Blue Beetle Director Angel Manuel Soto on Honoring Comic Book and  Latino Culture in Film + Movie Review: Killers of the Flower Moon + Trailer Park:  Anyone But You

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am your host Movie Mike, and I am fired up about this week's episode because I am talking to director on hell Manuel Soto about Blue Beetle. What went into directing this movie, one of my favorite movies of the summer and one of my favorite DC movies.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: In a long time.

00:00:17
Speaker 1: In the movie review, we'll be talking about the three and a half hour long Killers of the Flower Moon. Kelsey will hop in and review that with me so she can give her perspective after reading the book and watching the movie. And in the trailer park we have the first look at a spicy R rated rom com Anyone but You, coming out in December. Thank you for being here, Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies.

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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.

00:00:51
Speaker 2: A man with so much movie knowledge.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: He's basically like a walking IMTV with glasses.

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Speaker 2: From the Nashville Podcast Network.

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Speaker 4: This is Movie Mike's Movie Podcast.

00:01:03
Speaker 1: I got to get into my conversation with anhell Manuel Soto, who is the director of Blue Beetle, a movie that, if you listen to this podcast that heard my review, was one that really resonated with me this summer because it was a reflection of my culture and being in my thirties. Now it's the first time I've ever seen a superhero that looks like me. I didn't realize until later in life how much representation was important in film, because just growing up, I wasn't used to seeing anybody on screen that reflected where I came from, my parents, the way we spoke that I didn't even realize it could be a thing. So I'm really excited to talk to him because I want to know what went into making these decisions when it comes to how Mexican do you want to make this movie? And if you haven't seen Blue Beetle at this point, I don't know what you're waiting for. It's available now on digital and it's coming out on four k UltraHD on October thirty first, So you got to check out this movie, but you don't need to have seen it to enjoy this interview. We won't spoil anything for you, but let's get into it now. My interview with the director.

00:02:02
Speaker 2: Of blue beetles.

00:02:04
Speaker 5: Hey.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: Something they mentioned.

00:02:05
Speaker 1: Before we got on this interview was the pronunciation of your name, and they got me to thinking, did you draw a personal experience in the movie when they keep calling him alone, they keep calling them Jamie, and they're.

00:02:14
Speaker 4: Like, we we had to like that. That's something that's way to common, I guess to avoid and the fact that you know it is hi Met but people call him Jamie And it happened during production. It happen all the time. They happen some interviews and I'm like, see it happens, you know, and it happened to me, Like, uh, my wife always makes fun of me because at first I used to lose patience, but then I'm like, you know, it's what it is because it's Anghil, And they'll be like, can you say that again? Anghil and Ahil? How do you spell it? Like angel? Oh? Angel? Like it doesn't work. Repeating funatics doesn't work for everybody. So I'm like, you know, just tell me whatever you want as long as you're being respectful.

00:03:06
Speaker 1: I feel on a personal level because my real name is Mika Longhill, my dad is Uhill, And there were a lot of moments of this movie where I felt like just speaking to me and that was one in particular, and even with them, you know, thinking that he is supposed to be at a different location, like, hey, you're not supposed to hear you're supposed to be helping in the back.

00:03:22
Speaker 4: Oh man, that's uh, that happened to me. I'm the writer.

00:03:26
Speaker 1: Much like the scare of chose Himen in this movie to become the Blue Beatle.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: You chose to be the Blue Beetle.

00:03:33
Speaker 1: What is that feeling like to let an actor know you have the part, like you're the one gonna be the blue Beetle.

00:03:39
Speaker 4: I think Walt Hamada was the one that told me that, you know, you're about to change a kid's life forever with this. You know, it's not just a movie. It's like, it's what thisc means to a lot of people. It's what this he means to a culture in commercial cinema in Hollywood. You know, being a leading man and being an action hero superhero stars, it's a level. And you know he coming from TV and doing a job because he hasn't done cinema, He hasn't done theatrical besides Cobra Kai. So that jump is massive, But I knew that he could handle that type of jump and that type of exposure because I met him way before we both knew Bluebtle was in the picture we met, I think it was twenty nineteen or something. He had not done. I think Cobra Kai hadn't even come out yet. He only shot the first season. But what I met was a kid that was grounded, that was vulderable, that was very close to his family and was very true to his values. And so when the opportunity came for me, it was a no brainer to recommend Show to be the lead. He was already known for Cobra Kai uh, and he's also a copy paste from him Maria's in the comic, and he happens to have martial arts background, but his heart, he help ground that he is, and how close his family is to him consistently just made it clear for me that you know, Hi, metrios Iss.

00:05:31
Speaker 1: You reference the comic there, which because of the movie now I am so into learning everything about Blue Beetle. I'm reading the current run of the comic with their base. Yeah, it's an excellent comic, but with there being so much history in the character and so much source material, how do you sit down and think, like, Okay, how can I honor all of this but also create my own vision and make the movie I want to make.

