast is Webby nominated, Shorty nominated, and iHeart Podcast Awards
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 3: nominee Just tons of accolades that I'm sure we will
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 3: touch on here as we talked to Mark, Jack and Sean,
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 3: and I actually want to start with you, Sean, because
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 3: I'd love to share with our audience the origin story.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 3: How did table read come about?
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, And we're Webby Winners, not just nominated
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 5: Webby Winners. He won the Best Fiction last year, which
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 5: was just amazing. But my apologies, no, no, it's an
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 5: honor to be nominated and having one. But you know,
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 5: the story just comes to the fact that I got
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 5: involved in SAG after leadership and volunteers and back around
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 5: twenty fifteen. And in twenty sixteen, I was sitting around
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 5: with some of my co leaders there saying, how do
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 5: we work more with our partners in filmmaking, especially the
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 5: writers at the Writers Guild.
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 3: Because there's so.
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 5: Many great scripts that have not been brought to life.
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 5: It's easy for us to bring actors together to read
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 5: those scripts and then we get to enjoy that experience
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 5: with each other. So we started doing table reads. It
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 5: started doing them in person, especially at the American Film
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 5: Institute in North Hollywood here, and we started working with
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 5: the Blacklist with eventually Coverfly with the Writers Guild members,
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 5: the Writers Guild Foundation, and Jack would start coming to
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 5: attend some of those table reads. He was just so
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 5: interested and loved what we were doing and where our
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 5: brains were starting to turn on about how we can
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: do something together with this, and we started pitching like
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 5: a TV show idea we were excited about that was
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 5: kind of like the Hollywood Report, a round table with
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 5: all the actors sitting around in a circle and having
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 5: a conversation. And then the pandemic struck and that kind
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 5: of put a pin in that conversation. And then Jack
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 5: was getting all kinds of offers to help the Universal
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 5: and other studios kind of build their podcast departments, and
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 5: he's like, why don't we do it as a podcast.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 5: So that's when he reached out to Mark and we
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 5: started to taking some of our favorite scripts and bringing
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 5: them into a studio with the actors sitting in a
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 5: circle and a'll miked up and we would have an
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 5: incredible read. We would deck out the space like we
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 5: did with the in person reads, and then you know,
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 5: Jack would go to town with his team to produce
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 5: all the audio after the recording, with sound effects and
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 5: music and all this stuff. So it sounds like you're
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 5: listening to a movie. But as Jack says so brilliantly,
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 5: it combines the best aspects of live performance like seeing
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 5: theater or something, with the polish of a major Hollywood
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 5: studio with somebody who's won an Emmy for his work.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 5: So that's kind of where it came from, just a
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 5: passion for stories. And you know, the one thing I
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 5: like to point out is that the table read is
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 5: the one time that the writer's writing is done kind
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 5: of purely without being changed, because as soon as they
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 5: sell it to a studio, they're out of the mix.
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 5: As soon as you get it produced and edited, it's
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 5: going to be changed during production and editing. So table
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 5: reads are such a gift because it's the purest expression
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 5: of what that writer wrote. And we wouldn't have any
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 5: of the movies or TV shows we love without the writers.
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 5: So it's it started as a love letter to them
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 5: and it's just become such a gift.
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 3: Quick follow of Sean, how are the writers then typically
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 3: involved in the table read taping?
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 5: Well, when we started doing them, we just said, you know, hey,
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 5: just you know, we would love to do a table
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 5: read of your script or the writers Guild would just
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 5: bring us a script or you know, the Blacklist would
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 5: just bring us a script, and then we would just
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 5: go to town. We would you know, highlight the scripts
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 5: for all the actors, cast the actors. We would have
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 5: table tents and food inspired by the script. So if
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 5: there's lasagna in the script, we'd have lasagna at the reading.
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 5: We'd deck out the room, we'd have trailers on the TV,
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 5: we'd have we just went we We even had to
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 5: deal with the prop house in La to have professional
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 5: movie props on the table for people to get inspired by.
