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Episode 011 - That Gum You Like
7 Plays1 year ago
We discuss some recent movie news, our weeks' viewings including Kim Hopkins' A Bunch of Amateurs, Lam Ngai Kai's Peacock King, Panah Panahi's Hit the Road, as well as a look at David Lynch's Twin Peaks The Return
Sifting through decades’ worth of mass media consumption, my friend and fellow cinemaphile Scrumpy joins me in discussions on film from the low to high brow
CREDITS:
Intro clip from David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: The Return" (2017) from Showtime
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
The Urgent Search for Douglas Jones
00:00:05
Speaker
Two oceans. Two oceans will begin. I have Director Gordon Cole on the line for you, sir. Director Cole? Director Cole, sir! I want everything you've got!
00:00:30
Speaker
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Jones of your fair city. These people are wanted in connection with a double murder and may be armed and dangerous. Put caution in the shotgun seat. Douglas Jones? Yes, sir. High priority. Get back to me. Your man has my info. Yes, sir. There's 23 Douglas Joneses in the greater metro area.
00:00:59
Speaker
How are we gonna find the right one? Wilson, how many times have I called you? This is what we do in the FBI!
Introduction to the Podcast
00:01:14
Speaker
Welcome to the tuitions podcast, where myself, Sue Fire, along with my friend and congested colleague Scrumpy, discuss film and other media through a decades long lens of mass media consumption. In this episode, we'll be going through selected movie news, recent viewing, including Kim Hopkins, a bunch of amateurs,
00:01:33
Speaker
Lam-Kai's Peacock King, Panapanai's Hit the Road, as well as a look at David Lynch's Twin Peaks The Return. This is the Two Oceans podcast, so get some coffee with cherry pie and hot stuff as we start episode 11. Tape. I remember
00:02:01
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So I got a bunch of little bits of news.
Cornwall's Housing Issues in Film
00:02:06
Speaker
The first one is the one I'm most excited about. I don't know if you saw a movie. It was quite a small movie called Bait by a guy called Mark Jenkins over here.
00:02:18
Speaker
And it was really good it was a sort of drama about people in Cornwall here with so we've got this problem with people from the city going and get second homes in all these nice places.
00:02:34
Speaker
which then turns out to make it unaffordable for people who actually live there. And he did this movie called Bait about these fishermen and various other people that live in this this part of Cornwall and how they're going to cope in with this whole thing. And, you know, things come to a head. But he filmed it on like 16 millimeter film, which is
00:02:57
Speaker
It's so gritty and it looks just gorgeous. You know, David Lynch, who we're going to talk about later, but it looks great. But the news that came out this week is that he's going to be making a folk. Well, he's made a folk horror.
00:03:13
Speaker
called Enniss Men, and I'll have to share the trailer for it, but it looks really good. He's using color stock this time, so he's upgraded, but it does have that sort of grit. It looks like it was made in the 70s, but yeah, excited about that.
Upcoming Alien Movie and Triple R Sequel
00:03:32
Speaker
And all the way in the other extreme with kind of more bigger news is Fede Alvarez is going to be making an Alien movie.
00:03:40
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. So he's turned in the script apparently for Alien movies. It needs a sign off from Ridley Scott and he's got that sign off. So they're hoping to start filming that next year. And it's got no connection to any of the other films in the series in the same universe. So.
00:04:04
Speaker
And talking of sequels, Triple R, you know, that Indian movie that came out this year. That that is, well, because of its success, I guess it's not too much of a surprise. It's it's going to be getting a sequel. I don't think it needs a sequel. Yeah, I don't know where you go from here, but OK.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I'd like a completely new movie from the same makers, you know, say it was made by the people who made, you know, Triple R and you'd be good. But yeah, you know the way it is.
Netflix's Gamera Rebirth and Kaiju Films
00:04:37
Speaker
And then this this is another old school one on Netflix. They've started to put up trailers for Gamera Rebirth.
00:04:47
Speaker
which if you recall, the camera is like a giant turtle in the kaiju vein. Not much information on it, aside from it is being made in Japan, which is probably a good start. But yeah, that sounds like fun. Okay, so it is being made in Japan, okay.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I imagine it's going to be a guide in a suit. Maybe CG enhanced a little bit. Cause they're doing the universe, right? What they've already started is calling it Godzilla.
00:05:23
Speaker
I don't think they've done too badly, actually. No, I've enjoyed all those. I mean, are they the best? No, but they're kaiju movies, man. They're not supposed to be kaiju movies. Yeah. Yeah, they do what they're meant to. And in fact, they get past some of the frustrations I had as a kid watching those movies where
00:05:43
Speaker
you know, 95% of the movie just because of budget restrictions. Yeah. We're just talking. We're needless, yeah, needless dialogue and people. Right. Well, that was one of the, I remember that with the latest one, Cog vs. Godzilla, that they said, can we just get rid of the, you know, human element completely? Please. I'm like, why don't you just try that?
00:06:09
Speaker
You want a couple of humans just for scale, but you know. Well, that's what the little kids are for. For Mothra and for, well, Gamera had the little boy, and then they had the little girl in that movie, the Kong movie. So there you go. There's scale. Skull Island, I thought, was a good movie. I enjoyed Skull Island. It was so goofy. That was one of the ones actually when we were talking last week about the
00:06:37
Speaker
great performances and bad movies. They call it John C. Riley. Oh, yeah. But isn't he always good in anything? Yeah, he's another one. Yeah. But also, I was like, but it's not a bad movie. No, I thought it was a decent movie. Yeah. Yeah. Totally, totally agree with that. I'll stand up for that movie. I think. Yeah. And I think a good cross section of people would actually enjoy that, that movie, you know. Yeah. It's good world building, too, for what they're trying to accomplish.
00:07:03
Speaker
Oh, it is. It is. Yeah. Yeah. No, I really enjoyed that. I was really disappointed and the only one that really I thought, ah, okay, was and it had so much going for it was the sort of total mashup with King Ghidorah and what was it?
