Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Gravity (2013) - Alfonso Cuarón | Houselights #162

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Gravity (2013) - Alfonso Cuarón | Houselights #162 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the ned Palty Discussion show here on the nerd Party Network. Today,
0:24
we're concluding the Ring of Coron with the works of Alfonso Coron with his
0:29
twenty thirteen film Gravity. In this ninety minute gasp of air, who knows
0:35
if we can leap frog our way along Low Earth orbit and make it back
0:39
home. I'm Darren seventy five hour Moser, and I'm joined again by my
0:44
friend's mission commander and MMU pilot John Mills, and I hope you know how
0:50
to duck flight engineer Tristan Riddell. Oh, man, this is fitting.
0:56
I get the flight engineers. I think these are accurate ranks. This works,
1:00
This works for me, feel right to me. It feels absolutely accurate.
1:03
There's like four people we see in this movie, guys, and like
1:07
the additional two that are just voices. So I had Slim Pickens, I'm
1:11
obviously Sandra Bullock, but no, yeah, resemblances a kid. Yeah,
1:15
I mean I would have taken Ed Harris being Ed Harris. But fine,
1:19
it's cool. You know, you get most gruesome space death of the century
1:26
because boy h yeah, so it's really funn Yeah, it's been a little
1:32
while since I had watched Gravity. This is again in the October twenty thirteen.
1:37
It's when this movie came out, and no, I was not lying.
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It is ninety one minutes long. By comparison this year in twenty twenty
1:45
three, Disney's animated classic Wish was ninety five minutes long. So it was
1:51
shorter than the Disney movie. Oh man, But you know what, it
1:55
was just long enough to tell its story. And I really appreciate that.
1:59
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's something I think that as we've gone through
2:04
this, I think that Quorn is fairly deft, and I think Gravity's a
2:08
good one to land on here where he knows his run times, he knows
2:14
how long he can keep an audience invested in what's going on, because this
2:20
is definitely a movie where you know, I'll tip my hand, I guess
2:23
a little bit where This is the first time I've come back to it in
2:27
a number of years. I think I've seen it once before, absolutely blew
2:30
me away. The first time I saw it, I was like, this
2:31
is amazing. Didn't have quite that same over the top reaction this time.
2:38
I definitely think that there are aspects of this that are this was intended This
2:44
is not a movie that's intended to be watched five hundred times sort of thing.
2:46
Yeah, it's intended to be watched and appreciated, but not too often,
2:52
because that ninety minutes both works for and against it. But to that
2:55
end, there isn't like another ten minutes you can squeeze out of this.
3:00
You're you're asking enough of the audience with this, and I think the quorn
3:05
has shown he's death enough at that. You look at Children of Men,
3:09
which still feels longer than it's run time, but I think that speaks to
3:14
his knowing when to cut it. And then you know, you look at
3:17
you know, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and you even look
3:21
at Great Expectations. He seems to know when the audience is going to start
3:24
to get antsy, and he will say, okay, this is where it
3:29
stops, so that you know, I get the best possible feeling from the
3:32
audience at the end, you know, part I admire. I like that
3:36
freeze fame of Sandra Bullock at the end where face is all blurry. No
3:39
wait that was Harry Potter and ask Fando, But yeah, no, I
3:45
same for me. I own this I bought it right away on Blu Ray,
3:49
and I've watched a handful of times. But yeah, it's definitely not
3:52
a going to pop in. I think watch it on as big of a
3:57
screen in as dark of a room as possible as you can, because it's
4:00
that kind of a movie, especially with some of the point of view shots.
4:06
And we'll get to I almost want to jump to awards first, but
4:11
first, Tristan, I want to hear your first exposure to gravity, not
4:15
on this planet, but in the theater. I was when this was teased
4:21
and this was advertised and everything like that, Like I was super excited.
4:27
I remember seeing the first trailer, and the first trailer had sound effects,
4:32
which I thought was really odd because I was like, wow, you know,
4:36
it's it was kind of going against the trend at the time, you
4:41
know, like you could tell that people were getting a little bit more and
4:44
more accurate with hard sci fi. Is what I classify this as. Yes,
4:48
yeah, like with that's yeah, I think that's a good way to
4:51
put it. This. It was clearly being presented as hard sci fi,
4:55
but yet there was crazy amount of sound effects and I remember even seeing some
4:59
discussion on Reddit about it. How people are like, oh yeah, of
5:00
course they're doing sound effects. Like people are too stupid, you know,
5:03
to to watch it without sound effects and everything like that. And then of
5:08
course, like more trailers come out and you realize that there there were no
5:13
you know, traditional sound effects. But I was, you know, with
5:16
the director of Quiron, with Sandy with you know, like Imax and everything
5:19
like that. Like I was there. I was there for it, and
5:23
so I got first day showing Imax three D and holy crap, it's just
5:30
blew me away. See I'm I'm envious because this is not a movie I
5:33
saw in the movie theater. Now. It just didn't get around to it.
5:36
Things were very busy at the time, so I just wasn't able to
5:41
get to the theater to go see it. And I regret that because this
5:46
is definitely a film created for the big screen experience, and I can tell
5:51
that, and I can also tell that it was definitely some of the shots
5:58
are optimized for three D. Yeah, you know, like like, oh
6:01
no, that nut's going to fly into space. That first shot still kind
6:06
of makes me giggle because I'm like, it's it reminds me of slooping around
6:11
in front of you in the m m U. And it's like, but
6:14
even even that I'm more down with. But the whole thing of like the
6:18
bolt coming at you sort of thing is very reminiscent of there was a s
6:21
C t V where they had three D theater and all it was was they
6:26
would just like they'd have a pie and they would just shove it towards the
6:30
screen, and it's like, you know, I remember there was an animated
6:35
a CG animated film called Monsters Versus Aliens by DreamWorks, and the opening actually,
6:44
you know, like you have like a space shot with like a you
6:46
know, like something crashing, and then the very first shot after the opening
6:49
titles is a security guard with one of those ball paddles. No, No,
6:56
it was like, yeah, like the ball, the ball on the
6:59
street. What's it called paddleball? I think, yeah, just yeah,
7:01
just like anybody's just going right at the camera, right at the camera.
