The Grey NATO - 131 - Film Club Vol 5
Published on Thu, 19 Nov 2020 06:00:11 -0500
Synopsis
Jason and James discuss a variety of topics in this episode, including Jason's recent acquisition of a 1993 Land Rover Defender, watch discomfort experiments with dress watches and chronographs, James' new "Submechanophilia" merchandise line, and Jason's removal of the subwoofer from his Jeep to improve cargo space. They then present Film Club Volume 5, each recommending 5 movies for listeners to watch, ranging from classics like Deliverance to more recent films like The Grand Budapest Hotel and Good Time. The episode concludes with final notes about an engaging vintage watch blog and Jason's new indoor grow light setup.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Jason | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 131 and it's proudly brought to you by Seiko. We thank you for listening. James, how's it going up there? We're inching closer to holiday time here, as it were. |
| James | Same, you know, we should start adding this into, you know, what we talk about in the intro, you know. weather and construction noise. We have both in Toronto, both have persisted. They were cutting a piece of trim maybe six feet from my window just before we started recording, so let's hope that doesn't continue. To say that I'm over it would be just one of the understatements of my year. |
| Jason | Wow, it's going to be weird when it's quiet there. You're not going to know what to do. You're going to be like, turning to static on the stereo or something. |
| James | Yeah. I mean, my guess is that I will trade construction noise that goes from eight until five every day for a family that lives above me and stomps around all day. |
| Unknown | Oh, right. |
| James | Yeah. Right. I don't know. Yeah. You know, it may be time to relocate our Canadian headquarters. I'm not sure. But yeah, so that's about where I'm at. Admittedly, maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Might be a little zesty for this episode, but how have you been? How are things in your neck of the woods? |
| Jason | Oh, pretty exciting. Actually, this past week, we acquired a new vehicle. Against better judgment, we bought a 1993 Defender 110. So, yeah, pretty whirlwind week. We test drove it, I think, last Friday. It had been kind of on our radar for a few weeks, and then we picked it up last week. And I mean, it's been amazing. It's been fun. It's been, yeah. |
| James | Well, I know this hasn't been like a whim for you and Ghoshani. Like, you guys have been thinking about buying something a little bit more modern, but still very capable for kind of a while now. |
| Jason | Yeah, we went back and forth about, you know, if you'll recall, we did that Land Rover sort of road trip during the summer down to Iowa and it kind of planted the seed for doing more of that sort of thing in a Land Rover just because of how fun it was to take back roads and kind of the conversations that were spurred by driving this kind of quirky old vehicle and camping out of it. But it certainly drove home the point that something a little bigger and faster and more modern might be a better route to go and then We headed down a bit of a detour looking at those scamp trailer campers as an option to pull behind our Volvo and kind of go that route, but but then this one came up for for sale locally and At Bishop and Rook, which is a local it's a little too close to home Literally just down the road here. They import defenders mainly right-hand drive diesel defenders and they had this one for sale and I've been chatting with Mike off and on for a few years even before I bought the Blue Series 3 and so we test drove it and we were just smitten. I mean it's a 93, it's got 77,000 miles on it and you know it feels, even though it's you know an old car, it's compared to driving the Series 3, I mean it's got power steering, it's got heat that blows, you know actually you can get heat. 90s headlights. 90s headlights, comfortable seats, enough leg room. |
| James | And to be clear, 90s headlights are not good. Headlights kind of got good around 2008, maybe 2010. But there's a huge jump between what's the Series 3. |
| Jason | It's a 76, so it's like candles. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. It's definitely an understanding. It's never been a surprise for me once I got into my Jeep or you know, got to know some people with defenders. Jason Gallop has a lovely diesel 90 defender and and that that people, you know, modify these things with more lights. Not only does it kind of look cool, I have a really hit or miss relationship with things like light bars and stuff like that. Yeah, but I understand why people strap more lights on these jeeps. They were terrible. |
| Jason | Yeah, yeah. And somebody had added there's there's a like a brush guard on the front and somebody had added some small LED kind of fog lamps on the underside of that. Oh, I saw those driving lights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, aesthetically, I prefer kind of bigger, more old-fashioned looking ones. And frankly, I haven't driven this at night enough to tell the difference here, but we'll see how those work. What's really cool about this one is, so it's a 110, so that's the longer wheelbase version, but it's Most of those that people are probably used to seeing are four-door with a back seat. Well, this one's a two-door 110, so it's kind of like a big pickup truck. There's no back seat. It's just a wide open... Oh, there's no back seat. There's no back seat. It's like a big cavernous, almost like a pickup truck. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, when you open the back, it's like a big pickup bed. The bread van. Yeah, it's like a bread van. And then there's just a bulkhead behind the passengers where we sit in the front. And then it's just this expanse of six feet of space by four feet of space. And so it's, it's a blank canvas and we're, we're planning on turning it into sort of a camping road trip kind of vehicle and have some, some fun plans. I'd love to just go straight North from here next year and get up into kind of more remote areas of Canada, maybe head over and, and see you and then continue on East and go to the Maritimes or something, you know, just who knows. I mean, it's a, it's got like a 19 gallon fuel tank and, uh, and then, you know, it's a diesel, so it gets like 30 miles to the gallon. So you could get some, you could get pretty far away from home with this on a tank of fuel. |
| James | I mean, if you want to do the East Coast once the border's open and it kind of makes sense, I'm absolutely down for that. That sounds like a blast. Yeah. Yeah. I've never been out that way. |
| Jason | Yeah. So anyway, that's the exciting news here. I guess in other news, and this is kind of mutual updates from us. Yeah. You know, we had our Watch Discomforts episode a couple of episodes ago and talked about genres that were not that I've never really gelled with us, and mine was the dress watch, yours was the chronograph, and I'd been chatting with Lewis Heath, who founded Unordain, the Scottish watch company over in Glasgow, and kind of was telling him about this, and he offered to send over one of their Model 1s, which is a beautiful, no-date, enamel dial, 38mm, slim little automatic watch, on a beautiful goatskin strap, So that arrived last week as well. And I've been wearing it off and on for the past week and, and just, just love it. I'm not, you know, it's all part of this grand experiment of, of trying to wear a watch that we typically don't wear. And, and you know, it will be an ongoing thing and we'll, we'll continue to private provide updates here, but I just thought I'd introduce that as something that people might see on my wrist and some photos and that we'll talk about. |
| James | Yeah. And you wrote a great piece for the sub stack on that as well. Oh, thanks. |
| Jason | Yeah, we can we can link out to that for kind of some background on this or you can go back and listen to I think it was 129 episode, maybe 129 128 something like that. Yeah, it wasn't that far ago. And then you've got something coming in that that ticks the box for you in that regard as well. |
| James | I did, yeah. I'll tell the full story once I have the watch. It hasn't shipped yet, but a friend of the show, he was listening to the discomfort episode and just said, hey, I actually have something, an older mid-century chronograph lying around if you wanna check it out. And the price is incredible, so I really couldn't turn it down on any level. But yes, I have an old solid 18 karat rose gold chronograph on its way. I will fill in the blanks on the rest of that once it arrives and it's on wrist and the rest of it, so stay tuned to the Instagram, that sort of thing. I'm really not publishing that much these days, so maybe the next thing I publish will be whenever that watch comes in. So I'm excited about that quite a bit. And yeah, the chronograph thing has been kind of fun because I've spent a lot of my time recently just looking at Yeah, like vintage galets and chronograph Swiss and kind of everything from that era that's not a Patek or a Vacheron or something, you know, in really, really insane. Well, I mean, the galet stuff is super collectible and some of it's really rare. And the gold galet is gorgeous. They always have those white silver dials and the rest of it. So all of that may still be on the table. This one has a black dial, black dial with a lot of gilt. So I'm excited. It's absolutely outside my comfort zone. So I think we both threaded that needle fairly well so far. And quickly. And we'll see where that goes. Yeah. I think this might be, you know, there's going to be a road along the way. The Deep Star has been a really good way to kind of get used to wearing a chronograph. You know, the single register makes it pretty unobtrusive in terms of it's, you know, it's still very much feels like I'm wearing a big burly dive watch that just kind of suits every day. I mean, I haven't stopped wearing that watch. We'll get to this when we get to to risk check. But yeah, I'm I'm excited about this this incoming chronograph. It's a big change of pace for me. I definitely because I think, you know, you get so spoiled in my case, and I know that the following few sentences are there's a lot of privilege in them. But like I get you get tired of of modern watches or at least I have. I've just fatigued on them. Yeah, because it does seem like every every three days there's another steel sports watch that's a thousand dollars or a blue dive