0:01

You also don't care about feminism. Your favorite

0:03

show is Entourage. To be honest, when

0:06

I found out that Patriarchy wasn't about horses,

0:08

I lost interest anyway. I wonder

0:10

if I know what you mean. I

0:13

wonder if you want it. Hello

0:16

everyone and welcome to Maximum Film.

0:18

It's episode 348 and

0:20

you know what? We stand out late. It's

0:22

your host, uh, you know, if

0:24

you love him, you know him. It's everybody way.

0:27

And in the booth with him are his

0:29

friends. So let me introduce you to them.

0:32

First up, we have an amazing critic,

0:34

an amazing Christmas daddy, and just

0:37

amazing all around author, person. Got

0:40

a nice, fancy, sexy new book on

0:42

the way and you can hear his

0:44

voice reading it. It's Alonzo Duralday. What's

0:46

good? Oh, well, if you, first

0:48

of all, what's good is that I think you just forgot

0:50

your own name for a second where we've all been there

0:53

in front of an open mic. So I, no

0:55

shade at all. It humanizes you

0:57

in my eyes because I

0:59

feel better knowing that it's not just me. This,

1:03

my what's good this week, you can file this

1:06

under, um, I'm old,

1:08

but I have recently discovered that

1:11

support socks are really great. They,

1:15

you know, they just give you that little

1:17

bit of massage going on in your lower

1:20

legs and your ankles. And, uh, yeah, I'm

1:22

a fan. I have

1:24

not so old that when summer comes around,

1:26

I'm going to wear them with shorts. That

1:29

moment of my life will come, I'm sure,

1:31

but we're not there yet. But for now,

1:33

I'm still in a, in a long pant

1:35

mode. I'm enjoying some

1:37

support socks. They, uh, they, you know, they're, if

1:39

you're walking, if you're standing, they really just give

1:42

you a little, little bit of circulation that you

1:44

might in other words, not have. Alonzo,

1:47

I'm sorry. I got to jump on this.

1:49

You know, obviously anything in this realm I

1:51

love and I a few

1:53

years ago got these things. They're like

1:56

copper compression sleeves. They look like the

1:58

wristbands like for like. John

2:00

McEnroe in the day, but you put

2:02

him around the like meat

2:05

of your foot Like

2:07

the arch of it and they feel

2:09

so good like it's that same It's

2:11

like a squeeze, but it's not the

2:13

hot whole sock. Anyway. Yep like

2:17

warber a very low

2:19

very like three inch The

2:22

meat of your foot. All right,

2:24

this has been our weekly old person Yeah

2:28

podiatry edition Yeah,

2:31

well, you know Just

2:33

switching it up for the first time usually she's

2:35

talking about the face now She's talking about

2:38

the feet and the wrist it is none

2:40

other than the queen of the Midwest herself

2:42

Super Festival programmer producer Dre a

2:44

Clark, what's good? Please continue to think of

2:47

me in the skincare realm and not the

2:49

foot realm Well,

2:54

so as When this

2:56

episode comes out the what's really good with

2:58

me and what's been like taking over my

3:00

life for the last few months We announced

3:03

our lineup for Bentonville Film Festival And

3:06

I've been working on it for so long

3:08

and this is my first year I've been

3:10

the film curator forever. It's my first year

3:12

as artistic director really proud of our

3:15

lineup Smart

3:17

eyes eagle eyes will notice I have

3:19

many exciting Sundance titles in there our opening

3:21

night film Out of

3:23

my mind is directed by my friend Amber Seeley

3:25

and I actually produced a previous film of hers

3:28

and our whole focus at Bentonville is on

3:32

Representation and inclusion an interesting way is both

3:34

in front and behind the camera I think

3:36

out of my mind is a terrific example

3:38

of that It's an adaptation of a novel

3:40

by Sharon M. Draper whom I'm also

3:42

a huge fan and the lead actress

3:44

Phoebe Ray Taylor is a wheelchair user

3:47

with cerebral palsy and the story is

3:49

about that and they did like such

3:51

conscious effort of casting

3:53

and then working with people behind the scenes

3:56

in the disability community and

3:58

that's exciting. I'm also sure going

4:00

out of sight, like I truly am showing some

4:02

of my favorites. I'm showing Ghost Light, which

4:05

I adored, which is by alumni filmmakers. I also

4:07

showed St. Francis by them a few years ago.

4:10

There's a film called Dandelion by Nicole Regal

4:12

that I think is really special. I'm super

4:14

excited. There's a couple documentaries.

4:16

Oh no, there's many. There's many. You're going to

4:18

love all of our films. But I

4:20

have a film actually that premiered at South by called

4:22

We Can Be Heroes, which is a

4:25

really charming, uh, about kids at

4:27

a LARP camp. And a lot of

4:29

them are like neuroatypical and queer and it's

4:31

like the place they feel safe. And I loved it.

4:34

Um, I'm showing Daughters from Sundance, which

4:36

I also think was special. If

4:38

you're wondering if everything made me cry, it did,

4:40

but what doesn't at this point. So anyway,

4:43

Bentonville, check it out. We will have

4:45

virtual screenings available festivals in June. Don't

4:47

worry. You'll hear about it as much

4:49

as you hear about Alonzo's book. Good.

4:54

Cause I want to hear about it.

4:57

Oh, well, well, you know, who else I

5:00

like hearing about? Well, it's our returning guest

5:02

who is amazing. A film critic esteemed

5:04

like all of the film critics we have

5:07

here. Robert Daniels.

5:09

What's good. Thanks

5:11

for having me again. If you'd asked

5:13

me yesterday, I'd been like the sun

5:15

is out in Chicago in April, which

5:17

is rare. And now we have fog.

5:20

So that kind of sucks. But

5:22

last night, true that like when the

5:25

sun appears, everybody just peels their shirt

5:27

off. They're dying for vitamin D photo.

5:29

Everyone last night was in shorts, top

5:32

tops, Chicago during April.

5:35

It was wild. If we get like mid

5:37

sixties, it's where the Midwestern

5:39

dad really shines and they start wearing like

5:41

the shorts, but then they'll begrudgingly put

5:43

on their like padded windbreaker because then

5:46

it gets too cold, but they're unwilling

5:48

to let go of that.

5:50

They've already turned the corner to spring. Love

5:52

it. Last

5:54

night, my partner, Mariah G.

5:57

Gates, she's

5:59

been back from Calis. for about a week. And

6:02

we finally celebrated my

6:04

birthday almost two months late because

6:06

she's been in Northern California for about two months

6:08

or so. So we had

6:11

a great Italian dinner at Italian

6:13

Village last night. Ooh.

6:16

You, happy birthday late. Mariah

6:19

is incredible and will hopefully be a guest

6:21

of ours someday. She's another amazing

6:23

freelance film writer and I'm a

6:25

big fan. But

6:28

also I really like the implications that maybe

6:30

you've sort of messed with your zodiac sign

6:32

in some way. You're like throwing off all

6:34

predictions of what your year is by celebrating

6:37

your birthday in a whole different month. Yeah,

6:40

it almost feels like a whole different year

6:42

actually at this point. Truly.

6:45

Well, you've been in like five countries since then too.

6:48

Yeah, on my way to another pretty

6:51

soon with Cannes. Since COVID,

6:53

Cannes means nothing. Yeah, I

6:55

know. And if we can all agree on that. What time?

6:58

If he looks good. What's

7:00

good if he's also holding the most

7:02

beautiful cat? I'm so jealous. Trillian, you

7:04

come here right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

7:06

Tuna decided that he wants to be

7:08

a pod lap cat. Usually Puar will

7:10

be on the lap. Charlie likes doing her

7:12

own thing. But Tuna now

7:14

he's like, oh, I saw Puar in your

7:16

lap. So now I

7:19

want to come, you know, just like

7:21

sibling energy all the time. What's good

7:23

with me is I went to the

7:25

Renfaire yesterday, which is why my voice

7:28

is slowly kind of recovering. But last

7:30

year was the first time I went.

7:32

And this year I got like super

7:35

dressed up. You know, I had like

7:37

this like barbarian-esque situation with the lacrosse

7:39

chest harness with the like shoulder

7:42

tape and the like pirate pants

7:44

and the boots. And it

7:46

was really cool. And I remember I was like,

7:48

all I need to really bring this together is

7:51

a big sword. I wish I had a big

7:53

sword like guts from Berserk. And of course, as

7:55

soon as I walk in, there's a man holding

7:57

a big wooden sword. And the...

7:59

And I was like, yep, I'm about to buy it. I'm

8:02

about to buy it. I really hope that

8:05

what you did at the Ren Fair was

8:07

regale them all with your perfect accent work.

8:09

So yes, you know... That's one of my

8:11

favorite Ren Fair details. Well, it was funny

8:13

because I would talk like this to different

8:15

people. I would love... but

8:17

I'm a barbarian, so really, I don't know

8:19

why I'm... So you said you were Scottish-Nigerian.

8:21

Only one second, I would like a spot

8:24

of mead as we traverse

8:27

the Ren Fair. I'm

8:29

a Nigerian, I said that's the one he does

8:31

well. Oh, you're true. Yeah, I like to switch

8:33

it up. Nothing feels more right for

8:35

me than you walking around with

8:38

one of those big ass turkey legs.

