You know what that sound means? It's time for
another episode of Game for a Movie. I am your
host, Mikey Tech. I am joined by... Audrey Bellinger.
It's Jill. And we have from the laundromat...
Hey, guys. First time, long time. It's Mitchell
from Bristol calling in from a parking lot in
front of a lot. Working at the car wash, but...
I feel like we should have a bunch of soundboard
dumbass sounds like a radio show ready for a
call -in segment. Yeah, a sting. That's exactly
right. We got bubbles. So you can go on your
very way, Mitchell. We will just jump into it
with you. This episode is all about directorial
debuts. We each picked a different director and
tried to watch their... first film so we start
with you what director did you pick and what
is their first film so the very one of my favorite
directors working today is damien chazelle um
the first film that i saw from him was whiplash
i thought on a plane ride from hawaii back to
la on a business trip and my boss is the one
who suggested that i watch it because he knew
how much i like movies And he's like, and he
knew how much I love musicals. He said, hey,
this isn't a musical per se, but this is probably
one of those movies that's made for you. I'm
like, all right, all right. It was out of the
theaters by that point. But I saw it was on Delta.
So I popped that on. And I texted him right after
we landed. And I'm like, Bill, that's me. I think
I watched the best movie of this year on a fucking
airplane. I was blown away. I was able to see
it in theaters a couple years later. And then
La La Land hits. That is perfectly up my alley.
And then First Man came out, I believe, a year
and a half ago. So I've seen all of David Chazelle's
movies at this point. I thought, until I did
some digging, I realized, holy shit. There was
a movie that he did before Whiplash. And it was
actually his senior thesis project when he was
a student at Harvard. And the name of the film
is Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. That's a
mouthful. That is a mouthful. You've done some
real digging to find a senior thesis project.
Well, here's the thing. So, yes, it's a senior
thesis project, but it premiered, like, formally
had a premiere. at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Oh, wow. It was still on people's radars, like,
really in the film community, but it was on people's
radars. So this is a black -and -white musical
-type movie, I would say, not a full -on La La
Land -type deal, but you have choreographed as
they dodge traffic. Be safe. Jesus. I'm sorry.
I want to talk a lot. Like a West Wing episode.
Right? Walk with me. It's true You've got a lot
of jazz music so basically everything that you
would expect from Damien Chazelle if you had
seen other movies Was able to music use in first
man, which is about the alarm truck, you know?
Yeah, so the whole thing about it is it's a it's
a romance love triangle type movie I would say
it's DNA is probably closest with La La Land
you got very young, talented people looking to
make it into the world while trying to balance
both their love life and some of their other
interests, I guess you could say. But what really
took me aback when I watched it, I mean, this
is a student film. This is black and white. It's
grainy as shit. It looks like a French New Wave
movie more than anything else. termed it as an
MGM musical. And that's not an original take,
by the way. A lot of different reviews said the
same thing about it. But more than anything else,
it's really the sound design that completely
blew me away. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm still looking
at being weird this entire time. Hold on. This
might be the most interesting podcast ever. What's
next? in the shot of Mitchell. Like, there's
guys. Like, he's on the other side of a lot.
Just remember, I know... I'm sorry, I'm really
proud of him. It's okay, because I have a certain
set of skills, and I will find you. Just continue
to talk confidently into the phone. Yes. Yes,
okay. I'm going to try to go secret. Maybe he's
a Damien Chazelle fan. Yeah, right. Wait, is
that Damien Chazelle? i'm kidding uh guys this
is this is a good movie not great um okay a lot
of dna of what what could be um what would come
from damien chazelle once you give him a budget
um it's the same thing that you would see in
the short film that pre that uh preceded whiplash
it was like the short five ten minute scene that
was cut straight from the script but a lot of
it comes down to again sound design and then
character dynamics those are the things that
I feel like are always going to be a part of
his filmography. So it's everything from music
to atmosphere. And then I guess how your main
two lovers look into each other's eyes. You see
that at the end of La La Land. You see that at
the end of First Man. So you see it in this film.
I don't have a whole lot to elaborate, really.
I don't like scurrying back and forth. Where
is the movie, the film set? Is it, it's not LA.
Is it New York or Boston? Yeah, it is Boston.
So Boston initially, but a lot of it takes place
in New York as well. Okay. So he's like the main,
the main guy. So one of his lovers is living
in New York after they kind of have a breakup.
I guess you want to call it a breakup. It's really
interesting. Like the first, Five minutes of
the movie. It's all music. It's like a musical
kind of interlude. I don't know what it's called
at the very beginning of a musical. But basically
it tells the brief three -month story of the
initial couple's relationship. All the music,
no dialogue, anything like that. So that is the
first love of her. So she plays a huge role in
the movie. Her whole thing is after their breakup,
she tries to move down to New York. And then
Guy, who's the main dude, after he has his fling,
is just like, wait, I miss Madeline. Who's the
first girl? So he kind of chases her down to
New York. Oh, so it really is Guy and Madeline.
It is Guy and Madeline. Those are the characters.
Okay. And they break up on a park bench. No spoilers.
Oh. Well, now I'm not going to find this senior
thesis project. Damn it. So I was able to...
find it. It's so weird. Amazon Prime has a deal
with Mubi, M -U -B -I. And you could subscribe
to them for like $6 .99 a month in addition to
Amazon Prime. I did the one week free trial to
watch this. Good call. Yeah. It is a cinephile's
wet dream, don't get me wrong. But I'm still
trying to work my way through the HBO Max TCM
library before I move on to anything else. Yeah,
it's really odd that this student film that costs,
I think I read, $30 ,000, it has made its way
to multiple different streaming services, including
Sundance, and now Boobie, and it was available
for rental on YouTube for a little bit. So I'm
wondering if it ever made money. $30 ,000, you
know, it's not... It's a lot for a student film,
but not a... You can't even make a movie for
that. I remember recently hearing that even Blair
Witch Project had a meager budget, but it was
at least a million. Yeah, right. And that's the
thing. It's everything from... It's feeding your
casting crew. It's renting space. I mean, these
were shot in cities. So you had to get permits
for certain shots. And the music itself, even
though that was also composed by a fellow student.
The rights to record and all that is still going
to cost money. So even all of that adds up. And
by the way, submitting it into a film festival
isn't free. So all these things add up. What
I think is most interesting about this movie
is how everything about it has kind of become
a calling card. What Damien Chazelle and Justin
Hurwitz have been known to do. Listen to the
music the way the horn sound. I'm not a guy who
knows anything specific about music at all But
it sounds like long Sounds like I don't know
how to describe that any better, but they share
the same sonic DNA It's in his DNA Anyway, it's
it again what what I was most struck by was and
all the little things that make up the human
connection here. And this, like I said, it's
a very gritty -looking film. At times, I bet
if I were to put it in front of you and give
you a random 10 -minute clip, you would swear
it's a documentary. All the shots are handheld.
It's all grainy black and white. It looks like
if anyone here has taken a film class, you probably
would have seen the documentary called High School.