00:05:52
Speaker 4: Man that I have to give credit? What credits to do? And that's one of the amazing words that come from one of Blue Beetles Biggas fan, and that's our writer, Guarded Tone Arcossene. We knew we had to choose the greatest hits of all the different iterations that we have seen from Heimagius, not just in the comic, but also into Titans, Young Justice and even in the Injustice two games. Like, how can we take the things that we like the most out of it embody them into our own version of the inter cinematic universe, which can doesn't have to like be verbat on one version or the other. We can actually do an amalgamation of all the different things that we love about Hymn and bring them together. And at the same time, how can we honor all the different things. You know, car practice part of it, but also tep cord is part of it, but also the richest part of it. So how can we keep this essence into it? And I think is by showing love and respect to the source material. We really wanted to how can we protect the things that work already from the comic and we can get into the cinematic universe and create our own lane with the information that we have, because that's the beauty for us. That was a beautiful part of it is being able to pick and choose what resonated the most with us while also living space for future films or sequels or whatever they want to do that we can also take from it, which I think that's one of the cool things that Graduation Day has done. But Meta City was already in place, so we kind of like incorporated Palmela City, who is then Graduation Day. We have Victoria Cord who is also in Graduation Day, and in our title sequence we have like all the different scrubs, and then in Graduation that you see all the other new scarts that are coming in. So you know, it's it's an open canvas that I think is really fun to to just think of the possibilities.

00:08:02
Speaker 1: This is the only movie that I've seen twice in theaters this year. I went to go see it the first time in the summer, and I loved it so much that I wanted to take my mom to go see it.

00:08:10
Speaker 4: My mom, oh nice.

00:08:11
Speaker 2: She does not like superhero movies whatsoever. She grew up in.

00:08:14
Speaker 1: Mexico, came here as a teenager, but she loved the movie. And one of the things that I found her grass beyond to was the fact that you committed to using Spanish throughout the entire movie.

00:08:25
Speaker 2: Did that feel like a bit of a risk.

00:08:26
Speaker 4: To you, nocause that's my life, that's our life. I don't. I don't see it as a risk. I don't know if the studios is that as a risk. But when we were doing it, we had the blessing. I wanted to have more Spanish because the truth is, all those actors, especially like Alberto reg and a Barrasa, their main language is Spanish, and when you speak from their heart, it doesn't matter where you are, You're going to speak from the language that you can better communicates to me a lot, like for me, I'm here struggling as I translate in real time, like if it was from me, I will do this in Spanish, basically, but our Spanish is already part of the dynamic. And because we have three generations of family in the film, it felt very authentic. This is how we talk. There's the old lady that only speaks Spanish but understands English because she's been here for a long time, but she refuses to speak English. There's the parents that they have to live in both worlds. And there's the kids that are already born there as for generation, but English is their first language, but they understand and they can speak Spanish. So having that work organically, we just went for the organic. We didn't want to force anything. We didn't want to force their wrong English because it felt like that doesn't come from the heart. It would be better in Spanish. We didn't do the whole the way Hollywood used to do it, which is like I say something in Spanish and then I right off the bad translated in English. For you know, the person that refuses to read subtitles. You know there's no need for that. So yes, let's swing it because this is how we talk. And you who hired us for our authenticity, so let us be authentic, and they did.

00:10:11
Speaker 2: I loved it.

00:10:11
Speaker 1: I just wanted to thank you for creating a story and creating characters that listen to the music. We listen to talk the way we talk. Drive the cars that we drive, and the fact that you put those to kandess the Tijuana in a major motion picture was like I was like, that's it for me, Like this is going to be my favorite movie.

00:10:29
Speaker 4: Well again, like you know, the same way that we consume Cypress Hill, we also consume the stuff that we grew up in. Like how how untrue would it be to only play United States Top forty in all Latino? It doesn't make sense to me. We listen to it, But you know what, there's other music too, man, You know, like there's more stuff out in the world that's fun that creates a similar emotion. You know, you can have eighties music in John Hilles and we have sorta stereo, so not use it like it's right there for us. So for me, it was about let us show the world who how we can be, or a portion of everything that we can be, and maybe if we don't conform to the expectations of society, maybe we can bring something fresh.

00:11:18
Speaker 2: I don't know, really appreciate it. Love the movie. Great to get to talk to you.

00:11:22
Speaker 4: Oh Man, thank you so much. That was a great talk.

00:11:24
Speaker 2: I have a good one you too, But.

00:11:26
Speaker 1: I was great getting to talk to Onnhill, and there was so much I wanted to talk to him about, but I only had a lot of the amount of time.

00:11:32
Speaker 2: But man, I could have done an hour with that guy.