watch that's three thousand dollars or, you know, like it's then they're great. There's been some fantastic watches this year for sure. But it's just hard to feel a personal connection to any of them. Yeah. And with this one and coming from somebody I know and really have a fondness for it, it kind of checks even additional boxes in that there's some I already have some kind of connection to it, which I kind of like in this metric because, you know, I've waking up every morning to a few watch recon notices for pretty much anything that said vintage gold, vintage gold chronicle like I got, I got a bunch set up. I do the same thing on eBay. Yeah, that one's coming along nicely and I'm excited to be able to maybe even in a way less time than I expected kind of do a watch discomforts to and kind of follow up and see where we land and see if these two watches are like if we check the box or if we only kind of shuffled the papers around a little bit and we're gonna we're gonna move into dressier options, more chronography sort of options, things like that right, but speaking speaking of ebay, you know something i spoke about on on a previous episode was that i wanted to get removed the subwoofer from my jeep. Oh yeah, so if you imagine that you know the back of the jeep is like a big square opening and and it just it cuts right into that like not by an inch or two, but by like a significant amount so that if you're measuring something I'm going to get stuck there, it's always getting like nicked and marred and hit with stuff. And then the other thing is, is like, don't get me wrong, I love a subwoofer. I grew up in the 2000s. I was in high school in the 2000s when everybody was putting five subwoofers in the trunk of their Honda Accord and rattling all the bolts loose. I'm not against that. I like a good booming soundtrack when you're rolling down the street. But the fact is, is like I've never been in a car what you could call a modern car, my Jeeps of 2011, where the audio is such an afterthought. Maybe a work van, maybe I've used U-Haul trucks that have less audio quality than this, but if you think it's a big straight vehicle, there was no chance that when they designed these things, technically when they designed even the JK was in the mid 2000s and they didn't design it to have great audio. These days, when you get in a modern BMW or really just a lot of modern cars in general, the speaker placement is designed to make the most out of the volume of the cabin and the angle of the windshield and everything else. And I've been in cars that have $15,000, like factory stereo systems that use the resonance of the windshield with solid state speakers all sorts of stuff. And the simple fact is, is like the audio in the jeep. It's not a question of like, oh, well, maybe if you upgraded the speakers, there's some speakers that hang from the ceiling essentially in a bar. Oh yeah. And there's two in the door, each by basically covered by your leg, especially by my left leg when I'm using because I stick shift, right? Yeah. And then there's two little tweeters that perch right up almost in your sight line on top of that very tall dash. Yeah. So the end result is like the audio quality is just horrendous. Yeah. And it's not a question of like, oh, go spend a thousand dollars, two thousand dollars and put better speakers in that would just make it louder. It's still gonna be terrible. Right. So I really didn't want the subwoofer. It was like functionally a huge problem. It was absolutely function following form in this case, which doesn't make sense. And I routinely use the jeep with the seats down or full of stuff. And so then the subwoofer is covered. So not only is in the way, I'm not getting any of and it's like an eight inch subwoofer, like it's also not like it's not like we're talking like I pulled a twelve inch out or yeah or whatever it does. This jeep has the upgraded factory stereo, which is a little bit complicated when you want to start dealing with other stuff, so I'm not going to relocate the subwoofer under one of the seats or anything. I'm just removing it for now, so that was easy and then I'm working on modifying the harness so that I can put twelve volt power to the back again. So in the subwoofer enclosure, there's a little 12 volt socket, which I use to pump up the tires or bikes or run a USB charger, that sort of thing. And it's unswitched, so it can run all the time if you want it to. People use them for fridges and really just anything. I still want that, so I'm in the process of just making some adjustments to the new piece. I'll drill a hole and mount a new kind of marine grade. The one that was in there is weirdly expensive and very low quality and low par piece. so i'll buy a proper kind of marine grade plug and put it in there so that i can still have power in the back and then the other plus is i've talked in the past about wanting to put in a some lighting in the back for when you're you know digging around in the dark back there and and now i'll have i'll already be exposing some wiring so i can i can install a switch in that same panel to turn on some lighting. So that's all planned out. And whether I get to it before winter, I'm not sure, but right now I open the back door of the Jeep and I see so much room. There's just nothing in the way. It just makes sense. I can't notice anything in the way of audio quality. Like I said, it was terrible before and it remains terrible, is how I would describe it. Again, I really like... I have a kind of specific taste when it comes to audio. I like good speakers, I like nice headphones, that sort of thing. And most cars, I've never had a car with an audio system that I was actually happy with. They all kind of suck on cheap cars. You know, I've owned a lot of cheap cars over the days. And it's not better because I spent more money with the Jeep. It's just as cheap. You're paying for other stuff when you're buying something like a Jeep. So that was a very long way of saying I don't have a subwoofer anymore, but I do have more trunk space, I guess, or even just a more sensible sort of trunk egress and ingress. |
| Jason | Well, that seems like a suitable upgrade. And I mean, I think you know, especially with something like a jeep. I mean, it almost seems like, look, you, you don't buy this vehicle for audio quality, you buy it for utility and you know, and whatever, you know, the ability to go anywhere. |
| James | Yeah. Um, before we get to risk check, the last thing I wanted to get to is I've been seeing it on Instagram and you sent me a package with this, um, some stickers in a patch for something called sub mechanophilia and it should launch roughly around the same time as this episode, right? |
| Jason | Yeah. So yeah, thanks for, thanks for including that. Um, yeah, so it actually launches, we're recording on a Tuesday and it's going to launch tomorrow, the 18th, uh, Wednesday. It's, it's just a little kind of pet project that, uh, I cooked up with a local guy here who's a designer, Matt Ludvigson. Um, I've worked with him before on those good Instagram posters, uh, that we did. Yeah. Matt's a, Matt's a fun guy, talented designer. And, um, I, you know, I had the hashtag sub mechanophilia, I'll a few years ago, it's kind of a made up word, but it's, it's a playoff of submechanophobia, which is a legitimate phobia about submerged manmade objects, which is a very specific kind of fear. Um, so philia being the opposite of phobia means a love of submerged manmade objects, uh, in my case, shipwrecks. And, you know, I look at a lot of these old maps and they have this, this image of like a, they always mark the shipwrecks with this like little icon of like a tilted schooner going down under the waves. And, um, it always, kind of struck me as very evocative and I liked the name and I was just chatting with Matt and he said, Oh, let's, let's do a little, little logo, you know? So he did. And then that turned into a small run of products that we're going to start selling. We've got kind of a washed cotton twill, Navy blue baseball cap. We've got a patch and then two size, two sizes of decals. One is a five inch and the other is a three inch. So and then kind of a fun, coffee mug that has the logo on one side and the other side has the draft marks that you'd see on the side of a freighter indicating it's kind of depth in the water, depending on how loaded it is. And so, you know, limited run of all this stuff. I think we have, you know, a hundred caps and a hundred mugs and, um, you know, more patches and stickers and that sort of thing. So we're, we're going to put that out there, uh, and, and see how it goes. I think we've gotten some good response to it and I love the products. I'm just having a blast. using the mug every day and wearing the cap around and stuff. So, um, actually the cap order arrives today just in time for launch. So I'm excited to see those. Um, so yeah, we, Gashani helped with this. She took some photos and we built a little shop page on our swim proof.com site. So we'll put a link in the show notes and certainly if you're keen for some fun, fairly inexpensive, uh, uh, just sort of weird, weird products, a new patch for your backpack or a sticker for your car or something, uh, head on over. Yeah. |
| James | Yeah, and if you're kicking around Toronto and you see a green Jeep Wrangler with a TGN sticker and a Submechanophilia sticker, you can probably assume... Yeah, those are two pretty specific logos. Yeah. The TGN one is holding up so much better than I thought it would outside. |
| Jason | Oh, really? Mine faded right away, the one I put on years ago, and then I put a new one over it. Oh, well, years. |
| James | I don't know about years. this is a few... I've had this one on the back window and then I took the glass off, so then it was in the garage. Maybe it's been exposed for three or four months. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, if and when we do another TGN sticker, I do wanna try and get the ones that are the bumper grade ones. Yeah. Yeah, because we the ones we that we sold in the in the packages are very high are like we're really nice stickers. We went through three different sets. Yeah, I have a lot of stickers that are the right logo and just didn't turn out that great right, but the final ones we settled on, but they're they're UV protected, but then there's a whole there's another class of like how thick they are. Oh sure at some point. We may we may. I know that we say this every few episodes. We may return to the merch world for the show. But right now, I love this and I absolutely love the design. Yeah. I think it's a really good logo and super fun. And the mug is hilarious. I like it a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's always fun to have a fun mug. I know. Right. You can't have too many. Not enough for sure. All right. So let's let's get into risk check. And I think probably the main theme of this risk check is actually straps. Right. But what what have you got on wrist for this week? |
