EP.36 David Fincher

In this episode of Newbies to Movies, hosts Tyler and Justin dive into the meticulous, dark, and visually stunning world of David Fincher. The discussion centers on two of his most atmospheric works: the grim, sin-soaked procedural Se7en and the frosty Swedish neo-noir The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Tyler and Justin explore Fincher's "ice-cold" aesthetic, his clinical obsession with detail, and how he translates lurid source material into high-art thrillers. Whether you're a long-time fan or a total "newbie" to his filmography, the hosts break down why these films are essential viewing for understanding modern thriller cinema. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hello, hello. Welcome to Newbies to Movies. I'm Tyler. And I'm Justin. This is a podcast where we like to talk about new movies that we're watching. This week's theme being around director David Fincher. So yeah, we'll get into him, but first we'd like to start this off with uh just saying what we've been watching for this past week, something that doesn't directly affiliate with the theme of the week. But yeah, Justin, you want to go first?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yeah, mine does affiliate with the theme of the week. I like to do that um sometimes when we're picking a director, an actor, or genre, just really dive into it and find another movie that I can kind of just add more perspective, I guess, to the movies we're watching this week. So I watched Gone Girl by David Fincher. I thought it was pretty mid, to be honest. Uh I had some pretty deep frustrations with the middle of the movie. At a certain point, I just felt like, yes, we understand she's a step ahead, but it was like constantly like getting thrown in our face that she's always a step ahead. And I felt like it just dragged out a lot of those plot points. And I felt like you could have saved that to kind of wrap up the ending a little bit better. But that's just my opinion. I mean, I know a lot of people really love this movie, but yeah, it just wasn't my favorite of his.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, I re-watched it today because after you said your frustrations, I hadn't watched it in a while, so I kind of wanted to re-attack it with like a new perspective on like just overall um just films in general after we've been doing the podcast, because I haven't watched it, I think, since like 2017. And I really enjoyed it then. Um I enjoyed it this time. Um, I would say it took away a little bit because the ending for me felt a little rushed. I think the the whole first half to the middle half of the movie really is well done in the pacing style, and then the pacing is just like totally different with the back third in the film for me. Uh yeah. Seems like a total seems like he had to speed it up so it did become a three-hour movie. Yeah. As far as like some of the like the plot points that you're talking about, I don't necessarily agree as I saw once he saw the stuff in the chest, or he knew the whole time that he wasn't doing it, but Netflix character. And then once he saw the stuff in the shed, it kind of cuts right to her. Because that's right when he notices as well that he's been set up. I think he started to notice like stuff here and there, but he's like, Oh wow, like maybe she was like kidnapped weirdly or something. The moment he saw that, he's like, Oh, I'm set up. And then it cuts to her creating her whole story. I never felt like she was way ahead. It just was in circumstances where like the media already decided that he did it and was just running with that narrative. And the police ran with it.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Yeah, part of that too is like I think I was frustrated because like the twist was an hour in, like that that scene specifically. And then it was like, what am I sitting around here waiting on? Like, I felt like I was just like kind of waiting for the ending rather than like actually caring about her dealing with those those people in that little hotel or hostel or whatever it was. I was just like, I don't care about any of this right now. Like, what's gonna happen? That's all I wanted to know.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

