Top 5 Debut Films of Mike’s Favorite Directors + Movie Review: The Phoenician Scheme and Is Wes Anderson Still Cool? + Trailer Park: Mike and Kelsey on Going to Broadway and Wicked: For Good

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to tell you about what I believe to be the best debut films of some of my favorite directors, meeting their very first film, big studio project. I'll give you that list, and speaking to my favorite directors. I'll be talking about one of my favorite directors of all time, new movie, The Phoenetian Scheme by Wes Anderson. And in the trailer park Kelsey is hopping in because we're finally going to talk about the Wicked for Good trailer and how I'm doing something I said I was never going to do before seeing part two. So thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed, shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is movie Mike's Movie Podcasts. So recently over on Max I watched Pee Wee Herman as Himself. It is the documentary on Paul Rubins, and a big part of that documentary was him talking about creating the character of Pee Wee, which I did not realize was really just a big performance art. Paul Rubens was such a just creative and artsy person and love creating characters and portraying them in plays. He got to start in the Groundlings, and pee Wee was just a character that he was like, you know what, let me try comedy. Turns out he's really good at it. And he always wanted to make a movie, and that movie was nineteen eighty five's pee Wee's Big Adventure, directed by Tim Burton, who was not the first pick to direct that movie. Warner Brothers had a different director attached to it. Paul Rubins was like, Nah, that's not the right director. Let me go and ask one of my actor friends who they think would be good, and they said, you got to check out Tim Burton. He's a new director, hasn't made a movie yet. Paul Rubins thought he was perfect for it, and this became Tim Burton's directorial debut. And me, growing up in the nineties, I didn't really know pee Wee Herman as big as he was in the eighties. That didn't really transcend to me. I didn't grow up watching the show, but I knew pee Wee's Big Adventure, and I didn't realize how much of it was actually Paul Rubins and all of his creativity. Whenever I saw for the first time, I was like, Oh, that's a really good Tim Burton movie. That kick launched his entire career. From that, he went on to do Beetlejuice and then Edward Scissorhans and Batman and all those movies. Of course, but I always saw that as a Tim Burton movie, and in the documentary he talks about it being such a big part of his career and he is grateful that that was his first film ever. So what I did is I went to my favorite directors and saw who had what I believe to be the best directorial debut their first big movie. So of course they've made shorts and smaller movies before this. So what I did I went and picked my favorite directors of all time and saw who in that set of directors I believe had the first debut movie that was just phenomenal. For my top five, I tried to formulate it in a way that I had a little bit of everything as far as the most genres and also which ones I felt to be the most impactful. So I tried to have a variety here. So let's get right into it. At number five. I have Greta Gerwick, whose debut movie was Lady Bird in twenty seventeen. It is a drama. Greta Gerwig was an actor before she was a director. This movie was loosely autobiographical a starter, so she ronin Laurie Metcalf, who I primarily know from Roseanne, and also a young Timothy Shallamy. But it is one of the best coming of age movies of the twenty tens, one of the most renowned, went on to have five Oscar nominations, had a budget of only ten million dollars, and went on to make seventy nine million dollars worldwide at the box office. This movie kickstarted her career in a really big way because she went on to direct Little Women, which I was not expecting to like Little Women as much as I did, because period pieces are always tough for me. Whenever people are dressed the way they are in Little Women and talking old fashioned like, it is really hard for me to get into those types of films. But Little Women is definitely one I enjoy. The Favorite is another one that I really enjoy from director Jorgos Lantimos, and I just love saying his name. So I had to throw that in there as well. But then, of course Greta went on to direct Barbie, which was massive, and after putting that out and getting all of that acclaim, she basically has free reign now to make any movie that she wants. So I feel that she had such a major impact with Ladybird, and if it wouldn't have been for Barbie, that would have been my favorite film of hers. And I just feel like she is going to be one of the best directors of our lifetime. So at number five directorial debut, I have Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird. At number four, I wanted to include an animated movie on this list, and since I've been raving about the remake for I don't know, maybe a month now, I have Chris Sanders, who made his directorial debut in two thousand and two with Leelo Win Stitch, which in animation it is rare that one person directs it entirely on their own, so he did co direct it with his friend Dean, who just directed the new live action How to Train Your Dragon movie, and that was another movie that they did together, So there's a big connection here in animation and live action remakes, and although Chris Sanders did direct the anime, which all those movies are available on Peacock if you want to rewatch at least the first one before going to see the new one in theaters, which I did see it over the weekend. Oh talk about that on a later episode. But they both did it this year had their animated movies get turned into live action. Even though Chris Anders didn't direct the live action Leelo and Stitch, he did come back to voice Stitch, so both of those guys living out their dreams. But I think it was Leelo and Stitch that allowed Chris Sanders to have a great career in animation, follow that movie up with movies like How to Train Your Dragon in twenty ten, The Crudes in twenty thirteen, The Call of the Wild in twenty twenty, and last year with The Wild Robot, which I think now is going to spawn a new franchise for him. And I just feel that animation does not get the credit it deserves. I hate it when people refer to animation as cartoons because that implies it's only for kids, which is not the case. So much so no one has ever won the Oscar for Best director for an animated movie never, like, why not? I don't understand that same thing happens with voice acting. The Oscars need to step it up and start recognizing these people. Because also, an animated movie has never won for Best Picture at the Oscars, although three