00:07:22
Speaker
What was it called? It was one of the Godzilla movies where they decided and the trailer looked great. Everything about it looked terrific. The trailer sort of promised an actual quite good human story in the background. But it seems like everything good in terms of the dialogue was going to used up during that trailer. And it had so much good acting talent as well. Do you know which one I'm talking about? I can't. King of the Monsters.
00:07:46
Speaker
That's it. That's it. Yeah. Which I also really enjoyed. The trailer just got me hyped for something a notch higher, you know, and the pacing was a bit funny.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was my least favorite. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, but just least favorite out of that bunch. We had Mothra and King Ghidorah all fighting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Mothra is more of an ally, isn't it? Isn't it? Right. But you don't know. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:20
Speaker
And it was a well done, like they were all like, it was just the nice, you know, that's, that's the other frustration as a kid. You know, it was like, wow, it'd be great to see it with modern effects. Yeah. Oh yeah. King Ghidorah was amazing. Amazing. Yeah. And Mecha Godzilla and the newest one was.
00:08:36
Speaker
Oh, totally. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. You've got mecca Godzilla in the movie. How much of a human story do you want to have in that? How much realism do you really need? Come on. Well, do you know what? I mean, that's a funny thing.
00:08:54
Speaker
Sometimes you just sort of need to admit that the movie you're making is what it is. Do you know what I mean? Because I watched, and we'll talk more about this when we get to our second Native American special for Thanksgiving, but Scott Cooper's Hostiles.
00:09:11
Speaker
which is a, you know, sort of decent pulpy. Western, but it takes itself so seriously and it doesn't really earn that. And it would have been a much better movie if it was shorter and less earnest and angsty. And, you know, I would.
00:09:38
Speaker
contrast that with Hugo Blix, the English, you know, the series. I don't know if you finished it this week. We did. Yeah. Yeah. Which, which, you know, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Just seriously. I mean, it's good pulp is the way I describe it. Yeah.
00:09:57
Speaker
Right. And last bit of news I have is Quentin Tarantino is going to be making an eight episode limited series before he does a swan song movie. Not much information on what that's going to be, but.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, should be interesting. And he
Quentin Tarantino's Limited Series
00:10:16
Speaker
also made a comment saying that the near future boutique cinemas are going to flourish while the big chains flounder. And I kind of agree with this one, I think, just because every time I've gone to the cinema,
00:10:32
Speaker
the busiest screenings tend to be the kind of alternative stuff where people just don't have an option to watch it anywhere else. And they actually have that motivation to go to the cinema and see it with people. So yeah.
00:10:48
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Do you watch anything this week? I know you've been down with COVID, so... Yes. Well, because of that, I had plenty of time to watch stuff. And so, yeah, the household had it too, so we binge through the... We did watch the English. Yeah. What did you think overall?
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was fun enough. I liked, uh, uh, I like to make, I mean, the story was a little, the storytelling was a little abrupt off. It was like, okay. More of a, and so it was more of a frustration of like lean either into the spaghetti Western or not, you know, uh, and spaghetti Western is you're not going for a big story. Um, let the guy be a bad ass or let her be a bad ass. You know,
00:11:40
Speaker
I mean, I thought that was Chas Spencer who plays Eli and Emily Blunt.
00:11:49
Speaker
took it up a notch all in their own. Yeah. Like their performances are really good. But my feeling is like with spaghetti westerns is is they do less telling and more showing like I do visual storytelling. Yeah. And it felt a bit talky sometimes. And we didn't get to see things that happened like it goes happen. There's a flood and you don't get. Oh, OK. OK. Well, that seems like quite a major point there, but OK.
00:12:18
Speaker
Uh, and all the way to the point that when you don't see something, you kind of question whether or not it's actually happened, but then. Yeah, it did happen. You know, um, and the weird thing in that was, uh, uh, Rafe's Paul being like, uh, bargain basement, uh, Tom Hardy.
00:12:37
Speaker
in it, which it mostly works, but it's still, it's just like, dude, you're just doing a Tom Hardy on this. Yeah. I thought he did well with what he had. I thought, yeah, he just feels greasy and nasty. Yeah, he didn't chew scenery, he kind of gnawed at it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:57
Speaker
And, and the other thing so obviously they're like visual storytelling comes from the whole Leone thing, you know, because it's a spaghetti Western right. But I also sort of felt like I can the first few episodes that there was kind of a Max Furioso feel to
00:13:16
Speaker
you know, Eli and Emil and Emily Blunt in those characters in their relationship. And yeah, that just made me think of visual storytelling even more because there's a movie that says, fuck it, you know, if we don't need the dialogue, we don't need it. And we just show it. And yeah, yeah, no, no, I think I think it could have been better. I'm glad that it ended on the sixth because it would have been really just just just wrap it up.
00:13:54
Speaker
Uh, weird, the weird owl supposed to be biopic. Oh, how nice. How was that? That was hilarious. Nice. I mean, being a fan of weird owl, anyway, it's like watching it to see what they're actually going to include. That's legit versus, you know, this version of canvas is coked out rock star thing. Although there are some great moments in it and some, uh, uh, uh, you know, Madonna as the villain and Rachel, Rachel Evanwood is as big on as,
00:14:15
Speaker
What should I see? Come on, there's a phone through.
00:14:24
Speaker
master stroke. She's fantastic. But the idea of Madonna as the villain is even better. Nice. Nice. And, yeah, and of course, Radcliffe just, you know, I mean, Radcliffe's great, you know, he's just... Oh, he's up for anything, isn't he? Yeah. And I think he feels like he still has to prove himself, which is in his favor.
00:14:45
Speaker
not that he does have to prove himself, but it just gets his, you know, everything I've seen him in, which hasn't been a ton, but each time it's like he's like very, you know, conscientiously like really giving it his all clearly in whatever it is. Even when he's a dead body. Even when he's a dead body.