00:11:35
Speaker 1: One thing that I wish we could have got into and would have had time for was talking about the emotional level that Blue Beetle unexpectedly hit me on. And I think I'm somebody who has trouble talking about their emotions, but when it comes to the way a movie makes me feel, I have no issue whatsoever. And I think I even showed that in my movie reviews, which a lot of people think, oh, it's the podcast where he talks about movies. But I always try to share a piece of myself with you in my reviews, let you know how the movie makes me feel. Because I can't really talk about all the spoiler stuff, But as long as I talk about how a movie makes me feel, that's all fair games. So I think I do that a lot, to the point now that I just share my emotions more on this podcast and sometimes I do in real life, so I feel like you're getting the most authentic version of myself. Because of that, it's so much easier for me to talk about films than it is to talk about real life things. So I wish I could have talked to on how more about all the things that this movie made me feel. And just coincidentally, this week, I saw this article and studyfindes dot org talking about film therapy and how movies can improve mental health and boost empathy. And after reading this article, I thought to myself, if I didn't have films, one I'm not sure I would be here, and two, I feel like I would have even more of things like stuffed up and like pent up in my body that I could not get out because I wouldn't be able to express them. And I realize now when I see a character go through something that I have been through, I am so able to identify it and pick apart every single aspect of their mental state, the reason they made the decisions. And I try to see a little bit of myself in characters. And I think the movies that really resonate with me are ones that I'm like. Take Blue Beetle, for example, a lot of Heimen's life is parallel to my life, having you know, Hispanic parents, grandparents, but being the first one in his family to go to college. There were so much of myself that I saw in his character that the movie hit me on an emotional level, really with the relationship with his father. So I feel like me talking about this movie and what his character goes through in that. The reason this is the first movie to make me cry in probably five six, seven years is because of that reason. And I have no problem wanting to cry. I've been looking for a movie for years to make me cry. I did not think it was gonna be DC's Blue Beetle, a superhero movie that would finally get it out of me. And the more I read about this article and it talks about how a movie can really engage with you emotionally to the point that it feels very therapeutic, and crying while watching this movie felt so therapeutic to me, and I felt so good afterwards. And that was just after the first time I watched the movie. After the second time, when I went back with my mom and I knew what was coming in the movie, I thought to myself, there's no way this movie's gonna make me cry again. And it did, and I realized it is because I've been going through a lot as I'm getting older, and I see the people around me getting older, and up to this point, I really haven't. I had to deal with a whole lot of grief in my life, and I think it was watching this film and getting to feel what they feel in this movie that it just kind of was introspective to me of like I'm gonna have to deal with things like this someday, and maybe I wasn't completely ready for it, but man, afterwards, even though the movie made me sad, it did make me feel good. Which there have been a lot of other films that have done this too, and I'll get to more of those here in a bit, But I do want to share more of this study because the more I read into it, I thought they had me down to a science. But the article went on to say that talking about movie characters can feel more comfortable than discussing issues directly, as it gives the person some emotional distance from what they're going through. Oh my gosh, you guys, that is me to a t. I come on here and talk about a review and talk about a character and all of the things that they felt and wanted.

00:15:55
Speaker 4: That is me.

00:15:56
Speaker 1: That line is exactly me. It also says that films can also help people learn life skills from how movie characters deal with their challenges, And I think this relates to me a lot because growing up, I love my parents, but they didn't really teach me everything I needed to know in life. And I'm talking very basic things, like my parents never had the talk with me.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: The talk.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: To this day, thirty two years old, I still don't know what happens with that stuff, with the talk stuff, because they didn't really know how to speak to me because they didn't have parents who spoke to them about those types of things. And a lot of that stuff, good or bad, I ended up learning from movies. So whether it be the talk, or whether it just be to how to deal with bullies in school, or how to deal with American problems, which my parents were both from Mexico, so they didn't make it past third or fourth grade, let alone deal with any kind of education system in America aside from when they got their citizenship. That was their school. But they didn't know how to help me with my homework. They didn't know how to help me with issues with other students or teachers or anything like that. Growing up, I learned so much of that from movies, So I feel like seeing characters go through challenges that I went through as a kid was so important to me. And I think a lot of that was Disney movies, because a lot of Disney movies deal with coincidentally a lot of tragic things that from childhood. I just grasped onto these stories and grasped onto watching all these movies because they were my therapist, they were my teacher and in some cases they were parental figures to me because there were no rules when it came to what a movie could teach you. So a lot of that I just learned from watching movies and watching characters go through these things. And I think now that is why I feel that kids movies need to have another level to them always. There always needs to be that moral lesson that you learn after watching a movie. And I think Pixar does the best job at that of teaching kids things that are very valuable. And there are a lot of Pixar movies that almost feel like therapy sessions if you look at Inside Out. That movie has to do with helping people understand the underlying causes of depression and feeling sadness and realizing that it is okay to feel those sad things because in that movie they want Riley to have a perfect life and not feel this sadness. But you realize after watching that movie that if you're going to be a human in the real world, you're gonna feel sadness. That was a great lesson to learn in a movie, and I hope that kids who watch that now and go back and watch it on Disney Plus they get that lesson and they are able to understand that it's okay to feel sad and even depress sometimes. I'm somebody who deals with anxiety and depression, and that really wasn't in a whole lot of kids movies until Inside Out and I was already an adult. Also, movies that deal with grief, going back to Disney and Pixar, Frozen two deals with grief. Up had everybody sobbing within that first opening scene because it talks about grief, or even movies like Finding Nemo that talk about trauma and anxiety and how that impacts your life, or movies like Coco that you deal with having a family member who has dementia. So not only do movies make you feel things that are good just to feel as a human, because I think That's where I come from sometimes, is I just look for things that make me feel because sometimes I feel like I have a heart of stone, So anything that can make me feel an emotion. But also movies that actually take on mental health issues straight on are really highly needed.

00:19:48
Speaker 2: So I'm always on.

00:19:48
Speaker 1: The search for movies that make me feel, but I also love it when movies actually take on a mental health issue.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: Going back to this article, it says.

00:19:57
Speaker 1: Film brings together images, story, metaphor, and music, all of which are shown to have therapeutic benefits. Movies are also accessible and can offer something familiar and easy to talk about as a basis of therapy conventions. And the article goes on to talk about something called a movie method, which stands for mindful engagement, observing responses, voicing experience, identifying personal relevance, and exploring new possibilities, and it says while working with a therapist is recommended if you are experiencing mental health difficulties, anyone can use the movie method to connect more mindfully with the films that you watch the first step of the movie method involves a mindful check to consider how you're feeling and if it is a good day for you to engage in the movie you've chosen, which I use the movie.