films have been nominated, Beauty and the Beast in nineteen ninety one, Up in two thousand and nine, and Toy Story Three in twenty ten. Out of all those three, I feel like, oh, they're all really good movies. I feel like all three of those could have won for Best Picture. Beauty and the Beast was responsible for Disney's renaissance in the early nineties. Up was one of the only movies I sawed twice in theaters. Also made me cry within the first ten minutes of that And speaking of making me cry, Toy Story Three got me there as well. So I will not rest until an animated movie wins for Best Picture or a director of an animated movie wins for Best Director. All that to say, At number four, I have Chris Sanders, who made his debut with Leelo and Stitch into thousand and two. At number three, I have Jordan Peel, who made his directorial debut in twenty seventeen with get Out. So this is where I include my horror movie. It was based on the original script by Jordan Peel. With this movie, I believe he started to define what is modern horror, which is strongly rooted in psychological horror, creates a social thriller, involves satire. I feel like this is what qualifies for a good horror movie. Now, it's not just scary monsters slashing guts. It is so much more elaborate than that. And this movie had a lot of critical acclaim. It won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and did it with a budget of four point five million dollars and went on to make two hundred and fifty five million dollars worldwide. He went on to make movies like Us and Nope and is now a big producer in the horror world, producing movies like Candyman, and he's producing a horror sports movie coming out later this year. Called him. That's the biggest thing that this debut did was rebrand him as a visionary horror director, because Jordan Peele before get Out was just seen as the guy from Key and Peele, the comedy Central show, which is hilarious that this guy who was just so funny and created this incredible sketch show. Even though a lot would argue that they stole a bunch of stuff from Chappelle's show, I think Comedy Central as a network was just trying to fill that hole that Dave Chappelle left behind. But would they have even existed if Dave Chappelle wouldn't have left. I don't think so. But it's not like Dave Chappelle was the first person ever to do a sketch comedy show just happened to be on the same network. So not only did it change the horror genre, which I feel a lot of people have copied his style now, but it also rebranded himself as being seen as the guy playing Obama or a man sweating profusely in a gift that I still use all the time. Maybe not so much anymore, but maybe five years ago I did. So that is also why I see this movie being as so impactful. But also it was a movie that just lingered in my brain for a very long time and I still love to revisit. So at number three, I have get Out in twenty seventeen by Jordan Peele at number two. I mentioned him earlier. It is such a strong debut that I had to include it near the top. But Tim Burton's Pee Wee's Big Adventure in nineteen eighty five because I wanted to include a comedy, and even though I didn't really see it as a family film, going back and rewatching it, which is what I did immediately after finishing the two part documentary on Max, I went back and saw this movie in an entirely different light because of all the little intricacies and seeing all the details that Paul Rubins and also Tim Burton were so particular about, and how you started to see Tim Burton's signature style really flourish in this first film, that very whimsical, surreal, cartoonish gothic looking movies that I mean he really lean way more into in movies like Beetlejuice that followed it and Edward S. Hiss or Hands. But it was almost a perfect balance with Peewee, where it was so comical and over the top because of Paul Rubens's presence, but everything around Peewee allowed it to feel like its entirely owned world, which I think is really important to creating Pee Wee's Big Adventure, because as we saw with Pee Wee's other movies that didn't perform the same way. It just didn't really have that style. And that is what you realize about the impact of a truly great director who is one of the only persons in this case Tim Burton who can out weird Paul Rubens and his attention to detail in creating this world and going to elaborate links to create set pieces like the dinosaurs and have them illuminated in a way that felt so perfectly Peewee Herman. And the movie only cost seven million dollars to make maybe ten million at Max and went on to make forty point nine million dollars at the domestic box office and maybe not the biggest return on investment of all time, but it finally gave Pee Herman what he wanted his entire life to have a signature movie. And I wish some of the sequels would have lived up to this same success of this one. And I think it did hurt Paul Rubins, the fact that everybody gave the credit to Tim Burton, because you saw Tim Burton's name. He went out into the real world as Tim Burton and because he was credited in the film as Paul Rubins, nobody knew or really associated him with Pee Wee Herman. So I think looking back that kind of hurt him a lot, the fact that this was his creation but someone else was getting the credit for it, even though a lot of it was because of him. I think it was that thing he was balancing his entire life of here's me as Pee Herman. People love me and celebrate me for it, but sometimes I just want them to know who Paul Rubens is. But as far as being a debut, I think this marked the arrival of Tim Burton in a very big way, and it's a rare debut where it instantly established that iconic aesthetic, which is hard for most directors to do. Oftentimes you don't really get that until a movie two, three, sometimes four, where they are truly able to make something in their voice, in their style that looks so uniquely them. And Tim Burton is one of those directors who you just know is style, whether it's animated, whether it's live action, whether it's a remake. Thirty years later, it always still feels like Tim Burton. So at number two, I have Tim Burton, who directed Peewee's Big Adventure in nineteen eighty five and made his debut at number one. Because I feel this was the most impactful movie of the nineties, whether you want to admit it or not. In nineteen ninety two, the crime thriller by Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs original story. Although it was heavily inspired by the Hong Kong film called City on Fire, he famously worked in a video store and knew everything about every single film, so obviously he was gonna pull inspiration from some of those movies that he saw back in the day. But this was such a gritty crime thriller, such unique, stylized dialogue and