Mike sits down with Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, It, Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Billy Bryk (Hell of a Summer co-director/co-writer) and Fred Hechinger (Gladiator II, The White Lotus, Nickel Boys). They talk about their Gen Z slasher Hell of a Summer, how they wrote it for themselves, making sure it was funny while being behind and in front of the camera. Finn talks about his days of starring in punk rock music videos as a kid and what his first bit of success felt like. In the Movie Review, Mike talks Minecraft with Jack Black and Jason Momoa. Mike talks about how the movie won him over despite never playing the video game, how the story felt inspiring to him and how once again old crusty critics got it wrong. In the Trailer Park, Mike shares his thoughts on the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie called One Battle After Another. Leo plays a former member of a revolutionary group who seeks help from other revolutionaries to find his missing daughter.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike, and boy do I have
a great episode for you today. I'm sitting down with
the stars, directors, and writers of Hell of a Summer,
which is a new horror comedy out in theaters now.
Finn Wolfhart, Billy Brick, and Fred Heckinger. We're gonna talk
about gen Z representation in film right now. In the
(00:21):
movie review, I'll give you my thoughts on Minecraft. I've
gone back and forth on whether or not this movie
was gonna be good or not. That first trailer I
was like, oh boy, second trailer I was like, Okay,
I can see the magic here.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Did it make me a believer?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And in the trailer park we'll be talking about the
new Leonardo DiCaprio movie, One Battle after Another. He is
teaming up with legendary director Paul Thomas Anderson for the
first time. Thank you for being here, Thank you for
being subscribed. Shout out to all my members of the
movie crew. And now let's talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
From the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike Movie Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I got to get into my conversation with the stars
of Hell of a summer. It is in theaters now.
It is a horror comedy starring Finn Wolfhard. You would
know him as Mike on Stranger Things. He was also
Richie in It, Trevor in Ghostbusters Afterlife and Frozen Empire.
He is a really great actor and now he's directing movies.
This is his directorial debut along with his friend Billy Brick,
(01:21):
who he co wrote the movie with co directed it
with as well. Billy was also in Ghostbusters Afterlife and
he was just in that Saturday Night movie. And then
we also have Fred Heckinger, who you would know from
Gladiator two where he played one of the emperors. He
played alongside Joseph Quinn, who was also in Stranger Things,
so there's a big connection here. Fred was also in
Season one of The White Lotus. He was the son
(01:43):
of the family where his dad was Steve Zhon and
most recently he was in the Oscar nominated movie Nickel Boys.
So he is another actor greatly on the rise right now.
And in this movie he plays a camp counselor named
Jason who's twenty four years old. He's going back to
camp and all his coworkers are teenagers and he's just struggling.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Making a connection with them.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
He is in charge this year and trying to be
a good example, but also trying to hang out with
all the teenagers. Anything that's gonna be the biggest thing
he has to get over the summer until he realizes
there's somebody with a mask going around killing people, picking
him off one by one. So the movie is part
horror slasher, much like you would expect from a movie
like Scream or Halloween, but then it also has a
(02:26):
lot of elements of comedy. It kind of reminded me
of like Idle Hands back in the nineties, which was
one of my favorite horror comedies of that decade, one
of my favorite horror comedies of all time, which, by
the way, Finn Wolfhardt is actually working on the reboot
of that movie. And I really think this could be
a defining slasher movie for gen Z because when you
see Hell of a Summer, it is characters talking like
(02:47):
actual teenagers would talk. And that's important because when I
watched this movie, I could tell that it was a
young person writing this dialogue like a teenager would speak,
and oftentimes you get out of such adults writing parts
for gen Z, kids that sound nothing like them. And
sometimes I feel there's an underrepresentation of their generation right
now in film, because oftentimes the people making movies like
(03:11):
this are much older and just by their age, are
a little bit out of touch. Now you have two
young directors and writers making their debut. This reminds me
of a movie I would be excited to go to
on a Friday night, even though I'd be underage and
couldn't get into this movie. Back when you used to
go to the movies and just look at a poster
and sometimes that would be all the indication you had
(03:32):
going into it. You remember those days where you could
just go walk outside the movies and say, Hey, that
poster looks pretty good. I think I'll go watch That
doesn't really happen anymore. You have to watch all the trailers,
you have to know everything about things. But I feel
like if you just saw the hell of a Summer
poster out front and you thought that actually looks interesting,
that looks like a lot of fun, I want to
go see that movie. This movie is bringing back something
(03:55):
I think is needed right now in Hollywood. It's basically
if you took Friday the thirteenth mixed it with Scream
mixed it with a little bit of wet, hot American summer,
you get hell of a summer. So right now, let's
sit down with Finnwolfhart, Billy Brick, and Fred Heckinger at
the Bell Court here in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Like your pants, Oh, thank you so much? I like,
I like all y'all. Are we kind of dressed the same?
You were all clothes?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Not really, but kind of.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I wish I feel like a bonder that we all
kind of look alike.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, I'm like, I'm liking this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I gotta say, I love the movie and it makes
me feel oddly nostalgic, but also like this is the
movie I've been looking for because I feel like the
slasher genre got a little bit stale, a little bit overdone.
And with you guys behind this having just that fresh
young voice, it just feels like I feel all the
things that I felt when I watched Scream, But now
(04:51):
I have a brand new movie in twenty twenty five.
It just feels like this is what should be happening
right now. How does it feel for you guys for
this movie with direct it being a part of it
and it finally coming out now.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
That's really nice to be to say it feels great.
I mean, you know, it's been such a long journey
to get here. You know, we started in twenty nineteen
with this, you know, writing the script, and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Really surreal to think about, Yeah, because we've been working
on it for so long, and our goal always, our
dream was for it to come out theatrically, and now
working with Neon bringing it theatrically nationwide is like kind
of the best possible way that it could come out.
So it's a bit of a pinch me moment.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I have to say, Like Neon has just been crushing
it with all the original horror, Like how was that
relationship kind of formed of you guys having this idea
and then being like, we want to be a part
of that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh well, they they just saw the movie.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
At Tiff when we premiered and liked it. And then
that was a conversation that that like we were just
in conversation with that, not we didn't have any of
the conversations, but the producers were in the conversation with them.
And then yeah, like it was just a matter of
sort of when was the right time to get this out?
And then we feel like really fortunate because yes, Neon
(06:09):
has been killing it for I mean years and years
and years, but especially in the last eighteen months with
horror films and original horror films so.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And really every other everything they just want picture. So
it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
It's a testament to how cool they are as a
company that you know, they make stuff like Anora and
then they also make crazy, weird comedy horror films like
ours or you know. So yeah, it's great to be
a part of that sort of legacy.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I guess. I think the thing to me that I
really stuck out about this movie that I don't see
a whole lot now is a good quotable movie. Like
I found myself thinking, like I started thinking of whenever
your character is kind of like sad that he's not
the one being killed because he's like, no, it's probably
just killing at random, right, So how did that go
(06:58):
from writing everything and then seeing it translate on screen?
Like how is this still funny?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That's a good question because it's still.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Funny because you write it and then you're totally directing it,
and then you're seeing all the edits and then you're
thinking like now that people are seeing it, Like, how
can you think, like, is this even funny tony to
us everybody else?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I mean, it's a good question, and you just have
to trust that it was funny to you. And like, obviously,
when you see a joke a million times, it doesn't
make you laugh every single time, So sometimes you have
that instinct like can I push this further? Do I
try to make this funny to me every time I'm
watching it? But in my opinion, it's kind of a
dangerous game to be playing where it's like, if this
really made us laugh as we're writing it, and we
feel like this is the most sort of most grounded
(07:40):
version of this performance, the read of this line that
we think worked best, we have to trust it. And
then as we screen it for people and get other
eyes on it, it's really helpful to see sort of
what they're laughing at. And I'd say more often than not,
the stuff that we thought was the funniest, Like our
instincts were right, So.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I don't know it's funny.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I try not even to think about it as funny
all the time.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Yeah, and edit, I mean yeah, And then in the
production side of it, we were just talking about that
the other night where you this the script that this
wrote was so it was so funny and in such
a grounded, character driven way, and there was you know,
just every scene is quite intentional in that sense, and
(08:24):
there is a thing once you start doing the scenes
you kind of have to everyone who's in it is
also so funny, and I feel like we would play
and explore. But at the end of the day, like
the movie ends up being kind of like ninety five
percent or something of the of the actual script from
the get go. So there is a sort of trust
element that Billy's talking about that I think maybe you're
(08:47):
asking about in terms of if we found this funny
at the outset, Like you know, it won't always be
the shiny thing, but focus on it, yeah, because it
really is. It is the intentional thing here.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I love what you said about the movie being sole
character driven, because I think that's also what set out
to me is like I could buy into everybody's personalities
and I know how Jason is going to react to
something because he's a guy who loves his job. Like
that's kind of what I took away from this, Like
this is somebody who just wants to do his job
to the best of visibility, and that is what he's
kind of here to do. And then you have your
character Bobby, who's just like, I gotta be good looking
(09:22):
to these guys. So what's the how do you write
really well rounded characters?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
You write every character is if you're gonna play them
in the movie.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So is this movie a lot of like what you
guys are like in real life?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
A little bit?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I like to think that we're a little more self
aware than our characters, and that's sort of why we're
able to make fun of certain aspects of our personality.