It came out in the 1960s. And it's a film about,
you know, high school students in the 1960s.
It's all about black and white. And it's going
through everything from getting detention to
cutting class. And it had the same gritty, handheld
look of this movie. And I think that added to,
you know, the humanity behind it. That kind of
gives that extra step beyond the, oh, these guys
are randomly tap dancing now. You know, there's
some realism to the story, which is cool. Interesting.
Yep. Any questions? Well, I was just going to
say, before we let you go, what would you give
this movie? Like, it's tough, right? Yeah. Because
I'm judging what Danish was probably like 20
or 21 when he made this. And not to say that
you can't make a big movie at that point. There
have been plenty of examples. I'm not sure how
old Orson Welles was when he made this, but he
was incredibly young for that. I think he was
24. Yeah, I think he was 24. This is not an accessible
movie. Yeah. Not by streaming and not by, hey,
you're a random person who likes Whiplash. Here's
a guy, Madeline, on a park bench. I'd probably
give it three out of five, and that's being a
Damien Chazelle fan. Okay. So three out of five
park benches. Nice. Yeah, and my thing is, if
I look at everything else, I give Whiplash a
five out of five. I give Mama Land five out of
five, and I give First Man four out of five.
So everything else is super high for me. But
this is him just starting to hone his craft.
He's just starting to turn the wrenches in terms
of what kind of story he wants to tell. And for
that, I appreciate it. If it wasn't Damien Chazelle,
and I thought this was some random dude, this
would probably be two out of five, because some
of the tap dancing does seem random. Right. And
some of the music cues kind of feel a little
gratuitous. But you can see what they're going
for. And to a certain level, you have to appreciate
that. So, yeah, three out of five knowing that
it's Damien. Two out of five probably unweighted.
I didn't know. Nice. All right, Mitchell, we're
going to let you go. Be safe. They did laugh
a while back. Okay. Good. Staring him down. into
the laundromat to pull some clothes down. Again,
you can tell how safe I feel in this area. Again,
first time, long time, I'll take my answer off
the air, and I'll talk to you guys later, okay?
Have a good pod. Bye, buddy. So now that Mitchell's
safe, thank God, we're going to jump into the
people here. It is really weird to see you guys
in person for a pod. Yeah, it's nice. It's nice.
Yeah, exactly. I'm liking it. We've been doing
mostly Google Hangouts and stuff like that, but
it's actually nice to see your faces as we talk
and drink beer. Because, you know, we didn't
go into it. What are we drinking, everybody?
Oh, yeah. I'm drinking, I think I did this on
the pod before, Two Roads, Too Juicy. Classic.
Overliable. Nothing wrong with that. I've got
Big Cranky from Stony Creek. Stony Creek. Fantastic.
I've got Del's Shandy. It's like Summer Shandy.
It's made with Del's lemon ice, so it's great.
Is there limes in it? Because, like, the upper
part looks like a cucumber. No, but, yeah, I
see how you get there. I think it's supposed
to evoke, like, a lemon -lime soda of sorts.
It's a beer with natural lemon flavors. There
you go. So, yeah, and it's from our friends in
Narragansett. Hi, neighbor. All right. Andre,
you're going to follow us up. That's right. Damien
Chazelle was first. Who do you have as your director
and movie? So I am picking Alex Garland as my
directorial debut of choice. Good choice. And
his first film was actually a pretty recent one,
Ex Machina. He only has two films that he's directed
so far. So I have a question right off the bat.
Yes. I got spoiled on the ending. Oh, no. Okay.
So I have never gone back and seen the rest of
the film. Yeah. Knowing the ending, can I go
back and watch it and still enjoy it? Yes. I'd
say 100%. I've been meaning to talk to somebody
about this because I do want to watch it. It's
just I know the end. Cool. But it happens. I
will get into that momentarily. I won't spoil
anything here because I think people should go
into this blind if they can. Yeah, if they can.
So Alex Garland is kind of an interesting case
because he's kind of been in the injury for a
while. It was interesting. I remember... finding
out about, like, seeing this movie for trailers,
and they very, like, so Alex Garland, his biggest,
like, splash on the scene, as far as I know,
was him writing 28 Days Later. Like, that was,
like, his first, like, he wrote for that movie,
and that's, like, that was what they used in
all the trailers, like, for the writer of 28
Days Later. And they made it, they framed it
like a horror movie. Okay. And, you know, Jill
and I sat down and watched this a couple days
ago. I think she can agree. This is definitely
not a horror movie. And I asked you, is this
considered a horror movie at one point, right?
Yeah, I did. Yeah, you did. Oh, he also did the
screenplay for Dread? Yes. Oh, and Enslaved Odyssey
of the West! Yes. Oh my god. Yeah, so he's done
video games too, which is weird. I found that
out after. Like, Enslaved and DMC Double Makeover.
His first... Yeah, there you go. We're on the
shelf. We're on the shelf. Just waiting for it.
Sorry, go ahead. So this is his first actual,
like, debut directorial film. Yeah. And... My
God, honestly, this is probably one of my favorite
films of the last decade, so I was kind of cheating.
I was like, all right, this is an excuse to watch
Taco, one of my favorite movies. Whatever. I
guess this is just done with the premise, I guess.
So the conceit is that the main character, our
main character, played by Damal Gleeson, works
for a very large software corporation. I think
it's called Blue Book. Might as well be Facebook,
you know, something like that. And he's an employee.
He's a software engineer for that huge company,
and he wins a lottery to spend a week. in a very
remote location where his company's CEO lives,
who's known to be very eccentric and a recluse,
basically. Been off the grid for, I think, years
at that point. who happens to be played by Oscar
Isaac. So Oscar Isaac is basically playing under
a very eccentric Mark Zuckerberg type. And I
know he did Annihilation 2. Yes. Oscar Isaac's
obviously in that as well. Yep, yep. Cool. Yeah,
so yeah. Alex Carlin likes, like, buddy buddies
with Oscar Isaac, I suppose. So yeah. Who isn't?
Yeah, right, exactly. I love to be buddies with
him. Right? And yeah, so, you know, Caleb, played
with Donald Gleeson, thinks like he's just there
to hang out with like, oh, I won the lottery,
like, you know, I won this trip to hang out with
my CEO. And he finds out that he's brought here
to conduct what's called a Turing test. Oscar
Isaac has developed an artificial intelligence,
and he wants Caleb to perform a Turing test,
which is basically a test that involves trying
to prove if an artificial intelligence is real
or not. It's actually actual intelligence. And
it's done by basically... A classic Turing test
would be a human interacts with a computer, but
they don't know they're interacting with a computer.
Basically, it's behind closed doors. Imagine
having a phone call conversation with somebody.
So on the other side is the computer. If the
human talking with the computer doesn't realize
they're a computer, that computer has passed
the Turing test. They are an artificial intelligence.
