Summer Movie Preview 2026 and ’40s Madness Champion | #1062

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Film Spotting is presented by Regal Unlimited, the all you can watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. See any standard two D movie anytime with no blackoutdates or restrictions. Sign up now on the Regal app or at the link in our description and use code film spot twenty six to receive fifteen percent off.

00:00:45
Speaker 2: What kind of a show you guys putting on here today?

00:00:48
Speaker 1: You're not interested in art? Now? No, Look, we're going to do this thing. We're going to have a conversation from Chicago. This is film Spotting.

00:00:57
Speaker 3: I'm Josh Larson and I'm Adam Kempinar.

00:00:59
Speaker 4: How does this mean you will come back?

00:01:02
Speaker 1: What if I can't? There are dozens of movies coming to theaters this summer, but only one movie event, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

00:01:12
Speaker 2: Which may be a problem since our summer movie preview comes in the form of a ten pick draft, plus The Forties Madness Champion and more. Ahead on film Spotting, Welcome to film Spotting. A quick note off the top for our Chicago area listeners. The Chicago Critics Film Festival opens today today. As we're dropping this episode anyway Friday May first, at the historic Music Box Theater. Josh, I think this is the first time since the inception of the Chicago Critics Film Festival that you're not going to get to go to a single screening, Is that right?

00:01:52
Speaker 1: I mean, this time in Scotland has been great, but I've had to miss a handful of annual events that have really hurt and this is near the top. I mean, this fest has proven itself to be an excellent, can't miss thing on the film calendar, and yeah, it sucks that I won't be able to go there because it looks like a great lineup once again.

00:02:13
Speaker 2: We will have more about the fest a bit later in the show, but it is often a chance to see some great films well ahead of their release dates. We will announce as well the winner of Forties Madness. Is it Citizen Kane? Is it Casablanca? We will tell you can only find out here, and we'll clue you in on our plans for Madness twenty twenty seven and well beyond, Josh, we may have it planned through twenty twenty nine.

00:02:41
Speaker 1: I have no doubt that you and say I have been hard at work at just that.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: In case you missed it a lot going on over here at film Spotting this past week. In the Film Spotting Feed, you can check out my review of Steven Soderberg's The Christopher's with Pop Culture Happy Hour contributor Chris Don't call him Christopher Klemic. That was fun, good movie.

00:03:04
Speaker 1: That was my one request because I couldn't do this is okay, fine, but find a Christopher.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: At least I did it. And that was my discovery of MICHAELA.

00:03:14
Speaker 3: Cole.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: And then I saw her again and Mother Mary and guess what she can act? She's really good. Also, the third episode of the new Look Film Spotting SVU, Matt Singer Jordan Hoffman talked about Netflix their new one, Apex with Charlie's Thearren. We haven't caught up with that one. That's that's why we have Matt and Jordan exactly.

00:03:35
Speaker 3: And Josh. We did talk.

00:03:37
Speaker 2: About David Lowry's new one, Mother Mary. That's all in the Film Spotting Feed. If you haven't already sought it.

00:03:43
Speaker 1: Up, can we say we solved Mother Mary? How do you feel after.

00:03:48
Speaker 2: I thought we got we got as close as we're gonna get. Got a few ideas, we have a few, got a few ideas. That's right, we'll give you some things to chew on. For the full show schedule, you can check out film spotting dot net slash episodes. A quick reminder, film Spotting is available as a video podcast. You can watch us talk. Who doesn't want to do that check us out over at YouTube dot com slash film spotting, and you can find all of our episodes in addition to that full show schedule at film spotting dot net slash episodes Up now, it is our summer movie preview and it is a draft edition. We're going to follow the format that we've been using lately. I think we did it for our annual movie preview back in January. One before that, I don't know if it was summer or fall, Josh, but we're going to follow that and that is ten picks. We're going to get ten summer movies out, just alternating picks, five each. And the very first one we did, you had the first pick. The second one we did, I had the first pick. So I feel like we're just back around. This doesn't have to be cutthroat. We don't have to play any games. There doesn't have to be any shenanigans. You can just have the first pick. I'm okay with it.

00:05:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think probably because you know how this is going to go. It's going to go in your favor because oh it is two. The two we'd probably wrestle over are ones we wrestled over when we did our year preview twenty twenty six preview, and those haven't come out yet. They're both summer movies, right, And I'm going to go with my number one pick. Genuinely, this is what I'm most excited about, and it's not your number one pick. So this works out well at least to start. Maybe maybe we'll start getting a little up in arms further down our picks. But here, yeah, I'm sticking with Disclosure Day. I'm sticking with the Spielberg Alien film. I'm still giddaly anticipating this. I had a close call Adam before Project hil Mary in the theaters because you know, I generally avoid trailers, but for something like this, absolutely and they started playing it. I had to do the cover your eyes, plug your ears. Debbie turned, she looked like, what are you doing? She knows this about me by now, but anyway, I managed to not really hear anything. So I'm still giddaly anticipating going in pretty much blind now for Disclosure Day. The reasons I gave when we talked about it before, you know Spielberg, Alien Spielberg is my favorite Spielberg. This has Josh O'Connor, I mean, come on, And I mentioned another reason was that Disclosure Day might be connected to the dissertation I'm just about to start writing in my master's program here in Scotland, Theology and the Arts degree, and I have gotten the approval. Adam, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear I've gotten the approval too. Right on. This is a tentative title Gangsters, Aliens and God. So this is going to be a parallel study of select films of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Basically, I'm going to ask how they might have offered some religious resonance in their movies over an era in which Hollywood became increasingly secular. So Disclosure Day possibly maybe a key text for that. We'll see what it offers. But that's kind of the top reason why I'm going with it. I gotta go with it. I think I would get a lesser grade if I didn't go with it. As my first pick in our summer movie preview draft. So there you go.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: Come on, Steven, give Josh some fodder vapery.

00:07:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, you better don't. June twelve is one I'll find out.

00:07:41
Speaker 2: This does work out for me. You're right, because you know that I'm going to stick with my first pick. It was my first pick last time back in January. The most anticipated movie of the year. I'm sorry I'm going with something so obvious, but we set it off the top of the show. I do think it's the movie event of the year, and most times a new Christopher Nolan film is going to be that. When he's making the Odyssey as well, you're telling the story of Odysseus.

00:08:14
Speaker 3: Yes, as an.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: English major back in my prime, Josh, I am going to be intrigued by that. Plus it if it's and so so nicely with his with his ouvra. When you've got all these stories, for better or worse, about men trying to get back to their wives or haunted by their wives in some form or fashion. Here we've got Anne Hathaway in so many films this summer. We just finally saw her in one in Mother Mary. We both thought she was quite good in Mother Mary, and she's playing Penelope here, but that cast too. Damon has always been an actor I like quite a bit. I don't know why I'm completely struggling with him here as the lead in a Nolan film. Struggling meaning I'm not overly excited to see him in the lead as Odysseus, but I am excited to see Hathaway and Robert Pattinson and Lupida Neango and Mia Goth and John Burnhal and just this entire ensemble. But the scale of this film, the scale of this story. Yeah, the Odyssey is is the It's the one. If I could all only see one, It's the movie I have to.

00:09:24
Speaker 1: See, totally get it, cannot wait for it as well. And yeah, I did my English major homework rereading it last fall, which only got me more excited. And actually have a tip for those who don't want to commit to that, you know, a little less time now before the movie comes out. I was just talking to someone who said they've started listening to an audio version of it, which and they this is someone who's read The Odyssey multiple times. They said this is maybe their best experience with it. Of course, it's an epic poem. So that makes sense and sort of makes me wish i'd done that. I could have saved myself a lot of time less fall. But do you have any idea who who reads it? I don't know much version. No, they mentioned it, but I can't recall it right now. But yeah, just a good option if you're considering refamiliarizing yourself with with the overall narrative. And yeah, as far as Nolan goes, you know, maybe I would have fought you harder, except that we're coming off like Time, which was a disappointment. Oppenheimer. I liked, but I was not as high on as most people. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna think about it this way. I'm due. I'm due for another ecstatic Nolan experience, and hopefully i'll get that with the Odyssey. Okay, all right? At number three, I am going with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Basthma. We've got to release Stay at Them twice in a row. You've stolen it from me twice, A nice oh nice. Yeah. Before when we talked about this, it was one of those yeah, is gonna come out this year? It was we weren't so sure, so It's the one of the first things I checked when I was preparing for this list. Has a date been named, and it has August seven for Jane Schoen Brun's new movie shown. Brun, of course writer director of We're All Going to the World's Fair, And I saw the TV Glow World's Fair that was a Golden Brick nominee the year it came out, and TV Glow made my Top ten list when it was out. Now, besides that August seven release date, we also have a log line. This is via IMDb. A queer director making a slasher franchise sequel becomes obsessed with casting the original film's final girl, leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos. Now. I don't know if this was mentioned when we talked about it earlier on the show, Adam, but I did see that Gillian Anderson of X Files fame is in the cast. So just another reason to be anticipating this one. And quick note about doing homework here too. If you still need to catch up with Shoan Brun's debut We're All Going to the World's Fair, it is right now at least on the Criterion Channel. It's part of their trans filmmakers, Collection, Tramps, Troublemakers, and Trailblazers. So yeah, as for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, that is out August seven. You know, August has long been the time where you joke kind of getting to the end of summer and this is when maybe the trashy movies come out. Kind of sounds like that might be purposefully what Shan Brun is doing here by me putting this movie out on August seventh, So can't wait for that at the end of the summer.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was either on my list the number two or number three most anticipated of the summer. Sean Brun, I just think is one of the most exciting filmmakers going these days.