| Jason | Well, I think we both, we both sat in on the, on the Braymont product launch event yesterday. And so I, I strapped on my, uh, my white dial MB2 Braymont for the occasion and I'm, I'm still wearing it, but then, uh, we both have, uh, new straps on from, from our friends over at crown and buckle. Who's were kind enough to send us a few samples of this Matt supreme strap. So I've got the gray one out. Um, and I love it. I think it's great. And you're wearing it as well, right? |
| James | I am, yeah, a gray one as well on the AquaStar DeepStar. I should probably change it up and wear something else. I actually put a bunch of my watches in the case into kind of a storage, because I was away from home for a little while. I went up to the project property for more than a week, a little ways back around the time that the Q&A came out, and so I have to go retrieve those. But for now, I've been wearing the DeepStar, and it really sings on a NATO. And these These Matt Supremes, so we've talked about the Supreme strap before on previous episodes, probably around episode 100, somewhere in there. And then this is the new one. These have no shine to them. They're not slippery. I would say that the material is smooth, but it's not shiny in any way, which I really like. It has a nice texture to it. And the thing I like the most about them, and I think, Jason, you and I have identical ones here, and I have a handful of them. Thomas at Crown & Buckle was kind enough to send a a grip of them. The thing that gets me is the material is very thin, which I like quite a bit. It's a little bit more like the Phoenix, which is a very nice thin material. It has lovely hardware like we're used to on the Supreme. It's pin-kept hardware, so you could move buckles around if you had one customized or something like that. Yeah, I just think these are... They're kind of... Compared to like a Toxic or a UTE, they're not doing straps currently. I think this is a great alternative, but it's a little thinner, it's a little bit more Perlon-esque, which I think is probably would be... These will be great for the summer. Yeah. And make it a little bit easier to clean them. But yeah, just like we said with the Supreme from Crown & Buckle, they make a great strap. It's an absolutely solid option for the money. And yeah, I'm absolutely impressed by these. It's always nice, especially because since Terry elected to kind of close UTE's NATO shop, since that happened, we've received quite a few messages saying like, well, what do I buy now? And I was sending people to And this isn't an ad. Crown & Buckle didn't pay for this. They were kind enough to send us a handful of straps. They certainly didn't ask that we talk about them in any way or anything like that. But the strap's impressive. And I think it's nicely priced at $28. |
| Jason | I love the different weave. So many NATOs are just that kind of horizontal weave around the whole strap. And these have, like you said, sort of purlon-esque. They almost look kind of more woven. And you're right. They're thinner, and it's a little bit less soft than, than what a toxic NATO used to be. And I think it'll, it'll dry faster because of that. I think it just feels like it'll, um, um, you're right. It probably easier to keep clean, but so they sent it kind of a drab olive, uh, the gray. And then, um, one of the, I guess they call it blonde, which is that nice, almost sandy color. And that's actually my favorite. It just, it looks so good. I put it on my CWC Royal Navy diver and, and I don't know, it's just, I think it'll look great on a lot of kind of vintage or vintage style. dive watches. It's really superb. And I like the buckle, too. It's a little bit flatter and smaller. So, you know, the Toxic ones were kind of this big, beefy buckle, and this is more of everything sort of flat. So, yeah, really, really great. I'm loving it so far. |
| James | Yeah, so thanks very much to Crown & Buckle for sending those. And if you're trying to, you know, find another alternative for a great strap, I think their Supreme line has always been impressive by our measure. And certainly I like the matte stuff versus the shiny stuff. Definitely when you get into this more sporty watch. Great straps, pretty impressive. And a big thanks to Crown & Buckle for sending those. Before we get into our ad break and then into our main topic, a main topic I'm fairly excited for. It's been a while since we did a film club. We were going to talk about new watches. You know, there's a handful of new watches this week, but with it being a film club episode, we're not going to have the time. So if you wanted to hear about stuff like the new Bremont Hawking, the new stuff from Zinn, you know, the new worn and wound Christopher Ward sort of collaboration, the new Garmin, just stay tuned for 1.32. where we'll spend a little bit more time breaking down some of the new watches. There's also a couple things coming up in the next week or so that I think should be included as well. So instead of trying to cram it all into one episode that ends up being pretty long, because film clubs typically go the distance, I think we're just going to bump that until next week. So if you're waiting to hear about any of those, know that we're not ignoring it. We're just tabling it for another later episode. But yeah, let's jump into an ad break. This is one I'm pretty excited about. You know, this is another episode sponsored by Seiko, something that Jason and I are exceedingly proud of. As far as the topic of the ad, I actually told Seiko to hang on to their money for this one, because we already dedicated an entire episode to the SPB 143. You can actually go back. Not even that many. It's just behind us. But you know what? They're paying, which means they're calling the shots for the ad break. So let's talk about the new 62 Mass-themed SPB Prospect series. |
| Jason | Yeah, this is one that was announced earlier this year and it's now available in stores. It's the new line of classically inspired dive watches that's based around four models that Seiko created as a modern interpretation of their first dive watch from 1965. |
| James | Like I said, we did a whole episode on it. I'm a big fan that, you know, measuring 40.5 millimeters wide, 13.7 millimeters thick and 46.5 millimeters lug to lug. These new SPB models are legit dive watches with sapphire crystal screw down crowns, drilled lugs, solid steel case backs, ratcheting steel bezels. and 200 meters water resistance. Oh, and did we mention that they absolutely rock on wrist? I think I've mentioned that. |
| Jason | Yeah, these are great watches. The Quartet includes the black and gray SPB 143, which James, of course, has talked about and written about quite a bit. The SPB 145 that has a black bezel and kind of a brown sunburst dial. The SPB 147, which has a brown tone dial with gilt accents. And then finally, the limited edition SPB 149, which has a black bezel, a lovely blue dial with a few hints of golden yellow, and it's limited to 5,500 units. That would be my favorite one. |
| James | Yeah, regardless of the colorway, these divers sport Seiko's latest 6R35 automatic movement, which means you get hacking, hand winding, a date display, and 70 hours of power reserve. That's a huge jump up from what we've seen from your normal SKXs and Turtles and that sort of thing. |
| Jason | And pricing on these starts at $1,000 for the rubber strapped SPB 147. It hits $1,200 for the braceleted SPB 143 and 145. And then the limited edition SPB 149 can be had for $1,350. And that comes with both a bracelet and a rubber strap. |
| James | And for more information about these excellent everyday dive watches, please visit bit.ly slash Seiko TGN. That's bit.ly slash Seiko TGN. And don't forget a huge TGN thank you to Seiko for supporting this episode and for making The Great NATO possible. Sponsors like Seiko allow us to keep the show free for all who listen, and we greatly appreciate their support. And now back to the show. |
| Jason | All right. It's film club time. We've been a long time since we talked about films. We've done film club and book club. And when you suggested doing this, I was like, I was going to suggest it for kind of one of our end of year episodes and here we are close to the end of the year. So this is this is a good one. It's always popular. |
| James | Yeah, I also think it's that time of year where I want to start watching movies again. And and you know, we haven't done one since, let's see, 110 maybe. Oh, has it been that long? So it was six months ago. You remember those who've been listening a little bit longer will remember that we went to weekly episodes for a little while at the start of quarantine and through the bulk of quarantine for a little while. And in episode 110, which is part of our isolation tapes, we did the Film Club Volume 4. So I couldn't be more happy to do Film Club Volume 5. I think this one, they always have kind of their own tone. Yeah. For people who have never listened to a film club, Jason and I each pick five movies that we think you should see that we really like. And we kind of give you a loose breakdown about each film. It's not a rewatchables. It's not like it's not an hour on one film. We're going to do 10 films and we're going to take, you know, 20, 25 minutes to talk about it. Probably a little longer. I always say that it'll be less. And yeah, we got we've got a really kind of varied range of movies here. And I'm excited to get to it. So I think without any further preamble, Jason, you want to kick it off? |
| Jason | Yeah, sure. And before I do, I was looking at your list and, you know, I have not seen four out of the five that you put on your list. |
| James | So, which is pretty amazing. Four? I would have guessed maybe there's two on there you hadn't seen. Yeah, no. Okay, cool. So, yeah, I'll have to add them to my list. I think... Well, let me see. I've seen... There's three on yours I've never seen. |