00:15:06
Speaker
Or he has guns for hands. Yeah, right. Yeah, I mean, he's he's a really versatile actor as well. And, you know, I think when you got to the end of the Harry Potter movies, you know, there was a lot of worry around, you know, how these young actors would be able to sort of move forward. But I don't think I've ever seen a transition better than the crew from from Harry Potter being able to sort of move into other roles. Yeah.
00:15:36
Speaker
him at the forefront. Yeah, easily. I went back, there were a couple of older ones that I found that I'd like missed. I'm like, oh, I can finally watch these now. One was this French field called Doberman. It's like 98, I want to say. It's Minskassel and Monica Belucci in this grotesquely over stylized crime caper kind of thing.
00:16:06
Speaker
Okay. Sounds familiar. Yeah. Better on paper. It's just somebody, you know, it's just like one of those French, you know, it's basically a French director that grew up on, you know, State of the Night of Luc Bresson or something. Right, right. So don't really, you know, the stories actually, they actually mine a little more story out of it than they should.
00:16:30
Speaker
Overall, it's just kind of like, okay, well, at least I watched it. Yeah, I know. And it's kind of that. Yeah. I mean, I had the same thing and I think you probably mentioned this last week was
00:16:46
Speaker
Claire Denis. I mentioned I saw Let the Sunshine In, which was extremely French. And Claire Denis being like an older sort of established French director. I just just found it
00:17:01
Speaker
quite bland. But the thing is, there are a lot of exciting new next generation French directors who seem to have separated off from that old heritage that was, I think, tying down a lot of these directors.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah, the system seemed to be, yeah, who knew whom and that sort of thing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then everybody was just trying to mimic the style. It's sort of similar to, you know, a lot of American directors going like, well, I'm the new Tarantino. You know, it's like, be yourself, dude. Yeah, exactly. Get your own voice. He stole it from plenty of others. You can do the same. Yeah. Yeah. You can do a different recipe in a different mix, but, you know.
00:17:49
Speaker
It was another early 90s one, I think, called Peacock King, which is a Hong Kong actioner with Yan Bao as a monk fighting demons.
00:18:03
Speaker
And there's another, there's a companion monk and then Gordon Lou's in it as well. And they have a fight scene. And it was like, you know, I'm excited. There used to be that thing where, especially with Hong Kong films, right? Or martial arts films. You always want to see like, oh, when do we finally get to see action star Y fight action star X? Right. Right. Like it took, what was it? The
00:18:28
Speaker
uh, the, the Shanghai night sequel, uh, London nights for us to finally get Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan to fight in a scene. You know, it was like that had not happened. Like I was like, it's like big time wrestling on a big budget. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, uh, you know, uh, Ian bow and, uh, Gordon Lou getting to have a fight. So, you know, I was like, I was pretty stoked. I remember those days, you know, when he could still do that.
00:18:58
Speaker
How was the movie overall? It's a good Hong Kong action, this fantastic, goofy special effects for the time. It's a lot more show than tell much of anything and that's fine for the genre and time.
00:19:21
Speaker
style and everything else. So, you know, you know, that going in. And so it is a surprising amount of stop motion playmation. Oh, really? In it with some of the some of the demons and ghosts and sort of things. No, when we were talking about the stop motion episode, I'd forgotten about like the Hong Kong movies that that would throw that stuff in all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:46
Speaker
So it was a nice, fun retro thing. I had a steady diet of those and you can first get the movies here in the States. So you kind of forget, but then you also, you know, riding a bike, right? You pick back up and like, Oh, okay. At least the subtitling is better. Oh, it's got to be subtitling dubs. No, no, no, no, no, no. Or it's either subtitling or no subtitling.
00:20:12
Speaker
not even dubbed. So it was like, we watched some that were just in Chinese and we're like, okay, whatever. You can still follow along. And then laugh when something doesn't make sense to you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But that was also a lot of time, especially on those imports at the time, Golden Harvest stuff and things like that in the 90s that we could get. The English subtitling was the last budgeted lowest
00:20:41
Speaker
item, you know, on there. So the subtitling actually became its own source of entertainment. Yeah, just because of what was used and how they would use it. And, you know, they'd always translate stop, you know, like the cops yelling at somebody stop or freeze. They'd always translate is don't go. That was funny. It was like, like a teacher, like, no, no, don't go.
00:21:06
Speaker
Like, you know, it's been all tough. Go, go. That was that one was consistent. That one was hilarious. But oh, that's like one of my favorite scenes that I lost in translation, where Bill Murray is sitting there and the director speaks like shouts for like a full minute. And then the woman says, he said, everything's OK. You know, and it's like, are you sure that's everything he said? Right. And then last night we watched the
Sinead O'Connor's Life Explored
00:21:33
Speaker
Nothing compares to you, the Sinead documentary. That just came out. Not even heard about that. I mean, it's got to be a sad story though. I mean, to an extent, you know, they basically start, you know, it's her up to the point of, you know, her career or starting out and, you know, fucked up life, childhood and all that. And then
00:21:56
Speaker
getting to the, you know, briefly after the fallout from the Saturday Night Live appearance. Which seems ridiculous when you look back on it. Well, they talk a lot and it is, right?
00:22:10
Speaker
And they talk a lot about that, uh, uh, what she did and how she did it and that she was, you know, the world was not ready for that at that time. You know, now totally it's like, Oh yeah, what would be the problem? Um, yeah, versus, you know, uh, and so it was a good, you know, and then nothing, it's because, you know, she's had, she's had her issues since then to put it mildly. Uh, but they kind of glossed over that. She, she narrates some of it though now, uh,
00:22:40
Speaker
as well as has a performance to close out at the movie's end of her now. So they're saying, you know, she's got another album coming out. She's released like seven or eight already since then, you know, still going and that sort of thing. But, you know, other people from the time talking in, but then others like, oh, Chuck D's in there and Kathleen Anna and, you know, a few of those that talk about the impact
00:23:10
Speaker
as well. Basically, the people that got it at the time and still have that cache, they still have that gravitas to be able to talk about artists with messages in certain circles. It was good. It was well done. It was well-handled. Where's that playing? It was on Showtime. It was on Showtime.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, so create a few of the others. Third season, the Orville, which was interesting, just because interesting in the way that because they change networks.
