Transcript
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Speaker: Welcome to Adaptation, the Book to Movie podcast.
Speaker: I'm Nate.
Speaker: And I'm Chris.
Speaker: And today we are discussing The Housemaid by Frida McFadden and its film adaptation directed by Paul Feig.
Speaker: But before we dive into that conversation, how are you, Chris?
Speaker: Good, good, good.
Speaker: I've finally been getting back to reading some books that aren't for the podcast, so that's fun.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: What kind of stuff are you reading?
Speaker: Still Lord of the Rings, I assume?
Speaker: No, I just wanted to get a start on it, you know, leading up to March.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Well, I kind of gave a teaser of this, I think, a couple episodes ago now.
Speaker: I just finished the fifth book in a series called Flashman.
Speaker: which I don't know if I ever told you about that series.
Speaker: That doesn't sound familiar by name, at least.
Speaker: It's this super long series.
Speaker: I think there are like 25 of them.
Speaker: Most of them are fairly short, and they're very funny.
Speaker: It's like this old English author that wrote them.
Speaker: George, Frasier, McDonald, some combination of those names.
Speaker: The author takes real historical events.
Speaker: This one was the India uprising of the mid 19th century.
Speaker: One of them was Custer's last stand.
Speaker: One of them was the charge of the light brigade.
Speaker: And he, he places this very fictitious, horrendous man, an absolute pig misogynist sleeps with every woman he can find.
Speaker: And the, the whole thing is he's this horrible coward.
Speaker: but he keeps finding himself in these places, in these circumstances, miraculously surviving, usually due to others' efforts.
Speaker: Ah, wow.
Speaker: That's hysterical.
Speaker: That's very funny, actually.
Speaker: They're very funny.
Speaker: They're very problematic because it is from the view of an incredibly racist, misogynistic, you know, member of the British Army in 1850.
Speaker: So quite vulgar, not for young readers.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But from a satirical, witty, historical standpoint, delightful.
Speaker: Just tasty little morsels.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's airplane for history buffs.
Speaker: Fun.
Speaker: I might like those, actually.
Speaker: It's, they're very humorous.
Speaker: And the first couple, two, three, I mean, I read those probably a decade ago now, are very light reads.
Speaker: This one was pretty lengthy.
Speaker: Number five was, but they're
Speaker: they're pretty quick to get through at least those first couple.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: What you been watching?
Speaker: I watched a movie that I know you watched too, because we texted about it.
Speaker: Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Knives Out movie.
Speaker: Phenomenal movie.
Speaker: One of my very favorites of the year.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: High praise.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I loved that it, well, I loved everything about it, really.
Speaker: I loved that it sort of
Speaker: flipped the franchise on its head.
Speaker: You know, the movie doesn't really follow Benoit Blanc the way past ones have.
Speaker: And I love all the sort of commentary about religion and priesthood, I guess.
Speaker: I thought it was just, it was really cool.
Speaker: It really took me by surprise when it made me cry.
Speaker: So yeah, really high praise for me there.
Speaker: Oh, the phone call scene?
Speaker: Yeah, that just ripped my heart out.
Speaker: I really think they gave, as a church member, I think they gave a phenomenal synopsis of like, hey, let's be real.
Speaker: These priests are humans also, and some of them definitely act like that guy.
Speaker: And thankfully, some of them act like this guy.
Speaker: Like, yeah, oh my gosh, what a film.
Speaker: Yeah, cool movie.
Speaker: That's the only one I have really to update people on.
Speaker: Holidays are really busy.
Speaker: But it's worth being the only one that you catch up on.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Oh my, we bought Netflix just for it.
Speaker: Easy, no question, investment.
Speaker: Happy we did.
Speaker: No regret.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a good one.
Speaker: I hope they make 1 billion of them.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah, I would take one of those a year for the rest of my life.
Speaker: Yes, me too.
Speaker: But for today, like I said earlier, we are talking about The Housemaid, big book from my understanding.
Speaker: I think it's going to be a big movie.
Speaker: So Chris, why don't you take it away and tell us about the book?
Speaker: Sorry, man.
Speaker: I thought you meant size-wise at first.
Speaker: You meant like public response.
Speaker: Oh, popularity.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, it has been all over.
Speaker: I don't know if you'll recognize this, but like the Book of the Month Club, there's like a
Speaker: I guess essentially the New York Times bestseller list style for Goodreads in particular.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And often they're much of the same content, but Housemaid has been in front of my face for years.
Speaker: A very long time.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Very, very big in the book world.
Speaker: Right now, when it was published, period, I'm sure the movie only amped that up, right?
Speaker: Sure seems like it.
Speaker: This was your first read, though?
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: I had not heard of Frieda McFadden before this because it's not...
Speaker: It's not necessarily, it's like a genre I dabble in, not my wheelhouse.