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 5: So it became kind of like a planet Hollywood or
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 5: like a rainforest cafe of the writer's vision. And they
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 5: would walk in just given a time in a day
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 5: and they'd be like, who are you people?
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 6: How are you doing all of this for me?
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 5: For a stranger, for free? And so we never asked
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 5: them to do anything other than come and just be celebrated.
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 3: Jack this show, as we heard webbe winning number one
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 3: on Apple podcasts us Fiction chart. So clearly you've had
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of success. What would you say is the
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 3: secret sauce? What has contributed to the success of this show.
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 6: It's the same thing that contributes to the success of
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 6: your show. We start with great stories, great great storytelling,
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 6: and that's unobstructed. It's like the most altruistic musician is
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 6: all about the music. They're not about the marketing. They're
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 6: not about how much they sell each record for.
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 6: So, you know, we are all inside the Hollywood garden
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 6: and we all see amazing scripts every day. We've all
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 6: been sent scripts by the studios that for some reason
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 6: don't get made and you think, what happened to that
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 6: brilliant piece of IP I read? So it starts with
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 6: the story. But the real secret sauce is the community.
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 6: You know, people who come to Los Angeles to be
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 6: in film, to be in music. They love making independent films.
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 6: They love going into the studio and recording records. And
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 6: that's not about the business of Hollywood. That's about the
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 6: creative of Hollywood. And literally, we have the finest of
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 6: every trade, writers, actors, musicians, post production people, right, and
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 6: we deliver the secret sauces. We deliver award winning trades.
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 6: I mean literally, We've had Tony winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners,
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 6: We've had you know everyone on our show, you know,
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 6: I mean Oscar multiple Oscar nominees. The only thing we
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 6: don't have is the studio. So it's the very best
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 6: part of Hollywood. And listen, the worst part of the
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 6: movie business is the business part. People love making films,
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 6: So it's the community and who shows up. And by
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 6: the way, it's not just the celebrity element. You know,
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 6: working professionals, writers with scores of scripts, people who've been
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 6: in the writer's room but never been feed you know,
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 6: the most award winning scripts that have never been made.
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 6: We do those. But at the same time, you know,
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 6: we've worked with anonymous content and Scooter Braun and Tom Holland.
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 6: And I'll tell you something that Sean doesn't know. Just yesterday,
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 6: I got a script from Paul Schrader Wow, an unproduced
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 6: script written in nineteen seventy eight from the guy who
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 6: wrote A Taxi Driver American Jigglow. I mean, I mean,
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 6: come on, raging Bull. And you know, he wrote such
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 6: a gracious letter about the show, So you.
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 3: Know, that's fantastic. A one time, a one time guest
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 3: here on Film Spotting. That was at first a very
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 3: intimidating interview, and then he was kind of a teddy
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 3: bear to talk to, so it was well.
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 6: As I said, it's about community. You know, it's no
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 6: different than Slash having a jam session at his house.
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 6: Everyone who shows up shows up without the pretense because
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 6: they love the art. Every time we do a table read,
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 6: everyone Sean fills that room with It does not matter
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 6: if they're just getting started or they have a shell
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 6: full of statues. There's zero ego when you show up
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 6: on a set, Adam, there is always ego because there's
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 6: agents and who's getting paid more and why didn't my
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 6: lines come in right? None of that happens, And I
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 6: think that translates to the content. People have a great time,
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 6: and it translates to the energy of the read we do,
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 6: which translates to the thirty awards we've.
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 5: Won absolutely quick. Little thing like we all geeked out.
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 5: I've been on a show for the last eight years
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 5: called The Chosen, and when Paul wrote a post about
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 5: how much he loved our show, we all were just
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 5: like wowed because we have so much reverence for him.
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 5: So that's super cool Jack to get that.
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm gonna pin him on that today.
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna send him a no, He's gonna love that
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 6: tie in. I'm telling you. I mean, as you know,
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 6: he's a community guy. I think most of the top
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 6: people are commune. They put up with the business because
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 6: they have to. It's nothing that they like.
