Top 5 Actor-Director Duos We’d Like To See, The Smashing Machine Review

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Speaker 1: What kind of a show you guys putting on here today?

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Speaker 2: You're not interested in armed now?

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Speaker 3: No, look, we're going to do this thing.

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Speaker 2: We're going to have a.

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Speaker 1: Conversation from Chicago. This is film Spotting. I'm Adam Kempinar and I'm Josh Larson. I could go ahead and turn buck into my normal said front now if you like. It's not that different from how you see me already.

00:00:24
Speaker 3: When Michael Sarah joined the Wes Anderson Players this year in the Phoenician Scheme, there was much rejoicing, as the two had long seem dustined to work together.

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Speaker 1: There may have been a little bit more rejoicing when Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in his first Paul Thomas Anderson film. Of course, One Battle after Another. This week, we'll try to manifest more pairings like that with the top five actor director combos we'd like to see, plus Benny Sapte's The Smashing Machine and more ahead on film Spotting. See what I mean, basically the same person?

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Speaker 4: No, you're different.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Film Spotting. It's a new movie week, Josh. But one Battle after another does seem to be still dominating the movie conversation at least over in the Film Spotting Family Discord.

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Speaker 3: A lot of chatter there about the movie, for sure. I've also spent time catching up on written reviews, podcasts all about the movie. As you know, I went dark beforehand, and so yeah, now I'm really enjoying getting all the different perspectives, including from among our listeners.

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Speaker 1: I have a lot of catching up to do still myself. But this week we have a PTA adjacent show our top five actor director combos. We'd like to see is inspired by this long awaited pairing I think by a lot of Cinophiles of Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Later in the show, we will also have some results of the latest deeply flawed film Spotting pole question. We asked our listeners to choose one and only one, Paul Thomas Anderson decade. This was another diabolical producer Sam pull question. I can't wait to see how it comes out because I haven't looked at the results in or how the polling was going in about a week. I don't know how it came out. It was really close.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, can't wait to see the results of this one. A tough one Sam put to us for sure.

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Speaker 1: I will also weigh in on Benny Safd's The Smashing Machine. I went to see that instead of reading all the discourse on one battle after another. I don't know that I made the right choice, but so.

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Speaker 3: Fun out in your review.

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Speaker 1: I guess we will find out. A quick reminder, Film Spotting is now available as a video podcast. If you're a Spotify listener, you get to toggle between seeing our faces or not seeing our faces. Tough choice. You can also watch the show over on YouTube YouTube dot com slash film spotting, and you can find a link to those video episodes by going to filmspotting dot net or you can click on filmspotting dot net slash episodes.

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Speaker 3: Can we measure that somehow on Spotify, like exactly when they toggle away? Like if I'm pulling a certain face you every time? Oh no, I don't need to do that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you would think we have analytics for everything, right? Why not that? First up are those actor director combos we'd like to see. We speculated recently here on the show Josh, that we would start with the actors, actors we loved, maybe actors that we really liked to champion here on the show, or maybe they need a little bit more attention, and then we try to find the right temperament in a director to pair with them. Is that how you went about it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, stuck with that process for sure. For some reason, that led me to have a list mostly of younger actors, so people in the first stages of their career, more possibilities ahead of them, maybe, is what I was thinking about, and imagining those directors who might be able to bring them, in a lot of cases to that next phase. Though I did pick one veteran who's having a moment, but I think could still use that career to lead role, so I think I found the filmmakers who can give it to him.

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Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily think about it in terms of veteran or rookie, though I believe I wanted to lean more towards actors that were younger and that I wanted to see in more films. Maybe needed a little bit more work, Not that they're not working a lot, Josh, but I wanted to see more of them on screen. And as I look at my list, ironically, after saying that I probably only got two young actors, I ended up with three. Three that you would consider vets now you like to give me grief here on the show, because when I do a lot of top fives, even though I'm terrible at math, I end up doing too much math, and I end up with spreadsheets. And here I don't have a spreadsheet, but somehow with my Google doc, I have a row in two columns. What does that mean?

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Speaker 3: I guess. I guess that's not a spreadsheet technically, So you're not technically eating yourself off the spreadsheets. Yes, yeah, so I had a master list. I had a master list, and just who came to mind? Directors I love, actors I love, and then I just started putting them side by side, you know, actors over here, directors over here.

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Speaker 1: And then I thought, okay, who fits? I started playing matchmaker Matchmaker. That was the process, simple as you're at the junior high dance and you're just there's a chaperone, no one's dancing, and you're grabbing hands and saying get out there, and and that's it. Make some magic happen kids, precisely. Now, with that, with that perfect analogy, let's jump in. I want to hear your number five.

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Speaker 3: All right, Let's start with my veteran and that is Beniicio del Toro. Now, the last ten days since I saw one battle after another Adam. Basically, social media clips and memes of him in that film have been my lifeblood. Some days, I think that's all that's keeping me going is seeing another one go by on a feed. I was thinking about those figures of saints, you know that people put on their car dashboards, and I'm hoping that I can find one for Sense Sergio, Saint Carlos. I need you, brother, please, Sence, Sence, Please courage Bob Kurage, I did del Toro in this part? I mean, he's so good he probably doesn't need to do anything more than this to cement his status as one of our current acting treasures. But I do feel like he still needs a leading man movie anchoring turn to really cap his career. And some people who love the Phoenician scheme are saying, did you see the Phoenician Scheme? And yes, I did. As we've discussed on the show, it wasn't the perfect match for me. Just wasn't it. As much as I love Wes Anderson, I also realized that del Toro was given something of this oppera years ago by Steven Soderberg, who made a two part feature film on Shi Guevera titled Shay with del Toro in that title role, and he's very good in it. It's just a very particular type of performance towards a particular goal end goal of those films, and I'm thinking here, what I'm imagining is something more along the lines, ironically enough of what the Royal Tenenbaums was for Gene Hackman courtesy of Wes Anderson. This career topping and reeling in a lot of ways, persona distilling part that was just perfect for him. So when it comes to del Toro, I'm thinking, who can make the best use of his looseness, which is something we talked about with one battle after another, that playfulness, but also his somber center of gravity that he brings to so many parts. Here's my idea. I'm really calling on the movie gods for this one. Adam, Let's get Joel and Ethan Cohen back together. Let's put them in Fargo.

00:08:02
Speaker 1: Are they currently working? I'm sorry, I've never.

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Speaker 3: Heard of me. You know they're working, Yeah, technically working. I want to get them back together in Fargo mode, and I want them to build a story around Benicio del Toro. I do think there's a model here. Fargo is more of the model, maybe than Francis mcdormand's Marge Gunderson in the movie. I'm thinking more about Fargo's tone. But then the way they used Billy Bob Thornton in The Man Who Wasn't There, which I think is one of their most underrated films. Billy Bob Thornton gives a career best turn there as this morose barber who's haunting his own life. Essentially, I can see del Toro being in that vein in a movie that has the tone of Fargo. So let's get the brothers back together for Benicio. Come on, Okay, we've been waiting.

00:08:55
Speaker 1: Well long enough. Maybe maybe you'll have to pray on that sense ay, Sir Geo Figurine to get the Cone brothers whatever united, Josh, whatever it takes. I love in this fantasy world. Not only will you get the actor to work with this director, but this director in this case is of the brothers who are no longer working together. Why not? Why not? It's your dream.

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Speaker 3: I can do it all with this list.

00:09:19
Speaker 1: And I am now hearing in my head and it's it's a beautiful thing, Benicio del Toro saying, you bet, you just like Marge Gunderson. Why not?

00:09:28
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's exactly what I want?

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Speaker 1: Oh, okay, Also, I think just give me about twenty four hours sense ay. Sergio Figurines now available filmspotting, dot Net, slash Shop.

00:09:40
Speaker 3: I love it, and especially because I scout.

00:09:45
Speaker 1: So let's get to my number five, and I'll say that my number five and my number four both are picks that I have a little bit of help from a listener, Justin R in Chicago. We have different picks. But Justin our rode in with two pairings to suggest, and we're just we're just off a little bit in terms of who we want to pair one director and one actor with. But I like the setup here that Justin gives me. So for number five, this is one of Justin's pairings, and it's actually the second one they suggested. So Justin RR says, another interesting combo would be with the Saftie Brothers. Robert Pattinson was a manic beauty in good Time, which was something that we had not seen from him before. So which actor could do an interesting collaboration with the Safties. How about Sam Rockwell, he's played chaotic characters in the past and has done so very well. But what if he was thrown into the chaos of a Safti film. Okay, great choice, in fact might be even better than my number five. I'm taking not the Safties. I'm going with Robert Pattinson, an actor that we have both praised quite a bit here over the years of doing film spotting. And when you think of the Saftes, Justin called him a manic beauty his character in Good Time. You think of the saf D's and that film in particular, you think of intensity, intensity in terms of what they're putting that character uncut gems of course, that Adam Sandler character and others in that film. What they're putting their characters through, for sure, but also what they're putting the audience through that camera, the phrenetic pacing of it, the editing my director really only fits the former. It's about what the character is going through. And maybe even more intensely, I think, Josh, because as we know from talking to the Saftes here on the show, they love their characters. They love all their characters, no matter how bad they seem to be as people, no matter how much pain they seem to be causing themselves or other people, and so so you feel that, you feel that as a viewer, and so you end up kind of rooting for them no matter how bad they seem to be. My director really only tortures his characters, and in some cases some would say his audiences too. Whether or not we root for them, whether or not there's any opportunity for redemption with these characters, that's really kind of up for debate. My director is Martin McDonough and with Robert Pattinson, Josh, we know, we know he can play tortured. We have seen it. That character in Good Time isn't just manic, he is also a tortured character. But we see that to some extent in Cosmopolis, we see it in Clardony's High Life. We see it in Mickey seventeen, where not only he's a goofy character, but he's tortured literally, he's tortured figuratively as well. And the Batman, which every time I think about The Batman, I hear Ben Folds in my head saying he's all dressed up like the Cure, which he is that entire film. He's just for me, one of those actors who obviously has movie star looks and doesn't want to just get by on those, isn't interested in being that movie star. He clearly issues that, and he turns every role into a character role. And yet I never feel as if he's being overly self conscious about it, or he's being overly mannered about how he's approaching that role. And so when I envision this, I envision him in one of these McDonough movies, just completely bedraggled, and he's I don't know, he's been on a bender for seven days. The shirt is unbuttoned barely on him. He hasn't shaved. He's probably kneeling down in a church pew, and who knows, he probably smells bad. Two we get that sense, you know, wafting from the screen. He's getting dirty looks from other church goers. He's in full on bad lieutenant mode, basically. But it's Robert Pattinson, and this movie's got a mordant wit, and I want to see it. Robert Pattinson in a Martin McDonough film.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you've got the treatment, You're halfway to a treatment. There for the two of them. I like it. Guess I think you like McDonough a little bit more than me. But when you think of something about like the Banshees of An A Sharon, which I liked quite a bit, I can see the match working.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, And I do want to acknowledge before someone says, Adam, how could you not have pointed this out? Sam Rockwell, of course, not only in Three Billboards, but in Seven Psychopaths, a regular collaborator of Martin McDonough's, so just works out. Coincidentally there that that was Justin R's choice to work with the Stafti's again, I love that. I love that pairing as well, But Robert Pattinson and McDonough is my choice. I can't wait to hear your number four, Josh.