00:23:45
Speaker
They went from Fox to Hulu, Hulu FX. And so then they got to do the thing where the episodes don't have to be 54 minutes or whatever. So some of them were like an hour and a half. Yeah. Just let them make it as long as it's not dragging. And they didn't really, it was, and they kind of got to go.
00:24:08
Speaker
into more of the social commentary they wanted to deal with. Oh, I'm going to have to check that out. In proper time, in proper detail. Is it the best thing you ever know? But it's good. It's well done. Yeah. Again, it's another one of those things where it doesn't sell itself as being anything more than it is. Right. That is fine. Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
What else did I watch this week? I watched Alexander Rockwell's Sweet Thing, and I'd never heard of
Sweet Thing's Gritty Narrative
00:24:43
Speaker
it. It came out two or three years ago.
00:24:49
Speaker
it was a film that Quentin Tarrant, bringing him up a lot. I'm not a Tarantino, you know, groovy. But going on to Mubi, they had this, I'd marked it earlier as a film that, you know, I wanted to see and the notification came up saying, this is going to be taken down in three days. So watch it now kind of thing.
00:25:15
Speaker
But there was a quote attached to it from Quentin Tarantino where he said it was the best movie to come out in ages, which actually made me a little bit nervous about it because I was like, well, I don't really. But it's got a Will Patton in it, and it's got Rockwell's two kids in it.
00:25:38
Speaker
And it is quite gritty. It's a little bit difficult when you first get into it. But it's done in differing film stocks. So you have like the bits where it's like your sort of day-to-day grind is in this grainy black and white, you know.
00:25:56
Speaker
beautiful, beautiful, looks absolutely gorgeous. And then when people have those sort of special emotional moments, it goes to this color stock, which is also gritty, but you know, you have color, right? And it's
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to tell the story. So Will Patton, who I think gives like a career performance here, is a single dad with the kids. The mom is working in some strip club and has this boyfriend, big muscular guy kind of thing. And Will Patton is having problems with drinking and all this, but it kind of turns into
00:26:40
Speaker
Um, a cross of stand by me, um, with.
00:26:49
Speaker
kind of as gritty documentaries you'd get in the 70s. But it is quite light, surprisingly, and it is quite uplifting. And there's some really good performances in it. And the cinematography is just gorgeous. It's pretty short, too. I seem to remember it's just like a little bit over an hour, but I'd never heard of it. And I think, yeah, that is definitely one to check out. It's really good. But
Hit the Road: Iranian Film's Impact
00:27:19
Speaker
one of the one of the standouts before I get to sort of the main main one this week, which you probably saw my post on on Facebook, was Panah Panay's Hit the Road, which is an Iranian movie. And it kind of plays I think if I were to sell it to an American audience, I'd describe it as kind of a little miss sunshine in Iran.
00:27:49
Speaker
But it's more than that. It is more than that. The performances are so good. It's a road movie, and I've always loved road movies, and it starts with this family. They're in the car, and the older son's driving, the dad's foot's broken. He's in the backseat with the younger brother.
00:28:12
Speaker
uh the mother's in the the front passenger seat there's a dog in the car and um they're they're driving along you don't quite know what's going on at the start it's a little bit of a mystery around why why where are they going they don't seem to be on holiday and they start dropping clues and all this uh and the little kid is awesome in it i mean really really what a firecracker that kid is but it is really
00:28:39
Speaker
Really, really good. One of the best films I've seen in a long time. And the dad has such a great sense of humor in the movie. And some of the visuals are laugh-out-loud funny, too. Yeah, worth checking out. It's called On the Road. And that's just come out this year. I think some of these international movies maybe take a little bit longer to filter over to you over there.
00:29:05
Speaker
I think this one's made a kind of a big deal because Panahi, his dad is actually in prison in Iran now. So back in 2010, his dad was told, you don't you cannot make movies for 12 years. So the first thing he did is went and made a movie called This is Not a Movie. And yeah, so like he
00:29:33
Speaker
It's an amazing family. This is the first time the sons made a movie. And if this is his first movie, man, you know, as long as he doesn't get locked up. But you talk about these filmmakers, oh, you know, we went through all these tribulations making the movie. It's like, yeah, it's not a patch on these people. God, you know, because they are deliberately sort of pointing at the Iranian government and going their shit, you know. And that's the other thing is is seeing Iran
00:30:02
Speaker
you know, on the ground like this, it, it, it, it could be anywhere, you know, in the States, you know, I mean, it is so similar, you know, if anything, you kind of look about the, the highways and going like, well, that's, and that could, that
00:30:17
Speaker
the condition of these highways is too good to be in the States. You know, there's no potholes or anything. But no, it's a lot of fun. And yeah, road movies were one of my favorites.
Bradford Movie Makers Documentary
00:30:31
Speaker
Because like, you remember when we were kids and you turned on the television and
00:30:34
Speaker
You had like the kind of silly road movies like smoking the bandit kind of thing or convoy And then you had some of the more serious ones like Badlands, you know But yeah, I always loved them because it all and Empire Strikes Back always felt like a road movie to me Because I didn't know where they're going next, you know And
00:30:59
Speaker
Yeah, and then I was lucky enough to go to a screening this week for a bunch of amateurs. And I had just last week seen a review from Mark Kermode.
00:31:15
Speaker
on this movie and it's a documentary it's been filmed over like four or five years with this this club which is the movie makers of oh gosh I'm completely blanking now and I shouldn't be
00:31:35
Speaker
of Bradford, Bradford Movie Makers, which apparently is the oldest movie-making club in the world. And it used to be super common over here where, you know, you have hundreds of these clubs all over the country that were enthusiasts that were, you know, sort of developing their own film and, you know, doing all this stuff, sharing equipment and making these short movies, you know.
