The Grey NATO – 161 - Film Club Vol 6 With Tim Stacey
Published on Thu, 23 Sep 2021 06:00:16 -0400
Synopsis
This episode of The Grey Nado features a discussion on film recommendations for the show's "Film Club." The hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacy are joined by James' brother Tim as a guest co-host. They each pick three movies they recommend, including films like Sorcerer, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Amores Perros, The Revenant, Dunkirk, The Lighthouse, The Thing, Hell or High Water, and Parasite. They provide commentary on the movies, discussing elements like the storytelling, acting performances, direction, and cinematography.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | 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 161 and we thank you for listening. James, good to chat with you again. How's it going? We're back. We're back, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm upright and reasonably healthy. Yeah. Apologies to everyone out there for missing out on last week. I had a bit of impromptu abdominal surgery to remove a unwanted organ. Goodness sakes. I'm on the mend. I was a bit, I don't want to say touch and go that it's a little overdramatic, but no, I kind of felt like I was hit by a bus at first. And now I'm just kind of feel like a light sort of stabbing victim at this point with a few little holes poked in my stomach. But yeah, doing well and good to be back. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. So for those of you who maybe didn't even bother downloading the one minute, um, kind of non, non episode we put in there yesterday or last week. Uh, yeah. So we, we took the week off due to, uh, some, um, hopefully short lived illness on Jason's part and, and he got some good medical coverage and we're of course, very thankful for that. And then we also asked for topic ideas for future shows and, uh, yeah, I'm blown away by you, by all of you. Yeah. What an absolute treat it is to have 95 comments. Yeah. At this point, like that's a year of shows. It's two years of shows. Yeah. We're set. And some of your comments are six months of shows alone. We may never have to think of a topic again. From the bottom of my heart, I mean, I've always known that everybody listening is just, we have the best audience in the world, but goodness sakes, I asked for what I thought was, you know, a relatively, you know, kind of simple favor. But I thought maybe we'd get 20, 15. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to break. We're going to be in three digits soon. It's very humbling. Thank you so much to everyone who, who offered up these ones. I promise, even if it doesn't look like we replied to all of them, uh, Jason and I are going to have like a whole meeting and sit down and kind of work through these. Uh, and yeah, I'm, I'm just absolutely thrilled. It was really nice of everyone to step up and, uh, and offer up a topic. And if you didn't get a topic in, but you've got one for a future show, hit the show notes for, um, It's called a week off and a request. It's currently at the top. By the time you listen to this, it'll be the second post in the feed. Uh, and, and, and give that, uh, give that a look if you'd like to add in, uh, either, uh, you know, you can, you can heart somebody else's reply to kind of give it a vote, uh, or you can throw in your own and, uh, people will heart yours if they like the topic. So I think that works, uh, works pretty well. One other note I'll mention, and I do mention it again later in the episode, but, um, my distinct apologies for the noise. I have neighbors that are cutting stone just outside my house, like for a patio of some sort. And I can't time it. They do five minutes of cutting and then they stop for an hour or they do two hours of cutting and then they're done for the day. And it's making, I now record a lot of podcasts from home and it's making me absolutely crazy. So I'm going to do my best to remain calm, even though I can hear the cutting in the background. Luckily a carbon, the sort of saw they're using, I might be able to filter for that frequency. I'll do my very best. If you end up hearing some soft sounds, you have my legit apology. I take this stuff seriously. It bugs me too. Um, and, and I just, there's only so much I can do. I can only drive, you know, a couple hours to my parents' place for some episodes. I can't do it every time I have to record, especially this week with, uh, multiple episodes as I'm, I'm taking, uh, the next week off for some vacation. So we're going to record two episodes this week. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Unfortunately, we have topics. We can actually build an editorial calendar. Wouldn't that be a novel thing to do based on everybody's feedback? |
| James Stacy | Just what I need, more calendars. I just had a story pushed more than a year. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's the scope that Hodinkee's operating at right now, where they looked at it and they said, well, I think we can probably look at this sometime in 2023. Unreal. And I said, you realize that means it just doesn't exist to me. Like if it's more than three weeks away. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Wow. |
| James Stacy | I'm just not operating at that high level. I barely know how to use Google Calendar. I'm not keeping up. Just let me write and talk into a microphone. You guys can deal with the timing. But yeah, it's been an interesting week since we took that week off. Obviously, you had your own struggles with health, but we're thrilled that you're on the mend. The big announcement is something that I teased on the show previously is this new overseas Everest line from Vacheron Constantin. And we could go for some time, and because we already have a huge episode segment that's already been recorded for this show, we're not going to spend 20 minutes talking about these watches. But I did want to attribute that, yes, these are the watches that I said are incredible and that I would like to sell everything I own for the dual time. I'll put a link in the show notes, but next week we're working on a show kind of more about these watches in general. So stay tuned for a week. You know, if you want to see what I think in at a more loose level, I think it's pretty obvious. I love these watches that dual time is probably my favorite watch of the year. Then feel free to check out my post on Hodinkee and then save up any, any other needs you have for this topic for a week. We're hoping to possibly have a certain guest on to talk about the the watches with us, but Jason, for a minute, what do you think of these? How do they hit you? |
| Jason Heaton | I think they're fantastic. I mean, I think like you said in your write-up about this, when high-end brands go sporty, it's pretty irresistible. And I think whether we're talking like a Royal Oak offshore diver or something like these overseas Everests, I think they're just amazing. And then to do it in titanium and then that... What gets me personally, the The detail that I love the most actually is the color and the texture of the dial. I just think it makes the watch. It's just perfect. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, it's blue-gray and it kind of has like a Teflon texture. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Really, really beautiful. So yeah, we'll dig into these. I think I have lots to say. I've said some of it in the post, but I think these are amazing watches, but the fact is that they're all sold So it's not like I'm gonna be influencing anybody's ability to spend $40,000 on a new Vacheron or 32 to $37,000 on a new Vacheron. So I think it can wait a week. We also have a really fantastic return to the film club, volume six. Yes. It's great. We've got a co-host, my brother is on, he has a movie themed podcast. So it's actually a three host film club and we've got really great selection of movies. So I'm really excited about that. We literally just finished recording it and now we're kind of doing the front and back segments of the show. Jason, how about some wrist check before we get into a film club? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. I've got something brand spanking new. I got it. This is exciting. I got it about a week ago. This is, uh, it's an Omega Seamaster Professional, the diver 300 meter. Um, this is the white dial version with the ceramic dial and the ceramic bezel, uh, the caliber 8,800 coaxial movement. Um, you know, I've been, I've been dancing around this watch for, for some time. I'd written about it on my sub stack and, and, you know, among a few other, uh, delectable watches that are out there these days. But, uh, you know, I've come, uh, 180 degrees on, on this style of Seamaster. I think after wearing one for a week, diving a couple of years ago in Bonaire was kind of a turning point for me, just experiencing what it's like on the wrist. And then when I saw the white dial, it's just, you know, I don't have, I think I have one other white dial watch and I owned very few over the years, but there's just something about this watch with the bold markers with the black outlines and, um, and this excellent rubber strap. I didn't even bother with the bracelet version of it. Cause I knew I wouldn't wear that bracelet, but, uh, yeah, it's I'm smitten, you know, still on the honeymoon phase. It's, it's amazing. I set it and put it on eight days ago and it's running eight seconds fast. So that's not too bad for, for a week. Um, But yeah, I'm thrilled with it. I'd love to talk further at length with it, but we've got a long episode and I can continue to wax poetic about it on future wrist checks because I'm sure I'll be wearing this one a lot. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I think that's another one we can get to next week. Also, depending on the timing of everything. I don't think it's going to work for the recording, but we can kind of fudge the, we can bend it a little bit. I also have bought a new watch. It's one that I know really well, so I can talk about it without actually needing it on my wrist. It'll ship while we record next week's episode, basically. But yeah, it's kind of an exciting time. I'm so glad that you got this watch. I think it suits you really well. You seem really excited about it, which is super fun. And it really is an excellent, excellent kind of higher end dive watch. Uh, congratulations, man. |
| Jason Heaton | That's such a winner. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to talk about yours too. I think, I don't know if I haven't bought like bought new, a new watch in box for a very long time and something like, uh, like an Omega just kind of felt special. And, you know, I think I was weakened and taking some strong painkillers and maybe that influenced it, but, uh, I got a nice deal from a local retailer and, and, you know, managed to, managed to limp over to their shop and pick it up last week. And it's, uh, it's been a nice, uh, a nice little recovery, uh, treat for me. So yeah, I'm thrilled. It's fantastic. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And what's on your wrist today? I'm wearing the Aquastar with the old Deepstar. I wore it all weekend up at the cottage, um, on a, on a green NATO. I published a photo of it. Um, and then I realized, Hey, you know what? It's like loosely fall now. We're starting to see days that aren't sweaty. So as of this morning, I've put it on a brown leather strap and on leather, this watch is... It really is great. It's a big enough watch that the NATO does actually make it wear a bit differently, the layer of fabric underneath the watch. But I was jumping off the dock and it's not so cold up there in the water that you can't be swimming, so it wasn't quite leather strap day yet, but I did it just before we started recording. And I just, uh, I just love it. It's great. I adore this watch. It's really the thing I like. I think the, like the most of it is just beautiful. It's a beautiful watch. |
| Jason Heaton | It is very timeless and it's easy to wear. Yeah. That reverse Panda and then the case shape. Yeah. It's, it's, it's special. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah, and it's special to me because it is one of my few watches that would have what I would say is an interesting movement. And then of course, it is another one of my little pushes into my discomfort world of chronographs. And I do actually get some use out of it. I parked in a little town in Uh, not too far from my cottage and, and had to actually feed a meter for the first time in a couple of years. And, you know, through, through a couple of quarters in got 30 minutes, clicked my button, and then I was waiting for coffee 30 minutes later when I realized I owed the meter a couple more quarters. And so it is actually useful, uh, a tool, a tool for modern day parking, I suppose. But, uh, yeah, a brand new Seamaster pro and, uh, the Aqua star deep stars, some, some kind of classic space for, uh, for the great NATO for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | Good picks. Well, let's let's dive into this main topic. I'm still buzzing from our recording with with Tim, so I'm excited for our listeners to hear this as well. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, no need to belabor it because we have a little intro. So let's just get to it. OK, please welcome to the show the co-host of a very hot new podcast called Single Serving Cinema, in which my brother Tim and his buddy take a deep and detailed look at a single scene from a great movie. They recently had me on to talk about one of my favorite movies, Blade Runner 2049, which is a past film club entry. And that episode went live just yesterday. So we figured we'd return the favor. So welcome to the show, Tim Stacy. Hey, brother. |
