Latest / Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps / "Best & Worst Films of 2024" with Alexei Toliopoulos

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"Best & Worst Films of 2024" with Alexei Toliopoulos · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

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Good day, humans. Welcome to Safe Space for Dangerous Ideas.
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We have a festive holiday show for you today. No dangers. Actually, there will be dangerous
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ideas. There will be very controversial, dangerous hot takes about the best and worst films
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of 2024. That giggling that you can hear in the background is the one I'm only, Alexie
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Tolleyopoulos, who is a comedian and aficionado of cinema and the host of the great podcast,
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the last video store. Hello, Alexie. Hello, Josh. It is my pleasure to be perhaps the most
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notorious guest to have a grace this year. Just been waiting for this moment, Alexie. Everything
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up until now have just been padding. Alexie, your podcast is basically famous or interesting
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people come on and they select either a new film that they like. A couple of old films
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that they like. We kind of talk about, I'm all about cinema discovery and helping people
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find the films that they'll love for the rest of their lives. So in the last video
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store, I kind of frame it. I would say it's almost like Desert Island Disks time thing.
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We're people talk about their favorite films and a new release favorite as well. We kind
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of frame it as if it's the last video store and I'm the clerk and we're picking up.
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This is the last thing you're going to be able to watch basically. Well, you know, they
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got to come back in seven days and return them and pick up some more movies. And then you'll
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be out of business. Yes, exactly. It is currently either Boxing Day the day after Christmas.
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We call it Boxing Day outside of the fine United States and Canada. Or it's Christmas day.
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If you're if you're in a weird part of the world, like perhaps California. So we thought that what
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we would do because Boxing Day is a huge day for Hollywood normally. Everyone goes out to the
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movies. They drop some big tent pole blockbusters. I am, you know, you may not know this about me,
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but I am a little bit of a movie buff and I love my cinema and I go to the movies a lot by
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myself. Alexi, I'm the guy that I go on. I do two things that prove that I am a lonely no
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friends loser. One is I go to amused. I go to children's amusement parks by myself and I ride
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on the coast. I'm encumbered. You don't have to wait the lines as long as you can sneak around.
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That's right. And they'll let you in on the single person's line. They'll be like, yeah,
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solo rider. So we got a solo rider and we're like, I'm friendless and you run into the
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front of the queue. You're getting paired up with other strangers. You're making friends all
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that long. And then there's one person who is in a group of three and the two friends were in
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front of them on the roller coaster and they had they thought they had an empty seat and then
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they look at me and I'm like, I'm sorry. What is more beautiful than when three become four?
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So I think that is a perfect scenario. That's what I like to tell myself. And the other thing I
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do is I go to movies alone. I love it. I think it's the best way to go. So I thought what we would
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do here is like there's a lot of like best and worst and we could go through the best and worst
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and I guess we will end up doing that in a way. But maybe the easiest way to frame it is like
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the most overrated and underrated movies because the underrated ones will be things that now the
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listener can go out and seek for themselves and the overrated ones we just get to dump on without
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feeling bad about them because everybody else loved them. Yes. I'm sure we do an overrated,
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overrated, underrated, underrated, overrated, overrated, underrated, underrated, underrated.
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I'm awfully relieved. I'm already, I've got, I'm overwhelmed with that moment of hearing the
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ball, the, all the different options. What's your, what is your most overrated? No, no, most underrated.
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Let's start positive. Puss up underrated movie of 2024. Most underrated movie of 2024 and it's
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interesting. My, I think that for this most underrated one, I think it is the kind of film that
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people would not expect to be so good. And I think because of that, a lot of people didn't even
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give it a chance, didn't even, I didn't see very much about it. And it's in the genre of horror,
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which I know that you are a bit of a, a theme for the horror film. I do like horror, good horror
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film. And I'd be curious if you even saw this one because it is in that kind of modern day glutt
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of genre cycle that we're kind of stuck in, which is legacy prequel, requel, sequel,
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tried to be. And I think it's what this movie is. It is the prequel to one of the biggest horror
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film franchises ever called The First Omen. Oh, I never got into the Omen movies. I think they're
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kind of a mixed bag. The Omen films, the original is a classic. I've never seen them. So the, but wait,
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the first, didn't the first Omen have an identical plot to another movie that came out two weeks
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before? It certainly did. Yeah, it has a very similar plot and aura vibe to a film called Immaculate.
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I saw that one. And then I, then I saw a trailer for The First Omen. I was like, I'm pretty
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sure that's exactly the same movie. They do have a very similar plot of, uh, none becomes pregnant
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with what could perhaps be the anti-crust or a demon seed of some kind. Yeah. Um, and in both cases,
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the none is a young American on, uh, in a, in a, somewhere in Italy, Convent in Italy. Yeah,
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it's literally like, very young girl goes to find her religious awakening, but demonic forces inside
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Convent, uh, you know, lead to her pregnancy and, you know, an aferious cabal of numbs,
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nice breeze, even they all come together. I would say they're almost identical plots.
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They're the differences. One is, one of the child will probably be called Damien when he comes out
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is the main difference. Right. I did not until this moment make the connection that the first Omen was
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the first Omen. Yeah, it is the first Omen movie. Okay. And is it good? I think it is fantastic.
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Okay. Good. This is a film that really surprised me because like you, I have seen,
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I think most of the Omen films, but they don't kind of, I haven't seen them. Oh, well, unlike you.
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Yeah. I've seen most of you. Yeah. I think the one, like, I might have seen all of them,
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but they're, I'd say that the original, it's a classic for a reason. It stuck around for a reason,
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but it doesn't kind of quite reach those same religious horror heights as the exorcist. It's a
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little bit popier, a little bit trashier, but there's still so many like pleasures that you get
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from a religious horror movie there that I think really works. The first Omen, however, I think
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has like some spectacular craft going on. It is the debut film from Filmmaker Akasha Stevenson.
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And I was probably my only negative for this film was going, I can't wait to see
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everything this filmmaker has made, but it's her directorial debut. Hey, think of the upside.
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You've got a whole lifetime with this director. A future to build upon.
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So did clarify my love of horror. I don't actually love most of the, I don't love like the
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sore movies or like hostile or I don't like gore. The torturous kind of stuff that's really
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screwed up. I like, I like tension. I like well done tension and for the stakes to be high enough
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for me to really care, it probably has to be life and death. And that usually means horror.
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Yes. Yeah. So I'll definitely check out the first Omen. My most underrated movie of 2024
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would have to be The Substance. Oh, wow.
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To me more. Wow. I think this is like one of the great stories of the year, like how high this film
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has sword. I mean, so many people hate it. And so many like, so many people with bodies genuinely
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rejecting the film at the Sydney Film Festival premiere. Someone passed out fainted and puked on
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my friends. I mean, it is a disgusting bananas bonkers movie. If you haven't seen it, it's
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to me more. She gets a pill that's going to make her younger because she's an over the hill
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style at Hollywood star. And the way the pill works is after it's not a pill. It's an inject
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set of injection. It's an neon green injection. Then you lie down on the floor. Your back splits open
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and like a, a chrysalis or, you know, like a young version of you comes out covered in goo
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and then lives the next seven days, is it? And then you become a cicada husk or something.
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And then that chrysalis has to, it has to, by volition, climb back into you at the end of seven days
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and then you live a week and you go swapping back and forth and back and forth. It's surreal.