7:05
I'm like, good lord, You're like you're not even trying to discus subtlety
7:09
would be nice. Sometimes I can't recall for sure, but I'm pretty sure
7:13
I saw this in imax, but not three D. I don't know better
7:17
than both of you. Well, no, at this time, I was
7:19
burned out on the three D trope and I didn't care and I just wanted
7:23
to watch it an imax. But no, this this one was. This
7:27
one was great. Like I honestly, I'm this was probably the only good
7:32
three D experience I had besides Avatar. See. But this is actually a
7:36
question I want to have for you, because I saw Avatar in three D
7:41
in the theater and I was like, this is all spectacle. I didn't
7:45
love the first Avatar and I was like, okay, like I was,
7:47
I wasn't blown away. I was like, eh, whatever people walk down
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and being like it's a magical experience and not just But then well, when
7:56
I went back to see it on home release, I was like it kind
8:00
of supported how I felt, which was like, this is all three D
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spectacle and the movie didn't really support that wow factor. Where do you land
8:09
both of you since you saw it in the theater, like I've only ever
8:11
encountered this at home and I enjoy it, Like I think this is the
8:16
type of movie that works like it doesn't depend on the gimmick. The gimmick
8:20
adds a little flavor to it, but it's not something where it's detracting from
8:24
it, you know, in the later for those of us who didn't get
8:28
to see it in three D or on the big screen, it doesn't.
8:31
Yeah, I never felt like it was gimmicky rewatching it. I mean,
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yeah, we can kind of pick out the one or two shots that are
8:37
very obviously utilizing the three D trick, but and there are a few shots
8:43
of space suit elements that I can kind of tell with ten years ago,
8:48
CGI was kind of like added, but we know that that was a major
8:52
way that they did the shots. But besides that, man, you were
8:56
in it, like there's no time to think about what you're looking at because
9:01
it is so it's not breakneck because he does give you moments of pause,
9:07
like when she first gets on the iss and she takes off all her stuff
9:11
and it's kind of like floating in a womb like embryotic, you know,
9:16
circle and then it all goes to hell again. But you know he knows
9:20
when to give the release because you can't go ninety minutes straight without that.
9:26
You need a breath and then you dive right back into it again. So
9:31
yeah, no, I felt nothing diminished by seeing it on home video.
9:37
But you know, with it being ten years ago. If they had released
9:41
this again this year for an anniversary in theaters, I would go see it
9:43
again for sure. Like I said, see it on the biggest screen in
9:48
the darkest theater you can. It's going to be your best enjoyment. What
9:52
about you, Tristan, Yeah, I was. I'm the same way,
9:56
Like once you see it in Imax three D, and like I said,
10:01
I was wowed by the experience, like it was truly a special thing to
10:05
see and witness like it, I really felt like I was participating in something
10:11
Like I was just like, man, this this is truly a theatrical Imax
10:16
experience, Like it kind of was. It was closer to the kind of
10:20
Imax experiences that we got when we were kids, as opposed to a movie.
10:24
Like I feel like it was closer to that than it was a movie.
10:28
And I'm not saying that as a dish. But when I got when
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I got home and the Blu ray came out, Darren, I was like
10:35
you, I immediately bought it, like boom yoink, just picked it up
10:39
as soon as it got there. I didn't wait for it to go on
10:41
sale. And you know, my wife and I turn off all the lights,
10:45
you know, like cranked up the stereo and then tried to immerse ourselves.
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But both of us knew it's not going to be anything like the three
10:52
D Imax experience, and we still enjoyed it. And in fact, before
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we started, I was telling Darren that, like, this is one that
11:01
we rewatch regularly, Like we we have this in rotation, Like every once
11:05
in a while Sarah will come to me and say like, hey, let's
11:07
watch gravity. I go, okay, cool, let's do it. Well
11:11
that's interesting, yeah, but but what, like I what is it that
11:18
makes it go in the regular rotation? Like what what is it that specifically
11:22
clicks for you? I mean, I know my own answer and stuff like
11:24
that, Like, what what is it that keeps it in rotation? That's
11:26
a good question. Well, I think it's the the perform like Sandy's performances
11:33
is phenomenal. I think the the special effects really draw you in. It's
11:39
not a big time commitment, like it's a it's a lot of spectacle,
11:43
but it's also mixed with you know, breakneck speed and and and a lot
11:48
of emotion in it as well. I feel like it's just it's one of
11:52
those movies where you can just kind of like sit back and turn off your
11:56
brain and and kind of little wash over you. I think it's it's just
12:00
pure entertainment. And even though it's categorized as hard sci fi and it is
12:05
a what you oh, it's get in corners, guys. Just so you
12:09
know our listeners, the space stations are not that close to each other in
12:16
orbit that is not even remotely see the thing is over there off yonder.
12:22
Oh hey, isn't that fortunately there? It is. I just need a
12:26
fire extend sure to get there. It is not next to is S,
12:28
which is not next to young It's just not it's just not. I I'm
12:33
glad you went down that road because I always think when I'm watching this movie
12:39
of what an absolute glory hounded spotlight stealing stick in the mud Neil de grass
12:46
Tyson has turned himself into. Because I knew you were going to bring him
12:48
up. I knew you were going to be because I remember reading it the
12:52
tigers, Well, who knows huddle lights don't have that. And I had
12:56
the same reacity where I'm it's entertainment, Like I'm not dumb, Okay,
13:01
we can't. But on top of that, and I like, with that
13:03
in my brain as I'm watching it. The sixteen minute mark is basically where
13:07
this movie ends in reality, right, if you're willing, if you're willing
13:11
to say, you know what, he did, fly out there and get
13:15
her and bring her back so that she had a chance to survive. If
13:20
you've ever read Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradberry, that's how this story would end.
