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Episode 027 - Sugar and Violence
9 Plays6 months ago
In this episode, we look at our disappointments, honourable mentions and top films of 2023
CREDITS:
Intro clip from Juel Taylor's "They Cloned Tyrone" from MACRO Media distributed by Netflix
Opening music: https://pixabay.com/music/id-116199/
Closing music: https://pixabay.com/music/id-11176/
Two Oceans is a creation of Siouxfire & Scrumpy in association with SiouxWIRE
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Transcript
Mysterious Beginnings and Show Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
Two oceans will begin. What's going on? I got it, man. There's a bite right there. Oh, missionary position. What are we doing? Right, right. Okay. As with any mystery,
00:00:34
Speaker
We got to lay out the facts. What is it we know? I'll tell you what we do, huh? What? He dead. He ain't here no more. Right there. Right there. Right there. Right there. Right there. Right there. Right there.
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to the Tuitions Podcast, where myself, Sue Flyer, along with my friend and sensible colleague, Scrumpy, discuss film and other media through a decades-long lens of mass media consumption.
2023 Film Overview and Challenges
00:01:10
Speaker
In this episode, we'll be looking back at 2023 with our disappointments, honorable mentions, and top films. This is the Tuitions Podcast, so get in the bunker and put on your goggles as we start the countdown to detonate Episode 3, Series 2.
00:01:34
Speaker
So we're getting to our 2023 list. Fresh and fresh off the press. Hot off the press in April. It's almost May. Well, we've got to do it before May. Right. First quarter or something like that.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, so we're doing our top films of 2023, disappointments, honorable mentions, all that good stuff. And it's kind of tricky the way that you do these lists by year because of the way international releases go.
00:02:13
Speaker
Oh, sure. So, you know, some of these films I only saw in January this year just because of stupid distribution sort of systems that are going on. But I'm going by, you know, what IMDB and Wikipedia are saying to just try to be a bit consistent so we don't have those cutoffs over the year.
Film Reviews: Hits and Misses
00:02:33
Speaker
Sure. But yeah, movie news. Oh, the past week I went to go see sometimes I think about dying, which looked great. Daisy Ridley is amazing. It might be a career high performance for her. It had everything going for it. It's set on Puget Sound. So it has the benefit of my nostalgia for the Pacific Northwest.
00:02:58
Speaker
The tone is great, but the bar's been set so high by the films this year that it kind of struggles to break through to greatness. It's kind of just okay, which I was a bit disappointed in. I mean, it seems to be about opening up and showing who you really are, but kind of weirdly at the end of the film, you kind of think,
00:03:21
Speaker
I don't know any of these characters any better than I did from, you know, the first minute. I mean, it's, you know, if you don't have anything else to put on. Yeah, it is just okay. And then we had news that Priscilla Queen had a stunning recommendation there.
00:03:39
Speaker
If you don't have anything to eat and you're starving, eat it. Then we had news and I saw you posted this as well. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is getting a sequel with the original cast and production. The dude behind everything is still behind everything. Amazing. I've not seen that in probably over 20 years. Oh, gee.
00:04:05
Speaker
That's near annual rewatch here. I know, I'm going to have to watch it again, for sure. Especially when we had friends that moved from here to Sydney. Ah, right, right. Get them on that. Did you ever see the series Sex Education, by the way, on Netflix? We're in the final season now.
00:04:24
Speaker
Isn't it excellent? I, I think it's great. Um, and that, that came out of nowhere for me. I, I, yeah, I just stumbled upon it and thought, wow. Okay. I should have heard about this. Um, and then, uh, Sebastian Vanna check has a new evil dead movie in the works as well. I have found out this week. Uh, so we'll see how that goes. Um,
00:04:53
Speaker
And this is kind of a weird one. Taylor Swift is rumored to cameo in Deadpool and Wolverine as Dazzler. As Dazzler, I heard that. Yeah. Well, if she's going to play anything, I mean, that's kind of almost Taylor made, isn't it? Yeah.
00:05:10
Speaker
Ha, ha, ha. You like that. Right. So we were going to have to just jump into this, because as we were talking about before we started recording, last year we split this up into three separate episodes.
Overrated Films Discussion
00:05:25
Speaker
But we're going to cram it into just episode 27 here. Oh, 27. 27. Actually, going back to the first episodes that we did, when we used to always talk about the number being in films,
00:05:39
Speaker
Oh no, no, no, no. 28 days later, not 27 days later. Yeah, almost. Almost. Yeah, we're close. It's hitting the snooze. So I'll let you kind of kick off in terms of our duds, disappointments, overrated. What do you got first for us? Yeah, so yeah, called out over the last year.
00:06:06
Speaker
The overrated is always a good controversial one. So the main one that I've had been or online debate over is where evil lurks. Oh, you know what? Film. I don't know if I saw that or if I did, I don't know. American made or I can't remember now. OK, it's one of them. It's a Hispanic of some kind. Right. I'm sure it's Latin X or Hispanic or what have you.
00:06:33
Speaker
Uh, anyway, if I did see it, it wasn't memorable. No, it's definitely memorable. It's good. Oh, no, I did see that nearly as great as what people are like, it's like redefinite because again, it doesn't stick the landing. It bases the fence of the finale on how stupid
00:06:53
Speaker
your main character can be. It totally doesn't stick to landing. It just does not, it just blows it. It carries it so well. Do you know what it made me think of was the rec trilogy? Like act one and two were like rec one and two, like really good. And then third act, what are they doing? What were they thinking? Why is this happening now? Yeah, now I do remember it, I do. Yeah, so that's one of them.
