Favorite Female Directed Films of the 21st Century with Mike and Kelsey + Movie Review: Imaginary + Trailer Park: The Wild Robot

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Are you ready for it?

00:00:02
Speaker 2: And that is how we start the podcast. Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie Podcast. Always keep it rolled, rude.

00:00:09
Speaker 1: This was supposed to be a safe space for me to sing Taylor Swift.

00:00:12
Speaker 2: I am your host. Movie Mike joined this week, but my wife and co host Kelsey, we can already keell it. You were good singing Taylor's with Yeah.

00:00:18
Speaker 1: The Arastur comes out on Disney Plus tonight.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm gonna not watch it without you. I've been wanting to see it.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, but i've you. Initially I invited you to get tickets with me to go to the tour, and then when we didn't get tickets, I just started I went to the tour with my best friend, and then I went to see it in theaters with another friend, and then I went to New York over Christmas. I watched it. We bought it my best friend that I went to the original concert with. And then I'm actually going to Denver this weekend to visit another friend and we're planning on watching it, so I'll watch it with you eventually.

00:00:48
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift has made so much money just off of you watching the same tour amazing, incredible business woman.

00:00:54
Speaker 1: She takes all of my money. She's made a lot of money off of me.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: But we are here today to talk about our favorite female directed films, which of the twenty first century.

00:01:03
Speaker 1: I mean, Taylor Swift did direct the short film All to Welton minute version, so this is a really perfect tie in.

00:01:09
Speaker 2: We'll add that as an honorable mention on the list. In the movie review, we'll be talking about Imaginary, which is a new horror movie out in theaters right now from Blumhouse.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: We will not be talking about that.

00:01:18
Speaker 2: I will be you are out of horror movies. And then in the trailer park, we'll be talking about a film that I think could change the way we think about animation, The Wild Robot. We saw the trailer when we went to go see Kung Fu Panda.

00:01:31
Speaker 1: It's kind of giving Wally vibes.

00:01:33
Speaker 2: Oh, and I loved it. I was like, I cannot wait to see this movie. So we'll get into that. Thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies.

00:01:44
Speaker 3: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTB which glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Network, this is Movie Mike's movie podcast.

00:02:08
Speaker 2: March is Women's History months. So for this episode, we are focusing on female directed films of the twenty first century. So in the last twenty four years. Oh, that's weird that a century already has twenty four years in it.

00:02:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're almost a quarter of the way through.

00:02:23
Speaker 2: In my head, the two thousands are still like last decade.

00:02:27
Speaker 1: Oh, in my head, two thousand and seven was like three years ago.

00:02:29
Speaker 2: For the longest time, I always thought the nineties were just like twenty years ago over there, so long ago.

00:02:34
Speaker 1: Now we're both nineties babies, and we're both thirty plus now, so yeah, the nineties are thirty years ago.

00:02:42
Speaker 2: That's why we were focusing here on movies of the last twenty four years, because to really showcase some of the great female directors who maybe don't get the recognition they deserve despite making some of the best films in the lastmen exactly, which is weird that I don't really view movies like that, they're just directors. I'm attached to whether they be male or female. If they are just great directors, I'm gonna watch their movies. But for some reason, people just have problems with female directors.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: With females in any industry, and I think when you.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: Have movies directed by females, I feel like you get better stories because they focus more on what I like of the emotional details. They play more into character development more so than male directors.

00:03:28
Speaker 1: All the things that they tell women make us too soft for most industries.

00:03:32
Speaker 2: But if you look at this list that I put together here, it's a phenomenal list, even movies like American Psycho, which you may not think that we was directed by a female director one of the best like that is an iconic movie, but sometimes I feel like that is a footnote of that. Because of Christian Bale's performance and because of how iconic that movie has been, we forget about the director of American Psycho. So that is why I want to do this episode as well. But before we get into this entire list, I think we should just go and share our fail writ movie directed by a female director. Kelsey do the honors Kicking us off.

00:04:04
Speaker 1: Greta Gerwig's Ladybird, loved Barbie mm hmm, but feels too recent to call it my favorite.

00:04:10
Speaker 2: I was kind of in that same boat of including a Greta Gerwig film because she is a fantastic director and has put out just consistent hits. I mean, Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie have all dominated the box office.

00:04:22
Speaker 1: I think I went to see Ladybird by myself at the Alamo Draftouse at Lakelynn back when movie pass was still a thing.

00:04:27
Speaker 2: Oh, the movie Pass. I never got into the movie Pass because I knew it was going to go under. It was a bad business plan. I mean it was great for a few months, it were how long did it work for?

00:04:36
Speaker 1: You think six months? I saw a lot of movies I wouldn't have seen.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: That's pretty solid it was.

00:04:41
Speaker 1: I did not have disposable income as a grad student working at a university and an admin assistant role. The income was.

00:04:49
Speaker 2: Low, so I never had it. I was aware of it. But how did it work exactly? It was kind of weird on how you could pick times right.

00:04:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, they got stricter as time went on, and then it eventually folded. I do get emails with their back and I'm like, no, thank you, I have my regal pass.

00:05:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. Whenever that came out that they were returning, everybody was sending me that article. I'm like, I'm not buying.

00:05:07
Speaker 1: Wasn't restricted times, it was anything you had the app Sometimes you had to get there early to get the tickets. It's been so long ago, but I mean Alamo Draft House used it and I saw a lot of movies there.