For me, I saw it as more so like, was she gonna follow through with it? Like, was she because she we could see on the calendar, she like points like, oh, I'm gonna kill myself today. Oh, maybe in a month, maybe two months. So it's like, oh, is she actually gonna follow through with it? She likes watching him going through it, and then but he knows that about her, that where they low-key don't know each other very well. That's why she could even set it up in this place because she knew that he would look so guilty. So she he goes on like a public network, pretty much vis for her to come back, and then she does what she does. Honestly, she's like the the whole she's way worse than uh Ben Affleck's character. Ben Affleck is like a kind of a piece of crap for cheating and stuff, but uh at least she isn't like a murderer. Um he's also a dumbass. Yeah. He is quite dumb because like he'd just be flirting with the girls while like this whole thing's happening and just not helping his narrative. I think Ben Affleck was like a perfect casted person for that because he just gives off those vibes as a piece of shit. Um and kind of like media itself, like the media first image and like towards the end image when he's like bringing the trash, the dumpster, out to like the side street. I think I've seen pictures of that, him in like actual magazines and like social media, just like in real world, just looking like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Yeah, after after he breaks up with J Lo for the eighth time.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah, I'm like, yeah, David Fetcher saw that and saw that on like a news source one day, and it was just like, yep, he's that that's that's my guy.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Hey man, you know those eight breakups you've been through, channel that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Um yeah. I looked at the screenplay writer because I think it may be like a slight screenplay problem as well, is that she's only wrote Gone Girl and Widows, and that's it. So she's only wrote in two movies, so it just seems like an inexperience to like wrap up something. But yeah, so that was one of the things I watched this week. I saw three movies in theaters this week. I saw Forbidden Fruits. It's a very campy horror movie where I think Heather's is a very good like comparison to it, and it's just not my kind of film. I literally fell asleep in the theater for it for like 20 minutes and then woke up, and the back third of the film was really cool, but I literally fell asleep for the entire like middle of the film because I was just like, this is boring as hell. Why are they dragging it out? It follows like these slight witchcraft of like these workers in like a like a HM kind of store and where they just upprice it and then they just put random prices on it. And I think it's well acted, it's just like it's not my kind of movie. So Super Mario Galaxy movie, everyone's gonna everyone's gonna bring their kids to watch it this next week or month. It's gonna make a billion dollars, but such a shallow narrative of a film, in my opinion, to where like what I like about Pixar movies so much is that they like teach a theme to kids as they're watching the film, and it like drives that theme home throughout the film. While this one is just action set after action set, and it's like fast food or like candy while you're doing it, and like but like nothing burger afterwards, or like you can't like go home with your kid and be like, Oh, what did you think about this? It's like a a dinosaur eating somebody and pooping out an egg.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yeah, it's like uh unfortunately this is what happens. So like they know they don't have to put much effort into certain things because they know how much money it's gonna make, right? So you can just cut it and like the first one was like a pretty decent plot, I felt like. Um, I haven't seen the second one yet, but uh unfortunately, yeah, this is where a lot of the big franchises go, i.e. Despicable me and minions.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah, that's just I think my favorite animated films always drives home a theme. Well, I feel like this was like a nothing burger of a theme. It's like, oh yeah, they're just saving another princess. Um and then the other film I saw Thursday night was the drama, a new film with Zadea and Robert Pattinson. I'm gonna try I'm gonna not spoil it. There's just a twist that happens pretty early in the film. So with your view of Gongro being too early, I don't think that it's the same thing because I think this is more of a character study film than anything. I think it's gonna be probably the most divisive film of the year. Uh yeah, I've seen some reviews where people really feel one way or the other about it. Really great performances. I recommend just seeing it. Um but if you get easily triggered, we shouldn't go see it. Yeah. That's all I'm gonna try to say without giving it too much way. Because I think it's so far my favorite movie of the year because it was just very intriguing and I I really like the performances too. I think it's cool that two big actors who are gonna be like two of the biggest movies this year in Odyssey, Spider-Man, and Dune are doing movies like that too. Yeah. So they're not just like trying to do blockbusters only, they're also going out of their way.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yeah, cool. Cool. Um next we're gonna do is sorry, I think that was uh Echo.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Amazon Echo. I think next we're gonna do like the connection game of movies, but this time me and Justin picked a movie each and we're gonna try to connect them.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