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, Mark, we we have a lot of aspiring
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 3: writers and current writers in our audience, So I think
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 3: they're they're really going to enjoy if they're not already
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 3: familiar with your show, getting familiar with your show, and
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 3: I'd love to give them some starting points. So can
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 3: you share with them a favorite episode of yours and
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 3: also also give them some context on the first episode
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 3: that we're going to drop into our feed for them.
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 3: I believe it's called Suburban Night, Act one. Yeah.
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll give you two of my favorites. And and
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 2: you know it's hard. It's it's you know, I have
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 2: four children and eight grandchildren, and if I had to
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 2: pick a favorite, I probably could, but I couldn't say
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 2: it out loud. But dream World is one of my
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 2: favorites written by Senny post to Leone Uh, the lead
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 2: uh in that in that one is one of the
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 2: faces that you see right here on the screen, And
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 2: it's just it's such a wonderful script with characters that
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 2: we all loved that. We all grew up with, you know,
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 2: a little bo peep and and Jack and the bean stock,
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 2: but they're all twisted in a really really wonderful way
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 2: and it's a it's a it's a really it's an
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 2: adventure and it's it's so cool. The other one that
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 2: I really love came to us through Ty Burrell's production company.
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 2: It's called Peev and Franny, written by Tommy Wallack Uh
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 2: and actually Tie handles the narration of that script. Fred
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 2: Armison was attached to it. So Fred came in and
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 2: read with us, and the amazing Kensington Tallman, who is
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 2: just such an amazing actor. She and Liam Richardson read
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 2: lead for that script. Both just did such a great job.
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 2: So the Dreamworld and Peeb and Franny really hold a
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 2: special place in my heart. Suburbanite is super fun. Jim O'Hare,
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 2: Jade Taylor, Darren Tunder, Rob Fitzgerald who just did such
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 2: a great job. And then two of are really our
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 2: biggest supporters, Ashley Platts and Ze Golden, helped fill out
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 2: that and and the short is that there's a sex
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 2: demon that moves into a quiet neighborhood and Jim O'Hare
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 2: plays Walter Nope, kind of the bankrupt antique salesman, and
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 2: he's forced to enlist the help of Rob's character, who
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 2: is a B movie horror host, to kind of save things.
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 2: So that's written by Nick Banister. It is so freaking funny.
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 2: It's just terrific. I think that was I think this
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 2: is what the third script that Jim did with us,
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 2: and problem the fourth or fifth that Darren Tunder has
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 2: done with us. And that's what makes this so special
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 2: is we've kind of created this community of actors who
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 2: really not just enjoy doing what they do, but enjoy
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 2: kind of what has been created. And you know, I
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 2: will say that we created it in a sense, but
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 2: they all created right their their willingness to come into
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 2: this room and just enjoy themselves. One of the things
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 2: that we say is that we kind of lean on
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 2: the imperfection of what a table read is. So people listen,
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 2: they'll hear a fourth wall break that will sometimes leave in.
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 2: I think I've only taken a couple of them out.
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 2: One was during a very very emotional scene Sean got
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 2: the giggles.
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 3: And I.
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 2: Because I'm like, oh my gosh, that we can't leave
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 2: that in there, but it.
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 5: Will not let me live that down. He will not
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 5: let me.
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 2: But it really is it's you know, what has been created.
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 2: You know, yes, the three of us started it, but
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 2: but what has been created is this just this movement
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 2: of really wonderful, talented people who want to come in
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 2: and really do have such a good time in the room.
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 2: And that's what kind of I think makes it a
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 2: bit different than some of the other things.
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 3: Well, we are thrilled to hopefully not just be part
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 3: of a network together with you, but be part of
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 3: a community with you now. And I think thank you
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 3: so much for jumping on and sharing your story with us.