storytelling that felt so untraditional and so new that when this movie came out, everybody wanted to make their own Reservoir Dogs, and it was often imitated but never replicated, even though people thought they saw the formula. If you don't have the mind of Quentin Tarantino, you cannot pull off a Quentin Tarantino movie. This one became an instant cult classic, and it launched that nineties indie boom, which created a whole new type of indie because not only was it like seene as a cool movie that you would have on VHS and pass around to your friends. It also became successful. It also it also led him directly to creating and putting out pulp fiction in nineteen ninety four, and more so than any other movie in this top five, it truly created the Quentin Tarantino brand, that stylish violence, the pop culture connection, and a movie you just can't help but keep your eyes on. So at number one, I have Reservoir Dogs in nineteen ninety two from director Quentin Tarantino. Let's go through now some of my honorable mentions here if we want to go way way back to nineteen forty one, Orson Wells made his directorial debut with Citizen Kane, which is still considered one of the greatest films of all time. I think for the longest time it was one of the only movies on Rotten Tomatoes with one hundred percent score. But after that story came out, people go and mess with the scores obviously, so it's currently sitting at a ninety nine percent. I was first exposed to this movie by none other than an episode of The Simpsons where they perioded the film. And I know some people say that movies keep getting longer and longer, but again, this movie came out in nineteen forty one and is two hours long. I wonder if people were complaining back in nineteen forty one. Can you ever believe Shittershon Kane, it's almost two hours. That's too dang long for a future film. I won't be watching that picture now, but that's an honorable mention. Sam Raimi had his directorial debut with The Evil Dead, which was based on the short Within the Woods. It starred Bruce Campbell. This movie is important because I feel like it created that DYI style, that really gory horror that you could do yourself in your backyard. It was highly influential on me as a kid who wanted to grow up to be a director and made movies with their older brother By mixing corn syrup and red food dye and using camera tricks that I learned from watching movies like Jaws, The Evil Dead, and Halloween. This made it feel like anybody could make their own movie and it only costs three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to make. Only made two point five million dollars at the box office, but became massive because of home video rentals, and this is the movie that launched his career, but more importantly launched the template for a low budget horror success, which is one of the things that Hollywood just keeps going back to. Look at Blumhouse, they have made an entire studio off of a low budget horror success. And speaking of a low budget success, I had Kevin Smith who made his debut with Clerks in nineteen ninety four, based on his own life story of working at a convenience store. I feel this movie was highly influential on the slacker comedy genre that really flourished in the nineties in early two thousands, really heavily dialogue driven, which is a lot of Kevin Smith's movies. It's all about the jokes and the sayings and the unique actors that he chooses to be in his movies. And he famously maxed out all of his credit cards to fund this twenty seven thousand dollars movie that went on to make three point two million dollars. So much like that DIY style that Sam Raimi did with The Evil Dead in nineteen eighty one, this was even more DIY. The fact that this movie is even in black and White was all because it was cheaper to do. I feel like this movie inspired all of the kids who thought, Man, my parents have a video camera in their bedroom closet. I wonder what they used it for. I better not think about that. Let me just get a fresh VHS. But I could probably take that camera and make my own movie. So Clerks from Kevin Smith as an honorable mention, I also have Sean of the Dead in two thousand and four from director Edgar Wright, one of my favorite movies of the two thousands, and I also think one of the first movies I rented from Netflix, back when you could rent DVDs through the mail. Edgar Wright went on to direct movies like Hot Fuss, Scott Pilgrim, Baby Driver, and at one point was the director that they wanted to do ant Man. I think it would have been an entirely different movie had he done it. But unfortunately Marvel didn't want Edgar Wright to make an Edgar Wright movie. They wanted him to make an MCU movie, and he just wasn't in the business of doing that. So you gotta respect him as an artist. But man, if he would have got ant Man one directed by Edgar Wright probably would have changed the entire trajectory of that character. Not that ant Man One is a bad movie, but ant Man in the Lop ant Man Quantumanium, Yeah, that could have used a little bit of Edgar Wright's touch, although they still use a lot of what he set up for that movie because still didn't have that same execution. One of my favorite directors is Robert Rodriguez, not just because we share a real last name. Made his debut with El Mariacci in nineteen ninety two. This is a movie that is often studied because of how little money went into making this movie only costs seven thousand dollars. He filmed the thing by himself, He edited the thing by himself, and he became one of the first directors who would not only film their movies but also edit them himself. And the studios at the time did not like that idea because he had say in final cut, but he knew his vision and he knew what he needed to do in order to make it happen, and he didn't want a bunch of people overlooking it or have somebody completely take over it and edit it themselves, So he would take all the footage back to his home office and home studio and edit these movies by himself. Because Ela Mondiacci only cost seven thousand dollars to make, went on to make two million dollars at the box office. Led him to direct movies like Esperados and City Spy Kids, one of my favorite movies of all time from Dust Till Dawn and why I feel he is inspiring and what I think he proved with this movie is the fact that you could break into Hollywood with nothing but creativity and hustle. Because Robert Rodriguez is a hustler, He's always played by his own rules. He created Troublemaker Studios in two thousand. He made a really impact with Spy Kids that I didn't realize it at the time, but the studio he didn't want the family to be Latino at all. They thought a mainstream, worldwide audience would have trouble attaching themselves to these characters because of the heritage of the people