They are actually intelligent. Okay. So basically,
Oscar Isaac has built a super sophisticated cyborg
robot and wants to find out if what he's built
is true intelligence or not. And right off the
bat, you can just kind of get this sense of weird
tension between the two characters. I mean, Oscar
Isaac's kind of built. The first time we see
him, he's like pumping weights. He's meant to
be. Punching a bag. Yeah, punching a bag. You're
right. Yeah. So he's very fit. Yeah. And you
can tell he's kind of like an opposing presence
about him. Yeah. And you can tell that he's kind
of intimidated. And there's just something a
bit off about him. You can tell that he sees
himself. kind of above everybody else. That's
why he separated himself from everything. And
basically, it's, I mean, you know, through the
dialogue between him and Donald Gleeson, you
kind of just get the idea that Oscar Isaac sees
himself as a god trying to usher in a new era,
basically. Okay. And, yeah, it's just super fascinating
the way that tension is kind of built up, both
in terms of the dialogue, the soundtrack behind
it. I mean, I've listened to the soundtrack,
not while I've worked, but just kind of as an
ambient, like in the background for a while,
and it's very anxiety -inducing. It's really,
really... It gets you? It gets you, yes. And
yeah, the way that this movie is shot, it's just
beautifully done. Everything, it's basically,
it takes place almost entirely on... Oscar Isaac's
remote facility, so it's a very, very tight set.
It feels claustrophobic. It's supposed to. I
was telling Jill I was afraid to watch this because
I was like, you know, I definitely didn't want
to watch it in the middle of lockdown. And now,
you know, now I'm kind of in a better place to
watch that. Yeah, you feel like the walls are
closing in a little bit. Yes, yes. And this movie
definitely evokes that feeling because it wants
you to also feel sympathy for the AI character,
who I haven't even talked about yet, Ava. This
is the robot that Oscar Isaac has built. Alicia
Vikander? Yes, yeah, playback. Alicia Vikander.
And so basically the way the Turing test goes
is that Donald Leeson is just sitting in a glass
room opposite Alicia Vikander. Okay. And they
just have conversations. Basically, you know,
you can kind of, the way that like Donald's like,
at first you can kind of tell that he's like
kind of treating this like a, oh, like, are you
really an artificial intelligence? Like, oh,
like, tell me something about yourself. He's
like obviously trying to trip her up. Right.
But you kind of immediately get the sense that
she does not like the idea of being confined.
And that is kind of like the biggest sticking
point is that she's not allowed to leave the
room that she's in. And you can tell that that's
kind of her main prime directive is to try to
escape, try to live out in the world. And in
a way, that's almost the biggest proof that she
does have intelligence because, you know, what's
more human than wanting to live free? freely
um and yeah i i don't know i can't really talk
about the narrative further without kind of uh
but just yeah i just really love the way this
movie is shot cinematography wise uh the way
they kind of play on the viewers expectations
a little bit as far as twists go um It's got
all the building blocks for a really solid thriller,
and it's left me with a lot of questions about
what's the meaning behind artificial intelligence,
as well as it kind of touches on fascinating
parts of basically the idea of a surveillance
state that we've set up for ourselves with social
media. It's very clear that they're supposed
to be a standard for Facebook, and they kind
of get into the very gray morality of what we've
kind of set up for ourselves as far as how much
information we give to each other. you know,
big giant corporations. Okay. I don't know. And
so I guess I should stop babbling and let Jill
kind of chime in because this is her first time
watching this movie with me. Yeah. I'll, I mean
this in the best possible way. It reminded me
of an episode of Black Bear. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
And there were things in the movie that I liked
a lot, like a very, I loved the soundtrack. The
cinematography was gorgeous. I don't know if
it's because I'm just good at guessing things.
Yeah. Or I've seen enough. stories that were
this narrative that i was able to guess some
things that were going to happen before they
happened um but it was still very very good um
i think i think i like between of like the three
principal characters so oscar isaac's character's
name is nathan you've got uh caleb and then you
have Ava, I think just Oscar Isaac, every time
he was on screen, it was like a pendulum swinging
from, I am this genius who thinks I am God. to
this broken, sad, pathetic person who every night
is just getting blitzed, dropped. Yes, just absolutely
hammered. Like, sober and egotistical in the
morning, a crying mess at night. Yes, and it's
so great, his conversations with Caleb, like,
you can just immediately tell, like, literally
when they first meet, he's like, oh, sorry, like,
I'm super hungover, like, I, you know, super
hungover from last night, and then Caleb's like,
oh, like, how was the party? Like, you know,
like, oh, gotcha, like, oh, he must have been
a rager, huh? And he's like, what? We'll party.
Yeah, exactly. And I don't know if I should mention
or whatever, but basically, this is maybe in
the first half hour or so. They've kind of ratcheted
up the tension to the point where Caleb does
not trust Nathan as much as he did when he started.
Something's fishy. Something is definitely fishy
and askew. And you find out that there are random
power outages that happen in the facility that
cause a lockdown. So basically, Caleb gets locked
in his room momentarily. and uh you know he gets
freaked out a little bit and he brings it up
to nathan being like hey like what's the deal
with these power ratchets like oh it's something
wrong with the system uh you know i'm trying
to figure it out like you know it's it's crazy
like i had these guys come in and install my
power my power system uh and i paid top dollar
for it and i still run into problems then he's
like oh well i can't just have them like come
back and fix these like nah i can't have them
killed off as soon as they did it and you can
like Yeah. What? And you can, like, but, like,
he kind of makes him, like, he gives him, like,
a little wry smile where it's like, I'm kidding,
dude, you know? But, like, you know what he's
killed? Like, just the way... I'm not giving
it... The way that's, like, framed is just, like,
a little casual lighting. It looks like Oscar
Isaac would do it, too. Yes, yes, yes. It's very
much a great performance piece for all of those
principal actors, to be honest with you. Yeah,
no, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's, like, my dad,
like, loves sci -fi, but he's also rather particular
about the type of sci -fi that he wants to watch.
He doesn't want to watch... Bad example, but,
like, Event Horizon to him is not a good movie,
but it's, like, stupid fun. He wants something
smarter. That's, like, a schlocky horror film.
I mean, like, it's a good horror film, but it's
underappreciated. I mean, stupid fun is different
than, like, you can have stupid fun movies. Yeah,
this is, I mean, it's not as I'm going to be
way too heady. It's not, like, heady in the way
that Prometheus is choking on its own. Yes. Right.
But if my dad's going to watch a sci -fi film.
And that's kind of what I like, because, like,
this is a sci -fi movie. What? Yeah. Sorry, I
just spaced out there. Well, on that note, I
feel like this is kind of going for what Prometheus
went for, but this is actually more closer to
nailing it, the whole idea of, like, what is
the concept of life. Exactly. Like, it's heady,
but it also is, like... You know, Prometheus
is also trying to be a fun sci -fi flick at the
same time. Now I need to go out of my way, because
literally, we're joking about it, but I have
enslaved Odyssey of the West right there. It's
one of my favorite video games from Xbox 360,
and Alex Garland wrote it. I'm sitting here going,
I need to watch this. Like, I need to. So what
I was saying is that my dad likes heady sci -fi
films, and this is one that you're going to walk
away from asking a lot of questions. like I know
after we finished watching it I turned to Andre
and I was just like okay so like some theory
like in theory these things could happen or like
Maybe there was this confrontation that might
have happened off screen or after the fact. There's
a lot of things there that you want to see what
happens next, but there is no more. So all that's
left is the vacuum of speculation. Yeah. I enjoyed
it. So I'm looking up. Did I hear correctly that
Ex Machina may be getting a sequel? What? Really?