8:40

So I have to hope that that

8:42

happens. Oh, you know it did, and

8:44

now they cover it with sauce. So

8:46

we had it with garlic parmesan sauce,

8:48

and I gotta say that was the

8:50

last missing piece of the big turkey

8:52

leg puzzle. So we had

8:54

a bunch of that, had a bunch

8:56

of friends. We were marching with Mallory,

8:58

was going around, lifting people up, and

9:01

had her like little red writing

9:03

hood. So that's good. And then after

9:05

that, I had a show

9:07

at the comedy store last night, and everyone kept

9:09

saying, I hope you go on stage like that.

9:12

I hope you go on stage. They were

9:14

that close to getting it going. But

9:17

then to bring it full circle, it's exciting. I

9:19

bumped into Dan Van Kirk, great

9:21

comic, a Chicago guy, and he was talking about

9:23

being in Chicago for a week doing shows, and

9:26

he was like, if you come, I'll put you

9:28

up every night. So I think I'm gonna be

9:30

in Chicago for a week in July if the

9:33

stars align, which Chicago's one

9:35

of my favorite cities that I haven't gotten

9:37

a taste more of, because

9:40

I went out there once for a comedy

9:42

festival, and it was

9:44

like the best comedy festival experience, and

9:46

it was the last year they did it. It

9:49

was like, oh man, I'm coming back to this

9:51

festival every year, and they were like, that was

9:53

the last one. Go ahead,

9:55

I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. So

9:58

Yes. No way.

10:00

I mean if if if if you're

10:03

in town I'll get to see Roberts

10:05

will beat Iraq they will go to

10:07

that Italian restaurants. I mean I got

10:09

restaurant hit lists are now with his

10:12

top Chef season you know gone off.

10:14

Sue on if there's any top Chef

10:16

heads to on he's a Chicago guys.

10:19

I'm okay. Final thing I'm sorry Martha

10:21

Nussbaum. Spike and

10:23

I'm Ellie born and raised like

10:26

my perception of distance between states

10:28

are. So it's funny how. Different

10:30

it is because in Top Chef

10:32

there in Wisconsin and physically I

10:34

know sue on from Chicago and

10:36

I was like oh how does

10:38

he go to Chicago is like

10:40

oh you can bite from Wisconsin

10:42

to Chicago spot as like oh

10:44

and we looked it up in

10:46

the distance from like Wisconsin to

10:48

Chicago is shorter than L A

10:50

to San Diego. Yeah. We

10:54

it wisconsin We refer

10:56

to them as Fibs

10:58

specific effects such. An

11:00

Illinois Bastards. Savants

11:04

ssssss Oh man yeah so as overly

11:06

I'll do that bike ride one it

11:08

when I'm in Chicago. just go to

11:10

Milwaukee and back and I C O

11:13

Max. But I felt comfortable spending so

11:15

much time Dogma Chicago because we're headed

11:17

to Ninety Two in Cabrini Green for

11:19

we'd grown now and I've been. Will

11:22

have a hotline call about short films

11:24

plus an update on the Hall of

11:26

Excellence. But first it's time for it.

11:28

Addicts or movie new. Segments: Ah Which

11:30

stance, Where is this importance? Do I

11:33

care? Where We read the weeks movie

11:35

news and answer that very question. So

11:37

Alonzo wanna go ahead and take this

11:39

off. Oh I would

11:41

be My pleasure Center for

11:44

Anniston is producing a remake.

11:47

Of Nine, five other least film

11:49

to get the remake treatment is

11:51

coming courtesy of Innocence Echo Films

11:53

of course the original Month Five

11:55

was released in Nineteen Eighty Sword,

11:57

Ah, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and

11:59

Making Her. The. Big. Screen Debut:

12:01

Dolly Parton as our office employees

12:03

plotting revenge against a sexist boss

12:05

and you know, the patriarchy in

12:07

general. A reboot or sequel to

12:09

the hit film has been in

12:11

various phases the development for ages.

12:13

This latest remake announcement comes with

12:16

few additional details except that Diablo

12:18

Cody is working on the script.

12:20

Is this important do care of

12:22

before we even get started. Me

12:24

to ask a very important question

12:26

which. Is the Dolly

12:28

Parton song based off the movie?

12:30

Or gabby? How's it was? Ah,

12:32

film. Or is okay. it's where

12:34

you grab your cup of ambition. And yeah,

12:37

it's So with that being said, Them: Does

12:39

this mean that we have to get the

12:41

beyond Say version because. of

12:44

i thought was beyond says joe lane

12:46

areas like either so like dolly already

12:48

said she liked it but as so

12:50

funny seem to be like all the

12:52

dollar I'm like no this is a

12:54

good like requests anyway i think as

12:56

he be answers night if i would

12:58

have to be from the Ceos point

13:00

of view and but I know we'll

13:02

ever see what. We get. ah. This

13:05

is a property that has spawned

13:08

a sitcom that lasted for several

13:10

seasons. It's been a Broadway musical

13:12

I'm. At. But the thing

13:14

is, the concerns raised in nine

13:16

to five or so very much

13:19

present in the workplace in terms

13:21

of discrimination and inequality and exploitation.

13:23

So. You

13:25

will Sexual harassment A casual sexual harassment

13:27

have a that never goes out. A

13:30

sigh also. ah you know that the

13:32

I think the thing is I do.

13:34

We have to call it nine to

13:37

five or so. We just make an

13:39

original workplace comedy that perhaps centers on

13:41

three women and you know, addresses the

13:43

same issues in the that way he

13:46

doesn't have to be scrutinized. And the

13:48

well, the original did the blood the

13:50

you know, so I said Jennifer Anniston

13:53

is gonna give away the cultural. cachet

13:55

of releasing something called nine to five

13:57

you're crazy guess i did But again,

13:59

I always believe don't remake the movies

14:01

that work, remake the ones that didn't.

14:05

And the Diablo Cody of it, I have

14:07

to say, of her films, I much prefer

14:09

her dealing with women

14:12

in middle age, basically. I

14:16

think Tully and a young adult

14:18

have been some of her stronger

14:20

works of late. I'm less into

14:23

horror occult Diablo

14:25

Cody, and maybe that's just

14:27

me. So if you're going to

14:30

tell me she's working on something, I'm more

14:32

interested in hearing that it's something like this

14:34

than another Lisa Frankenstein. I think the

14:36

part of it, I'm excited about the Diablo Cody for

14:38

the same reason you are. I

14:40

haven't seen Ricky in the Flash, so I can't speak

14:42

to her entire... Is that her? Cornucopia

14:45

of a middle age woman.

14:48

But she did that whole series, the

14:50

test... Oh,

14:52

United States of Terra. United States of Terra,

14:54

not test. And

14:57

I do think, like, night, first off, please go rewatch 9

14:59

to 5 or watch it for the first time if you

15:01

haven't. It does hold up, and it's also

15:03

when you rewatch it, you're like, oh, this

15:05

thing is so much darker than I remembered.

15:08

It's literally about them plotting the death of

15:10

their boss. But Diablo, I think there's

15:13

potential for fantasy sequences in

15:15

there, like revenge fantasies. I

15:17

don't know, there's ways where she could really cook.

15:21

The casting of this, I

15:23

mean, again, they've tried to do this forever. Who knows

15:25

if this will actually come to fruition? But

15:28

people will play cast this thing to... Like

15:30

who doesn't want to cast 9 to 5?

15:32

It's kind of the other Valley of the

15:34

Dolls in terms of movies about three women

15:36

that they've been threatened to remake for decades

15:38

and it never happens, but it is fun

15:40

to speculate which of the contemporary crop of

15:42

actresses would be the ones to play these

15:44

roles. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I

15:46

don't think you could even call it 9 to 5 sounds utopian.

15:49

It should be called 9 to 9. So

15:51

that's actual work to say. I was going to say, you wish

15:53

9 to 5. Like what's the gig

15:55

economy version of 9 to 5? Like

15:58

9 to 5 and then to your 5 to 9. And

16:00

no OT. Yeah.

16:04

Oh, that's a bummer. Speaking of

16:06

movies, French TV

16:09

viewers will get a very short chance to

16:11

see this year's Cannes Film Festival through

16:13

the eyes of Messi, the canine star of last

16:15

year's Anatomy of a Fall, which

16:18

we covered on this year's podcast.

16:20

In a slightly baffling announcement, festival

16:22

producers said last week that Messi,

16:24

the Cannes Film Festival from a

16:26

dog's eye view, that's the title,

16:28

will be a series of eight

16:30

one-minute episodes to be broadcast simultaneously

16:33

on four French national

16:35

TV channels during this

16:37

year's festival. According to the press

16:39

release, this will be an opportunity

16:41

for Messi to ask his guest

16:43

any questions with the innocence of

16:46

a dog. Is this

16:48

important? Do you care? My...

16:50

This is another question I must start this

16:52

off with. Do the French have the same...

16:54

Can Messi speak? Yeah. Well,

16:57

that, I guess, is my second one. Do

17:00

the French have the same obsession

17:02

with dogs and pet cultures that Americans do?

