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Lost In New Mexico - Eddington Review
18 Plays6 days ago
This week on Lost In The Frame, we're discussing the new Ari Aster film, Eddington. Have you seen it? What did you think? Let us know!
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Transcript
Introductions and TikTok Adventures
00:00:24
Speaker
to Lost in the Frame. I'm your host, Tachi. I'm your host, Malik. And I'm your host, Alex. How you guys doing? Doing great. We have beautiful voices. I'm just now realizing.
00:00:38
Speaker
We only did that in two takes. That was the second take. Yeah, that was the second take. I don't think it's in us getting exposed. I think that just speaks to our talent as individuals.
00:00:51
Speaker
We're actually exposing the audience to how great we are. I wish you guys saw how many takes it took for me to do that TikTok.
00:01:00
Speaker
like Cam was sitting like right here, and I would say something. I'd be like, this movie is a little bit... and then i would just like sit there and smile and be like, all right, take two. It took like an hour. Did did ah Cam film that for you? Oh, if if you're listening and wondering what we're talking about, we posted a TikTok and it's blowing up.
00:01:18
Speaker
We posted our first TikTok, so be sure to follow us. I think our TikTok name is Lost in the Frame.
00:01:26
Speaker
I'll probably link it in the show notes. Seems likely that it' it is linked in the show notes, but no, she did not film it. I bought a ring light with a phone holder from Best Buy. Was it additional pressure having her right next to you?
00:01:39
Speaker
At first it was, but I was like, this will help get like me comfortable. Gotcha. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I can't wait to film it alone. My roommate judges me.
00:01:51
Speaker
Tachi, are you prepared to film TikToks? I am. I've been on camera before. It'll be right. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be good. Yeah. Should be fine. I won't pee.
00:02:03
Speaker
ands ah It'll be okay. Thanks for tuning into this episode.
Movie News and Commentary
00:02:06
Speaker
If you'd like to know what we're going to talk about today, go to talk we're going to try to talk about Eddington. Keyword try.
00:02:14
Speaker
Keyword try. We just apologize on behalf of anything that may come after this. I don't know either. This movie is already super polarizing.
00:02:26
Speaker
um I'm excited. like I'm nervous to talk about it but I'm excited to talk through it just because I don't fully know my thoughts on it. So I'm hoping that our conversation kind of brings that to light.
00:02:39
Speaker
This is almost like therapy. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah To warm us up, though, before we get into whatever that discussion is going to be, we've got some movie news.
00:02:53
Speaker
wants to kick us off? I'll kick us off. We got Dua Lipa was spotted shooting scenes for Devil Wears Prada 2 in New York City. if Do we think it's going to be good?
00:03:04
Speaker
Probably not. But if Dua's in it, I'll be set. Yeah, it's going to be the same thing, her cameo, like the same one that she had in Barbie. Anything more than the... What was that stupid movie called?
00:03:19
Speaker
um Argyle. I never saw it. Oh, she's in it for like the first 10 minutes. That's it. She was all over like the marketing. And then...
00:03:31
Speaker
if you There's a lot wrong with that movie. um But the lack of duo was one of the issues. Yeah, i remember you flaming it. I had no interest in watching that movie.
00:03:44
Speaker
went and saw that in theaters. That's crazy. They got your money. They robbed you. Well, you know what you're supporting the arts and I love that. I wouldn't call that art. Even the bad arts.
00:03:56
Speaker
Trisha Paytas has named her third child Aquaman.
00:04:02
Speaker
Do you think it's real? It's real. So here's the thing. This is her third baby. I don't care if Trisha Paytas. Cam likes Trisha Paytas.
00:04:13
Speaker
So I know these things. This is her third baby. The first baby's name is Malibu Barbie. The second baby's name is Elvis. i don't know if it's just Elvis or Elvis something, but it's el Elvis.
00:04:24
Speaker
And then we got Aquaman. Malibu and Elvis aren't horrible. Aquaman is pretty bad. Yes. Unforgivable. And the thing that's been happening with the birth of her children is each time a baby is born, someone of importance dies.
00:04:43
Speaker
Malibu Barbie came to this earth and then the queen died same day. Elvis was born. And then I think it was Prince Charles.
00:04:55
Speaker
or whoever that was died. Now for this one, this one doesn't really count because I did just find out that the baby was actually born 10 days ago. We just got the name of the baby today.
00:05:06
Speaker
But nevertheless, today, Ozzy Osbourne passed away. Oh. So someone dies every time she has a baby. And if you're wondering why this is in our movie news, it's, I guess, tangentially related to Jason Momoa, I guess.
00:05:24
Speaker
I just saw it. I'm we to talk about this. That's a choice. and And if you're sitting here wondering who Trisha Paytas is, um don't look it up. Don't bother. love this other piece of news.
00:05:37
Speaker
Josh Bone is in Freakier Friday. Hell yeah. Yeah. Let's go, Josh. Boners are eating good this year. They sure are. Boners rise up.
00:05:50
Speaker
Josh Boehm, does he play a ah concert goer in Freakier Friday? Concert goer in Freakier Friday. He was in Hurry Up Tomorrow as a concert goer. And in Marty Supreme, he is an audience member.
00:06:02
Speaker
he's I'm just worried he's getting typecasted.
00:06:07
Speaker
I mean, one of his previous roles in a TV show I've never heard of, he was a prom goer. and I did also see he was in the sex lives of college girls as a college student. So maybe Josh Bone maybe got lucky.
00:06:20
Speaker
He's a college goer. The boner is a goer.
00:06:25
Speaker
ah What else do we have in the news? Something about Ardman. oh yeah um aardman the creators of wallace and gromit chicken run i believe they worked on flushed away as well announced a stop motion pokemon movie oh that's cool interesting wait released or they're making it they are they making it like 2027 i think is interesting targeted release date oh that'll be fun that's exciting awesome I like that.
00:06:56
Speaker
Did y'all see the poster for Avatar Fire and Dash? Yes. but so That trailer is supposed to be playing before showing the Fantastic Four this weekend. Oh, nice.
00:07:07
Speaker
I can't wait. We're in. It's going to cook. There's also a new Predator Badlands trailer. I did not watch it because I'm scared, but I'm excited. Me too.
00:07:19
Speaker
I'm excited for that. The new one battle after another trailer has been um screening. We saw it last night. Yeah, it was pretty similar to the first trailer with a couple new scenes cut in between. But nevertheless, I'm excited for it.
00:07:34
Speaker
Do you think it has a award season potential? I think it does. I think so. Leo will definitely be nominated for an acting award. I mean, it's just he will be like, come on.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I think the Academy likes PTA. the yeah oh Yeah, I mean, Licorice Pizza got a ton of noms. For sure. ah Fortnite Foreskins.
00:07:58
Speaker
Just wanted to say that one more time. um Let's see. Naomi Ackes talks to play the female lead in Clayface. Tom Riz Harrys is now signed on to play Clayface. Who is that?
00:08:10
Speaker
I'm assuming he's British. Oh, yeah, he's hella British. Really? No, he's Welsh. Close enough. Oh, we're already canceled.
00:08:22
Speaker
We didn't even get to Eddington. We're already canceled.
00:08:27
Speaker
He's a good looking dude. Who really knows where Wales begins and England ends? I do. i actually, matt i was really close to the border of Wales.