00:32:01
Speaker
And they're one of the last ones that are left, so they kind of follow this group. And it's such a quirky group of people, right? And they squabble, but they seem like a family.
00:32:14
Speaker
They meet every Monday night either to sort of film stuff in their sort of little studio that they've got. So they've got this like clubhouse thing, which is falling apart at the beginning of the movie. And so they meet every Monday, but you definitely get the sort of feeling that it's a family. And obviously in the middle of filming this movie, COVID hits.
00:32:38
Speaker
And you have this vast, you know, some of these people who are members of the clubs are like octogenarians, they're like really old. And so there's this, you know, will they, will they survive, you know, I know COVID's coming, God, you know, I'm getting really attached to them kind of thing.
00:32:55
Speaker
But it's a lot of fun. And I have always sort of been partial to movies about watching movies, like Cinema Paradiso or Spirit of the Beehive. But this was...
00:33:14
Speaker
just really, really nice. I mean, really well made. And some of the movies they make are quite funny, but I think they're meant to be funny. And it's not like going, look at all these weird people, let's laugh at them. It's not that at all. It is definitely more along the lines of focusing on the relationships in there. And they do make some good stuff, by the way.
00:33:42
Speaker
Stuff that I thought, that's genius. That's great. That's amazing that you guys did that. And then afterwards, when it ended, there was a bit of a Q&A session. And then I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with them in the restaurant, in the cinema, which felt like I was in an extended scene of the movie.
00:34:05
Speaker
because because it's a documentary right there's still their characters and you know there were squabbles going on around me and
00:34:14
Speaker
you know, all the things I'd seen to the movie and I got to know these people in the movie is like, there they are. It was completely surreal. But yeah, they're trying to find distribution in the States. So I'm trying to get the word out there because it's definitely a movie that I think Americans would like as well as far as that sort of quirky British kind of thing. And also just because of the post COVID stuff,
00:34:40
Speaker
prodding you here by saying post-COVID, you know, because you've had it this week. But, you know, that whole thing around some isolation and loneliness and community is really kind of touching in the movie.
00:34:58
Speaker
And the interesting thing was I was able to talk to some of them, because they're such a cross-section of ages. I asked them all about what movie got you into movies, what gave you the bug, and Colin, who I think is the oldest one in the group.
00:35:17
Speaker
said it was Snow White and the Tarzan movies, you know, and Pinocchio. And, yeah, he got a real kick that I knew about Tarzan, Jane, Cheetah. You know, of course I do. That's all we used to have on television, Nolan, you know, with our kids. And what really... Exactly, yeah. And the other thing that he remembered, because I've never seen them over here, was the little rascals.
00:35:47
Speaker
Like he knew, like almost no British people know about the Little Rascals. So it must have been something that when he used to go to like the theater that preceding the main presentation, they played a few Little Rascals episodes or something. But, you know, when he was six years old,
00:36:07
Speaker
he for Christmas, his dad or his uncle had bought him this hand cranked projector, which he's oiled and kept working all this time. And he must be pushing on 90 now. So yeah, he was he was amazing. He's a great character in the movie as well.
00:36:26
Speaker
And another guy, Harry, who, I don't know if you've seen the trailer, but he's the one who can't sing. He can't write a horse. And he gets this idea that, yeah, I want to remake Oklahoma's opening with me riding a white stallion.
00:36:43
Speaker
and singing, oh, what a beautiful morning. And his first movie memory was King Kong. And from that, he was telling me about the guy that did the stop motion on King Kong is the one that inspired Ray Harryhausen. I was like, yeah, I knew that. I was talking about that with my pal just a few weeks back.
00:37:11
Speaker
And this is where he said, well, you know, I met Ray Harryhausen in the late 70s. And he I made a film with him with all his models. And he explained all the stories behind them, how he made them that, you know, the different ups and downs during the making of the movies. And I was sitting there just staring at him and thinking,
00:37:36
Speaker
Harry, as much as you love that movie that you made of you singing the song from Oklahoma on a horse, you're sitting on something that is priceless. Yeah, a little bigger treasure there.
00:37:54
Speaker
Exactly. Anyhow, I've already, I'm going to be joining that club. And so I will see these guys again. And I am going to talk to Harry about, you know, you need to do something with that. Well, when I said, you know, you need to do something with that, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm planning on putting it on disc. And I was like, no, no, no.
00:38:16
Speaker
No, no, no, let's digitize that whole thing to the highest quality we can and make copies, make sure it's safe because it's on celluloid. So, you know, you need to be careful with celluloid, but at the very least you can upscale it to quite a high digital resolution. So he was a laugh. In fact, he kept doing card tricks on me and he was really good at it.
00:38:42
Speaker
I mean, seriously, really good. He'd be pulling these things out of his pockets and yeah, that's the card that I was thinking about. He was absolutely amazing. A few of the others mentioned things like Golden Age musicals and stuff like that. The youngest guy,
00:39:02
Speaker
who's in the group Phil, the one film that he cited was The Thing, right? And I was like, yeah, okay, yeah, no, that's a good answer. I like that. The Thing seems to be like a constant in any discussion that we have. Like, it is just such a big influence on so many people. But yeah, I mean, in a really good movie, I mean, in contrast to it,
00:39:29
Speaker
I've been seeing these trailers for Spielberg's The Fablemans. You know, it's this sort of biopic about his self and his family and it's meant to be sort of owed to the movies. But again, it just looks, I don't know if it's a trailer, but it just makes it look so saccharine and so
00:39:49
Speaker
I don't know, plastic. Do you know what I mean? It might not be true. It might not be true. But it's what I worry about when Spielberg does dramas, that there's always this kind of like saccharine film to it that doesn't taste quite right. But I'm kind of hopeful for it. It does look like it's hitting some of the right notes. Cool. Are we going to be talking about David Lynch now?
Twin Peaks' Cinematic Finale
00:40:19
Speaker
Probably, because that's the other thing I finally had the time to watch through, so I made the time, should have made it earlier, but...