Speaker: Yeah, totally.
Speaker: So this will be, you and I discussed it briefly yesterday.
Speaker: For anyone listening, if you have not yet, maybe pause, go back to Nate's fun lightning episode from last week with his sister.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Katie really said a lot of what there is to say about it.
Speaker: I think because inherently as a psychological thriller, these stories are so based on
Speaker: you know, a particular twist or turn.
Speaker: Is there a more specific term for it?
Speaker: I always just call it the turn, like uppercase T, uppercase T. Oh, not really.
Speaker: I mean, plot twist, I guess.
Speaker: But it's so much more than a plot twist, right?
Speaker: For it to be a psychological thriller, in my mind, the movie or book, story, whatever you're discussing, has like a
Speaker: It's a paradigm shift.
Speaker: It's not just, oh, I didn't see that coming.
Speaker: Right, totally.
Speaker: I saw a few comparisons to, like, you know, the big surprise, like the Knives Out, Glass Onion, Wake Up, Dead Man, like Agatha Christie novels.
Speaker: I would argue those are not to the same degree.
Speaker: No, I totally agree with you.
Speaker: Whodunits are not necessarily psych thrillers.
Speaker: Yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker: This is so much grander.
Speaker: So because of that, again, exactly as Katie said it, and that's the last time I'll say it today, there's not a lot about the plot that we can discuss without spoiling it, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I have kind of two things, some more info.
Speaker: I was doing this in earlier episodes, got away from it recently.
Speaker: I'll get back to it.
Speaker: Some more info about the author because it's fascinating.
Speaker: And then sort of a little bit because this is like the first proper psychological thriller we've discussed, a little more about that in the realm of books.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Okay, so let's dive in.
Speaker: The Housemaid, published in 2022 by Frieda McFadden.
Speaker: Frieda McFadden, first of all, is a pen name.
Speaker: I did some digging, and obviously the internet is the internet, so there are people who have their guess at who they believe she is.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: You know, this is not like the Stephen King books under his pen name or...
Speaker: I want to say Robert Brightback is J.K.
Speaker: Rowling's pen name that she writes some very different material under.
Speaker: But everybody knows, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is like the author has clearly and deliberately gone to some length, including avoiding almost all public appearances.
Speaker: And if she does do them, wearing a wig and fake glasses.
Speaker: Whoa.
Speaker: She wants to be left alone.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: Good for her.
Speaker: And so for, yes, for the sake of that, I'm not even going to share the speculation that I found online.
Speaker: I think that's valuable to respect.
Speaker: But we do know that she is very much an accomplished medical professional and deliberately keeps these careers separate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the book itself, it won multiple awards for thrillers in particular.
Speaker: Hilariously, what I was seeing, she wrote it in about 2019.
Speaker: but did not release it right away because she thought it would be too dark.
Speaker: This is truly incredible to me because if I counted correctly, this was either her 15th or 16th published novel.
Speaker: Whoa.
Speaker: Listen to these titles.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The Devil Wears Scrubs, The Devil You Know, Suicide Med, Dead Med, Brain Damage.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: The ex, the surrogate mother, the wife upstairs, want to know a secret?
Speaker: Oh, that was after it.
Speaker: The housemaid was too dark.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: With book titles like that, this is the one that was too dark.
Speaker: And I've not read any of those.
Speaker: I know she's known for her like medical accuracy.
Speaker: So maybe those are, this is just a different realm entirely.
Speaker: Cause that's very much not what the housemaid was.
Speaker: I just thought that was hilarious.
Speaker: It is funny.
Speaker: So talking about this one itself, again, quite an accomplished author, I believe from what I saw, and I don't know if this is speculation or she has confirmed it, essentially a medical professional.
Speaker: So she had the personal means to really get her own publishing and writing career off the ground fiscally and then has been such a success.
Speaker: I think it was saying she basically does like clinical work a couple of days a week and then is primarily writing.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: If such a breakdown is necessary or even appropriate.
Speaker: Yeah, super cool.
Speaker: Someone out there is hearing this and going, wait, maybe that's why I can't get into the doctor on Tuesday.
Speaker: This is my problem.
Speaker: My neurologist, stop writing.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: But yes, the book itself, really very little you can discuss without spoiling.
Speaker: And I think this one is so recent and relevant.
Speaker: And I imagine the movie
Speaker: turns on the same point.
Speaker: So I don't want to get close to touching that.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But what we do have is a protagonist.
Speaker: We find all of this out in like the first 20 pages.
Speaker: So this felt like details I'm comfortable sharing.
Speaker: Lives in her car, was recently released from prison.
Speaker: I don't think we're even told how long she was in prison for some time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And we open with her interviewing to be a live-in maid for this wealthy family in Long Island.