Maybe I'm wrong. It's going to be iRobot. It's
going to down, like, crater. Yeah, right. It's
going to iRobot territory. Yes, right. Okay,
so it says there won't be one. There won't be
one. Okay, great. Yeah, I just, I feel like I
saw something that said there might be. I definitely,
there's no direction that movie could go that
wouldn't, there would, without fear of comparisons
to other things that exist. Yeah. And no film,
like, this isn't a spoiler, there's AI in it.
No film wants to be compared to The Matrix. Yeah.
Because when you hear that word, you're going
to think very specific things. And not the original
Matrix, but, like... Well, alright, sorry, you're
right, you're right. Yeah, I'm thinking the original.
The original Matrix. I thought you were talking
about, like, sequels ruining something, but no,
you're... That too, but, like, you know, there's
some things where it's just, like, you know,
there's, like, um... What's the right word for
that? Like... pillars of a genre and when you
get into the territory of AI there's like four
or five distinct like you hear AI in a film and
your mind goes to like one of a few different
types of films and like Blade Runner one of them
you know there's unique ways and I think Ex Machina
ends on such a good note that it really defines
itself as a really unique take on this genre
that anything that's going to come afterwards
is just going to be compared to Blade Runner
or The Matrix or iRobot. Right, yeah. Have you
guys watched Annihilation? Yes, I have. I have
not. Okay, you have not. Okay, so I'm wondering
more so, Alex Garland, is it a similar style?
Is it a different style? You can definitely tell
it's the same director. You can definitely tell
he has a hand in it. I would say Annihilation
is actually much closer to a horror film. Okay.
And Annihilation is also adapted from a novel,
and I haven't read that novel. So I would say
that it's not, like, the narrative is definitely
way different. But it still has some great character
moments. Like, it still has kind of similar strengths
to Ex Machina in terms of it's beautifully shot.
The scope of the movie is way bigger, though,
I would say. Like, there's way more sets, just
period. And way more characters. It goes somewhere.
Yes, right. There are characters exploring an
environment. Did he write the screenplay for
both of them? Yes. Yes. Okay. He did, yeah. According
to IMDB. They both ask very heady questions of
the sci -fi variety, but Annihilation covers
something very different that I don't want to
spoil that in. But yeah, I think Annihilation's
a pretty different film. I tend to prefer Ex
Machina, but I would say that's down to taste.
Yeah, and that's totally fair, because I mean,
they are different movies for what their style
is. Yeah, exactly. And then, okay, the only other
thing he's really done directing -wise is devs,
and he's done some episodes. Yes, he's done some
episodes of devs, yes. That's why I was trying
to... So he's like, basically, he's known for
writing screenplays. Yeah, and his writing, I'm
sitting here going, like, this is awesome, because
he did 28 Days Later, he did, obviously, slave
uh dread devil may cry ex machina annihilation
and then some of the episodes of devs yeah so
okay all right so we get down to rating yeah
what would you give this i know you said it's
one of your favorite movies yeah so what would
you give this i would give this like a 4 .75
oh man i should have come up with a metric beforehand
shut up 4 .75 awkward dance interludes oh god
yeah It's a moment. It's a moment where it's
like the tension has kind of built and then it's
just like dancing. It's so good. I love it. I
would give it four out of five broken arms. Broken
arms slash hands. Cool. So we're going to go
a different direction entirely. Yes. Time for
something way more. later let me tell you this
is this is one heck of a double feature that
we watched yeah totally yes i believe that actually
um having seen this movie so so for the Assignment,
I guess, if you will. I wanted to do a director
that I could look at of films that I've seen
and I could say, like, okay, there is a style
here. I originally wanted to do Hitchcock, but
it turns out that he has a very large filmography
and a good 10 years of that is just not accessible
anywhere. So it's not really his directorial
debut if he's been directing for 10, 15 years
when you finally get to a movie you can watch.
So instead I decided to do Mel Brooks because...
He is such a distinct style, still funny. And,
you know, going into this, I actually didn't
know what his directorial debut was. So I was
really surprised when it turned out to be The
Producers. The Producers. 1967, actually. Specifically,
November 22nd, 1967. I have the page for it over
here. For those of you who may not have ever
heard of this film, or maybe are not familiar
with the Broadway... that came out in the early
2000s or the Unfortunate movie remake from the
mid -2000s. I take offense to Unfortunate. It
was still decent. It's nowhere near as good as
the original. It's decent because of the material.
And they were banking on... This is a whole side
tangent. We'll get there. Yes, it is. So for
those of you who might not be familiar with the
story, The Producers is about a washed -up Broadway
producer named Max Bialystock. Bialystock. who
has had a series of flops, and at this point,
he is frisking around with little old ladies.
What was the name of the first old lady? Hold
Me, Touch Me. She's credited as Hold Me, Touch
Me, which I love. Hold Me, Touch Me. She likes
to play the milkmaid and the water boy. Oh, and
the chauffeur. And the chauffeur. Anyway, he's
making money by frisking around with little old
ladies to fund future musicals. plays though
that's not really going well so one day during
one of his romps with one of his lady paramours
an accountant shows up played by gene wilder
um and i didn't say it leo bloom is the the character
played by gene wilder and max bialy stock is
played by zero mostel um most of you if you don't
um recognize that role of him from producers.
You might know him from a funny thing that happened
on the way to the forum. He's been around. He
was a blacklisted actor. Really interesting history.
Look him up. Anyway, Leo Bloom comes in. He's
a neurotic little kneebish wreck. Carries around
a blanket with him. Very insecure. And after
a rather frightening introduction, sits down,
opens up the books. and realizes that Max had
unintentionally raised $2 ,000 more than he needed
for his last play. That play closed in a night,
so no one really knew otherwise. And then as
he's kind of muttering to himself, he says, you
know, it's interesting. You can make a fortune
by raising more money than you need for a meet
for a play as long as it closes within a couple
days. And Bialystock has that light bulb moment
where he's like, this is it. I'm going to raise
the money. There's a lot of little old ladies
out there. We're going to put on the worst musical
on Broadway or play. And it's going to close
in a night. And we're going off to Rio. And Leo
is like, that's illegal. I can't do this. 45
minutes is just setting up this duo, and they
have fantastic chemistry. Zero Muscle's Max Bialystock
is just pure id. He has no shame. He's past rock
bottom. As I said earlier, Gene Wilder's Leo
Bloom is just this nervous wreck, and they just
come together beautifully. There's a scene where
he's having an anxiety attack, and you can see
through the acting him visibly getting red. He's
feeling that performance. Gene Wilder, great
character. Great role. And this was his second
role. I think this was his second film role.