| Tim Stacy | Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Long time listener, especially, you know, I maybe don't get every episode in every every time you guys drop. But I definitely love the film club episodes. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. You know, it's a funny thing because I think I think Jason and I have kind of noticed that there's the film clubs can be kind of a mixed bag. |
| Unknown | Mm hmm. |
| James Stacy | In terms of audience reaction, there's people who seem to love them and then kind of pour through every movie. And there's some that I think just skip the episode. So we're going to mix up the format just a little bit today. Whereas normally Jason, I each pick five movies, we kind of felt like 15 movies would take a long time. And that's a lot of time for me to edit. And it might even be more movies than someone would watch in an entire like fall winter season, depending on your love of of movies. For some people, 15 would be nothing. For others, that could be quite a few movies, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. It also means we have, uh, we have fewer to choose from, uh, the next time around it would make it harder on us. |
| James Stacy | True. Yeah. I mean, eventually, eventually we'll run out of movies theoretically, although there's, there's lots of good ones. |
| Unknown | I don't think so. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. So, uh, so for this episode, which is volume six, the first one we've done in 10 months, Yeah, too long, which is impressive. You know, we used to do these a little bit more compressed. And then I was reading volume five and we're like, first one in six months, guys. Well, now it's first one in 10 months. It's been an extra busy 10 months. This is our first time with a guest in the co-host seat for the film club. And with Fallen Arrival, we figured we'd get back to the mix with a fresh set of movie recommendations. But again, there's no overlaps allowed, no double picks. And given that we have a guest, we're going to limit this episode to three picks for each of us. So we're going to get nine movies instead of the usual 10. but it's a pretty varied list from what I've seen. Before we get into the movies, Tim, why don't you tell me a little bit about Single Serving Cinema and how it's been going so far. You guys are 10 episodes in now? |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. So yesterday, as of when this drops, we dropped episode 10, which we sort of celebrated hitting 10 by having you on and doing a different format. Normally what we do is we look at one movie, but just one scene in the movie. So there's always a little preamble about sort of, our experience with the movie when we first saw it or the sort of legacy it has in our lives. And then we dive into one scene that we think can either show off a interesting take or an interesting technique or point to something bigger in the movie. But what we didn't want to do was be one of, I think, probably 600,000 podcasts out there that talk for three hours about a movie with no real direction there. I love some of those. Um, but I didn't want to muscle in on that territory. So we keep it nice and short. They're almost always about an hour or slightly less with the exception of. I think Blade Runner 2049 where just under two hours. Uh, so that was, that was a, that was a tall order for Taylor who does all the editing. Big thanks to him. Uh, the trade-off is I do our social media. Yeah, no, you and I have talked about Blade Runner 2049 around campfires for, you know, however, however many years it's been out four or five years. So we thought it'd be good to have you come on. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, it was a good one. And we each picked a scene, which you guys call like a potluck. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Normally it's just one scene between Taylor and me. But in this case, I think every 10th episode we'll get on a guest and we'll do this potluck style where we each bring a scene to the table. |
| James Stacy | Well, that's great. And I hope people check it out. What's the fastest route to people finding the feed? |
| Tim Stacy | In any of your sort of podcast catchers, if you look for single serving cinema, you'll find it. But if not on Instagram, you can find it. Find us at SSC pod. |
| James Stacy | Super. All right. Well, In our own sort of potluck theme here, we're all going to bring three of our own movies that we haven't talked about in the past. Some of them, I think, are a little bit on the predictable side than mine in many ways. But they're all, I think, pretty solid ones. Tim, why don't you kick it off with with your first pick? |
| Tim Stacy | Absolutely. So in developing my picks, I really wanted to try to fit into whatever sort of theme that you can build out of. If you look at the full list of Film Club, it's often people overcoming great odds or doing something very difficult. And this is the one that I mean for probably two or three years I've been ragging on James for not seeing because it feels like a slam dunk for both you and Jason. It's William Friedkin's 1977 Sorcerer. It's a remake of an older film called Wages of Fear. It's about four men who are sort of at the ends of their ropes. They're on the run in South America. their one chance to get what they want, which is generally, you know, they need money for something, for a passport, for a way out, for a new life, um, is to transport a truck full of nitroglycerin across the Latin American jungle. Um, wow. Yeah. Uh, good cast too. Yeah. Oh, fantastic cast. You got Roy Scheider, uh, leading it up, which again, like two of my picks are directly branch off of Jaws, which is maybe very on brand for TGN. Um, but yeah, you got, you got Roy Scheider, um, and you have, um, Francisco Rabal. Uh, you just got, you've got a great group of people, a nice varied cast and, uh, just one of the most tense movies out there, I think. I mean, between some Denis Villeneuve picks in the past for TGN, Sicario, things like that. I think you guys really like a tense movie and there's a sequence in this where they're moving this truck against a, across a rotting jungle bridge, uh, in the middle of a rainstorm. And I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, but there's this sequence where they're parking a big American car in a little Mexican garage. And it's just you're moving centimeters on either side. But in this case, if you do anything wrong, you don't scratch the paint. You blow up, you know, that three square kilometer area of the jungle. |
| James Stacy | I had some of this experience, uh, street parking the Jeep in New York. |
| Jason Heaton | Exactly. |
| James Stacy | So I will care less about paint there though. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I've, I've never, I've never heard of this movie. And when I saw it on your list, I thought, sorcerer, what, what, you know, what's this going to be? Some kind of a, you know, sci-fi or some sort of a mystical adventure, but man, this sounds, this sounds amazing. And I'll watch anything with Roy Scheider. I mean, he's the quintessential of course, seventies kind of, uh, I don't know, tense movie guy. I mean, Marathon Man, one of my favorites with him. |
| Tim Stacy | And, uh, of course, I had that if that, if that wasn't already on the TGN film club, that was definitely on my short list for what to bring to this too. |
| James Stacy | No, this sounds amazing. And for people listening who may not, who may not be like, I think Friedkin is a household name for people either of a certain age or people who are into movies. But if you're not into movies like this, the same guy that did the French connection to live and die in LA. I mean, he changed the game with the exorcist. Yeah. This is a very talented director that tries things and everything's razor sharp. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. And so apparently the rumors that Sorcerer is his favorite film of his own, which is saying something because I don't know, I follow Friedkin on Twitter and he basically only posts when someone has put one of his movies on a top 10 list or is re-celebrating something. I think he really likes his work and I think that's fair. I think he's obviously super talented and he made one of the most prolific horror movies ever. But yeah, no, Jason, to your point, um, Sorcerer is maybe, uh, one of the more difficult to market titles out there, especially in terms of like a, a, a white knuckle jungle adventure that involves no form of magic or anything. Uh, it's actually, it's named after the brand or model of the truck that they're driving. |
| Unknown | Oh, really? |
| Tim Stacy | Um, it's very much a throwaway. I don't know if they, they were struggling to find a better title than, uh, than the originals wages of fear, which is a phenomenal title. Um, so to top that maybe at the end, they just, they kept seeing how often they were shooting the word sorcerer on the front of this truck coming across the rickety bridge and decide just to go with that. Sell it on Friedkin's name alone. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I think anything set in the jungle is, is a draw for me. I, I find jungles both, uh, uh, incredibly alluring, but also incredibly, uh, terrifying, you know, there's just, it's like, it's the perfect crucible in which to put, characters and kind of pit them against the elements, you know, so having not seen it outside, but it's somehow claustrophobic. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Well, and that, and that's the thing, right? Like there is this balance at play in this movie of people facing the elements, both natural and both, however you would classify nitroglycerin and oil. There's a lot at play that Friedkin touches on in terms of the oil industry and what's it, what it's doing in South America. Um, I did just want to I think it's it's always very special when you come across like someone who's written about a film and they really they hit the nail on the head. And I'm sure I can pass along the link for this for the notes. But there's this writer from the Brooklyn Rail who wrote something called The Thirst for Annihilation in William Friedkin's Sorcerer written by Jason LaRiviere. And there's he he draws on a lot of sources. But there is there is one part that I wanted to point out about this movie. It's really beautifully realized. As Kent Jones observes, there are imitations of something deeply unsettling in Friedkin's best films, moments where he works so hard to represent the forces threatening mankind that he gives us a glimpse of sustained disharmony, the blackest terror. In this case, the blackest terror is the agential power of oil itself, what Riza Negarestani calls hydrocarbon corpse juice. So, I mean, that's, there's, there's a lot going on there. Maybe easier to read than listen to, but it's, it's a wonderful essay. And I think it really gets to the heart of obviously films like the exorcist, um, or even films where you're chasing down a bad guy, like in the French connection or this, where you're, you're playing with these fundamental forces and you're seeing these people push to their limits. And, uh, it's always a powerful experience. |
| James Stacy | That's awesome. Yeah, for sure. I think that's a great first pick that, you know, the funny thing is, is that it's true. You bring this movie up to me every couple of months, like, Hey, have you seen it yet? And it's not an easy movie to find. Now that I just Googled it again, and it's apparently on Apple Plus in Canada, it might be in more options in the States. If I can find it, I'll put that in the show notes. We'll certainly put that write-up you just quoted in the show notes as well. And the other thing is I'm low-key embarrassed to admit that I wanted to see this movie bad enough that I grabbed a pirated copy and then none of the subtitles worked. And there's about three languages in the opening. |
| Tim Stacy | They start with the four men who end up in South America. They show you all the reasons they had to flee to South America and they're one like Shiders in New Jersey, but the rest of them are in the Middle East and Africa and Spain, I want to say. |