00:05:20
Speaker 2: Now we are strictly regal and limited because.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: If we had an Alamo, I would easily convert.

00:05:26
Speaker 2: I like regal, yeah, but you can't.

00:05:28
Speaker 1: Get like full food and beverage like you can in an Alamo.

00:05:31
Speaker 2: I feel like that would only come into play when we go to a movie hungry, when we had to decide between like the dinner time and the movie time. I can always be but I kind of like having both of them separate.

00:05:39
Speaker 1: Interesting. I love an Alamo Draft House.

00:05:41
Speaker 3: Well.

00:05:41
Speaker 2: They do have great previews and trailers, and they have a lot more attention to detail when it comes to the experience, So I do like.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: That, and they have like fun events like the quote along, but for me.

00:05:50
Speaker 2: It's always the waiter waitress scurrying across to try and not get into the way.

00:05:55
Speaker 1: Sometimes I do that when you're watching TV.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: And then bringing the check for you to sign.

00:05:59
Speaker 1: But you can an order card if somebody's being disruptive.

00:06:02
Speaker 2: It's just a little distracting sometimes for me. If I'm going into a movie that I really want to pay attention to or like even like a Dune, I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch want to see that in an Alamo draft house setting.

00:06:12
Speaker 1: They are stricter about cell phones. And if I get bored in a movie, I will have myself and I'm in purse like I'm in high school again. So I guess that is drawback.

00:06:19
Speaker 2: So back, lady Ladybird.

00:06:21
Speaker 1: Sorry.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: Yes, I love Timothy shallomet sorshaonin Together. She was also in well another one of Greta Gerwig's films in Little Women, and I feel like that is one of the best coming of age movies of the twenty first century. Like that is up there.

00:06:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just was a good relationship movie like all sorts of relationships.

00:06:42
Speaker 2: And also like one that solidified A twenty four is like being the go to art house film studio, Like that is like one of their pillars of great movies, like Ladybird. That image of her and the cat in the pink cast like that is an iconic image that I feel like a twenty four needs on their mount Rushmore of movie.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: Kind of kicked him off of like past last six years of being really strong movies that maybe aren't like box office smashes. I mean, Barbie will be her big.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, Barbie is the highest grossing female directed movie of all time, which is incredible. And now that she has made that movie and been so successful at the box office, she is now in a position where she can make any movie that.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: So many of the products I feel like a're gonna come down the pipeline.

00:07:25
Speaker 2: So I can't wait to see what she does next because she's gonna have the budget. She's also going to be able to work with any actor like I was an actor, anyone. I mean, the fact that she had Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in a movie together is already just monumental. But to think now of all the other people who are going to want to work with her is why I'm so excited. But if you haven't seen Lady Bird, it's a great one to check out from an awesome director who is only going to go on to have an amazing and more amazing career.

00:07:52
Speaker 1: It's your favorite.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Mine has to be a little movie from two thousand and eight called The hurt Locker, directed by Catherine Bigelow.

00:08:00
Speaker 1: It's a stressful one.

00:08:01
Speaker 2: I love stressful movies, and I love I don't love the traditional war film. That's just here's a war going on, and here's some characters you're going to follow along with. I like the grittier, more modern day one, which is kind of sad when you think about all the awful things that happened in the two thousands, Like war during that time was awful, but as a result of it, we had some really great movies that came out of it because of those stories are so powerful even though they are depicting really awful things. And it's also different for us growing up during that time. Yeah, of like all the other war movies we would see were from wars that we were not alive during, but that was happening during that time and we were living it and it was so fresh that I feel like that's why those movies had so much more of an impact. So hurt Locker was that first movie I watched and it was just like stunned by that. Jeremy Renner, right, yeah, Jeremy Renner. And then Catherine went on to direct Zero Dark thirty, which is another amazing film with Jessica Chastaine's also hard to watch. I still love hurt Locker more, but that one is intense on another level. But it's just Catherine's distinct style of war film is what I'm really drawn to, and I feel like a lot of people emulated that, taking that same kind of style that she did with the same type of war. So that has always been one of my favorite and that also came out at a time where I was really focusing more on my love of movies and watching them kind of with more intent. When I was like seventeen years old, I'm like, oh, this is actually something that's going to be nominated for an Oscar. That's where I kind of started putting those pieces together. And that is a movie that I just will never forget the first time I watched it because of how just wild it is. And next up on my list is the Best Picture winner Coda, which came out on Apple TV Plus in twenty twenty one, and the reason you are giving me eyes right now is because I watched it without you.

00:09:45
Speaker 1: And I found out because I woke up on a Saturday morning and was doing my Instagram scroll and you posted it as your Saturday morning cinema and I marched out into the living room and I was mad that you watched it without me. And since then you have to ask if I want to watch any film that you're going to watch on the week.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I always got to clear it with you now because of this movie. But man, it's a really good story because CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults, So the kid in the movie is the only person who is not deaf, and her parents and other siblings are deaf. So not only does it focus on a community that hasn't had a whole lot of representation in film, especially on that level of going on to win an Oscar, and it just had a lot of great performances in that. I'm so glad that it won. And it's one that I regret watching without you, because I know you like movies that get you in the fields, that make you normally.

00:10:34
Speaker 1: I'm the one that has to make you watch a movie with any sort of emotion, and the fact that you watched it without me flabbergasts me.