00:08:37
Speaker
And who drew them? No one knows. Oh, this one's interesting. First poster for Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan's next TV series, described as a psychological sci-fi starring Rhea Sehorne coming soon to Apple TV.
00:08:51
Speaker
Oh, yes. Nice. Has Vince Gilligan done anything else after Breaking Bad? Or was that his last big thing? Oh, well, Better Call Saul. Was he heavily involved with that, though? Or did other creators kind of take over? He was?
00:09:06
Speaker
He was very, very heavily involved with that Okay, so first thing outside of the Breaking Bad universe. Yeah, and man I did not finish but I liked it. Yeah, that one that one is is still on my list.
00:09:18
Speaker
Wish I could go back to watching Breaking Bad for the first time. Me too. What a rush. Both of you have never seen Better Call Saul? No. I've seen the first like three seasons.
00:09:30
Speaker
Oh, come on. know. Come on. ah there was I literally wanted to talk about it tonight. Did you really? Besides the news. Yes, there
Eddington: Anticipation and Analysis
00:09:38
Speaker
is something i wanted to bring up about it tonight. I'm pissed now.
00:09:41
Speaker
God. What did you want to bring up? You'll see. It can't be a spoiler. It is a spoiler. All right. There's like a something that happens in a scene I mean, I can... I'll work around i'll work around it, okay?
00:09:57
Speaker
One thing I love about movies and TV shows is when things happen in places. Know saying? That's peak. Yeah, like, scenes are kind of, like, underrated.
00:10:08
Speaker
You heard it here first. Groundbreaking. Scenes are underrated. Hot take. Scenes are good. to To kind of circle back on... um Movie trailers we talked about a little earlier. ah The horse movie.
00:10:22
Speaker
I hate the horse movie. What the name it? East of Wall. East east of Wall. If you guys have been to the theater recently, you might have seen a trailer for this movie. It's called East of Wall. It's about horses.
00:10:35
Speaker
And it looks like a ripoff of like Yellowstone or something. And it almost feels like a documentary, but... Then it isn't, but then the two leads play themselves.
00:10:46
Speaker
it's It just looks so uninteresting. I don't know why I have a personal vendetta against this movie now. like It just looks so uninteresting to me.
00:10:59
Speaker
He still wallows. Are you going to take this? but Stand up for yourselves.
00:11:08
Speaker
I'll fight the Wallers. I'll do it. I'm assuming east of Wall means it's east of Wall, South Dakota. Sure. it It looks like South Dakota. Have you guys ever been to Wall, South Dakota? I have.
00:11:21
Speaker
Can't say have. No. That's where Wall Drug is. What is that? So if you're driving on the interstate, I forget what interstate it is. or And this is when this this has been a ah like a thing for years and years and years. My mom saw it when she went on a road trip.
00:11:39
Speaker
I saw it and we were driving back from Mount Rushmore. um You will see so it's like the OG Buc-ee's almost because you will see signs for miles and miles and miles for wall drug. It's like, oh, wall drug, 150
00:11:55
Speaker
And what wall drug is, it's like it was like a like a pharmacy in Wall, South Dakota, where it just turned into like this roadside stop. there's like a restaurant in there.
00:12:07
Speaker
Like there's I'm pretty sure there is fudge like Bucky's has. like It is a like an OG like i was hoping there was fudge Bucky's. You know, there's trinkets to buy, but it's like very i haven't been there in.
00:12:23
Speaker
Ages. But it was like very rustic. It had just that like Americana feel to it. It was actually like it was a fun stop. um Shout out Waldrug.
00:12:35
Speaker
If you're listening, keep keep doing your thing. Waldrug is a pretty cool name. I like it. It sounds you not proper.
00:12:47
Speaker
and sounds like it's leading up to something as like a gotcha joke. It does. Like wall drug these nuts on your face. Something so like that. Anyway, go to wall drug. um Maybe not east of wall.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, don't go to eat don't go to East of Wall. Don't watch East of Wall. Actually, no. i Watch whatever you want. we We can't. we're not We support it. I'm joking. i He's not we could um We could go see it.
00:13:24
Speaker
Let's get him on the pod. East of Wall? Yeah, let's discuss. That'll be our first guest. they like, so how excited were you for my movie? Did you guys happen to hype up our movie, you know, leading up to release?
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah. For sure. This one made me mad. Kevin Feige says there's been four versions of Blade and they finally decided on a take set in modern day.
00:13:50
Speaker
Quote, we didn't just want to put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. Why not? Yeah. Yeah. Alternate argument. Yeah.
00:14:01
Speaker
That's what you should be doing. I hate executives. I hate executives. I want to sit in a room of executives making these movie decisions so bad. i don't want to sit there. I want to be a fly on the wall.
00:14:14
Speaker
I want to be fighting. Because I think I would just go goblin mode in the exec room.
00:14:22
Speaker
I remember the last time it went goblin mode. ah oh That's why the ah original podcast ended. went goblin mode. Never go goblin mode. I think we're just dancing around the topic of tonight's episode. Is it time?
00:14:36
Speaker
i think we're scared to talk about it. It's like, okay, here's here's how I feel about it, okay?
00:14:44
Speaker
We watched this movie last night. Two and a half hours. Do I feel like it was a wasted two and a half hours? I don't know. No. I'm just going to say no, it's not.
00:14:56
Speaker
Do I know what to take from this movie? Not really. Is it what I was expecting? Yes and no. Did I like it? Yes and no. So I'm just like, I'm conflicted.
00:15:08
Speaker
I don't know like where to start the conversation. So I guess i guess we just will. I would like to start the conversation with reminding the viewers that this is not the first time this movie has come up on this podcast. And the previous time it came up and we discussed it kind of at length was when we were doing our predictions around con film festival and subsequent movie news. Cause we were recording early because but that was the wedding plus surgery.
00:15:39
Speaker
That was that one, right? Yeah. So we had guessed that, um, like a But we guessed a few things, but one of them was um guessing that Eddington would get bad reviews at Cannes Film Festival and it got trashed. I mean, it was like the second to last rated film out out of the slate of them.
00:16:03
Speaker
Now, surprisingly, on wide release, it's been getting more mixed reviews than I expected. I expected like most people that had seen it this week to have similar reactions to what we saw come out of Cannes.
00:16:19
Speaker
That's kind of not what I'm seeing, and I'm kind of surprised by that. its it is It's a very polarizing film, and I think as more and more people see it, it will only get more polarizing.
00:16:32
Speaker
I agree. I'll go ahead, Tachi. I just agreeing. Okay. I'll go ahead and read off the synopsis um in our notes here. I put, to kind of kick us off, some Letterboxd reviews from from some users.
00:16:46
Speaker
Thought we should get the full kind of scope of what we're seeing out there. So we have a five-star review, a three-star review, and a one-star review. and Let me read the one-star. Okay, I'll read the five-star. Tachi, you can do three.
00:16:58
Speaker
Sure. Eddington directed by Ari Aster in May of 2020, standoff between a small town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbors pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
00:17:13
Speaker
And this is starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler. Before we get to the reviews, what was you guys' excitement level or unexcitement level coming into the coming into this movie?
00:17:29
Speaker
I felt mostly indifferent. I was just kind of curious on how things would, I guess, start heading once ah the early screenings kicked off. And surprisingly, i got a little more interested when, you know, it got pummeled by bad reviews.