00:20:42
Speaker 2: Method a lot.

00:20:43
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just need something that makes me happy. Just the other day, I rewatched Angels in the Outfield because I needed something that made me feel nostalgic and made me feel like a kid again.

00:20:52
Speaker 2: So I think there is a lot of power in that.

00:20:55
Speaker 1: I think there are times that I get so consumed in work and all the things I have to do every day, and it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulder. Sometimes I just need to revert to something that makes me feel and remember a really good time in my life where I had no worries. And a lot of that are movies from the nineties and early two thousands. So I think sometimes I have to be in the right mental state to watch different things. Sometimes I'm not feeling that great mentally, and to think about sitting down and watching a drama where the character goes through something hard too, I don't want to focus on that at that moment. I want to watch something big, dumb, fun where things are just exploding on the screen. So I think there is also something to right place, right time when it comes to watching different types of films, so definitely take that into consideration when you sit down to pick a movie on your movie night. The article concludes, saying, the next time you sit down to watch a movie, think about how you can make the most of the experience. Applying the therapy film methods may help you engage more mindfully with what you're watching and may help you learn new things about yourself as a result. So I encourage you to try out this movie method because it's something we can all do, and if you're here, it's because you love movies like I do.

00:22:06
Speaker 2: And I feel like this has.

00:22:07
Speaker 1: Been highly beneficial to me to explore movies that I may not have wanted to watch otherwise because I think, ah, maybe that movie's not for me.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: I feel like I've gotten a lot more into.

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Rom coms lately because of Kelsey that is one of her favorite genres. But I am so open minded now about any kind of genre movie that I watch, because one, I have this podcast, and I feel like any movie I watch can turn into some kind of content for this show. But mainly because I want to be exposed to everything. I want to experience and feel everything, and if I limit myself in any way, I'm doing a disservice to myself and a disservice to you. So I also encourage you in not only the movies I talk about, but other movies you see people you know sharing on social media or seeing a promo for if it's not your cup of tea, just by the promo that you think maybe there's something in that character that I could learn from and experience something. I say, give it a chance. But I would also say, coming from my own personal experience of only really using movies and film as therapy, you really have something going on in your life, I advise you to seek out somebody to talk to and don't be ashamed of it. And going back to talking about Blue Beetle and my Mexican parents, I think that's another thing. It's just hard for people from my culture to talk openly about feelings and openly about your mental health because I think growing up, we were so focused on just staying healthy as far as not having to go to the hospital, not having to take some kind of medication to get us through the day.

00:23:46
Speaker 2: That we kind of pushed all those mental health problems to the bottom.

00:23:50
Speaker 1: And I found myself digging around in VHS and DBD stacks to try to find somebody to tell me that it's okay to be like the characters and movies and have emotional issues and work through those things. Because just like while watching a movie, I want to see some character development and see somebody go through.

00:24:08
Speaker 2: And learn things.

00:24:09
Speaker 1: I think I need to apply that to my own life. We would I say about my own character development, my own story arc. So that is all I wanted to share with you today. Come back, Kelsey will hop in. We'll give our review on Killers of the Flower Moon whether or not it was worth the three and a half hour runtime. After this, let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of Killers of the Flower Moon comes to us from director Martin Scorsese. The movie is listed at three and a half hours, but we actually found it's about three twenty. Not that it makes it a whole lot better, like a whole lot easier to take on. But I feel like going into this movie, we kind of went into it with a little bit of trepidation.

00:24:52
Speaker 2: Just because of that length.

00:24:54
Speaker 6: Right, it's very long. It seems very long. It doesn't feel that long when you're watching.

00:24:58
Speaker 1: It, it doesn't, But I feel feel like when you go into a movie. I don't want to say dreading it because I was excited for this movie. It's Martin Scurseasy, Leonardo DiCaprio.

00:25:07
Speaker 2: It's the tenth film.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: Nero he's done with de Niro, so we were both excited going into it. You read the book, I didn't, but I feel like a bit of it was just like, Oh my gosh, I gotta prepare myself to take on this mental load of this movie.

00:25:19
Speaker 2: But let's get into what this movie is about.

00:25:21
Speaker 1: And again, I know it's based on true events, it's based on the book, but I don't want to give away the details that you learn about watching this movie because I think just the way you take on this story is very valuable to knowing nothing. Really a whole lot going into it that the trailer didn't give us. So that's all we'll speak about on the plot of the movie. But it takes place in the nineteen twenties. The members of the Osage Native American tribe were being murdered, and the reason why is because they were living on this land that was essentially described as the worst land ever. But they found out that there was oil on this land, so suddenly this is a lot of oil that yeah, suddenly this land that was so terrible was now so valuable because there was oil on it, and all the members of the O Sage tribe got rich, really really rich. In the movie at the beginning, it described them as like the highest or the web per capita, and it's incredible that they just are able to now live this entirely different lifestyle. They have all this fancy jewelry, fancy cars, and the roles are reversed in this town in Oklahoma, where now these people who have been.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: Stuck in this situation where.

00:26:28
Speaker 1: They didn't really have a whole lot of money, whole lot of power, now they were the ones with the most power and the most money, and a lot of people living there who weren't a part of the tribe didn't like it. They wanted that power back, they wanted that money. They feel like they didn't earn that money. So there was this dynamic that shifted. And where there is money, there's gonna be corruption because you have the character played by Robert.