Speaker: throughout all of her writing, McFadden credits both her medical career for lending accuracy to those aspects that she writes about and growing up in New York City for lending accuracy to the settings where many of her stories take place.
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: As far as psychological thrillers go, because as you know, I'm a big fan.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: This one felt much more along the lines of like The Secret Window to me.
Speaker: Did you see that with Pirates of the Caribbean boy?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Johnny, Johnny Depp.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Johnny Depp.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: I would have gotten there.
Speaker: I think if I had given that more time, that's all right.
Speaker: It's good for a laugh.
Speaker: Um, I felt the exact same way about that movie as I did about, um, this book.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Probably pushing around 30% or so.
Speaker: I was ready to put it down and tell you we needed to scrap this episode.
Speaker: Oh man.
Speaker: I would have told you no way in hell.
Speaker: I couldn't see where it was going, which is the brilliance of it, right?
Speaker: Not a clue.
Speaker: I was blindsided by this turn.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And really was not enjoying it initially.
Speaker: The characters themselves are really what disagreed with me, and I feel comfortable suggesting I think McFadden would not disagree, and that was, in fact, her entire goal, right?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, totally.
Speaker: Again, really, I think that's all I want to share.
Speaker: So if you're setting out to read it and you're kind of feeling like you're hitting that wall, I encourage you, continue.
Speaker: You are not alone.
Speaker: But I don't want to, I really think people should read or at least see it for themselves.
Speaker: So that's all I'll say about the storyline.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Since it is our first, clearly not going to be our last, but our first true psychological thriller,
Speaker: I wanted to explore that a little since it's such a cool and prevalent genre, especially for us talking about the intersection of books and movies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When do you think the first psychological thriller appears in literature historically?
Speaker: Oh, geez.
Speaker: I mean, you sort of rocked my world with that Gothic Lit mini episode.
Speaker: What did we say the first one was?
Speaker: The Castle of Something in like the year seven or something?
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: So I guess I would assume sometime around there.
Speaker: I think that was like 17th or 18th century.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So even if we give it 17th, four centuries ago, so you are a mere two millennia off.
Speaker: Yes, that's good enough for me.
Speaker: The brief, brief, albeit brief, don't at me in these comments, guys.
Speaker: Research I did cites Euripides' play Medea.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: So we're talking the fifth century.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: BC.
Speaker: Damn.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: 2,500 years ago.
Speaker: As the, as maybe not the first, but a very early example of these ideas of psychological turmoil, marriage, revenge.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just like the Gothic episode you just alluded to, Jane Eyre is considered to be along these lines, these themes of hidden madness and,
Speaker: very unsettling setting that the reader is placed in, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Much, much more contemporary now.
Speaker: Alfred Hitchcock, obviously, really known for this.
Speaker: And that's, I mean, such a bulwark of it, right?
Speaker: Like, I think it's very safe to say, especially with the amount of media we have now, period, in comparison.
Speaker: like the vast majority are correct is far closer to now.
Speaker: But it's incredible to see that people have loved this for literally thousands of years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Again, some sightings of Agatha Christie's more psychological, more complex ones, which out of 80 novels, obviously, we'll give her a couple, I suppose.
Speaker: I politely am hesitant on that one.
Speaker: But the key here is this idea of, as we've discussed some,
Speaker: a potentially unreliable narrator, traumatic personal histories, psychological issues with the person telling us the story, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Again, this idea of the entire storyline being focused on the psychology and human motives in comparison to events or actions in particular.
Speaker: And often I actually really enjoyed this because I think it fits well with a lot of the ones that I truly love and would point to right away.
Speaker: These ideas of fairly set parameters and personal rules that then applied make a situation uniquely twisty compared to the reality the rest of us are experiencing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, I just I thought that was so fun to see.
Speaker: Just like what we've talked about, you know, why do we all love whodunnits?
Speaker: This is about murder.
Speaker: We're not all dreaming about committing murder, I hope.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why are horror movies fun?
Speaker: Why do people like being scared?
Speaker: That is inherently an emotion you shouldn't enjoy in your day-to-day life.
Speaker: Yeah, million-dollar question.
Speaker: So this idea of what is it about the psychological thrillers?
Speaker: It's this mystery and these in-depth, I mean, any good psychological thriller you intimately know, whether you like them, whether you agree with their philosophies or approach to life at all, you are really learning a lot about a few individuals in an intimate way that many stories do not delve to.
Speaker: Yeah, totally.
Speaker: So that's just a little bit about, again, I'm very certain we will see more psychological thrillers sooner than later.
Speaker: But it seems like an appropriate time to kind of dive into what, how's, how is this particular flavor of sausage being made?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker: Thank you for, for including that because I, I was thinking a lot about
Speaker: psych thrillers as I was writing both my notes for this episode and the review for the movie, which is up on our blog, you should for sure check it out.