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Speaker 3: All right, the actor I'm going to play matchmaker for is Aaron Pierre. Now. He starred in Jeremy Sonier's rebel Ridge, which was this smart little action thriller that showed Pierre had had the chops to be a major major star. He played there, this former marine who confronts a corrupt small town police chief played by Don Johnson. Four two days ago, I've never really been in a street fight. Well, I've been in plenty. Yeah, I can feel it from you. He's got a we can agree on that. What if we just walk away?

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Speaker 2: Well, now you're starting to talk it out like that.

00:15:31
Speaker 3: Pierre is just electric in rebel Ridge. We also appreciated him Adam among the ensemble cast of Barry Jenkins miniseries The Underground Railroad. We talked about that on the show. He has a small part there, but really this mesmerizing presence. Now we're fans of Jeremy Sonier here on the show. Blue Ruin won our Golden Brick Award in twenty fourteen. If you have not seen rebel Ridge yet, catch up with it on Netflix. But I still will like to get Pierre paired up with someone who's worked on the biggest sort of canvas with the biggest stars and made them shine. So let's go as big as you can get and pair him with the director who has worked with maybe the biggest star of all time, Tom Cruise. I would love to pair Aaron Pierre with Christopher McCrory in a non mission impossible properly, I.

00:16:26
Speaker 1: Wondered if you were casting kim iss Ethan Hunt which you know I would take.

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Speaker 3: I think we've done enough of that. I soured on the last two Mission Impossible installments, but before that, and a big reason I'm thinking of this pairing is because before that the series was really probably our most reliable delivery device for big screen thrills anchored by star power that we've had I don't know, maybe the past decade or so. Yeah, definitely not asking for another Mission Impossible film, but something original in that vein with Pierre at the center Macquarie directing. That sounds pretty good to me.

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Speaker 1: It does, and I will confess I strongly considered Aaron Pierre just just based on those eyes, those hazel eyes, they're they're the best eyes in the business possible, and I wanted to find a fit and and my matchmaker skills they just they just failed me for some reason. And maybe it's because I didn't think about the the obvious, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I didn't think about he was so good in that action role, why not just put him in a bigger action role. It makes so much sense, Josh.

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Speaker 3: That's what unlocked it for me. I mean, we've had our eye on him for a while, but yeah, seeing him in Rebel Ridge. It doesn't mean it's the only thing he has to always do, but man, that would be a that would be a really exciting next step for him.

00:17:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you did. You did give the stamp of approval to my number five, which I appreciate. I think you're really gonna go for my number four. And I had this director in mind because she was a Golden Brick nominated director. The film was Saint Maud, her debut, and then her follow up, Love Lies Bleeding, I believe was my number seven film, Number seven or eight film of twenty twenty four. So you know, I am a fan of director Rose Glass. And I go back to Justin R. From Chicago, who wrote in and said Rose Glass is proving herself to have a strong vision and voice over her first two films as director. Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding both have strong female leads across two different genres. How wonderful would it be to see another female powerhouse lead in the next Rose Glass film, namely Kirsten Dunst. She could bring whimsy and wait, power and grace. Yes here again, Justin are I'm on board with Kirsten Dunst. I'm on board with Kirsten dunt in anything, but of course working with Rose Glass as well. And I like this he's distinguishing there as I'll get to more in a moment. There's there's so much grimness, there's so much that's that's morose in love lies bleeding that it's tempting to think of it almost like a horror film, even though it's not. It's more of a thriller really, yea more of a neo noir than it is a horror film. But you know, so she has made two different kind of films. But when I when I had her in mind as a director and I was trying to think of who would be that that great actor or actress to pair with her. The name that came to mind someone we recently talked about on the show and joked, but we meant it someone we basically wouldn't mind if she was just in every movie it's Keiky Palmer, so hear me out. It's it's tempting to pare them together and say say, well, Palmer can take Glass to a different level and a level that maybe she's already trending towards, which is more comedic, or at least slightly lighter. Now, I don't know that I consider Love Lies of Leading to be comedic, though there are more comedic. Though there certainly are some absurdly comedic moments. There are moments or images that you may laugh at in the film. I would say that it's less kitchen sink oppressive than Saint Maud. And it's more fantastical for sure, which then makes it feel lighter, I suppose, But in many ways it might be just as grim or more grim. And we also know that Palmer, going back to your Aaron Pierre choice, we know that Palmer can play comedy and has already merged comedy and horror with Nope. So I feel like this this could work. But I say, let's get grim, Let's get dark. Let's see what happens when we try to subdue some of Palmer's manic energy. Going back to what Justin said about Robert Pattinson in Good Time, that cleaglight level charisma that Keiki Palmer has. Let's see what happens when we take it down a notch. I have no doubt that she will still jump off the screen. I will say I may have screwed up though, with his choice by not pairing her with another director who's going to come up on my list, Because with that charisma and that voice that she has as a singer, and just her overall level of talent, how do I not have Keiki Palmer making a musical? Nevertheless, Yeah, that sounds pretty good too. Yeah, nevertheless, For now, she's making a horror movie with Rose Glass, and it's absolutely going to melt all of our faces.

00:22:05
Speaker 4: All right, let's get into some safety precautions while we're on set. Show number one, please refrain from making any loud noise and sudden movements, and keep your cell phones off. We'd really appreciate that too. If you see anything that looks or feels unsafe, contact me, oh Ja, or your second in chain of command. And three, let's have a great shoot. And I'm Emerald Heywood. I direct, write, produce, act, I do a little singing motorcycles. Baby, Look, I make a meat girl cheese. If you look for crafty, just high l me.

00:22:32
Speaker 3: All right, I'm open to it, I'll say that. And here's the reason. Not only because it just sounds plainly quite intriguing in terms of an experiment, but you know, Kiky Palmer. If going back to when she was a young actor, like you know, tween teen actor, things like Aquila and the Bee and even a movie you know, I had forgotten existed, The long Shots. We're talking like two thousand and six for Aquila and the Bee, and The long Shots was two thousand and eight. The interesting thing is she as a child actor has like a rooted authenticity in both of those roles. That's probably the best thing in both movies, but also is very different from the persona that we think of her now, and which is which is you know, so entertaining and smart and quick witted. So I think there's there is a wide range there, I guess, is what I'm saying, if you look back over the course of her career, and so why not be in a horror movie like the one you're describing. I think it probably. I think it probably could work.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: If it's a case where you're saying, it feels a little bit like it requires that wide range because it's very much going against the type of character she's played before. And I will admit I'm familiar with those roles, but I haven't seen those early performances. So I'm I don't I don't have any anything to go off of there or to to jextapose this vision that I have in my head against Right, if you're saying it's going against a certain type, that's That's exactly why I'm doing it. I want to see I want to see what would happen with her in a role like this that that requires just her to flex a few different muscles. Because I'm not saying she she does the same thing every performance, but I am showing these these roles call on her to do something that she's shown she's particularly adept at, and I want to see something just a little different.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the fun of these lists too, like we part of them are perfect matches and part of them are throwing up challenges, right, is like, you know pretty sure you could probably do this. I'd love to see you try, so, Yeah, all right. At number three, I'm going to go probably back to, you know, thinking more of of like the match of things we've so seen before on a director's part and an actress part, and bringing them together. The actor is Lily Gladstone, who has you know, put in stellar work for Kelly Reichert in certain women and first Kyle. I've also appreciated her in the series Reservation Dogs. She made a very small film that she's quite good in called Fancy Dance, and of course she broke out, broke out on an oscar level. With Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon from last year, she was nominated but didn't win as Best Actress. There, she played the osage wife of Leonardo DiCaprio's manipulated and manipulating a World War One veteran. When it comes to their work in that movie, I always think of the scene where a storm has blown in. They're together in this house and she encourages him. He's kind of this nervous, conniving guy, and she just encourages him to be still in the midst of a blowing storm.

00:25:57
Speaker 2: Storm.

00:25:57
Speaker 5: It's a.

00:26:01
Speaker 4: Well, it's powerful, so we need to be quiet for a while. It's good for the crops, that's for sure.

00:26:16
Speaker 5: Just be still.

00:26:19
Speaker 3: Gladstone has a serenity to her, for sure, but she also has and you can see it in Killers of the Flower Moon. She has this sense of humor that catches you off guard because you don't expect that coming from this serene presence. And so I wanted to find a filmmaker who could foreground that lightness, maybe push in that direction a little bit more without losing the rootedness, and I thought of Jim Jarmush. I'm thinking Jim Jarmoush, not in full blown early deadpan mode, so not like Stranger than Paradise, but more of something like twenty sixteen Patterson. This was his ode to everyday contentment. It starred Adam Driver as a bus driver who also writes poetry. Patterson had this wry contemplativeness to it that I think Gladstone would be just perfect for now. Jarmush is interesting because he also made Dead Man many years ago, and it's interesting to think of dead Man within the context of Gladstone. It featured Johnny Depp as a man on the run in the American West who follows a Native American figure on this this spiritual journey. I have not seen Dead Man, which I loved when it came out in nineteen ninety five. I've not seen it since. There's a good chance there's something in there Gladstone would take rightful issue with, possibly, you know, given her her background. I don't know, maybe there's something in there that she would click with and want to, you know, pursue with Jarmush. I do think just in terms of artistic sensibilities, though I can see Lily Gladstone and Jim Jarmish doing something really special together.