00:26:52
Speaker 2: De Niro who.

00:26:54
Speaker 1: Is trying to get that money, and you have Leonardo DiCaprio's character who plays his nephew who comes back from war and he loves money.

00:27:03
Speaker 2: That's his entire character trait in this movie. He just loves money.

00:27:08
Speaker 1: But then you have this family who at the center of it all is Molly played by Lily Gladstone, who was my favorite part of this entire.

00:27:15
Speaker 6: Movie, Blow me Away, incredible, give her the oscar now.

00:27:18
Speaker 1: And her family has a substantial amount of money, and the way that people in this community who are not a part of the o Stage tribe are trying to get their money is essentially mixing all their families together. So what you have in this movie, it's the story of how these group of people, led by Robert de Niro, try to take their money. What ends up happening is all these murders start going down and there's no investigation, nothing like it's crazy.

00:27:46
Speaker 5: These people are dying, being like brutally murdered, and there is just like a well, oh well, like that's how the town responded to it.

00:27:55
Speaker 1: Where it's a clear connection that it's because of their money. Essentially, it is is why the FBI was created. But man, I would say, the way to describe this movie and its entire plot was kind of what they said in the trailer, which is my favorite line of the entire.

00:28:11
Speaker 4: Movie, can you find the wolves in this picture?

00:28:16
Speaker 1: Can you find the wolves in this picture is essentially what this movie is about. Where you have all these people living in this community who all seem to be friends to the Osage tribe, but behind their back, they're not their friends whatsoever, and they just want their money. So I think that is the overarching kind of theme of this movie. Can you trust these people? Can you pick out the wolves that are really just after you for your money? And I think I really love that part of the movie of discovering the story I really didn't know a whole lot about and really becoming angry because there's so many things that go wrong in this movie and there's so much exploitation that I found myself getting some angry about this where you just want something to be done. How did you feel after reading the book and then seeing the film?

00:29:08
Speaker 6: Okay, without giving too much a way, we will also do a spoiler.

00:29:11
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we have so a spoiler, so we'll keep this part spoiler free. But as far as just the the comparison in the two without giving a whole lot away.

00:29:20
Speaker 6: Okay, I gave.

00:29:22
Speaker 5: The book four and a half stars when I reviewed it on my good Reads, and I'll just go ahead and give my film or you know, I would give it four stars.

00:29:31
Speaker 6: I deduct half a start because the.

00:29:36
Speaker 5: Movie goes off course a little from the book, and that there's a pretty big plot line in the movie that you're introduced to or is in the book that unfolds slower and you don't know towards the end. The book also goes into a lot more detail about like the creation of the FBI, which I thought was really interesting, but I get that that didn't really serve the plot of the movie. I think the book is just it's hands down better because it's a lot more investigative rather than storytelling. But I thought the movie was great. I really loved the movie. But I'm glad that I read the book first, and I think you could still read the book after seeing the movie. I think things will unfold differently and you get a fuller.

00:30:19
Speaker 6: Picture of the story.

00:30:20
Speaker 5: But yeah, the book is told in three acts as well, the first or I guess it's called like three books.

00:30:26
Speaker 6: The book one is the story of all the murders.

00:30:29
Speaker 5: Book two is creation of the FBI and the investigation unfolding, and then book three is David gran talking about his research and he actually.

00:30:40
Speaker 6: I think this is really cool. And if you're not watching this on video, sorry and this won't be interesting.

00:30:44
Speaker 5: But he has like an entire section in the back of like this, many pages of all of the research.

00:30:50
Speaker 6: That he did to write this book and a lot of research. I thought that was really interesting.

00:30:55
Speaker 2: I thought that the casting was really great in this movie.

00:30:58
Speaker 6: Oh, the casting was phenomenal.

00:31:01
Speaker 2: And the interesting casting I found was all the country artists who were in this movie. He had Stergil.

00:31:06
Speaker 6: Simpson, Jason Isbel who.

00:31:08
Speaker 1: Was a lot more prominent than I was expecting. He was essentially throughout this entire film.

00:31:13
Speaker 6: I would say a second Toier character.

00:31:15
Speaker 1: And you had Randy Hauser with this small cameo in this movie. But just to be able to say you're in a Scorsese movie, no matter how big or small of a part you have, I think is pretty cool.

00:31:24
Speaker 6: Jesse Plemmons was phenomenal.

00:31:27
Speaker 5: He is one of those actors that I wouldn't have expected years ago when he was on brand of night Lights to explode like he has.

00:31:35
Speaker 6: But he is so freaking good.

00:31:37
Speaker 2: I mean, he has a probably a great agent getting him great role, but he is a great actor.

00:31:41
Speaker 1: He isn't, at the core of it, great actor, but I feel like he has so many big roles in like movies that end up being OSCAR nominated movies, which this one, without a doubt, will for sure go on to be. But the same guy from Game Night is also in Killers of the Flower Moon, also having very poignant lines.

00:31:58
Speaker 6: Was one of my favorite roles that he he's done is the coppin Game Night.

00:32:02
Speaker 2: How could that be profitable for pre Dooley? Yes, I love him in that movie.

00:32:06
Speaker 1: But I did think having the country artists cast in this movie it was a nice touch because Scorsese and his casting director always tried to have like that unique casting of like why is this person in this movie?

00:32:18
Speaker 2: But it's interesting?