00:40:27
Speaker
Uh, and that was the, yeah, the third and final season at Twin Peaks. Yes. Which while you're recovering from COVID and female dreams and such too, maybe not the best combination or maybe the best. Maybe, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's like the hair to the dog. You know, it's just, just, just, it'll kill anything in your system. Um, yeah, totally.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah, it was just a shortening. I thought it was excellent. That was amazingly well done. Very cinematic. Oh, totally. 100%. It was basically elevating the TV show. Yeah.
00:41:19
Speaker
on a just a whole other course reframes all of Twin Peaks. Yes. And you also get you know, a lot of I'll say closure, lack of a better term. Do have closure, right? Yeah. And you know, let's say
00:41:42
Speaker
Well, spoilers anyway, you know, there's some points where it was like I was genuinely, I would genuinely laugh. It's like, oh, of course, Shelley's still dating a drug dealer. When, when Ed and Norma get together, I mean, I cried.
00:41:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Finally, just throw it in there and it's literally like a 10 minute scene and that's it. It was like, wow, thank you. And it wasn't just that, but they also had the blessing of, what's her name? Sorry, it's been a couple of years since I've watched it. You know, I mean, eye patch. Yes. Nadine. Nadine, yeah.
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. The film reference, she got her silent drapes, started a store called Run Silent, Run Deep, which I thought was fantastic. The humor in it and some of the best horror scenes I've ever seen. I still think about them. It made me realize too, as we were talking before, nobody does villains.
00:42:51
Speaker
like Lynch does. Nobody. Nobody does modern horror villains, cinematic horror villains, story villains like he does. Nobody comes close. There's good ones. His effect, you remember all of his. You may not remember anything from Lost Highway except for Robert Blake.
00:43:17
Speaker
Right, right. Calling you on the phone, answering the phone while he's standing there talking to you, and he's on the phone. Yeah, yeah. And in this one, this one, I mean, I mean, there's so many, I mean, Bob is an iconic one. But the version of Bob in this is, I mean, McLaughlin deserves everything for this. Oh, totally. He played like four different people. Yeah.
00:43:43
Speaker
Oh, and I like I audibly cheered when Coop came back, you know, actual, you know, what is that like the putting up nothing puddles of an episode, but pretty good. It was earned. It was so so that moment. Yeah. Yeah. And the fact of it, but I didn't regret anything. You know, I'd seen some complaints. People are like, Oh, well, he's not like because that would have been boring.
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, that would have been totally boring. I just cooped her out of the gate right from the get-go. This whole little Dougie Jones and James and Sunny Jim. Oh, and the gangsters again. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:44:20
Speaker
Or I tell you what, one of the best horror sucker punches, aside from that whole dumpster scene outside the diner in Mulholland Drive, was in this where there was a fairly neutral scene, quite dramatic. And then it goes to Bobby and the traffic stop outside the diner. Yes.
00:44:48
Speaker
Wow. I mean, out of all the questions, you know, you talk about sort of closure and stuff for characters, which was great, but my mind has been playing on the continuation of that scene about like, what next? What was going on?
00:45:08
Speaker
Uh, and it starts off funny, right? Like it, like, I think that's how it sucker punches. Yeah. It's like, it's like, I'm going to be late, you know? And, and it just seems funny, but you could, you could, you could feel there's something, something not right. And yeah. Yeah. It delivers so well, uh, the, uh, the God of light, uh, the ghosts, the demon ghost things, right. God of light covered.
00:45:36
Speaker
or the first assassination that they do as well as fantastic. Oh, well in the throwback episode to like their origin. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Clear testing. And then the, I mean, that's a, that's, you know, that's like a fifties sci-fi horror.
00:45:53
Speaker
And a bit of a nod maybe accidentally to the, to scanners, David Cronenberg scanners, um, after which, uh, Gordon Cole says, uh, yeah, he's dead. Yeah. This is a full summary. Yep. Well, and then, you know, it's only been five years since that came out, but then there were people that number of actors that, uh, had died. Yeah. Like it was just surprising. Like how many, uh,
00:46:23
Speaker
We're just lucky that we've come on screen. I'd be like, oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or or, you know, I think we've mentioned this before, but in the case of the log lady, she was dying, you know, and she knew she was dying and still still went ahead and did it. And what a great scene that is as well. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Where Hawk Hawk gives her gives her a call.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah, and being from the Pacific Northwest, I'm not saying that people that aren't from there don't get it because, well actually David Lynch has said that what he aims to do with the things he makes is that,
00:47:04
Speaker
everyone gets something different out of it. That's what his aim is. But I think there's some things about being from the Pacific Northwest and particularly living among the wilderness that strikes a special chord in our minds. Because I was coming over here and seeing how the British loved it.
00:47:31
Speaker
and they thought different things just didn't happen. The traffic lights swaying in the wind. It's like, yeah, that happens. Really? They sway in the wind like that? It's like, yes, yes, they do. And the wind blowing in the trees constantly. That's the way firs move when the wind is blowing. And it's not uncommon to see owls as well. All these things which
00:48:00
Speaker
I mean, I remember growing up and I think the first David Lynch movie I'd seen in part was a racer head because my sister had all sorts of cable movie channels and things. And in the kitchen of the house in Olympia was a big door which had the grain of the wood showing in it.
00:48:25
Speaker
But actually, funny enough, when I went back early this year, they always freaked me out because they look like bearded faces. But not only that, when I went back this last time, I realized they look like the God of Light guys. It takes it up a notch. But even as a kid, just seeing faces in the grain of the wood always got under my skin a little bit.
00:48:53
Speaker
But yeah, what an amazing series. I mean, it crosses genres so many times as well. I'd say it even goes into science fiction in a way. It's
00:49:07
Speaker
But yes, so good. I love the experience. And we talked about the road movies. And what I like about road movies is you don't know where they're going to go next. And the road movies that I like, you don't know where they're going to go next or what they're going to come across next. And having that sort of surprise and unpredictability. And yeah, that whole series, man. Who knows what's going to happen next? I don't know. No idea. No idea. But I felt satisfied when I came to the end of every episode.