00:07:23
Speaker
OK, I've got a controversial one as well for the overrated and disappointing. Asteroid City, the Wes Anderson film that suffocates in a cloud of its own farts.
00:07:37
Speaker
Really? Yeah. I love quite a few of Anderson's films, but they've become such a caricature of themselves. Whereas like the aesthetic choices used used to be like surprising in his movies. Right. And I'm going to I'm going to have a caveat here in a second that they become really, really predictable saying that he did redeem himself with the wonderful story of Henry Sugar. Right. And
00:08:08
Speaker
comparing those two films. One, the kind of look and feel kind of fed into the story of Henry Sugar and obviously he didn't write the story. And I felt like the cast gelled together better in the story of Henry Sugar, even though the cast were playing multiple parts.
00:08:26
Speaker
So you had Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Deb Patel, Monkey Man, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade. And they were playing multiple parts, but whatever part they were playing, it felt like the ensemble fit together. It didn't for me in Asteroid City. And I'm not saying that Asteroid City didn't have its moments, but they were too few and far between to keep me engaged. And the other thing I'll say,
00:08:55
Speaker
It's it's a disappointment. It's it's not that it's an absolutely terrible movie, right? Right. In fact, if you would, Anderson's probably most insightful for himself with the structure of the play within the story within the play format and how they navigate through that. Yeah, for me was the style was on
00:09:26
Speaker
It was self-referential, but in a way is very aware of it and kind of defining why. It kind of gains more purpose than a regular Anderson sort of thing. If he's making a full leg feature based on the Henry Sugar thing, I think, yeah, he should be doing shorts.
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, this is the thing is I felt I had the same number of calories out of Henry sugar as I got out of asteroid city, but the running times were extremely different. Um, this is kind of cool. I mean, usually we agree about everything and now we're going all the way to school in Ebert, uh, which is cool. It's got to happen some time that you're wrong. Well, I'm afraid you're wrong, my friend. What do you have next?
00:10:15
Speaker
Uh, let's see on the overrated. Uh, again, it was good. Just not as good as people were saying was cocaine bear. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you on that one. I enjoyed it. They'd had a couple of really good moments, but I kind of felt bad that that was really what his thing on going out on. Oh, excuse me. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:38
Speaker
I mean, he was good in it. And again, do you know where I think it worked really, really well? Did cocaine bear until the second half? And yeah, it kind of went off the rails. I think it was just trying to do too much. I think
00:10:57
Speaker
All it needed to be, they didn't need to, it just needed to be a bear high in cocaine that is, you know, stalking them. Didn't need any more than that. Weird kind of crime angle heist movie. Yeah. Didn't quite work.
00:11:12
Speaker
Right.
Underwhelming Performances and Trends
00:11:13
Speaker
Okay. The next one that I have is another horror. Um, and I enjoyed this quite a bit is one of those ones where, um, the trailer probably showed me all the highlights from it, which was disappointing. Uh, and that's Megan spelled with it three.
00:11:29
Speaker
I mean, standout scenes don't make up for the kind of pretty much pedestrian script that misses opportunities to critique AI, parenting, or dolls, especially in the last year when we had Barbie, right? There were so many opportunities that were missed, and it kind of underscores the fact that James Wan just isn't in the same league as Ty West.
00:11:57
Speaker
Right? Or Julie DeCernot or Prano Bailey-Baughan, Lee Cronin, Rose Glass, the Croninbergs, right? He's just become a little, I mean, he's been doing like the Aquaman stuff, hasn't he? But yeah, actually the Croninbergs, that would be a great sitcom, wouldn't it?
00:12:26
Speaker
Oh, it's all coming together. So we kind of pitched this. What do you have next? Well, you know, I'm just going to keep on the same thing. Two movies. Horror. Okay. That did not stick the landing. Right. Like really failed at the end. Again, not so much in the overrated as in Mike could have been better. One was Dark Harvest.
00:12:54
Speaker
All the boys in this little town have to go fight the evil force that comes in once a year. Oh, I didn't see that 10 years ago. I didn't say that one. Uh, it's a cool premise. It's, you know, set in the fifties, you know, it's like in the gangs fighting each other and sort of thing. It's got, you know, it's very aware of its coolness. Um, but that's also to its detriment because the ending is just kind of like, they just like, Oh, we had to have something.
00:13:20
Speaker
It's like, but none of that. Okay. Um, so, um, it's worth a watch, but don't expect a lot. The same with, uh, Malam came out the gals, uh, in the police station that they're close, they're closing down. They're going to, uh, you know, destroy it. But they have one more night there. And so she's takes on the,
00:13:47
Speaker
duty of doing the last watch. And it was a story with her father who caught the serial killer cult dude. But then is the cult really gone? Is he dead? And so all the spooky stuff starts happening. And she has a tie to it, of course, and all that. And again, really good buildup. Great, great mood. Small, you know, small condensed kind of thing.