00:12:51
Speaker 3: You know. I love the.

00:12:52
Speaker 2: Meta nature of their films. I love especially in their previous film. I love the references, the homages to Lynch that we sometimes get, the vibes, the Lynch vibes we get with those films, and working with maybe a more established star like Anderson is something that we haven't seen before with Shoan Brun's work. So there's just so much to be excited about and talk about with a movie like Mother Mary, I said, there are some images in that film that you'd expect from Lowry that linger.

00:13:27
Speaker 3: Wow?

00:13:27
Speaker 2: Are there some images in Showan Brun's movies that linger with you long after you you leave the theater?

00:13:34
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to be I'm going to be a little.

00:13:36
Speaker 2: Bit strategic here with my next choice, because this one I might have one slot down, but I gotta get it here or else I don't think I'm going to get it. So with the fourth pick, my second choice, I am going to take out Toy.

00:13:55
Speaker 3: Story five.

00:13:57
Speaker 2: Andrew Stanton directing from Pixar Toy Story five and with this series. For as much negative verbage we have thrown Pixar's way recently when we have even reviewed a Pixar film. That's the thing, so many of them talk about events and picks. Our films have, deservedly or not, have just ceased to be events that a lot of us pay attention to, whether it comes to going to the theater or reviewing them on shows like this. It's been a while, and yet this franchise does seem to be the one that endures that we do still pay attention to. There does seem to be long gaps between these films. There does seem to be a certain care that goes into this franchise above all others, and we understand I think why, And it makes sense because of the size, the enormity of the love for this franchise and the amount of money that this franchise has made. Of course as well, they have to give some extra care to it. But I think, Josh, they have managed to with these sequels, always given an update, found a spin on it, to make it relevant without devolving the core of what makes these characters so special and so beloved. And when you read the plot description, not surprisingly it's all related to tech.

00:15:32
Speaker 4: Hi there.

00:15:34
Speaker 3: Let flame extinction not again?

00:15:39
Speaker 2: Buzz would e, Jesse and the rest of the gang's jobs get exponentially harder when they go head to head with this all new threat to play time. So it's all about phones, it's all about technology, it's all about iPads. It's of course, which is something we're all we're all dealing with. We're all dealing with kids, our kids, some of us that still have young kids at home who are obsessed with this technology. And if you can imagine how to how to toys? How do how do these boring old toys without any buttons? On them or or I guess, I guess Buzz still has some some buttons old school butt.

00:16:12
Speaker 1: Ye imagine Buzz is outdated at this point.

00:16:15
Speaker 2: So yes, right, Buzz can't compete with with Nintendo Switch and other other such devices and iPads. So that's that's the key conflict here in Toy Story five. So with Stanton at the helm, with this franchise, these core characters, I think Pixar knows what they're doing and we'll see where it ranks. I think I had Toy Story four as my least favorite of the franchise when we ranked them whenever that came out, But I still liked the movie. I like all the films in the series, so we'll see.

00:16:51
Speaker 1: Totally get why you felt the need to try and steal this from me early. You know, you know my love for Pixar in general and Toy Story in particular. I'm almost a Pixar completist. Still have to catch up with Hoppers this year's but that speaks to what you've been saying about the you know, this not being such an event when a Pixar movie is out. But and I don't blame you for forgetting this. I was I liked it, as you said, but I was let down by Toy Story for I was really it really left a bad taste in my mouth, regarding Woody in particular and the way where they brought that character.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: I think a little about that a bit.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we did. I think most people are generally higher and Toy Story four than I am, particularly for the Woody storyline. But yeah, for that reason, Adam I had, I didn't have this as high on my list. Now Stanton is, as you say, maybe the key reason to have some optimism here. I mean, finding Nemo Wally among the best Pixar has offered, and Stanton directed those and you know the plot you described, Yeah, I think I think there is some potential to be timely. And what's the What's the Pixar magic is when they make these movies for parents, And you've already spoken to the way this plot alone appeals to things that parents are struggling with. So so if it has that as its goal, we're off to a good start. So maybe it'll redeem the ending of Toy Story four. For me, definitely want to see it, but actually don't feel too bad that you grabbed it, because now I want to be strategic myself. So let's see here.

00:18:35
Speaker 3: No, uh, don't let this backfire against me.

00:18:38
Speaker 1: Let's see, let's see.

00:18:42
Speaker 2: Don't do it. I don't be a jerk. Go with your heart, Josh, go with your heart.

00:18:47
Speaker 1: I will, because as I look at the titles on my list, I don't know that I see one that is.

00:18:55
Speaker 2: We're getting into territory where it's tough to choose. Now, I will say that.

00:19:00
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm excited about these, but I don't see one that I think you would be desperate to have. So I'm just going to stick with my draft board and I'm going to go with the one I had up next anyway, and that is the end of Oak Street. So this comes from writer director David Robert Mitchell, who broke out in twenty fourteen with It Follows, which, to my mind, one of the key horror texts of the last fifteen years. He followed up It Follows, though, with something very different, twenty eighteen's Under the Silver Lake. That was the kind of trippy detective comedy I think you'd call it with Andrew Garfield. It has its ardent supporters. Some people just love that movie. I liked it well enough, but felt that it was probably intentionally just a bit of a dither. You know, it didn't, especially for how much I liked it Follows. I was a little disappointed. So it's been a while. Mitchell's been on pause since then and is now back with the End of Oak Street. This sounds less horror than sci fi. Here's the IMDb plot description. The Platte family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown.

00:20:16
Speaker 4: I think our helps, our new gohood, our whole street has moved.

00:20:41
Speaker 1: Promising cast and Hathaway yet again, and Ewan McGregor. But mostly this is a director pick for me. I'm hoping for something really exciting again from David Robert Mitchell. This one, The End of Oak Street, will be out on August fourteen.

00:20:56
Speaker 2: This is one like my toy story pick, where I didn't like it Follows as much as you did, and because of that, I wasn't as excited about Under the Silver Lake and I never saw it, and I know you said it Arden supporters. It has a cult following. I googled it sure enough. Our friends got Tobias at the reveal put it in his new cult Cannon.

00:21:19
Speaker 3: I hear about it.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: I know that it's a puzzle that a lot of people, including several of our listeners, many of our listeners, love to watch and dissect, and I've never been intrigued enough to jump into it.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: Josh.

00:21:35
Speaker 1: And maybe you love The Longest Eye, right, Adam, I love Love The Long Goodbye. Yeah, it's very much indebted to that as well, So you should catch up with that. I think it would be.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: Your thing, Okay, with with the end of Oak Street coming out, maybe I finally will take the plunge.

00:21:50
Speaker 3: And I'll see under the Silver Lake, Adam.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: With Summer around the corner, summer movies are on our mind. You've got the big releases like Christopher Nolans The Odyssey, Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day. You've got you know, the reheats that people are still clamoring for, like super Girl, another Spider Man movie. So much coming out in the next few months here that even if you're not someone who maybe goes to the movies all that often regularly, this is probably the time you're going, maybe every weekend. And if that's the case, you're going to want to join Regal Unlimited. With Regal Unlimited, you'll be able to see one of these blockbusters for free. Regal Unlimited is the all you can watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Right now, Regal is offering film Spotting listeners endless movies for less. If you sign up for Regal Unlimited using code film Spot twenty six, you're gonna get fifteen percent off now. Regal Unlimited is the only truly limitless movie subscription pass. You can see any standard two D movie at any time. There are no blackout dates, there are no restrictions. Also, with Regal Unlimited, you won't just save money on tickets, you'll also save on snacks. Members get ten percent off all non alcoholic concessions. So sign up now in the Regal app at the link in our description and use code film Spot twenty six to receive your discoun.

00:23:32
Speaker 2: We're at the halfway point of our summer movie preview draft. Let's take a moment, Josh to think the people who keep the show going, the most ardent supporters of our show, film Spotting family members.

00:23:47
Speaker 1: We want to thank a member I know quite well, actually, Jeffrey Overstreet in Shoreline, Washington. Have had a chance to meet with him over the years and talk about a various number of things. He's got a great book coming out in a couple of months we'll hopefully get a chance to talk about. So thank you to Jeffrey, and also thank you to Family Plus member Dave Meldrum, a brit living in Cape Town since twenty ten. So pretty sure I've not had a chance to meet Dave. Dave wrote in with this, I came to film spotting when Josh appeared on British critic Mark Kermode's YouTube channel to talk about movies Our Prayers, which then led to episode six thirty eight, Top five religious experiences at the Movies.