00:17:47
Speaker
Normally when when that happens, I like lose all interest, but um I guess since it's Ari Aster, I wanted to give him the opportunity to show me himself what he's got to say.
00:18:02
Speaker
I'll kind of echo that sentiment. I think um I wasn't excited, but I wasn't. not excited if that makes any sense yeah um i really was very interested to see it but more so of like a curiosity like a morbid curiosity um i think the farther i get away from it the less i liked bo is afraid and i know we had made a couple jokes about re potentially being on his way to director's jail and um this movie seemed like
00:18:38
Speaker
like really like a car crash waiting to happen. Like, you know, someone, you know, is just constantly like texting and driving or doing irresponsible things. Like, you know, like one day it's going to come back and bite them. This is what this movie felt like.
00:18:51
Speaker
Just like knowing what it was about, the synopsis. um And knowing like the themes it was going for, ah it just felt like, oh my God, it's going to be terrible.
00:19:06
Speaker
And I want to see it. And I didn't want it to be bad. that that That's one thing I'd like to say. like i was not rooting for this movie to fail. I like Ari Aster a lot. He's very talented.
00:19:17
Speaker
um And so I wasn't like plotting on its downfall. But I was just very worried about that it was going to be Terrible.
00:19:29
Speaker
Yeah, I think I feel pretty similar to to how you did. This movie right now has a 3.4 average curve rating on Letterboxd right now, but let's start with the Letterboxd reviews.
00:19:40
Speaker
Starting off with this five star by Manny Leota. Quote... Well said. And I like his verbiage. ah total barn burner it's going to infuriate so many people in so many ways one does not walk away unscathed from the shots taken walkouts even at a preview screening insane gobsmacked level of filmmaking from ari aster the prowess is off the bloody chart love every second and cannot wait for my brain to be prodded and probed three times at the theater the firework needle drop had me in tears well sir
00:20:12
Speaker
and i like his verbiage Yeah. All right. Next review, three star by Jason. For a cast as good as this, I expected way more. Then again, it is Ari Aster and he's definitely known for making smart, strange films.
00:20:25
Speaker
Don't get me wrong. This wasn't a terrible film. There were great moments. The first act was really interesting and made me want to watch the rest. Things got sloppy in the middle and I just feel like it was directionless until the end after that.
00:20:36
Speaker
It's definitely the best pandemic movie, but I think it could have been way better. Not as bad as Bo is Afraid though. Is there another pandemic movie? There's a few pandemic movies. I think there's another pandemic movie starring ah Pedro Pascal.
00:20:52
Speaker
Y'all remember The Bubble? Oh, God. That movie straight up sucks. That's not the worst pandemic movie. That's the worst movie. It's a really bad movie. I hate it.
00:21:02
Speaker
It was directed by Judd Apatow, I think. Judd Apatow. Yeah. The man who used to be funny but lost the sauce. Yep. Isn't it just tragic when someone loses the sauce?
00:21:13
Speaker
Just completely. ruled the 2010s. He really did with an iron fist and just, I don't know what happened. He got money. Are we ready for the one star?
00:21:27
Speaker
Let's do it on us. One Star by Clara Curtis, grossly irresponsible to make a film that attempts to examine the intensely vitriolic state of American politics amidst the earliest months of COVID and not mention how Trump or the magosphere directly amplified and exacerbated so many of those very issues.
00:21:47
Speaker
But at least we can laugh about the youths caring very loudly about George Floyd's murder. We can roll our eyes at the women who succumb to right-wing conspiracies as a coping mechanism to deal with trauma that exists just to make them difficult to stomach.
00:22:00
Speaker
I found every part of this uninteresting and maybe even worse, unintelligent. No interest in digging into the nuances that exist within this reality. No attempt at reconciling with these experiences.
00:22:11
Speaker
Just nonstop upping the ante in this bizarrely cruel and misguided ways. Aster seems to be gravitating towards more with each new film. And so we've got so we've got. The spectrum of how people feel about this.
00:22:25
Speaker
And the thing is, with reading these, I feel like they're all correct. I agree. They're all valid. They're all valid in how they feel. And I think that's just part of the like what makes this movie like almost enticing.
00:22:43
Speaker
I think it I think in the general sense, yes, because the one like I'll put a little caveat like the there are a couple that just completely miss like the the lowest hanging fruit of this movie, like the one I sent last night.
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah. Where the guy was like, oh, like, you know, the even like the most like the more well-rounded, like straightforward characters devolve into like insanity. And it was like, yeah, that was that was kind of the point.
00:23:11
Speaker
Like, right. <unk> I don't know what you were looking for. um But no, I agree with you. i think everyone like there's i mean, I could go in and nitpick a couple of them, but.
00:23:25
Speaker
like I think for the most part, I think everyone is a... I think their viewpoints are all fairly like, I get that. like I see it. yeah you know A couple points that I've seen a lot of people bring up I'm curious to get your guys' opinions on. First one being, a lot of people feel like it's too soon to be making a movie about COVID.
00:23:48
Speaker
ah Making a movie like during the COVID era. What do you guys think of that? I... I had said originally that I did think it was too soon in the sense that I just didn't want to see it.
00:24:02
Speaker
But in like a sense that it was too soon, like it was almost insensitive. Like, i don't agree with that. I think it's perfectly fine to make a movie, especially if you look at it in the lens. And I don't know if this is just me talking on my ass, but I think Ari Aster clearly does a lot of movies about processing trauma and,
00:24:22
Speaker
That was a pretty big traumatic event for everybody. So, you know, I think it's perfectly valid to make a movie about the pandemic kind of whenever you feel like because art's an expression and, you know, who are you to judge someone for making a movie on this subject matter?
00:24:38
Speaker
hmm. Yeah, I agree. I guess my interpretation of the movie is that Ari Aster wasn't really making light of everything that went down.
00:24:51
Speaker
um he also wasn't like praising anything. There were ah pretty strong takes taken on I guess, all all facets of like, I guess, the the biggest cultural talking points.
00:25:06
Speaker
To me, it just felt like he was just kind of wrapping everyone's experience together into kind of an insane, like amorphous thing where everything's just so frantic yeah and and heightened.
00:25:24
Speaker
And then that brings me to my second point where a lot of people, a lot of people's issue with this is they feel like it takes a centrist point of view. Curious whether you guys agree, disagree, or think that was intentional.
00:25:41
Speaker
If so, if you agree. I can see that and I kind of was thinking that throughout the movie but I think once it was ah it was all said and done it wasn't really taking a centrist stance it was just showing both I guess both you know if you want to put it in air quotes both ends of I guess the the cultural experience If you know what I'm trying to say. Yeah.
00:26:04
Speaker
I agree with Tachi. I don't think it was like taking like a centrist position as like, oh, both these things are bad. Like, I don't think it was fence sitting. It just was. Being satirical.
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah. And taking things to an extreme, which is what satires do. I agree. Yeah, I definitely disagree with the people's takes who think that it's more of like a centrist film.
00:26:28
Speaker
Like you guys were saying, it does feel like Ari Aster wanted to just paint a picture of what was and like what was the lived experience. And it doesn't even feel like he's putting...