But I mean, there's definitely I would say that Finn
and I when we were just sort of joking around,
would fall into these caricatures of ourselves, which I'd say
sort of became Bobby and Chris, and like it's a
send up of our dynamic and sort of our own
(09:57):
personal I don't know, I don't want to say like
insecurities or something, but like there's elements of Bobby for
sure that come from my own life that I just
find funny and like I'm not fully committed to but
the fact that I can very easily think like that
is concerning to me, like it's a little too easy
to fall into that sort of mindset. But then I'm
not even actually joking about the like writing every character,
(10:20):
like writing every characters if you'd play it, And I
think that's thing helpful about being an actor and a writer.
As we were writing versions of the script, it's like
we would do a pass with each character in mind,
being like, yeah, I were to be sent this character,
what would excite me most about playing this part? What
would I want to see? And then we try to
add that so every character sort of felt fleshed out
(10:41):
and had something real and sort of had like a
life behind them, even if they're a character who gets
killed off very quickly. So it was kind of like
a funny so total way of being.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Like, yeah, I think it's also just like, you know,
just thinking about you know that there's a lot of
young actors out there, and ninety nine percent of stuff
that gets sent out just like I don't know, just
doesn't feel right or you know, it doesn't feel like
it has you know that the character that's you auditioned
(11:11):
for maybe has everything that you want or you know,
the arc that you want. And it was one of
those things where we were kind of approaching it from
an actor's perspective.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And then coming from the horror element of the movie,
which I love. What were some of those movies that
you went back and studied and thought, I want to
take a little from this movie. I want to take
a little from that movie and put it into this.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
We watched the Thing. We watched a lot of the
John Carpenter films, just because of the blocking of those
films in the way that he sort of is able
to block and represent group dynamics, and like the Thing
specifically this idea of group that sort of splintering, splintering
and turning against each other. So that was a reference
the First Halloween obviously, but a lot, like most of
(11:53):
our sort of stylistic references were from comedy movies or
from movies that weren't in the horror. Do you have
any that you.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, I mean, you know, like Sean of the Dead
was a huge one that we looked at. And then
you know, as far as even just like visual visual stuff,
I mean we looked a lot about you know, at
like uh the Howling or like, uh, like Dean Kundy's stuff.
It was like the DP I guess of the eighties
(12:24):
and even just like even though nut like it is
nothing like any that's like we would just watch like
movies that we loved and like grew up watching and
like loved the look of and you know, for whatever reason,
and this like I watched Indiana Jones in the Last
Crusade like five times, like in the year that we
wrote this, and it has nothing to do with the
movie in the slightest, but like, I don't know, there's
(12:47):
some kind of adventure in that movie that I just
love so much, and and in that era as well,
like late eighties, early nineties, and then you know, yeah
Scream obviously, so like a lot of different influences coming
from kind of all angles, a lot of like Coen
brother stuff too, raising Arizona One to But then yeah,
like even with movies like that, there's they're like visually
they're so energetic with Debt or Shanna the Dead, and
(13:08):
we didn't want that this movie to feel like that.
So it was like, what can we chased by those
movies without feeling like we're doing those movies because it didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Feel right for the script.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But yeah, Fred, what did you love most about playing
Jason because he's a character who's so endearing you root
for him the entire time. And I feel like you
really brought that role alive. What did you love about
that role?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I really loved.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
How two wrote him. I loved that in this story,
every single character kind of once the killing starts in
the movie, they don't like just magically transform into different
heroic people. They they can only react and figure out
their their issues by being themselves and their most kind
(13:51):
of eccentric and uh sometimes stubborn ways. Uh. And so
I I, yeah, I think some like you play people
that you find also genuinely inspiring. Like he's someone who
is uh, he's like gets he's in on the joke,
(14:12):
he gets that people. He gets that he can be
a joke to people, but also is funny himself and
also not a joke to himself at the same time.
And I felt that those things altogether, you meant something
to me. And uh and felt, uh, yeah, resonant of
(14:33):
a lot of people I know and how I feel sometimes.
So I really liked that call. I liked that he
was like in on the joke but also not at
the same time. I thought that that was like a yeah,
there's there's so there's so many qualities to him that
I really admire and loved playing.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I have one final question for you guys, what did
it feel whenever you first started to have success, Because Fann,
I remember you when you were in pop music videos,
Like I'm huge into punk rock, Canadian punk rock, and
I remember seeing you in those way back then. Like
what does it feel when you just start like getting
those first roles, getting those first projects, and you just
feel like this actually might be a reality my dream.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yeah, we got to talk about Canadian punk rock after this,
but I would say, I mean that's kind of I
was just happy doing that, like even as like a
little kid, being able to be a part of these
cool indie projects like music videos for cool bands that
I loved and student films, and like I just loved
(15:33):
doing it and being on set and it just kind
of snowballed. And all those sets inspired me to direct
and want to direct. And I feel like, you know,
we made this film all together and specifically when me
and Billy started writing it, and like that feeling even
though we made it, you know, with with like a
(15:57):
bigger crew and it wasn't like a student film. It's
still had that energy, like it still had that sort
of vibe that I could feel when I was that
young on set and just looking at all these amazing
kind of young artists like starting their careers, and to me,
that's what I'm always chasing. And sometimes you find it
in every I feel like you find it in every
(16:18):
set in some way. So but it was definitely felt great,
Like I loved doing all those videos.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Well, this has been great. It's also confirmed my feeling
that you guys are all like real friends in real life,
because that comes across in the movie. So I hope
everybody goes to see it and can feel that as well.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Thank you, Thanks for the time, dat.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Guys, Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie
review of a Minecraft movie starring Jack Black Jason Momoa,
directed by Jared Hess who also directed movies like Napoleon
Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And I did not.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Expect to be so inspired by such a family friendly
movie of a video game. I didn't even play. All
the young people in the comment who are gonna be
like you, boomer, you haven't played Minecraft. And I'm getting
at that age now where I'm aged out of some
of the video game adaptations. Now we have Jack Black,
who is just doing every video game property that's being
(17:15):
made into a movie. He also did Borderlands, he did Jumanji,
and I think out of all those, this has been
his best to date.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
What this movie is about.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
You get four misfits thrown into the overworld with the
purpose of saving it. Jack Black plays the character Steve,
who is the main guy in Minecraft. He aspired to
work as a minor as a kid, didn't get to
live out that dream until he was an adult. Got
thrown into the overworld as he discovered this cube that's
kind of like the test ract from Avengers, which I
(17:43):
got a lot of Avengers one vibes from Minecraft. Meta
dog got captured by these pig like creatures and then
was stuck there four years. Much like Jumanji. This movie
is kind of a mix of Avengers and Jumanji because
where you had the Tessa act in the Avengers, you
have the cube here that they are trying to find
again in order to open the portal back into the world.
(18:06):
His dog escapes, takes the portal back to his house,
and eventually lands into the hands of Jason Momoa, who
plays a character named garbage Man, who was the best
video game player in the world in nineteen eighty nine
and has hung onto that ever since. You have a
kid named Henry with his sister who lost their mom,
so they are moving to a new town to start
(18:27):
a new life. She is going to work as a
social media manager for a potato chip company. And he
is a very bright, smart kid. Doesn't really get along
with people, but he has a real creative and inventive mind.
He gets into some trouble has to call Jason Momoa
for her help to try to get him out of it.
They reunite with the Cube and all get thrown into
(18:48):
the overworld, where our journey begins. This movie surprisingly had
a lot of heart, and I could tell from the director,
Jared Hess that he knows how to make a movie
because when you take a property like Minecraft, the best
selling video game of all time, which is wild to me.
I was always aware of Minecraft and what you have
to do in the video game, I just never played
(19:09):
it myself. Essentially, it is a sandbox game where the
game is what you make it. It is only limited
by your creativity to build things, to fight things, and
that was inspiring to me. I just never really got
into it, but after watching this movie, I just felt
like this is such a big inspiration piece for kids
to find joy in and for kids to flourish in
(19:32):
their creativity, and that is really what this movie is
all about. Jack Black's character is larger than life, and
sometimes I feel like he gets criticized a little bit
for being so exuberant, and I don't feel like his
character was showcased properly in the trailer, at least to
the adults who kind of have to be won over
(19:52):
by a movie like this, because in the movie theater,
the kids were ecstatic and I'd never seen that before.
