The 10 Best Movies at the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals. Plus: Nathan Fielder’s Stunning Elizabeth Holmes Doc.

0:00I'm Sean Fennese. I'm Amanda Dobben. And this is the big picture a conversation show about the Fall film festivals. On today's show, I am back in LA and ready to report on my annual Sojourn to the Telluride Film Festival. Amanda is still in Venice, Italy and ready to report on the proceedings there. We've seen all the major movies that played and will give you our favorites and not so favorites on today's episode. But first, some movie news right after this. This episode is presented by State Farm. You know the feeling, long day, good meal, you finally sit down and now you're just staring at your screen. Slasher, romcom, period drama, psychological thriller, but some decisions don't have to be that hard. State Farm is here to help. Like when you choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan, bundling, just another way to save with the personal price plan.

1:01Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Covered options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Okay, Dobben, what time is it where you are? Chalbe guy, it's 6 p.m. Wow. Wow. Good to be out. Listen to Groney was purchased. It was sold pre-mixed in a plastic bag that was like a, and then in a little paper envelope. And then I poured it into this glass. It's pretty good. That sounds horrible. But okay, I'm happy for you. I'm happy you've got some, some social lubrication for this conversation show. Hopefully things will go great. Have you been having a nice time in Italy? Yeah, it's been great. I'm very pro Italy. This has been a very fun experience of a festival. And it's of that this is my third time here. I would say that the crowd control is the best that it's been. The logistics are the best that it's been this weekend.

2:05Had a fun party atmosphere to it. There were people around. I was seeing people I know I've run into friends. And maybe some of that is just that I've been coming long enough that I have festival friends and know the root. It hasn't rained here, which is great last year. Yassie and I had to wade through a lot of light flooding. I almost got stuck on the Lido after Jake Kelly. And I've navigated the regatta with no problems. You know about the regatta? I do because I've seen the film The Social Network. Didn't you know about the Venice regatta? Well, no, I mean, yes. That one's not in Venice. Every year, smack dab in the middle of the Venice film festival. They hold a historical regatta and they close the main waterway, the Grand Canal in Venice, which is also like, you know, closing Fifth Avenue in New York or something like they close the main street. And they also close many of the shuttles to and from the island where all of the films are. But I was not stopped and I got a shuttle that worked and I saw the films.

3:08And that's what I do. We will talk about those films every year. When you go to this festival, you come on the pod and you start describing it and you give me more and more reasons to never go. It's just amazing. There are so many things that make no sense about the Venice film festival. We'll get into all that. Before we talk about the rest of our experiences at the festival, one of the things that you were hoping would be at the festival that you're at is the Luca Guadalupe No Film Artificial, which is the since dispensed with by Amazon portrait of Sam Altman, founder of Open AI, co-founder, I should say. And we have a new trailer or teaser trailer for the film. This movie has been a subject of much discussion, I think, in the world of movie nerds, but I'm not totally sure if this film has quite reached the public at large. And so we got the first look at it now. It's coming out later this year. From neon, there's going to be a screening of the film at the New York Film Festival in one month. You've just watched it. I'm very curious for your thoughts on it given that you're a Luca, I don't know, a

4:09completist defender? Well, I'm not a Luca completist because I did not make it to his seven or eight hour documentary about Berlucci here at the festival. I saw four hour documentary. So I'm doing my best, but seven was a bridge too far. So nor do I have any of Luca Guadalupe Nozzara home collection, which I don't know if it's for sale yet, but the images were released. So I'm an aspiring completist. I thought it was a good teaser. I mean, it's a minute. It's just, I mean, it's pure editing. And you just, you get kind of one shot flashes of everything except for Andrew Garfield doing his best. Jesse Eisenberg walking through the square of Harvard and the opening of social network. You know, they are leaning into the homage of and trying to draw a line from that film to this film. I'm okay with that because that's one of my favorite films of my lifetime. I would really like to see this movie.

5:10I think it would have fit in at the Venice Film Festival this year and some of the movies that I've seen, but you know, you get what you get and you don't get upset. I love when you speak to me like I'm a toddler. Well, I mean, that's what they teach us in the Montessori way. I'm aware. I have heard such wildly different reactions to the movie from people who have seen it. I have been told that this is going to be one of the funniest movies of the year. I've been told this is one of the bleakest movies of the year. I totally agree with what you're saying about its clear connectivity to the social network and the idea that open AI and the AI rush feels like a kind of two decades later extension of what Mark Zuckerberg helps to launch in the world of social media in the 2000s. I hope this is good. I don't, you know, I don't really know what to say. Garfield, you're a Borosov. You mentioned that you saw four-hour documentary, which I know is about Elon Musk. He is portrayed here in this movie by Baron Holtz, Monica Barbaros in the film.

6:10Pretty excited. It sounds like it's going to come at the end of the year and then go wide to the public at the beginning of 2027. So it's still a long ways away, but so far so good. Okay. Where would you like to start? Would you like me to start? Yeah, I did. I taught you about the regatta so you can teach me about, you know, how one gets into a secret screening. Oh, sure. But that maybe we should probably just talk about that. Okay. Yeah. Well, we're going to do a whole conversation about the summer at the movies on Friday. So from here on out, it's all fault film festival stuff. If you don't want to even spoke for you, I understand. I won't be spoiling any of the movies. I mean, I won't be spoiling any of the movies. We'll just be talking about what we liked and why and what the atmosphere was like. And, you know, tell your ride. It's pretty safe to say was defined this year by a secret screening, doing some press beforehand, the director of the festival, Julie Huntsinger, in an interview with Variety noted that there was a true TBA on the calendar, a 2B announced film, which is something that

7:11happens every year. There are always TBAs on the calendar. Sometimes it's a, you know, a smaller film, an independent film that hadn't been previously announced. Sometimes it's just a repeat of a movie that had been playing really well across the festival. One of the great things about Tell your Ride is that the films play 3, 4, 5 times. So in this case, this was a true TBA. Nobody know what the movie was. And it became the talking point in every line, at every movie, over two and a half days. What is it? What is it? Many guesses, many wrong guesses, lots of anticipation and speculation. I think it created a little bit of a sense of anxiety at the festival because everyone was starting to get worried if they could get in to the screen. Which, you know, the Werner Herzlach Theater, which is one of the primary theaters at the festival, is fairly big. I want to say it has maybe a 600 person capacity, maybe more than that, but it's not huge. There are thousands of people at the festival in this tiny town in Colorado.

8:12I did know what it was, which was very strange because every single conversation that you have with people, they're like, do you know, do you know, do you know? And I knew it was going to be a big deal, but I don't think I anticipated quite how big a deal it was going to turn out to be. What was your strategy when people asked you? I know when I'm sorry, but I can't say. And I was so lock and key with it the entire time. And I was honestly I'm proud of myself. I felt like I could work for the government now. If you want to, I guess. I think you did a great job. At some point, I think that you should have just started lying and just be like, I don't know. I understand that, you know, knowledge is, you know, currency and it's very cool. And I actually got angry text messages from friends of ours asking if I knew so that because you wouldn't tell them. And I also kept a secret just so everybody knows. But I, it's kind of annoying.

9:14It's sort of like the extended version of, yeah, well, I've seen this movie six months ago, but we can't talk about it for a while. Of course. You know what? Annoying is just a part of life for me. There's not really anything I can do about that. The problem is, is if you tell one person you know, then it gets out pretty quickly that, oh, well, Sean knows. And so accounting for that was, it was fine. It was honestly fun to hear people guessing. And the guesses were myriad. They were, is it the New Terence Malik film? Is it Frank Ocean's A24 movie? Is it Zach Efron's movie famous? Is it, there were movies that haven't even been shot yet. There were being guests about it. It became clear that it was a documentary at a certain point because of the way that the information had spread. And then it ultimately was revealed that it was an Nathan Fielder project. And then it was a Nathan Fielder project about Elizabeth Holmes. Now to some people, I think that that would be really, really exciting. Somebody like me who loves Nathan and has been kind of, you know, venerating all the projects he's been doing since Nathan for you. I mean, I think other people are like a documentary. And it's three hours long. And about Elizabeth Holmes who like has already gone through the content meet grinder in

10:18so many ways, books and television shows and podcasts. And you know, her story has been told so many times. So anyway, by the time we were in line to get into the movie, which was on Sunday night, which is not quite the end of the festival, but more or less is kind of the closing evening. I would say about 50% of the people in the line that I was in felt like they had a handle on what the movie was. And so then it became this question of, well, this better be good, you know? Like yeah, because when you get in line to tell your ride, you do have to sometimes wait an hour or two hours. I saw a film at the theater where the, where the, you can see everything the Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim film played at 12.45 pm. And so I arrived at that theater at 12 and there were people who were already in line for 6.15 showing of the secret screening. That's, that's really early. I think you saying that you arrived 30 minutes early for the first screening of this is the most obnoxious thing that you've said on this podcast.

11:18No, no, no, no, that's not, not on my side. I said to the, to the 12.45 screening earlier in the day, I showed up 30 minutes early of oh, a movie that was not that would be okay. Yes, yes, definitely. Because I was going to be like, that's listen. No, I showed up 30 minutes early. I never meant to tell you right. Okay, all right. That's what I was trying to say. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And I'm, you know, I'm very fortunate as a member of the press and somebody who, you know, knows a lot of the people that were trying to get people into the screening that like, I didn't have a hard time getting in. It did become a fairly exclusive line though because the way the tell your ride works as I've talked about many times over the years is there's a group of people who are called patrons. They have very special passes. They pay a lot of money for those passes. They get first rights into the door. So because of their passes, they are the supreme leaders of tell your ride. The press gets treated very well at tell your ride. I love my experience there. We're not quite at that high tier, but in the right circumstances, you can get in somewhat early into screenings. Yeah. Then there are people who of course are celebrities and work in the movie business. And I've not seen so many people from so many studios that didn't make the movie at

12:21a screening like this on top of the fact that, you know, all the stars, like, you know, Jordan First Men in the Casab club kid were all there. You know, like the whole raft of famous people were also in the screening room. So I don't know how many regular festival goers got in maybe a hundred, maybe less, not a lot. But it was a fairly exclusive room and the film only played once and it was three hours. And so you effectively had to give the entire seven hours of the last night of the festival over to this movie. So a lot of people were like, this better be good. And it was fucking amazing. And you know, it's so rare that something that everybody is like, oh my God, I hope this is good. I hope this is good for it to be good. It's such a rare feeling, Amanda. Yeah. I am quite jealous. We were texting because many of the A2014 and Lance Oppenheim, who also directed Prime Time, which debuted here on Adventist on Saturday night, the 5 p.m. slot. And it was like the big, senior premiere of the week and the big party of the week.