00:32:19
Speaker 5: And then Jack White, Oh yeah, Jack White, which I did. I had a theory I was like, are any of them from Oklahoma? They are from four different states. That theory was just gone.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: I think they were just trying to find some off the wall casting, and I think it works in most part. I will say, like you can kind of tell how they're not really actors. I felt it a little bit.

00:32:40
Speaker 6: I feel like I didn't notice it that much.

00:32:43
Speaker 2: A little bit with Jason Isbel, No, probably more so with Surgil Simpson.

00:32:47
Speaker 6: To be Jason Isbell's character was also just supposed to be weird.

00:32:51
Speaker 5: He was a weird guy, and I don't want to explain why he's weird, but you'll watch it and you'll be like, that's a very odd character.

00:32:57
Speaker 1: I would say with Surgel Simpson, I was very aware in some of his scenes that he was acting and not just being fully engulfed in that role. But I would say this movie sucks you in from the very beginning to the point that it hit about the hour in fifteen mark, and it went by so fast that I realized, like, okay, I'm not going to be bored in this movie. I also drink a lot of coffee, so I didn't want to doze off in this movie because of the link. But it does suck you in and about at that hour in fifteen minute mark, I literally made a note that I was giving this movie a five out of five because it was just going and going and going. And the cinematography in this movie is unmatched. I love the way that they actually filmed it in Oklahoma, and you really feel like you're there. I think that is a big part of this movie. It just all really comes down to how this movie was framed in the direction, but also with things like the hair, makeup, and wardrobe, like to take somebody like Leonardo DiCaprio and make him look so different and really be able to elevate his character because he's a great actor. But the movie had just some unruly tension throughout the entire time. With every kill that happens, it's just like, I won't even kills. With every brutal murder, you just feel it.

00:34:10
Speaker 5: There's a few scenes I will say that are a little graphic. The whole thing is not graphic, but there are a few of the murders for your.

00:34:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of Scorsese's trademark of having just the really cut and dry murder where it just comes out of nowhere. It just happens and it's very matter of the fact, and it's just pretty unsettling too.

00:34:29
Speaker 5: There's one in particular that I will just say, so if you're a little like squeamish, just like when there's a murder, maybe just like look away for a second, close eyes.

00:34:39
Speaker 1: That to say, I love the movie and afterwards, after sitting in the theater for almost three and a half hours, I felt differently than that five out of five I was giving it earlier. And I think it's because at the end of this movie, I realized that Scorsese didn't do a whole lot different than he's done in the past, which I think great directors always reinvent themselves. Guy is eighty years old now, he's not going to reinvent himself. And I think the story that he had to tell here, and he even did that thing at the very beginning of the movie.

00:35:10
Speaker 2: He's like, I've been wanting to tell.

00:35:11
Speaker 1: The story for the whole for whatever amount of time. I'm glad you're here in the theater. I thought he was gonna do something a little bit different, and I thought the movie was gonna have a little bit different of a tone. But it almost felt like the same formula that he did back in the day with Goodfellas, that same Rise and Fall, focusing on a couple of actors that aren't even members of the Osage tribe and telling their story of really just another crime epic that he's told before.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: I kind of wanted him to do something different.

00:35:41
Speaker 1: I wanted more of the osage story, which you get and you get in there the book. But I guess with having to make an epic that's three and a half hours long, he had to tell it in a way and from a perspective that he could reach that run time.

00:35:57
Speaker 5: And also keep people engaged. Because I will say one my one note about the book, the reason I only gave it a four and a half instead of a five, is that it's a very slow start, very slow, like to the point where I was like, am I gonna want to finish this book? And then once you get towards the end of like part one on the book and onto part two, it's like, Okay, I can't put this down. But I will say I kind of see why, like the creative direction went the way it did in the movie, because you have to keep people engaged, because if they're bored in the first thirty minutes, they're gonna leave. We've been there before, We've bored in the first thirty minutes of a movie where like it's not getting any better.

00:36:26
Speaker 1: So from my five, I took it down to a four point five, and then it went down a little bit further because I did feel those three and a half hours, even though it was entertaining, and I think the fact that it was based on a true story that kind of hurt it a little bit for me, because if it was just a fictional story, I would have loved it, probably would have given it a five out of five.

00:36:48
Speaker 2: But I feel like he.

00:36:49
Speaker 1: Changed the perspective a little bit and it took a little bit away from the impactfulness, and he kind of missed out on some other elements of the story that I wish he would have drove home a little bit more.

00:37:00
Speaker 5: But I will say too, you wouldn't have known that there were elements of that story if I hadn't read the book always that have changed your opinion. Because we got in the car and I immediately it was like, I think, so here's what changed, Here's what was different, Here's what I didn't like.

00:37:12
Speaker 6: See.

00:37:12
Speaker 5: You wouldn't if you saw this movie, you didn't read the book, you didn't know anything. Would you have given it a five out of five?

00:37:17
Speaker 1: No, because of the long run time. Okay, I still wouldn't give it a five out of five. Would have went to four point five. But after hearing what you had to say about it, and we'll get into in the spoiler version of this review, I think I got to take it down to a four out of five, and I also based it on his work. I don't always love to do that, but if you're thinking about Scorsese and putting it up against Goodfellas and The Departed and Taxi Driver and all the movies he has done that have really cemented him as one of the greatest directors of all time, I wouldn't even put it in the top five Scorsese films, so I couldn't give it a five out of five when Goodfellas will still be my favorite movie.