00:14:16
Speaker
But at the end, it's just like, Oh, that's where you're going to go. Really? Okay. Yeah. I think it's an ending. Are you going to have to do an episode where we talk entirely about sticking and landing and funny enough, it tends to be horror movies, you know, that right tend to tend to drop the ball of that one, but they're a lot more dependent on a premise and some sort of resolution. You rarely have, you know, those horror movies with,
00:14:43
Speaker
There's not a clean resolution, which I like, sometimes like Berberian Sound Studio or something like that, where you're not really sure what just happened. But there's a clever way to do that as an ending versus when you feel like, oh, we've worn out everything. I guess this girl will survive. And so then we're a final girl movie. Or it's the typical Scooby-Doo ending where you kind of explain everything before.
00:15:11
Speaker
Well, I've got another horror, sort of a horror. And again, by no means terrible, but I had really high expectations for it, and that's the blackening. Not terrible, but also not as great as I'd hoped. It never quite reaches the
00:15:30
Speaker
in your face crescendo and laugh at loud moments of films like Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, or Let's Clone Tyrone or anything like that. And the thing with that comedy horror is sometimes they kind of feel like they need to draw back on the gore and the horror element a little bit in favor of the comedy. And I don't feel that the movie really balanced that very well. Yeah, it was a little awkward.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the trailer just got my expectations just through the roof. Yeah. To me, it didn't lean enough in either direction. You know, it wasn't a proper horror comedy. You take both of those and hold them up equally. Yeah. Again, like Tucker and Dale. Oh, totally. Yeah. Just lean into it. Don't hesitate. Yeah. But lean into both. Right. Exactly.
00:16:29
Speaker
I do have any other, uh, for the duds to spend the rating. Um, uh, one thing is a disturbing trend. Let's see coming up for both. Again, the movies are fine. Uh, but this weird thing of splitting the ending. The movie into two movies specifically. Right. So fast X. Okay. You know, you're left at the end with them and now they'll be fast 11 fast X I, I don't know what they're going to do.
00:16:59
Speaker
Just 11 mission impossible and mission impossible. Sick. Yeah. And they're not based on books, you know, right. It's by design. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a problem with like Dune. Yeah. To me. Cause yeah, you've got this huge amount of room to cover when you're doing something. It's an original property, especially, you know, fast X. Right. Uh, again, I enjoyed it for what it was, but I enjoy those movies anyway.
00:17:29
Speaker
and Momoa makes a great villain. But the ending is a cliffhanger. Like, literally. Well, they're also leaving in a long time between the films. And then, yeah. Like, what are you waiting for? I mean, come on. People's memories, you know.
Critique of Notable Directors and Honorable Mentions
00:17:51
Speaker
I've got one more on the disappointments list.
00:17:57
Speaker
and it's a it's it's one of the big hitters of the year and it's your i don't think you'd be too surprised by this one and that's napoleon and written by david scarper who wrote the remake of the day the earth stood still and the upcoming gladiator too so he still gets work and he somehow yeah and he made this two-dimensional napoleon
00:18:24
Speaker
with a three-dimensional performance from Phoenix. I think it'd be a completely disposable film without Joaquin Phoenix, for a start.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah, and the history is just amazing anyhow. And those are kind of amazing bits, but they kind of undercut it all with, you know, the way Scarface sort of written this. So, you know, I mean, in not by, not one of the worst movies of last year, but
00:18:58
Speaker
You know, I kind of walked out shrugged and kind of forgot about it almost immediately afterwards. I'm lucky in the description. That's that's heat for me. Yeah. Right. One to one dimensional character than that. But three dimensionally acted by.
00:19:14
Speaker
people involved. Well, yeah, actually, that would be a great episode. Movies with two dimensional writing and three dimensional performances in them. That'd be a big list. Do you have any others for the death display? The main one. Well, there's two next goal wins. Take a white to see one that's just.
00:19:43
Speaker
I was going to find the only, the, again, I probably only think it's fine is cause we used it as a palette cleanser after watching a zone of interest. Right. Which you need to apply palette cleanser for. Yeah, for sure. So the trailer made it look great. Right. Yeah. But it's just not, it feels very by the numbers phoned in.
00:20:07
Speaker
Um, and you know, there's this weird backlash now going against, uh, white to T, uh, tracking online sort of, you know, yeah, I've seen some of that. And, and it's just like overstate as well. This feels like he knows that between this and, uh, the Thor, the previous Thor movie, the first one he made, but the second one just feels very.
00:20:33
Speaker
The second one is very indulgent on his part. I think it was as much discipline. But the other one, again, it was good, but it was just, just on the cusp of being really good was Silent Night, the new general movie in December. I've not seen it. I've not seen that one. The protagonist gets basically gets shot in the throat.
00:21:00
Speaker
So he can't talk anymore, but he's got to go on revenge, but he doesn't know what he's doing. So there's a whole training sequences. And there's this guy learning how to go full taxi driver. Uh, does he have the voice of Bob from Bob's burgers? No, they don't give him a voice. The nice thing is they keep it quiet, right? You know, they keep him silent. Um,
00:21:24
Speaker
You know, it's, uh, I mean, there's some great action sequence. There's some really good actions. Yeah. Sequences in it, of course, but, um, and the main performance is good, but it's just, just not enough there. It's just, you know, especially when it's John Woo, right? Yeah. Your expectations are, um, even though he has been letting down those expectations for quite a while now.