Whenever your first here, Steve say I am Steve. That
was essentially this generation's Avengers Assemble.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
That is the movie quote of the year.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Everybody went nuts for that moment, and that was in
the trailer that speaks volumes to me about the relationship
that people have with this property. And this is one
of those movies that you could have put anything on
the screen because it's a huge ip. It was gonna
crush opening weekend no matter what, because the fan base
(20:30):
was there and they were gonna go see it and
they were gonna go love it. Just because it was
seeing something that they've spent so much time with playing
this video game come to life.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And it was cool seeing.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Those moments pop in the theater, even though they didn't
fully land with me because I don't really know the
lord that is Minecraft, but to see everybody else experiencing that,
it made me feel that I realized there was chemical
reactions happening in the theater to these kids' brains, that
this is gonna be a very significant moment for them.
I remember those having moments like that back in the theater,
(21:02):
or even watching movies for the first time at home,
the movies that changed me, the movies that inspired me.
This is definitely gonna be one of those movies. And
I think it's gonna be the harsh older critics who
are beating this movie to hell because on paper, it's
probably not what you would consider to be a quote
unquote good movie. If I went into this movie just
(21:24):
for the plot alone, I do think it's there. I
really do believe it because it has a story, it
has character development. The only thing I feel, as an
adult that is hard for me to overcome and just
fully enjoy it is some of the performances that have
to be so over the top.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Some of the.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Dialogue is overly cheesy and at times a little bit
cringe worthy when if you take it out of context,
like they did in the trailer, you think train wreck
all over this thing. Because the characters themselves are very cartoony,
Jason Momoa's character and really all the characters.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
They're really just portray.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
T'srading a live action animated movie because for the most part,
you really only have four humans in this movie. Jason
Momoa as the garbage Man, Jack Black as Steve Ma
Myers as Natalie, who was also in Wednesday, which it
took me a moment to realize, Oh that's her. Danielle Brooks,
who you might remember from Orange Is the New Black,
also get sucked into the overworld, and then you have
(22:20):
Sebastian Hansen who plays Henry. Those are the four main humans.
You also have Jennifer Coolidge, who really only sticks to
the real world and kind of has a whole b
plot going on. So I also feel like by having
these four characters being the only ones you can interact with,
and they're interacting with these fictional cubic characters, it's obviously
(22:40):
going to cause for a little bit of clunky dialogue.
I did enjoy the visuals in the Overworld. At times,
I wish they were a little bit more rich. There
are moments that lacked a little bit of depth for me,
and there were shots that were clearly just Jack Black
behind the green screen, or probably the flying scenes where
it just felt like they had a wind machine and
(23:02):
the green screen was in the background, and those moments
looked a little bit just hard to believe and really
broke that illusion for me of the Overworld, which at
times looked really fun and vibrant. I loved all the fire,
I loved all the chase scenes. I loved the scenes
at night with the creepers coming out. There were some
pretty good battle scenes. I love the moments they were
creating all the weapons. I thought all those moments looked
(23:24):
really good. But sometimes when the action got a little
bit too big, the special effects that animations really took
a downgrade. And I feel like that was the biggest
struggle of this movie. And also for a movie that
is a minecraft movie all about creativity and building, I
thought there should have been a little bit more building,
because the first act really won me over with the
(23:44):
story I started getting invested with all the characters when
it came to my favorite. I love garbage Man, played
by Jason Momoa. I thought his character had a lot
of heart. I thought he was actually going through the
roughest patch out of any character in this movie, because
he was a really big deal in nineteen eighty nine.
Now he has a video game store that is crumbling,
(24:05):
he's about to get evicted, and he needs a win.
And it's probably because I'm in my thirties that I
would identify more with his character and what he was
struggling with. But I think through his dialogue and some
of his actions and fighting, he came across as a
little bit of a corny character.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But corny works in this movie.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Corney isn't always bad, and I think you need larger
than life personalities like Jason Momoa and Jack Black to
really pull this movie off, because I can't really think
of any other A list star who has those comedic
chops to make this movie work. And someone watched this
movie and say they gave really awful performances, But I
(24:41):
think they did what they needed to do to make
this work, to make it resonate with the kids and
the young people who are a fan of Minecraft. It's
just not for adults. And I thought I could recognize
that I was sold in the story. I was sold
into the adventure. I thought it moved along really well,
clocking in just over minutes. I think it was like
an hour and thirty three minutes. For me, it dipped
(25:03):
a little bit and act too, where that is where
I thought they should have had some more exploration with
the building. It kind of just became your typical family
adventure movie at that point, and I feel like that
was the moment for it to really shine and to
grab the viewer and take him on this journey and
really own what it means to be a Minecraft movie,
because I think this is easily going to spawn a franchise.
(25:25):
There's just no question here. It has it written all
over it. I think it really easily sets up another
movie where I feel this movie just lacked an emotional punch,
which I kind of had to put myself back into
the perspective of a kid of what I would have
wanted out of a movie like this, and the character
Henry resonates with me being a smarter kid growing up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
I was never the smartest kid, but I was always.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Looked at as being like, I want to copy off
of that kid's homework because he's pretty smart. I don't
think because I was smart was the reason I didn't
have friends. I was just socially awkward. But I identified
with the character of Henry in that sense of not
really fitting into school and just being constantly curious wanting
to create. I really think his character needed a little
bit more of a heroic moment to really inspire kids.
(26:12):
I just think it came to a point where it
felt like, all right, we have to end this movie.
Let's just kind of wrap it up here, And for me,
it just didn't really hit that home run at the end.
It was a fine ending, but out of everything in
the film, the ending felt the most generic. But even
with that being said, the movie did win me over
a lot. This was a case of bad trailer, good movie,
which I'd rather have. The opposite is much worse. When
(26:33):
you see a trailer that is so just slick, makes
you excited to go watch the movie, and then you
go see it and leave so underwhelmed. This was not
the case at all. And it's a movie you're gonna
see online and probably see a lot of negativity around.
We've had a lot of those that we've been talking
about recently, where this narrative starts of how bad it is,
(26:53):
and that's all critics fixate on, every review fixates on.
But if you actually go watch this movie and experience
it and remember what you were like at this age
when a movie like this was directed towards you, you
would feel that again. So I feel like I've given
the best explanation I can of where I struggle at
(27:13):
this point in my life where I still feel like
a movie like this is so important and I value
good family friendly adventure movies because they were so impactful
to me as a kid, so impressionable at that time.
And one of the main reasons I still do this
podcast is because I want to see that translate to
the next generation, to have movies that in a world
(27:36):
right now where they're grabbing every ip, slapping some A
listers on it and putting it out in theaters and
not really caring how it resonates with fans, that movies
like this need meaning, they need story, they need character development.
You can't just throw it out in the theaters, throw
out some cheap merchandise and just try to make a
bunch of money off of this ip. This one, I
(27:57):
feel had a lot of intention behind it, a lot
of world building, and maybe in the next one they
spend a little bit more money. One hundred fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Is a lot, but I think if we could get
it up to.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Two hundred, two hundred and fifty million dollars, depending on
how well this movie does, which I.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Think it's gonna crush.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I think by a Minecraft movie too, the visuals can
be so much better. They bring in some more characters,
get in some more building in there, and I think
this is a great step in the right direction of
making great movie video game adaptations because we need them.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It is low key one.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Of my favorite genres. It has inspired me to, at
some point in my life want to go play Minecraft now.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So for a Minecraft.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Movie, I give it three point five out of five
Lava Chickens.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's time to head down to movie.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Mike Traylor, Paul Leonardo DiCaprio is the greatest actor alive.
I don't even think that's too crazy of a thing
to say. I felt this way for a long time,
going back to the nineties with Titanic, going back to
the twenty tens with inception Django Unchain, Leo steps into
a role and it immediately becomes a great movie because
(29:14):
not only it's him and his name being attached to
a movie instantly tell me that it's something that I
want to watch. It instantly becomes one of my favorite
movies of the year that it is released, and oftentimes
enters into my favorite movies of all time. There are
no other actors I can think in my lifetime that
(29:36):
have achieved that for me, Not Tom Hanks, not Denzel Washington,
not Tom Cruise, not Meryl Streep, not Julia Roberts, not
even Sandra Bullock. And I do love me some Sandy b.
He is just that type of actor for me, the
actor the goat in my opinion, and he's now teaming
up with one of the best working directors, Paul Thomas Anderson.
(29:58):
The movie is called One Battle After Another. It is
coming out this year on September twenty sixth in theaters.