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks to Mark, Jack and Sean for giving some
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: time there to talk about table Read. As Adam said,
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: you will be getting some episodes the next few weeks
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: in your Film Spotting feed. If you'd like to go
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: ahead and subscribe to table Read, just go ahead and
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: do that wherever you listen to podcasts. Time now for
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: Massacre Theater, where Adam and I perform a scene and
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: you get a chance to win a Film Spotting prize.
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: Last time we massacred this scene.
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 4: What's the thoughts for two thousand degrees? Make enough to
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 4: turn steel into butter. We'll heard it first. It's too hot,
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 4: Issy a flame, series the nerve and shut killing them.
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 4: You're going to shock and oh you feel coold?
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: That was Thomas Jane with Eddie Jemison in two thousand
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: and four's The Punisher written by Jonathan Henslay and Michael France,
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: directed by Henslay. That massacre was part of our spider
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: Man brand New Day Show. So why that scene from
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: the Punisher.
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 3: Here is Pavla Masik in Toronto. This one was instantly
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 3: recognizable for me, even though I have not seen this
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 3: movie in nearly twenty years, and yes, I did return
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 3: to it to watch the director's cut, not only because
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 3: of the amazing rendition of Tom Jane's Punisher by Adam,
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 3: but also because it is one of the three good
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 3: scenes in the movie, the others being Harry Heck's song
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 3: and the fight with the Russian. Who could forget Howard
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 3: Hawks would not have liked this one. It has at
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 3: least three good scenes I remember, but at least a
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 3: few bad ones. But my bar for a good movie
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 3: is lower than great filmmakers. Adam, you should squeeze it in.
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 3: Roy Scheider is in it. I don't know if that's
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 3: all dually forgot that. The obvious connection is that John
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 3: Bernthall's rendition of the Punisher character appears in Spider Man
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 3: Brand New Day. But where's the fun in sticking to
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 3: the obvious connection? The Punisher connection itself goes a little deeper.
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 3: The Punisher two thousand and four was directed by Jonathan Hensley,
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 3: who also directed the late and talented Ray Stevenson as
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 3: the Punisher in Lexi Alexandra's Punisher war Zone, which also
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 3: had three good scenes but more than a few bad ones. Adam,
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 3: maybe a double bill. Sure that sounds torturous.
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: But wait, Pavla has more. The Punisher also connects to
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: everybody to Kenmeer Street, The Punisher two thousand and four
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: features John Travoltaz, it's main villain, who starred in Primary Colors,
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: alongside Emma Thompson, who, of course appears in Kenmer Street.
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: I scratched my head to connect the Punisher to the
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: Samurai and the Prisoner, but here goes Kyoshi Kurosawa directed
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: De Guero type am I saying that right, which I
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: was lucky enough to catch at Tiff, starring Tahi Raheem
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: who did appear in Madame Webb, perhaps the worst Spider
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: Man or at least Spider Man adjacent film to date.
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: To Hai Raheem also start.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 3: As a titular character in The mauritsh Maran Mauritanian.
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: Mauritanian Pabo is really putting me through it here, Mauritanian
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: co starring Benedict Cumberbatch aka Doctor Strange, who has shared
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: the screen with Tom Holland's Webslinger, who got through all
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: of those. Thank you Pavla for all.
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 3: That Jackson Goldberg was able to do what Pavla wasn't
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 3: in the interest of variety. I guess you could say
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 3: the scene finds Punisher extracting information from a shackled hostage
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 3: via unexpected means, like how Murashiga does in The Samurai
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 3: and the Prisoner kinda. Also, Punisher's last name is Castle,
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 3: a thing Japan had in abundance back then. I know
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 3: I'm reaching here, alas I don't think they had popsickles
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 3: in Feudal Japan.