00:21:49
Speaker
Well, it's, it's, it's this thing with maturing directors for some reason, aside from, you know, a few exceptions, but yeah, they tend to be the exceptions, right? I don't have any more in this list. So you can finish out. So we can finish on a positive note. Oh, right. Okay. Well, okay. The next bunch of films I have are the honorable mentions. Oh.
00:22:18
Speaker
Let's hear it. Yeah. Um, so the,
Hosts' Favorite Films
00:22:22
Speaker
these are no particular order. I've, I've ordered the top 10, but not these. Um, so I don't want to.
00:22:29
Speaker
I'm going to burn through two of them quickly. So Barbie, smart humor, better than anyone could have expected from a film based on a toy. And it honestly, I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much at a film in a cinema. And, you know, it's it's but but but the reason it's in the honorable mentions is I think some of the themes that are covered
00:22:59
Speaker
were handled with more potency in Lanthimos' poor things. And then Oppenheimer. Great performances, terrifically performed, scene of that first detonation. But in a lot of ways, it's a by the numbers biopic. And I couldn't shake that while watching the movie.
00:23:23
Speaker
And I don't think anything surprised me in the movie. And then there's also this bit around lacking any Japanese perspective.
00:23:33
Speaker
which kind of gave the film a little bit of a sheen that kind of worked against it for me. Anyhow, I enjoyed it, but, you know, it didn't quite. I mean, it's just underline here. 2023 was an amazing year in film, right? Like every single one of the films that I have in the honorable mentions could easily have been top 10 for other years. Sure. Yeah, I get you.
00:24:04
Speaker
Um, do you want to drop a couple? Well, just going to bounce back and forth. I don't even know how many I have here. I haven't even counted them. Yeah, I don't know. It's in terms of honorable mention. Um, cause I had them in my best. Right. Okay. Section. So how many do you have in your best section? 12. Uh, okay. Okay. Right. I've got 10 and I probably got another 10 here. Wow. Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
So, um, are you there? God, it's me, Margaret. You know what? I miss that one. Yeah, it's totally worth it. So good. Uh, yeah, that's on, um, one of my streaming lists, I think, uh, just, yeah, it's definitely worth checking out, seeking it out.
00:25:01
Speaker
Okay, I'm just gonna rattle through the ones that I have. I'll just list them out and then we go into the top 10 and then we can bounce between the two because I think especially for the top 10, we're probably gonna have more things to say about them. And you might be, well, you'll see. So in the honorable mentions, I got Anatomy of a Fall.
00:25:25
Speaker
St. O'Mear returned to Seoul, how to have sex. By the way, I hate that name, but in some ways I think it was a way to attract the people who would most benefit from seeing it.
00:25:42
Speaker
Grounded, smart, potent little movie there. French film called One Fine Morning. Another film called The Eight Mountains. Now that one nearly got into the top ten but didn't quite. Evil Dead Rise. Yeah.
00:25:59
Speaker
It's and it comes somewhere between the earlier reboot and the original films, along with Ash versus Evil Dead and the Love, Death and Robots episode, which I love. And this strikes a good balance between the humor, frights and gore, while also bringing the evil dead into this new setting with a solid human story in it as well. Yes. Yeah.
00:26:24
Speaker
really fun ride of a movie and female centric and it's females. Oh, I, you know, I don't even think about that anymore. So, so it's not until you see the trolls kind of go that, that you even start thinking about that stuff. Um,
00:26:40
Speaker
Now, this is another one. I mean, God, the quality of these Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, and I'm going to tie it together with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem, because I don't know if you've seen it, but they took all the lessons from the original Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse.
00:27:01
Speaker
movie and they used it to such great effect um in yeah in for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a couple things design wise i didn't like but solid movie solid movie um john wick four talk to me infinity pool uh wonka was surprisingly good um yeah yeah yeah it's coming i thought it was surprisingly good but
00:27:29
Speaker
It's, um, I mean in that, yeah, it's, it's, it's in the honorable mentions, which is pretty generous in terms of its size. Um, and then the last one I was kind of going back and forth on, which is the killer and, and then it opens it up to the top 10. So, uh, maybe if you do your, your 12 and 11,
00:27:54
Speaker
And then we can both do our... We already got a couple of them, so we're whittled down now. Okay. Because I had Infinity Pool that arrives in there as well. Nice, nice. But also I had Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse in, but it was my best honorable mention. It was in the best area. And Hulk, I did not rank mine, and it was also based on what I saw. Yeah. So I know there were a couple other movies that I missed that were supposed to be excellent. One of them being like Anatomy of a Fall.
00:28:26
Speaker
Um, yeah, just a few like that. Well, my number one, I'd only seen today and well, I'd seen a part of it, uh, last year, uh, the person I was watching with wasn't into it. Um, finished, watched the whole thing again today and wow. Yeah. Blew me away. Um, okay. Well then I'll go with the, uh,
00:28:51
Speaker
would probably at the bottom because it, yeah, came in the list comes lower in my list that I was just alphabetically, um, uh, almost Thanksgiving. Oh, right. Good. I mean, again, horror films are just going through the roof for me right now. Um, but this, I thought was great return to form for Roth.