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It's very weird. I thought it was out, uproariously entertaining. It's a lot of fun.
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And I think it's also been somewhat misunderstood because it was in, it was portrayed as if it was
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a parable about female beauty. Well, it's not even a parable about female beauty. It's literally
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about female beauty. It's literally about an old woman with wrinkles who doesn't like the way
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she looks. That's not a subtext. That's the text. And so the subtext was assumed to be,
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oh, do me more taking a brave swipe and patriarchal beauty standards in Hollywood.
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I like it for a different reason. I think it's actually saying something more sophisticated,
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which is I think it's about addiction and the temptation and the lure of living a life that feels
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better than the one that you're, than the skin that you're in. Yeah. You're exiting your skin
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and you're entering this, you know, candy-colored world where everything feels like you're a million
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bucks. Yeah. But the, obviously, without spoiling a film too much, you can sort of predict
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what the conundrum becomes, which is that the, the beautiful version of her wants to spend more time
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as the beautiful version. And so she starts testing the boundaries of the seven-day limit. And as
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that happens, both of them start falling apart and collapsing into this, into this monster figure
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essentially. It becomes our being on the chase for some people and not being able to escape that
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chance. Exactly. You're always on the hunt and then you're paying the price. When you wake up
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the next morning, after the, after the bender, as the old woman again, then all of a sudden you're
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starting to fall apart because the you last night who was having so much fun was heedless.
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I think that's why it's connected with people so much. Because when you think about horror films,
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the, I think the thematic connection to horror films for all of them is that idea of transgression,
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of going beyond what you should be doing or going beyond God or nature, that kind of thing. And
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making that, that final act of betrayal against morals or whatever. And I think the substance has
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such a clean transgression that it translates so well to the imaginations of audiences. We can just
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go, oh, that is something that I felt like I want to be more beautiful or I want to be more
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attractive and that idea of going what, what am I willing to do to go beyond that? And then
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reaping that come up. And so I think fits so well and translates so nicely to an audience.
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Yeah. Yeah. I like it. And a lot of people hated it. And I think that that's, that's one reason
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why I can say that it's the, it's my, my underrated selection. Before we move on, could I
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pick one connection please? I think it's kind of an interesting thing that we're seeing in horror
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right now. Because I think horror is the genre that most cleanly speaks to what is going on
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culture like in a zeitgeist. Yes. But it's always like maybe a year or two behind what's happening
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because that's how long it takes for film to get made from start to finish to be released.
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Yes. And it's interesting that we kind of have this genre cycle of horror that are like female
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lead horror films that are about body or body autonomy with the one that I just mentioned
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the first moment, which is about an unwanted pregnancy, the immaculate that we mentioned as well
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as substance as well, being like female bodily autonomy to a degree as well. I think it's so
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interesting to see that kind of becoming out, you know, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being appealed
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and stuff. Yeah. It's kind of interesting just seeing how horror reacts to what is going on to
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in society and how it speaks to it. And I think, I don't know, it's just one of those,
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that is interesting. Just worth noting. Also, the, you know, how the me turn movement has
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rippled through a few films and this will come up in my one of my most overrated movies of 2024
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without spoiling that. What's your most overrated movie of 2025? I don't know if this is overrated
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per se or one of the worst. I think it is my least favorite movie of the year. So if anyone were to
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give it beyond one star, I would say that you're overriding this film. Okay. Right. And this is
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negative five stars. I reckon it's negative five stars in that ballpark, but I would also say
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that if your film lover, I do think you should watch this to get a better idea of the landscape
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that is going on and to give you an appreciation of the true spectrum of good and bad. There are
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several films that this could be and all of them are made by streamers that went, you know,
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that sort of spent two or three weeks in the movies and the cinemas just to become eligible for
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awards or something. I suppose. Yeah. For contractual reasons. And then they were just dumped
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onto streaming. This one feels like a huge dump with capital D U M P. This was my least favorite
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film of the year by far. And I think it's like it resets the equilibrium for what is good and bad
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for you. Wow. This for me, I just could not stand this movie. It's from a filmmaker that I've
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loved, the love work from as well. Matthew Vaughn, it is a new film that he made that is within,
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I guess, he's Kingsman franchise, which is bizarre, even think of as a franchise.
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The stupid spy, dummy. What was it called? It's called Agile, this film.
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Agile. Yes. Emphasis on the Agile, I'd say.
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What a pile of shit. How did it get through script? I like even just scripted it. Like if you fed
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that into chat GPT and you were like, you do you have any ideas, chat GPT would be like,
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give me give me a moment. This is to take a while. It feels like chat GPT like AI tied out script
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because it's like, oh, we're going to put all these twists and turns in, but essentially it is a
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spy thriller about an author who is in their spy novels, which are kind of trashy romancey pulp
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novels, is predicting real life's espionage events. I'd even forgotten that can say.
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Yeah, I had to dig back into the recess of my braid to get to that, but it's kind of like the
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premise that befits the second to last show of a children's TV show line up in the afternoon.
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And at that, I'd say it's kind of only apt for like dim-witted 12-year-olds to this movie.
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None of the twists make sense. I remember the first third of the film being fun.
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I remember thinking, oh, this is cute. This has a Kingsman flair.
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And then the twists begin and it's like, well, that's completely implausible. There's no way that,
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I'm happy to believe, I'm happy to suspend disbelief on my walk into a movie theater.
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That's all we go to the cinema for.
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But the universe itself has to have an internal logic.
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Star Wars has to function, it's not that I have to believe that they're actually interplanetary
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civilizations, but they have to really go against the logic of their own universe.
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Nothing in this film, things just should just happens and then people turn out to be other things
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that they wouldn't possibly have been on the basis of the things that they've done so far.
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That's it. Each twist makes you hate the last 20 minutes. That's what happens each time
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it resets and it makes you hate the last 20 minutes. And it's interesting you bring up like that
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first third and like the it not obeying laws because the first kind of few moments, I guess like
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first 10, 15 minutes of the film, you kind of realize, oh, this is the film within the film or
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the book that has been written, being portrayed and it's quite ugly and like hyper-coloured and
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looks all quite green-screeny and all the costumes look a bit odd. And Henry Cavill has this bizarre
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like Doff-Lundgren kind of like pompadour haircut that looks awful and insane and there's
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everything's kind of cheesy and then you realize, oh, that's the book within the book so that's
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the style that they've shown, what the Hollywood solver and then the style remains that for the whole
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movie. There was no style, at least he chose to be ugly. And actually, it's a conceit that I
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kind of love. I like films that play around with the meta, like what are we seeing, what is a
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dream, what is not a dream, is there a perspective that I'm missing here, like, you know, being John
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Malkovich or something or adaptation or was that Will Farrell movie where he found out that he
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was actually a character in someone's role. Stranger than fiction, yeah. Stranger than fiction,
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you know, I love that thing of like, oh, is what we're seeing actually real or inception or something
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like that. But here they just take that conceit and then they're like, anyway, let's forget about
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that. So over here, there's a person who seems to be a spy but is actually a bad guy. Over here
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is a bad guy who actually turns out to be a good guy. And you're like, could you just have gone
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back to the previous 20 pages and edited them to be consistent with the bullshit twist you just
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pulled out of your ass? And like, do you just pull that twist out of your ass? Absolutely. And like,
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even more so the thing that kind of infuriated me more is like any betrayal of any kind of reality.