Was it? Yeah. Yeah, this is a very young Gene
Wilder, too. I'm going to look that up. I believe
you, but I'm just going to look it up just because
I'm curious. So as they're reading through, they
finally find their flop, and it is called Springtime
for Hitler, a gay romp with Hitler and Ava. And
they're like, this is it. This is our lightning
in a bottle. So they seek out the author, a former
Nazi, or as he would say, I'm innocent, Franz
Liebkin, to get permission. Franz Liebkin. He's
very excited to prove to the world that our concept
of Hitler is wrong. We never knew the man. He
was a fantastic dancer. He was in four TV series,
one TV movie, and then just one film. Bonnie
and Clyde. Yes. So they have the author's permission.
They go, they get a director. um who it's the
night it's the late 1960s he's gay they make
lots of gay jokes i would say that they are not
distasteful yeah they're not you can tell they're
they're they're not like it hasn't aged super
well but it's like whatever i mean what i'm a
straight guy talking about this like you know
if people find it offensive i wouldn't blame
i would say it's not the most cringy thing in
this movie and in fact like I'll get to it, but...
There's a Nazi. There's lots of Nazis. Yes. We
don't know what the original play was like, but
the director reads it and he's like, oh my god,
I'm going to get a line of chorus girls dressed
as storm trippers, latex, black boots, doing
high can -can kicks. Yep. This is gonna win me
a Tony. The scheme progresses. They hold auditions
to find a Hitler. The guy they end up picking,
his name acronym is LSD. No, abbreviation. I'm
sorry. His abbreviation is LSD. And he's this
play on your 1960s love child. He shows up wearing
a soup can around his neck. And he just is like,
I got my groovy groove backup band here. Let
me sing you a song. He's got flowers in his hands.
That's our Hitler, someone shouts. Perfect. I
think it was Bialstock who said, that's our Hitler.
That's our Hitler. So the play goes on. It starts.
And it's this wonderful opening number called
Springtime for Hitler. And it's all about the
triumphs of Germany. You know, they're goose
-stepping two steps once more. Some people leave
the theater. Some people leave, and Max Bialystock
and Leo Blum are like, yes, we did it. We are
going to close this. They've raised over, I think,
25 ,000 % shares. That's how many shares of the
show they have sold. They're like, we did it.
And then they go off to a bar, and they're like,
we're just going to wait, and it's going to be
fantastic. But what happens is that after the
opening number, we meet Hitler, this groovy,
hippy -dippy guy, and the audience just starts
laughing because it's hilarious. It's a parody.
It's not a, yeah. Yeah, they've unintentionally
created what, at least in this universe of the
world, is the first satire of the Nazis. Right.
And much to Max and Leo's... Horror, they find
out later, this show will run forever. So the
rest of the film is them trying to close off
the show, be it shoot the actors. That joke did
not age well. No, it did not. Shooting the actors,
or as they ultimately settle, they decide to
blow up the theater. They do blow something up,
but they get caught and they get sent to jail.
There's a wonderful courtroom scene right at
the end where they're about to get their sentence
and Leo stands up. And he's like, this man is
selfish. He's mean. He's horrible. And Max the
whole time is just like, don't help me. Please
don't help me. Stop helping me. But it ends with
Leo saying, you know what, though? He didn't
hurt me because he helped me live. He didn't
hurt these old ladies and throw all these old
ladies behind them. He gave them one last thrill
on their way to the cemetery. And they get a
standing ovation. And the film ends with them
running rehearsals for a show inside the state
penitentiary. Was it Prison Time Lovers? Prison
Producers of Love. Prisoners of Love. And you
think they might be reformed, but no, they're
selling shares of the play. Though we only see
them sell 100%. We see three guys in line. One
guy buys 20, another guy buys 30, and then a
person shows up with a letter from the warden,
and it was like 50%. So it ends right there.
So we're like, oh, do they raise more than that
100? They may try to do it again. Overall, this
movie has aged surprisingly really, really well.
Sorry. And my gambit paid off because you see
so much of Mel Brooks' distinct style in this
movie. You know, fourth wall breaks to the audience.
There's a scene where after Leo has a panic attack,
Max looks at the camera. He's like, they find
me. They always find me. I love that. God. You
know, Mel Brooks has gone on record and said
that he's kind of made it his life goal to laugh
at Hitler. And a couple years ago, I think it
was in 2016, he was part of a documentary called
The Last Laugh, I think it's called. Okay. And
the entire documentary is about Holocaust humor.
What is it appropriate to laugh? What is it not
appropriate to laugh? Okay. So they have all
these famous comedians and directors talking
about Holocaust humor. When it works, and it
usually works best when you're making fun of
the Nazis and Hitler. When does it not? When
you're actually seeing the camps and the prisoners.
And they talk about a whole bunch of different
films. So, Life is Beautiful, the Italian film.
A lot of people don't like that movie because
they think that the father who's trying to lighten
the mood for the son... is incredibly disrespectful.
He's trying to make light of the situation for
a child, but he's also indirectly being comedic
to the audience. And some people think, well,
we shouldn't be laughing when they're in this
concentration camp, even if it's for the sake
of this child. There's a movie, I can't remember
what it's called, it's something about a clown.
It's never been screened. I should have looked
this up to begin with. It's also about laughing
at the Holocaust and the person who is in it.
The day the clone cried? Yes. This movie has
never had a public screening. It is complete,
but... Sorry, Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis. I remember
that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Jerry Lewis, I think,
retroactively was like, I'm ashamed that I was
part of this. The other part of the last laugh
follows a Holocaust survivor who's this spitfire
of a woman who, for her, she's like, no, I have
to laugh because... laughing is part of you know
is what makes you alive yeah and mel brooks goes
into why he thinks this musical the producers
lives on as such a good film yeah is because
it what it makes fun of it does so well and it
kind of lets the air out of the room yeah and
you should really hate max and leo but you kind
of are rooting for them to fail right because
they're kind of there's this weird underdog Nice
to them. And you see that in other Mel Brooks
characters. Blazing Saddles. I should have looked
up characters' names, but you see that with the
new sheriff in town and then Gene Wilder's character,
who's like a cowboy who used to be... Fast as
hand in the West. Fast as hand in the West, before
he started drinking. Yep. Robin Hood Men in Tights
in the early 90s, same deal. They're kind of
a ragtag crew. In this case, you know, you're
supposed to be rooting for them. They're Robin
Hood. But they're kind of mismatched, and you
have all these weird personalities coming together.
I'm so mad I didn't think of Gene Wilder's character
in Blazing Saddles, because he goes, My name's
Jim. My friends call me... Jim. Like, it's such
a dumb joke, but I love it. Yeah. Sorry, keep
going. The producers, and pretty much any Mel
Brooks film, is very meme -able. Young Frankenstein,
which reunited Mel Brooks with shooting Wilder
in 1874. It's my personal favorite Mel Brooks
film. Great film. And also, a weird crew. Where
it's like, you've got these personalities that
range from, like, high ball of anxiety to egomaniac.
