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Film Curious is a movie review podcast that takes a step back from the constant media consumption to discover and ponder great films across genres and time. A podcast where we let our intrigue guide us and are not afraid to explore whatever films pique our interest.
To all you film lovers, casual theatergoers, at-home movie watchers, and streaming scrollers out there, think of Film Curious as your gateway into any and every kind of movie. One that doesn’t gatekeep but doesn’t shy away from respect for the craft either. So, take a dip, the water’s fine…
00;00;00;03 - 00;00;05;22
Speaker 1
There were walkouts for a couple of movies in particular, but like Boogie Nights was one of them, where a lot I remember people.
00;00;05;22 - 00;00;06;22
Speaker 2
Walked out on that.
00;00;06;23 - 00;00;11;00
Speaker 1
Yeah, because they thought it was a movie about dancing in the 70s.
00;00;11;03 - 00;00;13;22
Speaker 2
Does the trailer not show that it was about story?
00;00;13;24 - 00;00;30;25
Speaker 1
This is not things that people pay attention to.
00;00;30;27 - 00;00;55;04
Speaker 2
Hello and welcome to. So I'm curious, Ashley here. I'm joined by Pete and Nicole this episode to chat about the latest Boots Riley film, I love boosters. This comes after his previous works, Sorry to Bother You and I'm a Virgo. This joyride of a film stars Kiki Palmer, Taylor Paige, Naomi Ackie, and Poppy Liu, with appearances from Demi Moore, Lakeith Stanfield, Eiza Gonzalez, Will Poulter.
00;00;55;05 - 00;01;23;27
Speaker 2
And last but not least, Don Cheadle. That's a stacked cast for you right there. I won't speak for the group, but coming off of a run of horror movies, I definitely needed this palate cleanser. As Nicole suggested after our discussion on obsession last week. The film is written and directed by Riley, and it tells the story of a group of shoplifters, or boosters, who take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven by stealing her clothes and reselling them at a lower price, what they call fashion forward.
00;01;23;27 - 00;01;44;22
Speaker 2
Philanthropy. The three F's as branded by Taylor Page's character. And yes, she knows philanthropy doesn't start with an F. As boots, Riley advises, have something you're more passionate about than the art itself. And that's just what he does with his films, and this one is no exception. He's making a statement and not hiding it, but entertaining you while he does it.
00;01;44;24 - 00;02;06;00
Speaker 2
The brilliance in his storytelling is he takes concepts and contradictions. We all know as Americans or working class people under capitalism, and distills it into basic ideas that we as the audience feel and understand. And he does this through an inventive use of the film medium and surrealist storytelling, as well as working with a team of highly inventive people themselves.
00;02;06;02 - 00;02;23;06
Speaker 2
He wants to bring a grand spectacle to the screen and, in his words, push the boundaries of cinema. So I think the best ways to cover this film are to talk a little bit about some of the techniques used behind the scenes to accomplish that, the unique and kind of wonky score that absolutely gets stuck in your head.
00;02;23;06 - 00;02;37;06
Speaker 2
And then onto a spoiler discussion of the story itself and the characters and performances that bring this surreal yet all too familiar world to life. But before we get into all the details, we're going to give you our overall impressions of the film.
00;02;37;09 - 00;02;49;13
Speaker 3
Well, I loved it. I thought that I would love it. I wasn't disappointed at all. I loved Sorry to Bother You so I was very excited to see that he was making another movie, but I absolutely loved it.
00;02;49;13 - 00;03;23;23
Speaker 1
I had a blast. I thought it was a lot of fun. It's it just flew by with how just he films very energetically. Like there's going to be something in every scene that is not really standard to what you're going to see in other movies a lot of times, and he's got a wild imagination. He's not really he doesn't really have like a nervous button where I think that there's a part in the movie in particular where it might lose an audience, the wrong audience, but that's okay.
00;03;23;25 - 00;03;42;08
Speaker 1
They're not necessary for it. And that has to do with Lakeith Stanfield character, which could not stop laughing about the whole time. I'll be honest. I learned that Jack was Don Cheadle five minutes before we started recording. I really had no idea it was him.
00;03;42;11 - 00;03;44;12
Speaker 2
Yeah, he plays doctor Jack.
00;03;44;13 - 00;03;44;29
Speaker 3
And.
00;03;45;00 - 00;03;46;29
Speaker 4
I actually was like, this.
00;03;46;29 - 00;03;47;21
Speaker 2
Seems like Don.
00;03;47;21 - 00;03;59;25
Speaker 4
Cheadle for some reason. Like, I felt that when we first met doctor Jack, but I'm like, not what? Like, what are the odds, you know? But like, something in the voice I think was like telling me that this is done. Cheadle.
00;03;59;27 - 00;04;43;11
Speaker 2
This is a lot of fun. I, I loved it. I thought that the flow, I mean, for all of the different things that he's attempting with the camera, with the score, with the set design, like everything he's going for, it feels very smooth, I think, like he must have such a clear vision of what he wants that in the editing, it feels natural, like there's nothing that makes me go, oh, we weren't like the the editor wasn't sure what to do with all this camera movement, and there wasn't any, like, abrupt cuts that weren't purposeful or I just feel as smooth and it was just paste really well.
00;04;43;12 - 00;04;57;02
Speaker 2
Oh, I just will mention that the as a team of editors on this. So it was Terrell Gibson and Matthew Hannam edited the film, but clearly Boots Riley had a very like a very clear vision of what he wanted.
00;04;57;03 - 00;05;19;10
Speaker 1
How sound mix for you guys. I had a lot of issues, and unfortunately some of them had to do with when they were explaining, I mean, explaining sight sci fi technology that it really didn't matter if he got it or not. But I had a hard time deciphering a lot of dialog during when there was like music going on as well.
00;05;19;12 - 00;05;40;05
Speaker 1
It kind of reminded me of like when I saw tenet and that there was there were a number of scenes in that movie where I was like, I can hear all the noise, but I'm having trouble, like making out what people are saying. But my hearing also sucks. I have that problem, like in loud spaces and stuff, so I couldn't tell.