| Jason | Really? Okay. Yeah, I could figure one of those, but not... Okay, yeah. Good, good. That's good. Alright, I'm going to go back in time here to 1972 to just a masterpiece. This is a movie, Deliverance, based on a great novel, which is also worth reading by James Dickey. And it stars John Voight as in this, Ned Beatty, and just a supremely heroic performance by Burt Reynolds in this movie. You know, this movie is known for certain Certain sort of hard-to-watch scenes Mm-hmm, but I think the overall theme of the movie is So resonant with me. It feels like a bit of a almost like a Shakespearean play. It's it's these four guys who are kind of you know chums from the city who decide that they're going to do a Canoe trip canoe camping trip over a few days down this wild river And they don't say exactly where it is, but it actually was based on a real place. I think it's in the northwest of Georgia. And it was in a river that was being dammed and was going to flood a valley. So this is kind of the last chance to descend this wild river in canoes. And these guys set out to do this. And they get in a little bit over their heads. Burt Reynolds is kind of the, of the four of them, he's kind of the most confident macho outdoorsy capable guy and the other three a little more bookish and urban and not quite up to this sort of thing or they lack his sort of expertise in the wilderness. And things start to go wrong almost from the start. A number of mishaps, one particularly awful mishap leads to several more quickly. And the moral of the story is, you know, the other guys, have to rise up and, and meet the challenges that are presented to them. And it's, it's, it's kind of a spooky movie. It's a little bit eerie. It's a beautifully shot in a, in a beautiful area of the country. Um, and it's a very relatable movie in some ways because, you know, I think a lot of us, a lot of TGen listeners especially can relate to being in a wilderness situation, um, maybe a little bit over your head, things start to go wrong, the presence of kind of a maybe an overconfident leader that everybody looks up to, and then you find that he's flawed. And I just think it's a wonderful movie. I rewatch it every few years, and I watched it a couple of months ago, and it's really good. I would say it's Burt Reynolds' best film. |
| James | Wow, OK. Well, this is one I've not seen, Deliverance. Oh, OK. It's one that's always kind of circled my like, it's been in my orbit for some time. I think it probably has for a lot of people. So it's definitely one that I need to watch. I'm just looking back, you know, this movie is directed by John Borman. Yes. And it's interesting to look back at some of his stuff because he's got some weird movies in his back catalog. I mean, the movie he did after Deliverance was a very weird film called Zardoz. |
| Jason | Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sean Connery was in that, in that strange outfit. |
| James | Yeah. In that very strange sort of, um, thong sort of weird. Yeah. Thong with straps and a handgun. And there's a lot of weird masks and some, some, some, definitely some strange stuff. And he also did, um, I've just, I just listened to for Halloween, uh, the rewatchables did the exorcist. Yeah, I always forget that, you know, the Exorcist, you wouldn't think that that director would be a guy that like dug into a lot of other, but there's the same guy that did the French Connection, which is a fantastic film, the same guy that did a movie called Sorcerer with Roy Scheider, which has been on my list to watch for some time. And if I think if I had gotten to it, probably would have would have made this list. It's one that my brother keeps talking to me about. But the back catalog of Exorcist directors, I think, is kind of an interesting one, because that first movie is something that will never happen again. And I don't believe he was a producer, maybe. Producer, director, I'm not sure. Let's see. Borman was a director of Exorcist II, The Heretic, which I don't believe was a successful movie, if I remember correctly. But yeah, so I mean, Deliverance, maybe this is his biggest move, I'm not sure. It's certainly a very famous movie. |
| Jason | Uh, yes it is. And, um, for those interested in a little bit of trivia here, John Borman's son is Charlie Borman, who's a Bremont ambassador. Um, and his palled up with, uh, his best friend is Ewan McGregor and they've done this series of motorcycle trips around the world. And they, their latest just finished up last week. We watched the series long way up, um, and not to get sidetracked here, but I believe so. Charlie Borman, who's now in his mid fifties, I think, uh, I believe he had a very tiny role in deliverance. Late in the film I believe his father was directing and it was it was I think it was either Uncredited or you know just almost a cameo role where he plays like some kid So you can you can look and try to find a very young Charlie Borman in in deliverance. |
| James | Well, that's fun That's a good. That's a great pick and and one that I should absolutely, you know actively watch over the next a little while So yeah, I like when it's not some of these we thought we had seen all of them Yeah, right. And selfishly, I like that you've got some stuff on here that I've never seen before. Yeah. All right. I'm actually going to do these in chronological order from oldest to newest. And the weird thing is, is we typically we pick a lot of older films for these. Yeah, you did. We have in the past. No, my oldest is a 2013. I went with not even deeper cuts, just stuff that like still stands out where like if I see it pop up in a Netflix queue or or I get an email that, you know, it's on prime or something. I guess that's the is that the 2020 equivalent of it just being on a TV station where you're flipping channels on a Saturday afternoon. Yeah, right. I do kind of miss that where the decision was made for you at a certain extent. Yeah, but this first one, you know, it's hard for me to do a film club entry that doesn't include anything from Denny Villeneuve. At some point, I'll have used up all of his movies, but this is from 2013. It's a movie called Prisoners, and it's simply a fantastic kind of crime thriller. It's definitely not as all the way crazy like a seven, but it has little taste of that tone. It's super dark. And the basic story here is Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard, I believe it's a Michigan suburb that they live in, and all of a sudden their girls disappear right off their street, their little kids. And it's about, it's kind of about two people unraveling in the search for these lost girls and who they think did it. So you have Hugh Jackman is kind of playing not so much a vigilante role, but he doesn't believe the police are gonna do what he, what needs to be done. And he's a grief stricken father who's lost his daughter. That hits home for me certainly. And he takes, he finds who he believes is responsible for this and he takes his own action. And then Jake Gyllenhaal plays one of my favorite roles, Detective Loki, and he plays the cop that becomes obsessed with whatever's going on, because it's more than just a simple abduction, and it's really dark. It's upsetting, certainly. It's beautifully filmed, and it's villainous, so the thriller aspect of it is so based in tension. I've spoke both in film clubs and just randomly, and even if you ever just met me, it could come up how much I adore Sicario, which is, you know, the same same director and just a great, great movie. I think it's a little overlooked. I mean, I don't think it's like a silence of the lambs. I don't think it's quite at that level as far as you're kind of like possible killer horror thriller mix, but made for a wider audience than most horror films, but it's definitely in the running. Yeah, I really like this movie. |
| Jason | It started to ring a bell when you were describing the plot and I wonder if I've seen it, but 2013 wasn't that long ago. You'd think I would have remembered, but I'll definitely, I'll definitely rewatch that one. That's a, that's a good cast. Good director. Sounds like a promising story. Yeah. Good. Good. |
| James | For sure. Yeah. So that's my first, uh, let's hear your second. |
| Jason | I think I'll follow your model and go in chronological order. Uh, this one is from 1977 movie called a Sunday in hell. Um, Very, uh, suggestive title. Um, you might be wondering what this is about. It's actually a documentary film, uh, made by a Danish director. Um, kind of obscure movie, unless you're maybe into cycling. If you are into cycling and have been an avid fan of professional cycling, uh, this is probably a classic in your mind, a very familiar movie. And so there's this, uh, this iconic one day race every year in the spring, although this year they didn't run in the spring because of the pandemic. that goes from Paris to a small town called Roubaix. I think it's up near the Belgian border. And the significance of this race is that it travels across these very harsh cobbled roads through a lot of northern French farm country. And these cobbled roads, which the French called pavés, are extremely difficult to traverse on a road bike. And so, you know, the guys that do this race, and it's like a 160-mile one-day race, And it's typically very, either very dusty, um, or if it has been raining, it's extremely muddy and, and the, the cobblestones get very slippery and it passes through, um, an area that's called the hell of the North. In fact, that's the nickname for the race because it, it travels through an area that, that was heavily, um, saw a lot of action during a world war one during the trench warfare and goes through a forest on these cobbled roads. And I don't know, The subject matter is great. And if you're into cycling, fantastic. But something about 70s documentaries and the way they were filmed, there are so many of these movies that you see, you know, whether it's a mountaineering film or a cycling film or something like we've talked about with Blue Water, White Death. There's a certain style of documentary from that era that I just love. I think it's because they take their time and there isn't too much voiceover. Um, you know, like the film opens with sort of this very spare music and you just see a guy with a, like a small brush cleaning the derailleur on a, on a bike that's up on a stand and it's all very close up and this music's playing and the credits are playing and he's just sort of going through this process. And, um, and then the tension, the story builds because there are these main proponents, these, these heroes that are vying for victory in this race. And you see the buildup to the race, then the race itself, And of course, it's great, 70s action. You know, you get some great old, besides the old bikes, you get the team cars. They're like old Volvos and Peugeots and they're passing through these towns and lots of sideburns and great sunglasses and, you know, the fans lining the streets. And it's just, it's a neat slice of time and just a really great sports documentary. Um, you know, sports documentaries are, I know you're a fan as well, even if it's a sport that maybe you're not really keen on, like the, the Michael Jordan series, the last dance, you know, even if you're not into basketball, you can appreciate that. I think this is one of those movies that even if you're not into cycling, you can, you can, you can pick up on the, on the tension and the, and the, and the human drama and this one too. |