00:26:41
Speaker
His two cents in about like how he thinks should have been, how he thinks things should have been handled or how he thinks things went. I mean, I think everybody experienced 2020 like differently.
00:26:55
Speaker
And I feel that was and kind of the main, like the main takeaway from this. You, do we want to start with just discussing some of the cast and the performances? Sure.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah. So we've got Joe played by Joaquin Phoenix, Lou, Louis, Louis, Louis played by Emma Stone, Don Deirdre O'Connell, Ted Garcia, Pedro Pascal, and Vernon Austin Butler.
00:27:21
Speaker
Let's start with Joaquin Phoenix. I thought he was really good in this role. I think so, too. I agree. I was impressed. I don't think it's going to be like my favorite performance from Joaquin Phoenix, but i mean very rarely has he not delivered, I think.
00:27:39
Speaker
I think he did a really good job of making Joe Cross kind of this like stupid but like almost endearing like schmuck. like He kind of didn't hate him, yeah even though he was just like stumbling. like I don't think he was...
00:27:55
Speaker
particularly like poorly intentioned but like clearly super misguided about everything yeah i mean ultimately he's kind of a piece of shit yeah he is i mean everyone in this movie sucks like yeah yeah i totally agree with what you're saying there because like
00:28:18
Speaker
For the first half of the movie, like I didn't the first half of the movie, the sense I got was that like neither Ted nor Joe were like bad dudes.
00:28:32
Speaker
They were just like at odds over something that had not been discussed yet. And. like from the sound of it, the way that like the characters made it, that it was like maybe a little unreasonable, just like beef, but like super petty, but like,
00:28:53
Speaker
I don't know. Like, I didn't feel like that they were like bad to each other. Like ah it's weird. i'm I'm just trying to like figure it out. Feelings. Yeah. I think I feel like that is, I think that's honestly the root of maybe a lot of people's issues with this movie, because at one point in this movie, Joe, this is definitely a spoiler discussion, but at one point in this movie, Joe kind of does take a quote unquote side And I think that's just where a lot of people find grief and in just the movie as a whole.
00:29:28
Speaker
And I don't know if they think that Arias was like taking that side of this character or trying to
Casting News and Final Thoughts
00:29:35
Speaker
make us as the audience kind of sympathize with a particular set of people.
00:29:40
Speaker
But I can definitely see that that that's where... Because the the thing is when... When he does take that side, though, things kind of go off the rails pretty quickly. So if Arias is saying, hey, this is what I agree with.
00:29:54
Speaker
Then that's like a really poor way of doing it, because what happens yeah right after he kind of makes that stance is just crazy. Yeah. I mean, he starts. So it's a rock slide.
00:30:05
Speaker
Yeah. um To put it lightly. Emma Stone's performance in this. Kind of... Underutilized. Just fine. Unrealized. Yeah. Yeah, just... She was there.
00:30:18
Speaker
She just wasn't really given much, though. I think she really only had two scenes with any significant dialogue. I'm gonna... I'm gonna knock off two birds with one stone here. I think the... um With one Emma Stone.
00:30:32
Speaker
Ha-ha. I think the... Oh, I just got it. The same. I think ah the whole... would you call it the B plot line? Yeah. With Emma stone and Austin Butler's character was just so half baked.
00:30:51
Speaker
Yeah. Like it felt like it should have been more serious or maybe have been like a whole entire other movie, but it was just like, they were both, they both had very good performances, but it was like, I just wanted something, a substance and nothing came of that whole thread. Yeah.
00:31:10
Speaker
It was just like, a oh, like, and here's this B plot. We I think we just needed more from. Joaquin and Emma's characters in the first half of the movie, we didn't understand the relationship like at all.
00:31:23
Speaker
It was a very strange to just be thrown into what we got. Yeah, i I agree at the point where it does feel like it's kind of a completely different movie and that it really wasn't fleshed out.
00:31:34
Speaker
I've been reading just different people's like review articles on on Eddington in one. um I've got a couple quotes at the bottom that I'll read a little bit later. but One was kind of just discussing the themes of power dynamics and how that's a pretty central theme to this movie. We see that with a lot of a lot of these characters with the different, ah I guess, power struggles between people.
00:31:59
Speaker
And so the Emma Stone, Austin Butler, b story definitely follows those same themes. So I'm kind of just thinking on the side like as well. We do get these themes across other characters. So I kind of struggled to see the use in having this undeveloped side story when, when we're still kind of getting that theme throughout the movie from other characters. So definitely agree with y'all there.
00:32:26
Speaker
I did like her mom's performance though. Her mom really well done. yeah the The muttering in the background was hilarious. Yeah. The accuracy that I think a lot of people have dealt with and are dealing with in the character of Emma Stone's mom.
00:32:46
Speaker
Not like... I don't know. i just I just feel like that's... Maybe we all know like people like that. Yes. Okay. okay That's what I'm trying to say.
00:33:00
Speaker
You either know them know them. Of course know them. It was me. Are you Rogan-pilled? No. I'm making a joke.
00:33:11
Speaker
For political purposes, this was a joke.
00:33:15
Speaker
So, Pedro. Pedro, yes. How do we feel? I wish we got more of him. Me too. I thought he great. Yeah, I thought he was really good.
00:33:27
Speaker
We've talked before on this podcast that maybe sometimes we kind of feel ah like a little oversaturated with Pedro, but this felt like a completely like 180 of a role for him.
00:33:39
Speaker
And I really enjoyed him in this. I do wish that we got more of him, Joaquin, interacting because I think that was the, yeah, between the mayor and the sheriff was definitely the most interesting part of the movie for me.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Their dynamic was great. The way they played off each other. I really, really was and like, I just wish the whole first half of the movie was that.
00:34:04
Speaker
And not, I was, I was wondering when things were going to break down because the first half was so good. i don't want it to end either. ah ah So this movie is categorized as a Western.
00:34:15
Speaker
So I'm going to turn this to our resident Western man. How do you feel about that, Alex? Do you get, what is the vibe that you got from this? Do you agree with the quotes of this being the first great American modern Western?
00:34:31
Speaker
Define modern. Today.
00:34:36
Speaker
like what When does modernity start? Say the last 20 years. Last 20 years. Okay. um Modern in the sense is it takes place an now or it's like, I'm assuming, yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker
That it takes place now. Thinking of all the modern Western movies we've had. And I think my verdict is no, it is not the first great modern Western we've had. and Would you classify this as a Western?
00:35:05
Speaker
I would classify this as a Western. It's very, very, very, very very eclectic.
00:35:17
Speaker
um It is almost like a post-Western postwestern you want to go into like a little bit of music genre terms, it almost feels like like a post-Western movie because it does kind of follow some of the similar basic tropes.
00:35:39
Speaker
But it's just packaged so weird that I think it just I almost think that like a lot of people would miss that this kind of is a Western.
00:35:51
Speaker
ah So I agree that as a Western, I agree that it's a modern Western, but I don't agree that it's the best one because we want to go modern Western. I mean, like, come on, Wind River, like get out of here. Wind River ripped.
00:36:05
Speaker
like You can't sit here and pretend this was better than Wind River. I don't think anyone's saying that. would be yeah Clearly someone is if they're saying this is the best modern Western there is It was just a quote that was like pulled directly from the trailer.