17:04

Oh, way more. Way more. You could bring

17:06

a dog into... They were taking their dogs

17:08

into inappropriate places way before they were able

17:10

to. Yeah. There is no, like, oh, this

17:12

one's pet friendly. It's

17:15

all dog friendly than your dog. Like,

17:17

French women invented, like, the

17:20

ultimate aspiration is a Birkin with,

17:22

like, a Pekingese in it. So

17:26

this is about to be a smash. Well,

17:30

a thing that I learned, I've been watching the French

17:32

sitcom Call My Agent on Netflix, which is hilarious, and

17:34

I'm shocked there hasn't been an

17:37

American version yet because apparently there have been...

17:39

Fantastic. Other

17:42

countries have been doing their own versions all

17:44

over the globe. But, like, the Cannes Film

17:46

Festival is televised in France. Like,

17:49

when whoever's giving the big opening, you know,

17:51

welcome speech or whatever, like, it's on TV. It'd

17:56

be like if here, you know, Robert

17:58

Redford's annual, you know... invocation,

18:01

whatever, the speech he gives at the beginning of

18:03

the Sunday of the film festival, if that aired

18:06

somewhere. Like that's how seriously and

18:08

tied into the Cannes Film Festival they are

18:10

over there. So they've

18:12

obviously got to come up with new

18:14

ways to jazz it up every year.

18:16

And so yeah, I think having a

18:18

dog asking questions on the red carpet

18:20

with for one minute shorts is kind

18:22

of brilliant because this is really, I

18:24

think, France's greatest dog star since the

18:26

one in The Artist. Okay, well

18:28

for me one minute is the exact amount it

18:30

needs to be. Oh for sure. But

18:32

you're like, oh, and

18:35

right before it's about to wear out that

18:37

word. I kind of hope

18:39

that the French, instead of having Beyonce

18:41

or Taylor Swift beat, as a messy

18:43

beat, like they have like one French

18:45

recorder just following that. Yeah. Honestly,

18:51

I would just watch them interview Messi. Yeah.

18:54

Eight times for one minute. That dog, again, go

18:57

watch that. I don't even fall for many reasons.

19:00

That dog's performance in it, truly

19:03

troubling to this day. Thrilled, he's

19:05

still alive in interviewing. Yes.

19:08

Speaking of movies, Hollywood

19:11

sacrificing massive profits through

19:13

racial inequality. According

19:15

to the latest McKenzie report, the decision

19:17

makers in Hollywood seem to have it

19:20

exactly backwards when it comes to centering

19:22

diverse actors. For the third year in

19:24

a row, analysts estimated how

19:26

much potential revenue studios have passed up

19:29

by not being racially inclusive. This year,

19:31

that tally came to a whopping 30

19:34

billion. The estimate factors in the

19:36

spending power of several different demographics and

19:39

how many respondents say they'd be willing

19:41

to spend more money on content that

19:43

reflects their lives. Is

19:45

this important? Do you care? This

19:48

is our other sign that we tap, right? We

19:51

have the physical media sign, and

19:53

I feel like there's variations of

19:55

this, either racial inequality, gender

19:58

representation. Sexuality, there's

20:00

so many things. Queer inclusion. Yeah,

20:03

that when it comes down to like the

20:06

idea of it being a financial thing,

20:08

it's like an even bigger sign. I

20:11

have many reasons why it is a

20:13

huge focus

20:15

of my life and my career

20:17

in terms of this kind of

20:19

representational storytelling, but the money part

20:21

of it is like, quit hitting

20:24

yourself. Quit hitting yourself. You

20:26

know, a movie like Black Panther or Barbie

20:28

or whatever, like makes massive amounts of money

20:31

and still for so many in the industry,

20:33

it's just a fingers in the ear, la

20:35

la la la, I can't hear you moment.

20:39

And yeah, it's like no one's expecting that you're going

20:41

to do the right thing for the right reason. But

20:44

they wouldn't even do the right thing for the wrong reason,

20:46

which is to like, you know, boost

20:48

their bottom line. One

20:51

of the statistics I'm looking

20:53

at here, the eye popping, $12 billion

20:56

to $8 billion lost

21:00

in not properly valuing Latino

21:02

professionals and consumers, that

21:04

starts on every level because on

21:06

a festival level, that is an

21:08

area that is hard for me to program every

21:10

year. I'm trying, I'm looking all year for

21:13

work by Latinx

21:16

filmmakers who are American. Like you

21:18

can find people who are like

21:20

working in their country of origin,

21:22

but, and it means that those

21:24

filmmakers, they're out there. It means they're

21:26

having the same grind of finding financing,

21:28

of having their stories. And

21:30

because of that, then they're not being broken

21:33

as talent that can then be, you know,

21:35

like moved along and whatever. And

21:37

there's audiences for it at every level. $12

21:40

billion is the low end of what they're

21:42

missing out on that. I mean, yeah,

21:45

there's every year these surveys come out

21:47

and they're like the most dedicated movie

21:50

going like butts and seats audience

21:52

in this country is Latinos. And

21:54

yet, God forbid, we make some films

21:56

that might appeal to that community directly

21:59

and also have other communities that

22:01

want to see them, you know? Yeah. Yeah,

22:04

it's truly, it's just so many

22:06

things coming together in this.

22:08

I think one is the thing we always

22:10

say when a like

22:12

diverse film comes out and it does really

22:14

well and they're like, whoa, who could have

22:17

predicted this? And we're like, we've

22:19

been saying this for years. And

22:21

then I think the other side of it

22:23

is the things that have been like kind

22:25

of talking about bubbling up, which is this

22:27

like, D, I, you know, play for scare

22:30

and then try and I

22:33

like that, you know, we're bringing the facts out

22:35

against them. So I think it

22:37

is very important for things like this to

22:40

come out to show the actual facts

22:42

and show the data and not let,

22:45

you know, the talking heads talk

22:47

out their ass. So

22:51

how about you stay right there so

22:53

we can talk about this movie and

22:55

not out our ass because we're going

22:57

to be right back. But when we

22:59

come back, we're talking we grown now.

23:10

Hi, this is this. And

23:12

this is the final season of

23:14

One Bad Mother, a comedy podcast

23:16

about parenting. This is going to

23:18

be a year of celebrating all

23:21

that makes this podcast and this

23:23

community magical. I'm so glad that

23:25

I found your podcast. I

23:27

just cannot thank you enough for just

23:29

being the voice of reason as I'm

23:32

trying to figure all of this out.

23:34

Thank you. And cheers to your incredible

23:36

show and the vision you have to

23:38

provide this space for all of us.

23:40

This is still a show about life

23:42

after giving life. And yes, there will

23:44

be swears. You can

23:46

find us on maximumfun.org. And

23:49

as always, you are doing a

23:51

great job. Welcome

24:00

back to Maximum Film. I'm Yos if you want to wait.

24:02

In the studio with me are... Tréa

24:05

Clarke Robert Daniels Alonzo

24:07

DiRoulli Today's movie

24:10

premiered at last year's Toronto Film

24:12

Festival and is the third from

24:14

writer-director Minháu Begg. Alongside its leads,

24:16

child actors like Blake Cameron James

24:18

and Gian Knight Ramirez, it stars

24:20

Journey Smollett, Essie Patham-Merkison, and Lil

24:22

Rel Howery. Alonzo, would you

24:25

mind giving us a brief synopsis of We Grown

24:27

Now? Sure, it's

24:29

the early 90s and it's the...we're

24:31

in the Cabrini Green housing

24:33

development in Chicago, which had not

24:36

yet been demolished. And our leads

24:38

are Malik and Eric, their best

24:40

friends, and they are

24:42

best friends in that way that little kids

24:44

are. And that friendship, obviously,

24:49

while central to their

24:51

lives, is somewhat

24:53

under fire now because circumstances

24:56

in the neighbourhood is leading

24:58

Malik's mother and grandmother to

25:00

think about possibly getting out of

25:02

Cabrini Green and moving somewhere nearby

25:05

that offers not only economic opportunities

25:07

for the mom, but also a

25:10

safer environment for the kids, further

25:12

away from gangs and crime.

25:16

And so the two of them have to figure

25:18

out what is

25:20

to become of their friendship when they

25:22

are being ripped apart by forces beyond

25:24

their control. It is very intimately

25:27

about kids and

25:29

friendship and families and

25:31

the circumstances of youth and the

25:33

larger world around them. We

25:35

Grown Now. Oh,

25:38

that was great. You

25:40

know, I'm going to read

25:42

this and then like, you know, extrapolate

25:45

on it. You'll see what I

25:47

mean. So, you know, Marissa started it off with

25:49

this great question, what did you know about the

25:51

Cabrini Green before seeing this film and did watching

25:53

it change your perspective? So I grew

25:55

up in Compton and I even knew about Cabrini Green.