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There's a moment where two characters within the film, and I'm like trying to avoid spoilers,
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but I don't know why. Like, I don't think you can gain pleasure from revealing things in this.
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But there's two characters in it that they go, oh, that's our song. We're going to like,
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that's the song that connects us. That's a song that I've raised for my memory. I love it.
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Well, let me do that to bring this right back into the forefront of your brain. And the song that
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they have chosen is a Beatles song. Like, you know, that's expensive to have in a movie. But it's the
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new Beatles song that came out this year. Like, you know, they had they found an old Beatles song
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over there. Remastered. Yeah. That's their song. Well, that was probably cheaper. It came out like
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within a week of the song coming out. So they don't have the connection to that song. Oh, I see
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what you mean. And look at that be their song. Can that be their song? Unless because they're
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spies that had early access. I mean, there's so many stupid little states like that. We were the
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ones that found the Beatles song into one of our SB and R's missions. But that's our goal. I couldn't
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stand. I'm glad you hated it as well. Oh, God. I also hated it. Now, this is, I'm going to be
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controversial with my first most author-rated movie. I'm going to be really controversial. I'm
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getting the full uncomfortable conversation. Exactly. I will say it's only overrated because this
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was a very well-received movie. Okay. It's not only gets one of the very one of the three worst
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movies of 2024. It's heretic. Oh, I have not had a chance to see this. So this is Hugh Grant
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in a great performance playing a floppy head serial killer essentially. Well, he's got no choice
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of that first part. But he does, he does demonic quite well or evil. He's not super naturally
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demonic. And I won't spoil the whole thing, but a couple of Mormon girls come and knock on his door.
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And the first, again, third of the film is great. It's this cat and mouse mouse thing where they are
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like, is this guy crazy? Or is he just eccentric? Is he a sweet old man? Or is there something more
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going on? And that's a great tense build-up. And then in the last half of the movie, what could
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have been quite highbrow, I think, theological, like you could have taken a lot of the conundrums
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from the philosophy of religion 101 in the university philosophy department. And you could have
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just been like, okay, well, let's start talking about the conundrums about the existence of God,
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various proofs for the existence of God, the ontological argument. And you could have done a smart
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kind of like if Christopher Nolan had been doing had been taking this, there would have been
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something clever to do with it. But instead it just falls apart into a predictable and absurd.
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Because there's like almost a trap house like this traps across the house kind of thing. Is that
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kind of, I don't want to spoil it. Okay, not exactly. Can I ask you though, like because sometimes the
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what you want from a horror is like the more prestigious thoughtful kind of feeling of horror that
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as people quote unquote elevated horror, a term that I don't really like, but it's a great
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describe before we mean. Or but sometimes you want like that trashy kind of just really straight
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down the line with a little bit of thought in the premise, perhaps, but just like to get the simple
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pleasures of horror. Does that at least offer those? Not not really because it doesn't do that well
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enough. Like pick a lane, you know, either be high, be the highbrow, you know, huge rent,
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credibility, like deeply disturbing sort of theological mind game, cat and mouse mind game.
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But don't do half a film of that. And then half a film of, oh, by the way, what he's really
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doing is this thing. Yeah, okay. And then, you know what I mean, like then just then just do that
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thing from the start and really good, which it which it also doesn't. Okay, so so far we have
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we have a thumbs up, essentially for first home and the substance. We have a thumbs down for
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our guy and heretic. What's your next thumbs up? My next thumbs up. And I think this is underrated
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in the sense that it was well received here in Australia. It's a small independent Australian film.
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Oh, and it has now just gotten like a bigger release in the US or a small kind of, I guess,
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art house release in the US and has rolled out onto Netflix in Australia right now. It's called
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bird eater. It's made by some really young, very talented filmmakers. And I'm only saying it's
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kind of underrated in that it didn't receive many, and you see one nomination at the actor awards
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Australian film and television awards that celebrate Australia sort of. Yeah, our Oscars
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out in these kind of combined to one that celebrates Australian screen. And I only received one
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nomination. Just remind me of the premise because I'm pretty sure I saw it, but it's escaping me.
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It's a small film that kind of like follows the tradition of a bucks weekend get away in
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Australia where young couple are about to get married. The kind of twist here is that the bride
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to be joins the bucks weekend. And it speaks to this idea of like very specific Australian toxic
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masculinity for a younger generation. I actually forgotten that was an Australian film. I like
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that movie. I think it's brilliant. It very much speaks across Americans should see it. It speaks
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across across the cultures, I think, because any place that has blokes who are blokes. Exactly.
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Rednecks as Americans might call them. I think it's a fall on right. We'll feel empathy for it.
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I think so because it kind of speaks to I'd say it kind of is like a young person's take on
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waking fried that same kind of Australian masculinity. But like you said, it's because it is
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specific. It becomes universal. Kind of like get that feeling from it. I think it's just beautifully
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edited. Just really thoughtful filmmaking, especially from young filmmakers. They're in their late
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20s. These guys and it just feels very current, very up to date, very stylish. And it kind of speaks
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to the audience through genre like it kind of feels like a horror movie without ever being a horror
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film. Like you still feel it builds tension. That was my criticism of it actually. And again,
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it's hard not to sort of spoil it. But also a box weekend is a is a bachelor weekend bachelor
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party for American listeners. But what I loved about it was like quite long scenes where
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they'll all be around a dinner table and the tension is palpable and the awkwardness and the one
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upmanship and like the sort of psychological games. I thought that was really well done.
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For me, when it started getting into the climax of the film, it didn't offer me any particular
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you wanted to blow your eye off. Well, yeah, yeah, or something that made more, yeah,
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something where the stakes were higher than what they ended up being. But nonetheless,
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for a first, did you say it's their first film? First feature film, yeah, outstanding. Yeah, I think
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it's a great promising career for pretty much everybody involved. Like it's all young filmmakers
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that all came up to like film school together. I think it's just brilliant. It shows like a great
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promising career head. I just wish it got more attention because I think it's one of the best
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shot Australian films in the last few years, best edited. I wish it kind of gained those
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nominations at our Screen Awards as well as self-just an independent award because it's made for
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almost no money whatsoever as well. So it's just so impressive. All right. If it's at the Angelica
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Theatre in New York or one of those other little Indian art house films, then go and check it out
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birdie. My second, sorry, underrated movie Thumbs Up movie would be Civil War. Oh, I agree
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with you so much. This was one of the ones I wanted to talk about as well. Great. I thought Civil
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War was an absolute masterpiece. I agree with you. I saw it twice in like not quite iMacs, but
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you know, the biggest screen and the surround sound, everything before you get to iMacs level.
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Yes. We call it extreme screen here. Extremes screen. Yes, exactly. It's, I mean,
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if only for the scene where Jesse Plimpton is interrogating the protagonists who have
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stopped, who have discovered a mass grave and he is obviously the mass executioner, the
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self appointed mass executioner in this chaotic world. And he's trying to decide whether or not
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to kill him. Like, I mean, it's Tarantino-esque in terms of like slicing the tension with a knife
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and just putting you into like it's it the reason I say it's I believe it was underrated is because
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a lot of people criticized it for not being pointedly political enough and for not, you know,
25:09
we've got a fascist, you know, who might be about to come into the White House and
25:13
when who now he's about to come back and he's going to destroy everything. So why couldn't you
25:16
make him bravest and about how it was a Trump like figure who was just dividing America?