00;05;40;07 - 00;05;47;25
Speaker 1
I mean, I haven't had that problem since Tennant in the movie, but did you guys have any issue with that with the mix of the audio?
00;05;47;28 - 00;06;03;20
Speaker 2
No, I heard all dialog perfectly clear. I think there was something with the projector wasn't set up right for this film. I noticed like a couple of times in the opening credits that a credit was cut off.
00;06;03;22 - 00;06;04;17
Speaker 3
Like part.
00;06;04;17 - 00;06;06;23
Speaker 1
Of it, like ratio correctly.
00;06;06;26 - 00;06;31;17
Speaker 2
Yeah. And then there was like a weird at one point there's a countdown in a scene and there was a weird, like panorama thing to it. Like I was like, I don't think that's a stylistic choice. I think, like I just for but for me, for some reason, I think they didn't have the projector set up. Right?
00;06;31;19 - 00;06;31;27
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;06;31;29 - 00;06;32;29
Speaker 2
Like maybe.
00;06;33;02 - 00;06;54;07
Speaker 1
Possibilities thing. The theater. I was going to see that they did just get a new sound system and a new screen and a new projector, so maybe it was just some sort of balancing issue. I also tend to sit up front a lot more so that all could have, you know, bit into it a little bit with the issue that I had with that.
00;06;54;10 - 00;07;22;01
Speaker 2
Right? I mean, I don't know if this has to do with why the projector wasn't correct is I don't know if it was how it was filmed. So they used a bunch of anamorphic lenses and that kind of it gathers more information and then it's like compressed. And then when you put it on to the big screen, then you're supposed to have that really nice ultra detailed expansion.
00;07;22;03 - 00;07;53;09
Speaker 2
I don't know if that, like, had some weird thing to do with it that the projectionist didn't account for it or something, but to to talk about, like the production of it, the and the events of it. The cinematographer, Natasha Brayer, was really adamant about using this lens and using different filters for the color. Even she thinks she was like painting the lens a little bit to get the color that she wanted.
00;07;53;15 - 00;08;17;17
Speaker 2
And she worked with Panavision to get her that, like old styles 50s lens, where the now it's almost like, I think they are how they're describing it. I'll link it in the notes. This this video I watched on it on the making of the film. But the old lenses were imperfect, so it actually had a better, more realistic feel to it.
00;08;17;17 - 00;08;54;10
Speaker 2
And so Panavision made, I guess, like replicated these old lenses for the cinematographer or at the cinematographers request for this film, the level of detail that he puts into this film. Working with the production designer Christopher Glass and the costume designer Shirley Kurata, and the cinematographer altogether is what made this film really pop and stand out. So I think it's so evident the level of detail he puts into this, and there's no spoilers yet that we're going to get into.
00;08;54;11 - 00;09;24;09
Speaker 2
But there there's some stop motion that I think it is just fun that he likes to put into his films, like in Sorry to Bother You. There's there's stop motion in there. And I think he just like he takes wild swings, but I think he knocks it out of the park. Like I think he knows the esthetic and the surrealism of what he's going for was still being able to ground everything so well in reality, even though it's just insane.
00;09;24;10 - 00;09;49;00
Speaker 2
You know, there's a sideways building that Demi Moore, her office is like on a sidewalk slant. Yeah, but at the same time, it's all normal. I always love a storyteller or filmmaker who who goes, this is all doesn't acknowledge how weird everything is or how surreal everything is and treated if as if it's perfectly normal in this universe.
00;09;49;03 - 00;09;56;10
Speaker 2
And I think that you as the viewer, just like it, makes you feel comfortable with the setting, even though it's outrageous.
00;09;56;13 - 00;10;26;25
Speaker 3
Yeah, there's like a child is. I think that's why I do love his work, because there's like a magical realism element to it that I know that we're both very attracted to. And it it really is just. And I think I watched the same interview that you're talking about with Boots Riley, where they were talking about the special lenses that they had made, and in that he said that he wanted to make a movie like the ones that he watched when he was younger and like a rowdy crowd and like, having a really good time.
00;10;26;28 - 00;10;49;02
Speaker 3
And I'll say that, like when I saw it, my crowd that I was with, like, everybody was having such a great time. It was a very good crowd. I did to what, you know, you were mentioning earlier, you know, we can mention later about maybe a particular scene. I had heard that there were certain showings that people walked out and like, like, like.
00;10;49;04 - 00;10;55;10
Speaker 2
So set like that's overly sensitive. If I think that would see we all think we're talking about.
00;10;55;11 - 00;10;55;19
Speaker 3
Is.
00;10;55;21 - 00;10;58;01
Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm seeing they walked out on like that's a.
00;10;58;01 - 00;10;59;25
Speaker 1
Little I don't think.
00;10;59;25 - 00;11;01;16
Speaker 3
It's a no no.
00;11;01;16 - 00;11;20;03
Speaker 1
Because we think about what most movies are nowadays there. I'm not one of those people who are like, movies look terrible. They all look terrible. Now look at these movies in the past. Yeah. If you cherry pick and you look at, you know, a lot of, you know, specific John Hill, you know, John was of films. They do look kind of boring.
00;11;20;04 - 00;11;43;03
Speaker 1
They're like gray and they're just not very visually interesting. But that changes as wildly as some of the movies back in the day were boring to watch. You know, just two shots of, and that's it. But I'm not surprised that, like, people bounced at a certain because I just don't think people are very willing to go on a journey nowadays of the movie.
00;11;43;03 - 00;11;58;18
Speaker 1
So that doesn't surprise me in the least, you know? And it's not a walking out the way that I remember when I worked in the theater. There were walkouts for a couple of movies in particular, but like Boogie Nights was one of them, where a lot I remember.
00;11;58;18 - 00;12;00;10
Speaker 2
People walked out on that.
00;12;00;11 - 00;12;04;21
Speaker 1
Yeah, because they thought it was a movie about dancing in the 70s.