00:29:14
Speaker
as well as being something new and fun. And now there's a movie about Thanksgiving. That's good. Horrible. Um, I like the twist in it. Um, it matched up to the trailer, the fake trailer that existed as, um, from the, uh, death proof and kind of like the hobo with his shotgun kind of, uh, yeah, exactly. So what beyond the premise,
00:29:45
Speaker
and actually delivered quite well. I mean, Eli Roth is one of those that you can see that he's got a movie coming up and it could go either way. So like you said, it's good to see he's back and forth. Yeah, exactly.
00:30:08
Speaker
So my number 10 is kind of an obscure one. It's a film called Al Karas and it's set in a town of the same name and the plot is around this rural family that around how they're gonna getting squeezed out because of
00:30:29
Speaker
kind of automization of agriculture and these corporates coming in which sounds terrible but really is about is this family who have lived on this farm forever and it kind of goes through you know their final season there before they they you know or
Praised Films for Storytelling and Impact
00:30:48
Speaker
is it their final season you don't
00:30:49
Speaker
kind of know and then uh it's it's one of those movies that you feel like you're part of the family and you're at the dinner table with them and eating and when you finish the movie it feel like you've gone somewhere um and it's got kind of has that whole sort of seasonal thing uh going on as well uh i mean it's just so well done and and
00:31:11
Speaker
The amazing thing is the director got all amateur actors across the whole thing. So it feels really, really natural. And, uh, yeah, no stuck out for me. Just made it into the top top 10, um, probably because it came to mind before some of the honorable mentions that came up. Um, but that was the one that was kind of wobbling. That's the wobbly tooth in my top 10. Gotcha.
00:31:42
Speaker
Uh, next one I had was, uh, the creator. Ooh. Ooh. I forgotten about last year. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, just, you know, on the lower side of the budget thing, that was its big thing, right? It doesn't look good. It does not look good. Yeah. Um, yeah, really enjoyed it. I mean, get neat story.
00:32:11
Speaker
Well done. You know, just across the board. Yeah. Effects are really good. Everything works. Effects are really good. The kid is amazing in it, isn't he? Right. Yeah, the chemistry between all the characters is great. It's legit. Yeah. Yeah. And, oh, is it Scarith Edwards, isn't it? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm surprised. But just very, so well done. And just showing you could do big sci-fi without having a
00:32:40
Speaker
James Cameron budget. Well, that feeds into my next one, which is Godzilla minus one. And Godzilla returns to being a force of nature, a natural disaster and legs. And it's the first Godzilla film I've seen with a legitimate jump scare in it and moments of real kind of like
00:33:09
Speaker
terror, yeah, that put quite a few of the devoted horror films I've seen, you know, from Hollywood anyhow to shame really, while at the same time it's this story about people coming together in a country that's trying to heal. And Godzilla is so terrifying because we see everything
00:33:34
Speaker
through the eyes of the tiny people, you know? So you've got that feeling of the menseness of Godzilla. Yeah. And I thought in that movie, they finally got the human element correctly. Yeah. The human element, the story there is just really well done. Finally. Yeah. Like Godzilla is a secondary kind of
00:34:01
Speaker
to what they're really having to face. Well, he's not really a character as much as like a cyclone, like a storm cloud. Something in nature. Or maybe a shark. You know, there is that bit in the movie that's fighting Godzilla, per se, because you can't really fight Godzilla. No, so much.
00:34:23
Speaker
So it's what does Godzilla represent? And here it was finally held up something that could hold the balance. I mean, the first time that you see him lose, use, use his breath. Um, I think that had a very similar impact going back to Oppenheimer of that first nuclear, um, uh, detonation. And it, it makes perfect sense with, you know, what guns Hill is meant to represent from the original movie. Exactly.
00:34:54
Speaker
Next on your list. Oh, uh, yeah. Next. Uh, all of us strangers. Ooh. Yeah. This is going to appear later on my list, but yeah. Okay. Yeah. I thought it was just exceptionally well done. Just took a interesting topic and a neat premise, uh, as a way to get at the inner dialogue. Right.
00:35:19
Speaker
I had this down as my number five, not that these numbers matter too much because they're all so close. Um, uh, I mean, it's kind of like, it's a wonderful life. Just isn't just for Christmas. Um, uh, and, and Andrew Scott and Paul, Paul Mescal, uh, just knock it out of the park in terms of the performances. Um, and then Claire Foy and Jamie Bell as well.
00:35:44
Speaker
You know are are amazing and I was really glad that I went in blind to that movie as well. So I had no idea. Yeah I thought the whole sort of themes around making peace with the past isolation So brilliantly done by showing them in this huge block of you know
00:36:07
Speaker
Apartments and you know, they're basically only two people in the building You know, and then the film goes into connections love family and all of that Did you have any idea what to expect when when you watch this No, none at all. No, no neither did I And that final shot in the film to Frankie goes to Hollywood With the power of love is
00:36:36
Speaker
crazy good right like like you talk about sticking the landing that that was just top notch and you know what i never really liked that song it's it's never worked for me and i've walked the earth longer than that song has existed but after this film
00:36:54
Speaker
I, it's just, it's an amazing song to me now. It makes sense.
Celebrated Debuts and Performances
00:36:59
Speaker
It clicked because of that film. Um, I mean, I'd also add this film to like my top sort of love story movies as well. Uh, for sure. Um, yeah, I mean, in, in sort of the, the, the, the, the intimate scenes, I'll put it that way, uh, in the movie.