25:57

I feel like there are like projects that are. like

26:00

widely known I guess in the zeitgeist either

26:02

through like hip hop and rap or

26:05

just you know through meeting people from

26:07

like these areas and so like the

26:09

big ones out here was Nickerson Gardens

26:11

which I actually grew up next to

26:13

and my stepmom worked with and I

26:15

know there's the Marcy projects and

26:18

then there's I keep forgetting the one

26:20

in Louisiana but that's the one little Wayne is from

26:23

and the reason I mentioned that is that they all

26:25

kind of have just this this

26:28

exterior kind of perception as like

26:30

oh this is a place where like

26:32

crime happens and I think part

26:35

of it comes from people using it as

26:37

their street cred and the other part of

26:39

it is just the perception of black poverty

26:42

and what it means to be in this

26:44

like state housing and

26:46

it's what I like

26:48

about this movie is it by

26:51

zeroing in on these

26:53

kids and focuses on the people and

26:55

not the perception and it kind of

26:57

reminds I think hopefully anyone who

27:00

watches it that no matter what the perception

27:02

is it's its people which is

27:04

one of like the closing lines but I

27:06

kind of do want to quickly

27:09

as possible hand it over to Robert

27:11

because you're from Chicago right? I

27:14

am from Chicago yeah and my half sister

27:16

actually grew up in Cabrini Green and I

27:18

grew up by the Henry Horner Homes which

27:20

is the West Side Project so

27:23

a lot of my friends lived there so I remember

27:25

visiting very often the Henry Horner

27:27

Homes which is like visiting a different world but

27:30

Cabrini Green was the same way and most

27:32

of it's gone only the row houses

27:35

so the not to like the

27:37

high rises those are torn down a decade

27:39

decades ago now but the low

27:42

kind of row houses are still there and

27:47

Cabrini Green of course gained prominence through

27:49

the original Candy Man which

27:51

was all filmed there and then later

27:54

on the remake of

27:56

Candy Man actually filled in the remnants of Cabrini

27:58

Green in the row houses. But

28:00

yeah, I just thought, I saw We Grown

28:02

Out back at TIFF and absolutely

28:05

loved this film so much and

28:07

I think it really recaptures the

28:10

essence of those high

28:12

rises. And you mentioned

28:14

like community, right, about how like community

28:16

is made up of its people and

28:19

how these projects when they were first built

28:22

in the late, early 50s I want to say,

28:27

were supposed to be these community

28:30

areas and how much like they

28:32

decline through disenfranchisement and disinvestment.

28:34

And so yeah, I mean, I

28:36

absolutely loved this film and it

28:39

felt so, so,

28:41

so Chicago and in a way that like

28:44

a lot of Chicago films, it's like, you

28:46

know, they'll do a couple of inserts of

28:49

like, Found Sounds Skyline, We're in Chicago, yay,

28:51

and that's kind of it. But

28:54

Minh Hall. Shout out to the river. Yes. But

28:57

Minh Hall like really took, I think,

28:59

she's from Chicago, she's from Modris

29:02

Park, Modris Park

29:04

neighborhood, really took care to, I think,

29:06

make a Chicago film that felt very

29:08

captured and very, I

29:10

think, lived in and

29:13

the Cabrini Green segments in particular feel

29:15

that way. I

29:18

love the sort of intersection

29:20

of those two ideas. One

29:22

of the things Iffy said in terms of the

29:24

focus of people on this and specifically the

29:26

children and then also

29:28

what that means to a sense

29:30

of space because this

29:33

movie is so beautifully captured

29:35

from a childlike point

29:38

of view. Like Pat Scuola shot

29:41

this, he's the cinematographer, did

29:43

the most incredible work, was

29:45

nominated for a Spirit Award for it. We've

29:48

talked previously, I love the movie Pig

29:50

that he shot as well that I'm

29:53

sure I didn't shut up about ever. But

29:56

part of how this is framed, it's

29:58

also that idea of where

30:00

you grow up, that's your normal.

30:03

So like these kids aren't growing up like, oh,

30:05

we live, you can be both cognizant of

30:07

the place you live and maybe how it's

30:09

seen or how you're seen, but

30:12

it doesn't necessarily mean that is your filter

30:14

for how you see your life. And these

30:16

kids are like kids, they're finding fun where

30:18

they can, they're finding dreams

30:20

where they can, there's a lot

30:23

of little moments of play. And

30:25

the two young actors who played the best

30:28

friends, Malik and Eric, I was like, oh, I don't know

30:30

how they cast two best friends. Because it was

30:32

that kind of like, that felt as lived

30:34

in as this place, like these two boys

30:37

who are together all day, every day, which

30:39

many people have a best friend, especially around

30:41

that age, that you

30:43

like have a codependent relationship on. That's just

30:46

your person, you're just with them constantly, everybody

30:48

knows that, your friend is like a few

30:50

inches from you. And the other

30:52

part that they do really well is show a

30:55

couple of like, we see the

30:57

parents that they're talking about, and

30:59

they're both single parent families for

31:01

different reasons. And they are also

31:03

both very loving, committed and complex

31:05

families. Like it's not giving you

31:08

that wash. Normally if you're like,

31:10

oh God, do I wanna see something set in 1992 in Cabrini

31:12

Green? Like the

31:14

dad's gonna be a drug dealer who doesn't

31:17

care about the kids, you know, I'm just

31:19

expecting all of these terms. These are just

31:21

as believable, and it is that rich

31:23

texture of a place that makes

31:25

it so real. And that

31:28

the parents are worried about everything,

31:30

they're worried about whatever, but they're

31:32

also like aware of

31:34

how they're being treated by the police

31:36

presence that starts to show up. Like it's

31:39

not just a

31:41

submissive like, oh yes, they're

31:45

fighting back in ways, but it's also

31:47

a lot of it is just like, there's no lift out

31:49

of this, how do I do this? How

31:51

do I navigate this? And I loved all of

31:53

the small questions it brought up in a really

31:56

kind of flowing lyrical

31:58

way. It

32:00

reminds me of there was a really great

32:02

HBO miniseries a couple years ago called Show

32:04

Me a Hero that was about the, it

32:07

was based on a true story about the

32:09

sort of creation of these housing

32:11

developments in Newark and it really kind

32:13

of took you into like the political

32:15

aspect of it and the people

32:18

who lived there and then the people who

32:20

lived nearby who were worried about it. Like

32:22

Catherine Keener plays this character who's your sort

32:25

of classic, you know, not in my backyard

32:27

sort of homeowner. And there's

32:29

this great scene where she and a bunch

32:31

of other like white ladies from the neighborhood

32:33

actually go in and visit with one of

32:35

the residents of, you know, somebody who's

32:38

in one of the projects who would be put into one

32:40

of these new homes that's being built and

32:42

she is kind of gobsmacked to see

32:44

like framed photos of the

32:46

family on the wall. And like when the,

32:49

when the, when her host is giving everybody

32:51

tea, like she, she sees that one

32:53

of the, one of the tea cups has a little chip

32:55

in it and make sure to keep that one for herself

32:57

and give the good one to Catherine Keener. Like it just,

33:00

it's just blowing her mind that it's not this like,

33:02

that there's just not, you know, garbage cans with fire

33:04

coming out of them at every corner, you know? And

33:07

so yeah, I do love that this movie sort

33:09

of humanizes like, these

33:11

are kids, these are families, this is

33:13

where they live and they don't,

33:15

they aren't living their lives like, ah, I'm embattled

33:18

in this housing project. It's like, I have to

33:20

go to work and make sure you get school

33:22

on time and did you do your homework yet?

33:24

And here's what's for dinner. Like, you know, I, I loved

33:28

being plunged into that in such a way

33:30

and having it be anchored by the two

33:32

kids because the performances are so natural. And

33:35

I mean, I think one of my

33:38

favorite kinds of film is, and it's

33:40

usually autobiographical. When, when

33:42

a filmmaker will do a movie about

33:44

their own childhood, like I'm one of the

33:46

people that Crooklyn is my favorite Spike Lee

33:48

movie, you know? I love Amricord and Radio

33:50

Days and like there's a lot of different,

33:52

you know, films where directors kind of will

33:55

portray what their own childhood was like and

33:57

this isn't that, but it has that same

33:59

sense of immediacy. Yes, yeah very

34:01

much reminded me of you know it's not

34:04

Black's quotation at all. It

34:07

very much reminded me of stuff like Cooley High and Claudine.

34:13

Kind of this soft design and of course not

34:16

Black's quotation but also reminded me

34:18

of Crooklyn which was a big

34:20

influence on this film. I

34:23

interviewed Minhall six

34:26

months ago about this film and she talked about

34:28

how much Cooley was such a big

34:31

big big big influence in terms of how

34:33

they captured this childhood.

34:37

I do like the the kids

34:39

performances in this and the what

34:42

that means to the childhood. There's also that

34:45

we you know if you watch a bunch of things there's

34:48

that real like tightrope

34:50

between a kid who's like professional and getting

34:52

there and getting his lines and has that

34:54

like I'm delivering my line

34:57

like this. These two

34:59

well all of the kids in this and

35:01

they're they're beautifully cast and beautifully shot, but

35:04

they're so present

35:06

and in moments and it allows for

35:08

that real immersion in that

35:10

child experience that I loved and and

35:12

what Alonzo's talking about the attention to

35:15

detail of like this also you're

35:17

in this hallway and they took the time to

35:19

get these shots that are just like oh

35:22

I'm taking in both that this

35:24

entire building interior is cinder block

35:27

which is wild to look at but it

35:29

is dressed by this family with like photo

35:32

frames and all the things you'd see in

35:34

any dry walled house that you're maybe used

35:36

to and that kind of dissonance

35:39

between the materials and how they're

35:41

treated is just this

35:43

perfect example of what

35:45

this movie is trying to give you in

35:47

terms of that fear. It's

35:50

also it's funny because we're we're a

35:52

minute into this and it's like oh

35:54

I wonder they haven't really gotten to what the story

35:56

is about yet, and that's sort of

35:58

part of it because you You are much

36:01

more experiencing, primarily Malik.