00:28:05
Speaker 1: This is your most imaginative pick yet. I mean, I know we're only on your third pick, but I think you could have given me about two thousand chances to guess one of your choices and I would have never landed on Lily Gladstone in Jim Jarmish and I love it. I certainly can't can't argue with it, and now I want I want to see this film.

00:28:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can't remember the process how I got there. To be honest with you, I mean, you know he's He's back in our minds because his recent film did well at Venice Film Fest. Maybe that was it could have just been that.

00:28:39
Speaker 1: So I'm back with another match as well in terms of I think sensibility, and I want to say I think the Colin Farrell Koganada collaboration has been a fruitful one with After Yang and a big, bold, beautiful journey. But maybe we could talk Koganada into trying out a different dark haired incredibly handsome Irish actor, and that would be Andrew Scott, who I'm just gonna throw out there. Andrew Scott. Is he, pound for pound our best actor right now when we consider stage as well. And I use that phrase pound for pound like they used to throw around all the time and maybe still do in boxing. Because you know, I'm not a tall man, Josh, but I am taller. I am taller than Andrew Scott. And I'm laughing only because I was thinking about this earlier today in relation to Andrew Scott, and it's a it's a meme now, but I remember when it came out, the tweet that's got like twenty one million likes or something, and it still makes me laugh every time I think about it. I don't know if you've seen it's it's a picture of Andrew Scott, Paul Meskal, Jonathan Bailey, and Matt Bolmer, just the the way they're positioned in the shot, the way they're dressed, the way the clothes fit them, and the size of the men. The caption says the Hobbits when the Shire got a Zara, and it's hilarious because that's exactly what it looks like. It looks like the Hobbits just you know, the Shire just got a Zara. It just it couldn't be. It's it's worth Twitter was worth it just for that, well right, just for just for a tweet like that. And I had to at least throw that out there because I think, I think Andrew Scott is that good and he gave my favorite lead performance of twenty twenty three and All of Us Strangers, and no, I didn't conceive this pairing because Farrell and Scott are both hunky irishmen, so I thought, why not just take his place? It's because in part of the connections between All of Us Strangers and Coganauta's work, as we discussed a couple of shows ago, when we were recommending a big, bold, beautiful journey, generational tension between fathers and sons, mainly and sons trying to come to terms with their identity. And I know people listening, a lot of people unfortunately didn't see All of Us Strangers, but trust me, if you didn't, that's very much what the film's about. Even what I said about Koganata inviting his characters to rediscover the familiar with fresh eyes in Strangers Andrew Scott's character Adam is opening up doors to his past, the literal doors to the home of his childhood, and he's interacting with his father and mother.

00:31:42
Speaker 3: Christ do you know who you remind me of? Who you look just like my dad?

00:31:51
Speaker 4: Goody hmm, I remember it many men when I was a little girl.

00:31:58
Speaker 6: What isn't that.

00:31:59
Speaker 1: Matt's sight seeing you both excectly the same time, But really what it is is the heightened sensitivity that they both display. Coganata as a filmmaker Andrew Scott as an actor. I've talked about Coganata as a maker of quiet cinema. It doesn't mean there's an absence of drama or there's an absence of stakes, but the volume with his movies always stays relatively low throughout his films. Characters don't shout, characters don't have to shout, the situations don't have to be conventionally angsty or violent. And when I think of an actor who matches that quiet intensity, that subtle power, someone who does really understand speaking of the stage, how to transfer what you do on the stage to the screen and acting for the camera and how to bring it down, it's Andrew it's Andrew Scott, and he's he's checking off a couple of potential dream pairings for me this fall, separate from Koganata. He's in Blue Moon, So Andrew Scott's working with Richard link Later, one of my favorites. And he's also working with Ryan Johnson. He's in Knives Out, Wake Up dead Man. But I want to see him potentially in a Koganata film.

00:33:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have not seen enough of Andrew Scott to make that bold claim about your best actor working today. But I have seen all of us Strangers, which everything you said a spot on about his performance there, and it is a wonderful film if people haven't caught up with it. And yeah, I think you're right about that matching of sensibilities that that you know quietness but inner drama that is still churning that you can detect. They do. They do share that in common, one as actor, one as filmmaker. All Right, my number two uh praised a lot on the show here and there. When I get the chance, Iowa Debris. I think one of our most exciting young talents right now. And I still need to catch up with this year's opus. I haven't heard great things about that one, but I'm still curious to see her in it. And I can testify to her years of stellar work, which is more dramatic than comic, on the series The Bear, and of course we did spend time on this. She absolutely crushed the semi improvisational comedy of Bottoms, where she starred opposite Rachel Sennett.

00:34:37
Speaker 4: You're just still You're skinny too as well. I'm Josie by the way, good evening. Yeah, you're skinny.

00:34:45
Speaker 1: You're real skinny, many, aren't you.

00:34:47
Speaker 3: You probably should eat and send you to the hospital.

00:34:51
Speaker 4: How skinny you are? Oh, oh, call the doctor, skinny girl.

00:34:54
Speaker 3: I see now in terms of where a talent like a Debris can go now, especially one who is maybe known mostly for comedy but has shown dramatic chops dramatic potential. Usually the path then is go the dramatic route, right is now get serious. That's where you get awards, that sort of stuff. And again a Debris's work on The Bear is shown she can do that. That's great, She's fully capable. I'd be excited to see her in any drama, but she's such a comic genius that I don't want to see her leave that fully behind. So my director is someone who has proven themselves in comedy importantly, I think proven themselves in really smart comedy, and that's Janixa Bravo. Bravo made Lemon. That was her feature debut at Sundance, and I liked it well enough. It showed promise. But her follow up was Sola, and Zola made my Top ten list of twenty twenty one. This was the wild quote unquote adaptation of a Twitter thread that detailed this trip to Tampa that a waitress slash stripper made with another dancer she just met and two random men. It's a lot, It's very funny. It's the sort of fast motion, quick thinking, intelligent, observational comedy that I think a Debris could do really well. And I promise you, Adam, I thought of this pairing, had it down, put some notes together, and then thought, you know, I got I got to check the credits for all of them, just to make sure if there's anything there I want to I want to bring up. And sure enough I saw that Bravo not only directed an episode of The Bear in its most recent season, but she directed worms for listeners who watched The Bear, which was A debris Sydney. Her character was the main focus of it. In fact, adbris co wrote that episode and to my mind, it was the best episode of the scene. So so yeah, there's there's just more more evidence that their sensibilities match. I'd love to see them do a feature film together at some point.

00:37:09
Speaker 1: And that was season three. This last season, yeah, I think I think it's at four.

00:37:14
Speaker 3: I think it might be four now, maybe four season four episode.

00:37:19
Speaker 1: Okay, I think I am two seasons behind. I devoured one and two and then somehow got behind and I need to do some catching up.

00:37:29
Speaker 3: You know what. You could easily just jump ahead to Worms and yeah, I mean I'm a fan of the show, but there's there's a little there's some treading water we've been doing. Let me just say that. So if you've gotten that far, you could probably even watch Worms alone and appreciate it. M hm.

00:37:45
Speaker 1: Well, the director who's part of my number two pairing, this will make sense, hopefully, This is the director who I was thinking about who maybe I should have paired with Kee Palmer to do the musical, Greta Gerwig. Greta Gerwig has directed three movies. My adoration for the first two has been well documented here on the show, in case you weren't sure whether or not she's been focused to date on telling female centered stories. The first one has lady in the title, the second has women in the title, and the third one is called Barbie Greta. If you're listening, Hi, I really don't need you to make a movie about a dude, but if you do, I want it to star Josh O'Connor. Now I might have had I might have had Josh O'Connor and Kelly Reikert in this slot. Kelly Reikert one of our best directors who also predominantly tell stories about women. But we're gonna get to see that pairing soon. The Mastermind comes out this month, and I was looking at some stills from The Mastermind preparing for this list. It's set in the seventies, I think actually nineteen seventy, and he's a little scruffy Josh, but he's still looking pretty sexy. And I realize this guy is Warren freaking Baby. But if Warren Baty trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School and was in Royal Shakespeare Company productions, he can play Romeo. But just as easily play the kind of dim American womanizer that he plays in Challengers, and he can play Prince Charles. I didn't watch The Crown, but I watched some scenes from The Crown, and his ability to make me feel total contempt and revulsion and sympathy, sometimes within the same sentence. Playing someone who would appear to have as much humanity as my toaster is remarkable. You barely find it in yourselves to hug your own I hug.

00:39:59
Speaker 2: Who I want to, I hug who I love, particularly when they are affected by the selfishness about there's any tearing up.

00:40:07
Speaker 1: Who are you referring to Camilla? Why would I care about her?

00:40:12
Speaker 2: Because I care about her morning, noon, and nights.

00:40:17
Speaker 1: I care about her, and you've hurt her. There's an aerudition to him that just seems like part of his his persona that that is so appropriate. Here's another match for Gerwig's sophisticated sensibility. But it works because it doesn't come at the expense of emotion, and I think there's a lack of pretension to both of them. There's an affability to both of them that goes with that air audition, and that comes through in their work anyway, I'm only referring to their work, though, of course I've seen some interviews with both of them, and that affability also come through there. Here's another case where I might have said, Josh O'Connor and Ryan Johnson is a pairing i'd like to see. But I get to see Josh O'Connor with Andrew Scott in a Ryan Johnson film in Knives Out, Wake Up Dead Man. So Greta Gerwig was a lock for this list. It was just a matter of what actor or actress did I want to see work with her, and Josh O'Connor ended up being the guy that I felt the best about.