| James | Oh, that's a great pick. I've, yeah, I've never heard of it. I'm, I'm, I was reading the, the, you know, description while you were chatting there. And yeah, that sounds awesome. Sounds like something my dad would love. Yeah, I should dig that up and make sure he gets a chance to watch it over over the winter. Super, super good pick. |
| Jason | You know, I had initially put in the IMDB link, but I'll try to find the link. I just watched it recently. The full film is available on YouTube, and that's where I watched it recently. So there you go. |
| James | Even easier. Well, you can even we'll drop that in the show in the show notes if we can. Yeah. |
| Jason | What's your number two? |
| James | My second, moving right along, is the first of two options from 2014 in the hopes of not keeping everything too grim or dire. We'll go with the kind of lighter of the two, and that would be The Grand Budapest Hotel. I don't think this one... This is probably one that doesn't need a ton of explanation, but it's just such a special film. I really, really love this movie. We've talked about The Life Aquatic and we've talked about Rushmore. And Wes Anderson, he's a force of nature. He is everything that people say he is. And I think he went with such a huge scope with this film. It really is about two people, three people, if you will. But I love that they start at the end of the story with Jude Law visiting this dilapidated version of a once great hotel. and then meeting the hotel's then proprietor and hearing the story of how he once came into that hotel when it was at its prime, and then the way that the hotel is in many ways Ralph Fiennes. Yeah. I love this movie. It's great. I don't have a whole lot to say about it, aside from if this happens to be the Wes Anderson one that you skipped because it seemed too whimsical or too anything. Don't. The cast is unbelievable. There isn't an upsetting or off-kilter frame in the whole film. It's full of these special little charms. It's a movie that could only exist because Wes Anderson made it. There's nobody else that could sub in for this kind of act. I just adore it. |
| Jason | It's great. Yeah, I loved it too. This is the one on your list that I've seen and I want to re-watch this. It's a bit It's a bit like a fairy tale, but but then It's an adult fairy tale. It's and and the the imagery and the filming is just fantastic You watch this you think man, this is like this is like flipping the pages of a book that just comes to life. |
| James | It's it's so good Yeah, and I mean like Ralph Fiennes Adrian Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Kittel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Cersei Ronan Jason Schwartzman, Lea Sedu, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and I haven't even clicked on the full cast yet. That's just in the teaser. It's so beautiful, and the color palette is incredible. It's a lot of rich purples and pinks, and they're in an alpine setting for a lot of it, and there's some train travel, which is always great on film. Yeah, I love it. Please see this if this is the one of Wes Anderson's that you haven't yet. But we don't have to say more about it, but it certainly deserves a spot on the list. |
| Jason | All right. I'm going to fast forward from the seventies to 2001. This is a movie called Spy Game. |
| James | Oh yeah. |
| Jason | Long time coming. Yeah, really. I'd forgotten about this and then I was like, boy, this is up there. Robert Redford, Brad Pitt. Just one of those movies that kind of puts you in a certain place, certain mood, all about the clothing, the vehicles, the setting. It's funny because the Redford side of this, this movie, he plays a, an aging CIA, um, spy who is nearing his retirement. In fact, I think he's on his last day. Um, and he, much of his action actually takes place within CIA headquarters. Um, but he's through a series of flashbacks, he's recounting his mentorship of a young and upcoming spy played by Brad Pitt. And it bounces all over. you know, from Beirut and DC and some other places. And, um, you know, it's, it's a smart movie. It's one of those movies where Redford is in his element. It's a classic Redford film. He, you know, he's, uh, he's got the, the craggy face, the tweed coat drives this beautiful old nine 11. Um, and he's constantly outwitting his kind of sinister superiors, um, all the while he's, you know, under the auspices of cleaning out his desk, he's, he's kind of running an operation in the field to, to try to, um, to help somebody that's out there in the, in the person of Brad Pitt. Um, Pitt is good in this, uh, you know, in his younger days. Um, again, I think he was in his prime when this movie was out. Um, so I think you put these two actors, I think in many ways, two generations of the same type of actor. And I think they, the chemistry was great and they really worked well together and it's, It's a good story, really well filmed. It's one of those movies, if you go back to your idea of flipping the channels on a Saturday afternoon, it's one of those movies that when it would come on, I'd watch it every single time. And you can just watch it from... If you've seen it before, you can pick it up two thirds of the way through and still enjoy it. |
| James | Oh yeah, it's them and the costume work is incredible. And they're sitting at some cafe and he's trying to teach him you know, what, what, you know, situational awareness and field awareness and that sort of thing. And, you know, the only thing I can add, because I can't take, I definitely, this is a great movie. It's so, it's so great. And, and, and it's also, I think it's probably, I'm just looking over the list here. It's definitely among my most favorite Tony Scott films. Oh yeah, Tony Scott, right. So that's, it's insane to think that Tony Scott and Ridley Scott are real life brothers. Yeah. Obviously, Tony Scott's story is kind of sad. We don't have to get into that. This is the guy that did Top Gun. Everybody knows Top Gun. We don't even have to explain one thing about that movie, Days of Thunder. True Romance, the movie that people often credit to Quentin Tarantino, who I believe wrote True Romance, did not direct it. It was directed by him. Then you get to Enemy of the State, a movie I absolutely adore and in many ways I think is the precursor to this film. because that involves an older guy that's in the field that's helping bring somebody else up to speed on a bunch of espionage. It's a whole different catalog of concepts. I would say, in many ways, Enemy of the State is maybe the natural progression of, what is it, 1973 or 1974's The Conversation. Yeah, and then you get to spy game and then beat the devil, which I think I've spoken about, or I've at least talked about the higher series, the BMW ad series of short films. So Tony Scott did beat the devil, which is a great one. Domino, which you might have seen, and then I'll be honest, his last two were great movies. The taking of Pelham 123, hugely overlooked film, and then Unstoppable, also a really good film. These are two really good action thrillers. and then that takes us up to 2010. He's just an immensely talented guy that made some really, really cool movies, and his ability to just kind of have everything be stylish without being too heavy was something great. It was in all those movies I listed, from Top Gun all the way up to Unstoppable. If you haven't seen Unstoppable, that's another great one to watch. definitely not one you turn off. If you happen to hit it on the channel, if anybody, if any of you still have channels as as it were, but yeah, that's a that's a great pick a super cool movie. If you haven't seen it and one that people don't chat about that often. Yeah, you know, long time ago, 20 years ago. Yeah, for sure, nearly 20 years ago. And then the cool thing about both Ridley and Tony Scott is that they both had these kind of mega movies. You know, Ridley will be known for Gladiator. for probably his whole career. But between their mega movies, they made all these really cool, not smaller films. You can't call Spy Game a smaller film. Look who was in it. But it wasn't a top gun. I don't think it hit that hard. And for that reason, I think it's perfect to have on the list for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Good pick. Good pick. Great director. Yeah. Sorely missed. I think he could have done a lot of really incredible stuff with the previous 10 years. Right. Okay, we can go to my next one, which is from... So this is my second one from 2014. It is directed by Doug Liman, who I think is insanely talented. It features one of my favorite actors, Tom Cruise, another one of my favorite actors, Emily Blunt, and it's called Edge of Tomorrow. It was also known as Live, Die, Repeat, and it's essentially Groundhog Day, but if it was an action movie. It's kind of the opening premise, the first act of the film is basically somebody reliving the same experience, and then you learn why, and it becomes this immensely grand scope of saving the world, and you see the world in the grips of essentially a full world war, where it's humans against something else. And I think it's really, really, really beautifully told. Tom Cruise is incredible in it, Emily Blunt is arguably even better, I absolutely adore this movie. It's one you can watch from the first minute or you can start halfway through and it's still incredible. The action sequences are bonkers. Really, really fantastic use, but the storytelling is incredible. The acting is great. I love this movie a lot. And for people who aren't entirely sure, Doug Liman, he directed Swingers. if you go way back, which, of course, that launched John Favreau's career. John Favreau, of course, is now one of the biggest directors in the world, thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then, of course, not a little guy, he's a tall drink of water, Vince Vaughn. This is a huge movie. He also produced The Bourne Identity. Let's see, Doug Liman, the one I'm looking for is, he did American Made, which was a Tom Cruise film as well. The Edge of Tomorrow, which we're talking about. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, he did... Yeah, I'm not finding the one I'm looking for. Oh, Go. Go is what I'm thinking of. Doug Liman directed the movie Go, which I think is a really incredible film with Sarah Pauley and Jay Moore and Timothy Oliphant. That's another really fun one. Doug Liman has talked about Varied. I mean, it's not a bunch of action movies about space marines, which is what Edge of Tomorrow is about. I like the other name, the original name, but I think it was something to do with a translation overseas or something for Live, Die, Repeat. Yeah, I think this is a really good, easily digested sort of action movie that adds a lot of kind of additional layers of complexity to it. |