00:37:21
Speaker
There's our episode. Yeah. Well, there's a new episode, right? Yeah, actually. Love stories. Yeah. Gordon to us. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. Mothran's Godzilla. Cool. So where did I leave off? Next on my list is movie called Past Lives. And this is the first
00:37:50
Speaker
Debut director director debut on the list but it's not the last so it's from selene song it's about this. These two who grew up together as kids when immigrated to america.
00:38:10
Speaker
um and gets married and you know the other has this kind of unrequited love for her and comes over and it's amazing it's you know that's what i've heard um it does so well and it's so respectful and usually in these kind of movies they will kind of make
00:38:30
Speaker
Um, the new partner, the kind of villain in a way, or do you know what I mean? They kind of romanticize like, no, no, no. He had dibs first. So, you know, uh, but it, but it's a lot more wise than that. And, uh, yeah. And it is amazing that people make films like this on their first attempt. You know, uh, we were talking about Dev Patel just last week with monkey man. Um, it's just incredible that cinema is in such a healthy place right now.
00:39:00
Speaker
Right. And what do you have next on my list? American fiction. Oh, oh, oh, do you know what? I should have included that for this year. But yeah, well, you did. Well, it was released here in February. So yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. That's great movie again. Just
00:39:28
Speaker
I mean, I'd watch Jeffrey Wright just do anything, you know? Exactly. But here he really gets to tear into a lot that's again, you were talking before, like the with the blackening, how it missed out the opportunity. This one does not. This one doesn't know. To speak to black issues of representation and what's accepted by white people and success and family and
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah. And then on top of that, you've got all these very human relatable things going on where, you know, everyone should get understand this part of the story, you know? Yeah, there's good humor to it.
00:40:07
Speaker
but it comes out of just normal, or somewhat normal situation. Well, when I was walking out of the cinema, I could hear people, and people were chattering, which is always a good sign, right? But I could hear these two friends kind of talking about the movie and that scene in the bookshop, and they were saying, you know, I never thought about that, you know, in terms of like,
00:40:34
Speaker
why is there a black section? What does that mean? If it says black studies, maybe, right? But yeah, that was a very good scene as well.
00:40:49
Speaker
Okay, next to my list, and I'm surprised it's just at seven, because I think seven through one are all so close together. Pretty close, yeah. Yeah, and that's poor things.
00:41:07
Speaker
I mean, I enjoyed everything from Lanthimos, but this is so flavorful and funny and thoughtful and so many career-high performances or performances that come very close. And at its core, it's about a character who's trying to make sense of the world while completely ignoring all its rules, which is awesome.
00:41:34
Speaker
I mean, you know how you get those ropes for long lines like at the post office or for queues? And even when it's empty, people zigzag back and forth, you know? Bella would just walk straight through them, right? Just straight line to the counter. That's it. Because it makes sense.
00:41:57
Speaker
And then the visuals, it's like you inverted the substance versus visual mix of a Tim Burton film and removed all the racism.
00:42:08
Speaker
Though the representation of Alexandria is one part of the film that doesn't sit very well with me. Sure. Because I've watched it multiple times and I've always found that bit a little bit strange. You know, if it was a fictional place or something that I didn't find, but I felt it feels a little weird. Agreed. So yeah, next on mine is the aforementioned zone of interest.
00:42:38
Speaker
bingo. We've, we've, we've got a bingo. That's my next one as well. You can just say bingo bingo. Do you know what that means? Let me explain it to you. Yeah. Oh yeah. This one was done a lot of study of a film set against the timeframe of the Holocaust. Yeah.
00:43:03
Speaker
narrative and documentary and such too. And this one's, I mean, most of them, it's a thing where as long as you're still telling the story, that's the important part. So they're willing to overlook some creative decisions. But this one by pushing it just purely almost to the soundtrack alone, just in terms of
00:43:33
Speaker
approaching human evil and uh, capacity and banality.
Historical and Meditative Films
00:43:39
Speaker
Um, I thought was excellent, especially the ending the last 20 minutes. Right. It's really struck at home. Uh, just in a really non heavy handed way. Yeah. Well, this is the thing it is very even keeled, totally not heavy.
00:43:57
Speaker
And I think even though it was based on specific characters, it wasn't super specific, if you know what I mean. I mean, I love Glazer. I loved all his movies or at least appreciated them if I didn't completely enjoy them. And he holds up his mirror to the audience.
00:44:18
Speaker
Uh, but it feels as if most people failed to recognize themselves and they're just going like, isn't that terrible that they did it back then? Um, and hence his, you know, speech, um, you know, at the, the Oscars, which caused so much contention.
00:44:33
Speaker
uh, you know, particularly with the live streaming of genocide from Gaza and the puffed out chests and arrogance by the soldiers, uh, so convinced their righteousness, uh, that they feel confident that it's okay to post horrific content online, you know? Um, and the, uh, the people that should know better. Yeah. Yeah. But people who are in that mindset just,
00:45:03
Speaker
No self-awareness, yeah. I mean, the film made me think about how cinema handled serial killers who are either larger than life or physical manifestations of evil, whereas the reality is a lot more mundane.