13:26And it was really fun. But so I met Lance, I met his entire family, congratulated them on Prime Time. And they were in Venice, like at midnight local time, Venice, and then made it to tell you right entire for this premiere. So like I had an inkling and was just incredibly jealous and remain incredibly jealous. And everyone working on the team now knows when I land in Los Angeles so that I can then see it in Los Angeles. And I'm going to send some more follow up texts as soon as we're done recording. Hi guys, I love you. That said, I didn't even read your entire newsletter because I don't want to know anything. So all I know, like I've watched the teaser. And I know that I know what Nathan Fielder said as soon as he walked on the stage, which you can share with people. And I kind of don't want to know anymore. I know I'll try to respect that and be careful in this conversation because I think it's a fascinating to me how quickly the teaser went viral. And I think it kind of indicates the curiosity that drives so much of the movie.

14:30And I think the teaser is in some ways an accurate reflection of the film in another way is a little bit of a wrong footing of what the movie is. And is a really great draw into the story. But it does start out as what it looks like, which is Nathan Fielder shooting a sort of a hybrid of a lot of the work that he's done on the rehearsal and on the curse and on Nathan for you. And as a sort of like snapshot of Elizabeth Holmes in the final days before she goes to federal prison. And then the film goes in many, many other directions from there. I thought it was like a fascinatingly form-breaking approach to telling a story. It's three hours for a reason. It's sort of a bifurcated story. The first half is what it looks like. The second half it goes in wild directions. You know, before the film started, Nathan and Lance came out after Julie introduced them and Julie was like giddy and ecstatic introducing the movie, which is also dangerous to kind of set people up that you're like so excited to have something. And they came out and they're both very low-key, downbeat.

15:34Nathan doing his kind of like, hey, I hope you guys like this. You know, you've all been waiting 72 hours to see this movie. Right. Lance jet lagged. Yes. Yes. Although I also spoke with him after the film and he seemed more awake than I was, so I was impressed. And the movie played like gangbusters. And it became pretty much the only thing that anybody wanted to talk about in the ensuing 24 hours of the festival. And I think there are a lot of reasons for that. I do think that some of this is of course the natural festival high of you make a big trip to go somewhere and you want it to be worth it. Like you were describing your experience of Venice and how it's been like a good Venice and you've had like a good slate of films and you see friends who you like and- Well, the films are interesting. Oh, I'm just saying. Okay. But and that's part of it too is the films sometimes matter just as much as the experience. And this was kind of a fusion of those two things. This was an event and it was a movie. And those two things colliding in this way. I think we're really exciting and gratifying. To me as somebody who really loves documentary and is fascinated by the form of documentary,

16:34the fact that this is something that felt part of a lineage and also very new. I really enjoyed. I love portraits of complex people who we don't know whether we should trust or not. And what is the true self? I think is kind of the overarching concept of the movie. I'm trying to be very careful here. Now, when the movie ended, Lanza Nathan came out for an interview which was moderated by Emma Stone, which is just like classic tell your head shit. You know, like Emma Stone here, she's going to do the Q&A. And she was a very good moderator and asked five very simple and straightforward and good questions. And when the film ended, I watched a bunch of people leave the screening and not sit for the Q&A, which I found baffling because I've never wanted to hear a Q&A more after a movie. However, one thing I should mention is they did bag our phones at this screening, which has never happened to me in film festival history. So no one had access to their cell phone for almost five hours. So I guess some people were desperate to just race out and tweet about what they had just seen or something.

17:35But we're like chicken with their family. Sure. Yeah. Okay. That's generous. I mean, whatever. These people don't give a fuck about their family. They went to tell your ride to watch movies. I guess it's true. I don't know. I still remember bartering with the Spider-Man press people about like, I'm really pregnant and I need my phone in case something happens. I remember that. I remember that. So anyway, we didn't have our phones. We were a truly captive audience. And in the conversation afterwards, they talked about how they still don't really know what to make of what they made and how they made it and to see them so unguarded about that. And especially Nathan, who as much as he is a filmmaker and a TV show in Pricario and a documentarian, he's also like, he's a character. He's a performer. Sure. That's part of his art. That's part of his art and his work and his however you want to define. I mean, it is art, but it's also journalism and also, you know. I always think of it as anthropology. Cultural criticism. Yeah. Yeah.

18:36Yeah. I always think of it as him trying to kind of understand human relationships and interactions and reactions. And this movie is a huge part of that project. But they both were, and Nathan even more so than Lance, we're still a little bit just about gobsmacked about what they had done. And this project, I think it started in 2023. It's been going on for a number of years and they stopped after a period of time and then came back to it. And you can see that it was in the making of it, it was something that they were figuring out in real time, especially the second half of the film. They kind of got to the end of the moment when Elizabeth Holmes goes to prison and had to think about where they wanted to go next. And it's an extraordinary thing. And I'm really happy to have been in the room. I feel very lucky to have been in the room. The cool thing is in addition to this kind of simultaneous release of that teaser that you mentioned, the movie's coming out soon, which I think is great. It's coming out in October. And thank goodness, I think kind of like lording this over people would not only be obnoxious for me, but even from the studio and the people who made it, there's this kind of urgency to want to see this thing, which is really cool.

19:36And now it immediately falls into the category of like, well now it's been overhyped. But I just have to give you like an honest reaction to how I felt in the room, which was we were we were we were buzzing. Yeah, no, I was watching from afar. And then until with with some envy and until Sunday, it had seemed like the festivals were kind of we hadn't many of the same films, many went from Venice to Telluride, you know, we had the we had Liam and no Gallagher and Oasis on Saturday night. And well, you know, I'll talk about that. It's so gel so that they were it was like it was even and we were having different experiences, but like you were in the mountains and I was having a tremendous number of spritzes and like life was good. And you know, and then it was like the whole prime time crew like left and and and the energy shifted and I was like, I really want to be I really want to be seeing this. Yeah. And and also somehow I'm like still in Venice. So I can't see it yet. I can't believe this happens every year.

20:37Why am I still in Venice? I don't know. You extend it again this year. You're like, I think one more day I have to see something. I was like, good. Well, honestly, I extended it at this point so that we were could record. And we didn't have to record so late because it takes like a full day to get back home. But I should have come home on Monday, but that's okay. I'm I really want to see it. Let's let's talk about Oscars. Yeah. You know, people have been bringing this up. I saw Clayton Davis a variety immediately after the movie and invariably that conversation just started right away and Clayton and I were sort of talking about there's one component of the movie that I do not want to spoil for people that I think kind of shatters this conversation in a really interesting way. So I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to talk about that. Okay. Is it going to be eligible for the best documentary? It will be the documentary branch is a little. It's weird. Yeah. There are little tricky when it comes to celebrity focus stories, which this sort of is. There are little tricky when it comes to true crime. There are little tricky when it comes to celebrity filmmakers. So and because this is so form breaking, I maybe they'll embrace it. Maybe they won't.

21:38It's a little hard to say. I heard people talking about best picture. That seems like a reach to me. Okay. I would campaign for it. It's right near the top of my favorite movies that I've seen this year. Like we'll be talking about it quite a bit. I've already had to like look at the October schedule and be like, oh, fuck, I got to break this and start all over again because we're going to do at least one conversation about the movie itself. Okay. It is, but it is unique. I mean, it's a Nathan field of projects. Like it's not inherently mega commercial. But what it is is it's something new in the mix and something that I had texted you and that you and I have been talking about for months is that it's so weird how it seems like for the most part, the awards calendar and our expectations of what's coming feels hugely settled right now with the exception of like two or three movies. Like I said to you, digger and dune are two movies that nobody has seen. Maybe Werewolf, but probably not. But everything else, we kind of know what it is. I guess you could put artificial on that list. A handful of movies are yet to be seen.

22:39But this was the first thing in a while where I was like, oh, this could upend. Is some of our expectations of what's happening this season? I don't know. I mean, from afar, do you have any thoughts on it? I mean, I think we are also hungry for that. Right? Is that we even we went into the festivals and we identified, you know, okay, this premiere, this premiere, this will get this slot, this slot. And for the most part, we'll talk about them individually, but the the films met our expectations. And so you're kind of assigning everything, doing your little draft board. It's clear, but it's I think it's been confusing and also just a little narratively frustrating to us. Like we have six months of a show to do and we already know everything. Like what you got to give us something else. Like give me a fall, give me a fall thing. So that's very, that was that's the genius of a surprise drop. It is. And you know, that actually kind of speaks to a little bit of the vibe for me personally, a telly ride, which I think is quite different from other people. So because we had the chance to go to the can film festival this year, roughly 40%

23:40of the slate, a telly ride I had already seen. And so it created a different kind of experience for me where I didn't see as many movies as I usually do. The timing didn't work for as many things and there were frequently times when I would look at the calendar and be like, seeing that, seeing that, seeing that, seeing that and then not really have anything to do. Which what did you do? I had to hung out with friends, had a meal. I don't usually eat a lot of meals. So I had some meals. Thank you. Yeah. So proud of you. Thank you. I also was sick the entire weekend, which was not ideal, but I powered through. I kept my head up. Anyhow, because of that, I think that it was a very, very good telly ride. Like if you came into the festival, like almost everyone there not having seen Club Kid or Fjord or Label and Egra or Minator or the huge number of can titles that came over, I mean, I would say specifically Club Kid and Label and Egra played huge at the festival. People loved both of them. And I'm not super surprised by that. But it was clear that those movies are going to have a life after this.

24:40Yeah, it's Club Kid season. Yeah. Yeah. And I saw Jordan Firstman and Alex go go in the airport before we got on the plane to go. And we were talking and they were like, oh, I feel like people are forgetting about the movie and I was like, you're going to be fine. No, you're going to be fine. Don't worry. Like people are going to see the movie. They're going to love the movie. They had Reggie, the young actor who plays the kid in the movie. I know. He was there. And then he was doing great. So his Instagram account is still managed by his parents, but they did a real of like his highlights and tell you right is great, great stuff. He was charming everybody. So the vibe there was good. I mean, you know, we can get into the new movies. Like you said, we have a lot of crossover for some of the films that played at the festival. But in general, I thought the vibe was good. The weather was very good. Everyone seemed happy. It's my happiest place on earth. I thought it was this at the end of this year, despite being really sick, I was like, I will come here until I die. Like this is a thing that I just want to be a part of my life. I remember like a week ago when you suggested that we switch places at some point. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not doing that.