25:22
Because that's not the point. The point was to say we behave as if civil wars can't happen here.
25:29
If you were to take some of the tropes of civil wars as they have occurred in places like
25:36
wherever Argentina or Cambodia or whatever and you and you were just to superimpose that on
25:42
to 21st century America, what might that look like without casting blame just the the collapse
25:48
of civil unity what are some what are just like a handful maybe a half dozen set pieces of what
25:56
kinds of experiences you might have and I thought it just pulled off those set pieces like a complete
26:01
masterpiece. Could not agree with you more Josh like I'm right on the line with you as well
26:05
because I think that criticism to me was so unfounded that people had saying that oh it doesn't
26:10
pick a side or it doesn't do this so it's that's like you can't you it's a film you can read
26:15
between the lines and it's like it's not like you're meant to go in and with a little pamphlet that
26:20
says here is the last 15 years of American life as as imagined by the filmmakers of civil war
26:27
is every little step and here's the political affiliations of this character and this is why
26:32
that Texas and California have linked up it's like no it's it's it's film like it's imagined
26:38
and you when you go into a film when you go into that dark room I do believe that you like sign
26:43
of contract to meet a film on its terms in a way and I think there's a lot of people bring
26:48
their own baggage to this film in a negative way was like of course you can't go what we can't
26:52
watch something unbiased yeah every film you every piece of art you interact with you interact
26:57
with your own bias your own lens and I think that if you open yourself up to that experience your
27:04
biases enhance the viewing of this film because it kind of speaks to the way that you see the world
27:09
or the way that you kind of interact with it where you see America I just thought this was
27:14
beautifully made in every sense yeah and and like the it reminds me of what the criticism that
27:20
we're just making of our guy I'll wear in our guy I'll there are unearned ruptures in the logic of
27:26
the universe yes in this universe in civil war yes there is a ridiculous leap that you are asked
27:33
to make in the very first scene which is that the biggest right the biggest red state and the
27:37
biggest blue state are for some reason on the same side in this civil war that to me is like
27:45
you're allowed to do that as a filmmaker you're allowed to in the very first scene go here's a
27:49
ridiculous premise that we don't understand why it's happened don't ask questions about why it's
27:53
happened but this is the ground on which we're basing this particular story right we live in a
27:58
world in which Texas and California are on the same side in the civil war this is clearly my way
28:03
as a filmmaker of immediately ruling out any partisan conclusions about this thing because you know
28:11
for some reason we've got these two states on the same side um and so you're just going to have to
28:16
roll with me on this and that's a decision that I can make and I think if you're not willing to give
28:20
the to respect the filmmakers right to do that then you're a partisan hack who is not treating
28:25
this as a work of art you're treating this as some kind of political agit prop uh so go and jump
28:30
off the cliff now you're a second uh overrated wait are we up to two no we're up to uh
28:39
uh second overrated movie second overrated movie yes the second overrated movie for me now this
28:46
is one that I also liked like I liked this movie but it has been received so warmly and so well
28:53
so I have my little criticisms to it but you know I don't blame anyone for loving because I had a
28:58
great time with this one as well but this is wicked the occasion of the hit musical wicked yeah
29:03
okay and I'm not breaking new ground by with my criticisms it's two hours and 45 minutes
29:08
of movie but I would say the first hour half zip spy yeah but then you have another hour and 15
29:15
left to go I know and that last hour 15 kind of it awoken all the kind of detractions I'd say
29:24
with this film for me in that it starts it has a heavy emphasis on world building in that second half
29:30
and it's kind of like world building an origin story building that are more befitting like that
29:36
kind of superhero heroes journey type thing but it's also using a lot of the you know the things
29:45
that we associate with the Wizard of Oz to be like little origin points and stuff and I think when
29:49
it kind of gets there it becomes hampered down yeah and the poppy is the flying monkeys exactly
29:55
all of that all of that like we're building up to this grand moment with this character and it's
30:01
stop being fun for me at that point and as well when you think about the Wizard of Oz which is
30:06
arguably and maybe even in arguably I'd say the most famous film ever made and it's one of the most
30:12
strikingly beautiful films ever made with such bright and beautiful colors but then this film
30:18
John M. Chew the director made the the aesthetic choice to kind of not play into the technique color
30:25
of that film to kind of ground Oz with a bit more of a murky aesthetic and less vibrant lighting
30:32
to make it more realistic he said or naturalistic to kind of bring him into the world so it's
30:38
fantasy becomes reality or fantasy becomes real and do you mean before they go to the Wizard or
30:43
only after they go to the Wizard I think it's across the whole world because it's certainly a dark
30:48
it's a much darker palette when they're just at college yeah in our high school or whatever
30:53
wherever they are yeah she's university that's right but once that yes you're right the once they
31:01
go to yeah the Wizard's castle that also isn't that it doesn't pop quite the same way as it
31:07
did in the original I mean I was I agree with you you know fine it's great yeah whatever
31:13
but when you see the Broadway musical one thing that stands out is it has a great first act
31:20
and then you go away for intermission and you've already seen an hour and 40 minutes or something
31:24
and then you come back and there's another hour of this second act which is in my opinion
31:29
unnecessary like it's a nice tight show with just the first act so when they said that they were
31:33
doing it in two I thought oh great the first film is going to be a nice 90 minutes or 100 minutes
31:40
yeah and it'll just be the first act they've ballooned the first act into two hours and 40 minutes
31:45
apparently because it's very it's very singing and there's no talking it wouldn't make it much
31:50
sense if you just put it on the screen directly but there's a hole I mean there's a good 30 to 40
31:55
minutes between the scene where alphabet and fiero are in the forest and but they're it's clear
32:02
they're falling in love to sort of the final Danuma of the flying monkeys and you could compress
32:09
that 40 minutes into six minutes easy here they are they go off they meet Jeff Goldblum bang done
32:16
not necessary so I'm with you yet overrated although still you know still worth taking a 10-year
32:22
old oh absolutely I think that's that's the mistake I made I did not take a 10 you got to find
32:27
more 10 you got some more you got to hang out at roller coaster parks with me more grab yourself
32:33
a 10-year-old as is my won't my second overrated movie of 2024 was Twisters the sequel to Twister
32:44
yes in that legacy sequel kind of yeah well so much potential like I was a very easy person to
32:51
please with that movie I went in again I saw it on the biggest screen I could possibly find with
32:56
all the surround sound with bangery and I was like I'm gonna love this because you know what I
33:01
want I don't need character development I don't need plot what I want is four to five sequences
33:10
of incredible uh Twister special effects of escalating gravity until you know the final one is
33:18
you know I want it to be like a Dwayne Johnson like movie about LA falling into the sea or something
33:24
where there's just a lot of buildings collapsing there's a lot of little people falling out of buildings
33:29
and smashing to their death like you know it's called Twisters like I'm like oh this is like 20
33:34
years after the original Twister let's see what they can bring me to make me feel like I'm inside
33:39
a massive Twister that's I want it heading for Dallas you know I don't want it out in the country
33:44
I want Manhattan to get here I want the day after tomorrow I want tidal waves and shit and it ended
33:50
up being like a kind of a Cornball romance about a couple of you know southern hex who are chasing
33:58