00:37:54
Speaker 4: Of his of all time.

00:37:55
Speaker 2: Right below that is Wolf of Wall Street.

00:37:57
Speaker 1: So it was close to getting there, but at three and a half hours, just really hurt my butt at the end of it. And I also think that hurts him in the long run too, because it made about twenty three million dollars opening weekend, which is decent, but I feel like having that long run time is going to keep a lot of people away from even watching it in the first place. And even the fact that it's coming out on Apple in probably forty five days or so, I still think starting a movie that's three and a half Hours is going to keep a lot of people away from it too.

00:38:29
Speaker 5: But Oppenheimer's three hours, Yeah, and that didn't feel the hurt at the box office.

00:38:35
Speaker 6: I don't feel like I feel like there's a.

00:38:37
Speaker 2: Big jump in something being three hours and three and a half.

00:38:40
Speaker 6: Mentally, I heard myself about one hunder three point five.

00:38:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I still think it's a factor here.

00:38:46
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it's still a really good movie and one I highly encourage you to see for yourself and make your own judgment.

00:38:54
Speaker 2: It's not a bad movie by any means. No, there's nothing wrong with it.

00:38:58
Speaker 1: I just think when you look at all the aspects of it, there's some things I would have liked to have been done differently.

00:39:04
Speaker 6: Agreed, and we'll talk about that in the spoiler. We'll do that because I have so much I want to say, but I can't, so to recap. You give it a four.

00:39:11
Speaker 1: I also give it a four. And I think Leonardo DiCaprio will probably pick up a Best Actor nomination. I don't think he'll win, even though he was really good. I don't think de Niro deserves one in this case. The only person I think deserves a nomination, and deserves to win is Lily Gladstone.

00:39:28
Speaker 6: Give her the Oscar.

00:39:29
Speaker 2: Give her the Oscar.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: I would also like to see Jesse Plemons get nominated, just because his role and his character was really good, and also that the fact that he just keeps putting up really good movies and really doing well with being kind of one of the quiet elite members of Hollywood.

00:39:44
Speaker 5: I was gonna say, quiet power couple, Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst.

00:39:49
Speaker 6: That is a good one, a very quiet power couple.

00:39:51
Speaker 1: But come back later this week and we'll give you our full spoiler version and talk about all the juicy details.

00:39:57
Speaker 2: But that is our Killers of the flower Moon review.

00:40:02
Speaker 3: It's time to head down to Movie Mikes trailer, Paul, this is one of.

00:40:07
Speaker 1: The spiciest movie trailers I've seen in a long time. You have two of the most attractive people in Hollywood right now, Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell, and you are rated rom com called anyone but You. And the premise of this movie is they go on one day, they hit it off, and then they realize they hate each other, but then decide to go on a destination wedding to Australia. Together and convince everybody that they are a couple and happily in love. So by the looks of this trailer and the breakdown of the plot, it seems pretty cliche, which rom comms tend to be. But really, you don't go into a rom com wanting the most elaborate plot. You don't need it to push the boundaries of cinema. You go into a rom com for great chemistry. And after watching this trailer, I realize they have impeccable chemistry together, so much so that during the time they were making this movie, there were a lot of you know, cheating allegation rumors, which Glenn Powell is now no longer with the girlfriend he had while making this movie. She afterwards made a very cryptic Instagram post unfollowed him and Sidney Sweeney, and Sidney Sweeney has been engaged its entire time and.

00:41:27
Speaker 2: Is still engaged.

00:41:28
Speaker 1: But still, you put out a movie like this, we get the first look of it at the trailer, you're obviously going to have dating rumors, but maybe they're just really good at their job. And after seeing what has happened after watching this trailer, I think they are just really good at their job. Because I think separately they are really great actors, and you put them together and they have a lot of chemistry. They can't hold that back. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to sell tickets to this movie, and they sell it with their chemistry. So before I get into more thoughts about Anyone but You, which is coming out this December, here's just a little bit of the trailer.

00:42:00
Speaker 6: Let's just tell everyone together what.

00:42:04
Speaker 4: It could be kind of fun.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: There's no way we can convince anyone we actually like each other.

00:42:08
Speaker 6: Trust me. We're at a wedding a million miles away from home.

00:42:14
Speaker 2: Who knows what can So.

00:42:15
Speaker 1: They play this couple who were arch nemesis in college and then years after graduation, they get together for this wedding. They pretend to be a couple for their own personal reasons, but through this pretending they.

00:42:26
Speaker 2: End up falling in love.

00:42:28
Speaker 1: And just by watching this trailer, just by reading the plot, I can spoil this movie for you. It's gonna have all those same tropes and cliches that you can expect in a rom com like this. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, because, like I was saying, you go into a movie like this wanting to see chemistry, and even though a movie is predictable, it doesn't have to keep you from enjoying it. It also comes to us from director Will Gluck, who also directed rom coms and comedies like Easy A and Friends with Benefits, So I think you have some backing there having a good director. At the center of this trailer, There's a dance sequence, there's a helicopter landing, there's a lot of sustained eye contact between our two actors here, and even have Sidney Sweeney punging Glenn Powell in the junk. So I feel like the trailer is a little bit misleaning because everything I read about this movie is very much rom com, But for some reason, I get kind of a mysterious thriller. Even just hearing the music there in that clip, it seems like there's some kind of interesting motive that each of their characters has. So I'm curious to find the reasons for each of them for maintaining and putting on this fake relationship. What are they getting out of it? The movie is being compared to a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare as much Ado about Nothing, so in the movie, Glenn Powell's character is supposed to be a jerk, so it makes for kind of an odd pairing to have her with Sidney Sweeney's character. So yeah, even the fact that it's adapted from William Shakespeare just shows me that this formula has probably been done.