that they were portraying. But Robert Rodriguez said, no, this is how we're gonna do it, and you know what, it worked. And a few more to round out the list, just because I mentioned them last week. The Philippo Brothers made their debut with a horror movie Talk to Me. If you missed that review, that is the movie that gave me nightmares, so you can go back and check that out. Also shout out to Michael Philippo for reposting me in his Instagram story of me talking about that movie last week. I also have comedian Bo Burnham who made his debut with the movie Eighth Graded in twenty eighteen, which was another really good coming of age movie that is very uncomfortable at times because it does portray a girl in eighth grade. I also have Selene's Song who made her directorial debut with Past Lives in twenty twenty three, and for some reason, you haven't seen that movie yet and you just need, I don't know, a kick in your emotional gut to make you cry a little bit. That was such a mature debut that has now launched her career. And finally, I have Anna Kendrick, who made her directorial debut last year with Women of the Hour. It was the movie based on a true story of a serial killer who actually appeared as a contestant on the dating game back in nineteen seventy eight and well, I won't spoil it, but it's dark and eerie. I loved her style in this. She's also in it herself, which is really hard to do. But that was one I went into with very low expectations and ended up loving. So that is my list. I'll come back and talk about Wes Anderson's new movie, The Phoenician Scheme. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of The Phoenician Scheme from one of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson. The question I have before I get into this review is are Wes Anderson movie still cool? Were they ever cool? Am I the only one who likes these movies? He first came onto the scene as a young filmmaker with a movie called Bottle Rocket, which came out back in nineteen ninety sive, so we're looking at almost thirty years of Wes Anderson movies. He followed that up with Rushmore in nineteen ninety eight, where I feel he really started to gain traction. I love Bottle Rocket, but I feel like he started to get into that. Okay, here is what makes up a Wes Anderson movie with Rushmore, but then I think made his most impactful movie of his career in two thousand and one with The Royal Tenenbaums really where he started to get into that signature look, that signature dialogue where he starts to be more particular when it came to having everything be symmetrical, and that is when his movie started to feel like a world of their own, which is what I love about Wes Anderson movies. I feel like he is a genre in himself where you just see one frame of a Wes Anderson movie now and you know immediately because it has very bright and vibrant colors, things are symmetrical, the wardrobe is really particular. So even before you hear any dialogue, just by looking at it, you know it is a Wes Anderson movie who is going to pay attention to every single detail. There is nothing on the screen that he did not look over a million times to get it there. And that's what we started to see with The Royal Tennon Bombs and I think overall just had one of the best stories out of all of his movies. Followed that up with The Life Aquatic, which also just became an indie darling, and I think in the two thousands is where I felt he was the most cool, like if you got on MySpace at the time or very early Facebook, all the cool at the time. I think hipster was starting to be a thing. If you were a hipster, you would be decorating your MySpace page with Wes Anderson stills, Wes Anderson quotes, and that was seen as being cool. That was probably where I started to get into his work really, so I think overall, if I just had a favorite Wes Anderson movie to show somebody who has never seen his work, I would show him The Royal Tenen Bombs. But I think for me, I like it when he gets into animation. So mister Fantastic Fox from two thousand and nine, I think was the perfect blend of his style of storytelling and adding it to stop motion animation. I really think that's where his style shines. I wish he would do more movies like that, because that movie packs an emotional punch. But having George Clooney voice of Fox just hit so hard. And I also just love animation, so if I could only see him do animated movies from here on out, that would be amazing. I think his biggest hit, though, where he really crossed over was The Grand Budapest Hotel, And to think about Wes Anderson movies, he is able to make them for a lower amount of money and if they can hit just right, they can be really profitable, which is why he continues to have the opportunity to make these movies with these really big movie stars. If you look at the ensemble cast, and I think it's kind of a badge of honor for a lot of actors to say I've been in a Wes Anderson movie. So oftentimes you have people like Tom Hanks or Scarlett Johansson doing these movies for a much smaller amount than they would ask for for a normal movie. He also uses them very strategically, where if you pay attention to the scenes that they are in, sometimes you can tell they probably only had to be on set maybe one two days a week at max because their cameos sometimes go pretty quick. But I think the Grand Budapest Hotel was his biggest sleeper hit because it only cost twenty five million dollars to make and went on to make one hundred and sixty three million dollars worldwide. He hasn't really achieved that level of success in the twenty twenties. The French Dispatch in twenty twenty one was probably my least favorite Wes Anderson movie. I really wanted to like it. You had Timothy Schallome in there, but that movie was a little bit confusing to me. Which is a thing about Wes Anderson films is you have to pay attention to the dialogue, and sometimes you can pay attention so much and at times not know what is going on because they are so artsy, the humor is so dry, it's very wacky, and that one just didn't really land for me. But a couple of years ago, in twenty twenty three, I loved Asteroid City. That movie cost twenty five million dollars to make, ended up making around fewty million dollars at the box office, so not a major hit. I think it still broke even in the end. And the Phoenicians Scheme cost a little bit more to make than that one. This one costs about thirty million dollars. So what this movie is about. You have Bensio del Toro, who is just such a unique looking guy. And I think when Wes Anderson picks the actors he wants in his movies and his frequent collaborators, they just have very unique looks where you just see them, you put them in a Wes Anderson wardrobe and they fit perfectly. I wonder does he even see actors as people because he is