tornadoes and then there's like a final there's like a mini tornado sequence and then there's a
34:04
final tornado sequence and I was like that out so you're saying stick with the original Twister as
34:08
well it's called Twisters yeah just give me Twisters yeah give me lots of Twisters and a bad plot
34:14
badly acted in between like you know it's right there on the name of the movie yeah
34:20
where Twisters I think it's when you go into a disaster film you do want to see disaster
34:24
massive what to see you want to see stuff that breaks your reality like yeah like all the examples
34:29
you said you know you're independent stays and stuff you want to see a big icon be destroyed
34:33
exactly and that's the kind of pleasures that you get from this kind of film yes I want Twisters
34:39
rolling through you know Los Angeles I find one serious Twistership so I think it under it under
34:45
delivered yes what's your what's your next thumbs up your final thumbs up this is maybe I just saw
34:53
this film and I saw it twice in one week and I I think he's just so unexpected this film and it's
35:04
I'm just going to say the name it's Better Man do you know Better Man yeah Better Man it is
35:10
great okay cool a music biopic which is a genre that I'm very not often interested in it's about
35:17
an unlikely subject for a music biopic because it's someone who's still alive still active and he's
35:23
a very populist artist which is Robbie Williams who's humongous in Australia and who is humongous
35:30
in England like one of the biggest acts ever but he's never translated to the American audience
35:34
is it right never has he's like even in interviews he's talked about how he showed his kids like
35:40
his biggest concerts that have like hundreds of thousands of people there to prove that he's famous
35:45
to these kids because they just don't believe it because they live in Los Angeles wow but it's
35:49
better man Robbie Williams biopic and the gimmick or the catch or the interesting thing that direct
35:55
the Michael Gracie is brought to it is that Robbie Williams is portrayed by a realistic CGI chimpanzee
36:03
and it's never addressed in the film it's never he never says anything as to why he's a chimpanzee
36:09
he's the only chimpanzee in the movie there's not like you know you don't meet like Nicole Kidman
36:16
who's a flamingo or something like that and is the chimpanzee voiced by Robbie Williams I think
36:20
it is voiced by Robbie Williams I've been trying to I I found it hard to figure out because it's
36:24
me it's the physicality of the characters portrayed by Jono Davis a young actor and it's a great
36:29
physical performance and then Robbie Williams is credited as a voice but I don't know if it's just
36:34
for singing or for talking as well but Robbie Williams does the narration for the film in his himself
36:41
but I think that this is just a great leap and I found it incredibly beautiful like beautifully
36:46
realized and the the magic trick with that chimpanzee as Robbie is quite spectacular I'd say
36:56
you make that leap early because you kind of meet this character as a child you go on this full
37:00
journey and it's a great child performance from this chimpanzee as well you feel you start feeling
37:06
this character quite deeply and you get this sense of empathy for this chimpanzee in a very
37:11
different way than you would in a traditional biopic film and it just works so much in that you
37:18
go is this how this character sees himself or he kind of makes you feel like thought this person's
37:24
different that's why this kid feels straight like feel sad or alone it's because he's different
37:29
from everyone else it's just a very simple trick but then realized amazingly because it is photo
37:36
realistic computer graphics imaging that just right it doesn't look weird doesn't look weird unless
37:44
it wants to look weird but then what it does like what he's done is if you think about the spectrum
37:50
of mankind from chimpanzee to Robbie Williams as this this linear line he's found the exact midpoint
37:57
between those two where you believe it both ways and there are moments where it becomes a bit more
38:03
animalistic it kind of plays on human anxiety in an interesting way I think it's just so
38:08
superbly done and it's an integrated musical of his of his life it's not just you seem at a concert
38:14
and he sings his songs yeah I was worried about that I was worried about seeing a succession of
38:18
songs where a chimpanzee is singing like I was like am I going to get bored 90 seconds into each
38:23
of these songs these are huge spectacle style musical numbers where they're singing there's
38:31
dancing they tell his life story from his perspective there I think they're very imaginatively
38:37
captured I would say it's in the same ballpark as the ultimate john I like that a lot I think Michael
38:43
Gracie even worked on that the director some to some degree he's he was a special effects guy
38:49
before doing the greatest showman and he's a commercial director I think I've never seen the
38:56
gross showman but I'm convinced this guy's a genius for just one movie good and even if you
39:01
didn't like the race showman I still would say again I'm not a huge fan of musicals per say like
39:05
the moment you know the greatest showman is just it's basically an album yeah and it's huge
39:10
with Hugh Jackman just running around singing about things and I'm and every time the band strikes
39:15
up I'm like I'm looking at my watch I go fuck another four minutes of just a song and then there's
39:20
a bit of talking and then the band starts again I'm like Jesus can I go can I go to the toilet
39:25
I think you might appreciate this because he's such a big swing also I like Robbie I mean I like
39:29
him as a person that like his music oh then your love what's what's not to like I mean he's a
39:33
cheeky monkey he's a cheeky you enjoy yeah exactly his music is fun it uses it all well the great
39:38
renditions of these songs as well I think you have a good time and you got to appreciate someone having
39:44
this unexpected the great success of the greatest showman like that movie went bigger than you
39:48
could imagine and then go what am I going to do next I'm going to make a Robbie Williams buy a
39:52
pick and he's going to be a chimpanzee yes very good I respect it very good well before we leave
39:57
the the subjective movies that are a something man I very very nearly selected a different man
40:06
as my other as my third best movie of 2024 yeah have you seen a different man yeah I really
40:13
quite like this film a lot with Sebastian Stan who plays Donald Trump in the Donald Trump
40:18
biopic and is in super hero movies that he plays the Winter Soldier okay and it's an amazing
40:26
movie about a guy with with a congenital face deformity and he gets a he gets a take on off he gets
40:35
a you know this miraculous new thing in a similar conceit to the substance yeah all of a sudden
40:39
he's able to do this and he's able to become super handsome and yeah I won't spoil it but
40:46
it's a very funny dark comedy yeah exactly it's got a great tone that film and again in the same
40:52
way as like I'm tickled by films like being John Malkovich or something or eternal sunshine yeah
40:57
this has that slightly weird surreal kind of poodle yeah strangeness about it that I found
41:04
very rewarding but that is not my third best film of 2024 it's actually this old us oh my old
41:12
ass my old ass yeah with orby plaza yeah yeah great film my old ass it's so it's a it's a romantic
41:21
comedy it's a Canadian movie low budget set on a lake it's a summer and the young she's 16 or 17
41:31
I guess I think so it's a kind of coming of age yeah she's a gay girl who is like sort of struggling
41:37
with her identity and she takes it she takes acid or mushrooms one night and all of a sudden
41:44
there's a woman there and it is herself aged 40 and she is able to give her some advice and
41:51
she forms a relationship with this future version of herself and I thought this was like funny
41:58
heartwarming intriguing weird sweet like just infectious it I walked out of it on a high I felt like
42:05
it was so kind of it was it just so in it was so infused with its place as well of this Canadian
42:11
of this rural regional beautiful Canadian lake and the friendships I thought it was a great way
42:17
of doing diversity without laying it on thick in a very self conscious Hollywood way it's an
42:22
independent film it's about queer girls and queer girls of color and it doesn't feel like it's like
42:29
look at us we're making movies about queer ladies of car if you're very authentic let's
42:34
try to link this great friendship group yeah and and you know being a brainy kind of person who I
42:41