25:40I mean, listen, I, like, I have this on lock now. And I'm really proud of myself. But I've thought about just how much you would be weeping and bitching. Like everywhere I've gone. This festival, well, you're stronger than I am. I can even, yeah, I am. And, you know, you know, the lines are not a thing here. Instead, you have spritzes. So that's really nice. Or go on a boat. But you would hate the boat. Do you get seasick? No, no, I grew up on Long Island. Sea sick, we're talking about. I grew up on boats. Look, it's an island. You don't, it is an island, but you don't really take the boats and go anywhere. I took a boat to school every morning, six hours across the Long Island Sound. And congratulations. So I guess the last thing I'll say about just the general mood and atmosphere is, I think, I do think that the Odyssey, like put a little bit of a dent in some of the vibe, which was for the like the Oscar stuff that you're describing. But in a good way, where it was sort of like,

26:42let's just enjoy what we have here. Instead of it being like a series of conversations, because you know, there are a lot of awards pundits at the festival. There are a lot of people who spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff and strategizing that six month calendar from this point forward. We do plenty of it on the show. But it became more of a like, did you like it or did you not like it? There were a couple of titles like Elson or, for example, where it was like kind of the only conversation about it is, is Andrew Scott, a best actor contender, but not really a lot of movies led with that, which I was grateful for, at least for me. And also just that having gone there now, I think eight or nine years, I have a lot of friends there. Like you said, you said you have your Venice friends. And so there's a- And made new ones too, which is really fun. Yeah, so it's great. And I met so many, so many young people in the student symposium, just like young people in their 20s who were just like, this was my big splurge for the year. I heard you talk about it on the show. I really wanted to be here. Every person there is so fucking nice. Like it's just the most pleasant,

27:42convivial, sincere collection of movie nerds. So I once again, I had a wonderful time. What was the actual vibe like in Venice? So I think last year I mentioned that it was pretty, last year was very oversubscribed. And it seems like none of the logistics were in place. And there were too many people and not enough boats and not enough spaces at a festival where you really do have to have the logistics nailed down because you can't just walk everywhere. Like you do have to take a boat. The Lido is its own island, separate from like the Venice that you see on postcards. So this year I'm happy to say, and I wonder if it's because this year was also the art Biennale, which is only every other year. Right. And you had been there when that was happening before, right? No, you know what? This is my first year, the other two years I've been on the off years. Oh, okay. And so the Biennale, the openings

28:45and all the big part of the festival happens, I think in May or June. Earlier in the summer, but the pavilions are still open. And so it seems like the infrastructure is just kind of held over and in place. And so it's been a fun vibe. I think there were slightly lower expectations movie wise because the lineup was, you know, most of the big Hollywood expected movies were not on the lineup. And so, you know, I heard of a couple during lists, which even switched from Venice to tell you right, because they couldn't justify it. But with low expectations comes, you know, the possibility to have a lot of fun and to see movies you like. And then other, you know, it just wasn't as stressful this year. It was everyone just kind of rolling in and out of stuff. I have also met a lot of young people who, and a lot of Italian young people who apparently listened to the big picture. Oh, check out.

29:45And then, ciao. And made their way here. So, so that's very fun. And then Saturday was really fun. Saturday was a jam because everyone, as soon as the schedule was released, we all identified, okay, prime time has a 5 p.m. Saturday premiere. And that's like, that is in fact, prime time at Venice. And there's, that's also kind of like, that's not going to tell you right. Probably. So because of the way the schedule works, Saturday is too late to get over. To tell you right in time. So you're like, well, this is our center piece of it. Like this is going to be it. And you know, and like Pat and Centrel probably be there and they'll use his star power. And you can just kind of like feel it going. And so, you know, 5 p.m. on Saturday also leaves time for a great 824 party, which definitely happened. And then I realized also that Oasis, dole look back and anger, the documentary about the recent tour was

30:45premiering afterwards. I was like, oh my god, they're going to get Liam and Noelle. So I did not, I only went to the prime time premiere, which I had a great time at. And then listen, parties remain unmatched. Thank you guys so much for everything that you do. Are you thinking parties as a concept right now? What are you? I'm thinking of the 824 party as a concept. And like I said, I met Lance Abinheim's entire family. They were like, we haven't slept in a week. We were so nervous. They were so sweet. So that was really fun. And I had seen it. So I didn't go to the Oasis premiere, but I did see it in the morning. I did start crying at like 845 in the morning while singing at the top of my lungs along to people singing along in the movie. Not really, but I was. Okay. It's kind of obnoxious if you were the only person singing along. At a very low volume. Like I wasn't like up there waving my phone doing dough look back and anger. Like what are we talking about? I was just kind of, you know, I was, I was, I was having a good time.

31:49I was in the moment of this very wonderful documentary. Okay. And so as we left the Lido on Saturday night to go to our party, like the Oasis premiere people were arriving. And I didn't see Liam and Noel arrive on their water taxi as I had a few hours before, but it was, it was convivial. It was like, this is the place to be. For about six or seven hours. It seemed in the photos that they were, they were warm to one another. They seem to have embraced each other. Yeah. Well, one of the most moving things of the documentary because it's, it's the whole tour. And so it's, you know, they filmed every show. And it's just the montages of every single time they walked on stage, Liam grabbing Noel's hand and holding it up. And then holding hands together. And the, the, the rediscovered, if not love, I mean, love. Yes, the way that they express love of this movie is so moving. It was incredible. That's great. I'm supposed to see it this week. I'm looking forward to it.

32:49It's, I mean, it's a delightful time. So yeah, they're in decent spirits. I mean, not decent enough to get Noel to like wear real pants instead of jeans, but whatever. It's a no-o-move. You are the Noel. I'm the Liam. It's just tell life goes. Yeah, I'm very proud of that fact. Um, so it was a good vibe is what you would say. Yeah, it was, it was a good and it was a fun vibe. Now everyone's like, why are we still here? And why are we seeing like junkie movies? I saw two movies this morning in competition that I, we don't really need to talk about on this podcast. Oh, wow. Interesting. We want to get out of their names. I mean, we can. They're company directed by Casey Asflex, Affleck and a bunker directed by Florian Zeller, starring Javier Bordem and Penelope Cruz. Well, it's good to know that that those were not successful in your opinion. Yeah, I didn't tell. I mean, it's a beautiful home in the, in bunker. It's like a really, really, really good home. As you know, I am a Florian Zeller denier. I have never really, I've never really understood. And, and I was thinking about you and the sun, like 30 minutes into this movie, I was like, now, this is, we just, we don't got it.

33:50There are a couple interesting scenes. Um, but I thought it was silly and inept. So. Yeah, I mean, that's, I think that's the piece of the film festival experience, which is. You go in knowing there's probably going to be two or three things you're going to love. You go, there's two or three things you know, you have to see that are like, it's a part of the reason you went. And then a lot of it is a coin flip. You know, a lot of it is, we don't really know which way this is going to break. And so there is a lot of risk taking and comes into it. And a lot of, do you have the same kind of schedule time management? Because I see that you're seeing like two, maybe three movies today. When I'm really going hard at a film festival, I'm trying to see four and maybe even sometimes five if I'm really crazy. This year, I only saw four on one day, but the, the schedule stack strategy is challenging at tell you right to make sure that you get to see what you want. And I miss some stuff this year that I regret missing. How, how was that for you, Advenous? Well, it's really, really hard to do for in a day. I did three in a day. And that was from begging a lot of publicists to get me tickets to premieres.

34:56Because the way it works here is there are press screenings, there are market screenings. And then there are public screenings and, and premieres that are also open to the public, which is cool. So you can get, you can buy a ticket and roll up to the Oasis. Don't look back and anger premiere, which I just, I'm excited for all of those people. And your seat is reserved in the premieres. Yes. Yeah, you get an assigned seat. And so, and you know, the press screenings work differently, but they, they only show three press movies a day. They parcel them out over the course of the festival. And so, you know, they'll do two press screenings on premiere day for each movie. And then there will be like one makeup at a later date. Okay. But then everything else is public. And so you're competing with other people and it's hard to get tickets. And there is a ticketing platform, Allah, the can ticketing platform that I'm sure you still have nightmares about. And so it's, it's, it's hard to make the schedule work where you can get for every day.

35:58Yeah. It's just, and then when you add in the logistics of it, it's, it's hard to stay on the Lido, because it's a small island with not that much accommodation. So the getting back and forth to it with the boats, you know, just stacking three is the sign of a good day. Yeah, that sounds challenging. I mean, one of the wonderful things about Telluride is just the conquerability of it. You know, the fact that it is essentially seven or eight theaters that are spread across this small town. And you can walk roughly three quarters of a mile all the way across town and just make it and bounce. And for example, on Saturday, I saw four movies and none of them were in the same theater. So I was constantly walking back and forth. And sure, I got 15,000 steps that day. But it was totally manageable and not that hard and still giving yourself time to eat and wait in line for the appropriate amount of time that you needed to. And so are you eating in line? Sometimes if you're down at the HertzLock, they have a hotdog stand. So it's like very efficient to just grab a gatorade and a hotdog, just power up, get some protein, get in a movie.

37:03But that's like the person can do. There's a pizza, there's a pizza place in Telluride called Brown Dog Pizza, which is like a great pizza place. But you would think that it's like Spago in 1984. Like it is like just full of people. The line is like it's like a two hour wait to get a seat at a pizza. But there aren't like official like cantinas or like pop up places. Not really. I mean, it's such an it's an unincorporated town. You know, like you can't bring in the big businesses. There's no sponsors like that. Oh, right. I guess they're the sponsors because listen, here's the thing. You can get a spritz and some potato chips literally anywhere. I snuck one into part two of Musk last night. And they just and the potato chips come. I mean, it was four hours long. Yeah. And like part two was was trumpet Twitter. So I was like, I'm going to have a spritz for this. So you can bring a card like a drink into the screen. No, I poured it into a water bottle. Okay. It was like teenage behavior. But like do you do you understand? The whole spring vodka screwdriver. Wow. So it was like day seven. I'm still in Venice because they spread the movies out.

38:06So you're still in Venice. I'm homesick and I have to watch two more hours of Musk, Trump and Twitter and I was like, I'm going to have a spritz. The spritz also no gin. So this is kind of this has been my trick. This this this possible. But yeah, that part's amazing. Just everywhere you go. They're like here and the potato chips just come with the drink. Yeah, because I was sick. There was zero alcohol consumption over the weekend, which is probably a good thing, honestly. But yeah, I'm trying to think of what else I should share that is notable from telling right before we get into the movies themselves. Do you hike? I don't usually have time. Yeah, you know, I'm not averse to it at all. Part of part of the interesting thing I was just posting photos on Instagram. It's just like you are in the middle of town. You are surrounded by epic natural beauty. I mean, the town is surrounded on both sides by two mountain ranges. And there are rivers wherever you walk. And so you are really in the heart of what you would go hike to seek.