It also stars Sean Penn, Benicio Letro, Regina Hall, Tiana Taylor,
and Alana Hyam, who was also in the last Paul
Thomas Anderson movie, Licorice Pizza, which came out in twenty
twenty one. The movie follows a group of ex revolutionaries
(30:18):
whose enemy resurfaces after sixteen years. It depicts a race
against time where they try to rescue the daughter of
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tiana Taylor. This trailer looks like a
lot of chaos, a lot of fun, a dark satirical
comedy with some action thrown in there. Before I get
into more, here's just a little bit of the one
battle after another trailer.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
This is Bob Ferguson. I was a part of the
French seventy five Steve Locktrow guspah Tacher home and I
cannot remember for the life of my only child. The
answer to your question, maybe you should have spent me
the rebellion text of Little Harner. I need to find
my daughter. Well, then call us back when you have out.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
At the time, you just you.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Just you know what freedom is.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
No fear.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
That you sense Thanxian sense. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
There are a lot of things I love about this trailer.
It opens up with what you heard there Leonardo DiCaprio
at a pay phone speaking in code, which I think
is really interesting. Sounds like he's trying to get some information,
but it looks like he's frustrated trying to find his
daughter and he can't remember this password, and it doesn't
look at this moment like they want to help him.
So we teams up with the sense Beniso Legoro, so
(31:38):
he has to track down his sense who in this
movie looks like he's gonna teach him to live without fear.
There are some great shots in this trailer, which I
think really sets itself apart from anything I've seen this
year so far.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
There's a really great shot.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Of Leonardo and Benicio driving in this car and you
see Leonardo DiCaprio like fly out of the car, and
just that shot that to him rolling down the hill
looks fantastic. It looks like there's gonna be a lot
of dry humor. You see Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest in
this movie shooting off a round of ammunition, so you
(32:12):
have a little bit of action, crime and drama as
he plays this civil rights activist who is joining this
anti government group to take on a white supremacist organization.
This movie was shot on thirty five millimeter film, which
gives it that rich.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Grainy look that I love.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Going to the theater to see one of the last
movies I saw in thirty five millimeters was actually Licorice Pizza.
What I love about that and I don't want to
see him Like I'm a huge film snob and I
can tell the quality of a film, but for me,
I like the warmth of a movie. And when I
went to go see Licorice Pizza in theaters, which was
the last Paul Thomas Anderson movie, it was in thirty
(32:49):
five millimeter, you can see the scratches on the screen
just subtly. If you pay attention, you can see whenever
they have to switch to film reels, you start to see,
like this, a little flicker in the right corner, which
is the indicator to the projectionist that it's time to
flip over to the next one. And there's just something
about the way a movie plays on thirty five millimeter
(33:10):
that it's almost like if you had your favorite album
and you've only listened to it on an MP three
player or your CD player back in the day, or
you've only listened to it on a streaming service. If
you take that same favorite album and you listen to
it on vinyl, you can hear the little cracks of
the needle you can feel the warmth of the song
a little bit more because it adds like this layer
(33:31):
of texture that you can't get by listening to something digitally.
I think that's why I really enjoy it, and for me,
I feel like it's watching a movie the way the
filmmaker intended you to see that movie. And there are
only a handful of directors where I feel that really matters.
Paul Thomas Anderson is one, Quentin Tarantino is another one.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I would also.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Put Christopher Nolan in that category because when I went
to go see Oppenheimer and not thirty five millimeter but
seventy millimeter, i'm he actually paid for the theater here
in Nashville, which is one of the only theaters that
has the capability to show a movie in seventy millimeters imax.
He paid for that theater to have their system fixed
(34:13):
so it could show his.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Movie in that highest quality.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
So there's something about it to me that makes it
feel like you're getting it in all of its glory,
with it losing as little quality from when it was
made to when it gets into your eyeballs. That is
why I enjoy it, and sometimes it just gets lost
when you watch a little clip on your phone, or
you watch the movie on your laptop.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
So I just.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Think that a little bit of that old school Hollywood
field exists when you can actually go watch a movie
shown like this. And I also know that not everybody
can experience it this way, but it is a reason
to check your local theater, which is another thing I
really encourage.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Support your local theater in your.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Town or wherever you can get to one close to
you that actually shows movies on film. This movie is
based on a nineteen ninety novel called Vineland, and the
reason this movie hits home it was filmed in the Albosto, Texas.
I'm a Texas guy. I was born in North Texas,
spent a lot of time in Central Texas, and also
visited West Texas a lot. My dad was a truck driver,
(35:17):
so he did a lot of loads over to Albaso,
so I grew up going there a lot as a kid.
And anytime a movie on the level of scale that
this one is is shot in your home state, that
means a lot.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I really wish when they.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Made Blue Beetle, which that story actually takes place in
the Albosto. In the comic books that they would have
actually filmed it there. They kind of changed his interpretation
of where the story was set from the comics to
the making of that movie. But I'll take it here
with seeing Leonardo DiCaprio in Texas looking awesome, and by
the looks of the trailer, it really captures the landscape
(35:53):
of the city. It reminds me at times one of
my other favorite movies that had some parts filmed in Texas,
No Country for Old Men. When it comes to Paul
Thomas Anderson, I really enjoy hearing how much actors love
working with him. When it comes to me and my
relationship with his movies, at times he is hit or
miss with me. I can be watching a Paul Thomas
(36:14):
Anderson movie and know that this is great and special
and why somebody who was a real cinophile would watch
these and enjoy them and be able to dissect them
as to why they are such great films. He has
been nominated for eleven Oscars in his lifetime, so he
is a fantastic director that I always pay attention and
take note of anything he puts out. With that being said,
(36:34):
he still is hit or miss for me. I can
always respect what he does, but they're not always my
favorite movies. There are some directors on his level that,
no matter what they put out, much like I was
talking about Leonardo DiCaprio earlier, I feel like they're going
to be my favorite movie. His still have to kind
of earn that for me. His last movie, Licorice Pizza,
I thought was pretty good, came out back in twenty
(36:55):
twenty one. It was a nostalogic coming up age story
set in the nineteen seventies. I love the look and
feel of that movie, the overall aesthetic, more than I
did the actual story. His movies are also known for
being pretty long. It's reported right now that one Battle
after Another is clocking in at about two hours and
fifty minutes, which is a girthy movie. And there are
(37:17):
some directors who put out longer movies that you really
feel that run time. I don't think that's the case
with him. I always feel like he utilizes his run
times in a really strategic way, and he has a
reason for making each act so long. So in this case,
I don't feel the two hour and fifty minute runtime
on this movie feels as daunting to me as the
(37:37):
two hour and thirteen minute runtime of Licorice Pizza. But
if I had to pick a favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie,
I think I would go with two thousand and two's
Punch Drunk Love because what it did for Adam Sandler's career,
who at that time was really just known as the
Sandman putting out wacky, zany comedies, and that was the
first time we had to look at him being a
(37:59):
well rounded actor, of being able to do a dramatic role.
And that was a really great movie for not only
me is the viewer, but also for Adam Sandler's career,
who anytime he dips back in to the dramatic world,
I think he references that movie a lot and thanks
Paul Thomas Anderson for what he did for his career.
So I think because I love Adam Sandler so much,
(38:21):
that is why that movie ranks pretty high on my list.
But then he's look at Boogie Knights from ninety seven,
There Will Be Blood from two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
The Master, which I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
But anytime I recommended The Master to anybody else, which
was the movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Phillips Seymour Hoffman,
and it was kind of a psychological drama. Anytime I
recommended it to someone they didn't like it. That's a
movie you really have to be in the mood for.
But that one really reminds me of back in the
red box days, where I would just walk to the
seven eleven, hit the red box on the way home,
(38:53):
and watch a movie almost every single night. That movie
was right there in my run of just going to
the red box so much. But the odd thing about
Paul Thomas anderson movies for me is there not really
comfort movies that I go back and rewatch a whole lot.
Even though they are these really great, important pieces in cinema,
I don't often feel like they have the most rewatchability.
(39:15):
But now seeing him and Leonardo DiCaprio working together for
the first time, I also love me some benicios, So
maybe this one could be the movie for me. The
movie has a hefty budget of one hundred and forty
million dollars, so I'm hoping for a lot of action
and more surprises. Again, It's coming out in theaters on
September twenty sixthez.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
And that was this week's edition of Movie Line.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Tramor Bar and that is gonna do it for another
episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I
got to give my listeners shout out of the week.
Last week we had an interview with the stars and
writers of The Ballot of Wallace Island. If you missed
that episode, just go back one in the feed. But
I gave out the secret emoji that you could comment
message me with, and I said I would give whoever
(39:59):
replies with that first. And this week's listener shout Out
of the Week goes to Victoria Kluba. I hope I
am saying your name correctly. It is k l u
Ba who applied to my story after I posted about
that episode with the guitar emoji. You listen right on
Monday morning when I put out the new episode, So
thank you for listening. And this week it is time
(40:20):
for another secret emoji because we had the stars, writers
and directors of Hell of a Summer. So if you
want to comment, DM message me send me an email
moviemke d at gmail dot com. This week's secret emoji
is the camping emoji. There are a couple you can use.