So I before we started, I got on letterbox and scrolled, scrolled, scrolled, and it just happened to be a top five movie of mine that I landed my finger on.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Do you want me to tell you now? Yeah. Okay, fantastic Mr. Fox is my movie. Okay. What's your movie? I don't think there's any connection to this because mine is men in black, the first one. Jesus. Imagine I chose like Oceans 11, it's like, well, we already connected it. Dude.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

So we want to start with Fantastic Mr. Fox and then try to connect it.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Yeah, I mean, I'm that's the only way I'm really thinking. I'm trying to think of like side characters who were in Men in Black that we could potentially like try to go after. Cause you got Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones. I know where to go with this. So tell me if you have something better, but I'm gonna lay the whole thing out. You have George Clooney, I'm in Fantastic Mr. Fox. You go to the Flash movie, where he cameos as the Batman. You then go to I can't think of it, the other Batman. Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton, and his two-face was Tommy Lee Jones in that movie. I don't know exactly what Batman movie that is.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I know what you're talking about. Are you sure he was the two-faced of that, or is he George Clooney's two-face? Shit, you might be right. No, he was Val Kilmer's two-face.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Shit.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah. I had a feeling he wasn't Michael Keaton's. Because I remember the movie that Thomas E. Jones in was really bad. Like really, really bad.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Trying to think. We can still probably connect it, but we probably have to do one more movie, right? Yeah. Did they keep the Robin the same? Different robin.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Remember they changed they had different Batmans in the 90s. It was like Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney. Damn, I thought I cooked there. Smith, think. Will Smith was fantastic, Mr. Fox. Carol Streep is in it. Jason.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Uh Bill Murray was like the big ones. Yeah. Owen Wilson too for a minute. I just remember that.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Bill Murray, what we what can we connect Bill Murray to? Bill Murray's in a movie with Adam Driver. Is Adam Driver in a movie with any of them? I remember Bill Murray was in Zombie Land. I don't know why that's stuck in my head.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

And then I just don't know if he's done anything with Will Smith.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

I got it. I got it.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Okay. So we got Fantastic Mr. Fox, and then we can go Bill Murray. Bill Murray to Zombie Land. Zombie Land, Woody Harrison. Woody Harrison, seven pounds. Will Smith at seven pounds. Sweet.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

That's pretty good.

unknown 10:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

I mean, okay. Took us a minute, but we got there.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Okay. So yeah. We got Fantastic Mr. Fox to Bill Murray. Bill Murray to Zombie Land. Zombieland to Woody Harrison. Hey Mitch. Hey Mitch. I also watched the entire Hunger Games series this entire week. So yeah, that's stuck in my mind. I also started reading the most recent book again, even though I read it last year. Just because I'm so hyped for that movie. I dude, I forgot how good the Hunger Games movies were. I was used to be obsessed with those movies. Woody Harrelson, Seven Pounds. He's blind in that movie, by the way, if you've never seen Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Quite interesting.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Uh Seven Pounds, Will Smith, and then The Man, The Myth, the Legend, Will Smith.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

If you had told me from when we mentioned these two names that somehow it would involve Woody Harrelson, I would have told you you were lying. There's such a drastic change in movies.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

I feel like he's a good mix in between the two of them, you know?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

I mean he has range. Oh, another sh show that you need to watch, True Detective Man. I know. Matthew McConaughey, the Texas boys cooking together. I feel like we're doing we're doing Matthew McConaughey in a couple weeks. But you you just gotta watch the whole like the whole season.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