Right. Coming together and just telling a really
great story. Regarding the musical, they did
make one in the early 2000s. First musical I
ever saw. That's why I have the soft spot for
the producers. I saw it when I was too young
to understand what I was looking at. I didn't
understand it, but... Yeah, but I would say that
having... I'm a fan of the musical, and they
did a really good job converting the... making
songs out of the original script. Yeah, right.
So you can mention, like, oh, this is when they
made the musical. Like, oh, that makes sense.
No, I don't think... the song that the the plays
hitler love power yeah right in that's not in
the musical which is a shame because that song
fucking slaps you might have to bleep me out
for that um and then in 2005 myself now or like
how myself how to me yes exactly yeah so um in
2005 they did a film adaptation of the musical
with uh nathan lane and matthew broderick who
originated the roles on broadway and that's one
of the reasons why the musical works so well
yeah is nathan lane is the perfect stand -in
for zero mostel matthew broderick is the same
for exactly it is fantastic chemistry between
those two the reason the movie does not work
is because they hired a stage director to direct
a film so she directed it the way you would a
show And if you watch the movie, there are pauses
that would be there for the audiences to like
laugh or clap. And it's really clunky. And if
you're, this is going to date the podcast, but
Hamilton's about to, the film version of Hamilton's
about to come out tomorrow. And the way that
they did this is that it's not a film adaptation.
It is. The performance. They sat in on three
different performances plus rehearsals and they
had different cameras set up to get all the shots
that they needed. So they have a lot of shots
from pulled out. They have different shots pulled
in. And in a way, I kind of wish that they had
just done that with the producers because it
would have worked so much better than trying
to make a film out of it. Yeah, that was a little
tangent. Overall, producers, great film. I highly
recommend it if you have not seen it. It is a
great piece of film. The original is fantastic.
It is a little dated, we will say. Sure, but
it's still funny. I had multiple laugh out loud
moments. I'm just saying there's little things.
There are little problematic... Yeah. Points,
I would say. Yes. There are problems. I would
say that the treatment of the director who is
gay is not the worst thing you will see from
a film from that era. Yes. But it is also not
PC. I mean, let's face it, it's Mel Brooks. I
mean, he has blazing saddles on his record, like,
where that's problematic because of the use of
the N -word. Right, right. You know, and, like,
that kind of stuff. Where it's things that were
a different time, and, like, we're not excusing
it, but at the same time, like... Going knowing.
Going knowing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes, go
into this film knowing that, knowing it's from
the late 60s, it's not from 2020. Right. This
movie would not be made today. Yes, right, yeah.
It physically could not be made today. Yeah.
Yeah. So what would you give it, rating -wise?
Oh, my God. I would give it five out of five
pretzel bras. Yeah? Oh, all right. I would give
it four. and a half nazi can -can formations
out of five okay you guys watched some swastikas
two great movies there yeah no it was two great
movies but it was also just tonal whiplash yeah
like oh yeah i mean i'm really happy i didn't
do hitchcock because after watching x mocking
it up i'm like hey we're gonna watch psycho now
yeah it's not his direct total debut but like
we're gonna watch psycho or window yeah you would
have just been like no i can't do it yes right
i'm like we're done All right, well, then I'm
going to talk about something that also hasn't
aged well. All right. Hell, yeah. Originally,
I went into this thing going, I'm going to find
a comedic director, because I was just like,
we need some comedy. At this point, I knew we
had Alex Garland, and I knew we had Damien Chazelle.
And Damien Chazelle, though he's kind of borderline
comedy drama, it was just more drama, I felt
like. I didn't know you were doing Mel Brooks,
but I looked at Edgar Wright, who's one of my
favorite directors. Originally, I thought it
was going to be Shaun of the Dead. It ended up
being this movie called Fistful of Fingers, which
is impossible to find. It is a spaghetti western
in Britain, and it is literally impossible to
find. He has essentially cut it being distributed.
So then I was just like, okay, I'm not going
to do Shaun of the Dead, so I'm going to watch
something entirely different. I thought about
some of my favorite directors and I didn't find
a comedic director. I found Sam Mendes, who directed
1917 most recently. And I just thought about
how great I thought that movie was. So I went
back to find his first. His first was a little
film called American Beauty. Yep. Yeah, we're
going to go there. So was this your first time
watching American Beauty? This was my first time
watching American Beauty. Wow. And did you know,
besides just having spaces in it, Did you know
anything about it? I knew a slight amount about
it. Okay. I knew about, like, the paper bag scene.
Yep, okay. And I knew about a little of the premise.
Okay. And so, like, I knew it was, like, this
guy's basically going through his midlife crisis
after, but I didn't realize it was, like, his
wife belittles him, his daughter belittles him,
and he meets his daughter's friend, and that,
like, arouses an awakening in him. Yep. So this
movie would have been troublesome to watch before
the Kevin Spacey stuff. It was made to be troublesome,
right? I would argue. It's all about what I would
call troublesome relationships. It's weird. It's
like this take on it and everything like that.
It's not supposed to be the healthiest relationships
right off the bat. Because there's the weird
son played by... Oh, what's his name? Oh, shoot,
yes. I'm bringing it up right now. I gotta just
have this up. Because I think I know who plays
the daughter. So, Wes Bentley is the weird son.
Thor Birch is the daughter. Or Thor Birch. Annette
Bening is the wife. Kevin Spacey, obviously.
Peter Gallagher is in it. Allison Janney. Chris
Cooper. Scott Bakula. It's a loaded cast. And
I'm still shocked Mitchell guessed what the movie
was when I said that it had John Cho in it. Yeah.
Because he figured it out from that. John Cho
was literally just a... He went to a sale of
a house and looked at the house and he was in
for 30 seconds and he was gone. But somehow Mitchell
guessed that was the movie. So, basically, Kevin
Spacey plays Lester Burnham. He meets his daughter's
friend, Angela. who's played by Mina Suvari.
I don't know what else she's been in lately,
but basically falls in love with her and just
keeps seeing her. And then it starts his midlife
crisis where he realizes he's old, but he's not
living his life to the fullest. So he does things
like quit his job. He goes and works at a burger
shack. Literally, all he wants to do is be a
line cook at a McDonald's. Not an actual McDonald's,
but that's essentially what he wants to do. The
standard, yeah. Yeah. The movie's weird. Yes.
Because it is supposed to be strange. There's
a character called The General that thinks his
son is doing sexual favors for him, for Lester.
And really, he's just selling them weed. Because
he's just smoking weed. He's smoking a ton of
weed and stuff like that. The son, Wes Bentley,
he's a filmographer that's just disconnected
from the human condition, pretty much. Where
he just catches it through the camera versus
actually experiencing it. The wife, Annette Bening,
who plays Carolyn, has an affair with Peter Gallagher,
who plays Buddy Kane. It's just all around weird.