13:24
Is we would be ninety minutes of her spinning as her oxygen ran out and
13:28
she realized, oh wow, I'm dead. Like, if you're willing to
13:31
just get past that first hump, who cares about the rest of it?
13:35
So the thing with me though, like I can totally forgive the different depths
13:43
of like low orbit versus high orbit and everything like that, I can totally
13:48
forgive it for the story. What I can't and what still pisses me off
13:52
when I watch it. What still to this day pisses me off is how
13:58
Clooney dies, because like, why he lets go, the fact that he
14:03
had to let go, there was there was no spinning, there was no
14:07
angular momentum. Well but you know why he was going right, So like,
14:16
okay, but I get I get what you're saying, and he kind
14:20
of explains it in a half second, so that they're trying to stop as
14:24
they're hurling towards the iss and they get hooked on and she gets hooked on
14:28
the parachute line, right, But as he says, there's slack, so
14:35
they're still going, and that momentum that they both have is pulling the slack
14:41
out of the of the line, so they're still moving. It doesn't show
14:46
it very well, but they are still moving away. He is pulling her
14:52
with his his his mass is pulling her. Now she is feeling resistance from
14:58
the line when he lets go. That resistance is enough to stop her mask
15:03
not both their masses combined. Yes, But if she's if she's taught on
15:09
the foot, she's not taught. She's not. We see that, We
15:11
see that, We see it continually unspooling until there's finally like one last bit
15:16
on her ankle. And that's what he says. There's there's slackened the line.
15:20
So it looks taut, but it is. It is tension, but
15:22
it is not taught. It is starts it starts off wrapped up by a
15:26
couple of around her pulling out and then it comes undone, and it keeps
15:30
coming more and more undone until it's just around her ankle, which is the
15:33
point which finally they're both moving. You're saying, you're saying, the power
15:41
of love, that's quantifiable. That's what made this scene. Okay, is
15:45
that what you're saying. I swear to the love. They explained that he
15:52
was still moving away and and yeah, he he, he did. He
15:56
didn't sacrifice himself. And then two seconds later like it went taught and he's
16:00
like, oh, if I'd only held on for three more seconds, like
16:03
no, and he wasn't tumbling, because yeah, okay, because I okay,
16:07
I'm glad that you guys explained that to me because for a year,
16:11
for ten years, I've looked at that a completely wrong way, where it
16:15
was just corn cutting corners, where with no angular momentum, it's all she
16:22
had to do was just pull and then it was it would have Yeah,
16:26
yeah, that mass, it's it's not about the velocity, it's about the
16:30
mass. But now I want to tell you something about another scene, like
16:34
just so you know, Clooney didn't open the door of her capsule, so
16:38
you know, just see you not yeah, oh my gosh, okay,
16:41
So that's that's what I almost gave up, like on on the movie,
16:45
like in that moment where like if that was if they didn't pull the whole,
16:49
it was just that had been real. Yeah, if that had been
16:52
real, then all goodwill that was bought and earned, I should say,
16:56
all the goodwill that was earned up until that point would have been thrown out
17:00
the air locks. And because I'm pretty sure that like I never talk in
17:04
movies ever. Ever, I never ever talk in movies that guy, Like,
17:10
Okay, I'm not that guy my entire life, I've never spoken in
17:12
movies. And but that when that happened, I audibly said no, yea,
17:22
Well it was fun again to rewatch because I mean, we all know
17:25
at this point that that is a hallucination from her and her oxygen deprived state.
17:30
But it was interesting because I was paying a lot of attention this time
17:34
of like, Okay, well what does he do? And he, you
17:37
know, turns some things on and he's talking to her, and I'm like,
17:41
well, but those things aren't going to be on when she comes to
17:44
But then he turns them back off before he disappears, and he says really
17:48
poignantly you know this, you know how to do this, you know,
17:52
and it's like her subconscious is like he's her subconscious at this moment of fever
17:59
dream will llucination, so that when she comes to Yeah, if you cut
18:03
out that entire sequence and it's just like she closes her eyes and she opens
18:07
them again, everything would have been as it was. So I think it's
18:11
a great. You do have to spend suspend belief for like the three minutes
18:15
he's on screen, but yeah, I think he's satisfyingly. It's I don't
18:22
feel bad for the reveal of like, oh is illucinization, like in a
18:26
way, like you said, we want the reveal that is not real because
18:29
it doesn't make sense. We needed that. Yeah, and she oh,
18:33
she held her breath, It's okay. She covered her face. Oh gosh,
18:37
no, she'd be so checked up and dead in like two seconds.
18:42
What's interesting about that scene behind the scenes is that Alfonso and his brother,
18:47
who wrote the movie together, they couldn't quite crack that scene. Okay,
18:52
like there were there were there's so there was just something really off about it.
18:56
And so George Clooney said, oh, give let me, give me
19:00
a chance, and so he wrote the scene that we saw was the original
19:06
scene her just figuring out, like to choose to live, and it was
19:10
with him in it. No, it was like the scene existed as in
19:15
him coming in, but the dialogue was all changed, like what he said,
19:18
oh was different and so like he wrote it as his character and submitted
19:23
it to that Telefonso and his brother and that's what they shot. He's like,
19:27
hey, let's put on the radio. It's like, dude, stuff's
19:30
going down. This is not the time. So yeah, I just thought
19:34
that was pretty cool. I think that this is a role that definitely that
19:38
this is a Clooney role, Like this is exactly his sweet spot. This
19:42
is Clooney, Clooney being Clooney, and it works completely in this He's it's
19:49
very easy to use this in a dismissive way, but this is the type
19:52
of thing George Clooney could phone in. And what makes it a treat is
19:56
he doesn't he what's the effort in to make it work? But he is
20:03
just leaning into the persona he's known for on screen. In essence, he's
20:07
Danny Ocean in Space. In Space and didn't didn't Clooney win the Oscar for
20:17
up like he won the Oscar in its performance Up in the Air, not
20:21
Up. Not the Disney film Michael Clayton was it was either Michael Clayton or
20:26
Michael This is not Michael Clayton Clooney. No, not Michael Clayton Clooney,
20:32
not at all like either one. But the only point I was trying to
20:34
make is that like when he after he accepted it and like and you know
20:40
how they do like the press, you know, where he gets to answer
20:42
questions to the press after he wins the award, he straight up said like
20:47
he's like, oh man, He's like, I don't know how I got
20:48
this one. I I He's like, I pretty much just I'm just me
20:52
on screen, you know, like like he he knows where his bread is
20:56
buttered, you know, like he understands what type of actor he is.