00:49:37
Speaker
You know, yeah, like I was like, that's good. I'm on the mood for some more, though. Like you said, that whole, you know, origin episode for Bob. And that kind of reminded me a bit of 1980s Alan Moore graphic novel work.
Visual Storytelling in Twin Peaks
00:49:57
Speaker
It's about the closest I've seen to something on screen that felt like his work, even compared to stuff that is meant to be screen versions of his work. But that felt very, very close, all the way from the nuclear explosion to the girl in the bed whose mouth.
00:50:23
Speaker
Again, that's almost all visual storytelling. There's no one telling you what's going on. But you feel, I mean, but there's all this familiarity. Right. It's so grounded and assured of itself that you don't need any, you know, he knows he's pulling that rug out and people will go there rather than just being like, you know, I mean, it was always the thing like people would like laugh.
00:50:51
Speaker
at a lot of them, like, oh, look, she's got a log. Isn't that funny? I was like, no, no, there's more going on here. Pay attention. You're going to get the reward.
00:51:06
Speaker
Well, um, yeah, I mean, yeah, no, no, no, that, that is exactly it. Yeah. The details aren't random. And if you pay attention, you will be rewarded with it. Like the log, I mean, and it seemed quite obvious to me, like if you'd watch the original series.
00:51:21
Speaker
And for all intents and purposes, you know, we're just kids back then when we first watched it, was the, you know, the log lady's husband died in a fire, right, in the forest. She carries a log and speaks to her husband through the log.
00:51:38
Speaker
You know, so so then it then it sort of builds on that and the more that you look and the more that you sort of like you said, listen, you can see, oh, my gosh, well, that explains that now. And that explains this and this. And it doesn't become completely defined. Don't get me wrong, which, you know, there's there's there's always that sort of room for interpretation. But it's it's it's so great. So great. And, you know,
00:52:07
Speaker
was everything that you know that drew us to the series in the first place you know was still intact and yeah none of but of course none of it feels like fan service you know especially after 25 years but you know it's more like did he have his plan originally when he did fire walk with me versus you know because the stuff they're able to include that was fresh just to that which came out what a few years after
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh, the second season ended. Excuse me. Um, you know, so that stuff that ties in, uh, you know, it's like, okay, was that all part of the plan? Was there like this huge?
00:52:50
Speaker
you know, vision board. Well, I mean, he's got an interesting approach to it, because as I, you know, I started doing that digital art, which you've seen, I've been doing on Instagram, and I've been sort of looking up and theory of it. And, you know, because so much of it is out of the artist's control, you know, you've got experiment and
00:53:19
Speaker
A quote came up from David Lynch while I was looking for this. And he says, I hate slick and pretty things. I prefer mistakes and accidents, which is why I like things like cuts and bruises. They're like flowers. I've always said that if you have a name for something like cut or bruise, people will automatically be disturbed by it. But when you see the same thing in nature, you don't know what it is and it can be very beautiful.
00:53:45
Speaker
So I think he does do things accidentally, but he kind of knows, because like, say, for example, the log, right? Maybe when he first did that, he just liked it, liked that idea and knew that would give him an opening later on to add to it. Do you know what I mean? And start connecting up the dots.
00:54:06
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, there is a bit where Gordon Cole kind of turns to Albert and says, do you have any idea what's going on? Because I don't. And you kind of wonder how much of that was actually David Lynch and how much of it was Gordon Cole. Right. Yeah, there's a lot of that. You're not really not steering the ship, you're just but you're still captain of it.
00:54:34
Speaker
Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, think about how he did Bob. Bob was not in the script originally, in the original series. There was a technician stooped underneath the bed and he went, stay there.
00:54:50
Speaker
Right? And that's how he came up with Bob, because the technician, who was the guy that played Bob, looks scary as all hell looking up from the bottom of the bed. And he built that into the script. And that is one of the load-bearing structures of the original series right there. But yeah. Oh, you know, another thing that really got me teary is
00:55:19
Speaker
that they made Bobby a policeman. And the reason that he became a policeman because it was his dad. And I thought that was a really, really nice touch there. I mean, he was having these human moments, right? Like, you don't need to just flood the whole thing with those. He saves the dialogue for when you need dialogue, you know? Yeah. And fills in where you need to. And then, you know, if you don't need to, it's like, yeah, we get it, you know.
00:55:52
Speaker
Well, the other thing I really, I cheered at was when the sheriff's team goes out to the spot and to the portal. And the only person that can go into the lodge successfully is Andy. And I'm like, of course.
00:56:08
Speaker
That would be the woman. He's the purest of spirit. He's like Cooper in that thing. He's like the Fisher King. He doesn't understand that that is the holy grail. He's just trying to get a cup with water in it. Exactly. And it's like, oh yeah, he's going to go get her and bring her back.
00:56:31
Speaker
Uh, uh, that was just, I was just like, so that detail, you know, and, and, you know, them as a couple. Yeah. Yeah. Still intact. Never made fun of, uh, again, another thing he never, I mean, the characters will make fun of themselves by doing or saying something stupid or ridiculous, but they are never the object of a joke or a derision or something like that.
00:56:59
Speaker
Funny you say that, that is exactly what I was trying to say with that that bunch of amateurs documentary. So it's like they know they're being quite silly, right? And they know they're bickering like a family does. And it is funny watching it on screen. And and I could see them during the screening laughing at those bits. So, you know, but it is a fine line. You know, you don't want to exploit people. But yeah, the characters like Andy and Lucy
00:57:29
Speaker
and Gordon Cole and all of this, if anything, in like, oh, and the fact that David Duchovny came back as the agent was an amazing scene because I think Gordon Cole says, you know, if they don't straighten themselves out, like, yeah.