| James Stacy | But yeah, at one point there's some French and I was like almost on board. I almost knew what the general tenor of the conversation was. I knew you could tell that it's tension and someone's in trouble, but, uh, I, it's one that I, I'm, I'll probably just now that it's on Apple plus, uh, I think that's probably the move I'll have to go. Uh, this looks like a great way to spend five bucks. Absolutely. At this point I owe them as well. Yeah. Uh, Jason, you want to give us a, your first one? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I'll squeeze between the Stacey's here. My three picks today, you know, I, I choose, I chose their, I wouldn't call them necessarily predictable, but, but two of them were definite blockbusters. The third one's a bit of an artsy film with some big name actors in, but, uh, I'm going to start with one from 2015. This is the Revenant directed by Alejandro Iñárritu. And of course, Leonardo DiCaprio plays, uh, plays Hugh Glass, the lead character. But I think, um, I have two movies today with, with Tom Hardy and, and as I was kind of revisiting the trailers and reading some notes about uh, about the movies, uh, for today, I was watching, you know, some scenes with Tom Hardy and, and, you know, DiCaprio obviously is the lead lead actor in this film, but, but I, I would go out on a limb and say, Tom Hardy's one of, if not the most talented actor working today, I think he's so versatile and his role. Um, I don't remember the character's name in this film, but, um, he's just, he's so good. Um, he's so menacing. And so convincing. And of course, uh, yeah. DiCaprio is one of those actors too, that like Tom Cruise in my mind that I almost don't want to like, but I find that he, he's almost never been in a bad movie. I think he's just so incredibly talented and you know, the Revenant is just such a showcase for, again, it's, it's kind of like what we were talking about with the sorcerer, you know, it's set outdoors, it's set in, in a hostile environment. In this case, it's, uh, you know, the, the kind of Western Rockies, uh, in winter, you know, mountains, uh, in the American or Canadian West. And, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's bitter cold, it's wildlife, it's, uh, it's, uh, you know, hostile forces with, uh, with bows and arrows and muskets. And, um, it's just, for one thing, it was just beautifully shot. I mean, this is a film that I saw on the big screen and, and, you know, if it's ever playing again, anywhere near you on a big screen, it's probably worth, you know, ping something to go see it or check it out on a really good television. But, uh, I don't know this, this movie really made an impact on me. I remember when it came out, I quickly wanted to read, um, the book upon which it's based because this is a, it's based on a, uh, loosely based on a true story about this, uh, this guy who's part of kind of a, uh, expeditionary force, uh, in the wilderness who, um, uh, one of the guys is attacked by, by a bear and then left for dead. And then of course he seeks revenge on, on the guy who, kind of left him there. And, you know, so it's a very basic plot of survival and revenge. And I think, um, you know, Tim, to your point about sort of TGN-esque movies, uh, for our film club, I'm not sure if it's been a deliberate thing, but we do seem to choose movies that are pretty intense and kind of, you know, man against the forces of nature or, or just sort of a very elemental, uh, kind of forces. And I think this movie is just, it's just totally stripped down, beautifully shot. It's kind of, I think the, the, the cinematography has this sort of, uh, on one hand it's, it's big and it's bold and it's, uh, um, it's just, it's so vibrant, but on the other hand, it's also muted in its tone. I don't know if they did some desaturation or something, but it just, it has this, uh, uh, it, it really adds to, to what they're trying to get across in the movie. And I think, you know, what, what it lacks in, in kind of dialogue because in many cases it's just kind of one guy struggling across the wilderness, badly injured. Um, but, uh, you know, so much is said without, without a lot of dialogue in this movie and it's just, I don't know, I just, I found it just gripping and amazing. And as soon as I was, you know, kind of preparing for today's episode and revisiting, uh, especially this movie, I really need to see it again. |
| James Stacy | So I remember when this came out, I actually, I remember before this came out and Tim might remember this story, uh, a weird, uh, time to have Tim on because the brother between us, our brother Grant, he actually tried to be in this movie. They were looking for extras just north of Squamish in B.C. And they wanted like kind of thin, rustic look, like people who look like they've been living like frontiers people. Yeah, exactly. And at the time and even to today, he now he still has a very large beard and he's a tall, thin guy. And I don't remember what the outcome was, but I think he responded to a casting call, or maybe he just saw the casting call. I'll need a fact check on that. But I do recall that like around 2013, shortly after I moved out west. And then I remember when the movie came out, being blown away by a few things. The cast is incredible. There's not a bad performance in this movie. And it's a really patient movie, which is my nice way of saying it's a long movie, which I typically like. And then the last thing or the other thing is the use of natural light for, I think almost every scene in the movie is filmed in natural light. Yeah. Which some of it's around like a fireplace and half the fireplace is shrouded. It's very avant, like very high end cutting edge filmmaking, even if they're looking at a story from, I don't know, what is it? 1820, 1830, something like that. Yeah. And finally, I remember watching the movie and then going like, what's this Phil Glass's or Hugh Glass's real story here? Yeah. And I dug around the Wikipedia and the story, his story is arguably even crazier. It's almost like a parable. It doesn't sound like a real story. |
| Tim Stacy | I remember like when they, when they started, you know, cause this was after, um, Iñárritu did Birdman. So he, he had already gotten a lot of sort of like, uh, North American acclaim outside of, uh, outside of South America. So when they started saying, yo, he's doing the Hugh Glass story and you just look up like the Wikipedia, like, abstract on hue glass. And it's like, well, he was attacked by a bear and, you know, maybe buried alive and he used maggots to clean out his wounds. And you just, you go, Oh, okay. Like I bet that's a movie. That's, I can see that right now. And yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | It's a great story. A really impressive, big, big film about a very personal story. It's a, it's an interesting contrast in that as well. |
| Tim Stacy | And to your point, Jason, you like, I agree. Tom Hardy is, He, he does, it feels like he does a lot with very little, like in most of his movies, I'd say definitely some of the more like the Batman and comic leaning ones, he gets these bigger performances, but things like this, uh, the drop, if, if, uh, if people haven't seen his fantastic one, Gandolfini's last films, I rewatched a warrior recently, which is him and Joel Edgerton as a UFC fighting brothers. And he just, he does a lot with his eyes. He does a lot with his presence. |
| James Stacy | And the legend was incredible. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, he was in the Mad Max film and then he was in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. |
| Tim Stacy | I mean, so, so many of these ones are, he just, yeah, he has almost no appearance. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. He has almost no lines and, and he just, he still, he gives a lot and that's why it's fun. Like to see him and stuff like inception where he gets to actually have some personality, even though it's not, not even that big of a role, but. And we'll talk about in your other one too. I think he does even more with less there and just sort of assuming an archetype. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. And now that we're hitting loosely hitting the fall, I get to start bringing up band of brothers basically every episode as we move towards a remembrance day here in Canada, November 11th. And he's in a, he's in band of brothers. He was, he was that sort of level of actor that was just tasked to be kind of a, I would say like a third level player. I think he's got a couple of lines. He's definitely on camera several times. But it is weird now to look back because they basically hired everyone who looked like they could have been in World War II in England at the time, even to the extent of there being a pretty famous podcast about a guy who couldn't get on that. Yeah. Couldn't get on that. What's that podcast called, Tim? |
| Tim Stacy | Dead Eyes. He got fired very late round because apparently Tom Hanks thought he had dead eyes. |
| James Stacy | And he made a guy that now hosts a podcast, not Tom Hardy. No, but Tom Hardy's in it. And you see James McAvoy, of course, is like an actual like a bigger role in a role. Jimmy Fallon shows up driving a Jeep at one point. So, yeah, I think I agree with the with the Tom Hardy love. He's an eminent talent. You know, I lament and us losing any actors like these folks to Marvel movies. But at least the the it's cool that he gets to be kind of the the lead in a movie that's kind of even adjacent in the Spider-Man world. I think it's kind of a good fit for him. |
| Tim Stacy | I think he's getting to flex some weird muscles that you can tell he enjoys doing. I wouldn't go so far as to say any of the Venom movies have been good so far, but it's nice to see him obviously get to go weird and go bigger because so much of his talent otherwise is in being restrained. And I did just what you were saying that he was He was in Band of Brothers, an interesting point about him. He's one of like a handful of British actors who were a part of this weird, they called it like the Harry Potter gap where they were too old to be students and they're too young to be teachers. So like him, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, all these guys who were obviously very talented and very filmable and would be successful. They missed this series of eight movies over the course of 15 years that they couldn't be a part of. Um, so that's how, you know, you end up in other stuff like that or, or they, they come out of this lost generation of, of a list British talent. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, there's tons. And the, the, the breadth of what he does is pretty is, I think as we've highlighted, it's pretty remarkable from Tinker Taylor soldier spy to, uh, you know, kind of the heel in the revenue to venom and, and even some comedic, like loosely comedic sort of role. |
| Tim Stacy | And to, to bring it back to the revenant, I just, I, I haven't seen this since I saw it in theaters. I, My sort of experience with Iñárritu has been somewhat diminishing returns. I think the more you read his insight and stuff in articles about his movies, he doesn't have the most welcoming personality, which is fine. It goes hand in hand with a lot of great directors and artists. But I do remember, as much as I like Leo, I really felt that Hardy stole the show for me. I was just so much more locked in and engaged anytime he was on screen, especially there's the sequence with him and Will Poulter's character around a fire about two thirds through is fantastic. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. And the only one that I remember watching that movie going like, how'd they do this without Viggo Mortensen? Yeah. Yeah. |
| Tim Stacy | This is a movie made for Viggo, right? Seems like an obvious call. He must not have been available. He's doing Captain Fantastic or something. |
| James Stacy | He must have been busy. All right, speaking about a movie that you could make the case Spiegel would have been pretty good in the lead. He would have been too young, but I'm going to take us back to 1982 for my first pick. It's a movie that I adore, and it's a movie that I attribute to roughly this time of year. I like it as my fall, winter. I have a Saturday afternoon where I don't have that much to do. I might not stay awake for the whole thing, but if I make it to the second half of the second act, I'm pretty much dialed in. Interestingly, this movie was just on an episode of The Rewatchables, and I learned that it was a massive flop. Oh, yeah. Like an unheralded, unstoppable failure. And that didn't get any respect until people started being able to watch it at home and realize exactly how cutting edge it was. I'm talking about one of my all time favorite horror movies, and that's The Thing from John Carpenter. |