There's one that's just the tent, there's one with the
tent and the tree. But I'll be posting some clips
(40:42):
on TikTok, Instagram, and x You can also check out
that full interview on my YouTube page YouTube dot com
slash Mike Distro. If you ever forget any of those links,
they are always in the episode notes. But that's this
week's secret emoji. Send me that and you'll get next
week's listeners.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Shout out of the week
Speaker 1 (41:00):
And until next time, go out and watch good movies
and I will talk to you later
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike, and boy do I have
a great episode for you today. I'm sitting down with
the stars, directors, and writers of Hell of a Summer,
which is a new horror comedy out in theaters now.
Finn Wolfhart, Billy Brick, and Fred Heckinger. We're gonna talk
about gen Z representation in film right now. In the
(00:21):
movie review, I'll give you my thoughts on Minecraft. I've
gone back and forth on whether or not this movie
was gonna be good or not. That first trailer I
was like, oh boy, second trailer I was like, Okay,
I can see the magic here.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Did it make me a believer?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And in the trailer park we'll be talking about the
new Leonardo DiCaprio movie, One Battle after Another. He is
teaming up with legendary director Paul Thomas Anderson for the
first time. Thank you for being here, Thank you for
being subscribed. Shout out to all my members of the
movie crew. And now let's talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
From the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike Movie Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I got to get into my conversation with the stars
of Hell of a summer. It is in theaters now.
It is a horror comedy starring Finn Wolfhard. You would
know him as Mike on Stranger Things. He was also
Richie in It, Trevor in Ghostbusters Afterlife and Frozen Empire.
He is a really great actor and now he's directing movies.
This is his directorial debut along with his friend Billy Brick,
(01:21):
who he co wrote the movie with co directed it
with as well. Billy was also in Ghostbusters Afterlife and
he was just in that Saturday Night movie. And then
we also have Fred Heckinger, who you would know from
Gladiator two where he played one of the emperors. He
played alongside Joseph Quinn, who was also in Stranger Things,
so there's a big connection here. Fred was also in
Season one of The White Lotus. He was the son
(01:43):
of the family where his dad was Steve Zhon and
most recently he was in the Oscar nominated movie Nickel Boys.
So he is another actor greatly on the rise right now.
And in this movie he plays a camp counselor named
Jason who's twenty four years old. He's going back to
camp and all his coworkers are teenagers and he's just struggling.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Making a connection with them.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
He is in charge this year and trying to be
a good example, but also trying to hang out with
all the teenagers. Anything that's gonna be the biggest thing
he has to get over the summer until he realizes
there's somebody with a mask going around killing people, picking
him off one by one. So the movie is part
horror slasher, much like you would expect from a movie
like Scream or Halloween, but then it also has a
(02:26):
lot of elements of comedy. It kind of reminded me
of like Idle Hands back in the nineties, which was
one of my favorite horror comedies of that decade, one
of my favorite horror comedies of all time, which, by
the way, Finn Wolfhardt is actually working on the reboot
of that movie. And I really think this could be
a defining slasher movie for gen Z because when you
see Hell of a Summer, it is characters talking like
(02:47):
actual teenagers would talk. And that's important because when I
watched this movie, I could tell that it was a
young person writing this dialogue like a teenager would speak,
and oftentimes you get out of such adults writing parts
for gen Z, kids that sound nothing like them. And
sometimes I feel there's an underrepresentation of their generation right
now in film, because oftentimes the people making movies like
(03:11):
this are much older and just by their age, are
a little bit out of touch. Now you have two
young directors and writers making their debut. This reminds me
of a movie I would be excited to go to
on a Friday night, even though I'd be underage and
couldn't get into this movie. Back when you used to
go to the movies and just look at a poster
and sometimes that would be all the indication you had
(03:32):
going into it. You remember those days where you could
just go walk outside the movies and say, Hey, that
poster looks pretty good. I think I'll go watch That
doesn't really happen anymore. You have to watch all the trailers,
you have to know everything about things. But I feel
like if you just saw the hell of a Summer
poster out front and you thought that actually looks interesting,
that looks like a lot of fun, I want to
go see that movie. This movie is bringing back something
(03:55):
I think is needed right now in Hollywood. It's basically
if you took Friday the thirteenth mixed it with Scream
mixed it with a little bit of wet, hot American summer,
you get hell of a summer. So right now, let's
sit down with Finnwolfhart, Billy Brick, and Fred Heckinger at
the Bell Court here in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Like your pants, Oh, thank you so much? I like,
I like all y'all. Are we kind of dressed the same?
You were all clothes?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Not really, but kind of.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I wish I feel like a bonder that we all
kind of look alike.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, I'm like, I'm liking this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I gotta say, I love the movie and it makes
me feel oddly nostalgic, but also like this is the
movie I've been looking for because I feel like the
slasher genre got a little bit stale, a little bit overdone.
And with you guys behind this having just that fresh
young voice, it just feels like I feel all the
things that I felt when I watched Scream, But now
(04:51):
I have a brand new movie in twenty twenty five.
It just feels like this is what should be happening
right now. How does it feel for you guys for
this movie with direct it being a part of it
and it finally coming out now.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
That's really nice to be to say it feels great.
I mean, you know, it's been such a long journey
to get here. You know, we started in twenty nineteen
with this, you know, writing the script, and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Really surreal to think about, Yeah, because we've been working
on it for so long, and our goal always, our
dream was for it to come out theatrically, and now
working with Neon bringing it theatrically nationwide is like kind
of the best possible way that it could come out.
So it's a bit of a pinch me moment.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I have to say, Like Neon has just been crushing
it with all the original horror, Like how was that
relationship kind of formed of you guys having this idea
and then being like, we want to be a part
of that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh well, they they just saw the movie.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
At Tiff when we premiered and liked it. And then
that was a conversation that that like we were just
in conversation with that, not we didn't have any of
the conversations, but the producers were in the conversation with them.
And then yeah, like it was just a matter of
sort of when was the right time to get this out?
And then we feel like really fortunate because yes, Neon
(06:09):
has been killing it for I mean years and years
and years, but especially in the last eighteen months with
horror films and original horror films so.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And really every other everything they just want picture. So
it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
It's a testament to how cool they are as a
company that you know, they make stuff like Anora and
then they also make crazy, weird comedy horror films like
ours or you know. So yeah, it's great to be
a part of that sort of legacy.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I guess. I think the thing to me that I
really stuck out about this movie that I don't see
a whole lot now is a good quotable movie. Like
I found myself thinking, like I started thinking of whenever
your character is kind of like sad that he's not
the one being killed because he's like, no, it's probably
just killing at random, right, So how did that go
(06:58):
from writing everything and then seeing it translate on screen?
Like how is this still funny?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That's a good question because it's still.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Funny because you write it and then you're totally directing it,
and then you're seeing all the edits and then you're
thinking like now that people are seeing it, Like, how
can you think, like, is this even funny tony to
us everybody else?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I mean, it's a good question, and you just have
to trust that it was funny to you. And like, obviously,
when you see a joke a million times, it doesn't
make you laugh every single time, So sometimes you have
that instinct like can I push this further? Do I
try to make this funny to me every time I'm
watching it? But in my opinion, it's kind of a
dangerous game to be playing where it's like, if this
really made us laugh as we're writing it, and we
feel like this is the most sort of most grounded
(07:40):
version of this performance, the read of this line that
we think worked best, we have to trust it. And
then as we screen it for people and get other
eyes on it, it's really helpful to see sort of
what they're laughing at. And I'd say more often than not,
the stuff that we thought was the funniest, Like our
instincts were right, So.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I don't know it's funny.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I try not even to think about it as funny
all the time.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Yeah, and edit, I mean yeah, And then in the
production side of it, we were just talking about that
the other night where you this the script that this
wrote was so it was so funny and in such
a grounded, character driven way, and there was you know,
just every scene is quite intentional in that sense, and
(08:24):
there is a thing once you start doing the scenes
you kind of have to everyone who's in it is
also so funny, and I feel like we would play
and explore. But at the end of the day, like
the movie ends up being kind of like ninety five
percent or something of the of the actual script from
the get go. So there is a sort of trust
element that Billy's talking about that I think maybe you're
(08:47):
asking about in terms of if we found this funny
at the outset, Like you know, it won't always be
the shiny thing, but focus on it, yeah, because it
really is. It is the intentional thing here.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I love what you said about the movie being sole
character driven, because I think that's also what set out
to me is like I could buy into everybody's personalities
and I know how Jason is going to react to
something because he's a guy who loves his job. Like
that's kind of what I took away from this, Like
this is somebody who just wants to do his job
to the best of visibility, and that is what he's
kind of here to do. And then you have your
character Bobby, who's just like, I gotta be good looking
(09:22):
to these guys. So what's the how do you write
really well rounded characters?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
You write every character is if you're gonna play them
in the movie.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So is this movie a lot of like what you
guys are like in real life?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
A little bit?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I like to think that we're a little more self
aware than our characters, and that's sort of why we're
able to make fun of certain aspects of our personality.