00:24:28
Speaker 2: Now, Josh, you know that soon enough you'll be doing a meetup in Cape Town.

00:24:33
Speaker 1: I love it. I would absolutely love it, Dave, let's set something up. As for Jeffrey, he wrote in said I've been talking back to Adam and Josh in the car on my daily commutes to Seattle Pacific University and back for so long that I can't remember how I discovered you. Funny thing. As much as I admire and learn from the show's dynamic duo, letterboxed has revealed that my film preferences skew much closer to those of producer Sam van Holgren. Sorry about that, Jeffrey. So since Sam is clearly the team's most discerning cinophile, the Yoda to Adams, Obi Wan and Josh is Luke. I think, Oh that hurts Luke. I think the host should give more attention on each episode to Sam's opinions. What is this?

00:25:19
Speaker 2: Sam notes that it's true the and I are eerily aligned on most films. That's from Sam and Yeah, Yoda Yoda to miobi Wan. If Yoda occasionally went just totally nuts? Does that ever happen in the Star Wars movies?

00:25:39
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, and the prequels. There you go, he loses it all right. A little more from Jeffrey here. In view of my history with this show, you might wonder what took you so long to support the show like this. The fact is, I rely on the support of my readers to cover the costs of my own film coverage, and I've been hesitant to draw from their contributions to support someone else's film platform. But the fact is that your show has contributed so much to my own exploration of movies that I've decided it's only right that I do my part. So many great artistic endeavors are being threatened these days. I want to help strengthen the best things that remain. Totally get that, Jeffrey and Yeah, deeply appreciate the support.

00:26:19
Speaker 2: Yeah absolutely certainly a name that we have seen in the mail bag and corresponded with for many, many years. We'll close with these reviews we got wrong. Dave says Josh is wrong about The Phantom Menace, speaking of Obi Wan and Yoda. I rewatched it recently just to make sure. Oh and it's not a review as such. But why is SNL so revered? People get a plottered for walking on screen, aren't funny, and are then applauded again. Sorry, ignorant Britt.

00:26:45
Speaker 1: I guess we've got to get Dave's reviews of the new UK SNI see.

00:26:50
Speaker 2: I think maybe that's hurting his opinion. He's watching that version and ah, he thinks that the American version must have inspired it too much or something. No, come on, the American version does have its moments moving on.

00:27:04
Speaker 1: And Dave saying that about Phantom Menace, which is great and amazing. Cape Town is off.

00:27:10
Speaker 2: Okay, he ruined it. Dave Jeffrey says this. I predict that in five or ten years both Adam and Josh Bua have a higher opinion of the Phoenician scheme. They liked it, sure, but while it may not be I didn't really. But while it may not be the most immediately affecting of Anderson's films, it's a masterpiece in so many ways. See here he is aligning with Sam van Holgren. It is a masterpiece in so many ways. Joke density oh is that? Do we have analytics on that political commentary, editing, production design? For my money, while it doesn't move me like Moonrise Kingdom does, it's the most relentlessly hilarious film in Anderson's catalog. By contrast, I love your reverence for Coconautus Columbus. I have a new book coming out in spring twenty twenty six called Lost and Found in the Cathedral of Cinema, and it begins with a chapter on Columbus. I've been revising for eight years. Wow, I thought I was a slow writer.

00:28:01
Speaker 1: That's commitment. There you go. That's the title I couldn't pull for Jeffrey's book. And as far as the Phoenician scheme. I would normally say He's probably right most. Almost all of Anderson's films appreciate for me the more I watched them. But I watched that one three times yes when it came ary, because I just couldn't believe that I wasn't connected with it more. Maybe I just need some distance to fully appreciate it as much as Jeffrey and Yeah and Sam do well. Thank you Dave, Thank you Jeffrey for being family members. You can follow Dave on letterboxed at Vicker Dave, Jeffrey is Jay Overstreet. In addition to keeping us doing what we're doing, membership does come with perks. You can listen early in ad free. You'll also get Sam's weekly newsletter and exclusive opportunities like the Film Spotting Family discord. You'll also get monthly bonus shows. Our most recent bonus show just went out to Film Spotting Family members a very fun ask us anything that's right.

00:29:01
Speaker 2: You can get all of that for as little as four ninety nine a month. That's discounted if you pay annually. You can learn more at film Spottingfamily dot com. And you can also help the show by rating or reviewing us over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

00:29:17
Speaker 1: Can I make a suggestion, where do you go?

00:29:19
Speaker 4: Like never going to run?

00:29:21
Speaker 1: You don't who.

00:29:24
Speaker 4: Don't look down?

00:29:29
Speaker 2: Let's get back into our draft, Josh, we are at the number six pick. That is my choice. And if longtime listeners of the show, and especially if they're team Adam, and there are there are a few, if they're out there, and if they're paying really close attention to the draft, and if maybe they've they've studied the summer movie calendar themselves pretty closely and they heard you say, I don't see anything. I don't see anything on the list that seems like a real Adam movie. So I'm just gonna stick with my draft board. They're out there just chomping at the bit waiting for me to scream out this title, knowing that Josh has made a major misstep Oho, because that is there is such a title, and it's the last title of real content sequence for me on this draft board. In fact, I have it as my number two most anticipated realm of the summer. And if you're not familiar with it, or Josh, if you just completely maybe overlooked it or you didn't know who.

00:30:37
Speaker 1: Was involved, this is what I'm wondering.

00:30:39
Speaker 2: You are going to know why I care so much about this movie as I get through this official synopsis. When Rick Paul Rudd, a past his prime wedding singer, meets fading US fading boy band star Danny nick Jonas during a gig, the two bond over music in a late night jam session, but when Danny turns one of Rick's songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves, even if it means risking everything he cares about. Okay, so I'm I'm in anyway, probably just based on I'm not the biggest nick Jonas guy, but I like I like Paul Rudd quite a bit, and I still am trying here to to kick around and play in cover bands. My my journalism faculty band just knocked out seven songs for some of our students at the Spring showcase. I got to play guitar and play Psycho Killer by Talking Heads and Teenage dirt Bag, and I got I finally, I got to live my dream and play one of the greatest rock songs ever. I got to play Surrender by Cheap trick. I actually got to play it on guitar. Wad does your does your other band know your moonlighting?

00:31:54
Speaker 1: Is it? Have you gotten? Yeah? Okay, I don't want there to be. I don't want there to be, like, you know, some sort of Netflix documentary about this in a couple of years. The riff you call cover bands.

00:32:06
Speaker 2: It's it's the it's the summer of Adam trying to reclaim his youth as a musician. I had the journalism band, I've got the college band reuniting. I've got the high school band reuniting, all within like two months of each other. Three there's three reunions. I have so many songs to learn. I don't know how I'm going to pull it off. But it's super exciting. And so you read that description, you know I'm in. But then you really know I'm in when you hear the next sentence from writer director John Carney. From writer director John Carney singh Street once two of my favorite films of their respective years, two of my favorite films of the last twenty years. It's called power Ballad, and it says it's a feel good story about music, self respect, friendship, and the price of ambition. Josh injected into my veins.

00:32:57
Speaker 3: That's my song.

00:32:58
Speaker 1: I wrote it. Do you think it is easy to turn a song? Okay? So good? Okay, I get another pick here? Do I have two more picks? Laughter? One?

00:33:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have two more? Seven and nine, Josh, seven.

00:33:14
Speaker 1: And nine, okay, okay, yeah. These are all kind of I'm similarly enthused about all of them. So I want to give a small movie some attention. Then this is probably the smallest movie, would I think we're probably going to talk about. The title is Rose of Nevada, and the writer director is Mark Jenkin, who is someone that I've been waiting to really pop, at least for me. There are people who are just hugely enthusiastic about his work. He's based in West Cornwall on the far southern English coast and has been doing work since the early two thousands. I'm not familiar with everything, but I did seek out his two most recent features. That was one called Bait and then Enis Maine. And I did that because just their distinct locales that he was working in appealed to me, and they both got really strong reviews. I liked both films, Bait and Nis Maine. The second one I should spell out E nys and then M E n I liked both, just didn't click with either as much as I felt I should or other critics did. So. I saw in doing research that he has a new film, Rows of Nevada. It's been greeted with similar acclaim as the other movies. It seems similarly regionally focused. The plot basically involves the sudden return of a fishing boat that's been missing for thirty years, and then two men decide they're going to join the crew to curious results. One of the stars here George McKay, who was so good as one of the Soldiers in nineteen seventeen. So maybe Jenkin upping things a bit in terms of you know, I'm not sure how familiar a lot of audiences are with mackay, but a familiar face for sure. I'm just hoping this is the one that really knocks me out from Mark Jenkin. And so the title again is Rows of Nevada and it's coming out June nineteen.

00:35:14
Speaker 2: Okay, well, a good nudge for me to go back into the mail bag, Josh, and I do remember, Bait, remember some listeners writing in and saying, hey, this should be on your radar, Mark Jenkins should be on your radar. And it rung a bell and so I went into the mail bag and we got this email from Holly who said I just wanted to get in touch with a couple of shout outs for potential Golden Brick nominees. Firstly, Mark Jenkins' new film Rose of Nevada, a time travel tale set in a Cornish fishing village, starring George McKay and Callum Turner. His films have often been described as full corror, but I don't think that label does justice to their beauty and strangeness, and this film brings the best elements of his previous two features together. I'm going to read the other one as well. For the next recommendation, I may be slightly biased as it is about my home city, Glasgow. It's a documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street. Oh yeah, details you know about it?