| Tim Stacy | The the the ensemble cast is so good in this. Everyone is doing great. But yeah, Kurt Russell, Keith David and Wilford Brimley, maybe most most high profile. And, and I, the, just, I wanted to cut in and just say it, it, the timing is very odd. Um, we on single serving cinema, we, uh, record about a month in advance. This is our second Halloween pick. So this will be out in the second half of, uh, of October as well. So definitely just, just did a bunch of research on it. And you're right. When you say it's a flop, it wasn't like people didn't go see it. It was people were offended. They hated it. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It did not find an audience in 1982. And the interesting thing that they bring up in the rewatchables is that it came out right alongside Blade Runner and right alongside E.T. So one that was like the family one and one that was arguably a cult icon from its first weekend. And you had this trouble with the thing not finding a home for a decade. |
| Tim Stacy | Well, it's almost like ET moved the public consciousness in terms of aliens so far in the other direction that the whiplash when you go to see the thing, which is never a recognizable face, never something you can reason with. It's so much the opposite of ET and so pessimistic and so bleak. Uh, and, and has none of Spielberg sensibilities. Like a lot of the critics were arguing that like, you know, you don't know anything about these characters. You don't have no reason to connect with them, which I think everyone has realized it's the brilliance. It's so simple. They don't have to tell you that McCready is a Vietnam vet. All you need to know is that like he drinks J and B and he takes it upon himself to, to lead the group by force with a, you know, with a flamethrower in hand. Cause he thinks he can do it right. |
| James Stacy | So for those of you who haven't seen this movie, the premise is not that difficult. It's essentially a hard open to a sequence of a helicopter chasing a dog and they're shooting at the dog and you really don't know why they're approaching another sort of base. As it turns out, we connect with a group of guys that are living on a base in Antarctica and something comes to the base. And it's not an alien by normal cinematic standards. And it has this sort of virus-like quality, this background unknowingness. And it really brings this really fantastic look into the ideas of isolation and trust and what it is to know that you're not the disease or the problem versus you are. And then take all of that and on top of it, layer on the most incredible work in body horror that I can think of. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that the field has moved forward since 1982, but this was so cutting edge. It's so unbelievably gory and visceral and violent and disturbing and kind of weird and gross and gooey and juicy. |
| Tim Stacy | Like it disturbed genre fans. They were people writing in horror magazines that this took it too far, which is wild. |
| James Stacy | Jason, have you seen this one? |
| Jason Heaton | No, I haven't. No. I didn't even know the premise. I figured it was just sort of a creature film, but I didn't realize it was set in Antarctica and immediately intrigued. |
| Tim Stacy | It is the creature film, right? |
| James Stacy | It's so good. Amazing cast, amazing music, beautifully shot. Their ability to use all the dynamic range of a camera. So when they're shooting outside, everything's being lit by flares and by overhead spotlights. Burning bodies. I think what's compelling about this movie, especially if you've seen it four or five times, let's say, is that there's a texture to the whole film that feels like they found a base and that's where they shot it. And they shot it in Antarctica and everybody's actually cold. There's a certain amount of realism to a very, hopefully, unrealistic scenario. And then on top of it, there's the the shock value of you think you've seen the scary gross thing and they got a couple more for you. There's always there's another weird thing. |
| Tim Stacy | The guy who did the creature effects, Rob Boutin, who's obviously, you know, iconic at this point, they like they they originally budgeted like two hundred fifty thousand for effects. It ballooned to one point five million. He had a thirty five person team because almost you can almost see that the mission statement with their creature was every time it cuts back to the creature, it can't look the same as it was before. So. If there are 140 creature shots, that's 140 different puppets and animatronics and little things that will scuttle around. |
| James Stacy | And it's 82. They weren't just loading up a computer and painting in some blood or some viscera. If I start to explain visually what happens to some of the things in this movie, you wouldn't necessarily buy it if you haven't seen it. If you've seen it, you're like chuckling along like, oh, they put it on cable now. But I think it remains shocking to today. |
| Tim Stacy | And and it and actually in its level of detail and it remains engaging, like especially, you know, when we did the episode just just last week or the week before, we, you know, watched the movie a couple of times in the week or two leading up to it. And I always sort of resent that process because I find that some movies obviously you need them to space out and you need time again. I find this one almost always like I watched it three days apart and both times I get locked right in. Right. There's there is a quiet, engaging, um, bleak nature to the whole movie that just, that locks you right into it. And there are enough creature changes that you always, you know, unless you've seen this movie 40 times, you don't have it completely memorized or who, who is infected and who isn't. Cause there's like nine or 10 guys on this cast, which I mean, Carpenter even said like, may, I might've had too many guys. It was, it was difficult for me to film interestingly, which I don't agree with, but yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, the, this genre of, of creature film is an interesting one. And I think, uh, I, I was thinking that to, to set a creature film in Dan in Antarctica is, is somewhat novel. But when you think about, um, something like the abyss or, uh, alien or, um, you know, where, or even like predator, you know, where it's set in the jungle or, you know, you, you, these things exist in these remote places and then humans sort of happen upon them. Now, having not seen a thing, what immediately came to mind, um, based on kind of the cold setting is, uh, you know, I had read that there was a well-known book that was also turned into a, a series called the terror. I don't know if you guys have seen this, but you know, big fan of the show, HMS terror and Erebus, uh, in the, you know, the, the famous expedition trying to find the Northwest passage. And I went into the, I listened to the audio book on a long flight and I, didn't realize it was going to take that turn. I didn't realize that that was what it was about was in essence sort of a quasi kind of creature story. But is this anywhere close to that or is this a completely different tangent? |
| Tim Stacy | I would say the two properties have a lot of shared DNA and just in terms of when you don't know who is a threat, how quickly a small community will break down. Yeah. Sort of highlighting the very thin layer of like, paper mache that's between us and chaos at any given time, which again, like you can see why people, they saw ET, which really tells you that like the universe is a big neighborhood and there are people and you can help people and they'll help you. And then you go to this and it's like, one thing goes wrong and everyone's going to start pointing flamethrowers at each other. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. But I think it is time to get Tim to his second film as we're not moving that quickly. Uh, but I'm excited. Uh, cause this is also a great one. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. So my, my second one, uh, and this one, you know, we just, we're, we're playing little branches off of the Jaws cast. Uh, this one stars Robert Shaw and it's, uh, the taking of Pelham one, two, three, uh, from 1974. So, uh, and even a nice, simple premise, uh, in New York armed men, hijack subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. It becomes a story about number one. I love like any, anytime you jump back in, in time for these sorts of, um, Heist stories. I love that they're demanding a million dollars. There's four men, right? It seems like a, like in terms of holding an entire subway car hostage, it's a really small sum of money. Um, which I, even with inflation, it's just like 5 million. So again, these guys would be asking for more this time, but you basically, yeah, you have Robert Shaw leading this group of, of men running this heist, um, with this just like wonderful controlled quality to everything he's doing. Like not obviously not as, Barnacled, if that's a word, as his character in Jaws. Very controlled, ex-military, that kind of thing. And Walter Matthau plays a, like a police officer for the Transit Commission, right? Who's working on the other end of a radio. But it's really like, a lot of it comes down to friction in between Shaw and the other men on his heist team and how, like any heist in any movie like this, he had to make some concessions and didn't have a team that he necessarily Uh, we're all his first picks and, uh, and yeah, I also, like, I love seeing math out on this. Cause math is one of those things where being my age and being born at the time I was, when you look back on math, I think it's hard to understand why he was a movie star. He's got, he's got a funny face. Like if he wasn't just like an outright comedy star. So to have him being was essentially the Denzel Washington role in inside man, but it's, it's Walter Mathau is. Always interesting to try to get back into that seventies feeling and see why these people work the way they did. And he is, he, he does great. But I love, even though, you know, Tony Scott remade the taking of Pelham one, two, three in the early two thousands. And it was Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Right. And you have these so much more conventional movie stars, um, that I think it just makes the original even better. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, Robert Shaw, I mean, I haven't seen this, this version of it. I only saw the later one, but. Shaw, like Tom Hardy, I love his body of work and Scheider as well. I mean, I just think Robert Shaw is amazing. So for him alone, I would, I would definitely watch this one. It sounds great. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. And there's a sensationalism to this because it's, it's, it's, um, you know, New York city in the mid seventies. Um, so there is this sort of like, it was a different town at the time. You get this a lot. If you, if you go, I've been pouring pre, pre Giuliani, Yeah, and I've been pouring back over all of the no reservations and he has this reverence for what New York was in the 60s and the 70s and even into the 80s. And you know, a lot of that, I think people see it as a bit of a light switch with the Bernie Getz scenario, which is 84. And this is 70, this is 10 years before. And this is a movie I don't think I've seen in 15 years. I do remember watching it at one point. I've seen the remake, which I remember being. |
| Tim Stacy | Was it good? See, I haven't seen the remake. And I'd say it's just OK. If it wasn't Tony Scott, I don't think I'd ever bother. But I would check it out for that because, you know, he's he's good even even with a bummer of a remake. |
| James Stacy | But this is a good pick. And even on IMDb, they've got what I think is my favorite thing short of the movie itself, which is the the the poster. |
| Unknown | Mm hmm. Oh, poster's great. |
| James Stacy | a gnarly poster that would seem really off base today. It's of not quite looking down the barrel, but looking next to the barrel of a hostage taker as he's pointing a World War II submachine gun at a bunch of people on the train. And it has that It painted, illustrated real life, true life, sort of like this could happen to you. That's why we're making this movie. It almost seems like the kind of movie that would come with a weird warning. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Top. Right. And especially because of when it came out, this is a good one for sure. A good pick. |
| Tim Stacy | So directed by Joseph Sargent, it was based on a book, um, I guess like, you know, working with the New York police department and with the transit authority, they had to roll back a whole bunch of stuff for the book. I guess the book goes into a lot of detail about how you could take over a subway car and like, Just giving you all the info where they simplified in the movie down to just like figuring out how they can, how they can override a dead man switch. And one of the members of the crew used to be a mechanic in the, in the transit authority, et cetera. But I guess this was right at like the, this was the, the, the heyday of skyjackings, right? So it was a very, a somewhat regular occurrence to read in the news that someone's held up, held up a plane. Um, so Yeah. In terms of marketing that poster, the, you know, the, uh, the tagline they put on the poster, they're going to kill a passenger every minute until New York city pays a million dollars. They're, they're drilling right down into that crime paranoia in New York for sure. |