But I mean, there's definitely I would say that Finn
and I when we were just sort of joking around,
would fall into these caricatures of ourselves, which I'd say
sort of became Bobby and Chris, and like it's a
send up of our dynamic and sort of our own
(09:57):
personal I don't know, I don't want to say like
insecurities or something, but like there's elements of Bobby for
sure that come from my own life that I just
find funny and like I'm not fully committed to but
the fact that I can very easily think like that
is concerning to me, like it's a little too easy
to fall into that sort of mindset. But then I'm
not even actually joking about the like writing every character,
(10:20):
like writing every characters if you'd play it, And I
think that's thing helpful about being an actor and a writer.
As we were writing versions of the script, it's like
we would do a pass with each character in mind,
being like, yeah, I were to be sent this character,
what would excite me most about playing this part? What
would I want to see? And then we try to
add that so every character sort of felt fleshed out
(10:41):
and had something real and sort of had like a
life behind them, even if they're a character who gets
killed off very quickly. So it was kind of like
a funny so total way of being.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Like, yeah, I think it's also just like, you know,
just thinking about you know that there's a lot of
young actors out there, and ninety nine percent of stuff
that gets sent out just like I don't know, just
doesn't feel right or you know, it doesn't feel like
it has you know that the character that's you auditioned
(11:11):
for maybe has everything that you want or you know,
the arc that you want. And it was one of
those things where we were kind of approaching it from
an actor's perspective.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And then coming from the horror element of the movie,
which I love. What were some of those movies that
you went back and studied and thought, I want to
take a little from this movie. I want to take
a little from that movie and put it into this.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
We watched the Thing. We watched a lot of the
John Carpenter films, just because of the blocking of those
films in the way that he sort of is able
to block and represent group dynamics, and like the Thing
specifically this idea of group that sort of splintering, splintering
and turning against each other. So that was a reference
the First Halloween obviously, but a lot, like most of
(11:53):
our sort of stylistic references were from comedy movies or
from movies that weren't in the horror. Do you have
any that you.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, I mean, you know, like Sean of the Dead
was a huge one that we looked at. And then
you know, as far as even just like visual visual stuff,
I mean we looked a lot about you know, at
like uh the Howling or like, uh, like Dean Kundy's stuff.
It was like the DP I guess of the eighties
(12:24):
and even just like even though nut like it is
nothing like any that's like we would just watch like
movies that we loved and like grew up watching and
like loved the look of and you know, for whatever reason,
and this like I watched Indiana Jones in the Last
Crusade like five times, like in the year that we
wrote this, and it has nothing to do with the
movie in the slightest, but like, I don't know, there's
(12:47):
some kind of adventure in that movie that I just
love so much, and and in that era as well,
like late eighties, early nineties, and then you know, yeah
Scream obviously, so like a lot of different influences coming
from kind of all angles, a lot of like Coen
brother stuff too, raising Arizona One to But then yeah,
like even with movies like that, there's they're like visually
they're so energetic with Debt or Shanna the Dead, and
(13:08):
we didn't want that this movie to feel like that.
So it was like, what can we chased by those
movies without feeling like we're doing those movies because it didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Feel right for the script.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But yeah, Fred, what did you love most about playing
Jason because he's a character who's so endearing you root
for him the entire time. And I feel like you
really brought that role alive. What did you love about
that role?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I really loved.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
How two wrote him. I loved that in this story,
every single character kind of once the killing starts in
the movie, they don't like just magically transform into different
heroic people. They they can only react and figure out
their their issues by being themselves and their most kind
(13:51):
of eccentric and uh sometimes stubborn ways. Uh. And so
I I, yeah, I think some like you play people
that you find also genuinely inspiring. Like he's someone who
is uh, he's like gets he's in on the joke,
(14:12):
he gets that people. He gets that he can be
a joke to people, but also is funny himself and
also not a joke to himself at the same time.
And I felt that those things altogether, you meant something
to me. And uh and felt, uh, yeah, resonant of
(14:33):
a lot of people I know and how I feel sometimes.
So I really liked that call. I liked that he
was like in on the joke but also not at
the same time. I thought that that was like a yeah,
there's there's so there's so many qualities to him that
I really admire and loved playing.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I have one final question for you guys, what did
it feel whenever you first started to have success, Because Fann,
I remember you when you were in pop music videos,
Like I'm huge into punk rock, Canadian punk rock, and
I remember seeing you in those way back then. Like
what does it feel when you just start like getting
those first roles, getting those first projects, and you just
feel like this actually might be a reality my dream.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yeah, we got to talk about Canadian punk rock after this,
but I would say, I mean that's kind of I
was just happy doing that, like even as like a
little kid, being able to be a part of these
cool indie projects like music videos for cool bands that
I loved and student films, and like I just loved
(15:33):
doing it and being on set and it just kind
of snowballed. And all those sets inspired me to direct
and want to direct. And I feel like, you know,
we made this film all together and specifically when me
and Billy started writing it, and like that feeling even
though we made it, you know, with with like a
(15:57):
bigger crew and it wasn't like a student film. It's
still had that energy, like it still had that sort
of vibe that I could feel when I was that
young on set and just looking at all these amazing
kind of young artists like starting their careers, and to me,
that's what I'm always chasing. And sometimes you find it
in every I feel like you find it in every
(16:18):
set in some way. So but it was definitely felt great,
Like I loved doing all those videos.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Well, this has been great. It's also confirmed my feeling
that you guys are all like real friends in real life,
because that comes across in the movie. So I hope
everybody goes to see it and can feel that as well.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Thank you, Thanks for the time, dat.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Guys, Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie
review of a Minecraft movie starring Jack Black Jason Momoa,
directed by Jared Hess who also directed movies like Napoleon
Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And I did not.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Expect to be so inspired by such a family friendly
movie of a video game. I didn't even play. All
the young people in the comment who are gonna be
like you, boomer, you haven't played Minecraft. And I'm getting
at that age now where I'm aged out of some
of the video game adaptations. Now we have Jack Black,
who is just doing every video game property that's being
(17:15):
made into a movie. He also did Borderlands, he did Jumanji,
and I think out of all those, this has been
his best to date.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
What this movie is about.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
You get four misfits thrown into the overworld with the
purpose of saving it. Jack Black plays the character Steve,
who is the main guy in Minecraft. He aspired to
work as a minor as a kid, didn't get to
live out that dream until he was an adult. Got
thrown into the overworld as he discovered this cube that's
kind of like the test ract from Avengers, which I
(17:43):
got a lot of Avengers one vibes from Minecraft. Meta
dog got captured by these pig like creatures and then
was stuck there four years. Much like Jumanji. This movie
is kind of a mix of Avengers and Jumanji because
where you had the Tessa act in the Avengers, you
have the cube here that they are trying to find
again in order to open the portal back into the world.
(18:06):
His dog escapes, takes the portal back to his house,
and eventually lands into the hands of Jason Momoa, who
plays a character named garbage Man, who was the best
video game player in the world in nineteen eighty nine
and has hung onto that ever since. You have a
kid named Henry with his sister who lost their mom,
so they are moving to a new town to start
(18:27):
a new life. She is going to work as a
social media manager for a potato chip company. And he
is a very bright, smart kid. Doesn't really get along
with people, but he has a real creative and inventive mind.
He gets into some trouble has to call Jason Momoa
for her help to try to get him out of it.
They reunite with the Cube and all get thrown into
(18:48):
the overworld, where our journey begins. This movie surprisingly had
a lot of heart, and I could tell from the director,
Jared Hess that he knows how to make a movie
because when you take a property like Minecraft, the best
selling video game of all time, which is wild to me.
I was always aware of Minecraft and what you have
to do in the video game, I just never played
(19:09):
it myself. Essentially, it is a sandbox game where the
game is what you make it. It is only limited
by your creativity to build things, to fight things, and
that was inspiring to me. I just never really got
into it, but after watching this movie, I just felt
like this is such a big inspiration piece for kids
to find joy in and for kids to flourish in
(19:32):
their creativity, and that is really what this movie is
all about. Jack Black's character is larger than life, and
sometimes I feel like he gets criticized a little bit
for being so exuberant, and I don't feel like his
character was showcased properly in the trailer, at least to
the adults who kind of have to be won over
(19:52):
by a movie like this, because in the movie theater,
the kids were ecstatic and I'd never seen that before.
Whenever your first here, Steve say I am Steve. That
was essentially this generation's Avengers Assemble.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
That is the movie quote of the year.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Everybody went nuts for that moment, and that was in
the trailer that speaks volumes to me about the relationship
that people have with this property. And this is one
of those movies that you could have put anything on
the screen because it's a huge ip. It was gonna
crush opening weekend no matter what, because the fan base
(20:30):
was there and they were gonna go see it and
they were gonna go love it. Just because it was
seeing something that they've spent so much time with playing
this video game come to life.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And it was cool seeing.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Those moments pop in the theater, even though they didn't
fully land with me because I don't really know the
lord that is Minecraft, but to see everybody else experiencing that,
it made me feel that I realized there was chemical
reactions happening in the theater to these kids' brains, that
this is gonna be a very significant moment for them.