36:03

Malik is our main voice, but again,

36:05

Eric's right there. But you're

36:07

primarily just experiencing what they're experiencing.

36:09

So again, in that kidlike way,

36:12

the major story points are kind

36:14

of happening a little over

36:16

their heads. One

36:18

of their classmates from a different

36:20

class is,

36:23

you know, there's an active violence

36:25

in the middle of it that sort of sets

36:27

off some kinds of things, but it's all really

36:30

done through this fascinating filter of like what

36:32

kids would be aware of for stories.

36:34

So it's not like, oh, and then they

36:37

did, there was an inciting incident at page

36:39

17, and then it

36:41

made them do this. Like those things are happening,

36:43

and like the mom's job thing, like their

36:45

lives are filtering around, but it is not

36:47

like, it's not stand by me, right? It's

36:49

not, you guys want to go on this

36:51

hike and find a dead body? I

36:54

was reminded of Richard Linklater's Apollo 10 and a

36:57

Half, which a movie that I adored, I think

36:59

kind of fell by the wayside because it was

37:01

Netflix sort of buried it. But you know, we

37:03

talked about like if you're a kid in the

37:05

late 60s, Vietnam is a thing that

37:07

is happening on television, you know,

37:09

but you don't really aren't grasping in a direct

37:11

way, you know, and it's like, yeah, sometimes, you

37:15

know, you're in your kid world and you've

37:17

got your kid concerns and things are, you

37:19

know, you know that they're being talked about,

37:21

you know, they're sort of happening out there

37:23

somewhere, but they don't, they don't touch you

37:25

necessarily. And so you don't really, they aren't,

37:27

they aren't factoring in your day to day.

37:30

I do love that they are aware of it, like

37:32

above and beyond, you know, they end

37:34

up going to a funeral at one

37:37

point, like they're aware very closely of some of

37:39

the things happening. And then some of them, they're

37:41

just referencing like this kid is showing off like

37:43

this blinged out watch, I believe would be

37:45

the 1992 term. And

37:48

they're super, I say kid and I mean

37:51

like small child, they're all like, I don't

37:53

know, children's ages, nine, 10, they're kids though.

37:58

And he's like, oh, he only earned the that

38:00

because he looks out on the corner

38:02

for his brother. It's like this small

38:04

illusion of their awareness of things

38:06

that are going around in their world. But again,

38:09

they're not looking at it like, oh, isn't it

38:11

terrible that there's drug dealers like in our... They're

38:13

like, no, that's his brother. That is just something

38:15

this kid does. And I love the

38:17

matter of factness that all of those things are

38:20

woven in. Yeah. I know it

38:22

felt like a very real kind of

38:25

just take on it because there's

38:28

this version, I think

38:30

of this life that's often told where

38:32

it is

38:35

something that everyone always kind of thinks

38:37

about and that's the life

38:39

and that's the struggle. When really

38:41

it's like when you're living in

38:43

it, you build your life around

38:45

it. It is just the setting,

38:47

the backdrop of it and less

38:49

so this like active force that

38:52

you're dealing with. And so it

38:54

felt very real and then you

38:56

have those moments like the shooting

38:58

where it has no choice but

39:00

to collide and affect your life.

39:03

And even in that they're like,

39:05

ah, this sucks, whatever. And then like they

39:07

deal with it, they go through that. The

39:10

kids kind of see the reality in that and

39:12

then they just go back to life. And then

39:14

the kids are like, right after all that happens

39:16

and the parents are like really concerned about knowing

39:18

their whereabouts, then they decide they're

39:21

going to like cut school for a day

39:23

and take the train down, down. It's like,

39:25

okay, so this clearly this message is not

39:27

getting to you because you're just like, yeah,

39:29

I'm good. It's fine. Yeah.

39:31

Well, and that was probably the

39:33

like hardest combo in the movie

39:35

because I feel like more so just

39:37

flashbacks of just that like

39:40

initial worry. And

39:42

I just knew it was coming. And I was

39:44

like, oh, as soon as he finds out that

39:47

he wasn't in danger, there's a whole

39:49

nother level of

39:52

heat that's coming. Yeah. The classic

39:54

parent thing. Oh my God. Are

39:56

you okay? Are you okay? How dare

39:58

you? Oh yeah. That was

40:00

like a horror movie for me watching that because

40:02

I was like, oh the more work the more

40:05

She is is just gonna swing

40:07

back even harder because you had me worried

40:11

Did any of you see any of

40:14

me house previous films like I saw

40:16

holla which I love so much HAL

40:18

a Check it out if

40:20

you can it's with Geraldine Viswanathone

40:24

I feel like a lonesus head this one not

40:26

fun. I think is what I was like I'm

40:28

feeling a tag in and and do her right?

40:31

Which I really loved and it actually was a film

40:33

that started as a short film and then

40:37

She made into a feature and grew and that

40:39

one's also set in Chicago And

40:41

I think that's Rogers Park right Robert is I don't

40:43

know if you saw holla. No, I did. Yeah I

40:45

saw a lot of Sundance and I quite like it

40:48

as well. And yeah, it is set in Rogers Park

40:50

I think all of her films I think have been

40:52

set in Chicago. She's very

40:54

much in Chicago filmmaker And

40:57

so yeah, I mean I think this is I mean

40:59

I really liked holla I

41:03

think this is a such a major step

41:05

forward Not just

41:07

in the characterizations But of course as

41:09

we talked about like the cinematography and

41:11

the editing and just the command of

41:14

these characters It just feels like a major

41:17

major major step forward And

41:19

I think also working on a wider

41:22

Canvas like the trip to

41:24

our Institute that we've kind of referenced

41:27

And that being here taking them

41:30

out of their milieu and

41:32

she like so I feel like especially

41:34

Particularly hood films of the 90s, you know You would

41:36

always be kind of trapped in

41:39

the neighborhood as though like black people never

41:41

left their neighborhood When like

41:43

I mean when I was a kid we yeah,

41:45

I'm trying all the time ago the artist do and

41:48

so I think her work I

41:50

think she's like working on this like larger

41:52

canvas in such a more Organic

41:55

way in this film that feels that

41:57

feels like it's just a really really

42:00

really big upgrade from Hala, even though I

42:02

do really like that film. And she wrote

42:04

an episode of Bojack Horseman, so that for

42:06

me cements, you know, she's

42:09

an icon. Ify,

42:12

you just responded when he said the idea

42:14

of them being filmed at

42:16

the Art Institute and like not in their

42:19

normal, you nodded. Was that like something that stood

42:21

out to you? Yeah, like

42:24

to me, it just, I think back to

42:26

just, I like the

42:28

kind of like the shots

42:31

of it. And just to me, it

42:33

just looked very beautiful. It almost felt like

42:35

in that scene, no one else

42:38

was moving except them. Like, like

42:40

it, like they were the, they

42:42

were moving about this space and everything else

42:45

was frozen in time. I

42:47

think this is an overt Ferris Fielder's Day Off reference,

42:50

or is it? The

42:52

Sirot painting in a movie without thinking of

42:54

Ferris Fielder's Day Off. I love

42:56

it. This one,

42:58

I do appreciate that I

43:01

feel Marissa's last question that she gave us

43:03

as a potential prompt was for me, which

43:06

is, did you cry? When did you cry and

43:08

why? You know I cried. I'm always

43:10

never not crying. I say

43:13

I didn't. And the one

43:16

beef I have with this movie is that

43:19

there are some of the big moments

43:21

that felt too adult

43:23

screenwriter to me, where like

43:26

for a movie that's so kids

43:28

POV, that suddenly like there were these

43:30

moments of kind of wisdom or something,

43:32

where I was like, this feels like

43:35

retrospective and not necessarily in the moment. Whereas the

43:37

rest of the movie, I think is really great

43:39

about the, in the momentness of it. And so

43:43

there were a couple of things sort of the end

43:45

where I was like, and that kept me from, from

43:47

bawling. But it definitely, I think if you did it,

43:49

it is earned by the film. Malik

43:52

wrote something and I was like, I know

43:54

many 30 year olds that are too dumb

43:56

to write the thing that you just wrote,

43:58

like this very poetic. uh,

44:01

like almost philosophical little

44:03

thing. Uh, me, it was

44:05

absolutely just a close-up at the end of the

44:07

two boys and I had, you guys, uh, not

44:10

to compare them to Messy, but you know Messy's

44:12

my favorite performance of the year, but

44:14

I had the same like, how did they get,

44:16

how did they do that? Like just, you get

44:18

a close-up on any human just starting to cry,

44:20

I'm going to be impressed. You get it with

44:23

two little kids and I'm like, those, what? How?