| James Stacy | And, and then below, below the, below the title tag is everyone read it. Now you can live it. |
| Tim Stacy | So I guess it was a, it was a bestseller and, and I I'd say definitely worth seeing. Yeah. And the other thing I just want to throw out is that it's got a phenomenal score that I really love that. Um, I think. |
| Jason Heaton | Let me guess. Hold on. Lalo Schifrin? Oh yeah. Lalo Schifrin? No. Okay. All right. He was the quintessential seventies kind of soundtrack guy. |
| Tim Stacy | Oh yeah, he definitely was. This was, uh, this is, uh, David Shire. Um, and what he did, he did a couple of interesting things and they kind of predate what I think you can find a lot of modern sort of jazz fusion stuff, stuff where jazz overlaps with hip hop and things like that. He made this, the main theme to it, which I would recommend just listening to is, um, this like over layered jazz track that never changes chords, but it uses something called 12 tone composition, which essentially you got 12 keys on the piano, white and black. All of those notes have to be represented as often as possible. So it makes this big cacophony that still has like a groove and a rhythm and something you can sort of like move around to. So it, it, it has like this, jazzy blues style that I think you'd associate with like a cop movie, um, and things like that. But there's also something a little bit more nefarious and sinister at play. It's a really cool sound. |
| James Stacy | It's awesome. All right. Well, that was the taking of Pelham one, two, three, a good pick Tim for your second of three. Uh, Jason, how about your, your second? |
| Jason Heaton | All right. I'm going back to, uh, to Tom Hardy. I think if, uh, if the Revenant was sort of a blockbuster, I think Dunkirk, uh, which is my next pick was, uh, was even more celebrated, I think just, |
| James Stacy | I would have sworn this was what we had already picked it. This is a good one. |
| Jason Heaton | Maybe we didn't know. This was a surprise. 1917, which my sorrow is in that genre. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Another winner. Dunkirk, 2017. Christopher Nolan directed this. Great cast. Just to me, this was like throwback, epic, big screen, beautifully shot, sweeping soundtrack. you know, attention to detail kind of movie. Um, you know, Christopher Nolan's kind of known for his attention to detail and in the movies he makes. And, and again, um, you know, you had some big names. Uh, I love Kenneth Branagh and I just don't see him often enough. Um, another great actor that was in this movie in a slightly smaller role was Mark Rylance British actor. He played the, this, uh, guy who heads across the English channel in his, in his little fishing boat with, uh, I think his son and another kid and they're going to go. Yeah. |
| Tim Stacy | Both Rylance and, um, and Branagh do a lot of heavy lifting for sort of the British spirit in this, right? |
| Jason Heaton | They get some, some very uplifting minutes. And kind of, you know, I mean, you just feel this kind of the, you know, God save the queen, you know, it's just kind of the chest swells. I mean, this is pure. |
| Tim Stacy | And recognizing those Rolls Royce engines by ear. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh yeah. Right. The Merlins. Yeah. This is just pure nostalgia. I think, you know, one thing, being a bit of an Anglophile is I've noticed that the British really lean hard on nostalgia for World War II. I think it was a shining moment for their country. I think it was a galvanizing time for a whole generation and probably the next generation. You know, there's still, you know, you see, you know, Spitfire flyovers and commemorative events and things like this. And I think Dunkirk was just this celebration of that, of the kind of the British resilient spirit. Um, it was, it was just done so well. And I think one thing that Nolan did was it was a huge cast. I mean, there were just so many people in this movie. It was moving an entire army across the English channel in small boats. And, and you just have a cast of thousands, literally. And so he actually chose a fair number of, of lesser known or unknown actors to play a lot of those, those kind of, uh, recurring smaller roles of, of soldiers and, and, and moving between Um, he had this, these themes of air sky and sea that he kind of kept. Um, playing with time and kind of going back and forward in time across these three, uh, sort of settings, you know, in the boats, in the, in the Spitfire, um, and then, you know, on the beach or, or, you know, trying to escape the town and get to the shore. And, you know, there were just these, these like little scenes, you know, you know, Tim, you're, your podcast focuses on individual scenes. And I recall that scene where those guys are, uh, hiding out inside of that, that sort of shipwreck that's washed up on the beach and that the German soldiers are approaching and they start shooting holes in the side. I mean, it's just this, you know, you're just sort of sweating watching that scene. And, um, I don't know, it just had, it was, it was a huge film with lots of little moments in it and, um, just, just beautifully shot. I feel like it's one of those timeless movies, almost like a, Lawrence of Arabia or something, just kind of a sweeping, epic, beautiful movie. |
| James Stacy | The other, the other thing that I, that I won't ever be able to forget about this movie is just the, um, the sound design. Yeah. Yeah. I remember just being the, the, the movie starts off quiet. It's a guy running through streets. You can't quite tell if he's running to someone or away from someone. And there's a, the first gunshot, keep your headphones down. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Cause it's about, it's like heat. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | That's where I was going to say loud and crispy. And then there's several points in the movie where there's silence that just builds and builds, and then you can just hear something terrible about to happen. And it really makes the intent... None of us were in World War II, none of us were in Dunkirk, none of us will understand what it's like, but this made me feel it maybe as much as, say, the opening of Saving Private Ryan. I felt like I had a different window into just how terrible these how scary and oppressive these scenarios are. And then there's some flooding, there's some flying planes and landing where you don't want. And then the other thing that that's worth considering is, isn't it neat to have a war movie where you never see an enemy? |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. You never see the enemy's face. Yeah. |
| Tim Stacy | It's just, it's the terror of being a sitting duck and, and, and, uh, occupying that perspective of sitting on the beach and you know, you're going to get, you're going to get strafed until, until your country can find a way to get you across. Not, not the biggest body of water, a body of water that some people have swam across. It's so close, but it's so far. There's a, there's a, there's a difficulty in attention at play throughout this whole thing. |
| James Stacy | Um, and Tim, do you remember, is it three hours, three days, three weeks? |
| Tim Stacy | Um, I, I want to say it's, it's one week, one day, one hour. I think that the pilots only have a certain amount of gas. It's, it's, it's only a matter of hours. Yeah. Um, And, you know, speaking back to Tom Hardy, he does even less in this and half the time, as is his want around that time, his face is half covered by, you know, a pilot's mask. |
| James Stacy | Yet another role in which he's got a mask on. |
| Tim Stacy | So you've got pretty much just his eyes and some chalk calculations on the dash and things like that to impart The importance of his mission. |
| Jason Heaton | His speech is very clipped. Yeah. There's almost no inflection in his speech. |
| Tim Stacy | But there's such a triumph in his arc. Yeah. Right? Without it ever, he never gives a speech. They never do a flashback to, you know, someone he's fighting for at home. All these things that I think you can easily get trapped in, in trying to engage an audience and create meaning when Especially in a story like this, I think, obviously, as an Englishman, Christopher Nolan knew that less is more, right? If you just tell the story and make the stakes clear, you don't have to overwrite anything. |
| James Stacy | I think they're also, in some way, speaking to the level of professionalism that was still at play. Whatever might have been going on outside of his plane, it didn't factor into him being a pilot for that hour. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. I guess, I guess probably the most melodramatic part in terms of like when compared to a stiff upper lip is probably Branagh on that, on that dock. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. Waxing poetic about England in again, maybe what 20 words tops before they go to the next scene or something. Yeah. Very, very reserved, but I think very powerful and aided by they used. So it was Zimmer who did the score, but he used heavily for inspiration. Um, Edward Elgar is a British composer, one of the most famous, and he had a works called the Enigma Variations, a lot of which were written about friends of his. And one of them was called Nimrod in reference to the hunter. And it's a very powerful, very moving piece that just sort of builds and crests and builds and crests over and over and over. And they actually credit it in the in the credits for this Zimmer drew directly upon it, but he used more modern recording techniques and some different sounds. It really, it really, uh, creates an undercurrent. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I remember that. And then the, the, the, the ticking clock sort of recurring theme as well, which, uh, and, and then much was made in, in kind of the watch nerd community of the, the, the very screen accurate use of a, I think it was either an Omega or a Longines pilots watch that, that Tom Hardy had. Omega to my memory. Yeah. Yeah. Um, But yeah, I mean, all around just, just great. And I think too, you know, this movie, um, what I like about a movie like this is it's both big and small. You have these very human personal closeup scenes with individuals, but then, uh, the special effects were amazing. Even in the trailer I was watching just before we started recording, you know, the, the aerial scenes of ships sinking, I mean, it was just like, it puts you right there. And then the, of course the, the dogfight scenes in the, in the planes, um, you know, it's, it's not often you get movies that are, you know, kind of full on special effects, sort of action sequences along with, um, these very human kind of closeup little soliloquies or, or short speeches and closeups of faces and people crying and terror and that sort of thing. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. I mean, an incredible film, Jason, for you, if you're going to watch one war movie this weekend, is it this, or is it 1917? |
| Jason Heaton | Probably this only because, uh, it's less fresh in my memory. And now that I've rewatched the trailer to kind of refresh for this, uh, this episode, I think, uh, it's really piqued my interest again. |