00:36:07
Speaker 1: Can't wait for this one.

00:36:08
Speaker 2: It details a neighborhood protests that occurred in response to immigration forces attempting to detain two of its residents. A hopeful and optimistic portrait of the power of community and collective action, the film couldn't really have arrived at a more important time. I holly viewed both films at the Glasgow Film Festival. But Ken Meer Street comes to theaters across the UK, so we got this back in February. Comes to theaters across the UK on March thirteenth. That recently secured a deal for US distribution, so I'll have to look that up and see where that stands. Rosa Nevada comes to UK cinemas on April twenty fourth, so just this week, and it will have a limited release in the US on June nineteenth. Holly says, I hope you guys enjoyed the film, so thank you for that, Holly.

00:36:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks, Holly. There you go, looking forward to both of those.

00:36:52
Speaker 2: Okay, that brings me to my penultimate pick. I'm at number eight, and yeah, it does get it gets a little more difficult here.

00:37:04
Speaker 3: But I think especially.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: I don't think you're gonna pick either of these films, so I think I can probably I could probably mention both.

00:37:13
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter.

00:37:15
Speaker 2: And I'm inspired to consider both of these movies, Josh, mainly because of the movie that we haven't recorded our conversation about yet, but we are going to do that. Soon, and it's our conversation about Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, the first movie in our Dissident cinema marathon. There are two films coming out this summer that seem very similar in the sense that they are about political machinery. They are also very much about Soviet political machinery. Not that that's what The Great Dictator is about, but it is very much about political machinery, the gamesmanship of politics. We've got The Brink of War, which is about Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev and meeting in Helsinki and the potential for nuclear war and those talks, those negotiations. But this is the one I'm going to go with, and it's really because the filmmaker, who I think is a first time feature filmmaker and writer, a name I'm not familiar with at all, who wrote and directed The Brink of War. It's it's because of that, and it's because I'm more familiar with the director, much more familiar with the director of this film. I'm gonna go with this one, and it's The Wizard of the Kremlin. Did you see this in your research?

00:38:39
Speaker 1: Sounds vaguely familiar.

00:38:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, The Wizard of the Kremlin is the new film from director Olivier.

00:38:49
Speaker 1: Oh Yeah, that's right, and it.

00:38:52
Speaker 2: Stars Jude Law as Vladimir Putin and Paul Dano and Paul Dano plays He's He's the Wizard, He's the Wizard of the Kremlin playing Vedian Baranov, who is this young artist, was this young artist in the nineties who becomes the spin doctor, the guy that helps that helps Putin come to power a name I'm not personally familiar with, a story that I'm not familiar with, and as unsavory, as distasteful to me as it sounds in a lot of ways to have to sit through a movie, no matter how it portrays him, to have to sit through a movie where I'm watching a story about Vladimir Putin Putin, I still I still want to see what Olivier Assayas does with this material. I still am someone who tends to be very fascinated by the back room dealings, the psychological warfare, if you will, of these types of characters, and I'm fascinated by these characters. If you watch the trailer, you'll see that Dano's Baronov is someone who will remind you a lot of someone like a Steve Bannon, who his attitude seems to be burn it all down. None of it matters. Power is the only thing that matters. Take it any means necessary. It is all just a game. There's no such things. Is really as integrity has democracy certainly, and the will of the people is meaning meaningless. And you'll understand if you have seen The Great Dictator recently why that would very much be on my mind as I'm watching the trailer and reading a little bit about the Wizard of the Kremlin. So Dano's performance is getting some attention. Jude Law seems very good lately at playing these real life characters, that these real life historical characters. And Aliciavcandor is in it. Jeffrey Wright is in it as well. So good cast, very good director. Material that I'm drawn to, even if, as I said, I'm also a little put off by it, but important material as well.

00:41:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, that one sounds amazing. I'll say I'm a little I've liked everything of his I've seen, but it's one of those categories where I'm wondering why I don't like it as much as most other people do. I think clouds of sales. Maria is maybe my favorite of his that I've seen. I know, you know Personal Shop are very good as well, So definitely anything he does is worth putting on your radar. All right. So for my final pick, I mean we're gonna we're gonna be able to give a few honorable mentions right just to you know, let people know what else is coming out in the next few months. But for my official pick, I'm torn here. I don't think you're gonna grab I know you're not going to grab the one I'm leaning towards, So can I cause some trouble. You're not going to grab that one. You might grab this, but it's lower.

00:42:06
Speaker 2: I'm just not passionate about any of these final choices, Josh.

00:42:09
Speaker 3: So I'm going to go.

00:42:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to I feel like, here we go as the world's only don't worry Darling Defender. And I mean, yes, I mean top ten of the year Defender. It made my top list.

00:42:23
Speaker 2: I'm going to say it out loud, Josh, he just kept it.

00:42:26
Speaker 1: I'm not running from that. So of course I'm intrigued by the next film to be directed by Olivia wild wild and Olivia Wilde also directed the very good book Smart, So the Invite this is her new one. The Invite stars Wild as well, alongside Seth Rogan, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz. Wild and Rogan play a couple whose relationship is on the rocks. Then they get a provocative invite from their neighbors. So that's pretty much all I know about it aside from this. It is a remake of a twenty twenty Spanish film that did not star Penelope Cruz. By the way, that you know, I don't know what the track record. My instinct is the track record on American remakes of international films, especially comedies, is dicey. But as far as I'm concerned, Wild can still do no wrong over two films, So I'm going to be in for this one. The Invite opens on June twenty six, and I'll take that as my last pick. There's something that we want Eve to talk to you about.

00:43:31
Speaker 4: We also have something we wanted to talk to you about.

00:43:38
Speaker 2: Okay, it is your last pick. I have one more. I do want to clarify two quick things. One about the Wizard of the Kremlin. I didn't give the release date coming up here pretty soon. I'm sure it will be a limited release here in the States, but May fifteenth is when you can look for it. And the baronof character is actually inspired by the political strategist Vladislav Sirkoff. Okay, just didn't want emails. I'm sure there are people who know all about putin Is. I mean you better look out after the thing that's true. Wow, Okay, my last pick, Josh, I here's where I'm going to go. And yes there's a mono mention, so I'll be able to get out one or two other picks here. There's one maybe obvious place I could go, and there's one choice here that people are definitely going to be writing in saying what kind of show is this? How could you not be mentioning this movie? And maybe we're going to be forbidden to ever do another summer movie preview after leaving this movie off. However, do you know where I'm going when I say that? Josh, surely you do.

00:44:46
Speaker 1: I mean, are you thinking like big, big blockbuster potential? Yes, yes, yeah, I was planning to address those on the honorable mentions. Want to grab on now?

00:44:56
Speaker 2: No, I'm not going to because something else caught my eye and these types of films this genre, I think it qualifies as a genre. There's lots of debate about what exactly specifies if you're going real textbook definitions.

00:45:13
Speaker 3: Of a genre.

00:45:15
Speaker 2: But I don't give a lot of love here on the show to animated movies. But when I saw the images and when I read about the description for Decorado, I said, this is one I.

00:45:30
Speaker 3: Have to see.

00:45:31
Speaker 2: It is one that's being described as a black comedy. Comes out May fifteenth, and it's set in the city of Anywhere. It is about a mouse named Arnold, who, hears from the official plot summary, confides to his wife Maria that he suspects his entire world is nothing more than a set and his life is a scripted performance. So there you go. Shades of The Truman Show. Of course, a movie I have Initially when I saw it in theater when it came out, I was just lukewarm on it. I've revisited and come to love that film. But I read a little bit about this filmmaker and his name is because he's someone I'm not familiar with, so I want to make sure I get it right. Alberto Vasquez is the director, and I read a little bit about him, Josh, and he named checks all sorts of great films that were inspirations for this movie, and they included not only The Truman Show, but even Bergmann scenes from a marriage, And you put together the Truman Show and scenes from a marriage with a movie that's about a middle aged mouse, and I have to see what that concoction is. So it's from g Kids, Like I said in theaters May fifteenth, it's a Spanish language animated film. This mouse is having an existential crisis. And movies about characters an existential crisis, tales and big ears or of any other kind of variety, those are maybe my favorite.

00:47:14
Speaker 1: I love this for you whatever it takes to get you, yeah, to move further into an embrace of anime. I am obviously all four and Yeah, the images from this look amazing. It's in hand drawn style and we don't have enough of that these days, So that alone is reason to put it on your radar. So Decorado, Decorado.

00:47:36
Speaker 3: Decorado is it?

00:47:39
Speaker 2: That is our summer movie preview draft, five picks each, ten films total. You can find all of those picks and the dates the release dates if you don't want to google them find them in one spot film spotting dot Net slash lists. We will also link directly to the page with all of those picks and the release dates in our show notes wherever you get your podcasts or on our website. Josh, you said you would have some honorable mentions. What are the other titles that you do want to make sure that we give at least a nod to?