I remember those having moments like that back in the theater,
(21:02):
or even watching movies for the first time at home,
the movies that changed me, the movies that inspired me.
This is definitely gonna be one of those movies. And
I think it's gonna be the harsh older critics who
are beating this movie to hell because on paper, it's
probably not what you would consider to be a quote
unquote good movie. If I went into this movie just
(21:24):
for the plot alone, I do think it's there. I
really do believe it because it has a story, it
has character development. The only thing I feel, as an
adult that is hard for me to overcome and just
fully enjoy it is some of the performances that have
to be so over the top.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Some of the.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Dialogue is overly cheesy and at times a little bit
cringe worthy when if you take it out of context,
like they did in the trailer, you think train wreck
all over this thing. Because the characters themselves are very cartoony,
Jason Momoa's character and really all the characters.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
They're really just portray.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
T'srading a live action animated movie because for the most part,
you really only have four humans in this movie. Jason
Momoa as the garbage Man, Jack Black as Steve Ma
Myers as Natalie, who was also in Wednesday, which it
took me a moment to realize, Oh that's her. Danielle Brooks,
who you might remember from Orange Is the New Black,
also get sucked into the overworld, and then you have
(22:20):
Sebastian Hansen who plays Henry. Those are the four main humans.
You also have Jennifer Coolidge, who really only sticks to
the real world and kind of has a whole b
plot going on. So I also feel like by having
these four characters being the only ones you can interact with,
and they're interacting with these fictional cubic characters, it's obviously
(22:40):
going to cause for a little bit of clunky dialogue.
I did enjoy the visuals in the Overworld. At times,
I wish they were a little bit more rich. There
are moments that lacked a little bit of depth for me,
and there were shots that were clearly just Jack Black
behind the green screen, or probably the flying scenes where
it just felt like they had a wind machine and
(23:02):
the green screen was in the background, and those moments
looked a little bit just hard to believe and really
broke that illusion for me of the Overworld, which at
times looked really fun and vibrant. I loved all the fire,
I loved all the chase scenes. I loved the scenes
at night with the creepers coming out. There were some
pretty good battle scenes. I love the moments they were
creating all the weapons. I thought all those moments looked
(23:24):
really good. But sometimes when the action got a little
bit too big, the special effects that animations really took
a downgrade. And I feel like that was the biggest
struggle of this movie. And also for a movie that
is a minecraft movie all about creativity and building, I
thought there should have been a little bit more building,
because the first act really won me over with the
(23:44):
story I started getting invested with all the characters when
it came to my favorite. I love garbage Man, played
by Jason Momoa. I thought his character had a lot
of heart. I thought he was actually going through the
roughest patch out of any character in this movie, because
he was a really big deal in nineteen eighty nine.
Now he has a video game store that is crumbling,
(24:05):
he's about to get evicted, and he needs a win.
And it's probably because I'm in my thirties that I
would identify more with his character and what he was
struggling with. But I think through his dialogue and some
of his actions and fighting, he came across as a
little bit of a corny character.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But corny works in this movie.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Corney isn't always bad, and I think you need larger
than life personalities like Jason Momoa and Jack Black to
really pull this movie off, because I can't really think
of any other A list star who has those comedic
chops to make this movie work. And someone watched this
movie and say they gave really awful performances, But I
(24:41):
think they did what they needed to do to make
this work, to make it resonate with the kids and
the young people who are a fan of Minecraft. It's
just not for adults. And I thought I could recognize
that I was sold in the story. I was sold
into the adventure. I thought it moved along really well,
clocking in just over minutes. I think it was like
an hour and thirty three minutes. For me, it dipped
(25:03):
a little bit and act too, where that is where
I thought they should have had some more exploration with
the building. It kind of just became your typical family
adventure movie at that point, and I feel like that
was the moment for it to really shine and to
grab the viewer and take him on this journey and
really own what it means to be a Minecraft movie,
because I think this is easily going to spawn a franchise.
(25:25):
There's just no question here. It has it written all
over it. I think it really easily sets up another
movie where I feel this movie just lacked an emotional punch,
which I kind of had to put myself back into
the perspective of a kid of what I would have
wanted out of a movie like this, and the character
Henry resonates with me being a smarter kid growing up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
I was never the smartest kid, but I was always.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Looked at as being like, I want to copy off
of that kid's homework because he's pretty smart. I don't
think because I was smart was the reason I didn't
have friends. I was just socially awkward. But I identified
with the character of Henry in that sense of not
really fitting into school and just being constantly curious wanting
to create. I really think his character needed a little
bit more of a heroic moment to really inspire kids.
(26:12):
I just think it came to a point where it
felt like, all right, we have to end this movie.
Let's just kind of wrap it up here, And for me,
it just didn't really hit that home run at the end.
It was a fine ending, but out of everything in
the film, the ending felt the most generic. But even
with that being said, the movie did win me over
a lot. This was a case of bad trailer, good movie,
which I'd rather have. The opposite is much worse. When
(26:33):
you see a trailer that is so just slick, makes
you excited to go watch the movie, and then you
go see it and leave so underwhelmed. This was not
the case at all. And it's a movie you're gonna
see online and probably see a lot of negativity around.
We've had a lot of those that we've been talking
about recently, where this narrative starts of how bad it is,
(26:53):
and that's all critics fixate on, every review fixates on.
But if you actually go watch this movie and experience
it and remember what you were like at this age
when a movie like this was directed towards you, you
would feel that again. So I feel like I've given
the best explanation I can of where I struggle at
(27:13):
this point in my life where I still feel like
a movie like this is so important and I value
good family friendly adventure movies because they were so impactful
to me as a kid, so impressionable at that time.
And one of the main reasons I still do this
podcast is because I want to see that translate to
the next generation, to have movies that in a world
(27:36):
right now where they're grabbing every ip, slapping some A
listers on it and putting it out in theaters and
not really caring how it resonates with fans, that movies
like this need meaning, they need story, they need character development.
You can't just throw it out in the theaters, throw
out some cheap merchandise and just try to make a
bunch of money off of this ip. This one, I
(27:57):
feel had a lot of intention behind it, a lot
of world building, and maybe in the next one they
spend a little bit more money. One hundred fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Is a lot, but I think if we could get
it up to.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Two hundred, two hundred and fifty million dollars, depending on
how well this movie does, which I.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Think it's gonna crush.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I think by a Minecraft movie too, the visuals can
be so much better. They bring in some more characters,
get in some more building in there, and I think
this is a great step in the right direction of
making great movie video game adaptations because we need them.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It is low key one.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Of my favorite genres. It has inspired me to, at
some point in my life want to go play Minecraft now.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So for a Minecraft.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Movie, I give it three point five out of five
Lava Chickens.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's time to head down to movie.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Mike Traylor, Paul Leonardo DiCaprio is the greatest actor alive.
I don't even think that's too crazy of a thing
to say. I felt this way for a long time,
going back to the nineties with Titanic, going back to
the twenty tens with inception Django Unchain, Leo steps into
a role and it immediately becomes a great movie because
(29:14):
not only it's him and his name being attached to
a movie instantly tell me that it's something that I
want to watch. It instantly becomes one of my favorite
movies of the year that it is released, and oftentimes
enters into my favorite movies of all time. There are
no other actors I can think in my lifetime that
(29:36):
have achieved that for me, Not Tom Hanks, not Denzel Washington,
not Tom Cruise, not Meryl Streep, not Julia Roberts, not
even Sandra Bullock. And I do love me some Sandy b.
He is just that type of actor for me, the
actor the goat in my opinion, and he's now teaming
up with one of the best working directors, Paul Thomas Anderson.
(29:58):
The movie is called One Battle After Another. It is
coming out this year on September twenty sixth in theaters.
It also stars Sean Penn, Benicio Letro, Regina Hall, Tiana Taylor,
and Alana Hyam, who was also in the last Paul
Thomas Anderson movie, Licorice Pizza, which came out in twenty
twenty one. The movie follows a group of ex revolutionaries
(30:18):
whose enemy resurfaces after sixteen years. It depicts a race
against time where they try to rescue the daughter of
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tiana Taylor. This trailer looks like a
lot of chaos, a lot of fun, a dark satirical
comedy with some action thrown in there. Before I get
into more, here's just a little bit of the one
battle after another trailer.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
This is Bob Ferguson. I was a part of the
French seventy five Steve Locktrow guspah Tacher home and I
cannot remember for the life of my only child. The
answer to your question, maybe you should have spent me
the rebellion text of Little Harner. I need to find
my daughter. Well, then call us back when you have out.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
At the time, you just you.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Just you know what freedom is.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
No fear.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
That you sense Thanxian sense. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
There are a lot of things I love about this trailer.