| Jason | I, you know, I need to get over my, my sort of bias against sci-fi. I, I, I've just, I like so few sci-fi movies. I watch so few sci-fi movies. And I think when you read the description of this movie immediately, it's, it is what it is. And I'm like, Nope, I'm not going to watch that. Even though I like Tom Cruise and he usually doesn't do bad movies. |
| James | Um, so I'll definitely probably one of the most, uh, like deliberate and always successful actors. There's not many bad roles out there. He's been in a couple movies that where the movie didn't work out that well. But I don't know that you could necessarily blame Tom Cruise. If you need any evidence, watch any of the most recent Mission Impossibles. They are good on a level that none of those movies should be, especially if you remember what two and three were like. Action movies were pretty weird, the John Woo years, that sort of thing. pretty cheesy and then the most recent two were just like ghost protocol and yeah, I can't. I can't remember whatever the most recent one was. It's just absolutely incredible. They're really, really watchable films and I'll admit that the like the edge of tomorrow is definitely a sci fi movie like it's very sci fi Yeah, but it's still rooted in today's world and there's parts of it that feel like you're just watching a war movie, but the weapons are different. Yeah, and it's not cheesy like starship troopers. It's not meant to be cheesy. It's actually I think the movie takes itself very seriously, but I highly recommend it. I love the sort of loose time travel. It's not time travel so much. They explained in the film in their own metric, but I like the repeating of time metric and I think that they picked a perfect actor to pull it off because he can be bewildered. He can be, you know, you know, to, you know, overconfident. He can be all these different things and his situation, especially when they really grind you through the same hour of the start of his repeating day. Yeah, it's I like this movie a lot. I think it's great. I think almost anybody could watch this and enjoy it. It's the actions fairly intense. So if you don't like that kind of thing, war movie sort of action, I could see that being a problem, but otherwise super watchable, really fun. with a pretty great conceit and an interesting ending. |
| Unknown | Good. |
| James | All right. |
| Jason | Yeah, that's my third. All right. Well, now I'm moving forward to 2013. This is a movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Oh, so good. Yeah. I've seen this movie a few times, and every time I watch it, I like it more. It's got a great soundtrack. The filming was great. The cast is good. And I don't know, I really could relate to a lot of this movie. Um, you think, you know, Ben Stiller, it's going to be some kind of goofy comedy. You know, he's going for the girl, doesn't get her. He's kind of an underdog, which there is that element to this movie, but, um, it's loosely based on a book or a story of the same title. Um, that was written, gosh, I'd have to look it up, but back in the thirties, forties or fifties, um, about a guy who just has a very active imagination. And so he's always kind of pretending to be. You know, if he's driving in his car, he's a fighter pilot. And if he's, you know, going for a hike, he's scaling Everest. You know, that sort of grand level of pretending. And the character's name obviously was Walter Mitty in this short story. And Ben Stiller plays a character of the same name in this movie, who's a bit of a meek guy who has big ideas. He has a very vivid imagination, but not really a man of action. And, you know, it's something that I guess I could sort of relate to from my younger years when, you know, before I gained confidence and started kind of putting myself out there to try a few things in the world and, and he's, his hand is sort of forced because he plays a guy who works in the photography department at life magazine, uh, in the, in the waning days of, of life magazines existence. Um, life of course used to be known for its great photography. It was kind of an oversized format with, uh, with beautiful photos from famous photographers. |
| James | At one point, the home or a partial home of Slim Aarons. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah. Along with Town and Country. |
| Jason | Yeah. They used to do profiles of astronauts and whatever. And so Stiller plays this guy, Walter Mitty, who works kind of in the depths of Life Magazine, sorting through photo negatives, which are being outmoded, you know, rapidly. And there's a new boss that's come in and he's, you know, chopping heads, he's kind of tasked with reorganizing the company. And Stiller gets this package from his favorite photographer, who's played by Sean Penn, this guy who works out in the field. And there's always this kind of enigmatic, mysterious, rogue photographer. |
| James | Like a caricature of a |
| Jason | like a yeah like a devil may care yeah uh yeah war and adventure photographer that sort of thing what i love about it is that he you know it it really resonates nowadays when you know with the the hashtag shoot film that you see all over instagram now and it's uh you know he only shoots film you know he only shoots films and he you know processes his film in the field and then just sends a little tube of you know his roll of negatives to to ben stiller there with with very little explanation and just like here here's my work Stiller is forced to, you know, embark on this adventure to go track this guy down because of a lost negative. And it kind of, it's his coming of age. |
| James | Oh, that's right. That's what the conceit of the film is. I couldn't remember why he, why he left the office for the, you know, the outer reaches. |
| Jason | He leaves, he leaves this sort of meek character. And then he embarks on this worldwide rollicking adventure to find, I think his name's Sean McCaffrey or something, this photographer, this photojournalist. travels all over the world to find him and along the way becomes this man who is no longer just a pretender, but actually puts himself out there and does some things. And he returns with this, this newfound confidence. And it's a great metaphor. It's a great story. It's a fun movie. It's, it's beautifully shot. There's some scenes in Iceland that are really amazing. Um, and I, you know, they, they set at some part of it in Tibet. And, um, I like Sean Penn's character a lot. He reminds me of, uh, of a good friend of mine who's also a photographer and, uh, I don't know. It just has a spot in my heart. I love this movie. So yeah, it's a good one. |
| James | Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Yeah, it absolutely is a good one. I wholeheartedly love this film. And the other thing is, this is one of those ones you can recommend to almost anyone. There's nothing offensive in this movie. There's nothing kind of... It's not violent. It's not problematic in any way. The cast is pretty lovable as far as people go. my parents like this film like it's a it's a good one that's a good pick for the for the list of course yeah yeah a fun movie and definitely worth the watch especially if you're feeling kind of cooped up because it's about not it's about finding those bigger spaces right you know it's a yeah and it's it is beautifully shot i'll agree with that for sure um all right so let's get to uh my fourth and you know in the hopes of moving this along um My fourth, this one's going to be problematic compared to Walter Mitty. This is a movie from 2015 directed by Jeremy Saulnier called Green Room. Okay. And this would absolutely border on a horror film. I would call it like a horror thriller, but it's about a group of kids, the late Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Ali Ashokat, who's in Of course, that's maybe from Arrested Development and Callum Turner. They basically are like a broke punk rock band driving around the Pacific Northwest. I think they're outside Portland or something like that in the film. And they end up getting offered a show, but it's at kind of a rural club and they didn't really know what to expect. They get there and you kind of are informed that it's kind of a neo-Nazi club out in the woods. And you've got the absolutely incredible Macon Blair, who plays kind of a foot soldier for the main guy. And the main guy, I am of course burying the lead on this one, is Patrick Stewart, played by Patrick Stewart. Wow, okay. And there's definitely a lot of just sort of garbage white supremacist people at this bar, and the band kind of antagonizes them with some of the songs they pick, anti-Nazi punk songs. Yeah, and it goes back and forth and then basically they leave the stage when things start to get kind of too rowdy at the end of their show and they go to the green room and they witness something that they shouldn't have seen. And the whole movie changes all at once. It goes from being kind of a weird thriller to how do four teenagers escape essentially a Nazi camp in the middle of the woods near Portland. Geez, wow. And it's like I'm not going to sugar coat any of this. It's exceedingly violent. It's very scary. It's super tense. Yeah. Like Jeremy Saulnier for me, this is a guy that if you saw a movie called, which also starred Macon Blair, which called Blue Ruin, which I believe he won. I'm not going to quote which award. He won a very prestigious award for Blue Ruin and Blue Ruin is incredible, but it's somehow sadder than watching these kids fight some Nazis. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | I really like Green Room. This movie speaks to what was the Carl Young, who said you've got to feed the alligators in your mind, something like that, one of those psychologists with why people like horror films and reading about serial killers and all this. This would be in the same vein. It's a little bit pulpy, it's a little bit kind of almost poppy at times, but it's not something I would recommend you watch if you don't like a violent you know, sort of pseudo thriller horror film. Yeah. |