00:10:41
Speaker 2: It was still at a time where not everything new was coming out in theaters, and I feel like I was itching to watch a new movie.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: For someone who rewatches a lot of things, you could have picked something old that weekend. So's the man who has watched every Spider.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: Man multiple times.

00:10:55
Speaker 1: In the past three years.

00:10:58
Speaker 2: Well, I will watch it you whenever you want to watch it.

00:11:01
Speaker 1: Thank you.

00:11:01
Speaker 2: Next up on my list, I want to include some animated movies, and Turning Red from Pixar was the first female directed Pixar movie ever. Surprised that it took that long for it to happen, and obviously I can't really identify with the themes of a thirteen year old going through puberty.

00:11:16
Speaker 1: It's a rough time.

00:11:18
Speaker 2: Tell us about it, thank you.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: It was a rough time. No one likes you. You get chubby some dark times.

00:11:26
Speaker 2: And it's just the talking about it with your parents' issue that is really really awkward, which is what this movie is about. I bought me a book, a book, Yeah, what was the book?

00:11:36
Speaker 1: Just a book about puberty.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: I didn't get a book from my parents. They still haven't had to talk with me. But I like movies that teach me things that my parents did it. And that is why I found this movie to be an important movie, because movies for me growing up, my parents did their best, but there were things they just didn't talk to me about. There were certain emotions that they couldn't really just like express.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: That's cultural too, though, I think.

00:11:59
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, pa a Mexican thing. So there were just things that I learned from watching movies. So if I would have been a thirteen year old girl, I would have saw this movie and thought, Ah, this is what I needed, this is the lesson I needed. I also just loved the animation in Turning Red. It kind of has like that anime style that I feel has become more popular and more accepting, especially with Pixark kind of doing the same style over and over again. This one just looks different than everything they've done in the last five years.

00:12:29
Speaker 1: I listened to an episode of Kate Kennedy's podcast and she talked about some of the criticisms that Turning Red got, and one of them was people saying that it was going to teach daughters to be disrespectful to their mothers. And I'm like, if you're telling me that as a thirteen year old. You never slammed the door in your mom's face and said leave me alone, or I hate you or something.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: You're lying but that, yeah, but that's part of the story. It's not telling kids like you should be disrespectful, but it's showing how you are at that time.

00:12:57
Speaker 1: Now, I will say I did once get banned from watching Rugrats because I apparently acted too much like Aangelica. So sometimes we do take inspiration from television and.

00:13:08
Speaker 2: Film, but there's a lesson to be learned in Turning Red. So I think director Domishi did a great job showing that. I also love the fictional boy band aspect of the movie because I always love fictional bands and movies. It was also cool that, since it came out at a time that Disney wasn't putting and picksar putting all of their releases in theaters, that they re released it earlier this year. Maybe felt a little bit cash grabby, but I feel like for the people who still want that experience, it was cool for them to put that back in theaters. So I have Turning Red on my list. Also fairly recently from twenty twenty one, I have the power of the Dog directed by Jane Campion. This was a movie I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did because it is a very very slow burn and a period piece, which are two things that are really hard for me to get into. But it's just this story of this kid and his mom. The mom is Kirsten dunt who is funny. I read an article with her recently saying that she didn't work for a while because she was only being cast as sad mom, and that is essentially what she plays in this movie, but it's a little bit more elevated.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: Because we're like, yes, women over thirty sad mom.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: Isn't that weird You get type cast in something like that in Hollywood of they just see you as one type of person.

00:14:25
Speaker 1: I would be so pissed off if I went to audition and they were just like, yep, your thirty sad mom.

00:14:31
Speaker 2: Like no, especially somebody like hers, Barbie Kirsten Dunst, who has done so many amazing movies, and then gets to a point where this is all you're getting offered showbiz. Sadly, she does play an alcoholic mom in this movie, but I feel like the level of film this is that ended up going to be nominated for an Oscar. I thought I was gonna win for Best Picture, didn't end up winning. But what I loved about the Power of the Dog, aside from the story of what her character and her son go through, they meet better at Cumberbatch, who is this jerk trying to teach her Sun the ropes but really just being awful to him the entire time. Aside from the story, what I really loved was the cinematography in this movie of showing the countryside in a way that I hadn't seen before. And you know me, I love a nice color palette in a movie, and the mountain scenes and just the open plane scenes in this movie were some of the best I'd ever seen, and for a movie I watched on Netflix, to be that captivating visually really stood out with me. And the fact that it was such a slow burn that not a whole lot happens in this movie, but what does happen is really significant that I thought I was gonna completely roast and not enjoy this movie and say, how could this be nominated for Best Picture? But it's one that I love, and as much as I love it, I still would recommend it because it is pretty slow and some would probably see it as boring, but I just think she's a great director and I want to see more from her. Next up on my list another great director who just put out another banger last year, which was Saltburn, But the one I wanted to include was Promising Young Woman from Emerald Fennel.

00:16:06
Speaker 1: So good.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: She just has like a vision, like some directors just have a unique style that I could just see a frame from her work and know that it is her.

00:16:15
Speaker 1: She's also talented in that, like she acts as well. Oh yeah, not only in her projects, but she was Camella on the Crown. Like she is phenomenal at both sides of the camera, which I feel like is a talent in and of itself to be able to see the vision of something and be behind the camera and then also to portray a character on screen.