And it starts with the fact that Lester's going
to die today. And you're checking into his life
and that kind of thing. What I will say about
the movie that I'm trying to separate, because
I'm trying to separate Kevin Spacey from this
film. Yeah, it's hard. And he is the main character.
He's the main character and, you know. This is
really the first. Kevin Spacey heavy movie that
I've watched since the stuff came out. You had
a tough time watching Baby Driver. I was like,
there's more Kevin Spacey than I remember. I
love Baby Driver. I have not gone back to it.
I mean, I still loved it, watching it again.
But there is a lot of Kevin Spacey in there.
It's like, sorry. Usual Suspects, one of my favorites.
He's great in it, but it's so tough to watch.
It's such a hard thing to do to separate the
actor from the movie. Art from artistry. And
especially in this one because he's going after
an underage girl. Right, that's the thing. The
plot is just way too close to home at this point.
I would say I would have done... I love Woody
Allen films. I don't love Woody Allen, but I
love Batman's films. I wanted to do one of his,
but I'm like, I think it's Manhattan. And I'm
like, I can't because he dates an underage girl
in that. And that's exactly it. Like, this was
a really tough film to just be, like, watching
and, like, separate everything from it. What
I have taken is that I think Sam Rendez does
a really good job in it. There's some scenes
that kind of, like, there's one scene where Kevin
Spacey's sitting on the couch and Annette Bening
comes into the scene and he kind of pans out.
but you don't get the face of Annette Bening.
You just get the voice, and, like, you know it's
her. Yeah. And, like, there's certain things
like that that he does that I'm just like, oh,
this is great. And I see the future director
coming. Definitely. No, there's some nice shots
there, because there's also a shot where he's...
I remember there was a shot of him working at
his desk job or whatever, and you could see a
reflection in his monitor, and it looks like
a jail cell. When you just say it out loud like
that, it's like, oh, okay, it sounds pretty down
-to -the -nose. But it's well done. And you've
got to remember, this movie's like 1999. It's
not like it's like, yeah, 1999. And so it's one
of those things where it's literally like...
It's a great movie, even though it's very uncomfortable.
It's sitting at an 8 .3 on IMDb, 84 on Metascore.
It's tough to separate now, but at the same time,
I can see how people love this movie. It's meant
to be problematic. It's meant to challenge you,
and that kind of stuff. It won five Oscars. You
know, this is including Best Director. It won
five Oscars. Oscars. Oscars. Yes. So it won Best
Director. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor
in a Leading Role, Best Writing, Screenplay,
and Best Cinematography. This would have been
the 2000 Oscars? Yep. I want to see what it beat.
And there was also three other ones that it was
nominating. Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best
Film Editing, and Best Music Original Score.
I don't know about the score, but whatever. Yeah.
But it was a very good movie. I don't know. It's
tough to separate. And so that's where I'm getting
to my final rating because I think I have two.
Before the Kevin Spacey stuff came up, I probably
could have given this movie like a four out of
five. Okay, yeah. After... It's like a two out
of five, probably. Because it's just too uncomfortable.
It's just too uncomfortable. So I guess your
bottom line is you can't recommend this movie
now. I can't recommend this movie now. Interesting.
I haven't, because I watched it before and I
also enjoyed it, but probably, I don't remember
it well enough to give it a hard rating now,
but if you asked me then, I would probably give
it a four out of five as well. I didn't like
the film. I found it in college. I found it to
be, I get what it's trying to do, but the whole
concept. Like, I like that it's a satire of American
middle class, America middle Americana, but the
whole concept of him lusting after the daughter's
friend is just so, ugh. So that's interesting,
right? Because I think that's, like, I mean,
not to be that guy. Yes, but, like, I think that's
also, like, I think that's where kind of gender
comes in a little bit, right? Where it's, like,
I can totally see that perspective, where it's,
like, the dude's a fucking predator, and, like,
that's an unequivocal fact. Yeah. But when I
first watched that movie, I was like, oh, man,
this is just fucking tragic. You know what I
mean? But, like, the thing is that when I watched
it... I didn't even feel for the girl at all,
like the friend at all, which she's the biggest
victim out of all of them. And as much as I'm
not victim -blaming or anything, she also tried
to seduce me. It's not like she was saying, like,
oh, I don't want this. But also she's a 16 -year
-old girl. Yes. Who does not understand the ramifications
of actions. And that's what the scene that got
me from this whole thing. Even though it is dirty
and wrong and everything like that. Yeah, yeah.
The scene that got me in this thing was when
he learns she was a virgin. Right. Yeah, I was
going to say. Like, that's what sticks in my
mind, too. Right. Yeah, and then he's just like,
okay, I can't do this. Yeah, the reality kind
of crashes in where it's just like, okay, there's
desire, then there's acting on it, and this is
just, she's a girl. Yes. She's not a woman, she's
a girl. And the way I'd see it is that there's
a reason that Kevin Spacey dies in that movie,
and it's kind of because, to me, that was the
movie, the film saying he's gone past the point
of no return. He's irredeemable, is how I would
frame that and make us in mind. And walk back
into that marriage. Well, that, and also you
can't walk back trying to have sex with a 16
-year -old girl. Right. You know? I wouldn't
have been surprised if that movie ended with
him taking his own life. Like, you know, that's
the thing. Or just faking his death. Yeah, just
starting over. Pulling a Dexter. Yeah. Yeah.
But, yeah, so it's very uncomfortable. As I said,
before the Kevin Spacey stuff, I would have probably
given it four out of five rose petals. Sure.
You know, I mean, that's going to be the obvious.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or a plastic bag, paper bag.
Paper bag, exactly. I also thought about, after
the Kevin Spacey thing, I'll give it two out
of five videos in Sun's room that he has on the
shelf. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's tough. It's an
interesting case study for sure. It is. I haven't
gone back to it. I don't think I will. I do have
a question for you. So what about the movies
distinct to Sam Mendes? That's the thing. I can't
really say there's a certain thing because it's
almost like it launched him the other way because
Sam Mendes now... does a lot of change. I was
about to say, I don't remember watching Skyfall
and being like, oh man, this is a guy who made
American Beauty. This is something that I noticed
when I was trying to think about a director.
Just because you're a director doesn't necessarily...
There's so many other people who go into making
a movie. Not every director has a distinct style.
Not everyone is a Peter Jackson. Even Steven
Spielberg. You know you're watching a Spielberg
film, but at the same time, they're not screaming
style. Yes. And his next movie was Road to Perdition,
which I feel like could follow some closer semblance,
is what I will say. And then he went to Jarhead,
Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, then Skyfall
and Spectre. Wow, really? There's that big of
a gap? Away We Go is a fan... is like 180 from
Revolutionary Road. Yeah. Three years between
Away We Go and Skyfall. Okay, gotcha. One year
between Revolutionary Road and Away We Go. And
then you get three years in between Skyfall and
Spectre. And finally... He directed Spectre,
too? Yeah. Oh, wow. And then four years to 1970.