00:41:29
Speaker 3: You've got me tantalized by the Keiki Palmer Greta Gerwig musical. I'll just say that. But at the same time, let's keep the Josh O'Connor love going because I thought this might have happen to him. I want to see him paired with anyone. As a matter of fact, it's my number one choice here. He is the actor I went with, and I will I'll put off the director just just a little bit here, talk a little bit more about O'Connor, because I think for my list at least he's probably aside from del Toro. Of course, the newcomers, the relatively new actors proven the most. As you said, Prince Charles on the Crown. Totally same experience, Adam. When when Debbie and I were watching that is like, here was my attitude? Is man, what sucker got stuck playing Charles? Yeah? And then you're like, oh, Charles is interesting, Like I want to know about his life and his story, and the writing had some of that to do with that, but it was O'Connor absolutely. You know, he popped in Autumn Dwild's Emma where he played mister Elton's that's the one with Annya Taylor Joy. Yes, incredible and Challengers. I still, you know here, I'm gonna come off as a fake fan. I haven't seen Black Time Era yet, though I know people love him in that. I did see recently History of Sound largely because of him. I praised it largely because of him. That is the recent period picture where he stars opposite Paul Mescal and like Mescal, Josh O'Connor even sings.

00:43:04
Speaker 2: Oh who is this? That it my grain and will not less melee.

00:43:19
Speaker 3: So you mentioned the titles coming up for him The Mastermind with Kelly Reikert Wake Up dead Man for Ryan Johnson. O'Connor is in both of those, and I think, probably what I'm waiting for, and maybe he's done it and I haven't seen it, haven't seen everything he's done. But again, is this knockout lead performance in the movie anchored around him? Maybe Mastermind will be that I might have I might have leaned towards Reikert as a person to pair him with. Actually, if I didn't know, they were already working together. So I'm thinking along these lines and intrigued by the wig possibility, I think that could work out great. I went with Jane Campion. That make another director known primarily but not exclusively, for telling stories about women featuring women as main characters. Intriguingly, I think the film that made me think about her for O'Connor was her most recent one, which was anchored around I would say, a male character, and that was the power of the doc bet a Dick Cumberbatch playing the main role. There the Power of the Dog my number one film of twenty twenty one. And there's no reason, Adam, that needs to be Jane Campion Swansong. I mean it would be a great film to you know, sort of do other things after or retire. But you know what would be greater, get another grand work from Jane Campion, one anchored as so many of her movies are around a great performance. And I can I can easily imagine just think about the power of the dog and the way you were even describing some of O'Connor's work at him. Can't you see him being just as good as Bennett Cumberbatch was.

00:45:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, even ambiguity and physically they're similar too, so it's an easy fit to slide them in in your imagination. Yeah, I think he would have worked really well there. I'm sure Champion could put those qualities to good use in another story. So my number one dream pairing Josh O'Connor and Jane Campion, Okay, I would. I would definitely buy a ticket for that as well. Let's hope that both of our pairings come to fruition my number one. So here's the thing with our top fives, all top fives, not just this one. We're always trying to be idiosyncratic. Otherwise, what's the point. There's no point to a top five if we're trying to hit some kind of right answer or some kind of prescribed choice. But maybe, and occasionally this is true, sometimes there might just be a right answer, Josh. And part of engaging in this little fantasy that this is this entire exercise. Maybe we are manifesting. Maybe we can manifest maybe we can help make this happen. And my number one, it turns out, could very likely happen. I didn't know this when I put it down on paper, but then I started googling because I thought, well, wait, this seems likely. Has this been talked about? And sure enough, it could happen because these two giants are currently circling each other. Now, of course, we know how things work in the movie business. This does not mean it will happen. It's not a lock. No one has agreed to anything. They're not even talking about an exact or specific project at this point, but they have talked about each other. Who are they? They are Denzel Washington and the man who partly inspired this top five, Paul Thomas Anderson. Paul Thomas Anderson has probably earned the mantle of my favorite, both my favorite and best American filmmaker not named Martin Scorsese. And when you look at the list of the great American actors he's worked with, but also just the great American actors at least of the last twenty five to thirty five years, Josh. They are the names that comprised most of our picks when we did that draft of the best actors of the last twenty five years. Philim Seymour Hoffman, Joquin Phoenix, Daniel day Lewis, now Leonardo DiCaprio. Who hasn't he worked with? From that list. The actor that I took before DiCaprio when we did that draft, Denzel Washington. I said, this very well could happen. Not surprisingly. Yeah, they're on the record as wanting to work together. Washington was asked in an interview last November when he was promoting Gladiator two who he still wants to work with before he retires, and he said this, I'm only interested in working with the best. So I got Ryan Coogler, I've been talking with, talked with him last night, had a two hour conversation with Steve McQueen. Had a great conversation, but I'm not making a film with him yet. With Paul Thomas Anderson, that's the level I'm talking about. People that inspire me. Pta just last month was asked about the actors he's dying to work with, and he said, Denzel, there's a white whale right there. The power, the scale of his movie star power and range. That's very exciting to think about working with. He then added one more name, and it's an actress, no one who's been mentioned so far. I won't ask you to guess, because I don't think in a million years you'd come up with it. But it will make sense when you hear it. The second name he mentioned was Olivia Coleman.

00:49:09
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, yeah, how.

00:49:10
Speaker 1: Good would that be? Olivia Coleswerless.

00:49:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's.

00:49:15
Speaker 1: Right, but Denzel, Yes, they both know it. They both know that they need to work together. We all know that they need to work together. I don't know how Pta finishes telling whenever he finishes telling it, this crazy American experience without harnessing that force, the force that is Denzel Washington. Nobody questions his gravitas. But something we talked about with one battle after another, and you use the right word, the puncturing that Paul Thomas Anderson likes to do, and that absurd sandbox that he likes to always play in I'm not suggesting that Denzel had anything to prove to us at at this point when Gladiator two came out, especially because I think he's always shown a wicked sense of humor or this year with highest to lowest, but certainly after Gladiator two and highest to Lois this year, his playfulness, his willingness to take risks, cannot be questioned.

00:50:16
Speaker 3: You wish loyalty.

00:50:19
Speaker 1: I own.

00:50:22
Speaker 3: Your house. I want your loyalty.

00:50:26
Speaker 1: With age, I feel like he's only gotten bolder. He hasn't retreated inward. He hasn't gotten safer at all, as he's about to turn or maybe has recently turned seventy. And I also I want to be fair to this esteemed actor because when I reference Gladiator too, I think we all what comes to mind are the scenery chewing scenes or how bizarre he acts in some moments, and there are big moments. That's some of the playfulness and the risk taking that I'm referring to. But I'm also thinking of the subtle weight that he gives scenes, that gravitas that he brings to scenes like the one in the depths of the Colosseum Josh when he dispels for Paul Meskal's Lucius, the myth of the Dream of Rome.

00:51:17
Speaker 2: The greatest Temple, Rome of a builds the Colosseum because this is what they believe in power.

00:51:25
Speaker 3: They go either here to watch the strong strike down that there has to be something else. There is nothing else.

00:51:31
Speaker 1: It has to be another rogue.

00:51:32
Speaker 3: There is no other room. The dream, the Dream of Rome. It's an old man's fantasy.

00:51:41
Speaker 1: That's just classic Denzel Washington, who is barely raising his voice above a whisper in that scene, and he is crushing the spirit of Mescal's character in that scene. We deserve this. We as a people, we as a nation. We deserve Denzel Washington and Paul Thomas Anderson making a film together. We need it.

00:52:05
Speaker 3: It's a compelling thought experiment because I would place Denzel, you know, if there's if there's the trajectory from star to actor, which isn't entirely fair, but let's just say that's a continuum, I would place Denzel more towards Starr, and I would play someone like Daniel d Lewis Mortward's actor. Yet I can see Denzel Washington. It would be a very different experience, but crushing the role of Daniel Plainview and there will be blood, and that speaks to like the American story aspect, right that that I think Denzel Washington is capable and in a lot of his films has been investigating, and that there will be blood absolutely investigates. But there's the stature and the power that that role requires Denzel has. That doesn't mean their pairing would look like that. It might look like something more the lines of what you were referencing with the lightness and the absurdity. It could absolutely go that direction too, But there's a lot of absurdity in Daniel Plainview. But yeah, I think I think this could work. So the variety, the variety term they're circling each other, huh, that's that's exciting.

00:53:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think we have to acknowledge going back to where we started at the very beginning of this show, you mentioned Daniel Plainview, and I don't know if you were specifically speaking of that character or a character like that. Obviously, Denzel Washington, he wouldn't play it the same way as Daniel da Lewis, But he can play a character. He could play a character of that stature. He couldn't play Daniel plainview, because as a black man, he couldn't play character, right. But that's that's where I'm going with this in light of the discourse around one Battle after another Denzel Washington playing the lead character in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie begs the question of what would that Paul Thomas Anderson movie. It's the story, what would the story be? I'm talking about the American experience. I think Paul Thomas Anderson is one of our great chroniclers in any medium of the American experience, and he tells it in an expansive way because of the periods that he covers. But he is very clearly not even though he is touching on it in one battle after another, He's very clearly not telling the black American experience. And what might that be? Would it be that if he cast Denzel Washington in his next movie? That would be? That would be that would have to be part of the speculation if if we were really bringing this fantasy to life, and I suppose I would like to see that, But that would also that would also raise all sorts of interesting questions about whether or not he has the right to write and direct story. Yeah, I mean whether or not we want to see that story from him.

00:54:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, then you're talking about you're going to have to bring in other collaborators as well to make it a story that can meet the demands, that can make it a movie that meet the demands of that sort of story.

00:55:13
Speaker 1: Do you have any honorable mentions or any other picks that you'd like to throw in, josh.