00:16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we've also seen that with Greta Gerway, who also acted as well. Somebody else is going to be on my list. Olivia Wilde also acted as well, So I love that trend of actors turning directors because they do know both sides of the camera. They know how to talk to actors in order to get a certain performance out of them based on great directors that they have worked with that they've gotten their best performance out of them, so they can do that all the way around. But Promising Young Woman is a very provocative thriller, and I love thriller at the top of my list of genres that I love, and this is a movie that throughout the entire thing, you are so focused on it and have to watch it to the very end. I just love thrillers that take you on that journey of highs and lows and highs and lows and then just have a really gratifying way to end it, which is what Emerald Fennel does. Like she has some of the best third acts of any director.

00:17:29
Speaker 1: Carrie Mulligan's isn't that right?

00:17:30
Speaker 2: Yes?

00:17:30
Speaker 1: And who is she married to? Oh?

00:17:32
Speaker 2: Mumford and suns guy Marcus Mumford and nawit.

00:17:37
Speaker 1: Our Oscar episode?

00:17:39
Speaker 2: I always forget that.

00:17:39
Speaker 1: That's impressive. That Yeah, this time, I.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: Think I love Carrie Mulligan since she was in Drive with Ryan Gosling and ever since then, I think, aside from that movie, my favorite performance of her is in Promising Young Woman.

00:17:52
Speaker 1: She was so good.

00:17:53
Speaker 2: So that is another great one to check out. Emerald Fennel is definitely a director to add to your list. Next up on my list, I have BookSmart from Olivia Wilde.

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Love that movie so much.

00:18:05
Speaker 2: One of the in a world where we don't really have just NonStop funny movies, this is one of the best ones.

00:18:10
Speaker 1: I goggled the whole time, and she quickly became.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: A director that I thought, I'm going to watch every single one of their movies now because I feel like she really showed her voice in BookSmart and also showed that she could go on to do movies like Don't Worry Darling that are completely different from BookSmart, very different. You go from a teenage high school comedy that has all these wacky things of this big wacky adventure kind of along the same lines of super Bad, but from a female perspective. But I feel like I compared to that, but it's really, at the end of the day, a completely different movie. But to go from that to Don't Worry Darling, which is like this psychological thriller esque drama on an entirely different level with an entirely different budget. Just to be able to do those two things between your first two movies is astonished ting to me.

00:19:05
Speaker 1: That is crazy that that was her only movie so far. Right, Yeah, she hasn't put out anything.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: She is working on an un I don't even know if it's still coming out, a Marvel project that she's still attached to. Interesting, So hopefully that still happens. But I feel like in those first two movies, like to come out with two bangers pretty much strong. Also on my list, I have Wonder Woman from Patty Jenkins, which at the time was the first superhero movie directed by a woman to come out as in twenty seventeen.

00:19:36
Speaker 1: That's crazy that it took that long and.

00:19:39
Speaker 2: It went on to be the highest grossing movie at the box office about any female director until Barbie last year.

00:19:45
Speaker 1: Did she also do Wonder Woman too? Yes, okay, we won't talk about that one.

00:19:49
Speaker 2: You didn't I like that one. We watched that one together.

00:19:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, we watched it home. It came out Christmas that year.

00:19:55
Speaker 2: I think it was because it came out in twenty twenty. During that year, shifted to putting out in theater movies straight onto the streaming service that I was just itching for a superhero movie, which I think from March to when that came out in December, there wasn't anything. So I feel like I had maybe rose colored glasses when I watched that movie, because I had that in theater experience at home for the first time in a long time.

00:20:21
Speaker 1: We also printed Yeah, we made a whole night of it.

00:20:24
Speaker 2: We printed tickets because we wanted that experience again and we had missed that so much that I found myself really enjoying that movie because it gave me that feeling again. Arguably one of the most hated superhero movies of the last five years, I still have a special place in my heart. Is it great on paper? Maybe not. If I went back and rewatched it, i'd probably feel differently, But I haven't since, and I'm not going to let that ruin my image I have of that movie in my head.

00:20:51
Speaker 1: And I also don't want that to seem like I'm saying that Patty Jenkins is not a good director. I'm just comparing the fact that the first one was so good and then the second one. But I also I think maybe the screenplay wasn't the best. It's not always when a movie flops, it's not the director.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: Usually, I would argue it's not on Patty Jenkins. I feel like she had a vision for Wonder Woman that works so well in the first one. I think it's more so on the direction of DC. DC is just a flop. It was in that year moving into twenty one and twenty twenty two where they started to decline in quality. So I don't really hold that on her. I hold that of that movie was supposed to kind of save all the Justice League movies at that time and save that entire cast.

00:21:35
Speaker 1: There was no saving that franchise, but there really wasn't.

00:21:37
Speaker 2: I still think at the end of the day, it is a good, decent movie nineteen eighty four anyway, but it doesn't really come onto the same level as the original one because it was so groundbreaking, I would agree. Also on my list, I have Cocaine Bear from director Elizabeth Banks, who has also done a lot of good movies, but you rarely see female directors doing horror movies. It is mainly a dude dominated genre, and I feel like for a movie like that to be so ridiculous and over the top and come from Elizabeth Banks, I think that's also what made me like that movie more. But it's just a fun movie. There are some movies I just go into not wanting to think a whole lot, And a movie titled Cocaine Bear that is about exactly what the title says, a bear that does cocaine. You don't really need to think much about that movie. And I like movies where you can just go into it knowing that it's just made for the sake of having fun, because I approach those movies differently than say, like an Argyle, which people say, Oh, it's just a fun time. That wasn't set up as a fun time.