00;12;04;24 - 00;12;07;14
Speaker 2
Does a trailer not show that it was about the.
00;12;07;16 - 00;12;28;10
Speaker 1
This is not things that people pay attention to, like that's that's one of the you know, this came up with steam parks recently. We were like, if there's a big billboard for an attraction for, for a movie and it says, you know, Universal Studios, a lot of people are going to drive by that and go, they have a ride for that thing, and they don't.
00;12;28;11 - 00;12;48;00
Speaker 1
And then people show up and they're like, where the where's that thing? Oh no, it's just a it's a scene in a parade. What. So like that's you know, no, I don't think that they know a lot of times. So people just go see a movie because A, B or C is in it like, you know, and that's where they go.
00;12;48;02 - 00;12;51;02
Speaker 5
Well I mean yeah, I guess if you're going to say you're going for like Kiki.
00;12;51;02 - 00;12;53;22
Speaker 2
Palmer could draw.
00;12;53;28 - 00;12;54;09
Speaker 1
Well, I don't.
00;12;54;09 - 00;12;55;11
Speaker 2
Know, I don't know, I don't know.
00;12;55;13 - 00;12;57;14
Speaker 1
I yeah.
00;12;57;16 - 00;13;03;10
Speaker 2
I don't, I don't know if the Palmer fans are the same type of boots. Riley.
00;13;03;17 - 00;13;23;15
Speaker 1
Yeah. Maybe they're like, no, this was this is the yoga person that I watch on YouTube like I have. No, I don't know what the hell she's doing in this weird, this weird movie. You know, I could see that. Yeah. Actually, I, I thought that Taylor Page and Isaac Gonzales stole the movie. I think everyone's great in it, but they were for me.
00;13;23;15 - 00;13;29;29
Speaker 1
They were the two tops in the cast. They just stole every scene that they were in. I thought that was blast.
00;13;30;00 - 00;13;49;05
Speaker 2
I will say that, like most of the characters are charming, you know, like spare, obviously Demi Moore, and she's not supposed to be. Yeah, I really did enjoy Keke Palmer. I mean, Taylor Page stood out because I mean, for sure she made me laugh the hardest with her line deliveries. I cracked up at the.
00;13;49;08 - 00;13;50;08
Speaker 5
Point where.
00;13;50;08 - 00;14;12;05
Speaker 2
Their first meeting Poppy Lou's character, John, you, and she's talking about the device as a toilet. I think Taylor Page thinks it's a toilet at first. Like, what is that, a toilet? And she's like, no. I was like, no, I don't, I don't use toilets in the United States or something. Taylor Pages is like, I mean, you haven't gone to the bathroom at all.
00;14;12;06 - 00;14;16;25
Speaker 2
Like, what have you been doing? How long have you been here?
00;14;16;27 - 00;14;40;10
Speaker 2
Just like the off handed comment, I just felt like the delivery was was so good and made me crack up, but I don't know. Kiki Palmer really entertains me. Sometimes she can be over the top in her her facial expressions or reactions, but I think it works. I think it works for this film and I think she's like endlessly entertaining to me.
00;14;40;12 - 00;14;47;01
Speaker 2
So I don't know. Nicole, do you have a favorite performance of this film?
00;14;47;04 - 00;15;17;00
Speaker 3
I don't know, I think it is Kiki, actually. I always I love Kiki, she's just like she's charming in everything in interview. Like anything, she can make anything, I think compelling. And I think she's just like a perfect person to lead a movie like this. She's so magnetic. And I thought that there were some nice beats to like, you know, obviously it's a comedy, but there were some nice moments for her where I feel like she was really able to show off her acting jobs.
00;15;17;00 - 00;15;20;01
Speaker 3
I mean, she's been acting since she was like a kid.
00;15;20;02 - 00;15;21;24
Speaker 2
Yeah, it was a killer. The be.
00;15;22;00 - 00;15;26;08
Speaker 3
Like, yeah, true, Jackson.
00;15;26;11 - 00;15;26;26
Speaker 2
I actually.
00;15;26;26 - 00;15;28;16
Speaker 5
Saw her in.
00;15;28;19 - 00;15;28;27
Speaker 2
One.
00;15;28;27 - 00;15;29;01
Speaker 5
Of.
00;15;29;01 - 00;15;52;00
Speaker 2
Them days. I got to watch. Got around to watching fairly recently or a few months ago. At this point, it could be like six months ago. I watched it, I don't know, it could be a year ago. Everything's like, oh, just a few weeks ago, I watched this makeup in forever ago, the this and Keke Palmer and produced by Israel's production company Color Creative.
00;15;52;06 - 00;16;07;24
Speaker 2
I'm always just a big fan of whatever Issa Rae is coming out with or producing our game behind, and I really enjoyed one of them days, but it had that kind of like wacky comedy to it, like over the top comedy. Did you guys see one of them days?
00;16;07;26 - 00;16;08;26
Speaker 3
No, I didn't see it.
00;16;08;26 - 00;16;44;25
Speaker 1
I only saw parts of it. That was around a time when everything was coming out is essentially what I remember that as, and I just never, ever caught it. If you put a Looney Tunes logo in front of this movie, I'd be like, yeah, this is a cartoon like this. You know the message. If you don't understand the message, by the end of the film, you're going to be told it in very large letters, which is fine, because I don't know how many people, you know, sometimes, again, like an audience just is along for the ride and doesn't pick up on the small, you know, the actual like, hey, what is this actually about stuff?
00;16;44;29 - 00;17;04;18
Speaker 1
So here's why I felt that Spielberg had to throw in the assassination scene in Lincoln, because there'd be a lot of people who sat in the theater, and what the fuck happens next? This guy just walks down the hallway and that's it. You know, it's like when people watched Titanic, when it when it rereleased and there were a lot of people who were like.
00;17;04;18 - 00;17;06;06
Speaker 2
Oh.