21:00
He's a professional. He shows up and he knows what he's going to give
21:03
you exactly. And I think that's the thing that like lets him get away
21:07
with it, is that you're like he's aware of it, and you know
21:11
that he's aware of it, and it's it's kind of like the anti Hugh
21:15
Grant, where like if you you go to see a George Clooney movie,
21:18
you know what kind of George Clooney you are gonna get? Yeah, he
21:21
did. I don't think he didn't win for Michael Clayton. He was nominated,
21:26
okay, but he did not win for Up in the Air either,
21:32
So I don't know what I'm thinking of. Then maybe it's not maybe it's
21:33
not an Oscar, maybe something else. Maybe he was talking about being nominated
21:37
and maybe that's very list you know, that's probably what it was. Well,
21:45
speaking of the Academy Awards, boy, this movie racked up uh it
21:52
won Best Director, Sound Editing, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Editing, and
21:57
Visual Effects for the nine eighty sixth Academy Awards. So yeah, one of
22:04
those odd years where the direct Best Director is not Best Picture. But as
22:10
as Tristan and I were chatting before, it won all the technical and I
22:14
think that makes sense. I don't know if there's enough Academy meet to win
22:21
Best Picture of the Year, but I mean maybe it was a bit of
22:26
Alfonso's career that kind of tip that scale of you know, this guy needs
22:33
a Best Picture, you know award, But I think very deserving for sure
22:37
for this one. I personally, I don't. I don't think I would.
22:41
I don't think I would say that. I think when I look at
22:45
it, Like one thing that I always remind people of, like when when
22:48
stuff like this, or when like when Avatar got nominated for Best Picture.
22:53
You know, like a lot of people were complaining saying, like it's Avatar,
22:57
Why on earth would that get in an Academy Award for Best Picture?
23:00
And I usually remind people I was like, it's the Academy of Arts and
23:06
Sciences, right, and that's the thing that you really science, and that's
23:10
what you got to focus on, is like, that's the thing is that,
23:11
Like we're living in a world that's literally called a post Avatar world when
23:17
it comes to movies, and there's a reason why we call it that.
23:21
And when made one movie in that world, called Avatar two but with gravity
23:30
far also pushed the limits on what could be done. Because I, in
23:34
my ignorance, I was kind of scoffing at it being nominated and winning for
23:41
Best Cinematography. I'm like, come on, that was all created in a
23:42
computer. It's no big deal. But then when you actually learn about how
23:47
they shot it, I'm like, oh, of course, hands down.
23:49
He absolutely should have won Best Cinematographer because of the stuff that they invented and
23:56
photography to space, Like yeah, okay, I guess you get the award.
24:02
I mean just the stuff that they did and like put them in a
24:04
light box and hooking them up to a rig so that they spun around and
24:08
moved while the camera spun around and moved with him like in alt and you
24:12
know, in alternate ways and parallax just to keep it with the light and
24:15
the shade. It's just anybody who's who hasn't seen the behind the scenes go
24:21
look it up on YouTube right now. Didn't the first shot take it take
24:25
like a year to plan or something like that. Probably it was something indiculous.
24:29
It was obscene because wonder like I know, it's like visually hands to
24:33
stuff that like it's it's yeah, it is the the and Quiron was like
24:38
so particular, he was like, I want it to get darker in a
24:41
specific way as the threat grows. And it really works effectively because it does
24:48
increase the sense of tension. We associate darkness with fear, and so the
24:52
the quality of light changing, They're they're kind of reaching the Germany right as
25:00
it all starts to go bad because when she goes off into space, she
25:02
goes off into her shadow like she is right, she should be way more
25:07
reflective if they were not past that point. Sorry, the Terminator is the
25:11
Earth day to night. We're talking about Cameron before, but that's what it's
25:18
called. You know. The interesting thing as well is that usually films that
25:25
get so many accolades have trouble finding real success at the box office. I
25:32
know what's set aside to Avatar. We know Avatar made tons of money.
25:36
Blah blah blah. We cant all movies that swept the technical, but that's
25:40
all they had going for them was the technical. And Gravity is the year
25:45
that it came out was one of the ten highest grossing films. So people
25:52
responded to this. And what's fascinating to me is that Man of Steel is
25:56
five, Gravity is six. They're both Warner brothers. It's like slotted right
26:00
in at the center of the pack there. And but I mean, this
26:03
is this is what's always so fascinating is Gravity is a short film. Gravity
26:10
is a very emotive film, and it's surrounded by all of these big budget
26:17
spectacles like like Fast and Furious six that year, I don't call off the
26:22
top of my head, Hunger Games, Catching Fire was number one. Iron
26:26
Man three, which is a terrific blockbuster in its own right in my opinion.
26:30
Frozen came out that year and that was number three. Despicable Me Too,
26:34
and the one B Yeah, Man of Steel and Gravity. Then Monsters
26:41
University, The Hobbit, the Desolations. Okay, that's a nose dive from
26:49
there. Yeah, I know there's there's like a real off that cliff right
26:53
now. Yeah, bite your tongues about Fast and Furious six. I'll come
26:57
through this microphone at both the don remember which one it is, but sure,
27:03
yeah, it's not five, it's the six. Seven. It happens
27:06
after it happens, after what happens? Is it? The one? The
27:10
Safe? No, the Safe going through one of our families in Brazil?