It opens up with what you heard there Leonardo DiCaprio
at a pay phone speaking in code, which I think
is really interesting. Sounds like he's trying to get some information,
but it looks like he's frustrated trying to find his
daughter and he can't remember this password, and it doesn't
look at this moment like they want to help him.
So we teams up with the sense Beniso Legoro, so
(31:38):
he has to track down his sense who in this
movie looks like he's gonna teach him to live without fear.
There are some great shots in this trailer, which I
think really sets itself apart from anything I've seen this
year so far.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
There's a really great shot.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Of Leonardo and Benicio driving in this car and you
see Leonardo DiCaprio like fly out of the car, and
just that shot that to him rolling down the hill
looks fantastic. It looks like there's gonna be a lot
of dry humor. You see Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest in
this movie shooting off a round of ammunition, so you
(32:12):
have a little bit of action, crime and drama as
he plays this civil rights activist who is joining this
anti government group to take on a white supremacist organization.
This movie was shot on thirty five millimeter film, which
gives it that rich.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Grainy look that I love.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Going to the theater to see one of the last
movies I saw in thirty five millimeters was actually Licorice Pizza.
What I love about that and I don't want to
see him Like I'm a huge film snob and I
can tell the quality of a film, but for me,
I like the warmth of a movie. And when I
went to go see Licorice Pizza in theaters, which was
the last Paul Thomas Anderson movie, it was in thirty
(32:49):
five millimeter, you can see the scratches on the screen
just subtly. If you pay attention, you can see whenever
they have to switch to film reels, you start to see,
like this, a little flicker in the right corner, which
is the indicator to the projectionist that it's time to
flip over to the next one. And there's just something
about the way a movie plays on thirty five millimeter
(33:10):
that it's almost like if you had your favorite album
and you've only listened to it on an MP three
player or your CD player back in the day, or
you've only listened to it on a streaming service. If
you take that same favorite album and you listen to
it on vinyl, you can hear the little cracks of
the needle you can feel the warmth of the song
a little bit more because it adds like this layer
(33:31):
of texture that you can't get by listening to something digitally.
I think that's why I really enjoy it, and for me,
I feel like it's watching a movie the way the
filmmaker intended you to see that movie. And there are
only a handful of directors where I feel that really matters.
Paul Thomas Anderson is one, Quentin Tarantino is another one.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I would also.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Put Christopher Nolan in that category because when I went
to go see Oppenheimer and not thirty five millimeter but
seventy millimeter, i'm he actually paid for the theater here
in Nashville, which is one of the only theaters that
has the capability to show a movie in seventy millimeters imax.
He paid for that theater to have their system fixed
(34:13):
so it could show his.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Movie in that highest quality.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
So there's something about it to me that makes it
feel like you're getting it in all of its glory,
with it losing as little quality from when it was
made to when it gets into your eyeballs. That is
why I enjoy it, and sometimes it just gets lost
when you watch a little clip on your phone, or
you watch the movie on your laptop.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
So I just.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Think that a little bit of that old school Hollywood
field exists when you can actually go watch a movie
shown like this. And I also know that not everybody
can experience it this way, but it is a reason
to check your local theater, which is another thing I
really encourage.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Support your local theater in your.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Town or wherever you can get to one close to
you that actually shows movies on film. This movie is
based on a nineteen ninety novel called Vineland, and the
reason this movie hits home it was filmed in the Albosto, Texas.
I'm a Texas guy. I was born in North Texas,
spent a lot of time in Central Texas, and also
visited West Texas a lot. My dad was a truck driver,
(35:17):
so he did a lot of loads over to Albaso,
so I grew up going there a lot as a kid.
And anytime a movie on the level of scale that
this one is is shot in your home state, that
means a lot.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I really wish when they.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Made Blue Beetle, which that story actually takes place in
the Albosto. In the comic books that they would have
actually filmed it there. They kind of changed his interpretation
of where the story was set from the comics to
the making of that movie. But I'll take it here
with seeing Leonardo DiCaprio in Texas looking awesome, and by
the looks of the trailer, it really captures the landscape
(35:53):
of the city. It reminds me at times one of
my other favorite movies that had some parts filmed in Texas,
No Country for Old Men. When it comes to Paul
Thomas Anderson, I really enjoy hearing how much actors love
working with him. When it comes to me and my
relationship with his movies, at times he is hit or
miss with me. I can be watching a Paul Thomas
(36:14):
Anderson movie and know that this is great and special
and why somebody who was a real cinophile would watch
these and enjoy them and be able to dissect them
as to why they are such great films. He has
been nominated for eleven Oscars in his lifetime, so he
is a fantastic director that I always pay attention and
take note of anything he puts out. With that being said,
(36:34):
he still is hit or miss for me. I can
always respect what he does, but they're not always my
favorite movies. There are some directors on his level that,
no matter what they put out, much like I was
talking about Leonardo DiCaprio earlier, I feel like they're going
to be my favorite movie. His still have to kind
of earn that for me. His last movie, Licorice Pizza,
I thought was pretty good, came out back in twenty
(36:55):
twenty one. It was a nostalogic coming up age story
set in the nineteen seventies. I love the look and
feel of that movie, the overall aesthetic, more than I
did the actual story. His movies are also known for
being pretty long. It's reported right now that one Battle
after Another is clocking in at about two hours and
fifty minutes, which is a girthy movie. And there are
(37:17):
some directors who put out longer movies that you really
feel that run time. I don't think that's the case
with him. I always feel like he utilizes his run
times in a really strategic way, and he has a
reason for making each act so long. So in this case,
I don't feel the two hour and fifty minute runtime
on this movie feels as daunting to me as the
(37:37):
two hour and thirteen minute runtime of Licorice Pizza. But
if I had to pick a favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie,
I think I would go with two thousand and two's
Punch Drunk Love because what it did for Adam Sandler's career,
who at that time was really just known as the
Sandman putting out wacky, zany comedies, and that was the
first time we had to look at him being a
(37:59):
well rounded actor, of being able to do a dramatic role.
And that was a really great movie for not only
me is the viewer, but also for Adam Sandler's career,
who anytime he dips back in to the dramatic world,
I think he references that movie a lot and thanks
Paul Thomas Anderson for what he did for his career.
So I think because I love Adam Sandler so much,
(38:21):
that is why that movie ranks pretty high on my list.
But then he's look at Boogie Knights from ninety seven,
There Will Be Blood from two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
The Master, which I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
But anytime I recommended The Master to anybody else, which
was the movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Phillips Seymour Hoffman,
and it was kind of a psychological drama. Anytime I
recommended it to someone they didn't like it. That's a
movie you really have to be in the mood for.
But that one really reminds me of back in the
red box days, where I would just walk to the
seven eleven, hit the red box on the way home,
(38:53):
and watch a movie almost every single night. That movie
was right there in my run of just going to
the red box so much. But the odd thing about
Paul Thomas anderson movies for me is there not really
comfort movies that I go back and rewatch a whole lot.
Even though they are these really great, important pieces in cinema,
I don't often feel like they have the most rewatchability.
(39:15):
But now seeing him and Leonardo DiCaprio working together for
the first time, I also love me some benicios, So
maybe this one could be the movie for me. The
movie has a hefty budget of one hundred and forty
million dollars, so I'm hoping for a lot of action
and more surprises. Again, It's coming out in theaters on
September twenty sixthez.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
And that was this week's edition of Movie Line.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Tramor Bar and that is gonna do it for another
episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I
got to give my listeners shout out of the week.
Last week we had an interview with the stars and
writers of The Ballot of Wallace Island. If you missed
that episode, just go back one in the feed. But
I gave out the secret emoji that you could comment
message me with, and I said I would give whoever
(39:59):
replies with that first. And this week's listener shout Out
of the Week goes to Victoria Kluba. I hope I
am saying your name correctly. It is k l u
Ba who applied to my story after I posted about
that episode with the guitar emoji. You listen right on
Monday morning when I put out the new episode, So
thank you for listening. And this week it is time
(40:20):
for another secret emoji because we had the stars, writers
and directors of Hell of a Summer. So if you
want to comment, DM message me send me an email
moviemke d at gmail dot com. This week's secret emoji
is the camping emoji. There are a couple you can use.
There's one that's just the tent, there's one with the
tent and the tree. But I'll be posting some clips
(40:42):
on TikTok, Instagram, and x You can also check out
that full interview on my YouTube page YouTube dot com
slash Mike Distro. If you ever forget any of those links,
they are always in the episode notes. But that's this
week's secret emoji. Send me that and you'll get next
week's listeners.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Shout out of the week
Speaker 1 (41:00):
And until next time, go out and watch good movies
and I will talk to you later
Host
Mike D
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