00:22:41
Speaker 1: What was fun about that?

00:22:43
Speaker 2: Nothing leaving was fun about that. But a movie like Cocaine Bear, You're going into it to see people being eaten by a bear, and you know it's gonna be dumb and ridiculous and over the top. It has that campy horror style that I feel like Elizabeth Banks really captured Will in that movie. And I can't wait to see in either Cocaine Bear too, or other animals on cocaine, like cocaine orca That would be my dream movie.

00:23:06
Speaker 1: What if the bear moves away from cocaine.

00:23:08
Speaker 2: Oh he tries different drugs. Heroin Bear, Oh gosh.

00:23:13
Speaker 1: Heroin Bear could be a play on words because the bear could be the heroine of the story.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: Oh, I should write that one. That should be the straight to DVD version heroin Bear. That would be be different spellings. But yeah, you get what I'm saying. Either different animals or different drugs. Let's see what happens. And next on my list, I Have No man Land directed by Chloe Chow, who I hate The lumber Ins at the same category of Patty Jenkins. She also did a superhero movie, she did The Eternals, and I think the reason they got her to direct The Eternals is because of her success in dramas, and I feel like Marvel during that time was trying to find directors who had a really great vision and had done movies that were a little bit more are critically acclaimed, and they were trying something different. But I feel like what ended up happening with The Eternals is there was this really big overarching story and you couldn't really have character development with that many amount of characters. There's a lot of characters in that movie that I couldn't really distinguish one from the other, and they were supposed to be like this big superhero team at the time when the movie was first pitched, they were essentially setting that one up as to be like the next Avengers. Never really got there, to the point now that I still don't really know what the eternals are.

00:24:37
Speaker 1: I didn't watch it.

00:24:38
Speaker 2: It was so confusing. It was very long, and for a movie with that big of a budget, really didn't have that much action, and it was also like oddly emotional when times that didn't make sense. So I don't so much blame that on Chloe Chow of not doing a good job inside the Marvel universe. I just think they didn't hire the right direct there.

00:25:00
Speaker 1: I hope she got that Marvel paycheck.

00:25:02
Speaker 2: Though, but that is also what directors do a director like her. There's been some other cases since of I go do a superhero movie and if I'm successful, I can start to negotiate to be able to make any movie I want, which I feel like that is an issue that Marvel has right now, is they're kind of seen as a big cash opportunity for directors and four actors, even like Dakota Johnson. She probably did that movie because she had heard from her other actor friends or just seeing other people's careers of once you do a superhero movie, you can make a lot of money, and you can continue to do them on a big level.

00:25:39
Speaker 1: Also, who's to say she didn't think it was in the Marvel universe when she did Madam Web.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: I don't think. Yeah. I think she thought she was entering the MCU and she ended up entering the Sony Spider Verse, which is not the same thing. To some actors, Marvel movies are just Marvel movies, And I feel like for her, she was like, I don't get these because I'm not a fan of them, but I'll do it because other people have done it and become successful and become worldwide.

00:26:02
Speaker 1: Stars, and now it's a laughing stock exactly.

00:26:05
Speaker 2: So I think that same kind of issue happened with directors taking on Marvel projects as the sake of like, I'm going to do this even though I don't fully love it. I'm not fully invested in the superhero world. But if I am able to do this, I can go and make more movies like Nomadland, which I greatly appreciate. Like I can see that, Like working in the arts is so hard, so not only to get that opportunity to direct such a big movie, like the Eternals, but you obviously want to go and make the movies you're the most passionate about that are more close and dear to your heart and tell the stories that you want to tell. But in this world, you gotta have money to do that, and having that security from getting such a big paycheck from Marvel is the means of that. So I don't hate on her for that. I love Nomadland. I think it deserved to invest picture.

00:26:57
Speaker 1: No. Madland was amazing, and I feel.

00:26:59
Speaker 2: Like anytime Rantis McDorman is in a movie, it's just gonna be nominated for Oscars. So them two together perfect And Kelsey calls us out.

00:27:06
Speaker 1: Women talking by Sarah Paully.

00:27:08
Speaker 2: What's that movie about again?

00:27:10
Speaker 1: It is about women that are in like a religious group and they live out in the middle of nowhere, live very I don't want to say primitively, but like everything is of the land. There's no technology. I would say, similar to how the Amish live. Yeah, And it is about like some abuse and some things that occur within the group, and the women are trying to get the courage to leave, and it's about really trying to convince all of them to leave and share in their stories with each other. It's very powerful.

00:27:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, just the dialogue in that movie is one that's gonna make you mad and gonna make you hate being a dude for me, because all the dudes are awful in that movie.

00:27:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, the dude suck in that.

00:27:47
Speaker 2: One other thing I learn about that movie. I like movies that take place in one day, and the entire thing was in a twenty four hour period, and the fact that it's set in a setting that looks like it's way back in the day, but it happened in twenty ten.

00:28:01
Speaker 1: No, it's like very current. They just like don't have technology, and then they leave town and are like getting access to things towards the end of the film. It's very it's a little bit of like a mind warp. You're like, whoa, this wasn't like the seventeen hundreds. Very powerful film.