| James Stacy | Um, but both definitely two high points from the genre. Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great pick. And, uh, that's Jason's second, which is a Dunkirk from 2017. Uh, a fantastic. And, uh, I found a very gripping, uh, film, especially one to see in theaters. Goodness. Yeah. All right. So for my second, we are going to mix things up, you know, a little bit, but really not so much in terms of the the TGN Film Club methodology. I'm picking what is probably our only remaining Taylor Sheridan of property that we haven't we haven't picked is Hell or High Water. Yeah. So this is written by Taylor Sheridan. You know, he's a film club fave. So we're talking Wind River, Sicario. If you're into the TV side, then Yellowstone is kind of the most current David McKenzie directed this. It's a, it's the story of two brothers in West Texas, uh, played by Ben Foster and Chris Pine. And what basically they're going on a series of bank robberies. And then you have, um, you have, uh, uh, Jeff bridges and the always amazing Gil Birmingham, um, playing the two cops that are kind of chasing them. And it's two people that it's four people that are, you know, kind of, dioramas, walking, breathing dioramas for the West Texas attitude. What makes that area what it is? And then they're set in these set pieces that are just deeply personal things to that slice of America. And I think that it is. I don't think I like it as much as Sicario. I think there's Sicario is a movie more for me. I like the special ops side of the Sicario story and the gunplay and the bridge scene and the rest of it. But. I think this movie is just really, really special. It's super tight. Once it gets its pace going, which really only takes a few minutes, it keeps that pace for basically the whole film. And you get these little reprieves as Bridges and Birmingham experience these small communities as they're trying to chase down where the next bank robbery might be. There's a scene, which I'll put in the show notes because I don't know if I can just play the audio from a trailer, I don't know how much audio I could play from a trailer and I'd rather not have the show pulled down or whatever. But there's a scene where Bridges and Birmingham go to a diner. And I mean, it's the best performance in the whole movie is this waitress. Yeah. And she basically comes up and says, so what don't you want? |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And they're very confused. And I don't want to spoil the scene, but basically there's only one thing you can order at this restaurant and there's no flexibility. And she just manhandles these two pretty hardened, kind of real life cops and some stuff. She walks all over them and then hands them a check. It's a, it's a great scene. So I'll put that in, in the show notes. It's super, super fun. I, I love this movie so much. I think it's eminently watchable. It has a really nice kind of family story peg. Um, and then it has some realism to it as well. You know, as you'd expect if you've been through wind river or Sakaria. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Yeah, no, it's really a, it's a, tried and true neo-Western, right? It's, it's Taylor Sheridan's, I think his favorite thing is talking about how like the Cowboys can't be a thing anymore and neither can the types of cops that are, you know, bounty hunters or, or whatever, whoever would have chased the Cowboys. I think it's like, it's a great companion piece to no country for being not nearly as bleak or pessimistic or existential, but still really the, the end of a way of life. Um, And the, the, the changing of the times, especially in an area like Texas and, and, uh, bridges and pine do such a good job at, um, I think this is pine at his best. Yeah. It's kind of thing that makes me wish he did more dirty character roles. Cause he's got, he's got like a mullet and a dirty stash in this and he looks, he will always look great. He looks great. He looks fantastic down at all. No. And, uh, he really, he, he kills it. And I think it's, it can't be easy to act across from Ben Foster who has developed a reputation definitely as being more of a chameleon and, and pretty intense. Yeah. Moving towards the method end. Um, and I think he holds his own and I also think they, they, they keep Ben Foster reined in. Right. Um, but they, they, they really occupy these two columns of what you would expect from these, this sort of a family. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Jason, have you, have you got this one? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. It's a good one. I couldn't remember from the title, but then when you were recapping it, I remember this movie and I remember, um, I remember liking this. I remember, you know, a movie like this is, I always feel like it's a movie I shouldn't like, you know, Dunkirk's a slam dunk. I just know, you know, going into it, you know, it's in my comfort zone. This, this movie, it's a movie I shouldn't like it's, it's, you know, set in an area that I'm, I don't have a particular interest in. It's kind of a heist film, you know, whatever, but it's like immediately I was drawn to it. And, and you could, You could lift, yes, it's a Western or set in West Texas, but you could lift the scenario and put it in a rural Minnesota or Iowa, or I suppose Saskatchewan or something like this. And, um, that's what I liked about it, but it also gives you a glimpse into a certain part of the country. Um, and then for me, you know, as we've talked about with, with the other actors, uh, you know, Robert Shaw, et cetera, like Jeff Bridges is just, uh, Roy Scheider, just Jeff Bridges. He actually, I think he's one actor that just gets better and better every movie he's in, you know, I mean, he's just, uh, um, he's just a legend and, and, you know, he was good in the seventies and, you know, King Kong and whatever else, and, um, uh, some other films, but like, you know, he, he just keeps getting so good. I remember, um, what was the movie where he played the country singer, kind of the fading country singer, you know what I mean? I want to say country heart. Yeah. Wild heart. Wild something heart. |
| Tim Stacy | We're really, we're, we're playing, we're doing a lot of buzzwords with country songs. |
| James Stacy | If it's about country music, I'm out. But he is, he is wonderful to be fair to your point. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | He's wonderful. And like I said, don't sleep on, on Mr. Birmingham. Find me a bad role from that man. He's just incredible and funny. And, um, Yeah. I love this movie. And the funny thing is, Jason, you're talking about, I think if you made this movie and put it outside of West Texas, it would be a Coen brothers movie. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. True. |
| James Stacy | Like if you did this in the Ozarks, if you did this in, in snowy Minnesota or North Dakota, it would just be another Fargo. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. And it would have, it would have a lot more humor, which this one doesn't. I mean, there's obviously there there's points like, you know, Pine and Foster and, and obviously bridges does a lot of barbing of Birmingham and sort of establishing that Bridges is too old to change at this point. This is his last, you know, his, his last time chasing guys down. But, um, there there's plenty of, uh, fun conversation in between them or obviously with that waitress, but yeah, a completely different tone. I think you're right. When you get out of West Texas and it becomes a Coen brothers movie. |
| James Stacy | I would think so. There's something about the isolation that speaks that, that allows the cowboy thing to make a little bit more sense. And then if this was SSC, if this is single serving cinema, there is a scene towards the end of the movie where Bridges has put together what happened and how they pulled off a certain thing. Yeah. And I wouldn't say they got away with it. I'm not giving anything away really. But there's a scene where he confronts him and it's this really fantastic piece of tension work that Sheridan's so good at. Yeah. And the dialogue's just heavy enough to be a little bit too cheesy, a little bit cheesy. But only like it's like a five percent cheesy sort of this. Well, if you dialed it back a little bit, it'd be almost scary. And this way it didn't have to feel scary. It felt like a resolution. |
| Tim Stacy | I mean, this is the type of scene Sheridan loves to end his movies with. The same one is at the end of Sicario in a way. Yep. Right. |
| James Stacy | Very similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. True. So, yeah, that's my second pick. The Wonderful Hell or High Water from 2016. Taylor Sheridan, David McKenzie. So next up, we've got Tim with his final pick. Three of three. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. So for the last one, what I wanted to do, I actually outsourced this to my co-host Taylor. Um, I wanted to get some of his input. He's obviously, he's got to come, he watches more movies than I do. Um, and he's got a real sort of deep pocket on that. And I sent him the full film club list. He's listened to episodes in the past too. And I just sort of said, when you see all these movies in a row, what, what do you, what do you suggest? And we, we talked for a couple, some obvious oversights we felt, but you know, when throw those in for, for, Volume seven later. This is our show. Well, listen, I'm this ain't the one we're doing, but it's only volume six. The idea that that Children of Men is not on this list yet is insane. But that's a fair point. But what Taylor suggested was a movie called Amoris Peros. So it's a it's another Inuit film, actually. And it's one that sounds like so I Taylor lent me his copy of it. I didn't get a chance to watch it before this episode, but he did give me some some bullet points of why he would pick it. And it does sound like it's the movie that made made in Yuritu's name within South America, within Mexico. So it's definitely what would have launched him to be able to do things like Birdman and The Revenant. But essentially, it's a triptych narrative. You have three stories that collide briefly and otherwise like a crime thriller set in Mexico City. Apparently, it's what sort of changed Mexican cinema into what it is today. Taylor makes some observations that, you know, you wouldn't really have Alfonso Cuaron yet because Cuaron broke out with Y Tu Mama Tambien, which led to him getting Harry Potter, which led to Children of Men and things like that. It's a very important film and sort of Mexican film culture. And it's apparently just a tour de force. You have a lot of long takes, difficult camera movements, a lot of symbolic imagery, very, very in your face and visceral, some nonlinear storytelling. And the other thing that Tay pointed out was that it's iconic for dog fighting scenes that are very intense and very difficult to watch. Um, and, and what often gets this list, uh, this film removed from lists. Um, but they were, they were very careful about the safety of these dogs. It was always under supervision of proper animal handlers. And Inuritu used his own dogs in the movie, his own personal pets. So, I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. I'm going to watch it very soon. Uh, but apparently it's just, it's a real gut-wrenching and white knuckle watch. And what year is this from? 2000. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And with Gail Garcia Burnell. I think he's a champion. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Um, he's so good. Tay said that this really just sort of launched him, launched him as well and launched his career. And the director of photography, Rodrigo Preto, Um, it's also from Mexico City and he shot Argo, Brokeback Mountain and Wolf of Wall Street. So there's a lot of, you can point to this movie as launching a lot of major careers and influencing a lot of film after it. |
| James Stacy | Uh, yeah, I don't know, but it's on the list. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. I'm not sure what else we would have to say about it ourselves. I don't think any of the three of us have seen it, but, uh, I wanted to pass that along and get some of Tay's input because, uh, if you listen to any of any of our episodes, you'll see, he's got a lot of good insight. |
| James Stacy | Cool. Well, that's Amore Perro. That's two words, and it'll be in the show notes if you want to check it out. It definitely looks like a good one for sure. Thank you very much, Tay, for the input on that one. Jason, you want to bring your third one home? Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So I've gone from kind of two bigger blockbuster films to one, what I would say is a bit more of a challenging movie to watch, but tremendously good. The Lighthouse. This is from 2019. It was directed by Robert Eggers and really only has two actors in it, uh, Robert Pattison and Willem Dafoe. And Dafoe again, you know, I, I, I brought out the heavy hitters for actors today because I, I think, um, he's also one of my absolute favorite actors and, and Pattison was a guy that I had kind of ignored, but it was in my peripheral vision for years, but, uh, really earned my respect for this movie. And, um, you know, in essence, it's, it's a very simple, if you can even call it a plot. It's, it, this feels like a stage play to me and it feels, uh, it feels like a very artsy kind of stage play. It's, it's two, two guys who are stationed, uh, in the late 1800s, uh, at a remote lighthouse out on an Island, uh, off the coast of new England. And I guess if, if we are looking at themes here, you know, this, this idea of, of, men plunked in remote places with challenges. Uh, this kind of fits in, in that genre, you know, it's not the Arctic, it's not the jungle. This is, this is a very windswept, stormy Island and in a lighthouse. And I think that's, that is just always fascinated me. I love the idea of lighthouses. I love the idea of fire towers. Um, and, and the idea that, you know, putting, putting two people kind of trapped in this very kind of claustrophobic environment, um, against the elements in a very simple scenario and then kind of watching them go, go mad, really. I mean, that's what kind of happens in this movie. They just kind of start to get under each other's skin and, and kind of dig at each other. Uh, I think is for one thing I, you know, well, oftentimes when you look at a movie and you, and you talk about plot, you, you, you talk about a character going from a to B and kind of the journey they make. And I think this isn't one of those movies. This is a, this is a movie, um, kind of about dialogue and about, you know, character study and, and, and just almost like painting, like, like looking at a snapshot or, or a painting of some sort or a poem and, and kind of the feeling it gives you. And the, the language, the, this, the script that was used in this movie was based on a meticulously studied, um, very particular little known dialect of, of, uh, the lighthouse keepers and kind of maritime workers of Maine back in the 1800s. And, and so it, it is a bit of a challenge to kind of listen to and you almost need subtitles or some kind of a cheat sheet because some of the language that they use is very challenging, but it's, it's, it's beautifully done and beautifully shot. I had to look it up because the, the, the movie I know was shot on, uh, something called a 35 millimeter black and white double X 52 22 film, which, Yeah. And what I read requires a lot of light to, uh, to get good exposure. And, and so they needed as much light as they could, but it also lent this really heavy shadow, dark moody, you know, the, the film's all in black and white. Um, but it just, it feels of the era. I mean, it feels like you're almost watching a, um, you know, like a glass plate photography in motion or something like that. It's, it's just, um, just beautiful. And, and Defoe is, you know, it's a, a tour de force, let's say, of his. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Defoe's face looks pretty great in that, in that hard shadow, especially he gets, he gets to deliver a couple monologues and, uh, it's like his face starts to change before your eyes. Cause there's so little like, or there's so much contrast at play. Yeah. Right. As you realize he hasn't blinked in four minutes as he's like delivering, he's delivering like a maritime sea curse. A bit of trivia actually. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. You know, this one's been on my radar since it came out, but for whatever reason, I just haven't pulled the trigger. And it's funny that, um, Jason, when I saw it pop up in your list, when we were prepping for the show, it's funny because I put it on a list of, um, things to watch on. I have a vacation coming up next week. Uh, don't worry. We're going to preload an episode. So we won't, you won't miss out on another week, but I have a vacation coming up next week. And some of that vacation, I'm very much would like to, you know, wake up at nine 30, 10 in the, in the morning and get a cup of coffee and then start a movie. Um, And I'm very, I'm already looking forward to having that little demands upon my time. Yeah. And I think this is, this would be a great one to put on that list. I think the movie I've, I've seen the trailer a couple of times and I know we're interested to see it. And yeah, a great pick. It looks, it looks great. I'm a huge Pattinson fan with Defoe. And we we've talked about good time before on on film club. I think he's he's just insanely talented. When, when I had when I had my, five films picked for this list of which I've trimmed two. One of them was, uh, another recent, uh, one from, uh, from Pattinson, uh, that I've had to watch a couple of times to even make heads or tail of, but he's excellent in it as his co-host. So I'm sure we'll get to that movie at some point, uh, at some point in the future, but that's a, that's a great picture. |
| Tim Stacy | Cool. Yeah. I, I absolutely love this movie. It's just, it's so engaging and I love like there is, it, it defies explanation. I like, I love that there isn't a straight line you draw through the movie. Um, but yeah, and, and, and you're right, Jason, like the way it looks and the sets that they're built in, like Eggers is known for trying to make everything as period accurate as possible. Right. So the clothes are made out of the fabrics that they could find that were close to that, to what they're doing. And you were saying that like they, they use a maritime parlance in it, which is true, but they also even like Pattinson character is supposed to be coming from like a logging career, career for lack of a better term. Yeah. So they did further research into how loggers talked and mix that into his dialogue. Right. Like the, the attention to detail is probably so much more than you would ever require for your average movie going audience. There probably aren't a lot of like people from logging families and lighthouse keeper families, but it, it, it adds to this sense of, of transportation. Yeah. Right. Especially this, his earlier film, The Witch, which is set in like Puritan era, New England. And, you know, he was angry because they had to build a loft into the cabin that they were using for this family. And he, in his research, he found out that cabins like that wouldn't have had a loft at that time. He felt that there was a big compromise in his filmmaking. |
| Jason Heaton | Wow. And it's definitely a movie that, uh, when you're done watching, I mean, it's a good time of year to watch because it's a, you're going to want to pull out your like chunkiest sweater and put it on because it's, it's just full of great sweaters and pea coats and pipe smoking and that sort of thing. So yeah, good, good stuff. Yeah. That's number three for me. Yeah. James, you got to take us home here. |
| James Stacy | I can I can and I will and I'm talking about a movie from 2019 so pretty recent one it's one that I actually think Jason you might have picked as a final notes a couple years back a few years back but I just started thinking about this movie again because it had this incredible rise to fame and popularity and then I haven't watched again I think I watched it two times during when it was kind of really hot They ended up winning four Oscars, so there's gonna be a lot of people listening that have watched this movie before, and this is simply a reminder to those of you who maybe had slept on it. It's called Parasite. It is a movie by the director Bong Joon-ho, and it almost defies being explained. I would start by saying, please see this movie. Yeah. In some ways, it's one of the most remarkable movies I've ever seen. So it was, like I said, it was absolutely huge when it came out. And it's kind of a modern day, non-paranormal ghost story that's very interestingly wrapped around the ideas of class and greed and institutional segmentation of populations, which I suppose is just class under a different metric. There's not a bad performance. In this movie, there's also not an ounce of fat. Yeah. It's like meticulously edited. It's really beautifully shot. And the way that they complement the performances with camera movements is something that I think is like entirely next level. I wrote down that it feels like the story is told through the camera rather than just in front of it. And I think there's the camera follows people in certain ways, but there's also motion in the camera that belies what's happening in the scene and helps tell the story rather than just show you what's happening. It's this very kind of cerebral and thoughtful way of telling a kind of complicated story that really is compressed into a household of multiple families that are none of which intended to be there in the context in which they exist. I love this movie. I guess, Tim, would you call this a It's not a horror movie. It's a thriller, I suppose. |
| Tim Stacy | It's a thriller, I'd say. But that's why you're saying it defies explanation, things like that. I think that's maybe one of the most important points to impart here is if any of the listeners, if you don't commonly get into foreign cinema, foreign to us, cinema where you have to read subtitles and things like that. One thing that I think this showed a lot of people who had not watched Korean films before or Eastern films before is how Gracefully it moves from comedy to black comedy, to thriller, to suspense, to abject horror and back. I think, I think Western cinema is very limited in terms of people saying, if it's a thriller, I need it to be a thriller the whole time. And it can have some jokes. If it's a comedy, it has to be a comedy the whole time. And then there are rare examples of people like Shane Black who can do something that does a bunch of different stuff. Eastern cinema is full of highly accomplished filmmakers. who can walk you through tone without you ever feeling whiplash. And I think Parasite was a lot of people's first example of that and how it's difficult to talk about, because I don't, I don't think you have a ton of examples in our, our Western cinema lexicon to draw on. It's, there is a distillation of intent from the screenplay and from director Bong that is present in how it's filmed and how it looks and how everyone's acting. It's just, you know, you're seeing something, um, amazing when you're watching it. Cause it's all, it's all firing equally and consistently. |
| James Stacy | Jason, you, I know, I'm pretty sure you've seen this one, right? Cause I remember, I think it was a final notes at one point. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, it blew me away and it was one of those movies that I kind of heard about and saw had been nominated. And then when it won all those Oscars, I think that's when Kashani and I watched it finally. And we were just blown away by it. I think, you know, you, when you look at the other movies we've, we've all picked today, um, you know, they're very kind of, you can explain them. They're very linear. It's, you know, driving a truck through the jungle, uh, you know, holding up a subway, a world war two, et cetera. This movie is like takes place in a house and there's some creepy, like it's, it's a movie that you just, you'd think this shouldn't work. And, uh, I don't know. It's, it's not, I wouldn't necessarily even call it character driven. It's not, uh, it's nicely shot, but like, it isn't like sweeping landscapes or anything particularly beautiful. It's just, I don't know. It's what is it about this movie? It's, it's, it's the seamless moving, like you said, Tim, between genres within the same film. And then just a very, very, very original story, but one that, that like you kind of get, you know, you don't, it doesn't take much to kind of understand what's going on. |
| James Stacy | So, well, it's also a story that, that like through the acts of the movie ends up giving you more and more and more as you go. So you, it's one of those things where you do kind of figure like, oh, I think I understand what this movie is about. And then 20 minutes later, it's about something else. Yeah. And then 20 minutes later, that something else now has a 50 year backstory. And then you go 20 minutes later, it's, it's a little bit of something else. And what's the resolution where, where, where is this taking? Yes. And, and I mean, to be fair, this is, this is a big, this is a big popular movie to pick for something like a film club, but one best pitcher, one directing one screenplay and one international feature film was also nominated for production and film editing. It won a couple of BAFTAs. It won, uh, several Screen Actors Guild Awards for the cast. I think this is a great movie, and if you haven't seen it, it's not like other movies I've seen, certainly recently. The story, I think, is really incredible. I love the set pieces, and I love the way that the movie makes a lot out of only a few rooms in this home. And it manages to make you feel really different just by moving 20 feet. When they're outside, it's a different movie than when they're in the living room. And when they're in the living room, it's a different movie than when they're in a different part of the house. And I think it's a very considered like specific intentional way of making a story with a lot of layers sort of open up as you watch it. |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Well, watching Parasite's definitely an opportunity to see someone who's a master of what they're doing and no, no aspect of what they're doing is gratuitous, right? It's all in service of this story and it's, And that, that's, that's hard to come by. Even like other cinematic masters, often they're like, well, the whole movie is going to be one take, or there is going to be this one take sequence, or I'm going to have this big set piece, or it's going to be practical effects. All of this is in service of just creating a great story. It's, it's preserved in this, um, in its, um, execution. |
| James Stacy | Yep. That, uh, that's my third pick. I don't know if we have a lot more to say about it. I think, I think we've got nine movies that everyone absolutely should be watching. Tim, how would you go ahead and list your three? Yes. |
| Tim Stacy | So my three is a word. Yeah. Sorcerer, the taking of Pelham one, two, three and Amoris Paras. And Jason, your three. |
| Jason Heaton | My three were the Revenant, Dunkirk and the Lighthouse. |