| Jason | Wow. I really like it, though. It sounds tremendous. And, you know, Patrick Stewart, I mean, come on, he wouldn't pick up a bad movie, I don't think. |
| James | But nope. And Macon Blair's incredible in it, like just flatly amazing. Anton Yelchin's great. Ali Ashokat, incredible. The cast is great. It's it's shot really, really well. They do tension really well. But yeah, I want to make sure people don't go, oh, well, we'll do Walter Mitty. and then when the kids go to bed, we'll watch Green Room, that's gonna be a real turn of phrase. Yeah, yeah. If that's your two up, maybe deliverance in Green Room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Might have a similar mental space. Yeah, true. But yeah, this is probably one of the more, just like a movie meant to be kind of disturbing and shocking. that we've suggested for these. But I really, really love Jeremy Saulnier's films. It's one that I always have kind of struggled with, whether I include it or not, because it is such a kind of an assault of the senses. But if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, this kind of sounds like I'm on board, go for it. I will tell you that my fifth one keeps the foot firmly on the gas. That's my teaser for my final pick. |
| Jason | This is a high energy set. All right. Well, mine is a pretty... All right. Well, I'm going to give my last one here, and I would say it's in the opposite direction of those picks. It's basically a one-person movie called Arctic from 2018 with Mads Mikkelsen. I love him in anything. He's just so good. Such a great actor. So he plays, it's a very simple story. He's a man who's stranded, um, somewhere in the Arctic after a plane crash. And he's, he's a smart guy. He's, uh, he's very resourceful. Um, but of course, as, as anybody who's trapped somewhere in the middle of nowhere, um, and needs rescue, uh, has this dilemma of, do you try to make it out on your own or do you stay with your vehicle, your crash, your boat, your plane, whatever it is, and hope that that someone comes and finds you. And, um, so he goes through these, these decisions, both big and small about his overall strategy, um, as well as just even small things like, you know, rationing food, um, you know, keeping his SOS, uh, uh, notification or sign on the snow to the, to the, to the sky, uh, free of snow so that, that people flying overhead can see him. Um, It's just good. I mean, there's no dialogue in the movie, which you might think makes for a bit of a dull watch, but it's a gripping movie. He moves it along, and I think that's in large part due to Mickelson himself, his facial expressions, just his acting. I mean, this is almost like a one-person stage act on a very grand scale in a beautifully shot film and in a gorgeous place as well. I think it was probably shot in Iceland or Greenland or something, but really, really good. |
| James | The only reason I know about this film is because you had mentioned it on a Final Notes a long time ago, and I remember watching it after that, and it's everything that you said. It absolutely deserves a spot on the list, and I like that there's some continuity there. We're nothing if not consistent. The only other thing I remember checking on this, and I had to click while you were talking, is it's directed by a guy named Joe Pena, P-E-N-N-A. And this is a guy, he's a Brazilian dude, and he got his start on YouTube. Really? Wow. Yeah. So he's a director, like a director, writer, and then he's listed a few films. And I think, I haven't seen any of the other ones, I think this Arctic is the one that's kind of garnered the most praise, and that could be because it's Mads Mikkelsen, I'm not sure. But the movie is directed beautifully, directed and shot beautifully. And that's kind of a tough task to do the one guy movie. Really, really good, though. Yeah, good pick for winter. Yeah, get home under a blanket, warm drink of choice, and put this on and just revel in how nice it is to have a A roof over your head, right? That's how I always feel when I watch stuff like this. Yeah. Yeah. Just kind of think like, wow, I don't know. I don't know how, I don't think I'd last as long as Mads Mikkelsen. I bet you we could do a film club list, at least five. That's just Mads Mikkelsen films. Oh, I bet you're right. He's done some really good stuff. He's always great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We ready for my last one. My last one is a movie from 2017. It is, uh, directed by the Safdie brothers who became quite a bit more famous in the last little while from their movie Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler, an absolute tour de force. That film is a panic attack for two and a half hours or two hours or however long. And the fact that it didn't get the praise that it deserved, I'll continue talking about Uncut Gems for a long time, but I think it's important to see where the kind of phase before that was, which is 2017's good time. It's my favorite Robert Pattinson performance. He is nothing short of incredible in it. It has the same feel of watching somebody make mistakes that almost nobody in the audience would make, and it's just... It's not tension, it's not like what I love about Denny Villeneuve or a Sicario scene. The tension is kind of... It brings me up a little bit. This I find almost like a weight. every few minutes of this film adds a little bit more weight as you start to feel worse and worse for the main characters name is Connie. It is just an incredible performance by patents and by the directors that that's Benny and Josh Safty S A F D I E and if you haven't seen any of their films, they this movie is not going to be as as gory or shocking as a green room necessarily, but there is something mentally about it, that I think is a real departure from the way that people generally make films, and that's absolutely the case in Uncut Gems. And it's the way they go about the craft of making the movie, so the actual tools they use, the cameras, the lights, that sort of thing, but it's also the way that they incorporate with their actors. There's a lot said about... I don't wanna give away too much about what happens in Good Times, so I'll use Uncut Gems as a more recent example. In Uncut Gems, a lot of the movie takes place inside a small canal street jewelry store that's down a hallway. It's off the street. It's one of these things that only exists in that part of Manhattan. And it's a tiny space, and they filmed it with long lenses. And the two directors refused to have Adam Sandler have marks. So when you're making a movie, the director of photography and the cinematographer and everybody they want an actor, they want to know where an actor is going to move so they can focus the camera and they can kind of prepare what lens they're going to use to frame the shot and that sort of thing and they basically just said no, he's just going to move around and it's up to you to capture it and the movie feels so frantic. So on the edge of the worst mistake this person's ever made and then they do it, they do that for two hours. it's a it's not like other movies and good time. Good time is, I think I will say that good time. I believe I've seen good time, maybe twice, maybe three times and it's more chill somehow than uncut gems. It's a little bit more personal or internal than some of uncut gems, but yeah, I don't pick one and watch it. I think good time is is the one to start with and it's a it's something else. Robert Pattinson, if you only know him from were those vampire movies? Yeah, twilight twilight. If you only know him from twilight, you are missing out on one of the finest actors of his generation. I haven't seen a twilight film. He might be incredible in those two, but I mean that I bring him up and people go like, oh, that guy from twilight. I'm like, well, also the guy from the lighthouse and good time and like a lot of really incredible performances and yeah, I think he's fantastic in this and it's It's it's really, really good. You know, if you remember, did you did you? I mean, this is a silly question, but I'm assuming you've seen training day. Yes. Yeah. So you know that kind of the way that the movie trades whose mentality you're following. Sometimes you're sometimes you're with Alonso and sometimes you're with Ethan Hawks character. Yeah. And the parts that are with Ethan Hawk, where he's just out of his depth and trying to keep up. Yeah. Take that magnify it and you get a safety film. where we're like he doesn't know what the next sentence is going to be. He doesn't know if his new partner is going to shoot him in the street for not smoking meth. Oh yeah, it's really it's a thing and there's a lot. It's a lot. There's a lot of like caged energy in their films. Yeah, so yeah, I've rambled certainly enough about this film. It's absolutely worth your time. It's not an easy thing to watch, but I don't know how often I really love easy, easy to watch movies. So |
| Jason | Wow. I mean, your picks, other than Grand Budapest Hotel, are like intense. I mean, I don't know if that's all the noise outside your apartment these days or just the summer construction noise. |
| James | Absolutely in a weird headspace. Fall and winter not hitting me so well. You know, I just finished my full remembrance day. It was November 11th, of course, and I do a full watch through of Band of Brothers. So, you know, it's maybe a lot of combative sort of energy. I'm not sure. Yeah, might not be my most popular five, maybe start with Grand Budapest and then finish, finish with that, or maybe, yeah, have that be the dessert. I'm not sure. I think Green Room would be the one that most people probably wouldn't wouldn't be ready for. But Good Time is such a beautiful performance, such an amazing performance by everybody involved. So there's the five good ones. So, Jason, you picked in 1972 Deliverance. 1977's Sunday in Hell, 2001's Spy Game, a fantastic choice, 2013's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I think a very TGN film. You're just a good list right here. And 2018's Arctic. I think you probably won volume five. I might even get some upset emails about my picks, we're not sure. But yeah, a great pick for five. |