00:36:18
Speaker
Okay, so somebody is saying it, though. Someone put pen to paper and crowned this the best modern Western. When Flippin' Wind River exists, you could even probably count Sicario as a modern Western.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah. This movie's not better than Sicario. What about the the other one with Josh Brolin with the scary guy, the Wind Country? Yeah, No Country. That's not modern. That takes place in, like, the 80s.
00:36:41
Speaker
Oh, okay. ah thought I thought just meant modern made, not modern setting. ah Yeah. Like, yeah. Modern time. I see. Okay. it Yeah. Cause like no country for old men is a Western. It is one of the best Westerns ever. Uh, and it is a more modern Western than like a good, the bad and the ugly.
00:37:02
Speaker
Gotcha. But, oh my God, is it so good? Any other performances that stick out to you guys that you want to discuss? um The white kid?
00:37:13
Speaker
Brian? Yeah. He's got a whole arc that I think is... I'm going to use the word interesting. ah liked it.
00:37:24
Speaker
yeah it was very subtle. It was a very subtle arc. A lot of... face behind mask at acting. And I think he did a pretty good job at it. I think so too. Yeah. He was kind of good, but it the it was strange to follow or sometimes it felt a little difficult to follow like his, his intentions.
00:37:44
Speaker
Like sometimes it felt a little nefarious, sometimes not. So, and I think that's kind of the entire point. Yeah. Like, I don't know. Misguided children. Yeah. Like I'm just trying to like step out.
00:37:58
Speaker
and like just kind of view this in a different lens but man i don't know it i feel like it's accurate i feel like there are cases and people where there's many bryans around kind of just one navigating growing up especially teenagers like in the pandemic like those that were like graduating high school in high school like i know that that was a very difficult time and maybe losing like a sense of identity and so having brian be that vehicle for telling those stories and of these of these kids losing their identity and just trying to figure out who they are and like what they stand for so for that i feel like yeah i i'm a fan of that performance i agree with you because i think what gets lost in a lot of this discourse is how hard it was to be a kid during then
00:38:55
Speaker
I mean, I was graduating college, so I was a little bit older, but I taught middle schoolers during COVID. um So they were a bit younger than like the the kids shown in this movie.
00:39:05
Speaker
But man, it was so it was so hard for them. Like, I can't imagine growing up basically losing like a year and a half, two years of your life. and almost like, like very key development years into becoming like, you know, a functioning human being.
00:39:21
Speaker
Like that's, that's key socialization time. That's right. When you're, you know, kind of in the throes of puberty and you're trying to figure out a lot and it's, Now, all a sudden, you're you're kind of shut off from the world. You're seeing just the absolute worst of everything, like being pumped on social media and the news. And you're seeing, you know, bad takes left and right. You're getting pulled into rabbit holes left and right. Yeah.
00:39:46
Speaker
And I can definitely see why it would be so hard and confusing for ah kid. Cause I mean, they're just a kid. They got no weapons for fighting it.
00:39:59
Speaker
You know, there's no like life skills they've developed to say like, okay, like, you know, we're going to take it this way. Like they, they got no idea. They got no idea. And they only have like half a frontal lobe at that point.
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, yeah literally just air in there. um,
00:40:19
Speaker
It was hard. I think well um to go back to performances I liked, I liked ah Guy a lot played by Luke Grimes. I don't know if y'all have seen any of Yellowstone, but um he plays Casey Dutton, one of ah Kevin Costner's kids in that show. And he's probably like my favorite character in the show, but he's very you know serious, like gruff.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. Man. Cowboy. That's your type. That's your type. It's literally me. I'm so Western.
00:40:54
Speaker
I'm such a cowboy. I'm so rural. Blue collar. um Tech job. Tech job working from home. A movie podcast. um But I think him, I think like I was really surprised at how good he did in this role of just like this idiot.
00:41:18
Speaker
And I think he had really good comedic timing and he was just so stupid. And ah I think he just played like the fool really well. Yeah. um And I liked it a lot because it was so different from his Yellowstone character.
00:41:34
Speaker
Yeah, on that note, let's get to what we liked, what worked for us in this movie. I think this movie was really funny. Oh, so funny. It was, yeah. Like, was a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be.
00:41:47
Speaker
there There are a couple just absolute laugh out loud scenes in this movie. I mean, the whole theater was rolling. Maybe not the whole theater. um At least half.
00:41:59
Speaker
At least half the theater was watching. feel like it pretty good laughs. There was only one scene where I think I was the only one laughing, and I had to like quiet myself. But other than that, I feel like everyone was pretty pretty in tune.
00:42:13
Speaker
Did anyone walk out? I didn't notice any. I didn't. Yeah, asking if anyone had walked out. Because I see so many reviews where just like people keep walking out on my show wings. I don't think I've ever, I mean, going off on a tangent, I don't think I've ever been in a showing where I've seen like anyone noticeably walk out.
00:42:30
Speaker
Not even Megalopolis. Well, yeah, not Megalopolis because no one was there. It was just me. I loved ah Brian's, I know I brought this up right after the movie, but his little monologue at the sigil or the vigil.
00:42:46
Speaker
That was great. That was... I think probably top three funniest moments for me. And it's not three.
00:42:55
Speaker
That was really good. Yeah. Um, and, and we already covered it, but the, uh, Joe and Ted dynamic was awesome. I don't know. Can we get into like more spoilery territory?
00:43:09
Speaker
Yeah. I want to get into spoilery territory because I want, there's a couple of things that I want to talk about. I think you're going to bring up the same thing. So I think so too. Um, there's this thing that happens and,
00:43:21
Speaker
not every movie clearly can execute this, but it's when, you know, something's coming, like the plot has been building and building and building up to a certain moment. And I think when it can be executed where you're expecting it, but it still takes you off guard, takes you by surprise.
00:43:40
Speaker
That is one of my favorite things. And, um, That moment for me was the assassination. It was so cool. So good. So crazy.
00:43:54
Speaker
People, when I tell you the theater, the air left the theater. Yeah. Audible gasps. Yeah. Like, and it came out of nowhere. Because the yeah the whole time I'm thinking, like like you said, like, I'm pretty sure this is where it's going to go. Right.
00:44:10
Speaker
I just don't know how. And I think I had that thought maybe once, and then the movie... Like, the movie does a really good job. Like, it's a pretty long movie. I think it's very well-paced.
00:44:21
Speaker
It does not feel like a two-and-a-half-hour movie. And that scene, yeah, just... and Completely by surprise. For sure. Yeah, they they had their little spat at the party and then I was like, it's got happen now. Like there's there's no way.
00:44:38
Speaker
The party scene is so tense, but also so funny just because of firework playing in the background. Do you ever feel... ah thought there were going to be fireworks as like an Easter egg later like a callback.
00:44:53
Speaker
I've never been scared that song. Like i was kind of worried like as it's playing, like with like in there like it's building up and like, I don't know if I can ever listen to that song the same way again. Nightmare song rotation. Literally.
00:45:09
Speaker
One thing that I want to touch on to augment Tachi's point is um the long range gunfire scenes in this movie are incredible.
00:45:22
Speaker
Absolutely incredible, especially the ones that happen at night because The Flash... And then the sound is such a little detail.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah. The lag between the two is incredible. And I, my, from a technical aspect, my jaw was on the floor, not because of like where these things occurred in the movie. Well, partly, but just, it's such a little thing that I see so rarely Even in like, like saving private Ryan, all the gunfire feels like immediate and like raw, like kill guns and explosions and Black Hawk down, like same thing.