00:28:15
Speaker 2: I agree, And that is our list, and it's our list.

00:28:19
Speaker 1: And you did promise that I would get thirty seconds to talk about Taylor Swift's short film. Oh yes, good version, great short film, great song. I do regret to say that I did have to go pee during that song during the concert, all two l ten minute version.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: But now when people would go pee because it was so loose.

00:28:37
Speaker 1: People love that song. There really is no good time during the concert. But I went and I came back and she was still singing the song, so I felt like it was a good time. But short film is so good. She filmed it at like Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's house, which is cool, like just casual to be best friends with them, be like, hey, can I bar your house for this music video? And it was great. And she's directed a lot of her music video I think almost all of them, or Blake Lively is done. And I just, you know, had to plug Taylor Swift because she doesn't Without me plugging her, no one would know who she is.

00:29:10
Speaker 2: Don't crucify me for this, but I feel like Taylor Swift hasn't had that much success as an actor. She's been into movies.

00:29:19
Speaker 1: No she I feel like she's at the point that where she just picks projects that are fun for her, like she loves cats, wants to do cats Amsterdam Ensemble.

00:29:27
Speaker 2: I feel though that she would be better as a director. I've seen her in the behind the scenes of the making of the Me video and how much that just excites her. I feel like she would be a great director.

00:29:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's kind of like what she wants to do. I feel like she just took those projects like Valentine's Day back in the day for fun. There's a great clip of her, I think it's the Graham Norton Show in the UK where she and Eddie Redmain are talking about how she auditioned for Limiz and she was like, they asked me to come to London for like a test treat with Eddie Redmain, and she was like, it was very clear that I was there for a short time or a good time, and not a long time. So I feel like she just kind of did projects for fun. I mean, Katz was a flop, but you know she is a cat lady.

00:30:15
Speaker 2: And then her gripping performance in Amsterdam.

00:30:18
Speaker 1: Which she gets pushed in front of a car.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: I just feel I mean, movies really aren't that great of an investment, but she does have a lot of money. Obviously she's more based in music, but if she ever had the inkling to dabble into film, I feel like her starting like a production company and then directing some movies. I mean, look how much money she made putting that movie in theaters that put the.

00:30:36
Speaker 1: Interspects in the coming because on her website she has a tap called like self directed Projects.

00:30:42
Speaker 2: There you go.

00:30:42
Speaker 1: I'm pritting of her music videos and.

00:30:44
Speaker 2: I'm predicting it now in the next decade she will direct a.

00:30:48
Speaker 1: Movie and she just gets all of her like famous friends to be in it.

00:30:51
Speaker 2: I mean easily she could direct it and produce it because she has all these connections of like, Hey, Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Hugh Jackman, you guys Starr in this movie, the Cooper, just the mad.

00:31:00
Speaker 1: In the movie, a cameo by Paul McCartney.