such an artist and so creative, does he see them as real humans or does he just see them as paint he can put on his palette and use his brush to make his art. Because that is a vibe I get from the people he chooses to be in his films. Beniso del Toro just has a very unique look to him. He's been in a lot of Wes Anderson movies where even picking apart the framing and the color palettes and the cinema taography, it also comes down to facial structures of who can and can't be in a Wes Anderson movie. But Benissa no Toro's character is this wealthy businessman who is very polarizing. A lot of people want to see him dead, so much so that there's been eight failed assassination attempts. So he realizes, man, somebody's out to get me. I gotta do something. So he goes to his daughter, who doesn't have the best relationship with him, and tells her, I need you to be the sole heir to all of my fortune, even though he has a lot of kids. He wants his daughter to take over in case one of these assassination attempts ends up taking him out. And the thing about his character is anytime he is on a plane, that plane is going down. That is how this movie opens up. So he goes to her, she is reluctant to do it. His daughter in the movie is played by Mia Threapleton, who is also Kate Winslet's daughter. Doesn't use her mom's last name, uses her dad's last name, who was also in the industry, but I thought she was fantastic in it. So they are the two main characters, along with Michael Sarah, which it was good to see him in a movie again on this scale. And Michael Sarah just looks like he was meant to be in a Wes Anderson film, like I've been talking about. He has that very unique look, even going way back to Super Bad, and just his overall mannerisms and how for a period of his life he was probably seen as an actor who just played the same character over and over. Really stepped it up in this role. But he is playing what I feel would have been the Jason Schwarzman character in this movie, because Wes Anderson always goes to his main people, it's usually Jason Schwartzman, who plays the kind of quirky, very dry character. But I'm glad they went with Michael Sarah because I feel like it brought a whole new energy to the cast, which I think is the only thing that's really been holding back the last few Wes Anderson movies from really feeling like something different. Sometimes they start to feel a little bit repetitive because he has such a unique way that he likes dialogue spoken, which I wonder how he directs people on how to speak, because I feel because he also is a co writer on this film in particular, but he's usually involved in writing his movies as well, I feel like he is so particular about not only every single line on the page, but I feel like it has to have a rhythm to it, much like a songwriter would write a song and say this is how you have to sing this song. This is the melody. I almost feel like his dialogue has a melody to it where it has a rhythm. So I feel like there's this extra level of work that an actor has to do to not only learn the dialogue but also learn the manner in which you speak it where it's very dry. I just think it is an incredible thing to pull off. And I imagine the editing of this movie is just very particular, very precise, because a lot of what makes this movie funny, even though it's very dry, is the timing, the visual jokes, the dialogue jokes. This movie and its style all comes down to the editing, and with the Phoenician scheme, it was less comedic than the last couple of movies, which I don't even feel fully comfortable calling these movies comedies because they are so dry. But if you listen to the people in the theater that you go watch it with, it does get a lot of laughs. But I feel this movie had a little bit more of a Wes Anderson thriller type because there's a lot more action. By no means is it an action movie, because the action that does have is very just quick and subtle and very Wes Anderson like. But I would say out of all of his most recent movies, and maybe all of his movies ever, there is the most blood in this movie. There is planes going down, people shooting guns in a very Wes Anderson style, but it almost had like this level of thriller to it, much more action than an Asteroid City or the French Dispatch. So I think that helped me get into the story more where I feel like I started to care about these characters and overall care what was going on in the story more so than it just being a visual tree, which is usually what I just want to go into watching a Wes Anderson movie. I want to see a live painting happen before my eyes and very rich colors and color palace that I love, and see images that I would want to take and put on my wall back here because they are just so perfectly framed and just so uniquely him. And I just want movies like this to be successful because I want Wes Anderson to go on and make a movie every couple of years that I can go into the theater and enjoy. That's why I wonder if his movies are still cool or not. Do people care about him? Is it only people my age who grew up with them in the two thousands that they started to become a part of our DNA that are the only ones going to his movies now and looking at the crowd after this movie let out, I kind of started to feel that because it was an older crowd. So I wonder do young people even give a crap about his movies? Do they get it? Does it feel like old Hollywood movies to them? And that makes me sad a little bit. So I want this movie to do well. But it's also a really hard movie for me to recommend because I know it is so specific, it is so niche. It is almost like recommending somebody to go to your friend's art gallery because it's like, oh, man, I know you would enjoy it if you saw what I saw, and I won't even think less of you if you don't get it, because I just think these movies are not for everybody, but they are for me. So I will continue to support his movies and talk about them and go see them in theaters because I love them. But I just want to see him do a movie that really crosses over into pop culture again, which I think he did have a pretty good pop as far as back when Asteroid City came out in twenty twenty three, of people making tiktoks in the style of Wes Anderson that didn't really happen with this one. I feel like the promotion wasn't as heavy with the Phoenician scheme, even to me that I knew was coming out, kind of just came out of nowhere. So is it my favorite Wes Anderson movie. No, I don't even think I would put it in my top five. But I did enjoy it a lot more than I was expecting to. I think a great deal of that was because of Benicio de Toro's performance and Michael Saatt together. Who would have thought they would be so good together. So for the Phoenician scheme, I give it four out of five Airplanes.