00:48:12
Speaker 1: So this is the one I thought you might actually grab and I almost went for it. David Wayne directing a new comedy and we show I'm giving him my first honorable attention here Gail Daughtry and the celebrity sex pass. This is coming out.

00:48:30
Speaker 3: I realized that was him.

00:48:32
Speaker 1: That's coming out July ten and we're going to be showing Adam this summer, Wet Hot American Summer, Wayne's Wet Hot American Summer at Film Spotting Fest two. Reminder, get your tickets now. That's going to be June twenty seven where we're watching Wet Hot American Summer and yeah, Wayne is back with get this. Here's the plot.

00:48:52
Speaker 3: I loved her. I love the premise.

00:48:55
Speaker 1: You've heard the premise, Okay, after her fiance actually uses his celebrity sex Pass, Gail heads to Hollywood to play her own, and I think Zoe Deutsch is the title character. I believe so very promising there. I also like that the cast includes Mad Men alums John Hamm and John Slattery playing themselves. Weird Al Yankovitch also playing himself. I'm assuming he is the one Gail that's Gale's target, Right, it's got to be weird. It's had it's hand. I mean, heym, I think it's weird. Al. I'm hoping and knowing that would be to make it weird. Al. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, Dale Daughtry and the Celebrity sex Pass is July ten. Wanted to give that a nod, and yeah, the big ones are Are you thinking of something like Spider Man Brand New Day? Maybe? Well, July thirty one.

00:49:46
Speaker 2: Are our regular listeners know that we probably weren't going to give love to that movie. We haven't been too kind to to Spider Man over the years.

00:49:56
Speaker 1: We've liked, We've liked, I think the most the last one we were a little yes, were harsh. I am a little more friendly towards those. I don't know that I needed another one, I'll say sure.

00:50:08
Speaker 2: I actually was thinking of Josh and you. You really should know better, because I'm pretty sure you, for a previous day job kept up to date with this stuff in a way that I certainly not. Have you forgotten about the Mandalorian and Grogu.

00:50:24
Speaker 1: Oh, the Mandalorian Grogu I am interested in. I'm unfortunately gonna have to catch up with it late because I'll be traveling when it releases. I think that is one worth noting. It was a really good TV series. Yeah, yeah, I watched all of that again. This is so we're heading into reheat territory, right, we're heading into sequels, spin offs, feature versions of streaming series. I don't know that I needed a Mandalorian film, but we're giddy one and this is why they make them. I will definitely go see it. So, yeah, that's another one. And then Supergirl.

00:51:01
Speaker 4: You know.

00:51:03
Speaker 1: That got the film spotting triple thumbs down Superman James Guns, Yes, the trifecta me, you and Sam just get Superman out of here. And of course that set up this film, Supergirl, which is coming out June twenty six. Now, did like Crypto the Dog very cute. He's back for Supergirl, So I guess I'll look forward to that. Here's the real The one beacon of hope for Supergirl, I think, Adam is that it's based on the comics run by Tom King. And I'm not a huge comic book reader. I'll dive in here there on occasion. I have read some of King's Batman work, and it's incredibly thoughtful and thought provoking. I don't know how that might translate, you know, to Supergirl, let alone translate from there to the screen, but seeing that it's based on his material is proving.

00:51:57
Speaker 2: Tom King fans here at film spotting it does. It does give me some hope for that film. And if I was going to dive into all of this Mandalorian Star Wars world that I have not kept up with at all over the past, just whatever's been on TV, whatever's been on streaming that I have not watched at all, Pedro Pascal, the Bounty Hunter stuff. I'm gonna go see this film. I'm interested, and we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. I know I'm not at this point somehow the target audience because I haven't kept up with it. But I am curious about this movie and we will give it some time. I mentioned the Brink of War earlier, and yes, I probably have let enough time pass that one or two or twelve emails have come in correcting me. I knew it didn't sound right when it came out of my mouth. The summit in nineteen eighty six between Gorbachev and and Reagan was not in Helsinki, Josh, I can't mix up these countries. It was Reykievic.

00:52:56
Speaker 3: Of course.

00:52:56
Speaker 2: I can't believe you didn't correct me. How dare you not know that it was Reykievic.

00:53:00
Speaker 3: This is so exciting.

00:53:01
Speaker 1: This has been like a live news cast and you're just getting the dates in your ear.

00:53:06
Speaker 4: Ear.

00:53:07
Speaker 2: Sam's in my ear Yeah, he's a little later, World affairs, geopolitical, Yeah wow. See I could have dubbed these in later, but I'm just gonna do live corrections. Let people know how the sausage is made. Reykievic. So I want to see the Brink of War. The Dog Stars Jacob Elhordi, Josh Brolin, Ridley Scott a new one from Ridley Scott and an adaptation of Peter Heller's book The Dog Stars. It's a thriller set in the aftermath of a devastating flu that wipes out most of humanity. Okay, that cuts a little too close to home. I Love Boosters, which is the new one from Boots Riley Kiki Palmer, Josh, yeah, that's you had to consider that one.

00:53:46
Speaker 1: That would have been my number two pick. But it's it's like May twenty two, so I thought I was looking from Memorial Day out. So oh, otherwise, everyone should go see I Love Boosters. I see Conker. Now I have to issue I think another correction. I'm pretty sure I even told you.

00:54:03
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I even told you that's correct, and I went I went earlier in May. Silent Friend is another one I'm interested in. Tony Leeung Leah se Do won multiple prizes at the Venice Film Festival. I'll let you google it and read the plot description. It sounds fascinating and it's got Tony Leung in it, and that's all I need to know. Once again, those are our most anticipated movies of the summer. We would love to hear your picks. We'd love to hear any other things you'd like to correct me about. Write in, tell me why I should have been watching Grogu Mandalorian. I should know who Grogu is or what a grogu is. I've never more I've never sounded more old.

00:54:48
Speaker 1: But he's not literally I need to clarify now, he's not literally baby Yoda.

00:54:53
Speaker 2: Okay, just you should know that I do understand there's a difference. Okay, Okay, just trying to help.

00:55:00
Speaker 3: You can see our.

00:55:01
Speaker 2: Picks at film spotting dot net slash lists.

00:55:05
Speaker 1: People have a right to know the truth.

00:55:08
Speaker 3: It belongs to seven billion people.

00:55:12
Speaker 4: What is it? You won't believe me if I told you so. I'm let's show you.

00:55:19
Speaker 2: There aren't many films that may be more anticipated than The Odyssey this summer. But if you're Josh Larson Disclosure Day, we know how you're gonna vote. Go in the current potentially deeply flawed film Spotting poll. We know that a lot of people fall into the same category as me, Josh, and the Odyssey is the number one movie they're most excited to see. So between myself and Sam, we were thinking about this poll, and we were trying to put together other options, and do we just leave the Odyssey out completely because it'd be too boring? And then we just said, you know what, let's just make it the Odyssey versus the Field. You can see one Summer twenty twenty six movie. It's either The Odyssey or it's something else, anything else, one of the other nine movies that we drafted, one of the other like seven honorable mentions that we mentioned, or one of the movies we didn't say but that you're aware of.

00:56:18
Speaker 3: You can go that way. How do you vote? We know how you vote.

00:56:21
Speaker 1: If there are others who feel like I do, maybe it's not Disclosure Day, maybe it's another title. But yeah, we'll see how the Field fares.

00:56:28
Speaker 3: I'm excited.

00:56:29
Speaker 2: You can vote in that poll and share a comment at filmspotting dot net. We will share your results in a couple of weeks. We also wanted to provide a few notes for Chicago area people or people who are just willing to travel to Chicago for the movies. Film spotting Fest two fest to film Spotting Yes, that it does amuse us every time. Maybe I have to stop laughing at it, Josh, June twenty seventh and twenty eighth in Chicago. Tickets on sale now at film Spottingfest dot com. You can see three movies at the AF and AM on Saturday. You can see one movie Sunday morning at the Music Box. We do stress that, as always, guess are subject to change, but we're pretty sure that the screenings and the times are not subject to change. We got Cleo from five to seven, the movie that has just recently been inducted into the Film Spotting pantheon. That's how great that Agnes Varda film is. And you know what, it's not here on our list, but we can announce it now. It's on the Film spotting Fest page. But new information to share here on the show. The author of the recent book about the life and work of Agnes Varda, the great critic Kerrie Rickey, is now coming to Film Spotting Fest to help us intro probably five to seven and talk about the movie after.

00:57:48
Speaker 1: We're going straight to the source for this one. That'll be a great conversation.

00:57:52
Speaker 2: It will be after that introing and talking about his movie, the movie he wrote and directed Trey Edward Schultz. The movie is Kresha. And then a movie you mentioned earlier, David Wayne, I'm sorry if you're listening, and we know you actually do listen to Film Spotting. I saw that title and said, this movie is one I actually really do need to consider. The premise sounds amazing and it would actually be hilarious if John Ham didn't play himself, if someone else played John Ham. But I love the John's playing himself. Hey, yes, I want to see this movie. I can't believe I didn't look up who the director was. I hope you'll forgive me. We are going to show Wet Hot American Summer Saturday night our showcase film, and then Sunday morning we close it all out. Josh with the Royal Tenebombs and Michael Phillips will join us on stage to talk about that Wes Anderson film.