00:31:02
Speaker 2: Everybody would want to be in it. Travis Kelcey, they still together by the time that happens. S Okay, all right, we'll come back and do our movie review and trailer parks. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free review of Imaginary. It's the new horror movie in theaters from Blumhouse, who has done a lot of good horror movies. I would like to say, more good than bad. And they are a very tactical movie studio because they see these movies more as investments than making art, which is fine. A movie has to make money. That is the goal, as much as I want to go see something that people have thought a lot about the creative process and made something that is truly going to be scary to people, especially somebody like me who I've been watching horror movies since I was a kid. It is really hard to scare me now. And I don't say that as I'm so tough. Nothing scares me. It just takes a lot of imagination and a lot of creating tension now for me to really be in a movie. And I'm a little bit tired of the same formula when it comes to horror movies, a genre that I just love. My favorite thing to do is to go watch a horror movie alone because Kelsey won't do them whatsoever. She gets freaked out, and I'm okay with that. We don't have to like every genre of movie together. So it's the one thing that I go see in theaters that I just enjoy the process of going by myself. Sometimes I'll take a can of coffee with me into the theater and just sit there, crack it and enjoy the movie. Maybe I'm writing off of that anxiety two of the coffee that kind of spikes my nervous system and makes me anxious for what's going to happen, and I love that process going to see a horror movie in theaters. A lot of what I feed off of is the audience. That is a great thing about seeing comedies and horror movies in theaters because it could be a C minus movie, but if it creates that fun environment, it could take it up to a BEE, maybe even a B plus, because I think these movies are best experienced in theaters with other people making the commentary, saying the curse words, jumping out of their seat, getting freaked out, saying don't go down there. That is part of the horror movie experience that I enjoy. But Imaginary robbed me of that experience because it was so dull and lacks so much imagination. So what this movie is about. You have this woman who you get her story at the beginning of the film through flashback, which I hate. Just get right into the action. Whenever you start off so weak, I just feel like I'm not going to be in for a good time. And that is what this movie did. It's try to kick it off with a big I won't even say action sequence, but just that big, dominating opening that a good horror movie should have. It failed completely. Honestly, I knew within those first few minutes that this was not going to be an enjoyable time for me. And then we go to her life. Now she has met someone new in her life. She has two step daughters, and they go back to live in her childhood home where some questionable things may or may not have happened. And then you're kind of learning a little bit about her story. But what it centers around is the youngest stepdaughter starts having this imaginary friend in the form of a teddy bear, and things start getting weird. You see the teddy bear move, she's talking to it, and everybody's just kind of happy because she has an imaginary friend. Her daughter has gone through some traumatic things. There is nothing more generic you can do in a horror movie. Then somebody moving back into a creepy home. I couldn't believe that what they decided to do was something we've seen one hundred times, somebody moving back into their childhood home and then weird things start happening. Who would have guessed that? And I am somebody that anytime it's a story involving a kid talking to a dead person or something that other people can't see. Just that creepy kid factor is enough for me to enjoy it, and that's really what was showcased in the trailer. I thought it was going to be a little bit more paranormal. Maybe is why it didn't meet up to my expectations, therefore having a lot of jump scares, which can feel a little bit cheap at times, but at least I would have felt something in this story. It lacked any kind of emotion, but everything felt so forced. And this was the only movie I've seen in theaters where I could literally feel the production. I could in my head see these people on set and it was so apparent to me that they were acting, and every character was just riddled with cliches. You had the classic creepy old neighbor who is looming over the family, and they have the most generic interactions that you could have in a horror movie. It would mean more to me if all of the horror elements and the monster had a little bit more appeal, but even the monster wasn't monstering in imaginary. One of my favorite things that a director can do is build the tension by not showing you the monster, which is almost more creepy because the whole time you're wondering, what is this character gonna look like? When is it going to fully reveal itself? And you could argue that this movie did do that. It didn't show the monster primarily throughout the film. The key difference here is at some point you have to show the monster in its full glory, and the moments that this film did show the monster, it was dark and he couldn't really make out what it exactly looked like. So maybe that was supposed to be scarier in itself, but to me, it just felt like they were cutting corners on production, which leads me to the Blumhouse approach. And I've heard Jason Blum talk about in interviews where he really sees these movies as investments. That's why he got into the horror business because you can make a movie for a really low budget. This movie only costs ten to twelve million dollars to make, and all the movie has to do is make back twice its production costs to be profitable. Right now, this movie is sitting at about a fifteen to sixteen million dollars at the time of recording this, so given its theatrical run, it's going to make back its money therefore be a solid investment for Blumhouse. I think they put out these type of movies just to make that little amount of change, So that is their model. They put out a ten million dollar movie hoping to make twenty million dollars. But also you could really catch on and have a movie that just crushes at the box office and makes even more than that. What they did last year was Megan, which had roughly the same budget as Imaginary with ten to twelve million dollars, and that movie went on to make one hundred and eighty million dollars worldwide, crushing, and that is like winning the lottery for Blumhouse. So to me, it's almost like they are fishing with these type of movies. Let's throw out a ten million dollar budget and see what we can do. Worst case scenario, we lose a little bit of money. It's the low risk, high reward. Who wouldn't do this and make movies like this that feel like they were just made in a big warehouse with no life whatsoever. That you could slap a lifetime label at the bottom of this and throw it on TV. That is what this movie felt like to me. I feel like it was a little bit of a slap in the face to people who are a fan of horror movies, especially those that come from Bumbhouse, who has the tendency to make movies that audiences love, creating that fun, inviting, warm feeling. This movie felt like it was just more movie business and less for the fans. And what really kind of makes me mad is the fact that this movie had so much wasted potential. It taps into the world of imaginary friends and somebody using their creativity to overcome something in their life that could have been so much more fun on the screen. You think all the fun visuals that they could have done. But again, going back to that ten to twelve million dollar budget, there really wasn't room for it. In these movies, you have actors that you're usually pretty unfamiliar with, which I think is fine because it puts the emphasis or should put the emphasis on the story instead of who is playing it. They're not selling it with the names attached to it. It is just being sold by the scary nature of the film. And this was a movie that the trailer hooked me in. So if you ever think that the trailer is just a waste of time, that studio should stop focusing so much on this, use this as an example, because in no way would this movie have made any money if it wasn't for that trailer being shown that hooked me in, probably hooked a lot of other people in. Had a pretty decent poster as far as creating the creepy image of the Teddy Bear, but outside of that, there was no fun to be had in imaginary and lack of imagination. I give it one point five out of five Teddy Bears.

00:39:40
Speaker 3: It's time to head down to movie Mike Trailer Paul.