| Jason | And your picks were 2013's Prisoners, 2014's Grand Budapest Hotel and Edge of Tomorrow, 2015's Green Room, and 2017's Good Time. So, yeah, real different. Maybe people should just alternate one of yours, one of mine, one of yours, one of mine. Deliverance, you know, if you want kind of old school disturbing, maybe start with that one. |
| James | Yeah, I think that's fair, for sure. Well, there we go. That's that's volume five of the TGN Film Club. I hope everybody liked it. If you have any feedback, if you watch one of the movies and we're upset with what I told you to check out, you have my distinct apologies. I feel like I was pretty clear on warnings with these ones. Grand Budapest is pretty easy to watch, like Jason said. But yeah, any notes, any suggestions, any whatever's, we'll probably do another one of these in, say, five or six months, something like that. But the great NATO at Gmail dot com. Yeah, what do we say? We put a bow on it, hit a final note and get on with the day. |
| Jason | Yeah. So mine is, it's more of a recommendation to visit a new-ish watch website called The Ristorian. W-R-I-S-T-O-R-I-A-N. Put together by a guy named Justin who's a, I know he's a TGN listener. He's also collaborated with Cole Pennington on some research for us, some stories or a story that Cole wrote. So if you'd like the kind of historical stuff that Cole writes on Hodinkee. I think you'll really enjoy this website from Justin called the Ristorian. In it, he kind of, he doesn't focus on new watches and he's not strictly kind of into the value or rarity of vintage pieces. He's more about the stories that various vintage watches have. So he, and he's a bit of a collector of these kind of quirky pieces, most of which have some sort of engraving on the back or special mark on the dial or something that indicates maybe a scientific or expeditionary program for which the watch was used. His latest story is called Deep Dive, an Unexpected Watch with a Sea Lab Connection. And in it, he has found this great old Model 63 Aquastar, the kind with the internal bezel and that beautiful case shape. Beautiful. So gorgeous. And so he wanted to figure out what the The caseback engraving was all about, because it said, from Smitty to John, C-Lab 3. C-Lab, of course, has its own lore specifically around watches, but it was the US Navy's undersea habitat experiments in the mid to late 60s. And much has been written about the Rolex Submariners that were used and the development of the Sea-Dweller in that program. But it's come to light, and much of it from Justin, about other watch brands that were used during C-Lab as well, including Doxas and Aquastars. And, um, it kind of is a continuation in this story about this particular Aquastar that he has with this, uh, this engraving and kind of unraveling the mystery of who these people were, who, who were the people whose names are on the back of this watch. And, um, you know, Justin writes in a great sort of tongue in cheek sort of, uh, humble way, which I really appreciate. He's not kind of caught up in so much of the jaded world of watches that so many of us get to be. And the watches he features are just quirky, you know, in many cases just sort of humble. He's got a Seiko 6105. He's got a Scuba Pro Quartz watch that he writes about, many of which are part of his own collection. And it's just a fun, really refreshing watch blog to follow. So check it out. He's also on Instagram at TheRistorian, and he posts some nice photos there as well. So hats off, Justin, on the great content and keep it up. |
| James | Yeah, that's super cool. And really well done with that, Justin. As soon as Jason started filling the blanks on the John to Smitty, I remember Cole talking about that and that kind of thing. So really well done. And now that I have more experience in just how much work it takes to make a really in-depth look at a vintage watch and the kind of scrutiny and the rest of it that can come along with it. My hat's off to anyone who that's the route that they want to go with writing about watches. It's something that I really enjoy, but man, is it a heavy lift. So good on you, Justin, and I'll definitely subscribe to that site. That's fantastic. My pick is a recent addition to TGN's Northern HQ here in Toronto. It's the Sun Blaster Grow Light Garden Large. That seems to be the name. I picked this up in August. We just recently set it up, and it's essentially the ability to grow some stuff at home. My guess is this thing has probably come to the market for marijuana, would be my assumption, especially as legalization throughout Canada and such has taken place. That's not what we're about as far as a home grow op. I'm not not so concerned. But you can grow all sorts of stuff in it. And it's essentially sort of a watering bed and then a few trays that you can separate various seed groups and then a rising lamp system. That's not really that different than what you'd find with a decent aquarium lighting solution. And so far, I'm really impressed. The build quality is fine for the price. These are about 200 bucks Canadian. So they're not super expensive. And that includes the bulbs, which again, if you've ever been down the road with an aquarium, that's not always the case. So far, I'm really impressed. It's a nice thing to have in the corner of the room. You can plant a bunch of seeds and it has a sort of tray system that ensures they're watered correctly, automatically. There's power only for the light. There's no weird timers or the rest of it. So if you want to do the lighting, you need to kind of configure your own timer. I looked into a handful of these, these sort of home growing kits, whether you want to do herbs on your kitchen counter or something more like flowers or peppers or what have you. And these seem to be the most capable and the most flexible. They don't require any sort of proprietary pods for the planting. Some of these things do. Some of these smaller ones that look like a little kitchen appliance that all the plants kind of shoot out of, and you can trim off your thyme or whatever for your meal. Those ones often require packaged seed things that have a nutrient bit and a seed and some dirt, and they kind of sit in a little hydroponic system. This is a little bit more flexible in that it uses dirt and you could plant just about anything you want. It's only been set up for a little while, but we put it together a while back and I was impressed by it and I'm excited to see it kind of grow and have a bunch of green and kind of take on the look of an aquarium in the corner of the room. |
| Jason | Yeah, I remember you telling me about this a while ago. I think we'd like to get one of these too. I built this very crude shelf that goes over one of our radiators in our kitchen window just to get some light on some plants, but it's a bit of a crowded space and not ideal. And I'd love that the canopy on this thing can be moved up and down as the plants grow. Yeah, exactly. And the watering system is cool. I mean, yeah, I mean, even if you want to get something started, my idea was to, you know, you can get some seeds started early so that when spring hits our super short growing season here, you're kind of ready to go right from the get go. |
| James | Yeah, and I think that's probably what they're most commonly used for. I mean, you can grow all sorts of stuff. I'd be interested to try things like peppers and all that kind of stuff. But most commonly, I assume this is used to start something that you then move outside. But all told, for the money, the brand is SunBlaster, and I'm impressed. It seems to be functioning, and it seems like a simple and straightforward design. Simple enough that, like, if something were to break, you could probably just fix it yourself. There just isn't that much to it, which I really like. Some of the ones that I looked at that were maybe a little bit less expensive but also significantly smaller, not only did they need those kind of specialized pods that I mentioned, but they were more complicated. They maybe had a water pump in them or a screen with buttons and you had to press buttons. I don't want to do any of that. Growing stuff doesn't have to be that complicated. It's water and light and some care. And yeah, so we have kind of the same thing here. It's a simple shelf that we built to get some things up actually next to a radiator, so very similar. And yeah, I'll report back once I start to see more stuff kind of grow out. But as a product that you can just pick up from Amazon and maybe teach your kids about planting and growing stuff, and then you'll have some things going to maybe move to the garden for Yeah, for next season. I really like it as a little winter project. It's not super expensive. I think it would make a great kind of family Christmas present or that sort of thing. And certainly if you have someone that you know that's cooped up due to Corona and might appreciate something a little bit more active than an orchid or something like that, I think this could be a great option. They make them smaller than this as well, so you don't have to buy the large one, which You know, it's in centimeters here. So my apologies to people who don't know centimeters that well, but it's 66 centimeters by about 18 centimeters in terms of its footprint. And then it's about 41 centimeters high at the highest point. But I'll throw it in the show notes and I'll try and find an American link as well. I'm looking at Amazon Canada right now, but you can go to Sunblaster's website and they actually have a ton of stuff. |
| Unknown | Yeah, cool. |
| Jason | I think this time of year, and especially this year, being able to grow something from from a seed into something green and potentially edible is, uh, it could be sort of therapeutic. So good. |
| James | Oh, absolutely. For sure. And yeah, I think that's going to be the show. So as always, thank you so much for listening. Hit the show notes via hoodinkee.com or the feed for more details and a huge thank you to Seiko and their new prospects, SPB divers for supporting this episode. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton at J E Stacey and the show at the Grenado. Should you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com. And of course, keep sending those voice memos. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason | And we leave you with this quote from Orson Wells, who said, if you want a happy ending, that depends of course, on where you stop your story. |