27:15
Well not helping, you know, come on now, guys. And then
27:19
a movie that everybody's forgotten, Oz the Great and Powerful came in at number
27:22
ten. I have owned that digitally since it came out because I got it
27:27
for free for signing up for something, and how many time I still have
27:30
interested. I have not watched it, probably like movies anywhere it just wasn't
27:36
great. Yeah, But I mean it's it's interesting because Gravity, for all
27:41
of its focus on, you know, the technical wizardry sort of stuff,
27:48
there is a depth to it. You know, there is a death that
27:52
a lot of those other titles don't have. You're investing in the characters.
27:56
Yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, and I think that Sandra Bullock does
28:03
Sandra Bullock might have gotten accolades at the time, but I think this is
28:06
one of those things where people have forgotten exactly how great she is in this
28:10
film and in this this watch that moment where she comes out of the the
28:18
you know, the catatonic state where she imagines George Clooney and she starts talking
28:23
to you, she well, you know, George Clooney picture is above my
28:29
bed, and you know I whisper to him every night. But like there's
28:32
a thing where that moment like it's I don't think it's a great film up
28:38
until that moment where she starts talking to herself about how she misses her daughter
28:44
and tell her that mom says hello when I was looking for your red shoe
28:48
and I couldn't find Like, there's so much packed into that performance in that
28:52
one minute. That is just absolutely it's amazing because it's just an example I
29:00
think of how the subtle performances are the great ones, and that is a
29:06
really subtle performance from Sandra Bullock. Throughout the film. Yeah, I picked
29:12
up a lot more. I mean, not that I missed it the first
29:15
time, but really paying attention to that plot line of like what she's been
29:22
through. And it's interesting because they it's a fine line to anytime you create
29:29
a character that's kind of an astronaut, like you know, she went through
29:33
some training and you know, I mean, we're way far from Armageddon and
29:37
where it's way easier guys to train oil riggers to be astronauts that it is
29:42
astronauts to be oiled. No, sorry but no, but this like you
29:48
buy it, Okay, she knows the tech. She's literally troubleshooting it on
29:52
the hubble. She's had her crash course of astronauts school, and she's honestly
29:59
she probably wouldn't have been up there just for the Psyche valve. But hey,
30:03
but but it works. And once, like you said, once she
30:07
has that little monologue at the end about you know, her daughter and choosing
30:12
to live and letting it go like you're like, Oh, that's what we're
30:17
actually talking about. We're not talking about living and getting back to Earth.
30:21
We're talking about her getting back into life because she had been out of it
30:27
since her daughter passed, which I also totally understand and get that, like
30:32
that makes and the visual metaphors of her being reborn, you know, like
30:34
you mentioned it before with her, you know, like being like like the
30:38
like her being the zygote, you know, once she takes off her her
30:44
her space here and everything like that, like it was again, and then
30:48
when she lands and then is birth from the ocean like the first life to
30:52
walk on land. Yeah, it's it's the metaphor is there now. I
30:56
do think that the fetus one was was a little in your face, but
31:00
it's the trailer shot, like we all know, like that's what we saw.
31:03
It's like the cover of the DVD, like it's there. Oh,
31:07
But I totally I was even though it's in your face, and I do
31:12
think it's a little heavy handed. In the moment, I was like a
31:15
little child. I was just like, oh, it's like if it is
31:18
with with with with your biblical cord, because that's also the first breath,
31:22
like We've been white knuckling it until that moment and she's on She's having a
31:27
casual chat with Clooney at zero percent oxygen, and I'm like, come on,
31:33
you still gotta get inside and get the air back on. But it
31:38
all works. Yeah, No, it's yeah, I mean tension and release
31:44
and tension again. Yeah, it's a little crazy, you know it jumping
31:51
from her characteration. But her character is from Lake Zurich, which is like
31:56
fifteen minutes from me. I'm sorry, fifteen miles from here. And I
32:01
always wondered why they chose lake Zurich, and I looked it up right now,
32:07
and it's because Cron said that lake Zurch was chosen because the village is
32:10
quote the Silicon Valley of medical engineering, mantis that that's where she's from.
32:15
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's It's the thing that's difficult is
32:24
that I go back and forth mentally with Yes. Obviously, Quaron knows exactly
32:30
how much he can ask from the audience with this type of film. But
32:35
I can't help but wonder if there could have been more film to it,
32:42
if there could have been something that is more two thousand and one about it,
32:50
if that makes sense more metaphysical as it were, no school or just
32:54
like more enterprise shots in the in dry dock. No, God, no,
32:58
I'm not talking about that. I'm not I'm not talking about that sort
33:01
of thing. I'm talking about up and there's monkeys on the shore and they
33:05
have bone tools. Yeah. Time, Yes, she's gone back in time
33:07
and it turns out this is a back door pilot to a new apes franchise.
33:12
Who's gonna say she sees the Statue of Liberty? Yeah, no,
33:15
I I just I wonder if there is some I don't think there is,
33:20
but there's just something in the back of my brain that's just like, was
33:23
there something extra here that that was might that maybe was left on the table,
33:29
because once they looked at it technically, they were like, this is
33:31
all we can do this Like we can't. Maybe it's hard though, because
33:37
it's already walking the tightrope between Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, not in a
33:43
negative way, but like, we can really only invest so much in George
33:47
Clooney before we start to get like protagonist confusion and the plot extracted way.
33:52
It needs to be her story and he's a very strong pull. So they
33:59
have to sprinkle him on in small doses for it not to overwhelm her story.