39:09You know what I mean? It's not it's not like you have to go to find it. Now there is an entire part of the festival that happens on top of the mountain where you take a gondola up. And there are two theaters up there now. One of them is called the Chuck Jones cinema. And they added a second one this year called the Marvin. And I don't usually go up there. But if you go up there, there's a large hotel up there where a lot of the celebrities and filmmakers stay. And that sort of it sort of splits the festival. And two, I don't like the theater as much on top of the mountain. So I try to avoid it as much as possible. But there are a lot of people who spend most of their time up there. And up there there's also lots of hiking and cycling and you can go fishing. And there's a lot of things you can do. So what that's the funny thing too is when you're there, there are a lot of people who just live there or who are just visiting the town to hang out with no intention of seeing any movies. Because there's parties and restaurants. I mean, yeah, same here. Yes. So even though it is not a world famous global capital like Venice, it still is like drawing a lot of, I guess like,

40:10look, you lose for lack of a better word. You know, just like regular folk who are like, I'm going to see what's going on in this town this weekend. So it's an interesting collection of people that are attending as opposed to like when you're at the New York Film Festival. And you're like, okay, well, these people are here just to go to this screening at the Lincoln Center, you know? Yeah, I mean, that's fun about it. There are also people who seem to come here just to be adjacent to the festival, you know? And so and by people, I mean, like companies and also there are exhibits and there are parties and there are, you know, popups and all sorts of stuff. So it's, I mean, it's a lot. But it's pretty great. I agree. We're very lucky to be able to go do this. So let's tell people about the movies because that's what they really want to care about. It's interesting how the amount of overlap that we have on our list, especially right at the top. Yes. So you got the movie ink and then I got the movie ink. Yes. And ink is the new movie from Danny Boyle. It is a portrait of Larry Lamb, who is a, was an enterprising fleet street, British newspaper editor.

41:21In the 70s and 80s. And he thanks to the financial capital and encouragement of one rupper Murdoch helped to redefine journalism in England and perhaps as the film makes a point 100 and 1000 times over the course of two hours, change the very nature of our media and interactive culture. It makes the point and also well, yes, it makes that point. And then also somehow doesn't totally land it, but that's okay. Yeah. So, you know, you and I both have this movie in the number five slot, which I find to be really interesting because we're both big Danny Boyle fans. You know, we love 28 years later. We talked about why we have, you know, he hasn't been on the show before and you know, like what his career means and all this. This is a movie that makes a ton of sense for him on paper. And I found it to be incredibly engaging and entertaining. It was like very energetic from the opening moments when when the sprint song hits. And you know, after this wonderful sequence between Jack O'Connell and Guy Pierce who play lamb and Murdoch at a dinner table, I was like, boom, we're in like a fly and Danny Boyle movie.

42:31I was pumped. And I, but I will say by the time we got to the end of the movie and some of the decisions that were made. I was like, sir, we know, you know, like we do, we do know. And also, and there's one specific decision that you're talking about that I'm like, sir, this movie didn't earn that totally. I know you wanted it to and I don't know whether that's the source material or whether the script or or just pulled back a little bit. So I completely agree. I think it's good, not great. I think the review I gave to a friend of ours was I also use the word incredibly engaging, really loud music. Everyone looks handsome. Yes. And I would like to say right now that it is not too late for Jack O'Connell to test for James Bond. It is not too late. This man wears a tux in the movie and he can wear the tux. Okay. I have some complicated feelings about him right now because one he's like, he's a freight train as an actor. He is like so charismatic and locked in. But he's in a little bit of a dangerous area that I'll call the Nick Cage zone where he's like really big all the time now.

43:40And there are very few moments of quiet reflection happening in any of his performances. And maybe that's a kind of film performances he wants to give. But you know, this film, 28 years later, the bone temple, sinners back to black, Ferrari, like these are the last few movies he's made. Many of which are good movies are interesting and his performances are good, but they are high octane like a mega performances. And he's he's on a precipice here. I'm not encouraging him to like make a quiet chamberpiece or anything, but there were times when I was like, we this is really cranked hard. Well, the whole movie is cranked hard. It is. Like, and the whole movie is cranked hard just like as a as an aesthetic and energetic strategy. As to make up for the fact that it's like people in rooms talking about printing things on paper without, you know, a smoking gun really. Right. I mean, and even the smoking guns, which there's some things in this moment where I'm like, is this real? Did this really happen?

44:40Well, like one for example, what what what what strain of credibility? No, no, not in that way. I was just like, I can't believe this is happening. And I assume that this is real and this is pretty gripping. So I mean, there are stories within and stories that they cover. Like it's really good. I just there's something I think it doesn't totally land the plane and that we wanted to, you know, coming out the comparisons were. It has a little bit of social network and it has a lot of wolf a wall street, but like it's not in a league with either of those movies. I agree. It has it has the blueprint and is doing a lot of the things, which means that I really like it. But it's it is much like Jack O'Connell's performance going big just as much as possible. To just try to hold your attention rather than like offering any sort of nuance. Yeah. I think I think we're on the exact same page. Like I really liked it. And I think when the movie comes to Netflix, it's just so watchable. Yeah. It's just it's going to do really well. I don't think it's quite like an Academy Award movie or anything like that.

45:42I thought Guy Pierce was very good. And actually the way that Murdoch was portrayed, I'm not I'm not a Murdochologist. I'm not I haven't read any biographies. And he's not somebody who's like life and career has fascinated me in any way. Although I know it's impact is profound. I I liked seeing this sense of resistance or concern at a turning point in his career as he is about to kind of change culture forever because of his financial capital and insight into. I guess what I'll call like the outsider perspective coming into establishment media and trying to upend it and the way in which it's being upended is to. Corrupt its decency. I guess for lack of a better phrase and showing Murdoch as this really hot tempered Australian. Who also knows deep down. Something about this isn't right. And so the dynamic between him and lamb and lamb becoming really more of the like archivalent of the story in a lot of ways. Yes. Yeah. Is was really fascinating.

46:44I like that that stuff the most. Once again, I was like. This movie could have been told through the eyes of Claire foy like another Claire for performance where I was like she's so good and she's clearly like a composite woman who represents like five women that Larry lamb worked with. And I feel this way about her in so many movies where I'm like maybe just like let her have the movie for a change, but I don't what it is. She's your girl. So what do you think? Yeah, I mean, she does the most that she can with what is like a non part, you know, she is she is the girl and she's meant to embody the ways in which women at this period had some say, but not enough say we're used against what like we're used as tools to make more money. And we're sort of complicit, but also taken advantage of and then you know she exits, you know, stage right. So it's like it is it is what it is. It's not really interested in investigating her, but she's very good. And again, also looks really hot. She's wearing all the 70s clothes.

47:45But it looks really good. Yeah. No, I don't know. It is which is its own pleasure. I completely agree with you. It's a fun festival movie in that specific way too, because it's not a dour existential drama, human drama. It was it's a it's a rock and roll movie in a lot of ways. The way a lot of his best movies are and it features a lot of the formal stuff that you've seen in the movies from him over the last 10 years. The step printing, the slow motion, the speeding up the the frames, you know, the wild camera angles shifting, you know, film stocks. Now, one of the things that I didn't totally know though I did sense while I was watching it that came out after the fact is that Boyle said he used generative AI for some of the sequences in the movie and he's come under fire for this for obvious reasons. Well, it's very as soon as we saw I saw it. It's there he uses some old photos and then like animates them and frankly it looks like a like a filter that Instagram keeps trying to get you to use. Yes. And it was so clearly I was like, oh, you didn't need this and I like can see what it is. But it also looks like a screen saver and it's on the screen for two seconds.

48:46So like I don't know. Didn't he also say that he used mice? Used it for mice. Yes. Yes. But I don't remember the mice. I do remember the mice. You know, it's one of those things. It reminded me a lot of the Steven Soderberg, John Lennon documentary in the conversation we had about that at Cannes. Or sort of like, you've made an interesting film here. This film could be a success. You've also layered on top of it generative AI that is noticeable and you've kind of undermined some of the notions of what you're trying to convey. That is true. I will say that the Steven Soderberg movie is like 50% generative AI and it was like the point. It was like that was the experiment. Right? It was 50%. It was a lot more than in this movie, but it wasn't 50%. It was like a lot. And part of that enterprise was, and you know, this is like me sort of defending my guys Steven Soderberg. But like, they're tapes that's audio. We don't have video for it. So let's see whether we can use this tool to animate it.

49:46And the answer I felt was no, which we said at the time. And I felt like you tried it and let's not do it again. But it was a lot more than this. This is two seconds. There is. But it's one of those things where if you make that choice, then that becomes definitional to the movie. And when people ask about it and they're like, oh, there's AI in it. But it's like, that's not what the movie is at all. It's a two hour docky drama with a ton of energy. So yeah, I'm not surprised we're on the same page about this. I do think that people are going to generally enjoy this movie. I think so incredibly watchable. Okay. Let's take a quick break and then we're going to get into the rest of our top fives. This episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by Amazon Prime. What pairs with the good comedy, the cozy blanket arriving with Prime. What pairs with the nail biting thriller, snacks arriving with Prime. What pairs with the big game on Prime video, that new couch arriving with Prime. Whatever feeling you're after, Prime helps bring it to life with great entertainment and fast shipping that delivers what the moment calls for. From streaming to fast shipping, it's on Prime. All right.

50:47So I had a film tied at five along with ink and you have this film at four. Tie it for tie it for so we can like four point five it. Yeah. Talk about it right now. Yeah. So the film is called Everest the other side. It's a National Geographic documentary from Chai Vosarheli and Jimmy Chin who are a very well known pair of documentarians who have made a number of extremely successful films, including the rescue and free solo and Nayaad, the narrative feature film. But you saw instead of you get everything from him. Which one once ruined one of the what could have been one of the best nights until your I had film history for me. This movie is about a man named Jim Morrison, not the lead singer of the doors, but in fact a mountain climber and skier of summer now who I'd never heard of. And this movie like all of Jimmy and Chai's movies looks incredible has pulverizing emotional moments is about people whose psychology's I don't understand at all.

51:55Like I have no idea what compels people to do the things that they do in these films. And also I had some like frankly like ethical misgivings about. Should it exist. Yeah. It's an incredible movie that I'm not sure it should exist. Yeah. And this I wept like three times watching this movie. Well, because it is about the mountains and they talk about the power of the mountains and I felt like that family as well Amanda Jesus Christ. It's definitely about marriages. So I so I saw it. I knew nothing about the story either going in and I don't think that we should say anything else. And if you're at all interested if you liked free solo. If you want to listen to the bar and ruin episode we're going to do about this when it's widely available. I would recommend that you not read anymore and just see the film. Which is pretty astonishing and is the probably the movie most this festival where when I run into people and it's like what have you seen what if you liked. It's either you know I said have you seen this and someone says oh my god yes or someone says no and I'm like I'm not going to say anything just go.