like I like a smart movie it does try to grapple with the most important question of our lives
42:47
which is how to live life how should you live your life and how how could you articulate to your
42:54
teenage self the way that they should live from the perspective of 40-year-old that wouldn't
43:01
wash all of the fun out of being a teenager like the whole point of being a teenager is to be
43:06
heedless about what you are going to be like when you're 40 yeah not to diligently lay down the
43:12
correct choices in life and I won't spoil it but there's one major choice that has to be made
43:19
by the main character that she differs in opinion from with her older self yeah and it ends up
43:26
being a really beautiful untouching yeah now Josh I don't know if he's the aircon but you may see
43:32
I did just get goose bumps you've got goose bumps I've done this was my goal today I got the
43:37
goose bumps full body check it out as well I got the goose bumps because I think what you get at
43:44
is this is a really clever film the way that it attaches all of those existential thoughts to
43:50
emotion and humor and it kind of accesses those emotions through human a really nice way
43:55
and I think the conclusion of this film is so moving it's a charming journey to get there but the
44:01
you cannot speak anything apart from like how emotional that conclusion is and like how
44:07
heartfelt how warming it is and how relatable it is like everyone goes through I mean it's life
44:14
it's a great example of portraying a life on film with a slight supernatural or science fiction
44:20
kind of premise just that ever that ever so slide the way to about Kaufman as well yeah it's
44:25
that same kind of feeling where it's just that little edge that little edge into something beyond
44:29
reality yeah and I think casting Aubrey Plaza as the older version of that character the 40 or
44:35
that returns you only get a few moments with them in person but Aubrey Plaza now has become
44:41
this actor that kind of has this great presence and carries a bit of dramatic and comedic weight
44:47
yeah that I think works just great for this kind of independent film yeah totally and she's
44:52
very excited and just the right way it reminds me of what you were saying about bird eater which is
44:58
that the specific is universal which is this old maxim of writing right I don't try to write
45:02
something that is general because it won't resonate with anybody right something that's
45:06
specific and people see themselves in it through its specificity and this does that perfectly right
45:12
it's like very very specific about this very specific group of girls at this very specific place
45:17
at this very specific time in their lives and as a result it's able to grab your heart and sort of
45:22
take you on an emotional journey that's completely universal yeah to all of us at least all of us
45:27
who've grown up exactly and we all have grown up that's why coming up age building so much
45:32
we all have grown up unless we're the 10-year-old who you kidnap to your take to see wicked
45:36
what they grew up on to see in that moment where they see wicked locks but they experience
45:40
the full aspect of life all right your final overrated movie oh now this one was a tough one for me
45:45
Josh I I'm going to say this is once again a movie I quite like but didn't connect with as
45:52
deeply as many people have and it's also in that ballpark of comes out early in January 2024
45:59
oh okay so my technically have been a 2023 awards contender release but I have picked the
46:06
iron claw the wrestling biographical picture about the Von Eric brother I'm so glad I didn't see it
46:11
there were about three occasions when I considered going to see it and then I was like I don't
46:16
think I want to go on this journey it's a dark film so explain to people what it is who's in it
46:20
it's big stars right big stars you've got Zach Efron during the Alan White Harris Dickinson
46:27
the leads and Holt McCall in any plays the father the patriarch of this wrestling dynasty okay
46:33
and he's an actor that those aren't as famous as I thought they were Zach Efron must be the big name
46:37
he's the big name yeah he's the big name in there and it's a great dramatic performance as him
46:42
but it is based on a true story of the Von Eric's who are a wrestling family dynasty if you will
46:49
that are mired in tragedy there's a lot of deaths in this family under very very tragic
46:54
circumstances and this brings those to dramatic life and I'd already seen a documentary about this
47:02
family so I think that might have hampered my I dare say enjoyment because it's a it's a film that
47:08
puts you for the ringer yeah right so it's like not really an enjoyable watch but I think a lot of
47:13
people felt those tragedies very deeply watching it I just don't know if I connected to the emotional
47:20
aspects of this film very much never really grabbed me but and look I think partly that would be
47:26
because the poetics of it were kind of a bit few and far between so when you kind of reach this
47:31
conclusion that's a little bit more poetic it didn't really feel so earned to me right and I
47:38
don't know maybe I'm crazy because I was in a cinema and everyone was sobbing around me like
47:45
you would see the sobbing happening people are inventing new ways to wipe tears from their
47:50
from their eyes they've got to get fine dry parts of their hands so it kind of was just sitting
47:55
there not feeling that interesting but there is something beautiful and like seeing all these
48:00
people connect to it so maybe it was because I'd already know knew about the family's tragedies
48:05
and seeing them be brought to life with dramatized is it slow or gripping I found it to be quite slow
48:11
I don't think it's quite great that's a non-starter for me yeah and it doesn't kind of captured the
48:15
fan of wrestling as like why one would want to join into that right the way that some documentaries
48:21
have like I would say instead of watching this as a great wrestling documentary called
48:26
uh Hitman about Hitman Heart I think it's called wrestling with shadows with Hitman Heart great
48:32
documentary about like one of the most notorious elements in professional wrestling history
48:39
and I think pairs well with like the Vince McMahon documentary series that's on Netflix from
48:44
Chris Smith I think is very very good so there's a lot of great wrestling storytelling out there
48:49
I just didn't feel like this matched those right even though it is telling a story from real life
48:55
what was do you remember that Steve Carell movie where about the the murder that the guy who
49:00
was a fox catcher fox catcher yeah quite like that very dark bed Miller right yeah yeah yeah that
49:06
was good anyway okay I won't see ironclaw then I don't know you might you might be sobbing you
49:11
okay thank you no I know I can just tell from your description there's a kind of film it's
49:15
it's a kind of yes I trust I had entirely trust your if the metric on which you're not liking a
49:19
movie is that it's kind of too slow and brooding and I like slow and brooding like and I'm out
49:26
do you give me give me you know cotton candy the final one that I give a thumbs down for in
49:31
2024 and again this is because I had quite high expectations for it a moderately high expectations
49:37
it was a film called blink twice oh yes I I'm kind of with you on this one yeah this was
49:43
is it Channing Tatum Channing Tatum and Dressed By Zoe Kravitz yeah Zoe Kravitz right the conceit
49:49
was that these two girls go to like a billionaire tech bros island they're kind of luxury this kind
49:56
of luxury island and strange things start happening and they're not quite sure whether they're
50:00
allowed to leave or whether there's something nefarious going on amongst these kind of tech silicon
50:05
valley tech bro billionaires it's it suffers from the same I read a really interesting piece in
50:12
vulture by a feminist who was criticizing this and also promising young women young woman rather
50:19
which was a kind of a me to like revenge flick and there was another one what was the one where
50:29
it was about half 1950 style housewives but the don't worry darling don't worry darling yeah what you
50:36
were saying at the beginning about like the time that it takes for movies to come out you know
50:40
there's like it takes a year to write a movie at least and it takes a year to make a movie at
50:44
least so you're always addressing the issues of three years ago and I think during me too some
50:49
things got into the pipeline that ended up seeming really important and worthy to sign off on even
50:55
though they were half baked scripts with not very good character development and weren't really
50:59