Okay. So the only thing I will say that seems,
like, consistent from the beginning to the end
is that... He lets shots linger. And, like, yeah,
it's easy to say 1917 because, like, it's all
one shot or anything like that. But what I've
found about American Beauty is that there's some
shots that just kind of go, like, it's just,
all right, I've got this shot of you two, and
you finish talking, but we're still here, just
kind of lingering. And then all of a sudden,
shoom, shoom, boom. You know, like that kind
of thing, where it's, like, zoom in, zoom in,
and then... Alright, back out to the fall. Harsh
use of cross shots, I guess. From what? So I've
seen American Beauty, I've seen Revolutionary
Road, and I've seen Away We Go. And I don't know
if this is him picking the movies he wants to
direct or he's a thing. So all three of those
films in this case are about American families.
So we have middle class Americana, Revolutionary
Road takes place. don't remember like it's like
it's not present day it's like the 50s or the
60s i think um and it's about a family coming
apart and having their own skeletons in their
closets and the marital strife between kate winslet
and leonardo dicaprio away we go is almost like
juno -esque okay in its quirkiness it's about
a young new going to be parents trying to figure
out what type of parents they want to be okay
and you know they're not wealthy or anything
like that right um and you know they go to three
different places to experience three different
types of parenting styles you know one of them
is like you know your sports mom the other one
of the the other one i remember is maggie gyllenhaal
plays a sister okay i think and she's like this
hippie to be love child mom who's also like a
collegiate professor at, like, a highbrow institution
who doesn't believe in the institution of strollers.
It's a very fun movie. But, you know, it's these
different takes on life. Family life. So, I don't
know if that's, like, Sam Mendes is a thing for
that type of film. I don't know. I mean, because
it feels like he's all over the board. I feel
like he just doesn't want to be pinned down.
And that, you know, it's... there's a difference
between like Skyfall and Spectre. Even there's
a difference between 1917 and like, obviously
revolutionary road and away we go, you know?
So it's just. It's something weird because it
feels like none of his movies are really the
same, even though they kind of are. Sure. I don't
know. I don't know. I really like Sam Mendes.
I'm going to go back and watch some of these
other ones. Yeah. And it could just be that I
just love 1917, so that's really why I wanted
to do this one. I mean, that's a good reason
as any, right? Yeah, exactly. Wherever they should
have wrote it is the 50s. Okay. 50s. Okay. Well.
Um, that will do it on our directorial debuts.
Yeah. We are still stuck without movies at this
point in time. Uh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, Hamilton's
coming out. Hamilton. I'm gonna be watching that
tomorrow, for sure. Yeah. Musicals. Yeah, I mean,
we're still stuck without new movies for a little
bit. Tenet's the next movie. Whenever that's
gonna come out. And Mulan. And Mulan. Wonder
Woman. Mulan. Got pushed. Yeah. Okay. And it's
just, it's more so, it feels like everything's
just kind of following Tenet's lead. Yeah, well,
so it's fascinating. WB has gone on record saying
that they do not intend to have Tenet in theaters.
They intend to have Tenet in theaters for way,
way longer, and they're aware that we're just
going to let people watch this movie when they're
ready and feel comfortable, too. It's starting
at seven weeks or something like that already,
where it's just like it knows it's going to go
for seven weeks, which a movie that hasn't been
proven, seven weeks is a really long time. It's
Nolan. What's the last time Nolan's put out a
film that flopped? Yeah. Right, but... Actually,
I can't even think of a Nolan film. Yeah, because
even following flopped in comparison to the rest
of them. Yeah. But that was just because nobody
really knew who he was. Right. And now it's gained
this following after. People are Nolan fans,
right? Yes. So, yeah. And I gotta say, this movie
just straight up has me already. didn't it yeah
yeah you really don't know what it is i yeah
yeah yeah i'm i'm interested i'm always down
for a nolan romp like i like i enjoy his movies
a lot um i mean you know and then jill and i
were talking about it and it's like i i'm looking
forward to going to the movie theater again i
don't think i'll be watching this day one whatever
day one is you know I kind of got to see how
this goes. All of these movies are great. I've
never seen Falling, but Memento, Insomnia. Yeah,
Memento is such a, like, yeah. Memento was so
great. The Prestige. Yeah, he hasn't put out,
like. The Prestige, yes. Forgot that was him,
but yeah. Yeah, right. That makes sense. I'm
an illusionist fan. Prestige is good, but I like
The Illusionist better. Yeah. I was an illusionist
fan. Yeah, fist bump. You jerks. Fist bump for
The Illusionist. I will say that, like, both
of them are, like, no matter how many times I
see those films, both of them, I'm like, great
ending, but The Illusionist, when the inspector
figures it all out and claps. Yes, The Illusionist.
I'm clapping, because I can see it. Yeah, the
illusionist, the rug pull moment was better,
I thought. Yeah, or it's like, if you actually,
if you look, you can see it all. Yeah, but the
rug pull moment is what you go on. I like the
entirety of the prestige. I mean, prestige has
David Bowie as Tesla. Andy Serkis carrying a
cat around. You guys have now got me an idea
that maybe we have to do where we just watch
two movies that are very similar. And then put
them head to head? Yes. I love a head to head.
Alright. Let's do it. So we need to do Bugs Life
versus Ants. Either that or we just need to watch
a bad movie all together again. That's true too.
You're right. We need to do that. I've got bad
movies. Come up with a head to head though. I
like that too. Ants versus Bugs Life. Yeah, right.
That's obvious. That's an easy one. Yeah. We
can talk about this. Olympus Has Fallen versus
what the fuck was that? There was, like, White
House Down or whatever it was. Yeah, something
like that. That's just another one that's, like,
the same movie that came out. Yep. That would
actually, yeah, that's an interesting one because
those came out at the same time. You need also,
like, I feel like you need, like, a really, not
the example here, but, like, Hunger Games versus,
like, Diver, like, Hunger Games versus Diversion
is, like, you can't really do that comparison
because, like, it would be Hunger Games, but,
like, they're both. Divergent versus Maze Runner.
Right, that's the thing. I would put those two
in the same league. Right, exactly. I'm not even
a big Hunger Games guy, but that was a phenomenon.
That was a phenomenon. Like, Hunger Games was
a phenomenon. We're talking ones that fell through
the cracks. Those two were standard YA adaptations.
We will figure this out. We've got some time
until the next big movie comes out. But there
needs to be a game, because it's been a while
since a game has been featured on Game for a
Movie. We could definitely do a game and make
somebody do a bad movie. Watch something bad.
Okay. primarily I want it to be you to lose so
I can enjoy another bad movie I just like bad
movies you can lose now you've done enough shows
you can be in this mix yeah right yeah but alright
that'll do it for our friend Mitchell at the
laundromat maybe abducted we don't know we'll
find out we'll find out I am your host Mike Butank
joined by Andre Bellinger Jill thank you for
a game for a movie where we ask are you a game
for a movie see you next time bye bye