53:03Yeah. Because there is there is much to discuss as I texted you like I walked out of the theater and texted you and I was like we got to talk about this right now my guy. I know because there's I mean it's it's a really rich and incredibly upsetting text. But I couldn't believe what I was watching a lot of the time. I'm trying to think of like what what we can give to people well one I you know this is rare but I think it is very much worth seeing on a big screen because of the epic photography. The at the center of the film this guy Jim Morrison. He wants to scale the North face of Everest that is his mission in the film which is something that very very few people have ever done. That requires an enormous amount of capital both human and financial and is is deadly is it is a risk of life and this movie is in many ways like a lot of the child and Jimmy movies. He's this an exploration of the psychology of a person who wants to do these things however.

54:04Jim Morrison's personal story is so powerful and overwhelming at times the way that it's on unveiled in this in the film but I never felt like I could really get to the bottom of the psychology of what he was doing or if I could I was like. I didn't I wasn't happy about it I was like kind of angered by it and and that is such an unusual combination of feelings you know. I was that's so interesting because I felt like I got to a place where I understood his psychology but every other single person in the movie I had a lot of thoughts and questions for yes. And I also found myself angry I found myself angry at my husband just by the transitive property after seeing this movie and like called him it and then I was also honestly like a little bit angry at you too because I was like this is like some sort of bullshit like they like some of these people live and tell your eyes. Yeah yeah it is very tell your I movie there are a lot of moments where you can see like you you would walk out of the movie and see what we were seeing showing show.

55:04Yeah so I mean it's like it's so engaging and I mean I guess even that question of should it exist is interesting and the end it's a should it exist in a more traditional documentary sense which you know I know is we started this conversation by talking about a movie that played at tell your I that just blew up what a documentary means but this to me. This to me is still is walking on the edge and I you know it does exist so I would encourage people to see it and then I guess well it's interesting you know one of the movies that it was here at tell your I was I'm tensing which is the portrait of tensing nor gay and I'm in Hillary and they're tempted to scale Everest and Apple is putting that out to feature film. And you know it's like a pretty successful portrait of a historical event it's it's right down the middle but it tells that story very well from from tensing perspective and one of the things that this movie is attempting to do Everest is at least be generous and thoughtful about the role that Sherpas play in this world but the movie just feels so explitative of what the work that they do and the whole it's crazy.

56:18Enterprise of this were like incredibly wealthy people attempt to conquer these natural this natural beauty but they need the help of people who like need to do this work to make money is a it's a very very good. I know there's more like we do you have to put this on the schedule I'm sorry for a conversation I know yeah I know I know it was it's not a rich movie and it isn't and a lot of ways like a culmination I think of what Jimmy and Jimmy is a huge participant in the film yes he participates in scaling the mountain with Jim Morrison so. You know I I'm with you like I was fascinated I was completely engaged I was moved like it did all the things that you want a movie like this to do and I also spend an hour being like I don't think this is OK and. I mean I'm not sure I guess you know that's why I'm well I'm I mean but like what's not OK is like what's happening in the movie not OK is the making of the movie not OK like how much does the making of the movie and form what's happening and you know so.

57:23I people should see it I agree I agree or they should see it or if you're interested see it and then we're going to yell about it OK OK so what is the other half of your number four. Well I paired it with the other documentary that I saw which is previously discussed was a way says don't look back and anger which is. Dylan Southern and will love lace followed Noel and Liam through rehearsals and then seemingly all of the tour. That's a way says embarked on these last years the reunion tour. And it is it's not reinventing the form and there there is there are fantastic monials kind of sprinkled throughout which I think that like they are as creative and. Original is like a fantastic monial of like what a way says means to me can be you know they're in there so it's like but they have access to rehearsals they have at least one sit down with Liam and Noel together oh and they're backstage they're on the side of the stage you get like they're behind the stage so you get reaction shots you get a lot of like no turning around and playing.

58:38The guitar with his back to the crowd because he's like overcome you get the I mean like it's it's like it's really good and they use the good archival I mean Liam Gallagher so important to me just like so spiritually important to me. And I was reminded you know reminded that once again it's. I I thought that it was just like well I'm of a certain age I went to the show in the at the Rose Bowl when they played on Los Angeles. Like maybe this is just for old people that I like teared up but then everyone I talked to was kind of like no I teared up to yeah again it's it's you know it's not like historical but also kind of is it's beautiful yeah I mean I love a way so so it's a no brainer for me I don't have to. I think twice about going to see it yeah I think it was interesting to that the you know the band had another moment during the World Cup you know the fact that the English national team and Wonderwall and the way that that kind of like went back into the culture six months after their reunion tour was in the culture was cool and there is something really interesting about these guys to me and I guess we'll talk about it maybe later this week if I get a chance to see it before yeah before we record again.

59:49Were instantaneous like mega stars were trying to be mega star rock stars but also so clear how derivative they were and they were getting dinged for their being derivative but also their derivations were so satisfying and exultant and like the fact that we can be okay with that you know. So internationally resident and much of the movie is remind me a little bit about like when we talk about this show and we're like why look young people listen to this and. We have no or kind of like they were around the first time really special um and they're like fairly sincere about it anything to come to me and you love it. Okay I need all of those windbreakers because then I got to see the windbreakers every other thing because you didn't go to the shows I mean it's like it is like a well recorded concert dot kind of concert and you get a lot you get a lot of the full songs and it looks cool and it's loud and you know it's like definitely better than Taylor Swift documentary concert documentary so I loved it that's great no only.

1:00:53I'm. Number four for me is tender loving care which is like the complete emotional inverse of everything we've been talking about so far this is reportedly Mike Lee's last film. It starts Kato Flynn and Miriam Bailey Kato Flynn having a big moment she's on widow's Bay which I know you haven't seen but. She's wonderful on that show as I guess a woman who works in local government who is sort of. Bewitched haunted and constantly at the center of some crazy stuff she's been working with Mike Lee for a long time I forgot she was happy go lucky like almost 20 years ago and she plays a woman who is turning 40 single has just moved back in with a friend her life is kind of it across roads she's just been dumped by her boyfriend who went back to. Who's going back to her his ex wife and her parents are getting older and it's a portrait of who you are in your late 30s and also what it's like to watch your parents slowly and then quickly move into the last phase of their life.

1:01:58And you know like all Mike Lee movies it's like very closely observed highly specific. Utterly intimate this one is very sad. I thought it was brilliant I thought it was like also kind of a call back to a lot of the movies he was making in the 70s and 80s that is very different from when he was making these like explosive international art house hits in the 90s and 2000s. Oflin and Bailey are fucking amazing and it's very similar to me to hard truth which came out you know couple years ago which like. Kind of got right up to the precipice of the awards race and never totally got there this movies from the same studio you know I hope that this movie gets more attention and love but it is a small English domestic drama and so it's a little bit of a harder sell you know. I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing it I waited too long on heartress and and much of like Lee's work so let's let's get it in the mix yeah we'll talk about him more definitely as the year goes on I think this is coming out in December and it's very much worth your time OK what's what's next for you.

1:03:02So this might be a little controversial and I want to talk about so I have possible love at number three so possible love which you've not seen yet I have I'm seeing it two days it's imminent. Is the new Lee Chang dong film is first since burning and everyone by about Friday everyone at the festival was like OK so possible love is going to be the best movie at this festival. This like this is it like masterpiece incoming and I saw the movie and I think that it is like empirically excellent like it is it is undeniably very good and I have some sort of like I have a little bit of distance from it as I did from burning that I'm trying to work through and so I think why crystallize it for you OK and you're going to understand this comp and everyone else is going to have to wait until they've also sat through risky homoguchi's all of a sudden to understand. But I think this has the whiteboard problem so this is a movie about two couples one who is wealthier one not as wealthy and the husband of the the poor couple was fired from his job at a factory after participating in strikes and so it's a little bit about and then the wife of the other couple is making a documentary about you know unemployment and class and the

1:04:26and labor and strikes and and all of these big themes and so you know it's about how these two couples kind of entangle from there which is very interesting but it so it is about like big head issues and and in all of a sudden we've talked a lot about the whiteboard scene which is 30 minutes when people are diagramming how capitalism works and there is a segment in this that is more interview and it's the character who's making the documentary making the documentary and kind of interview styles but there is just a lot of very very very very straightforward educational theoretical discussion that I found myself kind of hitting a speed bump on even though it's essential to what comes next.

1:05:26But this is something that you did like in all of a sudden right and that's the thing I like the whiteboard and all of a sudden I was like I think how other people bumped on the whiteboard this is my whiteboard I see and that and that I mean, that it doesn't all come together and it does. And it's, I mean, it's so good. It's really good. And I think you're really gonna like it. But I'm such a huge fan of his films. I mean, that's the other thing is that I did also, like I recognize that burning was excellent. And like, I didn't like feel it in my veins, you know, for whatever reason. So I think that's maybe a me issue, but it's very, very, very good. And it is South Korea's selection for the Oscar. Certain it'll be in the international feature conversation. And I was very glad to see it. That's great. I'm really looking forward to it as well. And yeah, it's a, it's a, there's just generally a very interesting Netflix slate this year that feels very different from what they usually have where they have like one big, famous Titanic, O'Tour, Scorsese, Quarone, Campion.

1:06:30Like, it's not, that's not what their slate is this year. And they acquired Label and Egra out of, out of Cannes. They have this movie. And I think they developed, you know, like I think they've always been on this film as far as I know. I'm not quite sure maybe it started with some South Korea funding and they, they came in on it. But, Inc is another movie too, or they came in and they acquired it. Like they didn't have that big movie at the middle of their slate that was meant to be the dominant champion. And so all of those, the way that those pieces fit together fascinates me. Okay, I'll talk about my number three, which was maybe the most joyful movie going experience that I had over the weekend, which was the debut, which is Jesse Eisenberg's new film as a director, his third feature. It stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. Julian Moore plays a housewife who auditions for a local community theater production of a musical

1:07:31that has made up that Eisenberg wrote the words and Bill Erickson music for. Giamatti plays the local community director. And I thought this was gonna be the, just the episode of The Simpsons, where March auditions for streetcar named desire, streetcar named March, famous Simpsons episode. And in some ways it is that. And it's also way more absurdist and cough menesque. I thought of the European filmmaker, Oki Kursmaki watching the movie. It's not quite as like down the middle crowd pleasing as I expected. However, it has a few moments and a performance from Julianne Moore that are so exciting and fun and funny. And like there's a moment in the middle of the movie where Moore's character is giving a performance and she is being coached by Giamatti.

1:08:33And when that sequence ended, it was nearly a standing ovation in the Palm Theater at Telluride. I've not heard such a mid-act break of appreciation for a performance for what Julianne Moore is doing in the scene. Pretty much in my history of going to Telluride. And so if you like her, it is her at all the levels. Yeah. You know, sad and distraught, manic and funny, wildly over the top, wildly sensitive and thoughtful. It's the fucking hole she's been. It is like the total Julianne Moore package. And Giamatti obviously is always very, very compelling and strong and interesting. The movie, if you, I was talking with Kyle Buchanan about this movie and he was making some notes about its general story coherence, all of which I think were completely fair and did not bother me in the slightest because I thought of it as this heightened absurdist experience.