00:33:16
Speaker 2: It's time to head down to movie Mike Traylor.

00:33:19
Speaker 1: Paul all Right, Kelsey is here. On a scale of one to ten, how excited are you for Wicked for Good ten? Ten out of ten? Ten out of ten, I would say I'm at about a eight. Okay, I'm almost to a ten. I feel weird about I feel excited that it's coming out so soon, But I think the fact that they film these all at the same time it takes a little bit of the magic out of it.

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Speaker 2: For me, it's it makes it more magical. The fact that they had the wherewithal to film like six hours worth of movie all at once.

00:33:54
Speaker 1: But sometimes I feel whenever one movie comes out and then they take a while to make the next one, the next one looks bad, like the production is a little bit better.

00:34:02
Speaker 2: But did you see the production on the first time.

00:34:04
Speaker 1: I mean, they did go pretty hard. But I think sometimes it's that waiting in between seeing like set pictures, seeing things look different, seeing things they can improve on, and now it's just kind of like, oh, this already exists, that already all happens, so it's not going to look any better.

00:34:18
Speaker 2: But I feel like we get more of oz and the Wizard and maybe less of shiz University. So I feel like we get so.

00:34:27
Speaker 1: We're exploring something we haven't seen. Yeah, okay, I guess I could see that. I also don't know a whole lot about Wicked. You're going to We're about to, so we'll get into that. But the movie is coming out on November twenty first, so the week before Thanksgiving. Now demonized as the Wicked Witch of the West, Alphaba lives in exile in the is it Ozion forest?

00:34:48
Speaker 2: Ossion?

00:34:49
Speaker 1: Oh, of course Ossian Forest. When Glinda resides at the Palace in the Emerald City, living in the perks of fame and popularity. Because she became popular in the as an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, she'll reunite with Glinda to transform herself and all of Oz for good. So is it for good like forever? Or for good like for the greater Good?

00:35:12
Speaker 2: I think it's both.

00:35:13
Speaker 1: Uh See, I didn't know what it was gonna be. I just thought it was gonna be Wicked Part two. Then they're like, Wicked for Good. I was like, is that for the good of the world? Or is it for good? Like this? Is it for good forever?

00:35:23
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't have full knowledge because I've never seen all of Wicked. I've never seen the Broadway show. So my knowledge is TikTok.

00:35:32
Speaker 1: University, Yeah, which I learned a lot.

00:35:35
Speaker 2: Learned a lot on TikTok University.

00:35:37
Speaker 1: So for good, like they're setting it in stone, I think it's both. It could be both.

00:35:41
Speaker 2: I really I do think it's both.

00:35:43
Speaker 1: Okay, But before we get into more, here's just a little bit of the Wicked for Good trailer.

00:35:48
Speaker 2: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. No one believes in me more than I did.

00:35:56
Speaker 1: Alphaba. They're coming for you because I knew you.

00:36:02
Speaker 2: You're the only friend I ever had, because I knew you, and I've have so many friends, but only one that matter.

00:36:15
Speaker 1: I'm off to see the Wizard. So this movie is picking up where the first film ended. That's another thing right now is when it comes to spoilers, it's almost like once I say, once the part two comes out, it's almost fair game. We talk about the first one.

00:36:36
Speaker 2: It's not a spoiler. The Broadway Show has been out.

00:36:38
Speaker 1: For that's over twenty years. People are so sensitive and it is a spoiler free podcast.

00:36:42
Speaker 2: O give it. You're even you're among those people. You won't tell me. You won't let me tell you what I've learned from TikTok about Wicked.

00:36:50
Speaker 1: And I yes because I respect it, because I don't at this point I don't want to know. If I had already known it before the movie came out, that would be one thing.

00:36:57
Speaker 2: But you're gonna know it before the second part.

00:36:59
Speaker 1: But for me, I just don't want to know at this point because I want to be surprised in theaters. But we are now going to New York City and we're going to go to Broadway to watch wake it for the first time.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: I'm so excited.

00:37:10
Speaker 1: And I've never been to Broadway. You've been for what I.

00:37:13
Speaker 2: Went twice last year for the first time ever. My mom and I took a trip to New York in the spring and we saw Hamilton, and then I went to visit my best friends in the fall and we saw The Outsiders.

00:37:24
Speaker 1: Which did you like more? I mean, obviously is at Hamilton.

00:37:27
Speaker 2: Hamilton, but I love The Outsider's Book, like it changed my life when I read it in middle school, so to see it on Broadway. But they're just they're two very different things.

00:37:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hamilton is every musical all singing all the time. No was Outsiders singing and acting. Yeah, there was talking, but Hamilton is just a few parts where you.

00:37:48
Speaker 2: Like sing talks. Because I was listening to the soundtrack today after the Tony's When They Reunited, which just inject that five minutes into my veins. I've watched it so many times.

00:37:59
Speaker 1: Because I've seen it on Disney plus whenever that came out, and I feel like I've experienced it. I know the songs they did. My favorite part of a song during that Tony performance.

00:38:07
Speaker 2: You love Jonathan Gram.

00:38:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that character is the King. Yeah, so I've never been, but I've been to plays before, which I know I can't compare the two. But what I remember about going to a play is seeing it in person. You remember every detail. It is so much different than going to see a movie.

00:38:28
Speaker 2: It's insane and I'm not one. I appreciate the arts so much. I do not want to cry over the arts. I was about to sob during Hamilton because it's just like I think with Broadway too. You know that it is every person's dream to be on that stage. They have worked their whole life. They have auditioned, they have memorized, they've done singing lessons, dance lessons. They got the part, and now they do all of the choreography and they're all moving in sync, and they're all hitting their marks at the right time, remembering their note, whether they're sick. I mean, they do eight shows a week for most of these intense and so you're just there and you I think it's the magic of watching such a beautiful performance and knowing that people are living out their dreams. It's just the magic of it all. I'm I'm so excited to see Wicked.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited, and I will feel that I won't really care about spoilers because one, we're gonna go see it in person, and a lot of people saw the musical before the movie ever came out, so it's.