Speaker: But I was I was kind of having a hard time finding like really good one to one comps for this one because there's sort of additional elements operating.
Speaker: Like you said, I can't talk about much of it without spoiling anything.
Speaker: But I don't think there are many good psych thrillers that are exactly like this one in a lot of ways.
Speaker: Well, they kind of have to be unique, right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, oh gosh, now everything's going to be a comparison to Wake Up Dead Man.
Speaker: When he specifically points to the copy of The Hollow Man and says, well, that's essentially a blueprint for this.
Speaker: Here are the four options.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: You know, that works in a whodunit, this ensemble.
Speaker: You're hearing a lot about these settings.
Speaker: You know, Agatha Christie takes us to Egypt and out in the Eastern Bloc, whatever.
Speaker: A psychological thriller cannot do that.
Speaker: If you get 40% in and you get even a sniff, whether you are a connoisseur of the genre or not,
Speaker: If it starts tasting like something you've already had, you're going to go, oh, I know this one.
Speaker: And you're going to put it down.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, what a cool genre.
Speaker: What a cool genre.
Speaker: I'm really excited to hear about this movie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Well, let's take a quick break.
Speaker: And when we come back, we will dive into it.
Speaker: Excellent.
Speaker: Welcome back to adaptation.
Speaker: We are discussing Frieda McFadden's The Housemaid and Paul Feig's film adaptation.
Speaker: For some reason, I don't know if it's the Fs in those names or what, but every time I write it or say it out loud or something, specifically Feig and McFadden, I have to stop and make sure I'm on the right track.
Speaker: I think it turns into Fadden McFadden real quick.
Speaker: No kidding.
Speaker: And that's the guy from Succession, Matthew McFadden.
Speaker: Close enough.
Speaker: Close enough.
Speaker: Yeah, so we did get a movie of this or we're about to actually we're recording this a few days before the movie actually hits theaters.
Speaker: I was fortunate enough to see it at a press screening.
Speaker: So thank you to Lionsgate for that.
Speaker: Super.
Speaker: And in that vein, I'll talk about this more later, but we don't have box office information yet to go over, which is something I usually like to talk about, especially for these modern ones or to examine whether a story is really resonating with people or not.
Speaker: But I'm hoping to cover that opening weekend box office in a follow up.
Speaker: I'm going to do a follow up with my sister who did the first mini episode with us on this.
Speaker: So hoping to cover it there.
Speaker: Excellent.
Speaker: This movie, also called The Housemaid, stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, the titular housemaid.
Speaker: Amanda Seyfried as Nina, the wealthy employer, and Brendan Sklenar as Andrew, I guess her other employer, the husband of Nina.
Speaker: Hold on, let me pull him up.
Speaker: I don't recognize the name at all.
Speaker: He's relatively new.
Speaker: I think he made his first big splash in that Blake Lively movie.
Speaker: It was a Colleen Hoover adaptation.
Speaker: So he's kind of on the up and up.
Speaker: OK, I can see it.
Speaker: Like I said, directed by Paul Feig, who is mostly known for comedies.
Speaker: He directed Bridesmaids and Spy, I believe, is a movie that you've seen and liked.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: That movie rocked.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Both of those movies rock.
Speaker: Yes, and Bridesmaids and Bridesmaids.
Speaker: Yeah, one of the best comedies ever made.
Speaker: Like I said, mostly known for comedies, but has dipped into thrillers before.
Speaker: A Simple Favor is a movie that he made a few years ago.
Speaker: And actually earlier this year, the sequel came out on Amazon Prime.
Speaker: I'm spacing the title.
Speaker: I think it's called Another Simple Favor or A Second Simple Favor or something sort of stupid like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Too simple, too favored.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, like they make like 10 of them like Fast and Furious.
Speaker: The movie was written by a woman named Rebecca Sonnenshine.
Speaker: I don't know if that's a real name.
Speaker: I hope so because it's so cool.
Speaker: She's mostly known for being on the writing staff of TV shows like Vampire Diaries and The Boys.
Speaker: so this is a pretty big break for her and freedom mcfadden was an executive producer i thought this was a good opportunity to talk about sort of the difference between a producer and an executive producer a movie's producers are generally in charge of scraping together the money to get a movie made and they're on set often they're involved in the day-to-day trying to make sure
Speaker: They're sort of there as a representative of the company.
Speaker: So this movie was was made by Lionsgate.
Speaker: So the producers are there to make sure it sort of aligns with everything that Lionsgate wants to do.
Speaker: So they're often kind of butting heads with the creative people like directors and and whatnot because they have opposing ideas.
Speaker: An executive producer, on the other hand, kind of just throws some money at it and is sort of giving it their
Speaker: stamp of approval.