00:55:19
Speaker 3: You know, for my honorable mentions, it's mostly the actors that I wanted to get to, though I did not have Olivia Coleman, and your mention of her makes me think she should have maybe been one of my five. So I was thinking of the likes of Dev Patel, Rachel Sennett, Austin Butler, Keiky Palmer was one I would had hoped to get to, Steven Young, and then Mike Feist, Joshua Kinner's challenger's partner. I wanted to maybe get a pairing with him. Here's a pairing I actually did have as an honorable mention. So maybe my number six, you could say, but Sondra Huler from Tony Erdman An Anatomy of a Fall, of course, I thought it might be fun to have yorgo slanthemous take a break from Emma Stone and work with someone who might bring him back a little bit closer to reality. You know, the fantasias he and Stone have been exploring have been interesting, and I do wonder if we could, you know, if that might be an era or a period of filmmaking he could set aside with someone like Sandra Huler, who has just the inscrutability, the bravery, just a lot of the qualities that I think make things like Dog Tooth, an early lanthemous film, really work, and maybe get back to that sort of tone for him.

00:56:51
Speaker 1: I didn't have any other pairings. It was enough work to come up with this top five. But I did want to find a pair a partner for Juliet Binoche. I wanted to find a partner for Adam Driver. I wanted to find a partner for Oscar Isaac, but they didn't quite make the cut. All close with this quick one from Scott g in Skokie, Illinois. Among actors and directors who have not yet worked together, one specific pairing stands out to me. Amy Adams and Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino has spoken frequently about his desire to only make one more feature film before segueing into writing books about film and other endeavors. I would hate for Adams, who has been a favorite of mine for at least twenty years, to miss the opportunity to really let it rip with Quinton's dialogue. Actually, there are a number of actors, probably one hundred, who I think would shine brightly under Tarantino's guidance, but Adams tops my personal list.

00:57:46
Speaker 3: So another man, Fustine one. Yeah, Tarantino back out of semi retirement via this. I like.

00:57:53
Speaker 1: Those are the top five actor director combos we'd like to see. You can view that list over at film spott just click on lists. We would love to hear your picks or any other comments about the show. You can email us feedback at filmspotting dot net.

00:58:10
Speaker 6: This episode is brought to you by Peloton break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training tread Plus powered by Peloton Iq. With real time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence, helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training tread Plus at one peloton dot com.

00:58:35
Speaker 3: Listening is the number one thing you can do to support an independently produced show like film Spotting, but there are a couple of other things you could also do. You could take a minute to give us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Doesn't matter if you've only been listening for a few shows or if you've been listening for twenty years. Every new review does help us reach new listeners. The most substantial way to support us, however, is to join the Film Spotting family, and you could do that at film Spottingfamily dot com. We want to thank family plus member. That's the highest level you can join at Adam web from Minnesota. Adam is on letterboxed as many of our family members are. If you would like to follow him, just type in a Wiebe thirty four.

00:59:26
Speaker 1: Adam writes, I discovered the podcast while searching for movie pods to listen to. I started listening at the same time that I discovered the Bad Movie Podcast. How did this get made? That's Paul Sheer, June, Diane Raphael, and Jason Manzukus really fun show, favorite review or segment. The timing of this could not be better. I swear, I just am looking at this for the first time, and this is this is the God's honest truth. This morning, while getting ready for the day, I don't know why it popped into my head. I was thinking about, Josh, how few entries for Massacre Theater we have this week, the most recent edition. M hmm, just it's it's just brutal. And I was thinking once again about whether or not we should have the conversation about dumping Massacre theater, and how every time I bring that up, people think, people think I want to, like I'm encouraging it and I don't want to get rid of it. But but nobody enters. And and here here Adam is saying I love Massacre Theater. It's like it's like Sam Adam, the universe knew that I needed reassurance.

01:00:35
Speaker 3: And and this is you know, here's the point. Adam may have never entered, it doesn't matter. This is what I This is what I always try to tell you, is like that the entries are not the measure some some people may just like enjoy hearing us make asses of ourselves. That's as far as it goes for them. That's okay, all right.

01:00:54
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like a politician. I need I need the ballot box stuff and votes. What review did we get wrong? It's difficult to answer, as I find that I frequently disagree with Adam hm. I tend to agree much more with Josh. Now, how about this letterbox top four? No explanation, he just sends in one of the wackiest letterbox top four we've ever seen. It starts out, starts out perfectly normal, et the Extraterrestrial. Then we go to nineteen nineties teenage mutant Ninja Turtles, then The Door in the Floor, the two thousand and four adaptation of John Irving's nineteen ninety eight novel A Widow for one Year starring Jeff Bridges. In twenty seventeen's The Endless, directed by Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson.

01:01:42
Speaker 3: Curious, let's just say curious. Now further proof than that Adam and I are on the same wavelength. However, I also am a fan of The Door in the Floor. As far as Endless, The Endless, I've got nothing for you.

01:01:57
Speaker 1: Well, he does say a random film or filmmaker that he loves Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson. So there's some connection there. Ironically, I'm the big John Irving guy, and I love the novel A Widow for one year, but I've never seen the movie The Door in the Floor, and maybe this is why Sam actually picked or here it is again, the universe just coming together. This is the week of the Refocused Film Festival, and Michael Phillips and I are this is two days away, three days away. As we're taping this. Michael Phillips and I are going to be taping our segment on the top five movies adapted from works by Iowa writers, and that includes the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Well, John Irving famously attended and taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, so of course I will be considering adaptations of John Irving's work. And there is one in Adams. There you go, Letterbox Top four. A favorite movie he revisited recently is The Witch. He credits e t with becoming a sinophile. A favorite book about movies is A Year at the Movies by Kevin Murphy Mystery Science Theater three thousand fame. We thank Adam for joining the family and for all of those years of listening, in addition to keeping us what we're doing Your support comes with perks. You get to listen early in ed Free, you get the weekly newsletter, you get exclusive opportunities, including being part of the robust Film Spotting Family discord, and yes, you do get monthly bonus episodes. I keep seeing this and keep saying this, and it reminds me that I have to get out the email soliciting topics for the October bonus that we will do. A family member gets to draft live to tape with me, you and producer Sam. It's coming up. We have to tape that in a few weeks. So I got to get the email out. That will be fun. We always love engaging on air. So to speak with a family member.

01:03:53
Speaker 3: Josh, Yeah, We're We're a good weekend October, Adam. So let's get moving on that.

01:03:58
Speaker 1: I'm delinquent and learn more at Filmspottingfamily dot com. A quick addendum to our Film Spotting Family shout out. We wanted to give a congratulatory message to two very important family members, two very important friends of the show, Thomas Todd and Ashley McDonald Bennett. You've actually heard both of their names mentioned in recent years here on the show. Because Thomas Todd is our quiz master extraordinaire. And Ashley McDonald Bennett is the wonderful person who helped us put together Film Spotting Fest. Without her, that event would not have happened and would not have gone as smoothly as it did. So they've been very important parts of Film Spotting here, going back about five years. It was five years ago that Thomas Todd came up to us at the Music Box in Chicago, February twenty twenty. You might recall this is right before the world shut down and change forever. We were having a Film Spotting anniversary event fifteen years watching Rio Bravo on the big screen there at the Music Box, and before we were in the lounge having a couple drinks, and this guy had never met before, came up and introduced himself, and I thought it was crazy that he was driving across country. He was coming, I believe from the Bay Area, definitely California, and he decided to stop through. He planned his trip so he could stop through and hang out with us in Chicago and then make his way to New York where he was moving. And a little while later he emailed and pitched this idea of trivia when everybody was on zoom. He said, Hey, maybe we can get together as a film spotting community. Have you ever thought about trivia? I do this. I regularly run pub style trivia, do these quizzes. Maybe we could give it a try. And we had a conversation and we thought it was a great idea. And here we are five years later and we're still now doing these regularly with our film spotting family members. It's become a really, really important part part of the show. He's become an important part of the show. And as I mentioned, Ashley has as well. And of course that entire you've heard us reference at that entire trivia spotting mafia in New York has has burgeoned around Trivia Spotting and Thomas. So we love that group and we love Thomas and Ashley. And I'm so excited that they're getting married. Have I mentioned that yet? Why am I talking about them? They're getting married this weekend. Yeah, that's what's happening. And I wish I could be there. We have so much going on unfortunately here in Iowa City right now, but I am so excited for them. Again, I really, really really do wish I could have made the trip out there, But I'm really happy for them. I look forward to hearing all the stories about how the wedding and the reception went, and I look forward to many more years of working with them. So Thomas Ashley, all my best, congratulations, probably looking at my eyes.

01:06:58
Speaker 6: Howdn't that happen?

01:07:02
Speaker 2: Well?

01:07:03
Speaker 3: Have you ever heard of the Ultimate Fighting Championship the UFC?

01:07:08
Speaker 1: That's the bloody thing they're trying to ban. G john is the best he has ever seen.

01:07:15
Speaker 3: Do you hate each other when you fight? Absolutely not. The Smashing Machine is currently playing in wide release. It's the story of UFC fighter Mark Kerr, played by Dwayne Johnson. It's directed by Benny Safty, half of the Safty Brothers, the directing team that made Uncut, Gems and Good Time Now. The Smashing Machine premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September. That's where Safti won the Best Directing prize. Adam, you caught up with the movie over the weekend, and maybe you're uniquely qualified at this moment to talk about it not just as a movie, not just as a biopic, but as a sports movie. Are you teaching an entire course? Sun? Is it a section of another course, or I know you're up to something like that.