making an interesting point and then they ended up getting vomited onto our screens after the moment
51:04
had passed and after people including you know many feminists were thinking in more nuanced ways
51:09
about what you know male violence and male privilege looks like and then the struggle of women
51:15
in toxic male environments and blink twice it had such potential and it ends up I mean I don't
51:22
think it's a huge spoiler alert for people to say that the Channing Tatum character ends up being
51:26
a you know a violent misogynist but he's a kind of cartoon villain violent misogynist who when
51:32
it comes to the crunch articulates his misogyny as if he is trying to be cruel and he is he detests
51:42
women like overtly he literally has lines like you know what are you going to do about it like I'm
51:48
you know I'm you know in power and like you know I'm gonna crush you and like destroy yourself
51:53
like that if you read the manifestos of in cells and like toxic men even the Harvey Weinstein's
52:02
of the world the serial rapists they always feel like a victim they're always have this bullshit
52:08
chick about like being aggrieved and how women aren't nice enough to them and they're always sad
52:14
boys and I was like you're trying to make a movie about this phenomenon of abusive toxic
52:21
masculine and you don't even have the first clue about what is motivating your arch villain yeah
52:28
and you I mean there's a whole other bunch of critics that I could make about the autonomy
52:32
of the women themselves and like that you so yeah unsatisfying puritanical point scoring social
52:39
just to see yeah for me I also I didn't really love this movie either I think there's aspects of
52:45
that kind of indicate there is an impressive debut for Zoe Kravitz but I think it's for me like
52:51
it's a tone that didn't quite land for me in especially when there's comedic moments I didn't
52:55
really think it went far enough into those comedic exaggerations what to me though I don't think so
53:02
I didn't laugh but you feel that it's aiming for some of those things in that kind of way like what
53:07
I think is a really perfect example of a film that does these things of like social commentary through
53:13
kind of horror comedy is obviously get out which I think is maybe the best film of the 21st
53:19
grade like it that nothing becomes an instant classic away that film became I think it's just one
53:25
of the greatest horror films ever yes and that uses horror to speak to you about society issues
53:32
about culture yeah in a really elegant way and I think this film has a lot of the same trappings
53:38
is trying to do a lot of the same things but just doesn't quite get the same way by maybe not going
53:45
as elegantly into the comedy or as tough it's just much more stupid yeah just much more stupid it
53:52
says if get out had cast its racist white people as 19th century redneck KKK people like we get
54:01
that story a type but it's not actually what how racism functions in America in the 21st century
54:06
the genius of many of one of the many genius things about get out is that the the the genocidal
54:13
homicidal racists are Obama voting yeah lefty white lefties yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's
54:23
yeah okay so that wraps up our three over eight three underrated right so we've got we've got
54:31
thumbs up for the substance from me first moment from you civil war from me birdie or from you
54:37
mile last from me and better man from you thumbs down for heretic from me Agile from you twisters
54:45
from me wicked from you blink twice from me and the iron claw the iron claw let's say not quite a
54:52
thumb down on those last two no thumbs slightly overrated yeah in our final couple of minutes let's
54:59
just pepper each other with a couple of other movies right that we the loved or hated and and
55:04
people can make of that what they will do you have anything else that you want to flag my first
55:07
crank of pepper for you mate is hard truths and you film from Mike Lee oh I love this I love love
55:14
this it's so fun great premise of basically following someone who walks the world as a painful
55:21
asshole and then you kind of get to know them a bit deeper if people don't know Mike Lee just quick
55:25
quick description to American Americans who may not be familiar with he's one of the masses of cinema
55:30
from the UK and he is a bit of like in a theatrical background where he is collaborative with his
55:38
cast to kind of build a film out of improvisation and stuff but it's like very nuanced feelings
55:43
either small films or big period pieces this is one of these smaller contemporary films
55:48
and there's no sort of his portrayal of working class English class right is very very focused
55:54
on class very focus on the plight of the the working poor and has but that's not but there's still
56:00
really really gripping and well done sort of almost not quite mumble core but like in that universe
56:05
of like very real there's a PhD that is Mike Lee the inventor of mumble core
56:12
Mike Lee the English mumble core beautiful film hard truths great I kind of wait to see it I
56:18
only haven't seen it because it came out reasonably recently in Australia a few things to just
56:22
throw up a Nora I loved it great movie but I couldn't put it as as underrated because everyone
56:30
thinks it's correct the year the holdovers I really like I love that yeah the whole
56:36
that was cool great for this come tumble you as well great Christmas yeah Christmas no locked
56:42
away like charming sort of friendship between teenager and pedagogic stern teacher a couple of
56:50
Japanese films that I really loved monster is one of my favourite films a year which is about a
56:56
friendship between two school boys one of whom is has been teased by one of the teachers and
57:03
it's kind of almost a thriller plot of the the mother trying to figure out what's going on
57:08
between this teacher and this boy and it goes into a really interesting and heartwarming place
57:14
evil does not exist was the other Japanese film I really like which is is not as good as monster
57:19
monsters but monster rather but it's it's really cool it's like an eco satire about a little
57:26
community in rural Japan where I like a consortium wants to come in and build an eco resort next to
57:32
their town and yeah it's you know you have to be into like non Hollywood movies to find the pacing
57:39
of it tolerable but it's a director of drive my car right oh yeah another film that was great
57:45
yeah yeah okay um I'm just tell you tell you're using you here do you two I love love you in two
57:54
what's last summer I've written that summer I just know I don't know last summer oh one of my
58:00
favorite movies is a French movie about a woman who has an affair with a teenage boy oh what
58:06
a married woman okay this went completely on yeah it's driven on my radar let me look up last
58:11
summer last summer it was if yeah so it's a French movie about a a board house wife and oh that's
58:17
right it's her husband's stepson or something it's like my gosh completely in a perfect girl
58:24
yeah great I loved it oh my god talk about drama in small spaces like in small tight
58:32
claustrophobic relationships this is right up my early brother completely inappropriate movie
58:37
would never get made any in any country apart from France yeah you need the French edge yes because
58:42
she's not a wholesale villain yeah but she is a pedophile yeah essentially you know we're a
58:48
pet arrested we're not coming what the different whatever the French call whatever the French call
58:51
and they go to love me challenges love challenges yeah yeah that would be at the top top top
59:00
for me uh conclave was fun conclave's great little kind of pulpy trashy airport style thriller
59:06
yeah i think it's being received in a prestigious way yeah i think it's the opposite
59:09
yeah that agree it's not it's not just not great at all um but i really liked that great time with it
59:15
who would have thought that i would love it ends with us the movie about i did not even see
59:19
and it ends with us oh so you know what it is yes it's like a domestic violence romantic comedy
59:26
the good thing is i didn't have it described that way to me before i went in so i didn't know
59:31
anything about it i haven't read the book i missed all the advertising it was the only thing on
59:35
that the time that i wanted to just chill out in the dark and watch the story for a couple of hours
59:40
so i thought it was a romcom yeah which it starts as and then if you're going and expecting it to
59:46
be a domestic violence thriller you'll probably be disappointed because the stakes remain pretty low
59:50
and it's not like you know i think anything ever escalates to the kinds of uh a drama that you might