34:05
So maybe I feel like her story is complete. It has her arc,
34:10
she grows, you know, she survives the she's the final girl in
34:15
a way way versus space that's trying to kill her. But like, the
34:22
only other two people we really see are George Clooney, who's kind of the
34:28
mentor role the space Metron, and the what's his name, the flight engineer
34:36
who dies the most horrific space death we've ever seen, and he like has
34:43
just enough plot to like make us kind of like him. He's like,
34:45
Oh, he's having fun and then he dies. But yeah, I'm talking
34:52
about structurally, like it's one of those things where this plays in a large
34:59
in a large sense, like a show reel, because it's not stretching to
35:07
be more than that. And I feel, I know that it sounds like
35:13
I'm being dismissive. I'm not. No, it accomplishes what it sets out
35:17
to do. I'm just I'm trying to look at it from the standpoint of
35:22
is there something whether there could have structurally been something added to it, whether
35:29
it's more build up instead of just opening with them in the opening shot.
35:32
But the opening shot, like that's your calling card. You're stating something in
35:37
the beginning there technically with what you're doing. So I think it's sort of
35:40
just boxed in and I don't think there is more. I'm just saying like,
35:44
mentally, there's this sort of thing where it's like, was there any
35:46
point in the development where it could have been something a little different and maybe
35:52
there would have been something on the floor, But I just want to say,
35:54
this feels like the kind of storyboarded, structured movie that was very like
36:00
this is the story like technically has to be laid out. There's not a
36:06
of course, if we put the camera over there and try that. No,
36:08
that's what I wanted to That's what I wanted to talk about, is
36:12
that, like, you know, John, you were talking about how it
36:14
took him a ridiculously long time to plan out the first shot, and it
36:20
took him about like four or five years to make this movie. And he
36:24
did it all obviously he did it all in previz, but he actually did
36:30
the previz to sell it to the producers to kind of convince convince them to
36:35
do it like it could and yeah, that it could be made. And
36:38
this is what it would look like. And he shows it to him and
36:39
the producers loved it, and they also said like, oh, you know,
36:43
we have some ideas here and there, and he's like, no,
36:45
no, this is the movie. And they said, well, well,
36:47
can't you change this and he's like, no, if this is if you're
36:52
going to have me make the movie. You just saw the movie. This
36:54
is what it's going to be. And I I love that. I love
36:59
that he's like, this is what this is what was in my head,
37:01
this is what I'm planning, this is how it's gonna go. And he's
37:05
writing made by from Children of Men, so he can he has the clout
37:08
to be uh no, you don't get your fingers in my movie. This
37:13
is the movie, right exactly like he literally said, no, this is
37:17
the movie. Mm hmm yeah. Anything structurally different I acknowledge would have had
37:23
to be back in like the script stage. Once he hits that moment where
37:27
he's pre viz, no that absolutely there's no time totally No. I I
37:37
get it, John, I absolutely get it. It's it's interesting because I
37:40
totally see what you're saying and I agree with you, but at the same
37:44
time, I think some things that knock it down in my eyes is there's
37:51
a few moments, even though it's such a short movie, there's a few
37:53
moments where I'm like, may, we didn't need that. I think that's
37:57
okay, you know, like, like you want it eighty nine minute movie.
38:00
I do. Yeah, I think if I had the eighty nine minute
38:04
movie, like this could have been a five star film. But I think
38:07
the moment particularly, and which is crazy to me because there was a short
38:12
film made from the opposite person's perspective, Yeah, I just was looking at
38:15
that. But when she is has the radio call with the Inuit man and
38:22
talking about how his dog is sick, I was just like, wait,
38:25
we don't need that, Like I like, I like, I think in
38:30
the theater, I went to go pee at that point, and you know,
38:34
she's now, like, in all fairness, though you do have a
38:38
very weak bladder. We've established this in many conversations, and I do.
38:42
It's it's absurd. I've gotten better. I'm on medication. It's I'm it's
38:45
better now. I'm glad. I'm very glad. Drink a little less water
38:50
before the movie, Like I dehydrate myself a little bit so that I don't
38:53
have to go through that. But during the whole release, I like,
38:57
I went and got more popcorn, Like I just, I just I don't
38:59
need that scene. I agree. I know what they're trying to do with
39:04
that scene to show like she's sort of breaking and like, you know,
39:07
losing drive at that point where she's like, uh, every corner I turn,
39:13
Like, I get where they're going with it, But I agree with
39:15
you. I'm like it even if it was cut in half. Then all
39:19
of a sudden, like the radio is like, it's like you could you
39:22
could make that twenty seconds and still get there and then have her have a
39:27
little breakdown like without going how like it it gets a little big. I
39:34
think that's the moment when she starts telling I'm like, okay, guys,
39:37
all right, okay, yeah, yeah, well in a way, yeah,
39:42
it's yeah, I can see what you're saying. It's like it works,
39:45
but it also could not be there and still be fine. Yes,
39:50
yes, it's not like it's it's not like a picture Ruiner. I mean,
39:53
we're getting to the point where we're niitpicking here whereas we're establishing her mental
39:58
state, she's starting to lose it and she's also reconnecting with like like when
40:02
she hears the sound of the baby, like you can tell like she's feeling
40:07
all the emotions of like am I gonna live? And like it's all coming
40:10
to the surface, and we need a scene like that to kind of not
40:15
maybe not need but like it. I feel it does go hand in hand
40:19
with the hallucination scene, which is obviously the way better scene. But yeah,
40:24
I'll just go back to what I stated of it works, but it
40:28
could also have not been there and it would have been Okay, Yeah,
40:30
Darren, I think you you hit it on the head there where it's not
40:35
a pointless scene, like there's a reason it's there, Like they have legitimate
40:39
reasons to put it there and what she's doing, what her character needs and
40:44
everything like that. But at the same time, they didn't need it,
40:47
in my opinion, and I think that's where I'm kind of at where I'm
40:51
I'm glad that it's not pointless, but at the same time, yes,
40:54
I think even the scene could have been taken up by her like getting in
40:59
all my connection to Houston and sort of like realizing they can't really hear her
41:04
and they can't like and they have sort of like that moment where it's like
41:07
she can hear that or they can't hear her, and so whatever, like
41:09
screaming and void still, but yeah, that could be well. Speaking of
41:15
Houston, I feel like I have to turn in a notch off my sci
41:17
fi card because I totally did not realize. Maybe back in twenty thirteen I
41:22
did, but I did not realize that that was Ed Harris as mission control.