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: We also heard from Eric Jensen in New Jersey Winning
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: Life as a viewer of Thomas James the Punisher, obviously
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: related Spider Man brand New Day as both feature actors
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: named Tom, the titular superhero suffering from the loss of
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: those closest Today. There's also the clear tying of Punishers
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: roommates being played by actors Rebecca Roman Mystique and Ben
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: Foster Angel, who may or may not play a role
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 1: in characters introduced in future MCU movies. If it's not
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: one of those two reasons, I'm not sure why you
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: choose the Punisher, unless you wanted more people to beware
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: of John Travolta's historic early two thousands run that included
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: Battlefield Earth Sword Swordfish Yikes, and film Spotting's first ever
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: review be Cool. Lastly, Adam, you nailed the coolness. Nailed it,
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: Thomas Jane oozed in nineties two thousands.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, Oozed. It sounds like an infection. Jeremiah Conway says,
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 3: I would like to note that the reason I am
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 3: not a winner is not because I've seen the film
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 3: I haven't, but because I recognized the scene from its
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 3: comic book inspiration Punisher war Zone number one. God help me.
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 3: I'm a forty eight year old man with a teenage
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 3: son and who teaches high school and am therefore trusted
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 3: with the safety and well being of about one hundred
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 3: kids a day, and yet I remembered that scene instantly.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 3: The joke is that he's holding a popsicle to the
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 3: guy's back and blow torching a hunk of meat or something.
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 3: This is why I'm not a winner.
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: Do't be so hard on yourself, Jeremiah. A final comment
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: from Josh Stolberg. Adam and Josh's performances hurt my ears
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: more than being tortured by Frank Castle and the Punisher,
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: which is where the scene comes from. And while most
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: will claim the connection is Frank Castle appearing in Brand
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: New Day, I'm certain they picked the Punisher because Brand
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: New Day was shot almost entirely in Glasgow, and everybody
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: to come your street focuses on Glasgow's Pollock shields protest
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: deep pull there, Josh, how about that very It was
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: all rage when we first arrived in Scotland because I
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: think they wrapped up possibly last summer. Yeah, Glasgow doubling
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: for New York City.
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 3: All right, thank you everybody for all the deep cuts there,
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 3: all the great feedback on mass theater, even though there
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 3: seems to be some disagreement about the spectacularness of my performance, Josh,
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 3: reach into the film Spotting hat and pick out this
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 3: week's winner.
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: Our winner is a familiar name family member, Julio Olivera
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: from Austin, Texas.
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 3: I don't think Julio has won before, which seems crazy.
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 3: Congratulations Julio. I know you don't need the trial membership
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 3: to the film Spotting family. Maybe you need a new
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 3: film Spotting t shirt or a tote bag. Email feedback
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 3: at film spotting dot net and we will hook.
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 4: You up with the toys symbol. Would the detours?
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 3: Would they simple?
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: Would the de tours?
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 3: Samet? Why do you say that?
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: Why do you say tour?
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 3: Will you said? Say it?
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 5: Like I said?
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 3: We move on now to this terrible accent edition of
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 3: Massacre Theater. We have definitely done this film before. I
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 3: can't believe we have never done this scene before. I
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 3: am positive, I'm I'm almost positive. We've played this scene
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 3: as of a top five and I think a lot
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 3: of people are going to get it, whether they have
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 3: seen this movie or not. So I'm happy with this choice.
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: Do you remember did this movie take a lot of
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: heat for the accents in it? I don't remember when
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: it came out. I remember it being widely beloved.
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know enough people saw it to get
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 3: mad about it.
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it. It wasn't initially a hit, but
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: I feel like it grew and people do love this movie.
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: We're both fans. But I gotta say, in my deep research,
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: which involved watching the scene just now, I don't know
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: how they weren't made fun of for these accents. Well,
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think you and I have to
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: do a lot of hamming it up here. We just
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: gotta play what we saw.
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 3: There's some heritage there at least with one of the
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 3: actors for sure, so they can get away with it, can't.
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: That doesn't get away with it. It doesn't always mean
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: it's good.
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 3: That is true. We'll see what we can get away
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 3: with or if we'll set back diplomatic relations one hundred years.
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 3: I started off, you're gonna give me the action? How
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 3: do I get into character here? I don't know I'm
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 3: playing the serious scold. I don't know I'll ever do it.