00:58:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, what a way to close it out. Can't wait for a packed crowd there and a good conversation with Michael. I don't know. I'm trying to think if we've had one with Michael about Wes Anderson films in general or Royal ten blms in particular. I know you and I. This is what's great about the fest is we get to throw another element into the mix, especially if we're revisiting movies that we've been able to hash out together, and we get a different perspective and a different dynamics. So having Michael on for Royal tenebaumbs that'll be great.

00:59:12
Speaker 2: Film Spotting Family members, you do get a discount on the music Box tickets. You get a discount on the Saturday Festival pass that runs up until the event itself. Film Spottingfamily dot com is where you can get those details if you're not already a member. If you are a member and you need the pre sale code, you get it in the Film Spotting Family newsletter. If you're not seeing it or you haven't gotten it somehow, email us feedback at filmspotting dot net. There will be a meet and greet opportunity that is exclusively for you. Once again, the hub for all information about the fest is film spottingfest dot com. The Chicago Critics Film Festival is the what Josh the fest that's in its fourth year, fifth year, seventh year, I don't know how many years.

01:00:01
Speaker 1: I think five at this point.

01:00:03
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it's it feels like it. We've highlighted it every year and it opens this weekend. As we said at the top of the show, runs through May seventh. All the films are the Music Box. You know, that's an incredible venue to see movies. Great lineup as always, many Chicago premieres, and we're not going to go through the entire lineup, but we did want to give you just a few dates, give you a few titles that if you didn't already have them on your radar, you should have them on your radar. And we will also give you the URL where you can go find all the information that you need to make sure that you are able to buy tickets. Check out the dates. It is Chicago Critics Film Festival dot com. Lengthy but pretty intuitive Chicago Critics Film Festival dot com.

01:00:54
Speaker 1: And this first one. You know you might be hearing this too late, but just at least as evidence of the good taste they have when they program this. It is The Invite, one of my picks in the movie draft for our summer movie preview from Olivia Wilde, who's going to be there, the director and star of her new film, The Invite. This is a thirty five millimeter print they're going to have. The movie, as I said, also stars Seth Rogan, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton. It'll come out at the end of June. Now, also Friday, May one, they're programming a fortieth anniversary screen of David Cronenberg's The Fly, also in thirty five millimeters. How great would it be to see that with a crowd?

01:01:35
Speaker 2: I would love to see that film, which isn't a Cronenberg film that I adore, but being able to see that in thirty five with an audience, the music box audience in particular, would be so great. I don't know that it would be as great though. Josh as seeing one of my top draft picks on Saturday, May second, John Carney's power Ballad with Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, which does come out in June. Sadly, neither Paul Rudd nor Nick Jonas nor John Carney will be there, but you can see that film and if you need more, Olivia Wilde. She stars in a film I did consider for the draft, I Want Your Sex, which is the latest from Greg Araki made mysterious Skin The Doom Generation that comes out at the end of July. You can see it now here in May at the fest.

01:02:22
Speaker 1: On Sunday, this is May three, they'll be showing Late Fame. This one features Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee. It's directed by a former film critic Kent Jones. He previously made Diane and Hitchcock Trufoe. This one is written by Sammy Birch, who wrote May December that won't be out until August. So again, this is a great opportunity at this festival to get a jump start on some of the movies that look really intriguing coming out later in the year. Late Fame, that's Sunday May three, and then, man, this one is really killing me because Steven Spielberg's AI Artificial Intelligence. I don't know where I have it ranked. I think I have a rank like maybe number three in his filmography. And they will have a twenty fifth anniversary thirty five millimeters screening of AI Artificial Intelligence, which I've obviously not seen in the theater since its release. That movie is a wonder You can see it at the fest Sunday May three.

01:03:21
Speaker 2: Speaking of Kent Jones and Hitchcock Truffau, in the Film Spotting archive, you can find my conversation with Kent Jones about his documentary Hitchcock trufo That was a very fun, enlightening conversation with him. Film Spotting family members have access to that archive. Will close out with how the festival is closing out Jonathan Demis Something Wild, another fortieth anniversary screening, another thirty five millimeter screening of that film, really good film. And the closing film is Joe Swanberg. He's presenting his new movie The Sun Never Sets. Co star Corey Michael Smith will be in attendance along with Swanberg. So as we noted, great lineup. Check it all out Chicago Criticsfilmfestival dot com. Nobody else has ever danced the Red Shoes since you left, Nobody else ever shalled like.

01:04:14
Speaker 4: I probably should have told you this before, but you see, well in sanity runs in my family. If I could only get inside that brain of yours and understand what makes you do these crazy twisted things, put on the Red Shoes Viki.

01:04:31
Speaker 1: And dance for us again, I.

01:04:33
Speaker 3: Was spot.

01:04:37
Speaker 2: It is time, Josh film spotting forty's madness is coming to a close. It all culminates with the question that everyone has been dying to know the answer to. Is it Citizen Kane or is it Casablanca? We put those two in conversation with each other last week. That was fun for us, hopefully fun for listeners to hear as well. And you tried to help me out whether you were doing it intentionally or not, and I knew you weren't. You seem to be edging a little bit towards Kin in that conversation, I devoted Kane.

01:05:11
Speaker 1: I'll just put it out there. I voted Kane.

01:05:13
Speaker 2: In the official poll, I did as well. We'll see how our listeners voted. This was the closest Madness Finals we've ever had, so think about that, after this chalk filled madness where there weren't really any close calls. There were basically no upsets. There was only one upset, and it was a nine beating an eight, and it was a nine that Sam and I knew would win. There were no upsets. This finals ended up being the closest we've ever had so fifties was Rear Window versus seven Samurai, and that was a blowout in favor of rear Window. Sixties blowout two thousand and one over Psycho seventies Godfather Crushing Jaws, believe it or not. In the eighties, Do the Right Thing Killed the Shining the closest before this year. Josh was last year's best of the twenty first century so far. There will be Blood versus Mulholland Drive. Is this true or is this a typo? I need to have Sam in my ear and I need to be able to communicate with I think he's saying that. Okay, he's saying it was eight percent, So it was closest because it came down There will be Blood only beat mulhalland Drive by eight percent.

01:06:30
Speaker 1: Gotcha?

01:06:31
Speaker 3: Yeah?

01:06:31
Speaker 2: And in the nineties Fargo and pulp fiction. Fargo was also eight percent?

01:06:37
Speaker 3: Was the margin? There will be blood?

01:06:39
Speaker 2: In the two thousands over Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that margin was only six percent and twenty tens. How about this Parasite versus mad Max Fury Road. Parasite only won by four percent, So this this was lower than four percent. That's how close this was. But there was a winner. We had the number two Believe it or not. How would he abide this? How would Charles Foster Caine live with being number two seated? Never he'd have some newspaper men on it.

01:07:15
Speaker 1: Right, Whereas I think I think Rick would have been fine with it. Yeah, he probably would have been. Okay, likes to fly under the radar a little bit. Number two seed Citizen Kane versus Number one seed Casablanca a little bit of feedback before we give you the numbers. Here is Clayton shank a perfect finale as all things should be. Casablanca is arguably the ultimate studio film, firing on all cylinders, setting precedents of quality for future generations to admire and emulate. In the forties, Kine must have been like looking into the future, confronting the possibilities of a medium you only thought you knew, arguably the greatest leap in filmmaking since the introduction of sound before or since. Call me a cynic All you want, Cain all day.

01:08:04
Speaker 2: We then have this from Grant Averrett, final week of filling in blind spots to ethically vote for Casablanca.

01:08:12
Speaker 3: Thank you, Grant.

01:08:13
Speaker 2: Citizen Kane wasn't technically a blind spot, but I watched it some fifteen years ago, very very early into my cinophile journey. Watching it then fell like what I imagine reading Heart of Darkness immediately after learning the English language would feel like. I admired it from a great distance but found it emotionally inaccessible and formally perplexing. On rewatch, I realized that, of course, neither of those things were true. It is a remarkable film that lives up to its reputation in every way, and I'm grateful for the excuse to finally get it rewatched and properly appreciated. And yet for me, it is still no Casablanca. Caine can have Xanadu, but all always have Paris. Hey Graham the work, Yeah, he did the work. Now I am realizing that if we'd really thought about this, we should have and somehow did we miss it? Did we not put in how did we not put in the third place results? I don't think we have them on our sheet, and we should have given them the third place matchup first, really built up the suspense. But it's too late. We've set up Casablanca versus Kan. So I'm gonna give you the exact numbers here, Josh, exact voting numbers with fifty one point five to two percent of the vote against forty eight point four to eight percent of the vote. So it's a margin of three point h four. Yes, the greatest film of the nineteen forties is Do you have a guess how it came out?