00:39:44
Speaker 2: I love animated movies that set out to make a statement. In the past couple years, we've had some big ones that I've really loved that have pushed the limits on what animated movies can be. Oftentimes, when you say an animated movie, that means it's a movie for kids. I don't think that is always the case. The past couple years, movies like Across the Spider Verse have really pushed the boundaries of what animation can be. A giant team of people work on that movie to create all these different animation styles in one movie, in one specific character, you could have multiple types of animation. I think that is amazing. That is where animation needs to go. Also, based off of inspiration from that series was the latest teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that looked like a kid's book or a watercolor painting come to life. So those movies are gonna be the ones that really push animation. Those are the movies that make me excited about where animation is going. And last week we went to go watch the new Kung Fu banda movie, Kung Fu band of Four, and before the movie started, I saw the trailer for The Wild Robot. I hadn't heard anything about this movie, but all it took me was about fifteen seconds to no, I am all in. I'm're going to see this movie from DreamWorks, from the same people who brought you How to Train Your Dragon. And even before I knew who was behind this movie, honestly, I got Leelo and Stitch Vibes, which is my favorite Disney movie of all time, because in the trailer you see this big robot crash land into another planet and he is surrounded by all of these forest animals. So I saw the Disney inspiration there. I also of course highly got Wally Vibes from Pixar, a little dash of Big Hero Six, also from Disney. Also going back to one of the classic animated movies, The Iron Giant from Warner Brothers. It's almost like all those movies put into one. And then I realized that this movie is from director Chris Sanders, who is the creator and voice and director of Leelo and Stitch. Chris Sanders, who I have had on this podcast, is one of my favorite people that I've ever talked to, and once I realized it was a Chris Sanders movie, everything made sense because that is exactly his style, creating powerful stories about self discovery, really focusing on creating thrilling animation and also bridging that gap between technology and nature, which is what we had in Leelo and Stitch. You have this alien creature crash landing in Hawaii, so he brings all of this alien technology, but then he is forced to live a more laid back life in Hawaii and become more normal and more human. So I think that is what we are going to get here, this robot learning to live like all of these animals and almost feels like a Tarzan type situation, except he is a robot and living among forest animals instead of out in the jungle. But the movie is based on the book by Peter Brown, which came out in twenty sixteen. It was a number one New York Times bestseller and is also actually now a trilogy that includes The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects. So this one's successful, we probably have a couple more movies in line with this close up the trilogy. So before I get into more about why I'm excited about this movie, here's just a little bit of the trailer, which there is only one line spoken in all two minutes and thirty seconds. I think that's also a really big statement that they're not trying to focus on the dialogue or the actors voicing these characters. They really wanted to showcase this animation, and just this one line alone has a lot of power. So here's just a little bit of the trailer. Sometimes to survive, they must become more than we were programmed to be. That is like the tagline of the entire movie. I want to survive, we have to do more than we were programmed to Like, that is what the inspiration I would want as a kid. So this trailer really spoke to me. Visually. It looks like a kid's book come to life, And I think why it's so appealing to me is it reminds me of the animation I grew up with two D animation, which a lot of it was all hand drawn frame for frame, so artists would have to sit there and draw every single movement for every character. They'd have the backgrounds created, but it was so much more work to do that. And then of course computers come along and you can do it quicker and cheaper and make it look slicker. But for me, who is a fan of hand drawn things practical effects, I just feel like those movies have a certain level of warmth to them. And going back to Leelan and Stitch, that was one of the last full feature two D animated Disney movies that they put out. They put out probably a couple more since then, but primarily everything Disney and Pixar has moved to straight three D animation, which is great. That's the way you have to go. There has to be a variety in animation, and I think if kids today saw just a two D animated movie, they'd probably get bored and feel like they're getting ripped off, so obviously you have to advance. But what I loved about the Wild Robot is it still has that same two D vibe. It almost looks like each cell was hand painted, but it combines that with the computer animation, primarily with the robot character, so it really has the best of both worlds. It almost looks like this was just a short film to begin with, so I love that they committed to showcasing the visual aspect. The only other thing you hear is a robotic version of a Wonderful World, which, Man, anytime you slow down a popular song and throw it in a trailer with some other sound design, I know that that's a little bit overused to take some song and make it sound slow down and more sad and cinematic, but man, it works. And if I know Chris Sanders, I think the reason he probably chose to take on this project of adapting a kid's book into a film that feels and looks like this is because it's going to be a story about an outcast yearning to fit in, which is what you see in this trailer. The robot here is wanting to adapt to all of the animals to learn how to run, fly, swim. The story follows the adventure of this robot named rozam Unit seven to one, three four. I mean that even reminds me of Stitch, who has Experiment six to six. They call the robot Roz for short. Roz gets shipwrecked on this island and has to learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings. Starts building relationships with all the animals on the island, and then becomes an adoptive parent for one of the orphaned goslings. Roz is voiced by Lupita and Niago, who you would know from US and the Black Panther franchise. You also have Pedro Pascal from the Last of Us The Mandalorian He's gonna be Mister Fantastic in The Fantastic Four he plays Fox Fink. And you also have Catherine O'Hara from s Creek Besten Show, who I believe was the voice in this trailer, who plays a possum named pink Tail. Also in the cast you have Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker and Matt Berry from What We Do in the Shadows and one of my favorite British shows snuff Box. The Wild Robot is coming out in theaters on September twentieth, and if I'm not mistaken, I still have Chris Sanders his phone number and email, so I'm definitely gonna hit him up about this because last time we talked he said, hey, we should do a follow up interview. And not only do we have this movie coming out, but they have also started filming the live action Li Low and Stitch, so that'll be a perfect time to get Chris Anders, the voice of Stitch, back on the podcast.

00:47:19
Speaker 3: Head that was this week's edition of Movie by Tramer.

00:47:23
Speaker 2: Par 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 this week. It is Jen, who is at AZTV Chick on X and tweeted Never Doubt movie Mike Cadistro pay up producer Eddie and had a gift from the Porter that says, now it's time to pay up. Thank you for everybody who congratulated me on getting my Oscar parlay right last week. So Jen, specifically, you're this week's listener shout out, and if you missed it, I know it's been a week since the Oscars now, but Kelsey and I did a full recap as a bonus episode last month, so there was a brand new episode and also a bonus episode that was posted later on the Feed, So if you missed either of those, just go back one and two episodes on the feed and check those out as well. Thank you, hope you have a great rest of your week, and until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.