00:43:54
Speaker 2: One hundred times in film.

00:43:56
Speaker 1: We've seen it when two characters seem like they are so wrong for each other or they're putting on some kind of fake act, that they end up falling for each other, and it will probably leave us all with that warm feeling at the end going out on a high note. So really, my only concern after watching this trailer and seeing the poster for it is that I hope they don't just rely on the looks of both of our actors here to get us to go or watch this movie, which just by seeing that, seeing the spiciness of the trailer, I think it is enough. But it has potential to be a great rom com because of the level of both of our stars here. But the spiciness alone I think will sell tickets, because that is kind of what you have to do to make people want to go see a rom com. Right now, you either have to sell it in the trailer like they do for this movie, or you have to have two really big A list bankable stars plastered all over the trailer and plastered on the movie poster to get people interested in this. And rom coms have had a tough run at the box office because of that reason, and because of the fact that Netflix has been pretty consistent with theirs, and when you go pay to see something in the thea, you almost want to see something a little bit more elaborate than a rom com. And it feels so accessible to watch a movie like this at home that oftentimes I feel like people just wait for a movie like this, because really, when I think of the last great rom com I've seen in theaters, it has to be Ticket to Paradise with Julia Roberts and George Clooney, And that is because you realize while watching that movie how much charisma both of those actors have and how much they suck you in, and the reason that they have been selling tickets for the amount of time that they have in bost of their careers. And the other ones that come to mind have been Netflix movies. Earlier this year, Love at First Sight was a movie that Kelsey and I just kind of randomly watched on Netflix and turned out to be pretty good about these two people who just meet on a flight randomly. They try to get each other's information, and it's kind of this whole misconnection that plays out The entire movie is them trying to reconnect and find each other, which I thought was a pretty interesting premise. Again, nothing completely novel here, but I thought that was really well done, and the fact that it's so easily accessible on Netflix makes a movie like that work.

00:46:00
Speaker 2: Before that was last year We.

00:46:01
Speaker 1: Look Both Ways, which is about a girl who is about he graduate college, and then the movie splits into two different realities of one her getting pregnant and having a kid, and the other of her going through with her dream to move out to la and the two storylines play out right next to each other the entire time to see the differences on if she took one way or she took the other way in life. So, going back to our movie here, anyone but you, I think it's going to have to have that kind of hook to get people interested and want to go see a movie. The timing is also interesting because this movie is coming out on December twenty second. So I almost feel like it's kind of counter programming here because you have some major movies that always come out in December. This year we have Wonka, Aquaman, two, Ironclaw, Ferrari, So it might be one of those movies for if you're not interested in any of those films, you end up going to watch this one around the holidays where we're all trying to find things to do with our family. So I think that is the factor it has going for it, and the fact that you have two really hot stars right now. So where would I put it on an excitement level. I'm right in the middle on this one. I'm a two point five out of five because I could go either way of if I have time to go see this one in theaters and I've seen all the other December releases, I'll go check this one out. But I would feel fine and comfortable and think I don't really miss anything from not seeing this movie on the big screen and just waiting for it to stream at home.

00:47:27
Speaker 2: But eventually I will see this movie and.

00:47:29
Speaker 1: It will probably be pretty all right. But that is coming from somebody who is just a recent adapter of the rom com. So again, that movie is called Anyone but You comes out on December twenty second head that for is.

00:47:41
Speaker 6: This week's edition of movie Line is framer bar.

00:47:45
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and that's gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta give my listener shout out of the week and I gotta tell you the secret emoji because we had to interview this week. So first our listener shout out of the week is to f Austin on YouTube who commented on the Dumb Money trailer from last week. Again, if you don't follow me on YouTube, you can check out full movie reviews there, so if you've listened to it, or maybe you've missed the review in the past, you can see it and hear it there. And your comment was in response to me trying to remember whether it was millions or billions that they were set to win in Dumb Money, and you wrote billions is correct. The short sellers of GameStop stock, who were betting on the complete collapse of the company lost many billions. Literally basically a road group of investors got the tables turned on them.

00:48:32
Speaker 2: So thank you F.

00:48:33
Speaker 1: Austin for that clarification, which I understand. Wall Street maybe just a little bit more in the idea of short selling and the idea of the squeeze. After watching Dumb Money, that Kelsey and I went back and watched The Big Short So now I am ready to take on Wall Street everybody.

00:48:47
Speaker 2: So thank you for that comment.

00:48:49
Speaker 1: Now let's get to the secret emoji, which I do every time I have an interview on the podcast, I give you the secret emoji, so you can go comment on Instagram or on TikTok and you can find all those links in the episode notes of this podcast.

00:49:00
Speaker 2: Comment with the Beatle emoji.

00:49:02
Speaker 1: This week, because we talked to the Blue Beetle director, I'll go through all those comments to pick next week's listeners shout out, so the Beatle emoji hit it up in the comments.

00:49:10
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening.

00:49:11
Speaker 1: I 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.