01:09:42
Speaker 1: I really know, because I feel like I should have had a firmer handle on this. Yeah, and I thought for sure it was going to be Cain when I made my predictions and even named my prediction after it, because I thought I could go around that h And no, I don't know. I still don't know. Just tell me.

01:10:08
Speaker 2: Well, Rick Blaine just never loses. He always finds a way out. Wow, he always finds a way out. That guy cannot be stopped. Casablanca fifty one point five to two to Caine's forty eight point four to eight. Casablanca is the winner.

01:10:27
Speaker 1: Fascinating.

01:10:29
Speaker 2: Yes, congratulations to Casablanca. Now the third place winner, We do have a third place matchup. Yeah, we always like to list the third place and guess what almost almost just as close, fifty two point twenty five percent of the vote. This is I'll go in alphabetical order. This is double indemnity, which is actually the four seed against the number three seed. It's a wonderful life. And with fifty two point twenty five percent of the vote against forty seven point seventy five, it's a wonderful life takes out.

01:11:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one I was a little more confident in. I wouldn't have thought to be that tight though, And some real difficulties for voters here when it came down to this final voting.

01:11:13
Speaker 2: It's so great that at least the final matchups the first and the third place finishers came came to be that close that we actually at least challenged our listeners on those final four films. I'm heartened to see that even if I was rooting for Cain to win, I was certainly rooting for Kin to win in the bracket prediction contest. And because we have to record this obviously before the show drops on Friday, and we are waiting to have it be announced here, we can't officially update the bracket here before we record, but we know who won because we know how the standings are are currently stratified. I believe that's a correct word, Josh. And so we think we know the winner and we're going to go with it. But before we announce the winner, I love this email we got from Anthony Reich. And Anthony, you may recall, going way back, he had a perfect bracket after at least round one and maybe even after round two. He was running away with this for a while, and so he sent us this. He sent us this email with the subject line blustering madness induced outrage and really if madness can't induce outrage, then what's the point I.

01:12:27
Speaker 1: Was gonna say, that's that's a common subject line around this time of year. Actually, all right, here's Anthony. I gather that things are going down to the wire with the voting, but I am still hopeful of Casablanca beating out Citizen Kane. Should that be the case, then Louis raising Caine Hill and Jim shocked, shocked to find brackets being made. McMahon will no longer be in first in second place, as they will have lost the final matchup. If that happens, then Samuel too many hitchcocks Maxton will jump into first, with myself and Matthew Black and White like chalk Emery tied for second. And herein lies the outrage. Should this all come to pass, how on earth does someone who got three picks wrong beat out someone who had a near perfect bracket getting just one prediction wrong out of the full sixty three. It would be more absurd than the sweet little old ladies in Arsenic and old Lace killing off men under the guise of charity. Yes, yes, yes, you can hide behind your answer of later rounds being given more points. But when in the history of the world should getting a magnificent ninety eight point four percent correct lose to someone getting a mere ninety five point two percent. This, gentleman, is the madness and folly in farschacality, arsicalitys great wordined bear for all to see. I demand an emergency meeting of the Committee and be held to rectify this injustice. And yeah, Anthony has a ps here. I hope you know that the tone of maymail is very tongue in cheek. Well, the first thing I can tell you, Anthony, is that the committee only has emergency meeting, So I don't know how. I don't know how you're going to get a docket.

01:14:05
Speaker 3: They're all emergency. They're all that important.

01:14:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, Anthony, Except I'm not sorry, because while it may be true that the winner perhaps missed more than you did, it's all about steaks, and the stakes higher as the rounds go on. So we're sticking by it. And I'm afraid. As the Great Willie Walker said, you lose what Okay, but Samuel Maxton did not lose.

01:14:36
Speaker 1: You win.

01:14:37
Speaker 2: You win, Samuel Maxton, and your prize is you get to join us on a show. You get to select a top five, and is it a top five or a draft? I think it's usually a draft, but we can make it a top five and get to record will show too many Hitchcocks.

01:14:57
Speaker 1: Maxton, right, is right? That's right? I think yeah, I think we should do a Hitchcock themed.

01:15:02
Speaker 2: Maybe we should just for Samuel gets to decide. So congratulations Samuel, email us, we'll correspond, will decide what that winning prize is. We'll see if we can throw in a few other things. You should get a Film Spotting Prize pack. There's got to be a few other things we can find land around the studio in addition to the show appearance. And we thank you, we think everyone who participated in this insanity that we call Film Spotting madness. We'll get to what we have in store in just a moment, but we do have to well I was gonna say announce who won our internal challenge, but we still don't really know, Josh, because we haven't flipped the switch.

01:15:40
Speaker 1: Sorry.

01:15:41
Speaker 2: All I know is that I did not win. I did not win because I went with Kane.

01:15:45
Speaker 1: So the the only thing I need you to tell me is did I beat you?

01:15:50
Speaker 3: Lost?

01:15:52
Speaker 1: I'm last.

01:15:53
Speaker 2: I still don't I guess you're right. I think I lost.

01:15:58
Speaker 1: I won.

01:16:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, See that's the thing. But you were so far down, you were in two hundredth or something and I was in that.

01:16:08
Speaker 1: I think you're trying to use the Anthony argument against me. Now.

01:16:13
Speaker 2: All I'm saying is the unbiased producer Sam has said the loser will be you or me as in me Adam.

01:16:21
Speaker 3: So we'll see. I don't know at this.

01:16:24
Speaker 1: Time how am I supposed to spend tonight? How am I supposed to say sleep? We won't know until Friday.

01:16:32
Speaker 3: Wow.

01:16:34
Speaker 2: What do we have in store for Film Spotting Madness twenty twenty seven and beyond? Well, here goes our plan is. The conversation we were having internally and having with a lot of Film Spotting family members, including members of the Film Spotting Advisory Board, was are we going to stop at the nineteen forties or are we going to finish out the decades? We never really thought we would go into the twenties and try to do an entire bracket, But could we combine the nineteen twenties and thirties? Could we do a sixty four film bracket? Obviously we could. I've done the math. I've put the films together, we could or do we make it a tighter and maybe more interesting bracket if it was only thirty two. There's there's an argument to be made that we should keep going, we should be complete us, we should continue this active discovery that film spotting Madness at his core is really all about. And if it means a lot of homework even for us, if it means a lot of homework for our listeners, Josh, let's do it. But we also know that film Spotting Madness is about fun and it's about participation. And as we get back through the decades, as you would expect, the fewer movies people have seen, which means the fewer entries we get, the fewer votes we get. We want people to participate. And what we decided to do was make this a little extra bonus for film spotting family members. We like to add incentives. We like to make that community even stronger. So we're going to do a bracket starting in June. We're going to announce the short list soon just for family members. That's the twenties and thirties, a bracket just for family members. We'll participate too, Josh.

01:18:21
Speaker 3: It'll be great.

01:18:22
Speaker 1: And this is a great opportunity to knock out the so many, many, many blind spots people probably have from this era. I'm just independent of this. I've been required as part of my master's program to watch a couple of films from the twenties and the thirties as well, and there's some fascinating stuff that I had never heard of. So it's not necessarily that these are decades where amazing films weren't being made. It's just that they've been talked about less and less with each passing decades. So I love this as impetus to get people, including us, to start delving into the movies from that era, because you're right, I don't think because of that very nature, it'd be hired to do this as a proper madness and have the level of participation and just be too much work. But the diehards are in the film spotting family.

01:19:15
Speaker 3: That's it, yes, and it will.

01:19:16
Speaker 1: They're chomping at the bit for these sorts of challenges.

01:19:21
Speaker 2: And it will be some, I think, Josh, different than the forties. It'll be hard some of these matchups. Just to give you some of the titles in the thirties, we're talking about movies like The Wizard of Oz, the Passion of Joan of Arc, We're talking about the General from Buster.

01:19:35
Speaker 3: Keaton and m and King Kong. I don't know how I'm going to vote in these.

01:19:41
Speaker 1: And these are the one and these are the ones people have seen. But as I was saying, like, if you dig a little deeper, you know, it's just like with each passing decade, the ones that are remembered or talked about from previous decades, the number gets cut off right. More and more we've seen this doing this project for Madness.

01:19:59
Speaker 3: So the math is clear.

01:20:00
Speaker 1: Yes, it's not that there aren't, you know, films of equal stature worth considering, and once people start digging into them, it's going to be really difficult to vote against something that maybe you know, you've known all your life, but suddenly you've seen this wonderful other movie and you know which way do you go? Now?

01:20:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's not just about the number or participation. It's also the madness is supposed to be the difficulty of the choices. It's supposed to be about these films that you know deeply, you love deeply. You're not going to love everyone, but you love a lot of them, and you feel like they're part of your identity almost and you can't believe you have to pick between them. That's why we call it madness. That is harder the more distance you get. So that brings us to why we're even doing that at all, and we're going to close out the decades. The godfather of film spotting madness, Mike Merrigan, the listener who first throughout this bracket idea that we've run with.

01:21:03
Speaker 3: He texted me.

01:21:04
Speaker 2: I alluded to this a little while back, maybe three or four shows ago. He texted me and said, what if we did a concept where we effectively combined the Sweet sixteen of trying to remember if he said, I don't remember exactly which decades he chose.