00:46:04
Speaker
The only other time I can think off the top of my head, and this is where my mind went to in the theater. And this is why i wanted to bring it up is ah the only time I can think of this same little attention to detail happening is in better call Saul.
00:46:18
Speaker
I believe it's in the fourth or fifth seat. I think it's the fifth season. No, think it's the fourth season. i think it's the end of the fourth season. um A character who will not be named walks another character who will not be named because you guys haven't seen it. So i'm being kind and courteous out into the desert at night and executes them.
00:46:39
Speaker
And the execution scene is shot with these two characters standing on the horizon of the desert at night. And you see the flash. You see the character start to fall and then you hear the bang.
00:46:53
Speaker
And it was just that. It was over and done with. But it was such a great scene. And i that scene has lived with me for... I mean, I watched this during COVID. So for the last four or five years, like that scene is just, oh, it's peak. like That is incredible, incredible work.
00:47:11
Speaker
And so to see this in this... to To see that replicated kind of in this movie, I was stoked. um Because it is great. And it just...
00:47:22
Speaker
especially later in the movie, like when you've seen it done and then you start looking for it, it's just, it's, it adds to that layer of tension that I think Ari Aster does so well because here you have someone who understands,
00:47:39
Speaker
A physics B understands kind of what makes like what really has attention. It's almost kind of disturbing how well Ari Aster is at like making like tense things happen and making you tense up.
00:47:54
Speaker
um But seeing him use it to that instead of like a gimmick, it's just, oh my goodness. It was my favorite part of this movie. It was my absolute favorite part of this movie. I agree. that That bleeds into my favorite scene of this movie, which is the last shootout with Joe.
00:48:11
Speaker
Once he's running from the Antifa members, that entire sequence was just jaw-dropping. like is that where they were like Is that who they were? yeah i think that's who it's quote-unquote supposed to be.
00:48:23
Speaker
and i didn't get i didn't i didn't get that. i didn't get it ahead There was some mention of like anti-fascism, I think, it was like playing on the radio or something or like as an ad when they were showing them on that private jet, like flying over.
00:48:39
Speaker
Yeah. I think there was something like audible that like just led me to know. I don't, i don't think that's who, like, I don't think that's in the movie who it is.
00:48:50
Speaker
i think the subtext is kind of, Yeah, just like a nod and like the conversation that happens like in our daily lives of of like of just like the different like media we consume and depending on what you watch is kind of what you believe.
00:49:04
Speaker
And so I think that was kind of just a ah like, yeah, like you said, like like a nod to that. So quote unquote Antifa, but maybe bigger picture, some corporation, maybe this corporation that's building the solid gold Magikarp data center to kind of get Joe out and get someone that they need as mayor in.
00:49:25
Speaker
If you catch my drift, but I totally agree with you on the Ari Aster just being like a king at building tension. There's, there's a sequence of Joaquin Phoenix's character in the middle of the road and the camera's just panning around him and it's focusing in the distance and then focusing back to him as he's looking around, trying to find where these shooters are at.
00:49:46
Speaker
And the intensity is just there and it's so high And you don't know where the next shot is going to come from. And you can just, you can feel it in your bones. And that is my favorite scene of the movie.
00:49:58
Speaker
Jimenez felt it in his bones as well. we yeah. A lot of bones. A lot of bones. Justice for Jimenez, by the way. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God.
00:50:09
Speaker
That was a brutal shot. That was brutal. Is that what happens? I guess. With a gun like that. It caliber, but yeah. That quick, you just... I think that was pretty high caliber, so I think that's probably a little played up, but like also yeah fairly accurate.
00:50:24
Speaker
What else works for you guys here? It's hard to say what we like, or at least for me, it's hard to say what I like when it comes to certain things.
00:50:37
Speaker
know what I'm thinking right now. It's just like back to the quote unquote Antifa ah sequence. Is that like, I don't know. So let's say like Joe's character represents like the far right.
00:50:52
Speaker
um The way that that team of three shooters came to like take out these cops it was a little unbelievable and like way over the top, like a trap where, you know, the, the hostage can't speak and there's a bomb and like just all this crazy coordinated stuff. Like,
00:51:13
Speaker
it just seemed oh so over overplayed. But I think that's kind of the point because that's, I guess, how this group of people is like shown like as they are in in the media. Like that's, that's who they're supposed to be to people in Joe's circle.
00:51:34
Speaker
Is that all like trying, like coming together? that making sense? what you mean. I think it is. kind of stumbling through that, but. That's but that's actually the reason why I didn't think it was supposed to be Antifa. I know it was something it was definitely like anti-authority.
00:51:49
Speaker
yeah You could see that much in like the stuff on their backpack when they had the private plane shot. But it's like they were just so surgical. It was like watching like special operators like doing something.
00:52:04
Speaker
Yeah. um They were way better than like really like anyone we've ever seen in the news or anything like that too. I mean, except for, no, I'm not going to down that road. They went full act, act of valor.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah. Like there, there's level of execution was way beyond. And thought there's going to be some sort of twist. Um, that's, that's honestly where I thought going, I still just don't know if that was supposed to be in TV not.
00:52:32
Speaker
Someone's probably going to comment or like send some notes and be like, Hey, like Alex is an idiot. and it's like, okay, you know what? Yes. Maybe I was, I mean, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot going on in this movie too. Yeah. That I don't think you can fully grasp it on a single watch now, but I also don't know if I want to rewatch this.
00:52:55
Speaker
Not for a while. yeah Maybe tomorrow.
00:53:01
Speaker
You think this is your only watch, Tachi? a No, not necessarily. I'm not opposed to re-watching, but I just want this to to marinate for a little while. Did the the middle kind of feel like, um I guess for the audience who may or may not know, but ah yes and is kind of like a ah like a foundational principle in improv.
00:53:25
Speaker
And the whole middle of the movie moving forward kind of felt like yes ending. is Did you guys get the same vibe? more Because it felt like a little ah absurd sometimes.
00:53:38
Speaker
Do you think this kind of kicks off with like the introduction of Austin Butler's character in person? Like are you kind of... Kind of, yeah. Just that whole awkward middle section where...
00:53:53
Speaker
It has a lot of the the B plot, but also really trying to ramp up Ted and, and, and Joe. I can kind of, kind of, everything, you know, hits, it's the fan.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think for me, the, ah yeah, kind of see what you mean there. I think the middle, like act two of this movie is maybe the least interesting.
00:54:17
Speaker
And I think we've already said that, that we really appreciate the, like maybe the first hour of this movie and then like the last 45 minutes kind of just go balls to the wall. um But I do kind of see what you're saying. And another scene where that comes to mind is i don't know, maybe this is is just like a whole take on COVID where we're just so inundated with like extreme situations or extreme things that we have to digest. So like when Joe is going in to ah try to quiet down the writing and, you know, establish some order in the street and then he like stumbles through the riot into giving this like kind of a press conference, but not really.
00:54:59
Speaker
He just goes on to do this next crazy thing. um That's just kind of what it felt like to me. was just like a series of crazy things that kept happening. Yeah, yeah, for me, I think that entire scene leading up into his press conference is just really showing like, like his almost like descent into madness and like what's like drawing him here because like, I mean, Joe does kind of like he is kind of played as this, as just this average person who maybe just has some differing opinions that just kind of go like balls to the wall.