Speaker: So all of that's a long way of saying I think that this would probably get a thumbs up from Freedia McFadden.
Speaker: I haven't seen anything about her opinion yet.
Speaker: They're still very much in the marketing phase since the movie hasn't even hit theaters yet.
Speaker: But I would be surprised to learn that she didn't like this movie.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: I've always wondered what that difference is.
Speaker: Yeah, it was actually filmed mostly earlier this year, which is a really quick turnaround time.
Speaker: They need usually a little more than a year to make a movie.
Speaker: So it does show a little bit that it was made earlier this year.
Speaker: It looks sort of hallmarky in a lot of ways.
Speaker: And there's a lot of aspects to the movie that I
Speaker: It sort of looks like they just like pulled the first image off of Google Images or something instead of really taking time to develop.
Speaker: But if you read my review on the blog side of our website, and if you listen to this podcast, I guess, you'll see that that's not so important compared to some things like the plot, the plot twist that you've alluded to and kind of what the story means overall.
Speaker: So
Speaker: I've heard that Lionsgate is very confident in this property and it's tracking pretty well for this weekend, which I'll get to again in a minute.
Speaker: Really kind of interesting how quickly all of this came together and the way it's looking like it's quite possibly going to dominate the next week or two at the box office.
Speaker: It's tracking for about $30 million opening at the box office, which is actually a really strong opening these days for this chunk of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Speaker: This is often kind of a dead zone because those Thanksgiving movies tend to hold over really well.
Speaker: Wicked pretty much fell flat on its face and is when they opened up some space at the box office.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: It has a lot of strong competition, including Avatar 3, which is usually huge.
Speaker: as well as there's a SpongeBob movie, which will probably be big for families, some awards movies, Marty Supreme, The Testament of Ann Lee, which also stars Amanda Seyfried, Song Sung Blue, is this thing on?
Speaker: There's a lot coming out in the next week or two that could topple this, but there's some sort of signs of cracks in all of those movies.
Speaker: So I think it's possible that the housemaid fares really, really well at the box office.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to making my sister listen to me talk about it.
Speaker: how I performed.
Speaker: Like I said, this movie comes from Lionsgate as well, which is a studio, smaller studio that's been struggling the last couple of years.
Speaker: They've been trying to find someone to buy them, in fact, and no one has really taken the bait.
Speaker: No one's put in any solid bids, really.
Speaker: I share all of this to say that they're really a struggling studio.
Speaker: It's kind of cool to see this movie be really strong.
Speaker: And like I said, have this sort of
Speaker: clear your shot at the target and have real commercial potential because Lionsgate really needs it if they're going to survive.
Speaker: And in today's Hollywood landscape, we need as many studios to survive and thrive as we can to try and combat the Disneys and the Netflix Warner Brothers that are just growing exponentially at all times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And of course, this could become a trilogy as well.
Speaker: My sister's pointed out that there are three books in the Housemaid series.
Speaker: So that could, you know, earn money for Lionsgate for a long time.
Speaker: Yeah, the very fun, like, if not the last, perhaps the penultimate sentence in the book, it might be the very last though, is a delightful little cliffhanger of what to expect in book two.
Speaker: Yeah, the movie ends really cleverly as well, too.
Speaker: The whole the whole thing is like very campy and silly.
Speaker: So I think a lot of people, but very knowingly so.
Speaker: So I think a lot of people are going to watch it and not be able to sort of catch that wave.
Speaker: And but I but I'm really hopeful.
Speaker: I had a really strong theater going experience.
Speaker: Some of the people that were in my screening, it was about half press and half.
Speaker: I didn't catch what what organization it was, but it was some kind of young women's
Speaker: club and that sounds really lame when i use those words but it was a really fun group of ladies and and they had really fun commentary on some of the lines and line readings and just it was it was a hoot they were like cheering and it was really fun it's definitely that kind of movie so yeah i'm looking forward to hopefully people reacting positively to how crazy and silly this movie is yeah yeah
Speaker: But that's pretty much it because the movie's not even out yet.
Speaker: So let's dive into our discussion questions.
Speaker: What do you got?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: In terms of psychological thrillers, there are a few of these that you and I have discussed a lot.
Speaker: Minority Report, Shutter Island, Inception.
Speaker: As a genre, perhaps, and then this one specifically, where do these land for you in terms of rewatchability?
Speaker: Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker: Before I dive into my answer, I want somebody to tally the number of times you've mentioned minority report on this podcast.
Speaker: Because that's got to be like the 10th mention and we haven't even been running for a full year yet.
Speaker: I would guess more.
Speaker: Yeah, maybe.
Speaker: I mean, it's a core text for you.
Speaker: That's important.
Speaker: Okay, so here's an interesting anecdote to sort of answer your question.