41:28
I mean, if you're not going to have somebody to be mission control,
41:30
of course it's Ed Harris, like he was in a Pull of thirteen.
41:36
He's a great voice character, just to someone you don't see. So
41:40
now I need to watch Gravity again, just for the Ed Harris part.
41:44
Well, I'm just glad that he didn't say failure is not an option,
41:45
because that would have been a little too well. I heard him dumping out
41:49
everything she had on the space Shuttle into a table and then they say,
41:52
got to put this together. But in a way, I mean, I'm
41:55
glad that they didn't, because this would have been a very different movie if
42:00
they had stayed in radio contact the entire time, and her helpful mission control
42:06
is gotting your through. That movie's called Apollo thirteen. And it's a very
42:09
helpful guys are through and then in other hands. Like she gets out of
42:14
the capsule and she looks across the the the the people who rescued her,
42:20
and she sees the face of the guy who has the like we have a
42:23
wedding, good wedding, a Diehard esque moment, you know, Powell and
42:29
John McLean at the end. I was actually thinking about a lot with this
42:32
is the movie's obviously very successful, got a lot of accolades. I think
42:37
Sandra Bullock does fantastic in this film, but there was there was something that
42:43
was sort of like nagging. You know, I'm not one that typically go
42:45
down this this sort of like rabbit hole, But in the back of my
42:47
brain, I'm thinking to myself, the nitpicking that it encountered from time to
42:54
time is not a nit picking that would necessarily have been encountered by a Keanu
43:05
Reeves movie called Gravity, where he's doing all of these ridiculous you know,
43:10
suspension of disbelief things. Yes, Neil deGrasse Tyson still anonic in space or
43:16
something like. No, I'm just talking about I think that I think that
43:20
there is a natural tendency to be more willing to say, Okay, this
43:25
is just a thrill ride in in like a male led sort of film like
43:30
this, whereas like I think that I think that, you know, maybe
43:36
there there was a little bit too much focus on the quote unquote realism.
43:38
Like like I was saying, like, say, this movie technically is sixteen
43:42
minutes long. You could say everything after she spins off into space as a
43:45
fantasy until she dies because she's dying from hypoxia and stuff like that. But
43:49
like, I don't know, I am I just reading too much into it,
43:52
is what I wonder, because I don't know if other movies of this
43:59
type get as much. You know, you mentioned Armageddon. It's like,
44:05
I mean, come on, I don't I don't remember people being that hard
44:09
on the scientific accuracy because it's just Bruce Willis going into space. Okay,
44:15
that's fine, you know that sort of thing. I think It's what we
44:17
talked about, like even at the beginning, is that it's presenting itself as
44:22
hardcore sci fi. It's not presenting itself as Armageddon. It's more deep impact.
44:29
There's no tropes, Like, there's not the you know, oh the
44:32
disaster is coming and we got to alert the present like there's nothing, it
44:37
just starts. That's why, like even people get like when that happens.
44:42
When you present yourself as realistic, you open yourself up to cure more criticism
44:47
than if you're Star Wars. But like the apparently, I think, what's
44:52
his name, Chris Haddenfield? Is that his name? The astronaut key Chris
44:59
Hadfield. Chris Hadfield heed this movie Heed he knows out of the showing.
45:09
He went to go see Gravity and he got kicked out of it because he
45:13
kept booing the screen. And and I think that's hilarious, not not real
45:17
enough for Chris Hadn't apparently like like he I think he went to as far.
45:23
He went too far here, but he said it's set back a little
45:28
girl's vision of what a woman astronaut should be an entire generation. I'm like,
45:34
calm, wow, just yeah, that that that literally, you know,
45:37
because the thing is that i'd pull out. I was like, hey,
45:39
I remember that news story about the one woman astronaut who like wore a
45:42
diaper and drove eighteen hours to go try to you know, get get back
45:45
together with her other astronaut lover. But hey, but I'm not saying Sandra
45:52
for a movie, for God's sake, calm down, Like I that's the
45:57
sort of thing where it's like I always think back to the Simpsons episode because
46:01
I think back to Simpsons episodes all the time where Bart joins the basically the
46:06
equivalent of the Boy Scouts and they're watching an Itchy and Scratchy and you know,
46:10
the mouse takes the cat and turns him into a tent. And Bart's
46:14
sitting there and he goes, Oh, you'd never tie a knot like that
46:15
if you wanted to secure a tent, And Lisa says, oh, come
46:20
on, Bart, it's a cartoon. It doesn't need to be realistic.
46:22
And Homer is sitting there on the couch, and then you see Homer walk
46:24
by at the same time in front of the window. It's like, if
46:29
you're going to go into the movie, why would you Why would an astronaut
46:32
expect this? Well, but he also has a unique perspective of like he
46:38
has coworkers who are literally in that quote unquote role, like he probably would
46:44
say the same thing about Armageddon or whatever, Like he can't objectively look at
46:50
it as a regular audience member's he's two in the field. No I'm not
46:54
going to give him the out on that one. I refuse to give him
46:58
the out on Tea took a guitar and saying space oddity in space, Okay,
47:01
I give him a little bit of slack now, I don't care what
47:05
like that. It's literally it would be no different than somebody booing like they're
47:08
like in the military and they're like, you'd never call for an enfilad in
47:13
a backwards omega maneuver. That's ridiculous. That tank wouldn't even be used for
47:17
that. It's like, dude, it's a movie. Calm down, it's
47:20
fine. I saw. I saw a lot of criticism, like a lot
47:22
of NASA people and also a lot of people just criticize the fact that,
47:25
like when Sandra Bullock took off her Space suit, she was in cute,
47:30
you know, little underwear enough like wearing a diaper, and I'm like,
47:32
yeah, it's Sandra Bullock and it's a movie, like, yeah, we're
47:37
not going to show she wasn't wearing, not even the diaper, but she
47:39
wasn't wearing a cooling suit under anything. Like she just got out of the
47:45
shower is how she looked, and she was about to get ready for bed
47:50
well, but I mean at the same time that the space Shuttle had been
47:52
retired by the time this movie. Like it's like, it's like, I
47:55
don't know, it's it's sort of that thing where sometimes when you're watching movies,
48:00
and you watch a lot of movies, or you're like watching them with
48:02
a critical eyes, sometimes you look at it and it's like, what if
48:07
we're not here to have fun? What are we here for? Right?