00;17;06;08 - 00;17;31;28
Speaker 1
They were like, it sunk. It really sunk. That was a thing. And it was like, yeah. I mean, who really talks about it now? Unless a billionaire blows up at the bottom of the ocean, which let's keep that going. But yeah. So I, you know, sometimes when you feel like there's a large speech at the end of a movie, it can you kind of have a moment of, yeah, I got this before, but it was fine.
00;17;31;28 - 00;17;43;00
Speaker 1
I didn't have that reaction to it here. Oh, also another just like great Will Poulter as the the manager of the store.
00;17;43;01 - 00;17;43;20
Speaker 2
Store manager.
00;17;43;20 - 00;18;01;16
Speaker 1
Of magic. What a phenomenal bitch. He was I just he was a blast. Yeah I just had a lot of fun watching this. And I would show I would I look forward to showing this to other people who don't go to the movies very much, you know? You know, watching it at home will be a lot of fun.
00;18;01;17 - 00;18;35;17
Speaker 1
The 4K disk, if done correctly and transferred nicely, this is going to be a stunner to watch. You know when you're at home, if you have a pretty good setup, this is going to be a real show off kind of film. I'd like that they stuck with a lot of practical effects when they could. You know, I think now that clip is out of there's a scene where Keke Palmer is trying to run a pill in that apartment building, and they actually made, like, these gammy legs to to run around her as she's doing that.
00;18;35;17 - 00;18;56;20
Speaker 1
So all those little those, those little bits, when you see them, you just kind of get like a more of an appreciation. And as she mentioned before, the stop motion, which who would have thought two weeks in a row, I got movie with stop motion animation in like relatively, you know, one very, you know, one big release of Mando and Grogu and then and then here.
00;18;56;20 - 00;19;00;18
Speaker 1
So wouldn't have money on that happening. Yeah. Like.
00;19;00;21 - 00;19;14;01
Speaker 2
I guess it's such a time intensive. I know it's such a time intensive effect to work on. Like, I think like stop motion takes like to get like 30s of. Yeah.
00;19;14;02 - 00;19;15;00
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
00;19;15;02 - 00;19;22;10
Speaker 2
Like if you want to get like 30s of of film out of it, it takes them. I've looked up.
00;19;22;14 - 00;19;27;09
Speaker 1
That's it called what's like this new film Wild Wildwood.
00;19;27;11 - 00;19;28;06
Speaker 3
Oh yeah.
00;19;28;12 - 00;19;54;11
Speaker 1
Oh my God, that trailer is insane. Looking like Wildwood. Yeah. The scope as I go to a dark color, because the website was a people on the forest. The scope of that film for a stop motion animation film is wild. What a what an experience that will be. Hopefully that companies always put out really great films. So I'm looking forward to that.
00;19;54;11 - 00;20;03;21
Speaker 1
But yeah, it was it was cool seeing all this different types of media, you know, packed into this, this nice little package of a film. So yeah.
00;20;03;23 - 00;20;11;03
Speaker 2
Oh for sure. Yeah. So I would recommend if you can see it in theaters. Hopefully there's still some showings. I mean.
00;20;11;04 - 00;20;11;10
Speaker 3
It's.
00;20;11;10 - 00;20;32;29
Speaker 2
Still out there. They have. Yeah. Okay. Good. Because I think there was like three showings a day for me over the weekend. And then who knows with backrooms coming out, I remember back rooms when I saw this past week, backrooms had like, I don't know, like eight showings at like it was crazy the amount of showings they had in a day for it.
00;20;32;29 - 00;20;36;22
Speaker 2
So I'm hoping that it doesn't get squeezed out by other films.
00;20;36;26 - 00;20;59;11
Speaker 1
I'll tell you, I don't. I know that people don't think that He-Man is going to be like a thing that people notice. I think a lot of people are going to have a lot more fun with that movie than anyone's noticing. And once again, the biggest marketing tool will be word of mouth, which, if that isn't the lesson from the last month and a half at the cinema, then you ain't never got to learn that lesson.
00;20;59;11 - 00;21;23;04
Speaker 1
Because right between backrooms obsession and I'm telling you this, it might it, you know, it won't be like a billion or something crazy like that. Probably. But I think this He-Man movie is going to actually do more than anyone anticipated, because that's going to wind up just being a lot of fun. And people kind of want that right now because everything else.
00;21;23;05 - 00;21;46;13
Speaker 2
You know, everything. Yeah, yeah. So I would recommend if you can catch a showing of this, I think is totally worth seeing in theaters. I mean, Boots Riley has made this film to be shown on the big screen. He's explicitly said it. He wanted, you know, the the, the Hollywood of old sort of big blockbuster feel. But like, I mean, it feels big.
00;21;46;14 - 00;22;15;02
Speaker 2
The movie feels big. But I think he wasn't even working with that large of a budget. But the movie feels gigantic. So really awesome job with that. And then I think we can go into spoilers now. So if you haven't seen it, go see it, come back and listen to the spoiler discussion. If you have seen it, feel free to listen along, or please listen along to a deeper dive of it.
00;22;15;03 - 00;22;28;10
Speaker 2
So let's let's talk about then the scene that people walked out on. So did they walk out on the lake Stanfield as the demon sucking pussy scene is that bothered people? That was the.
00;22;28;12 - 00;22;30;21
Speaker 1
That's definitely. Yeah, absolutely.
00;22;30;23 - 00;22;31;00
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00;22;31;01 - 00;22;44;26
Speaker 1
I mean, again, like, there's a lot of people that that is not a scene. But I think anyone could have been like this. Probably a scene in this where you seen field is like, I don't think anyone's going to know.
00;22;44;27 - 00;22;48;24
Speaker 3
I could I didn't. Get it was not shocking, but it was.
00;22;49;00 - 00;23;30;02
Speaker 1
Like, that's actually Kiki Palmer's funniest moment is one of her quietest moments at the very end where she's like, I can't be with anybody who won't go down on me. I was like, that. Is that was the funniest goddamn line in the whole film. Yeah. Like people don't expect that. And you'd be surprised how many times I mean, well, you wouldn't be how many times I go to a movie and there's clearly like a father and like his kids or a father and his daughter with probably her boyfriend, and they go see something like this.