Speaker: I had booked a ticket to see this movie opening night and then after the fact was invited to this press screening and I went to the press screening, came home, wrote my review.
Speaker: It's a good review, by the way.
Speaker: I like this movie.
Speaker: And then I canceled my reservation for Friday night.
Speaker: Ah, okay.
Speaker: Some of that is because I don't need to see it twice in one week.
Speaker: But some of it too is that I think you do need space between rewatches.
Speaker: So when you ask where does it land in terms of rewatch value,
Speaker: I think that they are rewatchable, especially if you're watching it with somebody that's never seen it before.
Speaker: There's nothing like watching somebody get their mind blown, you know, but I do think that there needs to be some space between rewatches.
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: I don't want to go three nights after and watch this movie again, which is not to say it's a bad movie.
Speaker: It just means I've, I've indulged in the way that I need to.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Certainly.
Speaker: Certainly.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Obviously, I probably don't even need this caveat.
Speaker: You talk to people about movies a lot more than I do.
Speaker: In my circle of friends or people that I would or do discuss psychological thrillers with, it is a genre that's pretty uniformly loved.
Speaker: I'm curious in the screen world and entertainment industry more widely, is this the same?
Speaker: Does the world just love a good turn?
Speaker: Is this a love it or hate it and I fall in
Speaker: you know, one specific camp.
Speaker: Oh, no, I think they're, they're pretty popular.
Speaker: I think they're not as easy to create as they might seem because they have to be really well-written.
Speaker: And like you alluded to earlier, if it starts ripping off another one, we get such a, like a black licorice for it that we, we can't handle it.
Speaker: Um, or, or such an allergy for it, I guess I should say.
Speaker: So yes, they're, they're beloved.
Speaker: I think also thriller is sort of a sub genre that you can apply to so many different
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Other genres.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I mean, we could say that Dune is a science fiction thriller and there's a lot of horror thrillers obviously out there.
Speaker: There's so much that you can do with it.
Speaker: I see.
Speaker: Really.
Speaker: You know, sometimes, sometimes it's a story sort of like shutter Island you mentioned has a very certain specific twist that I don't want to spoil here, but it's, it's sort of like an old reliable, you know what I mean?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: And then on the other hand, you've got one like the housemaid where you're just like, holy shit.
Speaker: I did not think that was even in the deck of cards that I was playing with here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, there's just there's a lot of variety.
Speaker: And usually they end up, you know, the cream of the crop really does rise to the top because of how accessible they are.
Speaker: We.
Speaker: are often experiencing the story, you know, our conduit to the story is is the main character or I suppose they're the conduit to us, which is sort of what you were talking about earlier, too.
Speaker: We're able to access these stories because these characters are sort of getting their world rocked just like us.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So yes, long way of saying very popular.
Speaker: I would be surprised to come across people that had a blanket dislike for psych thrillers.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like a huge surprise.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I thought the movie relies a little too heavily on the audience having a real understanding of modern New York high society.
Speaker: We get these sort of hints at Andrew having had a tough mom, but for the most part, it doesn't explain his psychology at all.
Speaker: So did they dive into that more in the book?
Speaker: I mean, is there more to it in the book?
Speaker: I see.
Speaker: Yeah, I would, I would separate these two parts.
Speaker: Um, I did not have any problem with the society.
Speaker: That part was if, if any of it follows a trope, I would say that aspect did.
Speaker: So I would say maybe, maybe they like leaned into that too much in the movie.
Speaker: It did not feel heavy handed in the text in terms of like the circle.
Speaker: I have a particular picture in my mind of someone the second they are hiring
Speaker: full-time live-in servants in the year of our Lord 2025, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that was kind of all I felt I needed.
Speaker: And that was more or less all they gave.
Speaker: Oh, the daughter goes to private school and all of the soccer moms at the pickup line.
Speaker: Andrew's background, I wanted more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They really, for obvious reasons, kind of hint initially at best.
Speaker: You're really not even certain how much party is going to play in it.
Speaker: And as you said, kind of explain, but it's a hand wave.
Speaker: I thought that aspect, they kind of lean on you filling in the details where clearly you can.
Speaker: Neither of us were confused.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I didn't leave feeling like it was a plot point, but I think they kind of left some money on the table there not diving into that more.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: I think a lot of people will argue that that's not the point of the story, or at least the movie.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And I don't think that they're wrong.
Speaker: I think what bugs me about it is sort of what puts this in a lane that's not necessarily my go-to.
Speaker: It's not Minority Report or Shutter Island or Inception, which are movies made for men and star men and are generally gushed over by men.
Speaker: Which is not to say that men won't enjoy this movie.
Speaker: There's plenty to enjoy.
Speaker: But yeah, I do wonder if that's sort of what informed the lack of Andrew backstory.