01:21:26
Speaker 3: It might have been.

01:21:27
Speaker 2: I think it was the eighties to the twenty tens, like eighties, nineties, two thousands of twenty tens. Take the Sweet sixteen of those forty years that were in madness and put them together as a kind of super madness. And I thought that was really exciting because that's the core years of us, you know, us as hosts and our audience. Those choices would be incredibly hard to see. They'd be incredibly hard to pick. But then I said, well, we've been we've been on this decade by decade process. What if we instead actually took the elite eight of all eight decades that we've done and called it super madness, and we did twenty tens back to the forties. That would that would truly culminate this entire process, and we could really then call it super madness. And how hard would that be to put Cain and Casablanca and these elite eight up against the elite eight from the twenty tens.

01:22:28
Speaker 1: Well, what you're forcing people to do, then, is the exercise you know, we forced ourselves to do every ten years is essentially the site and sound. Yes, right, that's you've it's the best of all time. And I don't know, let's think about this as we're helping people make those lists, right, we're seeing them to window down and rank, and whoever plays when they're going to rewatch, you'll have a handy Sitan sound list you can reft's it.

01:22:55
Speaker 2: And there's still going to be a lot of discovery and rediscovery, which is a major part of this. So the eight by ten or I'm sorry, the eight by eight worked really well. Because then you had sixty four. All we're going to do now is we're going to take the elite eight from the Family twenties and thirties and we're going to put those into the mix. So we have seventy two and there will be some play ins, so we can say we've covered every decade and we're gonna go seventy two and we'll whittle those down to the sixty four for the final Super Madness tournament.

01:23:28
Speaker 1: There you go.

01:23:29
Speaker 2: It's gonna be fun, it's gonna be really good. So next year, so fairly soon, by mid year, by the end of the summer, really you should you should be able to find on our website, will announce it. We'll have the entire list of all of these films. Obviously you could go find most of them now, but we'll have the entire list that will comprise Super Madness. So you can start doing your homework for twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight. We've already announced one hundred years of the Oscars. We're going to be doing Best Picture winners. That's trying to seed those, and we're gonna do that bracket twenty twenty nine. This is a Sam idea that I love, and he threw it out on the film Spotting Family Discord and they went pretty crazy for it. Josh, So I want to see what you think. It follows the oscars idea, but rather than Best Picture winners, it's Oscar Losers. So best picture nominees that went home completely at empty handed. So no acting wins, no screenplay wins, no technical wins, oh nothing. So think about this film. They got shut out. They had to be nominated, but they had to be shut out. So listen to some of the films that would be on this list that would comprise The Bracket, Ladybird, The Tree of Life, Double Indemnity, Doctor Strangelove, Twelve Angry Men, Taxi Driver, The Conversation, The Shawshank, Redemption.

01:25:08
Speaker 3: That's just a few.

01:25:09
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's Yeah, it's just going to be fascinating to get this list of titles compiled and see who this happened to. Also, this is such a Sam idea. I feel like, you know, his heart has just been aching for these poor movies for so many riders. He just wants he just wants to do something nice for that, and so he developed an entire madness to make everyone feel better. This is great, yeah, yeah, and then feel it bring us to feel good Film Spotting Madness.

01:25:39
Speaker 2: We're there, we go, and that'll bring us to twenty thirty when we'll be celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the show. And no, we haven't planned that yet, but we'll have to do something big and important for the twenty fifth anniversary of the show. And maybe I'm saying just maybe because we could come up with something potentially bigger. But maybe we could harken back to the inaugural film Spotting Madness and revisit performers, actors and actresses all time, either all time or current because you may recall, Josh that the very first film Spotting Madness was actors and actresses, but it was only we only even gave ourselves thirty two. We didn't even do a full bracket.

01:26:24
Speaker 1: Oh I know, I mean, I.

01:26:28
Speaker 3: Think you participated in that one.

01:26:30
Speaker 1: I think the truly yeah, I definitely was part of the planning. Uh still at that point, I think, I mean, the most madness thing we could do is have twenty thirty b a bracket of Film Spotting Madness brackets, and we just pit them all and listeners have to vote and argue over which madness was better than this madness, and we get we get to the top, and we all just implode.

01:26:57
Speaker 2: Okay, meta, very meta, I'm in Josh. You can send us your ideas feedback. At filmspotting dot net. You can find everything you'd ever want to know about film spotting Madness. I'll have to add this schedule to the page at film spottingmadness dot com. Thus ends of the madness that is this episode. Thank you for listening to us babble.

01:27:20
Speaker 1: If you would like to connect with us still on social media, you can do that on Instagram, Facebook, letterboxed, and YouTube, where you'll find Adam and the show at film Spotting. You can find me at Larson on film and dependently. Oh how did I forget that? You have made your Blue Sky debut?

01:27:40
Speaker 2: I took the leap out of the plane with the parachute Blue Sky.

01:27:44
Speaker 1: I could I could ask you how you feel about either of the two topics that Blue Sky is constantly enraged about. But maybe we should do that off air. I don't know what they are yet. You haven't been on long enough. No, I haven't been long enough. Okay, we'll circle back to that at any rate. Yes, Adam is on Blue Sky now at film Spotting, I clearly am there too, Larson on film We are independently produced and listener supported. You can support the show by joining the film Spotting Family at film spottingfamily dot com. You can listen early and ad free. You'll also get monthly episodes, a weekly newsletter, and access to the entire show archive. For show t shirts and other merch, go to Film Spotting dott slash shop.

01:28:30
Speaker 2: Out in limited release this weekend a movie that we've been told by many people will at minimum get or deserve a Golden Brick nomination. It's called Blue Heron, the widely praised debut feature from Canadian filmmaker Sophie Romveri. It's playing at the Cisco Film Center in Chicago. Out Wide is Andy Serkus's adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm. It has the voices of Seth Rogan, Woody Harrelson, Karen Culkin, Glenn Close, and others. We have Deep Water from director Rennie Harlan and Ben Kingsley is in this movie about an emergency landing in shark infested waters. Wait did you say, Ben kings Let's just move on, Sir. I noticed Sam didn't include the sur He lost the sir once he signed this contract, he lost the sir.

01:29:19
Speaker 1: Adam, So I can't wait a water? What are you talking about?

01:29:22
Speaker 2: I'll watch Who winds Up at an Inn with a haunted honeymoon suite in Hokum and a sequel to the also insanely named original That is that time I got reincarnated as a slime the movie Tears of the Azure. See Sam made this up. He wanted me to read this. There's no way this is real.

01:29:41
Speaker 1: I have no idea what just happened.

01:29:43
Speaker 3: Please move on.

01:29:44
Speaker 2: I had a seizure just now on air. I believe Devil Wears Prada two. Josh is the tickets to that today?

01:29:54
Speaker 3: Okay? See it on Sunday, release next week.

01:29:58
Speaker 2: In the film Spotting Feed, film Spotting SVU reviews the Netflix streaming hit People We Meet on Vacation. The Popular Letterbox review describes it as when Harry Met Sally. For Taylor Swift fans, why not Sure the new film or the first film in our dissident cinema Marathon. It is Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. You can check out our lineup at Film Spotting, dot nets, slash marathons, don't forget to check out the Next Picture Show wherever you get your podcasts. They are calling their new pairing Josh Minnesota not so nice normal, this is inspired they do that. I use that word all the time with their pairings, and that's because they are normal. With Bob Odenkirk and Fargo very good. Yeah, and you'll hear from us our top five Meryl Streep scenes, and we will also be reviewing the Devil Wears Prada two Meryl Streep. Of course, back in it seems one of her defining roles, but you would know better because you've been doing a bunch of homework for this top five.

01:31:00
Speaker 1: It seems yeah, and you know, she's very fun in Devilwaar's product, But with each movie I see of hers, it becomes less defining. Let's just say, okay, cards on the Table. I'm not a huge fan of the movie overall, and I rewatched it recently, so my opinion stands. I've done the homework, Adam, and I'm already regretting saying that because people love.

01:31:23
Speaker 3: That movie so much.

01:31:25
Speaker 2: The timing may not work out here because it's going to overlap or people. By the time they hear this, it will have already happened. But do you want to give a last call for the Edinburgh meet up?

01:31:35
Speaker 1: I mean sure, it's if you're listening to this on Friday May one. We will be gathering on Saturday May two, and it's at one of my favorite places I've found. It was recommended to me by listener actually, Micah Record the Salt Horse Saltthorse Beer Bar and Burger Spot. So we're going to be getting together there Saturday May two, starting around what did I say will be It's sort of an open house thing we're doing. We're gonna get together around four to seven. We'll probably be hanging out. So if you're in the area and still caught this in time, I'll see you there, okay. Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Tosso and Sam van Holgren. Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Companar. Special thanks to everyone at wbeazy Chicago. More information is available at wbez dot org. For Film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson and.

01:32:31
Speaker 3: I'm Adam Kempinar.

01:32:32
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening this conversation can serve no purpose anymore.

01:32:36
Speaker 4: Good Bye,