00;23;30;04 - 00;23;30;15
Speaker 3
That would.
00;23;30;15 - 00;23;30;20
Speaker 1
Be.
00;23;30;20 - 00;23;31;10
Speaker 3
That happened.
00;23;31;17 - 00;23;32;17
Speaker 2
With parents.
00;23;32;18 - 00;23;37;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. You're just I remember when I went to see Honora. I will never forget this. There's absolutely.
00;23;37;19 - 00;23;39;15
Speaker 2
You saw Nora with you parents?
00;23;39;16 - 00;24;01;04
Speaker 1
No, no, there was something. Okay. Go to the movies with anybody. I can't I no one around here, my wife and they don't go see shit unless it's Marvel, the Star Wars, that's it. That's their movie lights. They don't go to anything else. So I went and there was absolutely a father with his daughter and her boyfriend sitting in front of me.
00;24;01;11 - 00;24;23;06
Speaker 1
And then that movie started. They were so like, you know, jovial and talking and shit during the previous. Yeah, that man, the father, he did not move his head left or right by an inch from the minute that movie started, because he did not want to make eye contact with his kid.
00;24;23;08 - 00;24;26;04
Speaker 2
So no side. I just like the horse.
00;24;26;09 - 00;24;32;08
Speaker 1
I didn't want to have, like, that moment of looking over, you know, during one of the sex scenes or one of the dancer scenes.
00;24;32;09 - 00;24;37;11
Speaker 2
So but it's like I rated our movie. What? And it's about it, a stripper. Like what?
00;24;37;12 - 00;24;49;10
Speaker 1
I don't like they I guarantee you they. He thought it was about a woman who was kidnaped and it looked funny. The trailer looked funny, and that was why they went, you know, like like.
00;24;49;17 - 00;24;50;11
Speaker 3
You got it.
00;24;50;13 - 00;25;01;23
Speaker 2
Read the synopsis. Like, I'm all for, like, going in blind with, like, not having spoilers, but like, reach, like, know something about the movie that you're going into this.
00;25;01;27 - 00;25;02;15
Speaker 1
There was another.
00;25;02;18 - 00;25;03;29
Speaker 2
Little just enough.
00;25;04;06 - 00;25;04;11
Speaker 1
To.
00;25;04;12 - 00;25;04;23
Speaker 3
Be like.
00;25;04;24 - 00;25;06;24
Speaker 2
Should I watch this movie?
00;25;06;27 - 00;25;10;01
Speaker 1
It was Mark and and and.
00;25;10;04 - 00;25;11;24
Speaker 2
What's with my group? What movie?
00;25;11;25 - 00;25;13;25
Speaker 3
Am I kind of kindness?
00;25;13;28 - 00;25;14;16
Speaker 1
I think that.
00;25;14;16 - 00;25;17;08
Speaker 2
The one with.
00;25;17;11 - 00;25;18;11
Speaker 3
Like a constant.
00;25;18;12 - 00;25;20;04
Speaker 1
That's absolutely it. Yeah, yeah.
00;25;20;07 - 00;25;21;17
Speaker 2
And that.
00;25;21;17 - 00;25;21;27
Speaker 3
One is.
00;25;21;29 - 00;25;22;09
Speaker 1
And my.
00;25;22;15 - 00;25;22;21
Speaker 3
My.
00;25;22;21 - 00;25;42;05
Speaker 1
Friend called me and he was like, dude, I made a horrible mistake. I was like, what? What did you do? He's like, well, go see this movie, isn't it? And or it may have been the one with the other one was one half of the Coen brothers that that did it. Anyways.
00;25;42;08 - 00;25;42;21
Speaker 3
He had no.
00;25;42;21 - 00;25;56;25
Speaker 1
Idea what I was going into. And he brought like his 16 year old kid and, and they sit down in there because they always go to the movies together and it's like, oh, this isn't like the nice guys, but with a female.
00;25;56;28 - 00;26;17;29
Speaker 2
But why, again, like the rating system should signify to you at least, at the very least, the just read the rating. And in the rating it'll be like sexually explicit scenes, nudity, violence. You'll know just a little bit what you're walking into.
00;26;18;01 - 00;26;19;00
Speaker 3
In.
00;26;19;03 - 00;26;39;09
Speaker 2
Say it if it's rated R, I think that like all bets are off the table. I'll just be honest. Like, I think if you're if you're taking anybody to a rated R movie of like things get in weird or there being some kind of uncomfortable thing, just know it's on the table with rated R movie, especially these days.
00;26;39;12 - 00;26;40;09
Speaker 2
Nicole what were you going to say?
00;26;40;10 - 00;26;41;26
Speaker 1
I'm sorry. Yeah.
00;26;41;28 - 00;26;56;05
Speaker 3
No, I just like I saw like I was I guess I was surprised, but then like it was saying, I wasn't surprised when I saw people like talking about the movie and being like, a bunch of people walked out during my showing, I was listening to one of the songs from the soundtrack that he sang on YouTube. In.
00;26;56;05 - 00;27;03;02
Speaker 3
The first comment was, that was the only good thing from the movie. Shameful, shameful.
00;27;03;04 - 00;27;06;19
Speaker 3
Okay. All right. You know, like whatever. Like it's just I think it's.
00;27;06;26 - 00;27;09;22
Speaker 2
A good song. The Cassandra at the end of the.
00;27;09;27 - 00;27;13;27
Speaker 3
She wrote like, I think five. She has five songs I think on there.
00;27;13;29 - 00;27;14;05
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00;27;14;08 - 00;27;16;11
Speaker 3
Like that's a great. She wrote. Yeah.
00;27;16;14 - 00;27;44;03
Speaker 2
It's Riley's daughter. I wrote down her name because I don't want to just be like Boots Riley's daughter. I think it's a Lena Elena Kanin, or Conan is his daughter. And her and Kiki Palmer wrote this five song EP for me. Palmer's voice is really distinct enough that I did assume that it was her singing the The credit song that goes on Chris Andra, and I was like, oh, I like this.