00:55:35
Speaker
But it feels like he has this almost like lack of power that he feels like not only in his professional life, but in his relationships as well.
00:55:46
Speaker
And so I think he just has to... What's the word I'm looking for? I think he just feels... Wants to the reins somehow. Yeah, yeah. Like he's got to take control somehow. Like he just feels like he has a loss of control and he's just on this downward spiral and he's like grasping at straws like...
00:56:01
Speaker
For a person to go into this press conference and tell this story about his wife that one is not his story to tell. Two doesn't even have her side or really anything like they have that conversation in bed and it's just him like poking and prodding at her trying to get the answer to this. And I think he's trying to like he wants those answers for like fuel for his own motives, but takes them anyway.
00:56:28
Speaker
And so, yeah, I just feel the loss of power with Joe drove him to everything that we see in the final act in this. Agreed.
00:56:40
Speaker
like Like I said, he he started off as almost kind of likable and then just loses himself completely. Like he's a different guy by the end of the movie. And he's really different. Yeah.
00:56:54
Speaker
Which I think is I think it's a it's a good representation because I mean, you see all the time on social media, people have kind of lost it. We so it's almost like you just there has been a rise since covid of just purely anti-social behavior.
00:57:11
Speaker
And I think this was a pretty good representation of someone slipping down that slope and ending up like that. Because. you see it way too often.
00:57:23
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, I feel like growing up, people disagreed about stuff politically, but it was just like, oh like, you know, like he's a Democrat, I'm a Republican, you know, whatever.
00:57:40
Speaker
But now it's like, I mean, just. Extreme. yeah I don't even think that covers it. It doesn't. like go Go on Twitter. It's violent. And just like find some political circle to go in and then just watch the fireworks go.
00:58:00
Speaker
Watch someone make even like a fairly like Like, that's fair take. You know, you don't even you don't even have to look that far, go into some like deep little hole. Watch someone make just like like a decent like I can see why someone would believe that take. You know, like I get that like something fairly normal, something you'd maybe hear in like the office or something like.
00:58:22
Speaker
And just watch the replies roll in and it's just complete antisocial behavior. Yeah, Ari Aster says it in one of his interviews that ah i mean that he was on Twitter during during COVID, and we see him use social media as a vehicle to all of like the like the different identities that all of these all these people are latching onto.
00:58:46
Speaker
And so I think that's 100% intentional. It reminds me of tweet basically describing what you just said, Alex, that someone could tweet, I like waffles.
00:58:58
Speaker
And then you'll have someone reply, why don't you like pancakes? And then you're like, I'm not talking about pancakes. I'm talking about waffles and I like them. And they're like, okay, but you're wrong.
00:59:09
Speaker
And it's just, and it's just a bunch of that, you know? Yeah. I have this quote from a writer at Film Colossus. His name is Chris, and i feel like this ties in pretty well.
00:59:23
Speaker
Talking about the data center that is coming to Eddington, the name of the data center, is Solid Gold Magikarp. This is the quote. The term solid gold Magikarp refers to an anomalous token identified in language models like chat GPT, which when encountered leads to unexpected or erratic outputs.
00:59:42
Speaker
This phenomenon was first detailed in a less wrong article by Jessica Rumblo and Matthew Watkins, where they explore explored how certain tokens, including solid Magikarp, cause models to behave unpredictably.
00:59:53
Speaker
How does this relate to Eddington? I'll tell you what my gut says. I believe Astor's trying to capture how the COVID-19 pandemic introduced an anomaly into the system. And the result was, and is, a bunch of erratic output from people.
01:00:06
Speaker
And even though the pandemic is over, the anomaly remains part of society. That's why the opening features both the facility and the homeless man rambling incoherently who becomes the embodiment of COVID in the community. Exactly. Exactly.
01:00:22
Speaker
Exactly. That yeah hits the nail on the head. that that That was exactly my point and it was said so much better because they wrote it and edited it and weren't just saying it off the cuff.
01:00:36
Speaker
I promise I'm really smart if you let me try. i mean, we're like we said, this is a therapy session for us. We're trying to dissect this movie, trying to figure out what it means and if we even liked it.
01:00:48
Speaker
How about that hog scene? Oh. Hog? The hog scene. The hog scene? What's the hog scene? The nurse. Oh, the hog scene. The hog scene. okay yeah Yeah. That was crazy.
01:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, that was crazy. like Hooting and hollering in his seat when that came up. More like, it was it was like the the alpha all over again. was swinging his imaginary lasso.
01:01:14
Speaker
I'm going to make a letterbox list. Hogs of 2025. Yeah.
01:01:21
Speaker
Here's our next TikTok idea at the end of the year. Best hogs of 2025. Number 10. Joe from Eddington. Have we covered what we don't like?
01:01:36
Speaker
i don't know.
01:01:39
Speaker
You sound like you're crying. What don't you like? and For me, we touched on it before, like just how underutilized Austin Butler and Emma Stone were. I actually think it made the movie like a little choppy because you'd have like this like crazy like this is going and this this other thing is happening and it just like kind of sucks the air out or takes the momentum out of the movie a little bit.
01:02:03
Speaker
Like the this the scene where Austin Butler is at dinner with them, like super well acted. But I was kind of just like, can can we go back to like the silly stuff? like and What are we doing here?
01:02:17
Speaker
Do you feel like this movie should have leaned more in direction of satire than what we got? Do you think that would have made it a bit more effective? Or what's your rebuttal? i I see. I think it did do a good job of being a satire, though.
01:02:36
Speaker
Like, I really think it did. And I see the complaints where it's like, oh, like, you like like, like the the one star review that I read it was like, you know, like, you're just making fun of kids for, you know, thinking racism is bad. And it's like, like, no, that's that's not what it was doing. Like it, you know, we can all sit here and agree that, like, yeah, racism is bad.
01:03:01
Speaker
But i think it took like, The satire in that was more in the language being used by those characters than it just cranked it up to an extreme.
01:03:13
Speaker
Because I think their characters were a little bit more performative then some of the other characters who were doing action.
01:03:25
Speaker
for For that specific review and for those different takes, I don't agree that this movie was poking fun at the injustices taking place at people's care during the time. I don't think so at all.
01:03:40
Speaker
Like, it's hard for me to look at this movie and super nitpick what I do like and what I don't like because I'm kind of just viewing it as presented as a whole.
01:03:53
Speaker
On that note, I feel like it does ah like it does it well. like It's merely just capturing a photo of what was. And that's exactly what it was. We see it with the with these shots of of teenagers scrolling through their Instagram. And what are we looking at? We're just looking at a bunch of people posting black squares on their profiles.
01:04:15
Speaker
Like, if we're being honest, is it great to have like that, ah I guess like that urge and that call? Sure. Could we say some of it maybe felt a little bit performative? Also, sure.
01:04:27
Speaker
It just kind of depends how you want to look at it. And so I don't think it's taking the point where it's making fun of the actions of what people were saying and doing. I think it's just showing what was happening.
01:04:41
Speaker
Let me sense. How did you guys feel walking out? I felt like it was time well spent. ah enjoyed it. It was, it was peak fun.