59:55
expect from a Hollywood movie but i admired the fact that a big successful Hollywood film could be so
1:00:02
small and um and about something that is difficult to portray in a quite sophisticated way coming back
1:00:10
to like the kind of get out versus um uh what was it called blink twice uh this star this actually
1:00:17
handles a really tricky subject in a way that i found quite yeah oh wow i kind of avoided this
1:00:25
feeling so i might i might check back on my list yeah i don't want to guide you down the garden path
1:00:29
it is like a cheesy it is cheesy i do like cheese though okay good hollywood cheese i need a bit of
1:00:34
cheese every now and then it's part of the food pyramid if you will um furiosa i didn't hate nearly
1:00:40
as much as mad max whatever the furrow furrow furrow furrow i love everyone loved and i thought was
1:00:48
stupid um joker two i didn't see because i was the only person in the world who thought joker was
1:00:52
the worst movie of the 21st century hey you're not alone i hated joker okay hated hated joker
1:01:00
uh and i saw joker folia do i liked it what yeah i couldn't believe it i liked it
1:01:07
i think for me it was the set of references that joker is playing to which are taxi driver
1:01:14
king of comedy yeah and then more overtly no one has talked about this i've seen no one talk
1:01:19
about it it kind of rips wholesale this Chilean film called Tony Manero which is about a guy
1:01:25
in uh pinnashay's chile so same time periods uh who is obsessive Tony Manero the character from
1:01:32
satay night fever and there's a Tony Manero impersonation competition happening on this tv show
1:01:38
that he goes on to the guys also been killing people every and now and then like a serial killer
1:01:43
for a dark moody film and then he kills the host of the tv show i was speaking of killing host
1:01:48
of tv show late night with the devil which you told me to see yeah i love yeah i know it's an Australian
1:01:54
movie but that's another fabulous film that people should look up it's basically the entire
1:01:59
thing is it's a found footage horror film where the entire thing is just the found footage from
1:02:04
a late night television show that very closely resembles karson or letterman in the uh sort of 70s
1:02:11
well letterman was 80s but yeah or don't lay in the street right but uh but it does the it does
1:02:17
the recreation of that kind of show better than i've ever seen anywhere in anything
1:02:24
usually when you're doing usually when an actor is trying to portray a stand-up comic or trying
1:02:30
to portray a talk show host you can just tell that it's a little bit off this is completely convincing
1:02:35
and it's about him they they're ailing in the ratings against johnny karson so they decide to
1:02:41
bring on a possessed girl uh as one of their guests yeah the rest is uh very very entertaining um
1:02:50
uh so okay joker folly adur maybe i'll give it a shot i thought the original so the thing about
1:02:55
the first joker the joker well not first but you know what i mean the the first one in this in this
1:03:00
pair was not only was it not only did i not understand the kind of homage it was trying to make
1:03:07
to king of comedy because it's just the same it's the same not the only twist is the guy was makeup
1:03:13
you know yeah but i i don't understand i didn't understand what they expect us to make
1:03:18
are they do they understand that we know that the king of comedy exists as a movie and that it has
1:03:22
exactly the same plot well i think some people don't know that it exists i think that's in case
1:03:28
you just plagiarizing and if you do know that we know then do something playful with the reference
1:03:34
yeah i agree don't just recreate the scenario and then offer no higher stakes than the stakes that we
1:03:40
had 40 years ago when that when to nero did that film and i think it's also for me to almost
1:03:47
a weed miscasting of deniro where goes oh we're accessing this one role that he did it doesn't
1:03:52
speak to who he is culturally to people i would say for me he also doesn't do a good job the way
1:03:58
that late night with the devil does in portraying a like the wrong torture kind of charisma for
1:04:02
late night show host i think for me the references in folio doer which are weirder more esoteric like
1:04:09
pennies from heaven or couple is one from the heart and sydny lament courtroom dramas that's a weirder
1:04:16
mix in the recipe to like kind of put together so it kind of feels a little bit more unique in that
1:04:23
sense or for me at least a more palatable set of references coming together to make something
1:04:29
a little bit more interesting are there any state because that was my other my main critique of joker
1:04:35
was that you you'll have a seven minute shot of wakian phoenix looking in the mirror sadly
1:04:42
and then you're like okay well hopefully this is going to motivate him to to fuck some shit up
1:04:47
and almost like my critique of twisters yeah like if this is about joker we know from the dark night
1:04:55
that joker is the most nefarious character in perhaps all of super heroium so show me that
1:05:01
nefariousness to have him as a boring tortured soul who's just meandering around like and then the
1:05:07
worst thing that he can ever do is kill one person that's it yeah that's all you've got and
1:05:13
you're i waited a hundred minutes for you to kill one person you didn't do anything else bad joker
1:05:19
i think that i can forgive you for everything you've done i think that if you're looking for stakes
1:05:24
joker fully do a steal may not be for you there okay but i don't know i hated that first film so
1:05:30
to find anything in the sequel was a huge surprise right you came from a very low bar
1:05:35
um it was there anything else that you want to throw into the system before we
1:05:39
did you had your any final thoughts i really loved love slice bleeding as well i thought
1:05:44
that was a great little like hard neo noir and once i got coming up towards next year baby girl
1:05:50
i really liked is this things that aren't out yet or uh love life splitting is out has been out
1:05:55
since the early last year oily this year and then baby girl is in that kind of oscary race so
1:06:02
early january i think it's coming out with Nicole Kidman i think you'd like it if describing
1:06:08
that french film it's an age difference uh kind of affair going on as well uh and i'd say it's a
1:06:16
little bit um kind of like 50 Shades of Grey with a really nice kind of paint on it in that kind
1:06:25
of expert filmmaking sense okay and a little bit more fun it's a Nicole Kidman Etonia Bandera
1:06:31
San Harris to consider i mean i'm great i'm great at bandarison yeah yeah and it's fun to see
1:06:35
Nicole Kidman Etonia Bandera so i think of two actors that kind of had their starts in the room
1:06:41
of like a Rodic thriller and dramas uh coming back to that territory together it's quite fun
1:06:47
you're just making me realize that i should watch dead calm again which i haven't seen in 20 years
1:06:51
Nicole Kidman's first blockbuster hit probably yeah i think so great great film and it would be a
1:06:57
great triple bill if you do dead calm you do laws of desire the Pedro Mordova Etonia Bandera
1:07:03
film then you followed up with this baby girl i'm gonna do it we'll have a triple we'll have a
1:07:07
triple showing uh just you and me um that it yeah yeah and then you're looking forward to in 2025
1:07:14
oh what else am i looking forward to um i'm really looking forward to Mickey 17 the new film from
1:07:20
Bong Joon Ho it feels like it's been hidden from us for quite some time was meant to come out
1:07:24
this year uh but it's a science fiction big film with Robert Pattinson Tony Collette great i
1:07:30
think that looks really exciting that's the one that's re that's my number one most looking forward to
1:07:35
and are we getting Tom Cruise's final mission impossible this year or is that next i mean
1:07:39
just been retardled final reckoning final reckoning is that 2025 i think that's 2025 okay i'm looking
1:07:44
forward let's cross our fingers i hope i just started getting my daughter into mission impossible
1:07:48
movies she's seven years old she loves it i mean the whole birch owl califa sitting where he's
1:07:54
climbing up the outside of the total skyscraper in the world and then we started watching the
1:07:58
documentaries about how that was done and like you know you can see him out there with his hand harnesses
1:08:03
on wow you were indoctrining your children into cinema and i could not be more happy and proud that
1:08:08
i love it new film lovers being brought into this world thank you Alexi for uh chatting my pleasure
1:08:14
just thank you for chatting with me