00:45:18
Speaker
You know, like if you've seen a rogues gallery of serial killers, they just look like little weedy weird punks. You know, it's yeah, the glamorization was a big thing when we were growing up. You know, these are like superhuman people in the newspapers, you know, could sell more copy if they
00:45:44
Speaker
They sort of boosted that. But in that movie, the acting, cinematography, the sound, all this work toward painting this sort of horrific bit of humanity where we disconnect from those that we perceive as different or inconvenient. And we all do it, all of us, all of us, you know. Otherwise, we'd give change to every homeless person we walk past rather than, you know.
00:46:13
Speaker
Walking past, you know, but you don't, Michael, I feed them every few Sundays. Well, this is the thing. People don't use real money here anymore. It's all, it's all you tap your phone and stuff. And that's it. You know, I, my, my wallet isn't, isn't, isn't really, because we've, I've seen some almost folks with Venmo.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah, they've started to hand those out to, yeah, some homeless people. But it's getting bad here. Right. So, okay, my next number five was all of us strangers. So, what was your number five?
00:47:01
Speaker
Again, I didn't put my netting number in order because now I'm just to the last one. Oh, are you? Oh, okay. Well, in that case, uh, since we, we both just talked about zone of interest. Um, so number four, and, uh, again, seen this, uh, in January.
00:47:20
Speaker
But apparently it's a 2023 release and that's Vim vendors perfect days And I probably watched this film most out of all the films on my list I've seen it three times so far It's got echoes of Ozu and I think a few critics were confused by its simplicity and
00:47:44
Speaker
And I think that can be a problem approaching the film too analytically, because they're like, well, there's so much to it kind of thing. And it's kind of the equivalent of looking at a zen garden and going like it could do with more stuff, you know, but
00:48:03
Speaker
You need to give yourself over to the film when the lights dim on this one. You just need to focus on it and just take the ride through the movie. That normal way to view vendors? Yeah, yeah. But this is interesting. It almost doesn't feel like a VIM vendors movie.
00:48:23
Speaker
Um, and yeah, it, it, it, and the central performance as well, sublime. Um, and you know what, um, I think, I think it's just, it's what it kind of conveys.
00:48:38
Speaker
very light-handed is, you know, you don't need all this stuff. You can live quite simply. And, you know, it's kind of a perspective thing. Because the protagonist, and I think you know this from the trailers of the movie, he cleans toilets, right? And he's got a sister who's very, very successful. And, you know, she feels sorry for him. But, you know,
00:49:08
Speaker
He doesn't need it. He has his routine and he's got his way of approaching it. And there's a moment where he's talking to his niece in the movie and kind of says, there's all these different worlds that kind of overlap and people see things in entirely different ways.
00:49:28
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it's a, it's a great movie. It's one of those movies that if you're feeling down or you need to recharge or just look at things in a different way, um, that does it and soundtracks great as well.
Surreal and Social Commentary Films
00:49:41
Speaker
Um, boy, uh, next, next few, um, I'll do my three in number two and then hand over to you and then we'll, we'll, we'll close out at number ones. Um, so the next one is evil does not exist.
00:49:57
Speaker
It's another Japanese movie. And again, this on the surface seems like a simple story from its first act, but it manages to pull off this sleight of hand and it is wildly mysterious. And the ending is confounding and open to so much interpretation and comes out of nowhere.
00:50:23
Speaker
I'm the director Hamaguchi also directed and drive my car a couple years back and he is at the top of his game he's. He's done something really really special here it's it's it's pretty.
00:50:40
Speaker
It's not for everyone. It's pretty slow, but it hits the landing. I think it does anyhow. And I can't recall seeing anything quite like it, where it's a slow burn, but the action kind of manifests in
00:51:01
Speaker
unexpected ways in the movie. Yeah, it just flew by for me. Fantastic movie. And my second one is kind of lighter. It's a movie called Fallen Leaves. And it's more in the vein of sort of Jim Jarmusch.
00:51:17
Speaker
And it might be that sort of nostalgia that I have for seeing Jim Jarmanish films way back in the day where, you know, oh, I've got the VHS tape of this or being able to find it in some small cinnamon Greenwich Village. But like with other films on my list, this is really simple. It's a story about a couple of working class people who meet each other.
00:51:41
Speaker
And they're not very communicative, and they make this connection. It's almost surreal, but it's essentially about lonely people living humble lives, and all at the same time it's thoughtful, touching, and funny. So it's kind of easy to watch, but the more you watch it,
00:52:04
Speaker
the more you think about the things between the cracks that are kind of hidden. It's one of the movies you could watch again and again. And what do you have for your number one?
00:52:20
Speaker
Again, number one. Well, yeah. Okay. The last one I have to mention is, uh, you already spoke to it a bit was Barbie. Right. Yeah. It was outstanding and determined. It's that like with the Holocaust film, if you get feminist cinema that can be mainstream, then it's tough to fault it on much of levels. Yeah. And you know, this, this one it's, it's feminism one-on-one, right? It's not,
00:52:50
Speaker
pushing the bar too far, but considering the way it's packaged and who was able to see it or would enjoy it. Um, yeah, I think that was meant for them. It was meant to be that way. The, like the messages there, they're coming out and again, things that are well known and documented. If you're in that kind of,
00:53:18
Speaker
arena of thought and information. But if you're not, you know, American Ferrara's speech really becomes something else. You know, it really stands on its own as one of those things. It's like, wow.