Speaker: This is kind of along the same lines.
Speaker: Um, I was just thinking about actually, honestly, a lot about what you've told me in previous movies that came up thinking about how they would transition.
Speaker: That's not necessarily my go-to.
Speaker: It's not Minority Report or Shutter Island or Inception, which are movies made for men and star men and are generally
Speaker: you know, gushed over by by men.
Speaker: So which is not to say that men won't enjoy this movie.
Speaker: There's plenty, plenty to enjoy.
Speaker: But yeah, I do wonder if that's sort of what informed the lack of Andrew backstory.
Speaker: This is kind of along the same lines.
Speaker: I was just thinking about actually, honestly, a lot about what you've told me in previous movies that came up thinking about how they would transition this.
Speaker: You've told me often about this kind of audience demand of show, not tell, right?
Speaker: And movies, a lot of the delight, maybe this is just for me, but I feel confident saying this a lot of the delight in reading a thriller.
Speaker: is you're kind of guessing and anticipating where you're going, but you are stuck at the very specific pace of reading words on a page.
Speaker: Sure, yeah.
Speaker: How does that translate?
Speaker: You're watching a movie.
Speaker: There are, I'm sure, plenty of shots that no one is talking and this camera is walking through a room.
Speaker: Environment details are so little of the information in a psychological thriller.
Speaker: So I'm curious if that feels similar.
Speaker: Are you really...
Speaker: come on, get to the next scene?
Speaker: Or does it feel like any other genre of movie to you?
Speaker: Interesting question.
Speaker: I'll start small and say that in this movie specifically, there is sort of a pacing issue.
Speaker: The first half of the movie is so...
Speaker: slow and i think it's a little bit intentional because it wants you to be so thrown off when that sort of breakneck and half comes into play and it's just like i said breakneck speed it's just everything comes unraveled there's so much to clean up so quickly i do think that a huge part of the success of a psychological thriller at large is the payoff
Speaker: I think most of the time you know that you're sitting down to some sort of, mystery is kind of too loose of a word, but that there's going to be some kind of crescendo, some kind of earth-shattering revelation, and the ending has to pay off.
Speaker: There's such a cliche of people going, and it was the gardener, right?
Speaker: And that's a cliche because it doesn't pay off and it's super disappointing.
Speaker: So I think that's sort of the art form when it comes to psych thrillers is balancing the pacing and building your way up and up and up and up this mountain and making sure that the view from the top is worth everything.
Speaker: Because this is not a long movie either.
Speaker: I don't know the exact runtime off the top of my head.
Speaker: But some of the other ones that you mentioned, Inception is extremely long, Minority Report, Shutter Island, they're all long.
Speaker: So it's just about how good is that final meal?
Speaker: Yes, is it worth the anticipation?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's very interesting because what you described really, really faithfully matches my experience with the text.
Speaker: It switched at the right point, I'll say.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I was really getting to a point where I was like, okay, hit the gas, you guys.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: I think I have to go see this.
Speaker: I think it's a really good time.
Speaker: I had a really good time.
Speaker: I hope you can see it in a full theater.
Speaker: And I think it would be really fun to take Blair and Lex.
Speaker: I'll say this later when we get to recommendations, but it's a great girls night movie or like date night with your girlfriend or something like that, because it's just it's so fun and silly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think that's a pretty, pretty good segue here, huh?
Speaker: Yeah, I guess let's, I guess let me cover the rest of my recommendations.
Speaker: Yeah, I said it's an awesome movie to see with friends, especially Gal Pals for Girls' Night Out.
Speaker: I mentioned that the girls in my screening were having a hoot and just had really funny
Speaker: commentary and fun things to say.
Speaker: And it was clear that they were having a blast with each other.
Speaker: They were making each other laugh, all in a very respectful way for the theater.
Speaker: It was really great to see them like just have the night of their lives there.
Speaker: I don't think that there's anybody I would recommend avoid this, in part because I think if you're unable to find something to enjoy about this movie,
Speaker: you're kind of just a hater.
Speaker: Like you've just got a bad attitude.
Speaker: I mean, seriously, I understand that the marketing makes it look like a chick flick, but there's also naked Sydney Sweeney in it.
Speaker: So like, get over it, you know?
Speaker: Calm down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That being said, it is definitely more targeted to women than it is to men.
Speaker: But like I said, there's plenty for men too.
Speaker: You just have to like get over yourself and actually enjoy the story.
Speaker: And then it reminded me of some other really famous.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Psych thrillers, I guess, like basic instinct, Gone Girl, you know, sort of has the shades of violence that Gone Girl does more than shades really.
Speaker: And then I put a simple favor in here, which is Paul Feig's other thriller.
Speaker: Pretty obvious comparison there, but but worth mentioning.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And while you're at it, what did you rate it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I gave it three and a half stars and a heart on Letterboxd.