00;27;44;06 - 00;28;06;24
Speaker 2
So yeah, I'll definitely I have a good chance yet, but I'll definitely be checking out the the other four songs that they, they wrote together. And this actually brings me around to the score and the composers and it's he's worked with these composers now on all of his work and their tune yard is their name, which is pretty like apt.
00;28;06;26 - 00;28;37;29
Speaker 2
And funny that they literally have like, I don't know, it reminds me of the Looney Tunes just to have tune yards. Something about it. It just feels wonky that that's the I think they're a duo. They're their name. And he's worked. He works like so closely with them, which I found super interesting. He says he'll write like 20 pages of a screenplay, and he'll then he'll share it with them and they'll be working kind of like hand in hand on the music as he's writing the screenplay.
00;28;38;00 - 00;29;14;26
Speaker 2
So it is so, like, intertwined for him. I mean, I guess it makes sense. He's originally a rapper, a hip hop rapper to start his career off with. And actually, I Love Boosters was a song on his fifth studio album with his hip hop group The Coup. And so this is where like the the idea kind of came out of, of when he was having to buy clothes from boosters back in the day because he couldn't afford, obviously, the high fashion that was as being produced.
00;29;14;26 - 00;29;43;01
Speaker 2
And that kind of comes to I think I really liked his handling of Demi Moore's character of there's this poor me. She has to her, like everybody is trying to steal from me, and she's so oblivious to the fact that she gets well. I'm going to put in quotes, inspiration from black culture, urban culture. And because really, she's just stealing it.
00;29;43;01 - 00;30;09;20
Speaker 2
She steals from Kiki Palmer's character Corvette. But it's like this idea, she was like, well, you wouldn't have these great designs if it wasn't for me. You wouldn't. Nobody would have these jobs if it wasn't for me. Instead of like, she just totally bypasses the art is, at least for me, it's. I took it as like art. Your art is inspired by everything around you and everything that came before you and in the culture.
00;30;09;20 - 00;30;48;20
Speaker 2
And so like, how can you claim it as yours and then try to sell it back to them as this overpriced thing that only you invented in your brain, and you deserve all the credit. So I thought that he did a good job of depicting that. Like, we all know that character. We see the CEOs of all these huge corporations kind of acting like they're doing something great for society by providing the jobs, like they have the grace to give people jobs and people art, and they buy the clothes and the beauty in our world.
00;30;48;20 - 00;30;59;22
Speaker 2
And it's like this just warped view of the world. So I and I thought Demi Moore did a good job of with that character.
00;30;59;24 - 00;31;20;12
Speaker 1
While ironically turning into that character during the promotion of this movie, in my eyes. On this side note, because I also think that you can really tie a lot of her bullshit to AI, you know, just like, oh, well, I just, I just stole I just took it from inspirations from everywhere, you know? But I'm going to this is the best version.
00;31;20;12 - 00;31;35;00
Speaker 1
I'm going to give it to you and, you know, to hear her, like on the press tour, be like, oh, well, we just have to get on the, you know, get on board with AI because it's inevitable. It's like it's not, you know, you don't.
00;31;35;06 - 00;31;35;09
Speaker 2
You.
00;31;35;09 - 00;32;00;28
Speaker 1
Don't have to. Yeah. You don't have to just be like that. That's fine. Yeah. No, she was great though. In the movie. She was she was excellent too. And it's it's cool seeing her as the villain, you know. Nice flip from even though she was a villain in her own way, in substance. But it's just nice seeing her in movies because she's good actress when she's got a good movie in front of her.
00;32;01;01 - 00;32;23;08
Speaker 1
Like most actors and actresses, they're actually really good. If you give them something they can, you know, jump into a lot of fun with. Yeah. And she definitely probably is pulling from a lot of conversations that she has had with other people who talked and acted exactly that way. And she had to navigate around that, you know, through her career.
00;32;23;10 - 00;32;29;02
Speaker 1
Using all that older photos and footage of her was always nice. It didn't look funny enough.
00;32;29;03 - 00;32;30;06
Speaker 2
For for the character.
00;32;30;07 - 00;32;54;09
Speaker 1
Yeah, for the character. Like, you know, using all the photos sometimes, like doctored photos in movies with all the tech that we have now can still look like dog shit. But this one actually looked all right. I was like, oh, these are pretty good. Like Photoshop workups. So that that was that was fun to kind of, you know, to to go on that little visual journey to.
00;32;54;12 - 00;33;05;19
Speaker 2
This, is this a genius at MIT? I was like, what was the character's backstory of like, she was such a genius, you know? And she really started off with, like.
00;33;05;22 - 00;33;07;11
Speaker 1
The mathematician mathematical.
00;33;07;12 - 00;33;15;10
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. I just thought it was so funny. And it's like, oh, but then she went into branding, you know, she just basically learned how to brand herself.
00;33;15;13 - 00;33;20;24
Speaker 1
Wait a minute now. So was that Vigo Mortensen doing the narration for that?
00;33;20;25 - 00;33;25;11
Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah, he did the historical documentary. Yeah, yeah.
00;33;25;13 - 00;33;26;21
Speaker 1
That's good.
00;33;26;23 - 00;33;27;10
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00;33;27;11 - 00;33;30;05
Speaker 1
That's a really good I.
00;33;30;07 - 00;33;35;17
Speaker 2
Will he got on board to do this movie. Yeah. No, I didn't either. When I saw it I was like, oh.
00;33;35;19 - 00;33;36;07
Speaker 1
That's great.
00;33;36;09 - 00;33;58;28
Speaker 2
But yeah. Like speaking of Viggo Mortensen and then like going on to the Don Cheadle, I feel like was just like hidden in plain sight in the movie the whole time. And then when the skin suits take off. And also that's just, like, hilarious to that. They just, they just take off their skin when they're taking off the suits.