01:08:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am teaching a course and very much enjoying the course. It's called Sport and Film. And hopefully that's the last time I'll mention that on the show, because I feel like I've mentioned it in passing three or four times and people are going to start taking shots every time I mentioned sport and Film. I have a lot to say about it as a as a sports movie, and we're not in class, and I don't want to bore people with all of those thoughts. Here's what I'm gonna say to you, Josh, about The Smashing Machine. I violated one of my own principles when I reviewed this movie, and it came back to haunt me. The reason why I don't do this thing ended up proving to be true. And what I'm referring to is, you know that I have a rule about not consuming the thing the source material first, when I know I'm going to review a movie. Now if I have, if it so happens that I read the book once and then it's turned into a movie, well then okay, obviously I'm gonna watch the movie. And if I have the movie, or if I have the book in mind while I'm watching the movie, then that is what it is. I can't undo that. But I won't seek out the book just because it came out first and then watch the movie. I want to just experience the movie fresh and not compare them. We've talked about that before. Well, that includes anything that's the source material, if it's based on another movie, if it's based on another movie that happens to be a documentary, I don't want to know. I just want to take the movie as it is. But because of the sports movie class that I'm teaching and seeing a couple video was on my Instagram where Benny Saftie was talking about making this movie and what inspired it, my curiosity got the best to me. There's a documentary that exists that's called The Smashing Machine. I don't even know what year it's from, and it's Mark Kerr's life and I managed to find it online and it's only like seventy five or eighty minutes long. And the reason I watched it wasn't just because I was so curious, but just based on Benny safty as a director and some of the things that he was saying. Even though he wasn't necessarily referencing the documentary direct directly. I was sure that he was going to transform this material. It gave me the sense that I could watch this documentary and it wouldn't in any way impact my experience watching The Smashing Machine twenty twenty five in the theater. Except what I didn't count on. What I don't think I could have counted on, is the Smashing Machine mirrors the original doc so closely. It's more reenactment than reinterpretation. It is as if Josh the Rock and Benny Saftie we're so obsessed with I was gonna make an analogy like playing in my cover band. Sometimes you want to cover a song not because you like it so much and you want to reimagine it, reinterpret it for an audience. No, I want to cover it because I can't wait to play it just like the band plays it. I want to play the bassline just like that bass player plays it. That's the fun part. I want to play those notes exactly. That's what it seems like happened here. And not many people have seen this. It's really hard to find. I could only find it online a link online somewhere. It's not like streaming or on demand. It's as if the Rock and Benny Saftie were so obsessed with this movie and Mark Kerr's life that they decided to re enact the documentary as a feature film. Shoot the documentary, including mirroring its as it's esthetic, but with Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his girlfriend. And the entire time I was watching the film, Josh, all I could think about was that all I could think about was I can't believe they're they're recreating these scenes almost identically. I can't believe they took the dialogue straight from the documentary, right, Like, imagine that it's not just another film, It's it's a documentary, so it's real life happening, and they just transcribed it.

01:12:53
Speaker 5: Do you want me to throw this out, Duran and have this.

01:12:57
Speaker 3: Here's a skim milk?

01:12:58
Speaker 2: Right?

01:12:58
Speaker 5: Yeah?

01:12:59
Speaker 2: Last week I s what's the whole milk?

01:13:03
Speaker 1: Well, you got to tell me, he says something, get it wrong. If you don't, I'll just think another est. Now, it does deviate in certain ways, but the only thing I guess I can say about the movie is that the ways that it does deviate, I don't think are are interesting or justify the film and the experience of watching it. For me, I have no sense though, of how I would really feel about the movie if I wasn't so aware of how closely aligned it is with the documentary. And the last thing I'll say is that what's also curious to me about the choice is that Safty decides that he wants to make it a bit of a meta experiment. So the movie starts just like the documentary, starts with not only the same scene but with the square aspect ratio and a VHS esthetic because it looks more like video like it was shot back when this documentary was shot. This all takes place back around Mark Kerr was fighting in the late nineties and early two thousands, so it looks like that and that's how he shoots it. But then there's a point during the first match that we see where the aspect ratio widens out and it looks crisper, and we realize, okay, now we're you know, now it's a feature film. Now it's a narrative film. It's not trying to be like a documentary. And there's also a meta element to the ending of the film. That I won't spoil. So there's meta bookends to the movie. But Josh, once it goes from that documentary esthetic at the beginning, the thing is, it doesn't abandon the documentary aesthetic. It just looks better. The movie continues to try to be a documentary, and I don't mean just in terms of recreating the original film and the scenes and the dialogue from it. I mean it still tries to be in its form a documentary, the camera.

01:15:09
Speaker 3: Handheld shaking as a documentary.

01:15:12
Speaker 1: It's presenting itself as if He's he is going for a realist esthetic, a fly on the wall sort of cinema veritae aesthetic. So I I really struggle, I really struggle to understand the exercise here, and it does feel to me. The cover band analogy is the best thing I can say. It feels to me. And I know that I know from something I saw in an Instagram video that this was a project that The Rock had been eyeing for a long time, that he was he was really obsessed might be the right word. With Mark Kurr's life, and Benny Saftie was obsessed once The Rock showed it to him, with being the guy who got to direct the rock in it, and he'd break out videos of it on his phone, and I just want, I don't, I don't want to speculate about these things. But to me, it almost feels like they, at least Benny Saftie maybe became so obsessed with it that he it was about for him seeing how closely he could recreate it, and that that that isn't compelling for me as a viewer to watch how closely they recreated the documentary.

01:16:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was curious as you were talking, you know, where the project originated. My guess was going to be with Dwayne Johnson. Just the way you're describing it, So that's yeah, that is, you know, perhaps revealing, so you're it's you're not. It's not really a Gus Vincent psycho situation unless close in some ways, and unless on Saftie's part. The it was the experiment of it that was more interesting than the final product, you know, which which has been one defense of the Van saying psycho. But yeah, I did not realize that that either. And what a what a strange movie. This sounds like mm hmmm.

01:16:54
Speaker 1: And again I I imagine that most people, obviously most people coming to it didn't find this movie or didn't watch this movie. It's a small little documentary, and I suppose I can just recommend don't do what I did, don't seek it out. If you're gonna watch The Smashing Machine, go to it fresh, take it for what it is, and see what experience you have with the movie. But then I would recommend watching the documentary of the two. I prefer the documentary. I think it's more interesting to just take it as real life rather than a narrative film recreating real life. Sure, that's my take. The Smashing Machine is currently playing in wide release. Next week. On the show, we are planning to do Boy, I'd love another week, but right now we're planning to do our Robert Redford tribute. And this morning producer Sam asked me, how are we doing this again? Are we doing scenes or performances or movies? Because we talked about this two or three weeks ago in a production meeting and I said, you know what, I'm not sure, Josh and I can talk about it on air. That's what we're going to do now, Josh, because I think you know what we're doing, so why don't you tell me and our audience what we're doing.

01:18:06
Speaker 3: I mean, I know what I'm doing, and I'm just I'm just making the biggest tent. I'm making the biggest tent, so you can do whatever you want to do. I think it makes sense given Redford's you know, lengthy career, not only as an actor, but as a director and a you know, a film festival producer. Like this. This is almost like if you think about a sports Hall of Fame, a lot of times they'll consider not just their on field or on coret accomplishments, but other things they contributed to the field of that sport, and Redford is something similar. Now that doesn't mean one of my five picks is going to be as founder of the Sundance Film Festival. I'm not going to go that far afield, but I think I am going to try to find a place for a directorial effort. I've been able to do a little bit of homework, and I wouldn't say it's shaken up where completely where I thought I was going to go, but there may be a surprising pick in there for me that I wouldn't have expected. So yeah, I just think it makes sense again to like, if one of us wants to hone in only on acting. I think that's completely fair and just say, listen, the guy did a lot of good stuff as a director, but he should be known as an actor like that, that's what we should remember him as. I think that's completely valid. So yeah, I don't think there's too much concern about a lot of overlap because I've been able to do a little homework, and I know that was one thing we were worried about. Is he does have, as our poll question will reveal, yes, when we get to that, two incredibly iconic performances, it's hard to ignore. We probably neither of us will probably ignore either of those. But I think that still leaves room for a variety on our lists.

01:19:47
Speaker 1: Potentially. I haven't started to form my list yet. As I said during our top five earlier, there are some lists where maybe there are just right answers, and at least with my list, I may feel like there are some right answers. I don't know how idiosyncratic I'm going to get. The bottom line is it sounds like what you're saying, Josh, is we're not going with scenes, and we're not going with performances. We are going with movie titles.

01:20:14
Speaker 3: I think that gives us the most freedom.

01:20:17
Speaker 1: Okay, I will. I will follow your lead on that I can produce that top five. We would love your feedback, your suggestions, your favorite Robert Redford titles, but you can also send us performances or scenes. We might mention it during the top five feedback at film spotting dot Net. We may share other feedback as well, and we will play Massacre theater if I haven't decided to end that segment by that time.

01:20:47
Speaker 3: Boy, for our listeners, better you better enter. Just send in all those rough suggestions. Just yeah, the title comes.

01:20:54
Speaker 1: Into your wrong long entries, count.

01:20:57
Speaker 3: Send it in to make Adam happy.

01:20:59
Speaker 1: There you go for a current show schedule filmspotting dot Net slash episodes.

01:21:04
Speaker 3: Well, speaking of all the conversation around one battle after another which we mentioned at the top of the show, Adam, part of that conversation is taking place right now on our sister podcast, the Next Picture Show, looking at Cinema's present via its past. They are yes, going to consider one battle after another, but only after first looking at Sydney Lumet's running on empty. And you started our conversation, Adam by mentioning this was one of the films that Paul Thomas Anderson explicitly referenced as inspiration and influence at least an influence on one battle after another. So they're going to dig into that further on the next Picture Show. New episodes drop every Tuesday and you can find them wherever you get your podcasts.

01:21:50
Speaker 1: One more plug for the fourth annual Refocused Film Festival, celebrating the art of adaptation. I would have liked more adaptation in The Smashing Machine this week weekend October night through the twelfth, So if you're hearing this, the show drops the podcast version, of course Friday at midnight, So it's possible you're hearing this before Michael Phillips and I decide to share our top five films adapted from Iowa writers, but more likely it's already happened. That doesn't mean you have to miss out on all the fun of the Refocus Film Festival, and if you want to come out, Iowa Cities a great time and film scene is amazing. Josh, you've been there, You've participated in one of those top fives.

01:22:36
Speaker 3: The great both I can plug both at them. The fest was great, but Iowa City like really lovely town. To visit, especially this time of year. That was my first time there and thoroughly enjoyed it. So yeah, get out there for the fest and for the city as well.