1:09:33If you go in with like, does this make sense brain? May not work as well. The other thing is for Amanda Dobbins' purposes, you know, this is about local community theater. Sure. So what's the ratio of singing to? And so what's the ratio of singing to not singing and what's the ratio of like waiting for guffment, like Christopher Guest style situations to. That's an interesting comp. It doesn't have that like, faux documentary feeling that guest movies do where it's sort of like, we're sort of mocking these people where we sort of love them. Like this is a movie about, it's a more heartful movie than that. Okay. It's hard to say whether the actual musical is like meant to be bad good or bad good. Like, or good bad. And so like, there is plenty of time. You probably see three to five full musical song and dance performances, but a lot of the film is actually the sort of like, rehearsing of those sequences and seeing what it's like to do that work.

1:10:35And it's in a comic way, but it is very specific about like, if you dedicate your time to community theater, this is what you have to do to put on a good show. And I know that that's a danger area for you. You know? That's true, but this is like, this is a film about that. So there's some distance from it. I think when there's no self awareness is when, and when there's total vulnerability is when I get upset. And there's someone standing in the way of this. Yeah. It seems like Julianne was gonna win an Oscar for it. So, you know, here's what I think. I'm a little reluctant to just be like, it's done. She's got it, but like that was one of the few movies where people came out and they were like, boom, number two for her. You know, she should have had number two for safe and boogie nights and end of the affair and all these other movies that she should have gotten it for. But she's just completely remarkable. And the movie is a lot of fun and I liked it quite a bit. And it played really, really well at the festival.

1:11:36And until the field or film, I would say, that was probably the movie that had the most, like did you see it, did you see it? Like a whole, it was a very tough ticket. A lot of people got shut out of it. I think they only showed it twice, which is a pretty low number. Eisenberg seemed like so nervous beforehand as he always does. And there was just like, what are you nervous about, man? Like you got it, like you got the juice. But yeah, it was great. And Emma Stone and her company produced the movie. So she was there supporting the film, GMODI, I sat behind him during the film and he was just having a ball laughing through the whole film. Have it a really good time. It's always funny to be watching a movie with someone who's in the film. And you never know if they've seen it before or what or how they choose to support a movie. Some people don't like to look at themselves, but it was a good time. Okay, number two for you. How much are you gonna talk about this? Not too much because it's coming out pretty soon. Yeah. And I don't wanna step on people, but similar to the way that until the Nathan Field

1:12:38or Elizabeth Holmes doc, the debut was sort of the movie. Primetime was the movie here. Primetime was the, have you seen it? Have you seen it? You're going to see it, when are you gonna see it, what do you think about it? And this is, so this is Lance Oppenheim's narrative feature film about Chris Hanson and to catch a predator, starring Robert Pattinson, along with Skylar Gzando and Mary Weaver and Phoebe Richards. And it worked for me. It like, it worked for me. It did. I felt kinda skeasy afterwards in some ways. Like it goes in and tries to recreate not just the moment and the moment in media that we were all a part of. It's like, it's maybe not in conversation with Inc, but there are media executives of various eras portrayed in all of them. And those decisions and what the decisions

1:13:40that you're making for ratings or in terms of, what's permissible to air and what's not and how far you'll go is a consistent theme. So it worked on that well, but I mean, I just like Robert Pattinson. Like I'm here for you. I've always been here for you. Like, did you meet them in? No, I would never meet Robert Pattinson. Come on, you know that. So he did, he and Stoocky Waterhouse, his partner stayed at the party the whole time. I've never seen celebrities like stay that late at a party and seem to be having a great time from afar. You didn't roll up. Rob, what's cooking, bro? I was at the party. I talked to everybody else like I said. Like I, you know, I was like, I'm a podcaster. I'm a mom. What's happening? Never. I'd rather die. Okay. I heard he's cool. Your husband's been, he's profiled. I sure was cool. Yeah, no, Zach is like, he's my favorite. He's interviewed him multiple times. And he's like, yeah, he's the best.

1:14:41He seems great. And also Jennifer Lawrence says he's a big gossip. Like I know we'd have a lot to talk about, but that's, you know, that's not how. You fucking blew it, Davins. You blew it. You know, that's not how I roll. I had a great time at the prime time party. You don't need to worry about me. I'm glad. I'm glad. So anyway, I just, this performance is so fucking out there in the best way. And watching it, I was like, you know, do you remember the interview that Peter Sarlesgard gave during Jackie about the first day that Natalie Portman came to the set and he said and did her voice and he said, oh, this is what you're doing. And you have like 18, oh, this is what you're doing moments in the performance, but they all kind of come together. I don't know. It's really, it's really fun to see a master at work and that master is Robert Pattinson. And I thought the, do you think he will be recognized for this work? He's obviously having an amazing year. Right. So a game that I was trying to play for, and I don't want to see too much about the movie,

1:15:41but so I mentioned Skylar Gazando is in it and he is, there's a case for him and lead as well. It is not quite a two-hander, but there is a lot, he's great. Marit Weaver's great, everybody's great. But the way the story is constructed, he does a lot and he carries a lot of the emotional weight of the movie. And so at one point I was sitting there trying to game it in my head and I was like, okay, so can you put Skylar Gazando in lead and Pattinson in supporting and then Pattinson just walks? And I don't like, I don't think you can do it. I think they really are co-leads. If they do it, I won't complain. But... Fraud defines the authors in my opinion. And I don't care about category fraud. And but it is, I think it would make more sense in voters, minds as, you know, that completely wild supporting performance and just going for it. But I hope he'll be recognized in lead.

1:16:41I think, I mean, it is really out there. That's what I like about it. And I know that more people really enjoy, like get these beggars out of here. And we haven't even seen Dune. So it could go some other way. But I thought it was just rad. It's really interesting because obviously he's developed, like, I think there's a huge appreciation for him as both a star and an actor, which is unusual, right? That doesn't happen very often when someone is like, put them on the poster, open the movie guy, who also is like a leading progenitor of his craft. And he's never been nominated for an Academy Award. He's in five movies this year. He's kind of staked his claim alongside Tom Holland's and Daya, I don't know, Sydney Sweeney, like a handful of people who are just like, this actually is the future of the business in terms of who you're putting on the poster. And it would be cool to see him recognized, but it also feels like his taste is why he's not being recognized. But that's why he should be recognized. You know, it's that perfect paradox of the Oscars. I completely agree. And that's why I was like sitting there

1:17:42literally in the room, engineering. Like, okay, so if we do supporting, then are they going to understand it a little bit more? And we can we kind of like, sneak this really cool thing by him. But that's a testament to the movie as well that it like, it builds the architecture for him to be really, really out there. Yeah. And for it to make sense and also still be really surprising. And I haven't just been like, oh, that many times in a single movie, in a cool way. I'm a fan. That's very exciting. I'm seeing it soon. So hopefully, we'll do a whole episode about the film. I think about this movie and you can see everything. And obviously an insane moment for Lance Oppenheim who's only 30 years old to have these two movies, which I think will be two of the most talked about of the fall. And somebody who's been like, really a big fan of his since I saw some kind of heaven, whatever a few years back and had him on the show to talk about Renfair. It's also very rare to see a young filmmaker, but also that's kind of been the story of this year too. I'm like 20 somethings and 30 somethings kind of emerging

1:18:45and bursting through. And the thing I've been thinking about with both of his movies is how commercial are both of these movies? Like is, could be because prime time, obviously, it sounds like it's pretty edgy and. Sure. And I'm so, and you know, it premiered here in Italy where it's really not clear that that many people, not Americans know what to catch a predators. Right. You may have seen reported that Jeff Zucker has a cameo. Yes. And I knew that was kind of silence in the room because no one, no Italian knows who Jeff Zucker is. Like no Italian remembers the prime time wars. There's a whole plot line about how they have to be lost. You know, like I'm sure they had lost in Italy, but like I don't really think they cared in the same way. So what do you make of the decision to send that film to Venice? And nowhere else, because it's not playing anywhere else. I, from what I understand of the Tell Your Ride crowd, I don't know that they would have felt,

1:19:46I think it's like the wrong kind of edgelord movie. Right. And that, you know, what is, I keep wanting to call Elizabeth Holmes Ovi. Now you see me, but it's not now you see me. You can see everything. You can see everything. It would be amazing if she starts doing magic and then Rosman Pike shows up with the South African accent. Anyway, well, there is a kind of magic in the movie. I'll say that. So actually you can see, not interrupt you, but no, no, no, I just Nathan and Lance told the story about where they came up with the idea for the movie. And it was when they went out together to the magic castle here in Los Angeles and they went into my favorite room in maybe all of the city, which is the close up magic room. And that's where they saw something. They heard the name Elizabeth Holmes uttered in that room and that led to the making of the movie. Sorry to interrupt you. Okay, well, there we go. So I was, you know, picking up something. But so you can see everything at least has the veneer of like Elizabeth Holmes is like a true story and that was like exposed in the Wall Street Journal. And, you know, like, so the retirees are like,

1:20:48they have some grounding from which to be pushed into weird unexpected territory. From time I'm sure they remember Chris Hansen, but it's, it is purposefully, as these fast the whole time. So I think that there is something that, you know, Italians, even if they don't know who Jeff Zucker is, are not quite as prudish in the same way. And also they got the star spot. Like I do really hear that was the thing and he was like in all the slideshows and like he was like the biggest star here. And they can still do that. So to me, it makes sense. I mean, is it not going to be at New York? I know it'll be out. Oh, it's coming out September 25th. Yeah, that's also very smart, right? You do one, you get like a star push for a movie of this size that is like not huge, not as commercial as Dune. Also starring Robert Pattinson. I think it's really smart to get the runway and then go. Okay, wait to see a great sale.