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: Yep, thank You'll be all right?
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 3: Okay, here we goin faction. Please just come on. I
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 3: want to know for who just make the side order spaghetti? Please,
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 3: I want to know for who is it the four
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 3: for the lady with the risotto? What why she likes starch?
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 3: Come on, I'll make it myself.
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 6: Dah, who are.
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: These the people in America? I needed to talk to her?
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 3: Oh? Please, what's you going to do? Tell the customer
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 3: what she can Eatah, that's what she wants. This is
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 3: what the customer asked for. Naked, make it the pasta? Naked,
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 3: make it, make it the pasta. Come on, let's go
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 3: and and the scene.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what did set back diplomatic relations? The
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: sargers we both chose to use. You have to unplanned,
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: you have to and probably deeply inappropriate.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 3: You can't do the scene without Wow. Okay, I know
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 3: what filmed. We just massacred email the movies title, your name,
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 3: and your location. Send him to feedback at filmspotting dot net.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 3: The deadline is Monday, huks thirty first. We will select
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 3: the winner randomly from all the correct entries and announce
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 3: it in a couple of weeks. I feel like I
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 3: might order risotto and spaghetti.
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: M sure, I'm always a good choice.
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 3: That's the show, Josh, Yeah, I think.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: We need to get out of here, find Adam in
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: the show on Instagram, Facebook and letterboxed, YouTube, Blue Sky,
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: as well at film spotting I'm at those places Larsen
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: on film We are independently produced and listeners supported. You
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: can support the show by joining the film Spotting Family
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: at film spottingfamily dot com. You can listen early in
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: ad free. You'll get monthly bonus episodes, a weekly newsletter,
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: and access to the entire show. For show t shirts
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: another merch go to filmspotting dot net slash shop.
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 3: Next week in the film Spotting Feed, the Movie Racket
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 3: with Michael Phillips will be examining this question about scoring music,
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 3: Michael's beloved topic, how much is how much is too much?
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 3: It's going to be a fun show. Tuesday, Film Spotting SVU.
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 3: They're looking at the high school theater dramedy. Don't say
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 3: good luck. It's got Sonny Sandler, Melanie Lynsky, Steve Buscemi,
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 3: Julia Hart, who made Fast Color and I'm Your Woman directs.
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 3: Sam van Holgren has seen it. He says, good movie,
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 3: exclamation point. Put it on the poster, he says, especially
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 3: for musical theater families. And he would know.
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: I was just going to ask surely. I mean, they
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: should have given Sam early access to this one. It's
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: sick at his all.
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 3: Thursday, The Next Picture Show has a new pairing clearly
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 3: similar mindset to me with the End of Oak Street
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 3: and so many others, David Robert Mitchell's The End of
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 3: Oak Street and Steve Spielberg's.
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: The War of the World. Back to Spielberg for them
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: and War of the Worlds, I'm gonna say I've got,
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: as you know, second tier Spielberg maybe third. Yeah, it's
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: a good one.
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 3: It's a really good down for me.
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: And it's definitely it's better than the End of Oak Street.
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: I'll say that.
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, we disagree, but we'll save that for another time.
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 3: Friday on Film Spotting, I'm putting an asterisk here because
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 3: as of this taping we don't have it scheduled, but
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 3: it is penciled in. We are hoping to do our
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 3: top five needle Drops with Rico Galiano from the Movie Podcast.
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 3: They just concluded taping and have put out their series
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 3: about the best needle drops in movie history, so we
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 3: thought we'd have him on and explore that topic with him.
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: All right, hope that works out. Film Spotting is produced
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: by Golden Joe to So and Sam Van Hoggren. Without
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: assistant is Sophie Kempenar. Special thanks to everyone at wb
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: EAZ Chicago. More information is available at wbez dot org.
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: For film Spotty, I'm Josh.
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 3: Larson and I met him Kempinar. Thanks for listening.
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 4: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore but burn