00;33;58;28 - 00;34;24;03
Speaker 2
And that's why it's $100,000 suit or something like, no, you got to take off the whole thing if we're taking off the suit. And I love that, it's I think what were they called in the film? They were like the, the Democratic Something coalition or something think tank. Think tank. I think it was their think tank. And it's just.
00;34;24;04 - 00;34;37;23
Speaker 2
Yeah, like bringing up this point of their just all of our politics are just paid for like the, the crying black mother that we see on TV, the I think is the Jason Ritter who's the.
00;34;37;24 - 00;34;40;05
Speaker 1
Yeah. Jason is one of the other ones. Yeah.
00;34;40;06 - 00;34;49;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. Of like these people are just paid to make the comments for like the, the, the big corporations or the mainstream media.
00;34;49;14 - 00;35;21;00
Speaker 1
That may have been one of the biggest, last moments out of the audience to where I think it was the mother. She was like, I should have the right to pay more rent. You can't take that away from me. And I was like, this is great, because you're seeing that now with like the it is funny, you know, because this movie was filmed, you know, however many months ago or, you know, 12 months ago and you have people yelling at themselves at like, no, gas should be expensive.
00;35;21;02 - 00;35;30;02
Speaker 1
It's like, what the how broken are you that you have taken up the narrative that like, no gas should be more expensive for me to drive.
00;35;30;09 - 00;35;31;12
Speaker 2
Of the oppressor? Yeah.
00;35;31;13 - 00;35;32;07
Speaker 3
Like.
00;35;32;09 - 00;35;56;00
Speaker 1
How insane must you be that you can't just admit you fucked up? That you will tell yourself no gas should be more expensive. What a what a wild thing. But then her saying that line out loud was fantastic. Fantastic. It's like it's a movie of our time. But also, sadly, you know, it'll always be relevant.
00;35;56;02 - 00;36;30;06
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean. Hopefully, maybe not one day, I don't know, I mean, if, if Foods Riley has anything to do with it, I mean, he's, he's, he's wanting this to be like he's, he's saying a mass militant labor like movement collective. And that's kind of been the, the theme of at least like, sorry to bother you. And now this one where you have, you know, I as a Gonzalez's character who's like the little get the workers together and fight Demi Moore's character.
00;36;30;08 - 00;36;43;25
Speaker 2
And then I think it's just hilarious too, that this device, which is like a teleporter at one point, but then they realize it has the three different settings of, you know.
00;36;43;27 - 00;36;44;16
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;36;44;19 - 00;36;54;29
Speaker 2
Breaking things down into different part into their they're the parts that combine them. And then I have to say the, the parents fucking.
00;36;55;02 - 00;36;56;13
Speaker 3
That's great.
00;36;56;16 - 00;36;58;01
Speaker 1
That's really good.
00;36;58;04 - 00;36;59;00
Speaker 2
That was good.
00;36;59;06 - 00;37;04;07
Speaker 3
But you pops back in and she's like, what? You know.
00;37;04;09 - 00;37;05;15
Speaker 2
What happened.
00;37;05;16 - 00;37;06;03
Speaker 3
Herbert.
00;37;06;04 - 00;37;12;17
Speaker 1
Also with the holding the press and becoming like, yeah, it was. Real good.
00;37;12;20 - 00;37;29;18
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah I saw the clip going around a lot, and I saw a lot of people being like, oh, this is making me, I'm going to go see the movie because of this. Like specifically that clip because I think, yeah, it says a lot. It tells you right away to like, this is the kind of thing that is possible in this movie, and everybody understands what it means.
00;37;29;20 - 00;37;49;08
Speaker 3
And it's funny and it's also sad, but it's just ridiculous. And I really do appreciate that. And the same with like, sorry to bother you and Ashley. I remember when we were talking about send help that like you kind of maybe should be familiar with like Sam Raimi before you see Sam Raimi film. So you're not like, what is this?
00;37;49;08 - 00;38;14;01
Speaker 3
Like, what's going on? I feel the same way. Maybe with like, boots, really, that if you are familiar with like a style, you're not going to be like shocked by stuff that happens in the movie or all the ways that he takes it. But I think that people really like, want that, like like what you were like, I think people really are serving for that kind of a movie.
00;38;14;03 - 00;38;37;23
Speaker 3
And that there's so many things like it does feel like kind of a slog, you know? So I think that everything I've been seeing lately, I've really been, like, loving. But this was the person I saw it with to. They were like, wow, this was like the best comedy I've seen in a really long time. Like, they were just very, very happy and just wanted to talk about so many things afterward.
00;38;37;25 - 00;38;55;25
Speaker 3
And I think that everybody that was in it to it was like a perfect. And then when they talk about like filming it that they said it was just like the best time, but it was like very intensive. But but it was just very, very joyful while they were dealing with obviously, you know, heavy games. But that, I think is what I was starting out with.
00;38;55;26 - 00;39;29;10
Speaker 3
Like, I appreciate how he wants to talk about major things. And then he himself in interviews, like he doesn't shy away from anything like he, you know, exactly where he stands on the stuff. But in his movies that he wants you, he wants to give you a message, but he wants you to have fun. And like you mentioned, to like where it's like it's not subtle what the messages are, but not in a way where it's like, you know, sometimes now where people say like, you know, people have to have the movies explained to them or whatever, that we need to spell everything out.
00;39;29;11 - 00;39;43;04
Speaker 3
Not in that kind of a way, but in a way where it makes you look more aware of, like, this is so ludicrous. This is so crazy. But like, this is actually how it is. It's just calling it. Well, no, that's yeah.
00;39;43;06 - 00;39;53;07
Speaker 2
If you're an American or if you live under a capitalist rule like, yeah, you understand you understand all of these things he's touching on.
00;39;53;09 - 00;40;24;22
Speaker 1
And this is what you know. And this is what made Mel Brooks so great. Mel Brooks took very upsetting things and wanted to laugh at it. That's why there's so many, like, Hitler jokes and stuff like that in Mel Brooks movies, because it's a thing of real horror for him. You know, he lost family members through it, and to make those people look ridiculous made him feel better.