| James Stacy | And of course, my three, which we just ended on the thing from 1982, 2016's Hell or High Water and 2019's Parasite. That's a weird triple header, I think. It's a nice mix. Although, you know, I think we all kind of have interesting... I think Tim's is probably the most tightly considered. Although we get a lot of Tom Hardy in Jason. It's nine pretty solid movies, I think. And there's a couple in here that I either haven't seen or haven't seen in so long that it's like I haven't seen them. So definitely Sorcerer is on the top of my list for this upcoming vacation, but now I've got a couple others to fill some hopefully, you know, kind of rainy, low-paced sort of days. Lighthouse would be good for that type of day. For sure. Well, Tim, it was an absolute treat to have you on. Where can people find out more about you, about single-serving cinema, et cetera? |
| Tim Stacy | Yeah. Uh, Instagram's definitely the best place. You can find me at Tim WS, uh, but the podcast is at SSC pod and we post better episodes there. You can find links to the website, which is unfortunately not a great domain. So I won't spell it out here. Um, just, yeah, yeah. You can find it there. And, uh, you know, whether or not you're listening to the episodes every Sunday, we do a roundup on Instagram where we ask people what they've been watching. And we just sort of, share that on and highlight it. It's a great way to find recommendations or to remember something that you overlooked, things like that. We'd love to see you on there. |
| James Stacy | Be sure to give them a follow and check that out. And for everything else that's in the show notes, if you want to leave a comment that's also in the show notes, just hit us up on the sub stack. You know how that works. Tim, it was a treat to see you, obviously. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Being my brother and such, but also really proud of the new podcast. I'm excited to see how the Blade Runner episode works out. If you're listening to this, the Blade Runner one is already out. It'll be just by a day. Good timing there. But yeah, like I said, a treat to have you on. Thanks for picking three great movies. |
| Tim Stacy | It was great to be here. Thanks for having me, guys. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Thanks, Tim. See ya. Well, that was great. You know, big thanks to Tim Stacy for coming on. I, you know, I thought I'd feel a little outnumbered by Stacys and Canadians here, but it was such a pleasure. It was just felt very natural. Felt like he's been on TGN all along. Really a fun show. And Tim had some good picks. He brings some serious kind of film nerd cred to our little adventure here. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. So. Yeah, no, it was a treat to have him on. Always even nice just to see him on, see him on Zoom. It's actually been a few weeks because of his work schedule. So we haven't hung out in the better part of a month. So it was, it was a treat to see him and he does bring a level of granularity about movies that I don't think exists for you and I necessarily. Right. Um, there is this scholarly side to it and I'm really proud of what he's made with a single serving cinema. So please give that a check. Uh, but yeah, so, uh, with, uh, with the main bulk of the show out of the way, what do you say we hit up some final notes and, uh, put a bow on what's probably going to be a long show. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. Um, I can go first. So, uh, yeah, for sure. This is a, this was during my convalescence. I was, I was laid up for a few days there and, uh, I got a recommendation from a friend of mine, my friend Suresh down in Australia, who follows Formula One, which is a sport I just have not followed closely. I kind of know tangentially a lot, a lot of it through the watch industry, of course. But it's on Netflix. This is a series that is on, they've got three seasons up now. It's called Formula One Drive to Survive. And I know I'm late to this party because it's been out for, as I said, three years. For those of you that may have been hesitant because you're not into formula one racing or autosports, or, you know, it just seemed, didn't sound enticing. Uh, I would strongly encourage you to, to check this series out. It's it's addictive. I, you know, granted I was lying in bed for days on end, but I just binged this, uh, the first two seasons fully of the show, uh, each episodes close to an hour and it, it, it follows, um, what was, you know, while it was being made the current season or, or sorry, the preceding season of formula one, I wasn't really aware of kind of the Machiavellian sort of, uh, maneuvering of the different formula one teams, the owners, the, the, the team principals, as they call them, kind of the, the managers, the pit bosses that the drivers, um, you know, there's just a lot of stuff that goes on. in that sport that doesn't exist in other sports. It's, it's, it's an individual sport. It's a team sport, but then even within teams, it's two drivers and they're pitted against each other. Um, and, and so there's this, this pressure that you feel when you watch the show, the pressure on the drivers, pressure on the teams. Um, and then kind of these, this seemingly kind of, you know, petty sort of paranoias and backstabbing and jealousies between drivers because they're constantly shifting teams. Um, one driver on a team is favored over the other. And, uh, it was utterly fascinating. I mean, I, I think, you know, the, the footage is great too, that the driving scenes are tremendous. It's all done, uh, with obviously very high quality cameras and some great vantage points. Um, so that's fun. I guess if I had one thing I wished about the series was that they went into the. The tech and kind of the, the cars a little bit more than they do, but, uh, you know, I understand that a lot of it's very proprietary, so they can't get into it, but I would love to kind of know about Um, a little bit more in depth about kind of the companies that develop the technology and maybe some of the individual tech that goes into these cars. But other than that, it's, it's, uh, it's a tremendous series. It's a great documentary sports series. So, uh, I urge anybody to watch a drive to survive and I can't wait for season four, I guess that'll come out sometime next year after this current season's over with. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I've watched the first two seasons. Yeah. Um, and, and I watched, um, and, and really, really enjoyed them and just haven't gotten to the third one. It's another one that's just kind of on the list for the next time we're ready to binge something. Um, because they really do stitch together like one long documentary. And, and the fun thing is, is when you actually look at who made it and I was fortunate enough to meet some of the people behind the show when I was in Monaco for the formula one and we sat and kind of chatted about it and he said, well, we've got this thing called drive to survive. It's like, this upcoming kind of Netflix series that kicks off in, I think 19. And, and he was explaining it and there was already some buzz surrounding the fact that, that a couple of the teams, and, and if you've seen the first season, you know, the teams, I mean, a couple of the teams had kind of given a high level of access to a film crew. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Um, which isn't a super common thing. Um, and, and you know, the team, they were high profile teams. We're not talking about necessarily the, you know, the, the back of the pack. Um, and then it's also, uh, produced by a guy named, um, James Gay-Rees. who's a British film producer. So if you've ever seen like Exit Through the Gift Shop or Senna, those are his movies. Those are other things that he's produced. So the level of documentary acumen here is really high and the output is really cool. I also think that what they've done is special because I think they've made something that you don't have to really like Formula One to watch. True. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I think if you watch a whole season, you are going to like Formula One a lot more than you thought you did. But I don't think to hit the first episode, I don't think you need it. There's just enough of the non-scripted, non-cheesy, non-poorly edited reality show format that draws you into the drivers and the team principles and the drama of it without it ever feeling like cheesy or You know, you watch like a run of the mill reality show, you can kind of tell that the editors are fixing the story by cutting things. Right. Right. And by jamming weird looks together and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. And they don't do any of that here. There's none of the cheap reality show sort of punches. It feels a lot more like a high end sports documentary that lays out way more detail than you would get in two hours. Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is an excellent pick and a great thing to watch in I'm assuming if you like formula one, you've been watching it since day one, but if you kind of like saw this pop up on your Netflix and it's always in the top 10 when there's a new season, cause the very popular show and you're kind of like, I don't like cars. I don't like formula one or whatever. I think give an episode or two a try. I think you might be pretty surprised. It's, it's very compelling human based television. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. That's a solid pick. Yeah. Cool. What have you got? I haven't been up to much other than working. So I'm actually just going to fall back on a book that I'm currently working my way through, which is the other of the Ted Chiang books. In the past, I've talked about Exhalation and how much I enjoyed that. It's a collection of his short stories. Yeah. And Ted Chiang, you know, he's the guy that informed the background story to movies like Arrival. Yeah. And with Arrival, that's part of a collection called Stories of Your Life and Others. And I'm working my way through this. I'm maybe a halfway through the book and it's absolutely incredible. If you're looking for something to read that you can kind of pick up and put down, read one story, read three, whatever. Um, I mean, exhalation absolutely falls in that zone as does stories of your life and others. Uh, I'm really, really impressed by it. You know, not, not typically a fiction reader, uh, short of depth charge this year. Uh, and, and other Ted Chiang stuff recently, I'm normally a nonfiction guy. Uh, but this is really changing my whole mind. The way he writes is just, it really, it's humbling. I have trouble reading it and then trying to go write about watches because it's, it's like, I just got into somebody's mind. That's just so much bigger than I'm able to kind of deal with. It's, it's, it's not unlike reading Gibson or others where you can tell that they thought about everything before they started writing. Yeah. So there's a line that there's this tight effortless sort of structure to the, to his stories that, that almost belies the fact that he knows someone's going to read it. So he knows that you have to move through the story in a progression. Yeah. And that there's this, these great payoffs. It's just so it's so much talent and the stories are really interesting. So I, just like I do with exhalation, I'm recommending stories of your life and others yet another kind of short story compendium from Ted Chiang, one of my favorites now. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. I'm going to look for that, especially if there's an audio book version. I'd love to, love to check that out. Cool. |
| James Stacy | I bet you, I bet you'd work really well in audio for sure. Um, I think that could be worth it. And I'll do the research for you guys. Uh, if, if you want a good reads link or an audio book link, it'll all be in, I'll put it in the show notes to make it easy. Uh, I highly recommend it, especially, you know, like, like we've done with the film club where we're entering a time of the year where we might be spending a little bit less time outside or even just the evenings become earlier. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Uh, and you might have more time to sit and read or watch a couple of great movies throughout the fall and winter. And, uh, I think we've got you covered. Yeah. Um, certainly no, no shortage of like high quality content on, on this episode, not, not saying that this episode is anything special, but the stuff we talk about, some of it's very special, I think. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. You can subscribe to The Show Notes via notes.thegreynado.com or check the feed for more details and all the links. You can also follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Greynado. If you have any questions for us, please write thegreynado at gmail.com and please keep sending in those voice memos. We got a rash of them recently and they were all really good. And now I'm really excited to kind of end September with another great Q&A. And if you're enjoying the show, Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts and music throughout is Siesta by JazzArr via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Kurt Vonnegut, who said, we have to continually be jumping off of cliffs and developing our wings on the way down. |