44:25

How in the world? So

44:28

yeah, um, I don't know if I might be the

44:30

only one who cheered up, but I won't ever deny

44:32

it when I do. I got really,

44:34

for me, the closest I got

44:36

was when it was the kind

44:39

of like poem that he wrote, uh,

44:42

and, and his friend like, so, so

44:44

like just that kind of, because to

44:46

me this is such a perfect moment

44:49

of that specific age. Like

44:51

when you moved away from, from a

44:53

friend at that age, you were like,

44:55

oh yeah, I'm never going to see

44:57

you again. It's done here. And so

44:59

much of our life was together. And

45:01

I think so much was kind of

45:03

captured in that exchange

45:05

because there's this like discomfort

45:08

with it, the, the anger of him

45:10

moving, but also just like, like

45:13

almost this vulnerability he seemed uncomfortable reading and

45:15

then he was like, take this out. Like

45:17

it seemed like it just covered

45:20

so much where like on

45:22

the surface level just seems like a dispute

45:25

over, you know, uh, the

45:27

anger of moving. But to me, I was like, oh,

45:29

this covers just at that age. It's like, oh no,

45:31

why are you writing about me like that? You know,

45:34

um, what, Drea, I started crying the

45:36

second I had the close up and we see this

45:38

embrace between the two of them. I

45:40

started bawling, um, especially because I

45:43

think this film is such an

45:45

interesting, I don't think it

45:47

was on Minhahal's mind that she was making

45:49

it, but the present reverse

45:51

migration that's happening out of like

45:53

the Northern kind of Midwestern cities

45:56

like Chicago and Detroit of

45:58

a lot of black people who are like. who

46:02

generations ago came up with all

46:04

these dreams of a better life

46:06

and now returning back to the

46:08

South after

46:10

being disillusioned, is

46:14

felt like it even closer to home

46:17

because I can remember the West Side

46:19

of Chicago and so many houses that

46:21

I used to see friends in are

46:24

now empty or now empty lots and

46:26

stuff like that. It

46:28

really, really hit close to home so I

46:30

started falling the second they said goodbye.

46:35

Having the grandmother there to provide that history

46:37

I think really gives the movie a lot

46:39

in terms of placing what

46:41

this family is going through in a larger context

46:43

for sure. Oh, such

46:46

an astute observation Alonzo. Like

46:49

a professional film analyzer. Yeah, there's

46:51

a lot of heavy digging to figure

46:54

that out. It was good. It's

46:56

good. It's a genuine compliment. Vote.

47:00

Yes, now we vote. We have returning guests and

47:03

all of the OGs are here but if you're

47:05

listening for the first time, the way we vote

47:07

for things on this pod is

47:09

screen it being the highest, stream it

47:11

being the next level and skip it

47:14

being self-explanatory. Who wants to start? I'll

47:17

say screen it even though with some of

47:19

the qualms that I had toward the end.

47:21

It is a beautiful looking film certainly. The

47:24

performances are so great and

47:26

a lot of it I think is really

47:28

moving and insightful not just in terms of

47:30

like we said the sort of inner

47:33

workings of a kid's friendship but

47:35

also like the larger – all

47:38

the characters have their own stuff to deal with. They're not

47:41

just sort of there to be sounding

47:43

boards for other characters like Journeys

47:46

Smollett's character has an agenda and

47:48

an arc and the grandmother has her

47:50

own stuff and

47:52

so yeah I think all of that is really beautifully

47:54

captured. I

47:57

am also a screen it. I

47:59

think this – This is a really special film.

48:01

I would love more people to see it.

48:03

I think it's such an immersive,

48:06

experiential, you're

48:08

in there with it. It's beautiful to look

48:10

at, as Alonzo said, but it's also that

48:12

kind of thing of like, yeah, do you

48:14

want to watch something that gives you maybe

48:17

the slightest of even fictionalized insights

48:20

to someone else's life and to

48:22

how they went through it and at a certain age?

48:26

I think everyone can use a

48:28

little storytelling-aided empathy

48:30

in how they

48:32

go through the world. And this one's a

48:34

really beautiful way to do it. I also

48:37

want to give a nod to that I

48:39

did cry at the ending and I also absolutely,

48:41

it made me think of that part in

48:44

Good Will Hunting when Ben Affleck's like, every

48:47

day I come pick you up and every day I hope

48:49

you won't be there. There's

48:52

like a speech about what Eric is hoping for

48:55

Malik and I was like, I'm

48:57

going to tie those two in my head forever. So

48:59

now I hope anyone watching this after they hear me

49:01

does the same. I have a

49:04

screen at, I think this is

49:06

an absolutely gorgeous film. And

49:09

I also just, we talked

49:11

about the kid actors and they're great

49:14

as well, but journey some up Smolletta and this

49:16

is really, really great. And I

49:18

think one of my one qualm with the

49:20

film is that she's a

49:22

little bit too, her character's

49:24

a little bit too flat, a little bit

49:26

too of a stereotype that we've seen in

49:28

plenty of these films. But I think she

49:30

makes a meal out of it. And

49:33

same thing with L'Oreal How... Yes,

49:37

never going to get that mad at me. I want

49:39

to see him in more dramatic roles now. Yeah,

49:42

I love the comic actor going

49:45

dramatic. Yeah, L'Oreal How... I

49:48

love him in this and he doesn't have

49:50

much screen time, but his impact feels much,

49:52

much bigger than his screen time. It's

49:55

just a really strong ensemble doing strong

49:57

work in a very beautiful film. And

50:01

yeah, actually, Drea, I also thought about good

50:03

well hunting in that scene, but

50:05

I'm always thinking about good well hunting. Yes

50:13

If you what about you? I mean, yeah,

50:15

well for me that's gonna be a screen

50:17

it. I enjoyed it had

50:19

a good time It looks lovely. And

50:21

yeah, I think you you should just

50:23

see this pop off on the big

50:25

screen. So Yeah,

50:27

very good Very

50:29

good. And on that note, we'll

50:31

be right back after you hear from another

50:33

show from maximum fun All

50:41

right class tomorrow's exam will cover the

50:43

extinction and de-extinction of the dodo PowerPoint

50:45

as an art form and the history

50:47

of Eurovision any questions. Yes you in

50:50

the back. Oh, what is this?

50:52

It's the putter. Let's learn

50:54

everything where we learn about science

50:56

and a bit of everything else. My name

50:59

is Tom I study cognitive and computer science,

51:01

but also be a teacher for intermediate emojis

51:03

My name is Caroline and I did my

51:05

master's in biodiversity transformation I'll be teaching you

51:08

intro to things British Museum. My name is

51:10

Ella. I did a PhD in stem cell

51:12

biology So obviously I'll be teaching you the

51:14

history of fanfiction class meets every other

51:16

Thursday on maximum fun So do I

51:18

still get credit for this? Obviously

51:23

no, no, it's a podcast Welcome

51:33

back to maximum film on your host if you

51:35

while you weigh in the studio with me are

51:37

Alonzo DiRaldi Robert Daniels Draya

51:40

Clark and me Marissa slacks part. Hi

51:42

everybody. I am here to

51:45

give you guys the long awaited results of

51:47

a recent Hall of Excellence that you guys

51:49

did on the topic of Wordless

51:52

characters dialogue free characters. However, you

51:54

want to say it. I Haven't

51:58

slept a week. Haven't slept Oh

52:00

no, that's bad because it's been like two

52:02

weeks. I know it's been a rough time That

52:06

we did this back on our Sasquatch sunset

52:08

episode with guest Joey Clift and Apologies

52:11

to guest Joey Clift who will

52:13

probably be heartbroken to learn that

52:16

despite his campaigning Garfield

52:18

the cat has only got 4% of the vote With

52:23

22% of the vote a big jump

52:25

up we have Michael

52:28

Myers from Halloween. Sorry I stick. Yeah

52:32

30% of these votes went to mr. Bean. That

52:34

was if you stick No,

52:36

I'm through Once

52:39

again give Alonzo the rare win

52:42

at 44% Alonzo's pick a

52:44

parpo mark I

52:48

Want to shout out a couple of comments

52:50

that we got Monsieur

52:53

low somebody said good one would

52:55

have been great Matt said

52:58

Legitimately shocked that if he didn't say silent

53:00

Bob That

53:02

was actually one of the ones on my head,

53:05

but I felt like you know mr.

53:07

Bean probably was the people pleaser but

53:10

silent Bob was yeah,

53:13

and Drew wanted Alonzo

53:15

to say the monster from young

53:17

Frankenstein Alonzo Counter it

53:19

of course that the monster from Frankenstein's

53:21

most famous a bit

53:23

involves a little bit of He

53:25

thinks on the red so that does that felt like

53:28

too much dialogue And

53:35

I went young Frankenstein last time I don't want you guys think

53:37

I'm a one-trick Alright

53:43

so that's all of excellent things everybody who voted

53:45

and Congratulations

53:48

to harpo marks for being

53:50

what do we say ascended

53:52

to the rafters with the other We're I don't

53:55

know with who what with Dracula's

53:57

wig How

54:01

I did it by Victor Von Frankenstein. Oh

54:04

yeah, yeah. The Batmobile, I

54:06

want to say. Usually I have a list in

54:08

front of me. Yeah. I'll

54:11

have to post that list somewhere so that everybody can admire.

54:13

We need to have a virtual Hall of Excellence that people

54:15

can tour. There you go. We sure

54:17

do. The VR Walkthrough. Yeah, I'll work on

54:19

that. Yeah. We'll get through. All

54:22

right. Take it away for the rest of

54:24

the show, Ify. Thanks, Marissa. All right. Thank

54:26

you, once again, Marissa, for being you. All

54:29

right. Now it is

54:31

time for a question from the

54:34

Hotline. David from Wisconsin. Wow. We

54:37

were just talking about you. Oh, hey, David. How

54:39

are you doing? Right.