00;40;24;22 - 00;40;51;14
Speaker 1
And the audience then went along with it. It was the same. It was the same way that he handled racism. You know, that's a big misconception. You know, that you get with with some older comedies is all, well, you couldn't make it now a days. It's like, no, you couldn't because you wouldn't get it, because you would think that Blazing Saddles was cheering racism, because you hear certain words and you're like, you're either on one side of, oh, well, that's instantly offensive.
00;40;51;15 - 00;40;58;23
Speaker 1
You cannot say that, or that's great, because I like using that word also. And it's like, no, it's neither of those. You dumb bastard.
00;40;58;24 - 00;41;01;03
Speaker 2
No, no, no, it's fun of.
00;41;01;05 - 00;41;01;08
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;41;01;09 - 00;41;01;20
Speaker 2
It's like.
00;41;01;25 - 00;41;31;04
Speaker 1
Making fun of these people. Like that's the point. Like they're the butt of the joke. And then you're supposed to have the realization of, like, these people are clowns and we're going to laugh at them. And boots is able to get that, that coming, that, that comedy out of it. And then also have a soul sucking demon pop in there, who I thought Lakeith Stanfield at first was doing like a Prince impersonation when the camera was like on him and he was talking, I was like, oh man, we're so close.
00;41;31;10 - 00;41;32;18
Speaker 2
It's weird.
00;41;32;20 - 00;41;34;10
Speaker 1
The eye makeup. And it was such.
00;41;34;11 - 00;41;36;03
Speaker 3
And I was like, you.
00;41;36;06 - 00;41;38;24
Speaker 1
You're millimeters away from this being Prince.
00;41;38;24 - 00;41;45;02
Speaker 2
And yeah, the camera was doing that weird kind of in and out thing. Yeah.
00;41;45;06 - 00;42;06;11
Speaker 3
I do love that. That scene, you know, the scene that maybe people did not enjoy that Whitney with the laptop was played by his wife. I've seen him as actual wife. He talked about in interviews how he was like, you know, like I figured, okay, I'm definitely gonna need permission from my wife to do the scene. And he's like, you know, like, it would just be best if it was my wife.
00;42;06;13 - 00;42;21;14
Speaker 3
She did her own day. And like, she is an actor, she's, you know, but in other stuff. And they were like, he's like, they like the reading. And I was like, that's very funny to me that it's it's actually his way. That's true. Yeah. Adds another layer too. But I like the way that even that she like it's ridiculous.
00;42;21;14 - 00;42;41;24
Speaker 3
But that it ties into it's just like he's like a man. Like just going to take and take from her, suck the soul out of her. And she, you know, like find community and her friendships and take from that. And, you know, like you pointed the line at the end where she's like, I can't be with somebody that goes down on me, won't go down on me.
00;42;41;26 - 00;42;54;00
Speaker 3
But even to say that. Yeah, even the way that like when she gets this though, and they tell her the story and she just looks really disappointed and she's like, I guess I should delete his number.
00;42;54;02 - 00;43;15;28
Speaker 3
After we get that whole crazy scene. And then they're all just like sitting together eating. I think the kids are there to like, it's just it's amazing the way that they use this character. But if you're familiar with his work or like, sorry to bother you, the kind of stuff that happens that to yeah, that that movie even takes like a hard pivot.
00;43;16;00 - 00;43;36;03
Speaker 3
Like there are, you know, kind of fantastical elements. But there is that where the movie where you're like, oh, what? Okay. And it just fully goes for it. I don't know, I just feel like I'm so excited to see more stuff from him. Like, I wish that. I also understand to you that he's kinds of movies, obviously. Like there's so much that goes into it.
00;43;36;05 - 00;44;03;04
Speaker 3
So he's not going to be just like pumping stuff out. But I, I'm very, very happy to see this, like, unique, really joyful take on like, messages that we've seen in other movies. And we see people maybe talk about all the time, to the point where maybe people don't pay enough attention to it, where like, this one really, like grabs you and it makes you put yourself in the movie and it makes you have a really good time.
00;44;03;04 - 00;44;18;03
Speaker 3
And it also like, I think he trusts the audience and that he could do stuff like that where it's like, let me show you like a little mini documentary about this character. Let me introduce a new character and then give you a whole backstory and then introduce this Sci-Fi element when we're into the film.
00;44;18;03 - 00;44;19;17
Speaker 2
All right. Yeah.
00;44;19;18 - 00;44;33;26
Speaker 3
Yeah, he does a big ash, he said, like he took he takes big swings. And I really, really appreciate that, that he's not like worried, you know, about like, oh maybe. Maybe they don't want it. They won't get it. You know, it's just like this is like his movie. This is his vision.
00;44;33;27 - 00;45;02;16
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah I loved it. Yeah. I'm super excited for whatever he does next. And I appreciate his uprightness about it. I like that he's just like, yeah, this is what I'm trying to do. Like, this is what I'm trying to say, and I'm not gonna pivot around it or any or anything like that. And so it's refreshing. I find it refreshing or he doesn't get he's very intellectual type, but like, he doesn't get too intellectual about things, you know.
00;45;02;19 - 00;45;10;13
Speaker 2
So it's just refreshing. I appreciate it and I love it. I think that's the consensus with with all of us.
00;45;10;19 - 00;45;18;01
Speaker 3
Hopefully people are able to see it before it goes out of theaters, like you mentioned before, because it's great on the big screen.
00;45;18;04 - 00;45;42;17
Speaker 2
For sure. Yeah. Well, thank you for listening to this one. I hope you had fun listening to us. Have fun recalling the film and talking about the film. Subscribe if you're liking it or at least discussions, go back, watch some of our earlier episodes, and then next episode we'll be talking about backrooms. And so we're going we're heading back into the horror genre.
00;45;42;17 - 00;45;52;19
Speaker 2
But this was at least a little refreshing break for it, at least for me. So thanks all for listening and we'll see you next time.
00;45;52;22 - 00;45;54;13
Speaker 3
Bye bye by.