01:22:52
Speaker 1: More information at Refocus Film Festival dot org. You may just see you probably will see myself and Michael Phillips hanging round. Also coming very soon. Speaking of festivals, the sixty first Annual Chicago International Film Festival. It runs October fifteenth through the twenty sixth. We will have a preview of the fest on next week's show. For tickets and more information Chicago Film Festival dot com. And one of the highlights of the festival, not in terms of the programming, but incillary to the film festival the Criterion Collection. Josh, they have the Criterion Mobile closet just like it is dropping in. I may or may not be lucky enough to have a slot at the Criterion Mobile Closet, and I at stressing out about how I'm going to approach it, what my picks are going to be. But this must stay. Thank you, it might break me. Stay tuned to the film spotting Instagram. The film's abouting Facebook. I'm gonna shoot it. I'm gonna put it out there It'll be fun.

01:24:04
Speaker 3: Wow, incredible, good luck. I'm jealous and at the same time a bit relieved that that I don't have to take all that on love. The festival go every year, but a little hired for me this year being in Scotland.

01:24:21
Speaker 1: Yeah again. Chicago Film Festival dot com for more information.

01:24:27
Speaker 5: Money morning, what would you like to order? M hm A Welsh rabbit with a poachteak on top, please not too runny, and bacon scones, butter cream jam not strawberry.

01:24:59
Speaker 1: It's time for some deeply flawed film spotting poll results. A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to choose one and only one, Paul Thomas Anderson Decade. The options were we'll go in order here, the nineties that includes Hard Eight, Boogie Knights, Magnolia, the two thousands, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, or the twenty tens, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, Josh. How did it come out?

01:25:30
Speaker 3: You know what? The results went chronological as well. The nineties were in third place with twenty nine percent, the two thousands received thirty four percent for second place, and the twenty tens took this poll. It was close thirty eight percent. I'm a little surprised, just given the stature that people talk about There will be Blood, that that wasn't enough to put it over the top, and that the master Inherent Weiss and Phantom Thread as a trio managed to take this ball. I'm delighted that's where my vote went. But but yeah, a little bit surprised.

01:26:08
Speaker 1: I know that there are fans out there of Inherent Vice. I mean, I'm one of them, but I wouldn't put it above maybe three or four of the films at least on this list. I was gonna ask you, Josh, whether or not Phantom Thread was maybe the film that put the twenty tens as a decade over the list. But I don't have to ask you. I can go right to the feedback from our listeners. Here's Alex Torres. Sam is really outdone himself with this one. But then again, I should blame Paul Thomas Anderson for having such an incredible filmography, maybe to the evolution of his output, or maybe he's just that darn talented, but it's hard to identify a peek in his career. He hasn't made a week film, and my favorites are fairly spread out. Do I go with the cocaine energy of Boogie Knights and Magnolia? How about the more demure and mature filmmaking of Phantom Thread and The Master I want to defy Sam and save all of these films. Yes, you should always defy Sam. But if I have to pick, I think Anderson's Two Thousands film are an incredible bridge between the two poles of his evolution as a filmmaker. There Will Be Blood was my Pta entry point, and its status as a great American film makes it hard to put in the incinerator. More importantly, though, Punch Drunk Love is my favorite Anderson film, capturing pure romance through his unique cinematic lens. So Alex going against the grain, going with the two Thousands?

01:27:22
Speaker 3: All right, here's Jonathan Anderson in Denver. On my last rewatch of all of PTA's films, I found myself less interested in the nineties output. That's not to say that Boogie Knights and Magnolia aren't impressive and packed full of great stuff. But Punch Drunk Love is the moment when I feel like Pta came of age as a filmmaker, and There Will Be Blood is still his masterpiece. And one of the greatest films of all time.

01:27:47
Speaker 1: Okay, here's Jeffrey Overstreet. I can't cope with the thought of throwing Philip Seymour Hoffman's phil Parma or Daniel da Lewis's Reynolds Woodcock into an incinerator. But then I can't imagine living in a world where I can no longer revisit the singular wonder of Barry and Lena's love story, or Daniel plaine use harrowing plunge into America's heart of darkness. Okay, I'm casting my vote for the two thousands. That's my final answer. Don't argue I have a competition in me. I want no other pta decade to succeed. Still, this poll caused me such emotional distress that I beat up the bathroom. I'm sorry, I'm gonna go out of town. I'm gonna go out of town for two days. Don't tell my sisters, all right.

01:28:23
Speaker 3: One more comment here from Henry Murphy. After seeing one battle after another, and given how much I love licorice pizza, I think I'm already willing to call my shot and give my vote to the unlisted. This poll is deeply flawed. After all option of the twenty twenties, PTA's two most recent efforts are so great that I'll throw the rest in the incinerator and put my chips on whatever he's got in store for us in the next four years. You know, Henry, maybe not a bad butt. Actually maybe not.

01:28:52
Speaker 1: I guess all the votes for the twenty tens they just spoke for themselves. We got no feedback there supporting it. Or maybe Sam just didn't think it was interesting enough. No offense to everyone who wrote in, Thank you to everyone who wrote in. It is now time for a new deeply flawed poll. As we mentioned, we plan to honor the passing of Robert Redford on next week's show. So with that in mind, we're asking you what is the definitive Robert Redford performance? And we kick this around a little bit, and we ultimately decided that the least deeply flawed options seem to be to just keep it simple.

01:29:28
Speaker 3: Josh, Yeah, Let's let's make the two that come to everyone's mind first, duke it out. So two options you have to choose. One is it going to be Bob Woodward and all the President's men or the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid.

01:29:46
Speaker 1: I mean other?

01:29:48
Speaker 3: Should we let them do other two?

01:29:50
Speaker 1: You know, it's a it's a great thought. I'm going to open up the poll mechanism right now to see if Sam gave them that option, because yeah, it looks like he did give them other. I don't know that I would have. I don't know that I would have. And actually, you know what, the newsletter hasn't gone out yet, so let's we can override Sam. I mean, it would make it more deeply flawed.

01:30:14
Speaker 3: You, hey, I'm not getting into this. You can override Sam.

01:30:18
Speaker 1: Hey, it's two out of three. It's a democracy here, right. We could make it more deeply flawed by leaving in other, or we could keep it. We could keep it more perfect by just just putting those two. What do you actually think is the best poll?

01:30:34
Speaker 3: I think the best poll is to force people to choose, don't give them any wiggle room. Polls are about pain, and that's a film spotting mug way to inflict the most pain in this instance is to remove other.

01:30:53
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and that's what we're going to do. I can control the poles, and Sam wants to fight with us he can, So that's what we're going with. It's Bob Woodward or it's the Sun Dance Kid, Bob or Butch. That's it now. I suppose you can be mad that you can't write in Johnny Hooker in the Sting, or Joseph Turner in Three Days at the Condor, or Bill McKay and the Candidate. There's no way any of those three are as good as Bob or Butch. But that's fine. There are lots of good options to consider. Maybe some of them will come up in our Robert Redford Top five next week. You can vote in that poll and leave a comment. Your comment you could yell at us for changing Sam's pole.

01:31:36
Speaker 3: We'll probably get a lot of that.

01:31:38
Speaker 1: We probably will. We will share your results and your feedback in a couple of weeks. Speaking of feedback, we recently had a very fun top five. Here's where we try to get back in Sam's good graces. A recent top five was all his doing, and it was so much fun for both of us to put together, and so much fun for our listeners based on their feedback to hear and respond to. It was the five Movies five Years top five, effectively kind of a Desert Island top five movies. But the catch was they all had to come from the same five year span. And if you haven't heard that top five from I don't know what was it, three or four shows ago. We took pretty different approaches. You took a more more serious approach, maybe a more cinophile approach, but movies you genuinely do love personal favorites. You went back what was it, was it fifty one to fifty.

01:32:38
Speaker 3: Five, Yeah, that sounds right, fifty one to fifty five, yeah.

01:32:42
Speaker 1: And I went back more based on nostalgia movies. That were the films that got me to fall in love with movies in the first place, even though obviously I wasn't a quote unquote cinephile at that point. Nineteen seventy nine to nineteen eighty three. Here's some of the feedback we got, and Josh, if you would like, you can do the honors, starting us off with Michael in Keel, Germany.

01:33:07
Speaker 3: Michael says, a little bit late, but here's my five Desert Island movies from a five year period. This was quite easy for me. I just sorted my IMDb ratings by best rating and looked at the top spots and no surprises here. I guess my teenage years when I became a cinophile emerged as the period that has most of my favorite movies. So this is my list in chronological order. Fight Club nineteen ninety nine, Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring two thousand and one, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Nemo, and Sean of the Dead. Those last three all came out in two thousand and four, A bit two mainstream. Michael says, maybe, but these are the films that I can watch over and over.

01:33:49
Speaker 1: Didn't even need two or three? Three from four?

01:33:52
Speaker 3: How about that?

01:33:53
Speaker 2: Yep?

01:33:53
Speaker 1: Okay, here's Frederick from Norway. My quick top five was put together by looking at my year end top ten lists on letterbox, sorted chronologically, which reminds me I have yet to thank you for turning me on to this invaluable resource that I had somehow ignored dismissed for way too long. I quickly realized this was an impossible task, and to avoid spending my entire afternoon, I started in nineteen ninety nine, one of my favorite years in movies, and maybe maybe not coincidentally, the year the World of R rated movies became available to me. Magnolia, Fight Club being John Malkovich, the Iron Giant, some of my favorites from that year. Scanning up and down the years surrounding this, I landed on nineteen ninety eight to two thousand and two with the following five films. Number five Adaptation. I love Kaufman and his films from the early two thousands were formative in my early days as a sinophile, and he continues to blow me away with such recent work such as I'm Thinking of Ending Things. That was probably my favorite film of twenty twenty. Number four Magnolia still my favorite, pta though I admittedly have some blind spots. Number three Memento. I remained steadfast in my opinion that this is one of the greatest nonlinear films of all time. Number two the Big Lebowski Desert Island Incinerator rules apply, so I want to be able to laugh my ass off. It's something. And Number one spirited away Meazaki Magic. What else is there to say as always keep up the good work, and I hope you are settling in nicely in Scotland.