00:39:23
Speaker 2: It's been for ever twenty two years.

00:39:25
Speaker 1: So at that point, I want to see how it compares to one what we've already seen and then what we're gonna see in the fall.

00:39:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we need to do a rewatch before we go to Broadway.

00:39:35
Speaker 1: Oddly, we haven't rewatched Wicked. As much as we loved it, whenever it came to Peacock, We're like, oh, it's coming out on Peacock and we haven't rewatched it.

00:39:42
Speaker 2: We've had so much stuff to bene lately, we've just been binging TV or seeing movies and theaters. But I think we need to do a rewatch. Okay, then we need to watch it again after we see the Broadway.

00:39:52
Speaker 1: Show, so we need to rewatch it.

00:39:54
Speaker 2: So we need to rewatch it before August before we see it on Broadway, and then in between August and when Wicked for Good comes out, we need to rewatch it again.

00:40:01
Speaker 1: That way we're all cued up to watch the finale of because I have the conclusion as they I want to see.

00:40:07
Speaker 2: The movie is the same length as the whole Broadway show, the first movie, so primary show is two hours and forty five minutes.

00:40:13
Speaker 1: So you think there's no chance that they change the ending to Wicked for good? No, okay, because.

00:40:20
Speaker 2: But I think it's more just like adding probably details and dialogue and like kind of some of those.

00:40:25
Speaker 1: Exploring things you can't really explore on a stage. Yeah, because I'm watching this trailer and I see them introduce Dorothy. There's a scene where you see her slippers. There's a scene where you see her walking down the yellow brick road. It doesn't appear, which I don't feel like this is the spoiler because it's in the trailer, but it doesn't appear at this moment, and you don't have to give inclination one way or another that she's with the ten Men or the line Cowardly Lion. Yet I don't know because I haven't seen either. I haven't looked at the spoilers on TikTok. I want to know do these stories inner connect at all, Like does it overlap, because at the beginning of Wicked, it is alpha but dying. That's how they start the movie saying she's dead. That's what I want to know. I haven't looked up as far as what the timing is, but now there was a little glimpse of it in the trailer to the first movie, and now seeing more of it, I'm like, are we just going to get a remake of The Wizard of Oz? So that's what I want to know going into it. But the first movie made seven hundred and fifty six million dollars at the box office. It had ten Oscar nominations, which I don't think it won for anything besides Astro yeah, which is a given. And how big that movie was in pop culture. I'm surprised it didn't win any Oscars, and I fear that they only got those nominations because it was so big.

00:41:47
Speaker 2: I feel like Part two or Sorry Wicked for Good.

00:41:49
Speaker 1: It'll win, yeah, because I hate it when the Oscars nominates something just for the sake of it kind of walks the lines of being critically acclaimed but also being commercially sick accessible, where it's like, oh, we got to nominate this, but we're not going to give you any awards. We're just going to have you come here. We're gonna let you be a part of the show, but then we're gonna get it all to a Nora.

00:42:10
Speaker 2: I've seen people say that they think John Chub will win next year and it'll be kind of like a culmination of you did these two.

00:42:17
Speaker 1: Huge for Best Director because he wasn't even nominated.

00:42:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen people speculate that I'll win next year and it'll be kind of a culmination of, Wow, you did these two huge movies film Mulla once that came out back to back, smashed the box office works of art. That is, I've seen.

00:42:31
Speaker 1: One of the biggest travesties for him not to be nominated for Part one, as big of just a project that it was, and how intricate all the wardrobe, the set design, the story, the singing, the fact that they did it live, that he was not even nominated. So I could see that it is harder to get a nomination for a Part two to anything, let alone get a nomination to a Part two and win. But I think that would make more sense if the Academy is being precise in that way, which I think that's also saying a lot about them.

00:43:02
Speaker 2: Now you know now they just now have to watch all the films.

00:43:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, after that thing came out with that, they were basically putting it on a tab in their browser letting it run. That is crazy.

00:43:13
Speaker 2: That would to be a member of the Academy.

00:43:15
Speaker 1: I think you just have a pulse and I don't know.

00:43:18
Speaker 2: Okay, other important questions, what are you gonna wear it to the theater?

00:43:22
Speaker 1: What does one wear to the theater?

00:43:24
Speaker 2: I would say dressy, casual, like a nice like slacks, like a button down.

00:43:31
Speaker 1: Dumb question for you? Does anybody costplay to Broadway?

00:43:34
Speaker 2: I feel like you're not allowed.

00:43:39
Speaker 1: You can't you tell me how I can enjoy? No, no, no, no.

00:43:42
Speaker 2: I don't think you can do like face paint or like masks, similar to like movies.

00:43:47
Speaker 1: You can go dressed up. You can't cover your face to where you're not recognizable. But I could paint my face green and go to see Wicked in theaters.

00:43:56
Speaker 2: Fact check them.

00:43:58
Speaker 1: I don't.

00:43:58
Speaker 2: I'm just for lack of a better frame. I'm talking on my ass.

00:44:02
Speaker 1: I just want to know is there integrity to the theater where they're like you have to dress a certain way and you can't hoot and holler.

00:44:10
Speaker 2: You definitely can't hoot and holler no no, so oh yeah, wearing a costume, well, there's no dress code. You can't like obstruct someone's view.

00:44:18
Speaker 1: Okay, so I can't be distracting. I could see that. You can't ruin anybody else's experience.