54:43

Ify, reading this in a cute

54:45

little fairy voice would rock my

54:47

world. Okay. I don't know

54:49

if I'm going to rock your world. Let

54:52

me see. I'm so tense right now, a lot

54:54

of things. So tense. Holding my breath.

54:58

Maximum film is great.

55:01

But what about minimum film? We

55:03

see all these films pushing three hours.

55:06

But what about the movies that tell

55:08

a complete and amazing story in 45

55:10

minutes? Or even 30? Or

55:13

10? Or five? What

55:17

are some short films that stand

55:19

toe to toe with feature lengths

55:21

as all-time favorite, best movie?

55:23

Keep speaking of films. David

55:26

from Westly, Wisconsin-y.

55:29

I've sensed the fairy wings. Yeah, yeah. I

55:32

think it's West Alice, by the way. Westly

55:35

is what fairies call it. Okay.

55:38

Yeah, yeah. So. I

55:40

love this question. Yeah. So

55:43

many people cut their teeth as filmmakers on

55:45

short films, and they should. Yeah. It's

55:48

not an easy medium to get your 10,000 hours.

55:51

It's collaborative. It's

55:53

expensive. But because

55:55

of that, there's so many great, innovative

55:58

short films and not ever. Everyone gets

56:00

to see them. Obviously, they're a mainstay

56:02

at most film festivals, but

56:04

there's not always easy access to them unless you

56:07

are someone who's looking out for the Vimeo staff

56:09

pick of the week or whatever. I

56:12

have a few that immediately came to mind, and many

56:14

of them then went on to make

56:18

features. So it's nice seeing their style

56:20

evolve. I've mentioned this in the past.

56:22

It's something else I love.

56:24

But there's, and these, I looked, I

56:26

think most of these are available online, if not all

56:28

of them, so you can go check them out. There

56:31

is a short film called Former Cult

56:33

Member, Here's Music for the First Time

56:36

by Christopher Borgley, who had a film

56:38

called Dream Scenario last year, which

56:41

when you watch this short, it's the

56:43

perfect example of like a minimal location.

56:45

It's like against one wall the whole

56:47

time. And then a few people, and

56:49

then it takes big narrative turns. It

56:51

has a tonal switch. It's random. You're

56:53

like, what all is happening here? And

56:56

then if you watch Dream Scenario, you're like, yeah,

56:58

of course, this is what this person would dream up. Nikki

57:02

Atu Jusu, who had Nanny last year that

57:04

we spoke about, has a great short called

57:06

Suicide by Sunlight that I really liked that

57:08

takes the ideas of sort

57:11

of racial barriers,

57:14

vampirism, classism.

57:16

Like there's all sorts of things happening

57:18

in that. And it's like 22 minutes

57:21

or something. There

57:23

is a, my friend Danny Madden

57:25

has, it's partially

57:27

animated and partially the

57:30

world's fastest edit of so many

57:32

things you'll recognize called All Your Favorite

57:34

Shows. And so the hand-drawn animation

57:37

part is kind of guiding you through this

57:39

character, but they're also, he's

57:41

speaking in memorable visuals

57:43

from movies or TV shows that

57:46

you've seen. And I'm not doing a great

57:48

job of describing it, so please go watch it. And

57:51

then lastly, I would throw out, if you

57:53

were like, you know what I'd love to see, because this

57:55

is one that I thought about in reference. And that's the

57:57

other thing I love about shorts. I wish more

57:59

people saw. them because you would also want

58:01

to reference them all the time because they're

58:03

very good at pinpointing something so specific. If

58:06

you are like, you know what, I'd really

58:08

love to see a very realistic, awkward,

58:12

sloppy, momentarily

58:14

hot, mostly awkward sex

58:16

scene. There is a short

58:18

called Rubber Heart by filmmaker Lizzie

58:21

Bourne that is so specific

58:23

and peculiar and you're like, oh

58:26

god, I've been in this moment.

58:28

Even if you haven't been in that moment, you've been

58:30

in that moment and it is so realistic but it's

58:32

that thing you're watching it and you're like, oh,

58:35

she has captured so perfectly and

58:38

it's that idea of film as

58:40

language, of communicating like a

58:42

moment in time really specifically and that's what

58:44

short films do so well. A lot

58:46

of, you know, they need to have a full arc to them

58:49

but so much of them are just the specificity of

58:51

this little story. I love this question.

58:53

Oh yeah, have you been a film

58:55

festival programmer for a long enough time?

58:57

You see a ton of really great

58:59

shorts and I always tell people that

59:02

that's one of the more competitive slots

59:04

to get at a film festival so

59:06

you should see the shorts program because

59:08

if they're showing eight films or 20

59:10

films or however many, like there were

59:12

a good ten times that were

59:15

submitted and we're trying to get to those spots so

59:17

I was thinking back to some of the first ones

59:19

that I did when I started programming in Dallas

59:22

in the mid 90s, I

59:24

can't find it online but there's a

59:26

film called Touch Base directed by Toni

59:28

Gilroy starring Lily Taylor and almost the

59:30

entire movie is Lily Taylor in

59:33

her cubicle sort of like taking phone calls.

59:35

It's kind of a precursor to lock and,

59:38

you know, she starts out very sort of like it's

59:40

another day and she's on top of it and blah

59:42

blah blah but there's one person that she can't track

59:45

down, a friend of hers and, you know,

59:47

she's, you get this sense, it's

59:49

like a 20 minute song but she goes this

59:51

complete arc to being like so Desperate

59:54

and frantic by the end of it of

59:56

just like trying to find this person and

59:58

where are they and. And

1:00:00

they they build on. That was her

1:00:02

never leaving. the cubicle is really amazing.

1:00:06

You know the animator Don Herzfeld who

1:00:08

yeah I think Israel cult following efforts

1:00:10

features sort out in shorts and abilities.

1:00:12

Balloon is a a a wonderfully darkly

1:00:15

comic and I think pairs well with

1:00:17

the Red Balloon which is sort of

1:00:19

like everyone knows like V short film

1:00:21

that everybody saw at some point. you

1:00:23

know which is that if you have

1:00:25

it it's on the Criterion Settlements gorgeous

1:00:27

I'm I'm just as or this one

1:00:30

out there as far as like what

1:00:32

to do with very limited means but

1:00:34

great creativity. There's a film. From a

1:00:36

admit ten years ago permitted

1:00:38

Sundance we screened in an

1:00:40

office called Cruising Electric and

1:00:43

basically as a fake commercial

1:00:45

for a like kids like

1:00:47

auto racing set based on

1:00:49

the movie Cruising. And

1:00:51

it's brilliance and it's on you

1:00:53

tube. You should check it out.

1:00:55

And Billion Moon played at the

1:00:57

very first slam dance that I

1:00:59

worked at when I was like

1:01:01

just an intern. Like Down as

1:01:04

one of the first filmmakers I

1:01:06

met. And that's like and a

1:01:08

career Please call a couple of

1:01:10

Down Hurts Phelps sorts. they are.

1:01:12

It's increasingly like incredible. Yeah my

1:01:14

my. The first festival that I

1:01:16

did in Dallas Herbs. It's funny

1:01:18

because we're we read the do

1:01:20

a big A shorts competition. And

1:01:22

you know it. It's a lengthy process

1:01:24

and you know there's that first day

1:01:26

where the jury first gathers. It's literally

1:01:29

the first tape that I grabbed randomly

1:01:31

and shoved into the machine was this

1:01:33

a shortcut Lillian Gym and that won

1:01:35

the competition and that was a would

1:01:37

have done for sells for shorts. E

1:01:41

F. Robert. I bet you have

1:01:43

some good ones. Yeah, Ah,

1:01:45

there was tellers out from air.

1:01:48

And at Sundance of years ago,

1:01:50

I think Sundance. Tonia.

1:01:53

To. A nineteen twenties and Zimmerman Outs

1:01:55

was two years. A humbling twenty nineteen

1:01:57

ah my. From Haley Elizabeth and a

1:01:59

Santa. which is this great

1:02:02

coming of age short

1:02:04

about a kind of like young

1:02:07

black girl having this like sexual awakening with

1:02:12

and dealing with her homophobic father.

1:02:15

That reminded me of quite a bit of pariah. Elizabeth

1:02:19

Anderson now has a film feature

1:02:21

length called Tenderberry that just premiered at this

1:02:24

class on dance, which is amazing. Let's

1:02:27

see, it's also Charlotte Wells, her

1:02:29

short Blue Christmas, which

1:02:32

was shot by Robbie Ryan, who

1:02:34

did Four Things and a few other

1:02:37

great films. And that one, I guess

1:02:39

set on Christmas Eve in the 60s

1:02:41

in a kind of like Scottish kind

1:02:43

of coastal town and it follows a

1:02:46

debt collector who's been like literally

1:02:48

on Christmas, who's

1:02:50

like going around and trying to collect debts

1:02:52

as his like wife is like going, it's

1:02:55

basically spiraling at home. And I just think that's,

1:02:57

remember seeing that film for the first time is

1:02:59

thinking like, oh my God, who's this filmmaker? I

1:03:01

can't wait to see whatever they do with their

1:03:04

feature. And of course, like four

1:03:06

years later, Charlotte Wells had After Sun.