1:21:50My number two is your number one. So this is nice. We can talk about this movie, which is Wild Horse 9, which alongside the debut, I would say, was the biggest film at Tellyrad? And same here. And it premiered Adventist. And then the folks from the film came over. It's overnight in the same fashion as the Oppenheim team came to Tellyrad. And we've talked about it a little bit. This is a new Martin McDonald film. It stars John Melchowicz, Sam Rockwell, Parker Posey. It is about two CIA agents in Chile in the 1970s, after A Yende's election. And they visit Easter Island to see as Melchowicz's character calls them the big heads. And they're, I'm very excited to see that this movie is so high on your list. I think it is wonderful. It is a very specific thing that I love. And I have been calling it the American in Bruce,

1:22:52which is one of my, is my favorite, Martin McDonald film. But there is a component of this movie that I did not know about that made it a wonderful exploration of the American project that I don't want to ruin for anybody either. That I think I've seen in a lot of the reviews and stuff, but I feel like you should preserve that for yourself. So what did you think of it? It's true. Though, I mean, that reveal is, you know, that's kind of one of my favorite things in the world across the genre and across times is here in white men be invested in that. You know, that's my comfort thing. That thing, yes. So I thought of you when I saw it. I was just like, oh my God, this is, and, you know, the way I feel like this, this marriage of subjects of just not just that thing, but the CIA in Chile and so Americans destabilizing a foreign government, which has a very cynical viewpoint on

1:23:52and Malcolm Vitch's character is at a late phase of life. And all of these, like all of the plot choices and the subject choices put through the, or like the perfect, or Martin McDonough is who I want to interpret them. Like that, the blend of cynicism and there goes that dream and whistfulness and like, is a perfect marriage in these movies. And I think Malcolm Vitch just like gives an incredible performance and we should say that, you know, just like Julian Moore and the debut, everyone's like, well, Malcolm Vitch gets the Oscar. Sorry, Matt Damon, better luck next year. It was the same thing until you're right. That's exactly us. Yeah. So and it's hard to argue with when you watch it because it's so winning and he's so funny and heartbreaking. But I really like this as a McDonough film. Like I felt like, exactly. He, like his spin is the right spin on this

1:24:53and sometimes like the balance is, I mean, he's very talented. I like all of his movies, but the, like all of the balance is just right here. Well, it's a really interesting movie to put into his filmography and I guess we'll get into it later when we do an episode about it when it comes out this fall. But, you know, he received such a claim and such blowback for three billboards and it does feel like him circling back a little bit to some of the ideas in that movie and trying to put a slightly different gloss on it. But he's consistently telling these stories through the eyes usually of two white guys. That's two white guys, an older guy and a younger guy. That's usually the dynamic in his movies. The older guy knows a little bit more, the younger guy is a little bit more energetic. In this particular case, I think you can make the case there's nobody better with his dialogue than Rockwell and Rockwell, while Mount Kovitch is giving a performance that will be about the totality of his work and about what we know about him as this kind of like explosive trickster figure

1:25:54of American cinema and the American stage, Rockwell is forced to carry the movie in a lot of ways and be the like the fulcrum for this aging CIA agent and who is reckoning with his history and the things that he has done. And the two of them are just phenomenal together. The movie also looks beautiful. I think it is perhaps the most artfully made McDonough film, the most cinematic McDonough film and choosing to tell an American story in foreign lands, which is a prison through which to see how America runs the world. You know, in the fact that we think we can just kind of drag our ass into any city or country and make people do things the way we want to do them. I thought was a fascinating idea. I think you can read it unfavorably too and say why is this film about what happened in Chile in the 1970s about these two white Americans? I think that's the wrong reading of the movie but I think people will read it that way and we should probably prepare ourselves for that. I'm sure they will and there is also,

1:26:55there's some joke lines baked into the movie, I think to preempt or provoke those exact people. I agree. To know that they're coming but they're funny. One criticism that I have read of the movie, which I think is fair but doesn't bother me is that some of its sort of perspective, like it's lens on the events and history, does not feel like contemporaneous to the story. It's sort of like an ex-post facto reading of how some people might have talked about things. But again, I see it similar to the way I see the debut where I'm like you're in kind of a fantasia of history. You're not in what's meant to be a literal reading of events that happened. And so if you're going into that, worrying about the translation of the times doesn't bother me as much. I also think that remove is wise and also like an honest reflection of, you know, Macdonn is not an American. So telling a story about Americans but set not in America is probably like a more

1:27:57accurate representation of the perspective and gives him more room than if you're, for example, three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri and you're trying to, you're claiming to represent like the actual US itself, rather than like a perspective away from the US. And I think we do often find that films about the US are received very differently in, you know, the United States and elsewhere because clearly we have different understandings. So like to me, it's smart. Yeah, I mean, just a quick testimony to how much I like this movie. I had a chance to see it the week before Tell Your Ride and it was revealed as the patron screening which is sort of like what usually is the secret screening? Tell Your Ride, it's the first film that is shown to all the patron pass holders and also to the press that happens very early on on Friday afternoon. And I sat through for almost the entire thing a second time, like less than a week later. So, yeah, I mean, it's wonderful. It's really good, really good. And we'll talk about it more as time goes on. And then of course for me, my number one is you can see everything I did write about it a bit more on the substacks.

1:29:00So if people want to read a little bit more, I tried not to spoil really any particular details of the movie and talked more about how I see it as like a real confrontation with what we think documentary is. And specifically, this idea that the two most popular forms of documentary right now are the authorized, the participant is driving a creative, that is frequently about a famous person. Yeah. And then the other strain of it is true crime and the wave of true crime documentary that is on Netflix and it is also on Hulu and on HBO Max. And the reason that those two things are so popular is because, or they're so prevalent is because they're so popular. Like they are what people want. And this movie is kind of about those two things. And it really tangles with those two modes of documentary and also completely detonates them in such an interesting way. So I tried to get into that a little bit when I wrote about it so you can check it out on projections. Let's do some honorable mentions because we did see some other films. Yeah. I'll start.

1:30:01I saw the liberation, which is the new film from Guy Natee that stars our friends, Carrie Coon and Tracy Letz. Tracy was there. What? Tracy was here with Venice. It was here with me and Venice last year. I know. And now you get Tracy and Carrie both. And a great Carrie performance. I'm pissed. Full disclosure, I dined with Carrie and Tracy. So I am not objective about this film. But I was on the record about Carrie Coon before I met her. So I feel comfortable saying that I think she's incredible in this movie. The movie is based on the director and Natee's real life grandmother who in the middle of her life, while working at a bank joined a cult and completely upended her family and left her family to join this cult. And his grandmother was a survivor of the Holocaust and had a lot of unprocessed trauma and Coon plays the grandmother figure. Tracy plays her husband.

1:31:02They have two children played by Bella Ramsey, No Desa Young. The leader of the cult is Lily James. Wow. Who is very good in the movie. I like the movie and don't love the movie. And it's interesting because what I think I don't love about it is something that I think is a very artful choice but makes the movie not cohere for me, which is that the movie is very focused primarily on Coon's characters, not her decision so much as like what actually happens when she joins and what the cult is about, but the movie doesn't explain hardly anything about how the cult started, where Lily James's ideas came from. Like that same true crime cult documentary style that I was just talking to you about, we've come to expect a certain form of explanation in those stories and the movie withholds that from you. And I've added a little maddening. The other thing is that it's a very sad and depressing story and there's just no way around it. Like it's just a tough, tough story.

1:32:03And so you're not gonna come out of a film festival screening at 10, 30 PM and be like, let's go party. It's not that kind of movie. But and Tracy is very good in the film as well. He has a modest part, couple of really good laugh lines that broke up the doom like tenor of it. And so it was fun seeing them. It was really fun to see Carrie in like the prestige movie atmosphere where it was like Carrie Kuhn Oscar nomination. There was another example of that where when you came out, that was the conversation that people wanted to have. And obviously she's very worthy of that sort of a thing. So I like the movie, I didn't love it, but I think it's very much worth seeing for the performances. What's one of your honorable mentions? So we have one honorable mention that's the same, which is fucking faster. Oh yeah, you did see this, guys. I did see it, yeah, okay, cool. I was I was charmed by it. I mean, it's pretty odd even by Werner Herzlach standards. It's weird. And the first the title card is that it's dedicated to David Lynch, which also, you know, I was like, oh right, this is this is gonna be weird. And then I was gonna be out there.

1:33:04And I was so charmed by the Rooney and Kate Mara performance. And you know, they are in the whole movie together. I don't really wanna say too much more than that. But so many great moments, such a cool thing for them to do. I like them both individually as actors. I like that they are engaging with, you know, their fame and also the idea of being sisters. And I can't say that it like revealed a lot to me about this, what it means to be a sibling or a person in the world. I'm an only child, so I have limitations there. Oh, interesting. But that's okay. Like I still enjoyed it. And I like there's one scene with a forklift that I just think is triumphant. I don't think about it every time I see a forklift. There's a lot of really fun stuff in it. I thought I saw it very late at night and it was a little challenging in the final third of the movie where it takes a depression to Ireland that I felt was a little far field.

1:34:06But you're totally right about the Mara sisters. Like they're what they do in the movie is not something I've seen before. And it's just rare that you can say that about a movie. I've not seen a performance like the one that they're giving. And I use the singular performance very specifically. We should talk about Elsonore. So this is the film about Ian Charlson, the British actor who performed with the National Theater whilst struggling with HIV and AIDS. The movie is directed by Simon Stone who is mostly known as the theater director, stars Andrew Scott as Charlson. Charlson, you know, as an actor who like you would know he was in Gandhi. He's well, I guess best known for Territz of fire. He did some Hollywood stuff, but he also had a big career in the English theater. And he is, the movie is so strange because it's just so obviously that one of the most committed performances from an actor you'll ever see in a movie. And it also mirrors what's happening

1:35:07like what the character is doing in the movie. And Scott is a favorite of ours. And he's phenomenal in the film. But the film is like, and a lot of people are comparing it to 90s mirror max films where you've got these kind of like very heartfelt docus dramas about artist struggling at a certain period in history. And is that, but the movie has this very weird editing style that is montage plus we don't have it in the edit that you can feel as if you were, we're like, there were just too many sequences to me of just like Andrew Scott walking into buildings wandering on top of a roof, reciting his lines, looking in the middle distance from his apartment, like shots of the book of Hamlet, where he's been studying. A lot of just like, that stuff, unsinematic things where you're like, we're trying to find the movie in this story. Right. And then there are other sequences where it's just like for 30 seconds unbroken Andrew Scott doing Hamlet.

1:36:08Yeah. And you're like, okay, this is the movie, right? Like this is, this is the magic tree, this is the special effect. Like you don't need to do anything. Like stop cutting. Just like hold on this moment because this is something that we would want to watch. And that is actually what the idea of the movie is is like what you would want to watch when somebody really takes it over. One thing is very funny about this, which is a true story is that, you know, Charleston came in for Daniel Day Lewis who walked off stage in the middle of a performance of Hamlet and they never performed on stage again. So it is sort of like the sequel prequel to the Daniel Day Lewis legend, you know, which I mean, and I think David Sims actually may have even spoken about this exact moment in history when we did the day Lewis Hall of Fame. He did. Yeah. And so that's very like a very fun, it's like that's the opening moments of the movie. It's the first minute of the movie is day Lewis and then what that means for Charleston. But I just don't think the film is very good at all, but I thought that the performance was extraordinary. And so what it felt feels like to me is actually what usually happens in the context of the Oscar race

1:37:09is in movies starring women. The best actress race is usually like, oh, this film's not gonna be nominated for best picture, but it will get a lone nomination, you know, the Renee Zellweger and Judy situation where it'll get one nomination. And it might even be. The Julian Moore and Still Alice. Julian Moore and Still Alice, yes. Yeah. And that, I mean, that happens every year in best actress, but this is what that feels like to me. Okay. Well, I'll still see it for Andrew Scott. Okay. What's next for you? This is not a new film, but I for the first time I went to our pals at Letterbox had an event. And so I went to see three colors blue. Oh cool. The Chris Duffke's last date movie. Yeah, it was amazing. Like on a rooftop, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say about it. So they can post a letter, but they said I could log the movie, which I did on Letterboxed. And since possible love is like a legend, has been described by Lee Changdong as like a very loose inspired by one of the deck logs episodes. Oh, okay. I didn't know that.