01:04:54
Speaker
There's just a lot. There's just a lot just in general. And I, it feels like that was the point. Like we've kind of been echoing each other.
01:05:06
Speaker
throughout the whole episode, but the chaos is kind of the point. Um, so I felt a little, not rattled, like I couldn't handle it. It was just like flashing back five years of a really interesting time to be alive.
01:05:23
Speaker
if Yeah, it felt like a yeah like a flashback and then also just like a current slap in the face. reminder. Yeah, because like and then like like I had a good time, but I was also just like horrified and just sad.
01:05:37
Speaker
Yeah. At the current state of the world. Yeah. And so like in a five second span, I'm smiling and then the smile just like slowly disappears as I realize where I'm standing.
01:05:50
Speaker
It's literally like... This movie was giving some whiplash like TikTok does where you'll have like two funny videos in a row, a cooking video, something horrible that's happening in the world back to something funny. It's just like, how do we, how do we learn the process? Yeah.
01:06:09
Speaker
Like, what can I do? You know? Yeah. The answer is mostly nothing.
01:06:16
Speaker
Which sucks. Thank you, Alex, for those inspiring words. But that doesn't mean you can't try. I think it's a good thing that our next episode is on Superman.
01:06:33
Speaker
And the Fantastic Four. And Fantastic Four. All about hope. Yes. Hope and family. Billions must hope. Hope.
01:06:44
Speaker
ah Connection. and punk rock. Loved ones. Yeah, and punk rock. lot of punk rock. Dogs. Any final thoughts?
01:06:55
Speaker
Bald Bald ass people. Get his bald ass in the car.
01:07:02
Speaker
Any final thoughts? I'll start. i have many. But I also have none. Do you dare give it a rating? I don't know.
01:07:14
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. We give a rating tonight. I can give a rating. We can preface them by saying like these are subject to change, but I think anyone listening understands that.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah. I hope so. And if you don't, you go watch this movie because then you'll get it. You don't know, man. You weren't there.
01:07:39
Speaker
i think it's worth watching. I also think it's worth watching. I think most people should watch this and have a reasonable reaction.
01:07:50
Speaker
And i I think this is good. i think this is good that one... we really are trying to take the time to dissect and understand how we feel about it too.
01:08:03
Speaker
Even with all of the mixed reviews and people are either loving it or hating it. That's what, at the end of the day, that's what art is supposed to do. Supposed to invoke a feeling.
01:08:14
Speaker
Start a dialogue. Yeah, whether start a dialogue, whether that's like love, rage, sadness, whatever it is. Hog.
01:08:24
Speaker
Yes, hog. So it's doing its job. I'm going to give this movie a three and a half. So I'm scared to rate it. Yeah. Three and a half.
01:08:36
Speaker
With an asterisk for now.
01:08:39
Speaker
Could go up, could go down. I really don't know. I'm going to give it a soft four. Wow. Okay. And for all you based out of 10 people, that's an eight out of 10.
01:08:55
Speaker
A soft 8 out of 10, but I think it's an 8 out of 10. I just... It didn't feel like a 7. It didn't feel like a 3.5. At the end of the day, we base this purely on vibes.
01:09:09
Speaker
And we hope you vibed with this episode. We can't type shit. We can base it off vibes. Quickly, rank Ari Aster. I'll go first. Hereditary, Midsommar, Eddington, Bo's Afraid.
01:09:26
Speaker
Hereditary, Midsommar, Eddington, Bows Afraid. Hereditary, and Eddington, Midsommar. And I haven't seen Bows Afraid. and Okay.
01:09:38
Speaker
Granted, I'm not a huge Midsommar fan, so that's kind of why. That's fine. This movie just clearly evoked way more out of me than Midsommar. Midsommar was... Whatever.
01:09:51
Speaker
Different conversation. But yeah. I think you'd hate Bows Afraid. Probably. Probably. ah a lot us on the radio If I watched Bo's Afraid again, I'm pretty sure i'd give it a one star.
01:10:02
Speaker
I do want to watch it again. i don't know how. I am dead serious that I think I would give it a one star if we watched it again. What's it currently?
01:10:14
Speaker
ah Somehow like a three and a half. That's pretty good. Yeah, I think I'm also at a three and a half. I think you like bullied me into giving it a three and a half. Me?
01:10:25
Speaker
No, you didn't bully me, but like I was like socially conditioned into giving it a three. That's called being in a theater. It was gas lit. I didn't do that.
01:10:36
Speaker
Malik gas lit me and a gun to his head. I will be making this speech. All in all, I appreciate Ari Aster as a filmmaker.
01:10:48
Speaker
I think it's really cool that he came out the fence is swinging with hereditary and Midsommar. And now is seemingly just doing what he wants. And if this movie proved anything to me, it is that he can do whatever he wants. so Whatever he makes, like, I'll be excited.
01:11:06
Speaker
To see. The question I posed at the top of this episode was, is Ari Aster going to director's jail? I think no. I think he's going to director's community service. I think he's going to be okay.
01:11:17
Speaker
Me too. Maybe director's probation. I don't think... I disagree. I think they're going to keep giving him money. We'll see him in two and a half years.
01:11:30
Speaker
I'm going to make a bold prediction very, very early. That his next movie will be as good as Hereditary. Whoa.
01:11:42
Speaker
I think this proved he still has it. It just is dependent on... and i don't know. I don't think he doesn't have it. I think Hereditary is his most digestible film.
01:11:58
Speaker
Theme wise. And I think this is him just exploring those themes and others in a different way. Yeah. But I think he's always had the sauce and I think he will always have the sauce.
01:12:12
Speaker
Bo's afraid he had too much sauce. Yeah. And I say that knowing that in his future projects, I probably will disagree with some of them. Kind of the way that I am with this one, but I do kind of like this one.
01:12:24
Speaker
Was that like his Taika Thor 4 moment? Bo? Yeah. That was his blank check. I just made a billion bucks off of Hereditary Midsommar. I'm going to make a hog monster.
01:12:41
Speaker
Literally. you You don't get it, Tachi? hope I never do. ah kind of need you to see it. It's incredible.
01:12:53
Speaker
I'll let you know. Next week, we'll be getting back to our regularly scheduled chipper selves. and We will be doing Superman and Fantastic Four First Steps. We will.
01:13:05
Speaker
And don't forget, happy follow us on TikTok for our Letterboxd reviews. You can see what Malik looks like, and then maybe soon you'll see what me or Tachi looks like, or both.
01:13:18
Speaker
There was a comment on our on the Instagram reels like Malik face reveal. And I was like, oh, yeah. If anyone's listening that doesn't know us, they don't know what we look like.
01:13:30
Speaker
They don't learn. I'm black. Really?
01:13:38
Speaker
Tachi is ah ethnically ambiguous. White facing. If you think I'm white, I understand. And Alex is a white cowboy. I'm Italian.
01:13:50
Speaker
Alex is a white cowboy. I'm spaghetti Western. What are you doing? If you've made it this far in the episode, thank you for listening. And thank you for bearing with us as we traverse through whatever this was, but go watch it.
01:14:07
Speaker
Form your own opinion. Let us know what you thought. But we'll be here next week with some super fantastic takes. Yes.
01:14:28
Speaker
We don't rehearse this. but Okay, you guys can say bye now. Bye. Bye.