00:53:35
Speaker
Well, I will always remember the experience of going to the cinema to see it and such a cross-section of people ages, ethnic background, everything. It was the most diverse
00:53:52
Speaker
Crowd i'd ever seen couples families, you know everything people on their own And and and everyone pretty much unanimously reacting to it. Um, and I think that's probably why I laugh so much in that movie is because Everybody else was too. Um, uh, yeah the first 10 minutes though I I was just in hysterics because it wasn't just funny. It was smart as well. Um Yeah, it's really good. Um, okay my
00:54:22
Speaker
And I do have this as the one. And it is a film that I think... Because of the careers of the characters in the movie, I think it got a lot less attention than it deserved. And it's They Cloned Tyrone.
00:54:46
Speaker
which is Black Spoitation meets Philip K. Dick meets They Live with amazing performances from John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyana Paris. Production design is chef's kiss so good.
00:55:03
Speaker
And it all feels so fresh. The lead trio have great chemistry and they're on this Odyssey that's grounded but epic and it has this tempo like the Blues Brothers. And even though it's in a modern setting, it
00:55:19
Speaker
is the 70s vibes and references are soaked through it. And it's just so smart and thrilling and funny. And to top it off, it's Jewel Taylor's first feature film. And the soundtrack is amazing. Some great needle drops in the movie. There's a nice face off.
00:55:44
Speaker
moment, speaking of John Woo. And there's this Wizard of Oz subtext through it as well, except we have a drug dealer, you know, a prostitute and a pimp, which is, I think, part of the reason it didn't quite get the mass appeal. And I don't think it had a cinema release either. I think it went straight to Netflix.
00:56:09
Speaker
Uh, but boy, I would, I, it deserved to have, uh, you know, it's time on the big screen. Um, but have you, have you seen it? Not yet. Oh, it's good. It's good. And then the trailer doesn't sell it properly. The poster doesn't sell it properly. When I watched, um,
00:56:33
Speaker
back in 2023, the first 10 minutes of the movie, right? That was not enough time to even see the tip of the iceberg of what that movie had. The trailer doesn't show
00:56:51
Speaker
the tip of the iceberg of what this movie is doing. Like I said, this got these bits of Philip K. Dick and John Carpenter's They Live in there. It's so good. It's so good. And I think it lands the third act so well. And it kept me guessing. I didn't know what was going to happen next. Anything could happen next. But it all made sense when it did get revealed.
00:57:22
Speaker
There we go. We've done 2023. Okay. That all wrapped up now. We always come up with the new ideas in the middle of these things as well. Um, yeah, movies that haven't stuck their landings. Uh, what, what, what are the movies, big movies that, that you missed last year? So, um, past lives, fallen leaves and, uh,
00:57:51
Speaker
the vendors. Right. Did you see that movie? Was it Nyad? I did not. No, I didn't see that. I saw it in a couple of lists. It's just one of the ones that I missed. I saw the other vendors, the Anselm, about the German artist. Okay. And did see it in 3D.
00:58:17
Speaker
It's a great way to watch it. And again, it's that whole thing that I love about vendors that the way you can take the internal struggle, anguish, whatever narrative and put it out there in basically silent format.
00:58:35
Speaker
lets the visuals of the actors faces and such, you know, tell everything. Yeah. And this is much the same. I mean, yeah, actually, that's a really good point. I'm just thinking of all those movies and there are moments that stick in my head and will always be there, like just Harry Dean Stanton and parents Texas.
00:59:08
Speaker
seemingly don't give anything away, but they give everything away. Right, right. Yeah, that's very much the kind of performance that you get out of perfect days as well. Yeah, very, very subtle performance. But yeah, he has the wits not to have very many cuts.
00:59:22
Speaker
Yeah. Like, you know, like, you get, Harry and Stanton as a lead and Bruno Gans. Bruno Gans is a space.
00:59:32
Speaker
And he's focusing on the character and just letting you read him. And, yeah, it's pretty good. And again, I think we're coming into 2024 with another pedigree year because the releases this year on the whole have just been amazing. And, you know, we're just a few months in. We've got two thirds more of the year to do. And, yeah.
01:00:01
Speaker
Right, anything planning to go see anything this week? Not this week. I want to binge the Planet of the Apes movies before the new one comes out. Right, yeah. I am still interested in both Abigail
01:00:20
Speaker
Right. And was it the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare? Because I'm still a sucker for guy-riching movies. I don't know why. Well, you know, we always, guilty pleasures is fine.
01:00:38
Speaker
finished while I'm waiting for the last episode of Shogun tomorrow or on Monday. And then the end of The Bad Batch started Fallout. I think we both quite, I think you finished it. I've not finished it. But yeah, I've enjoyed everything that I've seen and I'm looking forward to watching the three body problem as well. I'm hearing a lot of good things about that.
01:01:06
Speaker
Like, crazy good. So I'm trying to temper my expectations, but we'll see. Because as I read the first book, the book is very, very good. Like, really good. Like, really, really good. I mean, the concepts alone, you know, you could just pick those up and you'd have to be a real idiot to kind of mess it up, but we'll see.
01:01:29
Speaker
Great. Well, I guess we're going to finish off there and we've just completed episode 27 or S02-03.
01:02:23
Speaker
Don't stop digging into oceans!
01:05:20
Speaker
Two oceans.