1:38:09By the Chana Cove It. Okay. It's like it's been in some of the materials or in some of the interviews just that it's in the air. So I thought given that, I could at least include this movie that I saw while here in Venice that just absolutely rocks. And it's so cool. And I believe they chose it because it was the shortest golden lion winner with the highest rating possible. But it stars really up in Osh. It did win the golden lion here. It's wonderful. If you haven't seen it, it's also the first and sort of an unofficial trilogy. I'm going to seek out the other two. Cumbara, my blue is my four case. Yeah. And then also just the view is absolutely amazing from that rooftop. Nice. Don't worry about it. That's really great. I guess the last film I'll mention is The Disciple, which was quite interesting for me. I think this film premiered Sundance, but Netflix picked it up. And this is a movie about the world of the Wu Tang Clan, specifically about a member of the extended Wu Tang affiliates, silver rings.

1:39:11Netflix did a smart thing at the festival that I did not totally get to participate in, which is that a lot of the movie is about the creation and delivery of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which is a Wu Tang album of which there is one extant copy. And virtually no one has heard. It was released in 2014. It was acquired by Martin Schreli. You may remember the infamous pharmaceutical oligarch who was brought down on fraud charges. I don't know if he's still in prison, but he is the guy who bought this album. The album was created to be owned by one person with an 88 year license fee, non-distributive license fee. The movie is also a portrait of silver rings, this guy who is a Moroccan Dutch guy who grew up as I did, obsessed with Wu Tang, but unlike me, flew himself to New York multiple times, just to sit outside the offices to hope to meet the people who are associated with Wu Tang, especially Rizza. And eventually he found himself in the inner circle

1:40:11of Wu Tang. In the 2000s, and he worked as a tour manager. He worked as a rapper. He worked as a producer. He worked as a general confidant and affiliate. And the movie is like, it's an immigrant story. It's an outsider story. It's about a guy who's desperately trying to find out who he really is and who he wants to be, and how art inspires him and moves him. And some of that stuff is fine. Like it's like pretty standard, not the most revelatory thing in the world, but I enjoyed it. What Netflix did that was smart, which I failed to participate in, was they did a listening party for the album, which very few people have heard at. And you didn't go. I, because I was sick and I fell asleep. And, oh, it's tough. And I did, I think. We got one of these every year. I know, and I didn't wake up, but I was really sick. And if I did not sleep, I would have had a really hard time at the festival. And I have a lot of regrets. And I'm hoping that they'll play the album again, but eventually the album did go back kind of into the, into the ether. And the film explores a lot of the decisions that happen around that and some of the controversies around that in an interesting way. But it was just a great film festival stunt. And I'm sorry that I didn't get to participate

1:41:12in hearing the record, but I've spent so much time in my life listening to Wu Tang albums that I was like of all the days to go. The things to miss. Wildly ill. Yeah. Nevertheless, I persist. The design feels pretty cool. I think if you're a Wu Tang fan, it's a must watch because it explores like an outer ring of the group that we don't hear talked about nearly as much, like the bees and the affiliates and all the international crew of people who are associated with the group. So that was really the last big thing that I saw. I almost saw 10 movies at the festival this year, which is, wow. It might be a low for me. Now I've seen, I have seen 27 movies that were at the festival. But so many of those were pre-screened or can or whatever. So I feel like I have my arms around the festival. And as I said, LeBouleh Negra Club Kid, Minotaur, Fjord, those movies played great. My one sadness was my checkout time was really early. And so I had to miss the making of Marie Antoinette screening. I mean, I would have been really upset if you saw that and I didn't.

1:42:12Okay. So then you can still find about that. I mean, I would have been excited for you and I did see the new Pulse Rater. And you have got. And it didn't come up. And it didn't come up here in this conversation. It didn't come up. It did not come up. Maybe the single worst performed movie I've ever seen. Wow. But, oh, He had played a weekend Pulse Rater. A lot of unfortunate comments. Yeah, but you also begin to wonder whether it's intentional. I've always felt it with him. Anyway, tough scene over there. Yeah. So I got to see that and you missed Marie Antoinette. Did you see Mosque? Have you seen Mosque? No, it wasn't shown at tell you right. Okay. What did you think? So I mean, I'm mixed on it. It is comprehensive. It's four hours long. It should be comprehensive. And it's very convincing. And it's like deeply research. I wouldn't say that there's a lot of new material in it. But it does a good job of bringing together all of the reporters who have been reporting on his antics

1:43:15for the past 20 years in all the, you know, the various tentacles that he has now. Because it's a little bit of everything. And so it's synthesizes. And I think in a good way. And so if you have not been paying attention or it kind of puts everything in one place in what is it's being described as damning. And like, I think I already knew that, but it is very damning. It makes some structure. It uses two devices and they're kind of related. So Elon Musk did not participate in this documentary, obviously, as many people connected with him did not. This Alex had me said that he had, he, like a lot of people said no, out of fear or, you know, and deas or whatever the case may be. But so he does not have it. Elon Musk, he does have all of the recorded things that Elon Musk has ever said, which is a lot because this is a man who likes press

1:44:16and attention. And so they make, because of Elon Musk's belief that we're all in a simulation and it's like a video game and whatever, blah, blah, blah. They make an Elon Musk avatar. And so they feed all of his quotes and then edit it together. You know, they edit, they use his quotes with his real words and this kind of like eerie, purposefully fake, weirdly handsomer than Elon Musk. So I don't know what they were thinking about there. But like, it's like Elon Musk, like after a GLP one, they've like really defined the cheekbones. But, but it's also clearly like CGI and he's in a gaming chair. And so he's, this avatar is narrating the whole movie and then also the movie is structured as the video game, the simulation with Elon as the first person shooter. So they use a lot of video game animation. Interesting. I just personally, it's a clever idea

1:45:18and it does provide some structure and is obviously in keeping with some of the ways that Elon Musk thinks and talks about himself which is the purpose of the documentary. It's just not fun to watch in my opinion. Like this is a purely aesthetic note that I was like this is irritating and kind of junky looking. And that is possibly the point because I think those are also two words that you could use to describe pretty much everything Elon Musk has put into the world including the Tesla three, which like what just like put buttons back on the car, what's wrong with you guys. So I, but you know, it's interesting. It's like a storytelling choice but aesthetically just really sourd me on some of the experience. I also, this will be released in theaters but like it's four hours, it's a classic like watch at home when it's streaming over a couple of nights and you can watch all of it. And again, it's like very, very deeply researched

1:46:19and convincing. But I don't know. I just, the video game stuff, it's not for me in any genre. Understood. We thank you for your service of sitting through the whole film. I love giving these movies. You know, I've watched almost all of them and I think he's really interesting and the fact that we're talking about Everest and you can see everything and the vanguard of documentary filmmaking and what it is and where it's going. You know, he's somebody who I think modernized the form, got a lot of people interested in documentary and then I think the world kind of like the commercial component of the world kind of passed him by while he held on to a lot of what most interested him in terms of interrogating systems and power, right? Like that's really the big theme of a lot of his work. And so I'm very interested in it. I wouldn't say I'm like, Musk is kind of like Murdoch to me where I'm like, I know I don't really want to spend a lot of time in that world. Yeah. Though I would never underestimate

1:47:21that those people's power and influence and corrupting power. And the programming of ink and primetime and musk altogether, you know, there is a through line. One of the galling, but I guess interesting parts about musk is that in the second half, when he becomes like a right wing media personality, they just have a lot of that footage. And I don't watch any of that stuff. I've never seen it. You know, you see tiny clips and it's not like I enjoy watching it, but as the media analysis and the media through line and then does draw, I think in a stronger way than ink does the conclusions of what the media influence then can do to the rest of the way that we live. Right. So it's good, but you know, there's an avatar. Okay. Good to know. Good. Only James Cameron can do that.

1:48:21I guess that's right. I guess that's right. Let me just take a look at my telly right list and make sure I've given you everything that you need to hear about. I guess there were a couple of other movies that played here that seemed to do well. The only living pickpockets seemed to do well. John Chaturra was here and he was also similarly working through the stages of Oscar candidacy. I did see a couple of really good documentaries as well beforehand. One is called Zero Intention of Living Quietly, which is about Adam Pearson, the actor from a different man. Yes. And I thought that was a really interesting story and really well told. I also saw a Carl Sagan documentary called We Are Made of Star Stuff. It was all about his life and pursuit that I thought was kind of revelatory and a little bit unsparing about some of the things that he weren't so great in his life on that I really appreciated. You know, Pauval Pavlikowski said behind me online getting on the plane yesterday heard him speak his six foot four. They were strikingly handsome man. Fatherland was there.

1:49:23That's pretty much it. You happy you went? You ready to come home? I'm ready to come home. I think we a long day tomorrow. And then I don't know whether I'm going to have time to see any more movies before Thursday. Though did you see that we just got a resident evil invite? Oh my God. Did we really? Yeah. But you know, but now I got to figure out child care and all sorts of stuff. That's okay. She's okay. So it begins. It begins. It begins again. I've got a school function that evening. That's not ideal. It's Axe and New York. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Gosh. It ain't easy to be asked. It's not so easy being asked. Well, Amanda, this is always one of my favorite episodes of the year. So thank you for your service. You'll be back later this week. And we will talk about, I think we should do it in two parts. We can talk about a bunch of movies that we've missed from August and September. Some of which you've seen, some of which I've seen. We'll bounce back and forth. Recommend a few things. You know, there's been this really fascinating thing where like Kyrie versus Zach, me has been a nice success.

1:50:25The movie Buddy has been a nice success. So weirdly, the end of August and beginning of September had a couple of interesting storylines. We'll go over the results of the Summer Movie Preview game, which are effectively concluded now, because it's going to be September 11th. And then we'll also just hang out. You know? Sound good? I know. It sounds great. I can't wait to be home. OK. Safe travels, buddy. Thanks to Jack Sanders for his work as the producer of this episode. Thanks to Luke's Kavanaugh for production support. We'll see you later this week.