00:44:22
Speaker 2: It's important to remember that Broadway is the theatrical experience and not a theme park according to the Internet.

00:44:26
Speaker 1: I understand that, but I think if you pay, which is not cheap, and I think that's what probably deters a lot of people. But it's also a smaller theater, so it's a very intimate thing. Yeah, you're right.

00:44:35
Speaker 2: It just says, just don't wear a hat. I'm going to I'll pack you an outfit.

00:44:39
Speaker 1: For Broadway because I see it as the same way like people get excited to go see the new Marvel movie in theaters, and you might dress up like a superhero. If you're going to see the new Spider Man or Superman movie coming out this summer, you might wear a Superman shirt or a cape.

00:44:53
Speaker 2: Even I feel like people will be more inclined to dress like Glinda then go full on Alphabe.

00:44:58
Speaker 1: So I think it's formal.

00:44:59
Speaker 2: I think it's easier to we're pretty fully dressed than it is to like paint your self green.

00:45:02
Speaker 1: I could see that a little bit more. But if I wanted to dress like the cowardly line, it would be frowned upon by me. Yeah, not by anyone. They would let me in with it. He'd be like, sir.

00:45:11
Speaker 2: I will also say it is a very like it's become so cost prohibitive to see things on Broadway. Like I understand it is a privilege that I've seen two shows before and I'm getting to see another one. I love the experience. Listen, give me a ridiculously overpriced little cup of wine. You get a little soup in your show cup, send me down in the theater.

00:45:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess that's the difference in I feel I'm at a point where there are not many musical artists I want to see in concert now because I feel like the concert experience is a little bit just I'm kind of over it because it has gotten so expensive where you're paying two hundred three hundred dollars to go see an artist and you see a decent show. I feel it's so expensive. I need something more than them just performing their songs, Like I need theatrical elements to it. I need flames, I need big set design, I need something else that makes it more memorable. And I hope that going to see something on Broadway is kind of going to give me that where it's like I'm watching something that I could only see right here in this moment, and there's set design, there's costumes, there's a lot of things happening, and it's going to be something I remember, you will.

00:46:18
Speaker 2: I also love that you can sit, you sit the whole time, no standing too old to be standing at a concerts.

00:46:24
Speaker 1: I also didn't realize that for Good is also a song.

00:46:28
Speaker 2: In Yes, it's like the biggest number.

00:46:30
Speaker 1: It's out of everything, not out of part two, oh, out of part twy. You okay, I'll bet say. I hadn't seen the musical or listen to anything, but I knew. I guess Defying Gravity was the biggest song to me and popular, but that was really more so from the movie that I kind of.

00:46:45
Speaker 2: I don't know much about the second half, so I'm excited as well to see, like I know more than you do about certain things, but I don't know how everything plays out.

00:46:53
Speaker 1: Well, we'll find out on November twenty first.

00:46:56
Speaker 2: And we'll find out before them.

00:46:58
Speaker 1: Well, everybody listening, if you haven't it and are going to see it, you'll find out on November twenty first. If you haven't seen part one at this point, that's on peacock and no green makeup.

00:47:08
Speaker 2: That is correct. You can wear a green Okay. I was actually gonna recommend your nice green polo.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: I wear green, you wear pink.

00:47:14
Speaker 2: We'll discuss this off her.

00:47:15
Speaker 1: All right, lere we go.

00:47:17
Speaker 2: That was this week's edition of Movie Li tramor Bar.

00:47:21
Speaker 1: All right, Kelsey is walking away out of here. I got to close the episode up, but you're free to hang out if you want. I'm still here, Okay. I just got to get my listener shout out of the week. This week, I'm going over to YouTube. You can follow me over there subscribe. I'm trying to get to one thousand followers. I'm a little bit over halfway there, so at YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro, and this week I'm shouting out, Mauricimo. How would you say that name? Marisimo, Marisimo, Marisimo.

00:47:50
Speaker 2: I don't know if I would put as much accent and inflection.

00:47:54
Speaker 1: Actue like Maurice Emo. But they recently commented on my Warfare review, which is now available to not watch on Max yet, but you can rent it. I highly recommend it great. We also just watched the Osama bin Laden manhunt that was an intense thing on.

00:48:13
Speaker 2: Netflix, intense three hours.

00:48:15
Speaker 1: It was almost Watching that documentary made me feel like that was way more powerful than any movie about it. Because I've seen Zero Dark thirty. I wanted to rewatch Zero Dark thirty after that, but I'm like, I don't know if I can, if it gets any more intense than learning about the real story. But Warfare is kind of in that category of really intense war films. So you can't watch it for free yet, but if you want to rent it, it is available on digital now. And they wrote, I because I kind of clickbaited the link here the video of why is nobody talking about Warfare? Because it came out and it didn't really have as much of an impact as I thought, And they wrote, I blame the marketing. I never knew about the film myself until a friend of mine who's into warm movies told me about it. So I think A twenty four didn't go as hard with the marketing of that movie than they did for Civil War. But if you haven't seen that movie, it's a really good one. You liked it, right, I loved it. But pretty stressful.

00:49:09
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, my blood pressure was through the roof.

00:49:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you don't like stressful movies that you're kind of on the edge of your seat and worried about everybody in the film, and maybe not for you.

00:49:17
Speaker 2: Very realistic, very strusted.

00:49:19
Speaker 1: But that is the episode for this week. Thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed, and until next week, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.