Speaker: I think it's so fun and silly and campy, but the key is that it's knowingly all of those things.
Speaker: And you just don't see movies like that very much.
Speaker: And when you do, you don't normally get these big megawatt stars the center of it.
Speaker: It's not usually a big studio movie like this.
Speaker: Seyfried gives a really strong performance.
Speaker: She's such a friggin movie star, like in the best way possible.
Speaker: She's such a good actress and such a captivating presence, sort of.
Speaker: The script is like really friggin goofy.
Speaker: And like I said, the movie can feel silly at times, but it's such a good time that I don't care.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Fantastic.
Speaker: I don't really believe in the term guilty pleasure, but I guess you could call this a guilty pleasure movie.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: How about you?
Speaker: Recommendations and ratings.
Speaker: Yeah, very, very similar response.
Speaker: This was absolutely a solid four on Goodreads.
Speaker: I don't know that I intend to reread it.
Speaker: But very strongly.
Speaker: Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Really good writing.
Speaker: It really forced you to feel the characters in, I think, exactly the way McFadden intended, which is obviously we just call that good writing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The only thing holding it back really is if I wanted a storyline of this ilk, I would probably reach for something else, maybe continuing the series even rather than rereading this.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: For a recommendation, this was an odd one because I think anyone that I would recommend it to has probably already read it.
Speaker: In terms of current, modern, real hot books, I'm behind the curve on this one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And anyone I would not recommend it to, I would not simply because it's not a genre they enjoy, not because they would not enjoy this exact.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's in an odd gray area there, but I will, similar to some recent ones, I'll offer some books.
Speaker: I think if you like these, you will like The Housemaid.
Speaker: If you do read The Housemaid or have, I think you would like some of these.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Kafka on the Shore is one that I finished recently, well, in the last three months, and kind of certainly not as dark, but a similar intimacy with some very quirky characters that you love getting to know.
Speaker: Oh, cool.
Speaker: And still a pretty fascinating turn.
Speaker: Piranasi was very much along those same lines, not nearly as dark, but a very interesting turn you do not see coming.
Speaker: Along the exact same lines, in fact, one of them...
Speaker: eerily similar, almost to the point that it degraded this one a little bit, but not much.
Speaker: They are distinct stories.
Speaker: Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Last Mrs. Parrish, Dark Places, and Sharp Objects.
Speaker: The last two, both Gillian Flynn.
Speaker: Oh yeah, Gillian Flynn.
Speaker: Who maybe wrote Gun Girl as well?
Speaker: Yes, she did, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, all four of those fantastic books and very much along the same lines.
Speaker: If you
Speaker: have read and enjoyed any of those, you will simply tear up The Housemaid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Super fun.
Speaker: I'm glad that you didn't tell me to, that we need to drop it because I would have fought you tooth and nail to keep this.
Speaker: Well, you know what it is?
Speaker: I didn't, I didn't know it was a psychological thriller.
Speaker: I was just ready for another.
Speaker: Oh, shoot.
Speaker: I didn't tell you what it was.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Well, next time.
Speaker: Maybe made it better though, you know?
Speaker: Because you were probably really bowled over when everything turned.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Because if you don't know it's going to be a psychological thriller, you're very much like, all right, where are we going with this?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: Because I, you know, with such a small cast of characters, I was like, well, somebody's got a break.
Speaker: You know, something's going to happen.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: Because I went in knowing it was a psych thriller.
Speaker: So interesting.
Speaker: Cool perspective.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I wonder which one.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Fantastic book.
Speaker: Phenomenal writing.
Speaker: I see exactly why she is the author she is.
Speaker: If anything, I am coming out the other side now simply surprised she's not more highly regarded, more awarded, which is maybe just because it seems like she's got a pretty specific niche.
Speaker: Yeah, well, and she's spending a lot of time on those brain scans.
Speaker: Yeah, come on, leave them alone.
Speaker: They're fine.
Speaker: Come write more.
Speaker: We got enough doctors.
Speaker: No, actually, we probably don't.
Speaker: We probably don't.
Speaker: Anyway, thank you.
Speaker: Chris and I, this is our last episode of the year, actually.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That's so hard for me to believe.
Speaker: But we were just speaking of bold over.
Speaker: We were just really stunned by some of those statistics that were shared with us or analytics, I guess, from Spotify.
Speaker: So thank you to everybody who's been listening.
Speaker: We see you.
Speaker: We appreciate you.
Speaker: We love doing this.
Speaker: And we're so excited to keep this going until we die.
Speaker: Right, Chris?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 26 a year for the next 120 years.
Speaker: We're going to live a hundred and I don't have time for that.
Speaker: I'm not doing that.
Speaker: The big, big shout out to