1:03:09

Those are the first two that really come to mind

1:03:12

immediately. But there's so many, so,

1:03:15

so, so many great

1:03:17

short films. And I wish it was terrible when

1:03:19

I'm at a film festival and I can't catch

1:03:22

the short block. I've

1:03:24

been a couple of times where I've kind of like tricked

1:03:26

an outlet into me. Me do a

1:03:29

quick kind of like, oh, let me do kind of

1:03:31

just the highlights kind of piece, you know. And

1:03:33

it's always been always been wonderful. Yeah.

1:03:36

And then, yeah, mine, there is the

1:03:38

one that like jumped to

1:03:40

the top of my head the moment. I

1:03:42

like read this, which is going to be

1:03:45

Bernard Bredow's yearbook. It's

1:03:47

an animated short. It is

1:03:49

like such a like concise,

1:03:51

beautiful story top to

1:03:53

bottom. It gives you everything you need

1:03:56

in like five minutes, you

1:03:58

know, it's like so. good and

1:04:00

the long and short of it is

1:04:02

if someone who's hired, there's a comment

1:04:04

that's going to hit the earth and

1:04:07

kill everyone and someone who's hired to

1:04:09

try and archive all the history of

1:04:11

the world into a hard drive

1:04:14

so that it can be carried

1:04:16

off with the people who are

1:04:18

going to escape the planet in space. I

1:04:21

feel like that's all you need to know because... It's

1:04:23

online and animated. We showed that at LA

1:04:26

Film Fest too. Oh yeah. It was like

1:04:28

five minutes. That's a great try. I'm going

1:04:30

to drop the link so that Mariska just added

1:04:32

in the show notes because it's only five minutes.

1:04:34

I think it's worth watching. And

1:04:36

man, you only need five minutes to cry. You

1:04:42

only need five minutes to cry. That's

1:04:46

the t-shirt for the next Max

1:04:48

Phan drive. Well,

1:04:50

thank you so much David. That was

1:04:52

an amazing question and it

1:04:55

seems like everyone had fun with it. So

1:04:57

great job. And look, if

1:04:59

you have a Hotline question, you can type it up or

1:05:02

record a voice memo and

1:05:04

email it to maximumfilmatmaximumfund.org or

1:05:06

you can go to maximumfund.org/hotline

1:05:08

and record it there. Thank

1:05:11

you in advance. Apparently, Marissa said

1:05:13

that we had a whole bunch come

1:05:15

in after a single dry ass phone

1:05:19

bank's comment. So

1:05:21

yeah, that's the last time you'll hear it

1:05:23

for now. Now it's time for

1:05:25

staff picks. It can be any movie at all. I'll

1:05:31

go. I mean,

1:05:33

it's really been a theme today, the

1:05:35

whole Sunday. I'm sorry. I apologize for

1:05:37

any Sundance themes. But there

1:05:40

is a movie finally coming out called I

1:05:42

Saw the TV Glow, which

1:05:44

I think is something so great and

1:05:47

people should check out if you didn't

1:05:49

see Jane. Is it Schoenberg? Schoenberg?

1:05:51

I didn't say her name right. Schoenbrunn.

1:05:55

Sorry, brought your German name, Jane. But

1:05:57

yeah, it's coming out. Keep an eye

1:05:59

out. You'll love it. It's inventive. It's

1:06:01

unique. Check it out. I saw

1:06:04

the TV glow. I suspect it's going to

1:06:06

be the topic of a future episode. Ooh.

1:06:09

Maybe. Ooh. Just wondering?

1:06:12

Yeah. This film also premiered at

1:06:14

Sundance. Well, let's not get into

1:06:16

that. It's from 2000

1:06:19

and it's one of my favorite films about life

1:06:22

in government housing and it is

1:06:25

Jim McKay's Our Song, which

1:06:28

starred a very young Kerry Washington, among

1:06:30

others. And it's

1:06:32

just a beautifully crafted story about

1:06:35

three teenage girls living

1:06:37

in the projects in Brooklyn. They're

1:06:39

all part of the Jackie Robinson

1:06:41

Steppers Marching Band, which is a real thing

1:06:43

that a lot of people are involved with

1:06:46

in Brooklyn. And it's

1:06:48

just this lovely kind of coming of age

1:06:50

film about three girls in high school who

1:06:52

are sort of at that cusp of figuring

1:06:54

out what they're going to

1:06:56

be and who they're going to be. And it's

1:06:59

just really sensitive and beautiful. And

1:07:01

it's the first film I ever saw that gives

1:07:04

the possessory credit to every single person who worked

1:07:06

on it. So the first thing you see in

1:07:08

the film is a film by and then in

1:07:10

tiny print, all the names that will

1:07:12

be in the credits in the front and back of

1:07:15

the movie. So kudos to that. But yeah, it's just

1:07:17

a it's a lovely, lovely movie. Yeah,

1:07:19

I mean, presently, not presently,

1:07:21

but in a few days

1:07:23

at MoMe, Museum of Moving

1:07:25

Images, they're doing a Hiroshi

1:07:27

Shimizu retrospective. And

1:07:30

while most of it will be at MoMe, I do

1:07:33

want to highlight one title on that

1:07:35

I only recently saw because Mariah E. Gates

1:07:37

was like, this is one of my all

1:07:39

time favorite movies. And it's Mr. Thank You,

1:07:42

which is streaming on Criterion Channel. And

1:07:44

it's this great film set

1:07:47

in 1936 about this group

1:07:49

of random people who are all

1:07:51

on this one bus and they're going through

1:07:53

the hill, through the mountains, and each person

1:07:56

has their own kind of story. And it

1:07:58

really reminded me of like. Lee's

1:08:00

get on the bus in

1:08:02

the sense of like, like I said, all these

1:08:04

people with different stories, different backgrounds coming together and

1:08:06

kind of finding and

1:08:08

making their own community while also

1:08:11

dealing with heavy subjects, whether

1:08:14

it's like bodily autonomy, or

1:08:17

it's, you know, financial

1:08:19

independence, or what have

1:08:21

you. But I just thought the

1:08:23

film was incredible. And I hope

1:08:26

people either they have a

1:08:28

chance to go to Momi or go to Japan Society,

1:08:30

which is also doing some of the screenings of the

1:08:32

Shimizu. If you can't do that, then go on Criterion

1:08:34

Channel and catch Mr. Thank You. Yes.

1:08:38

And for me, I'm just gonna,

1:08:40

you know, bounce off

1:08:42

of Journey's great performance here and,

1:08:44

you know, throw it to a

1:08:47

classic and say that I'm going

1:08:49

to recommend, you know, Denzel

1:08:52

Washington directed film, The

1:08:54

Great Debaters, which

1:08:57

A Young Journey is in that film.

1:08:59

Check it out. Denzel said,

1:09:02

look, I'm gonna do it all. That's

1:09:05

me. I thought

1:09:07

you were gonna say Eve's Bayou, but I will

1:09:10

accept the great performance. All

1:09:13

right. Well, thanks to Robert Daniels. Where

1:09:15

can our listeners keep up with your

1:09:17

work? Follow me on the artist formerly

1:09:19

known as Twitter at

1:09:22

812 Film Reviews. You

1:09:24

can also follow me a lot of

1:09:26

my writing at rogeriebert.com where I'm associate

1:09:29

editor and at the New

1:09:31

York Times where I'm a contributor in my

1:09:33

monthly auction streaming column where I pick five

1:09:36

luxury movies here streaming that you should

1:09:38

check out. Nice. Yes.

1:09:41

It's so funny too, because, you know, we followed

1:09:43

each other from the last time you're on and

1:09:45

like, I'll forget because it doesn't say your

1:09:47

name. Like I'll always see the 812 Film

1:09:49

Reviews first. I'm like, who is this kind

1:09:52

of dropping these banger takes? And then

1:09:54

I'm like, oh, okay. I

1:09:58

met him. So

1:10:02

yeah, no, so that's me saying that

1:10:05

is a great follow. You won't be

1:10:07

disappointed. It'll always be something insightful and

1:10:09

just a fresh,

1:10:11

amazing take on cinema.

1:10:15

But speaking of fresh, amazing takes on

1:10:17

cinema, thank you, Dre and Alonzo, for

1:10:19

another wonderful show. Yes,

1:10:21

you know, you're going to hear us talk about

1:10:24

Bittenville and the books. If you're nearby, you should

1:10:26

definitely try and get to Bittenville. Or

1:10:28

look, they got the online screening

1:10:31

suit, so you don't even have to be

1:10:33

nearby. And as far as books, you know

1:10:35

where to get them. Okay, so go get

1:10:37

yourself a book. Get

1:10:39

the audio book. Because you're

1:10:42

already trained to respond to

1:10:44

Alonzo's voice. So it'll feel

1:10:46

like, oh, if

1:10:48

you have a... Listen to it at whatever speed, you listen

1:10:50

to this program. Yeah! If

1:10:54

you have a comment or suggestion about this

1:10:56

week's show, send us an email at maximumfilmatmaximumfun.org.

1:10:58

Or find us on any of

1:11:00

our social media channels that are all linked in

1:11:02

the show notes. Next week, we'll be talking about

1:11:04

challenges. It's going to be hot and heavy. And

1:11:07

our producer is the wonderful Marissa Flackpart. Our

1:11:09

senior producer is Laura Swisher. And

1:11:11

this is a production of Section One. Come on.

1:11:32

Maximum Fun, a worker-owned

1:11:34

network of artist-owned shows,

1:11:36

supported directly by you.