48:09
You know, like we all just calmed down and didn't I mean, I'm
48:14
guessing I'm not in his backyard, but I'm assuming Chrome didn't make this movie
48:17
to like ignite a new sense of space race and American patriotism to go into
48:24
the space field. No, he did this to tell a story and set
48:29
it across this amazingly harsh Like they have texts at the beginning that talks about
48:35
how space is trying to kill you. It's unhospitable. Life cannot survive there,
48:40
like it is, making it really clear. But you could put this
48:44
movie in a boat on an island. You could put like, you could
48:47
tell the same story. It's that kind of a universal story. He just
48:52
told it really well in space, which I think is amazing. But see
48:57
what's funny is as soon as I see the line that says, you know,
49:00
life cannot exist in space or whatever, I think of the Rick and
49:02
Morty the Space Snake episode where you know, Marty's like there are snakes in
49:07
space and Rick is sitting there going everything's in space, Morty like I just
49:13
you know, yeah, yeah, exactly. But yeah, that's the thing.
49:20
Like Darren, you and I, I mean, John's just a filthy
49:23
Star Wars fan, but John, you and I like we're we're we love
49:28
hardcore sci fi, and both you and I really like the real life Space
49:32
program. You and I really like the real life Space Program like Darren.
49:37
You know, like I know a lot and Darren you know ten times more
49:38
than I do. And and so we're still able to enjoy this movie though,
49:45
because it's a movie. It's a movie. Yeah now no, oh
49:49
sorry, I gotta go run out later and watch the rocket launch from my
49:52
backyard. It's cool. Yeah, go ahead. No, John, I
49:54
know you might have had a hard time just understanding what I was saying,
49:58
because in real life, the space progra the thing, the thing that blew
50:00
my mind was that space was above Earth. I always thought it was in
50:05
the sky, Like I didn't understand that part of it too well. But
50:09
I think once I get acclimated to it, I can sort of go along,
50:13
Oh, you know, I to the movie. But no, it's
50:17
and I mean I also heck, just just the shots of space, like
50:23
there's shots when they're looking down and they're like we're going over the Mediterranean or
50:27
something it is at night is gorgeous. I'm like, let's just spend a
50:31
couple of minutes here. I don't care that she's running out of O too.
50:35
I just want to see the overview effect and just view like it looked
50:39
amazing. But yeah, no, it's yeah, it's it's gravity, it's
50:46
it's a lot of things. It's a blockbuster, it's a amazing tour de
50:52
force acting by Sandra Bullock, and you know, it just brings all those
51:00
things together. But as h Our O two is running out, I think
51:05
it's time for us to give our ratings. So John Spaceman, well,
51:10
I'm gonna hit my femur bone really hard here, see how high it spins
51:15
up. And so I'm I'm actually going to wind up giving this a solid
51:21
four. This is a very enjoyable film. It has some subtext to it.
51:28
I find it a great, very well paced film. It's as long
51:32
as it needs to be. It's a four with a special nod to Sandra
51:38
Bullock for just a wonderful, wonderful performance on her part. So that's a
51:44
four from me, all right, and Tristan, I know more about space
51:47
than John, but you what are you ranking this on? Your saint John
51:53
stick to his Kuyber crystals. I know you're trying to say. I'm telling
51:58
you I will find them one day, one day. I echo every single
52:00
thing that John said, Like, I'm giving this a solid four. This
52:04
is a fantastic film. I love this movie. I rewatch it all the
52:07
time. But for the things that we talked about, like it's knocked down
52:10
a couple of half stars down to a full start with four, I think
52:15
there's this is a great technical achievement, it's emotional, it's a really tight
52:21
film. It's not perfect. There are things that I would change, and
52:22
so that's why I'm giving it a four. All Right, Well, I
52:25
feel this is the slight inverse of Children of Men. I am giving it
52:30
a five for its hard sci fi nous. For like we've again all the
52:38
things we've said. Knowing how long to make the movie, that just that
52:43
just the fact that it it starts, it kicks off into the exciting incident
52:47
really quick. We had just enough time to learn enough about these characters to
52:52
be initially invested. You know, we have the breathing and the and the
52:58
pauses to catch our breaths as she does as well, and we're just on
53:05
this side of plausibility to believe the whole thing as she makes it back to
53:09
Earth. So yeah, amazing acting, amazing performances, amazing visuals. Again,
53:16
the only reason I think I kind of mirror you guys from Children of
53:21
Men. Children of Men just depresses me. I'm sorry. It's just a
53:23
subject matter in general, it's it's very dark. But this one. I
53:30
love space movies. It was hard for me not to give it a five
53:34
because it's just I love everything about it and I bought it right away.
53:38
So there, So, as we wrap up the House of Coron, it
53:43
has been an amazing tour to force these have some great movies in this discussion,
53:47
and I feel like we, you know, we picked a good a
53:51
good director to go through. But next week we are moving into a new
53:55
house with Tony Scott as we jump back to nineteen eighty seven with Beverly Hills
54:02
cop iiO here on house Lights join the Revolution, join the Nerd Party,