01:35:15
Speaker 3: Josh, thank you, Frederick, and I like that process. Picking one of the great movie years and working out from that makes a lot of sense. Here is Jack Dittheart from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I sent in a five years five movies list to you. It was very close to Adam's list, based on comfort movies from the nineteen eighties. I'd like to revise my list to include French films, including the new wave. Okay. Updated list from Jack here. It is from nineteen fifty eight to nineteen sixty two. Nineteen fifty eight mon Uncle by Jacques Tati. I've seen this half a dozen times and it is also a comfort movie nineteen fifty nine. Some like it hot, like Josh. I appreciate nineteen fifties Maryland, but I don't need musical nineteen sixty He's Going with Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, nineteen sixty Breathless Jean Luke Godauer. When I finally saw this, I saw Quentin Tarantino's inspiration so great to rewatch the conversation, the editing cuts, the stylishness, and still in black and white. This is a new movie, but it was made sixty five years ago. I can watch it again and again. Final pick from Jack comes from nineteen sixty two Clayo from five to seven by Agnes Varda, another French new wave movie, and this one inspired Before Sunrise, and this one ends with a shock, heralding an era of shock endings, including Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider, Vanishing Point, and Neither the Living Dead. Thanks so much for suggesting this list. I really had fun making several of them.

01:36:48
Speaker 1: That is a great list. We go to Jason Carey in New York State the Year's sixty one to sixty five, nineteen sixty one, Yo, Jimbo sixty two Jewels and Jim sixty three. Here's some more Hitchcock The Birds sixty four and Tonioni's Red Desert. Okay, that's an outlier choice in sixty five a different guitar film and a bit of an outlier, but a good one. Alphaville, Yes, I'm being a bit offbeat, but come on, I could have made this a guitar list, so you're lucky I didn't do that.

01:37:22
Speaker 3: Malcolm Cook wrote in from Surrey, UK. Another great show this week, with a discussion on five years five movies a particular highlight. Fascinating to see how your differing approach has led to such wildly different lists. You asked for listeners to send their on list, so I thought I'd chip in. I can see how for many people this would be a fiendishly complicated challenge to figure out, but for me it turned out to be extraordinarily easy. My chosen timeframe two thousand and four to two thousand and eight comprises these films in chronological order, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inland Empire, The Diving Belt, and The Butterfly SENECTI Key, New York Wor I've loved you so long. I'm sure that you won't get any other lists that look like this, but I think it has a nice balance, some darkness, some levity, some experimentalism, some exquisite beauty. I'll admit that I'm missing some laughs, but you can't have everything. I have to admit that my chosen timeframe of two thousand and four to two thousand and eight directly coincides with the period when I was really becoming a fully fledged cinophile, So perhaps this is part of the reason why these picks hold such a special place in my heart. Great work. As always with the show, guys, we really appreciate your efforts. Thank you very much.

01:38:33
Speaker 1: Malcolm Sinecticy, Diving Bell, and Eternal Sunshine. Those are three movies that I do absolutely adore, So no arguments from me there. Malcolm Kyle Christie says, I heard the honorable mention about the nineteen nineties and that was immediately where my mind went reading the question. Originally, maybe I went that way because I was born in the nineties, but after looking at other runs, I think I would still go. Nineteen ninety three to nineteen ninety seven, ninety three, Three Colors Blue, one of my all time saves, ninety four, Pulp Fiction, ninety five Heat. We've covered a lot of bases already in just three years. Ninety six, Breaking the Waves my favorite movie from my favorite movie making Siko Lars nineteen ninety seven, Boogie Nights Thinking Desert Island Style. This covers a ton of moods, all have incredible rewatchabilities, save for waves unless getting hurt is your thing. And it's full of heavyweight directors and actors Binoche, Paccino, Watson, Scars, Guards, Seymour, Hoffman, Julian Moore, Pta, Tarantino. The list just keeps going. The only thing missing is some Sandler, because in this house, we do not tolerate Sandler slander. I'm glad I got that out. I deserve a cookie or something. Picking heat over Billy Madison nearly killed me. He says, Wow, thank you, Kyle.

01:39:48
Speaker 3: You know I I that interesting approach. I don't know if if we or many people thought about it being actor driven. You know what actors now you need to retain, right, So I like that, Kyle. Here's Bill van Zandt started working on this list the other day, ended up with the same years nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty five and a couple of the same choices as josh. I knew. I had to have nineteen fifty two for Singing in the Rain, probably my favorite of all time. And if I can only have five movies for the rest of my life, I need at least one that radiates pure joy. Can't wait to share it with my seven year old daughter. I'm double dipping in nineteen fifty two because I also need Ikiu, my favorite Krosawa and when I'm overdue to revisit so why nineteen fifty one another personal favorite Scrooge. Yes, I need a Christmas movie on my desert island. Alistair sim is delightful and nails the redemptive nature of the material, the hilarious joy. There's that word again. He brings to the born again Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the reasons I go back to this movie almost every holiday season. On the other end of the bracket, nineteen fifty fives or debt, I'm glad you didn't spoil the ending to a seventy year old movie because people need to see it for themselves. So that leaves me with one choice from nineteen fifty three or nineteen fifty four. Plenty of great candidates, more Kursawa with seven Samurai Roman Holiday, Shane on the Waterfront. I nearly went with Wages of Fear, but my final answer nineteen fifty four is go here otherwise or known here as the States as Godzilla. I get my fifties monster movie with fun, practical effects, but also a film with far more chill's heartbreak dare I say gravitas? Then a guy stomping around in a rubber suit would normally engender a thinly veiled lament for post war Japan, like Germany Year zero with radioactive breath, and that roar haunts me like few other horror movie sounds. So there you go. Thanks for a fun topic. Yeah.

01:41:47
Speaker 1: Like I said, you can tell from the entries we got such a good batch of feedback. I think I even left I know I left a few out. My apologies to those we didn't get too. It's always great when a top five does engender that much feedback, so we hope to get to more in the coming weeks. Hopefully our top five actor director combos will solicit some great feedback like that as well. Josh, we did it. That's our show.

01:42:15
Speaker 3: If you want to connect with us via social media, you can find Adam and the show on Instagram, Facebook, letterbox, and YouTube. As film Spotting, I'm at all those places. As Larsen on film we are independently produced and listeners supported. You can support the show by joining the film Spotting Family. Do that at film spottingfamily dot com. That way you can listen early in ad free. You'll get a weekly newsletter, monthly bonus episodes, and access to the entire show archive. For show t shirts and other merch go to film spotting dot net slash shop. Those sense figurines should be available by the time this heirs.

01:42:55
Speaker 1: Yes and the new Film Spotting mugs that say what polls should equal pain? Polsy is that which you said, poles equal paint? In the film Spotting Archive, you can find two interviews that I did with the Safti Brothers, one related to Good Time episode six forty five, one for Uncut Gems. That's episode seven fifty seven. Out streaming or available vod this weekend. The Alabama Solution, an expose of one of America's deadliest prison systems, conducted by inmates. This is directed by Charlotte Kaufman and Andrew Jarecki. He, of course part of the team that did Capturing the Freedman's and the Jinks that's on Max John Candy, I Like Me. This is the documentary about the late comedian that's on Amazon Prime in limited release. Orwell two plus two equals five, a documentary about George Orwell, directed by Raoul Peck that's at the Gene Siskel Film Center and at the Refocused Film Festival in Iowa City in wide release. An adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman, an adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the nineteen eighty five Oscar winning film, which was itself adapted from the seventy six novel of the same name. Diego Luna stars with Jennifer Lopez. It's directed by Bill Condon. Roofman is out, based on the true story of a former Army ranger and escape convict, Channing Tatum, who hides out and a Toys r us and Rob's McDonald's restaurants via the roof of the title good cast Kirsten Dunst with Channing Tatum, Leakeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelssohn, and it's directed by Derek sin France. Tron Ares is out this well, it's a Tron movie, Josh. We had Tron and eighty two with Jeff Bridges. We had Tron Legacy in twenty ten with Jeff Bridges and others, and tron Aries apparently is the third one.

01:44:37
Speaker 3: With Deep does your your Tron commitment go ad him? I know you saw Tron nineteen eighty two. I think I think that was one of your five movie years considerations.

01:44:48
Speaker 1: I don't watch that. No, I don't think I've ever seen, ever see the original tront No, even though I'm sure it was on HBO all the time, and I for some reason always went past it. And I don't know why. I can't explain it.

01:45:00
Speaker 3: We need to plumb those depths. Are you a point? I think the eighty two tron which you know I saw at that age, but I revisited it as an adult. I think it's really good. Actually also also did like tron Legacy, but that's as far as it goes. I did. I didn't see, you know the other one, and we'll see.

01:45:22
Speaker 1: Tron Aries is the third one. Josh, you've seen it.

01:45:24
Speaker 3: You need to finish, the need to be I need to be a completist. All right, I'll get back to you.

01:45:31
Speaker 1: I'll get back to Aris. Jeff Bridges, is there also Jared Leto, Grette Lee, Jody Turner, Smith, Gilly and Anderson. Come on, you have to finish it.

01:45:40
Speaker 3: I'll do what I can.

01:45:40
Speaker 1: I expect. I expect a letterbox to review and comments on the show. Next week, well, we'll see if Josh is going to talk about tront Aris. We otherwise are going to talk about Robert Redford with our top five, and we'll have a preview of the Chicago International Film Festival.

01:45:55
Speaker 3: Film Spotting is produced by Golden, Joe Desso and Sam Van Halgren. Without Sam and gold than Joe, The show wouldn't go our production assistant, that's Sophie Kempinar Special thanks to everyone at wbeazy Chicago. More information is available at wbeaz dot org for film spotting, I'm Josh Larson.

01:46:14
Speaker 1: And I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening.

01:46:17
Speaker 4: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore.

01:46:20
Speaker 2: The fine.

01:46:37
Speaker 1: Film spotting is listeners supported. Join the film Spotting Family at film spotting family dot com and get access to ad free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and, for the first time, all in one place, the entire film spotting archive going back to two thousand and five. That's a film Spotting Family dot com panically