00:57:51
Speaker
Just so so good and and so ahead of its time for when the series came out, you know And and now you hardly bat an eyelash, but you still think I yell right Gordon. Yeah, you're a good guy. Yeah Yeah, well then he has the crazy mind when when Albert tells him he's going soft
00:58:14
Speaker
Right. And not where it counts. Not where it counts, buddy. And the singer gal, the new agent. Yeah. Just laughs. Yeah. Because that was probably very honest. Yeah. Oh, and then he has the Monica Bellucci dream. And I was just like, Yeah, I don't my Monica Bellucci dreams are a little different.
00:58:41
Speaker
I was like, I'm nice. All right. I'm like, all right. David Lynch and I are on a similar wavelength. That's good. Oh, this is the quote. I just had to look it up because I should remember it because I got a t-shirt of this. And he says, and when you became Denise, I told all your colleagues those clown comics to fix their hearts or die.
00:59:07
Speaker
And I've kept that phrase in my lexicon ever since, fix your heart or die. So good, so good. On the other hand, and it's not from this, it's just the lynchism that I carry is that we'll watch the show Louis when it was on, the Louis C.K.
00:59:27
Speaker
show, which I will not go back and watch. That's what's coming out about the guy. It's kind of like, oh, but it was, it was really, the show was really good, but, but, and that's a big butt to get around. But I don't know if you ever watched it, but there's one point where he's being groomed to succeed, um, like Leno or something to get the Tonight Show kick. And, but he has no, uh, training or his, his, you know, he needs, he needs help.
00:59:56
Speaker
to understand that role. And so they bring in this like long time producer guru and it's David Lynch. And he does that one line where he's sitting there at the desk and he's just yelling at him and finally just says, make me laugh, funny man. And he's terrified. It's like, you know, that's the point of it. But it's like, it's actually, you know, that they just pulled Lynch in and just said, hey, here's the premise. And he just went,
01:00:22
Speaker
Um, because that seemed, all of that seemed a hundred percent in character. Right. Uh, but that's, I, that's the one I keep just David Lynch. That's good character saying that, you know, to this like, Oh, here's this big up and coming here, you know, major comic. He's like, make me laugh. Funny man. Like not putting up with any of it. It's just, that's the one I carry. That's a, that's a good one. Yeah.
01:00:47
Speaker
Unfortunately, I've had to use fix your heart or die, uh, quite a lot in the last few years, the way the world goes. Um, but overall, you know, again, I was very pleased with it. It was, I thought it was some amazing film. Yeah. Storytelling. Um, because it wasn't, you know, the part of what drew me and, and part of the appeal, I think why it caught on with the original series was that it's a soap opera and Lynch was very open about it being a soap opera.
01:01:16
Speaker
Uh, people like, Oh, it's so quirky and weird. And you know, shows that came out after that, like, Oh, for set, you know, in a remote spot. Uh, and we, well, we have to have some quirky and weird characters now. Like, yes, he changed television, not all that, you know, necessarily for the better, but that was because of the, uh, uh,
01:01:34
Speaker
because of the copy, not because of the original, you know, something like, you know, I think like Northern Exposure, you know, that was the one that was like, like a whole lot of different characters. It's like that. I love that show. But I felt that all those critics that said, oh, it's the new Twin Peaks, like, no, it's not. It's only entirely different, you know. And that was really unfair to that show as well. You know, that that that. Yeah.
01:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it's trying to be something different anyway, but yeah, you know that that's just the you know He's and it was somehow straight, you know trying to process some of these is this more of what? You know you look at him on one end of this You know strong visual storytelling quirky characters, you know, that's you know, that's Wes Anderson But you would never confuse the two of them. Yeah
01:02:25
Speaker
because, and I think, you know, it's, Wes Anderson is art and film school, upper class thing, Lynch is bottom rung, enjoy the absurd and surreal, embrace the normal. And I would say that happens there. Yeah, observable versus the presented.
01:02:49
Speaker
I think Lynch knows that, I mean, I think he's a bit more of a carpenter than an architect. Yeah. And I think he's fine with that. You know, he's described himself as being a terrible painter, but he knows what his limits are and he does what he can with it. And if you think about it,
01:03:10
Speaker
And I was talking to the bunch of amateurs the other night about this is I have seen plenty of technically bad, great movies that I would watch any day over a technically perfect movie that, you know, is shite, you know, so, you know, all the all the. Yeah.
01:03:35
Speaker
Any sort of aspiring film directors out there, and I think this is David Lynch's advice as well, is just shoot the damn thing. Don't get head up on the technicals. Just get something. And I think you get more of a flow that way. I think Kubrick is probably one of the exceptions. But if you're a film student and you think you're Kubrick on day one, there's a problem there anyhow.
01:04:03
Speaker
But thinking about the Twin Peaks series, though, is, to me, it doesn't feel like a soap opera, at least not the new series. It feels more like an anthology series.
01:04:19
Speaker
through a kaleidoscope. Like it repeats, like you get consistent characters coming forward, but you don't know how it's going to refract in every episode, but it makes sense, right? There's some symmetry to it. It all kind of works.
01:04:35
Speaker
But it does feel like an anthology because you get these different stories. They're all set around Twin Peaks and they're sort of related to the original series sometimes. But like, you know, we talked about that bit and the traffic, you know.
01:04:53
Speaker
That almost feels like, okay, here's another episode in the Synthology series. Here's a little side story kind of going on. And then you meet new characters and you get their background. And then Harry Dean Stanton turns up, and he might cross paths with some of the people that we know, but we zoom fully on Harry Dean Stanton when we first meet him.
01:05:16
Speaker
Um, despite the fact we didn't start with Shelley or anyone else. Nope. It's him first. And we get to know him and it's, it's so great. Just, just this, the way, way it just is, you know, you just absorb it and, and, and let it all sink in, you know? Yeah.
01:05:34
Speaker
Well, we're coming up to the end of the hour. So next week is going to be our Thanksgiving episode. Doing the Native American thing part two. I think we started talking about a couple.
01:06:18
Speaker
Two oceans.