It's season one, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yeah. Yeah. All the other seasons are right. Awesome. So yeah, this week we did David Fentcher, the Denver born uh director. He's 63 right now. He started making movies in the 90s, but he first started off doing music videos. He's done a crap ton of music videos, I think over 50 of them. He's won two Grammys for doing basic videos with the Rolling Stones and Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. He also did a bunch of Madonna videos and then transitioned into film. His first film, Alien Three, was uh say a box office disappointment would be quite an understatement. Apparently, it was like a he doesn't even like acknowledge it. He said he was too young, he said he wasn't ready. But then right after that, he came back with a punch and came out with seven right after that, which we uh are doing this week. And then from seven, he did the game with Michael Douglas, and then did Fight Club with Brad Pitt again, but on as well as Edward Norton, Panic Room, right after that with Jody Foster, Zodiac, just a crazy cast on that. RDJ, Mark Ruffalo, and Jake Gyllenhaal, and then Courteous Kids at Benjamin Button, another one with Brad Pitt, The Social Network, one of the best films of all time, in my opinion. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the other movie we're doing this week, Gone Girl, Mank, the Killer, and then more recent movie that has a to-be determined release date because they said it originally was set to release in November, The Adventures of Cliff Booth. Um, his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, and another collaboration with Brad Pitt. Um at first, what's your first uh thought of David Fenture as a director, Justin?

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah, I mean, you think about I really only got into him past couple months, honestly, when I watched Fight Club, but I have seen Social Network and I have seen Zodiac before getting into him. So I didn't really think directly like, you know, very dark director, but after watching the movies this week combined with Gone Girl and Fight Club, definitely a dark director. You know, he's not scared to push very uncomfortable buttons with a lot of people. Um, and I I think that's ballsy. I think he kind of throws the status quo out the window, and he's like, if if the plot, you know, needs it, he's gonna put it in the movie, no matter how dark.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Um, it's interesting, like the fruit two films that you saw before. Social network is probably his lightest film, I would say, about darkness and like theme-wise, just because it's based off one is a direct adaptation of like a book, as well as a lot of his um stuff in the 2010s were, but it's also like about somebody that we know of, like a true story. Um, the rest of these are like kind of made-up stories. Zodiac as well is a true story, but yeah, it's quite interesting. I agree with you, where he's like a very dark-toned person, and he's not afraid of a director to like show you something you don't want to see right in front of your face. Seven is like such a good example. I haven't seen Alien 3, but at 7, like there's just so many like brutal like murders that they just show you.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Right to your face, which hopefully we can get into how they were able to film that or like the set design of it all, because it's quite intriguing. Yeah, I really like him as a director because of that, but he's also like known for thrillers. Like somehow he made the social network itself feel like a thriller film, even though you know what's gonna happen the entire film. I think that's the beauty of that kind of film for me. And then the girl with the dragon tattoo and the seven this week are very similar films because they're both going after serial killers, but two drastically different ways of going after them.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Yeah, and I mean, you know, we talked about you know seeing the murders in seven, but even the girl with the dragon tattoo. I mean, that movie showed some very explicit sexual confrontation that I know a lot of people probably weren't happy with seeing on the big screen.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

No, it I think it's his most dark tonally film, especially like all the visuals, I think is the by far the darkiest that I've seen. Unless like one of the three that I haven't seen are darker, which I'd be surprised by just based off the synopsis of them. Wow. I did not expect to watch that. I'm glad I didn't watch it on the plane ride because that I I don't I think I yeah, that would not have been a good look. But yeah. I'm looking forward to Adventures of Cliff Pooth just to see, because I really liked Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's just interesting because the script is direct adaptation with Quarantarantino, and you have David Venture, and then you have a re-collaboration with Brad Pitt, but just seems like a lot of nuances that if it works out, it could be really good. But I could also see this being really, really bad.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Well, yeah, I mean, you see, we've seen we've done case studies basically on them both to this point, and you know, very thrilling movies from both of them. So to be able to see, you know, what makes it and what are we gonna watch a scene of that movie and be like, oh, that's like definitely feels more like Tarantino, or are we gonna be like, oh, that feels more like Fincher? Um, and you know, throughout the whole movie, what are we gonna what are we gonna feel kind of overpower the other?

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, it's it's quite interesting because Tarantino's like he's the main screen playwriter. And then Venture likes to do like a full synopsis into like the background of stuff when he directs, but he also does crazy takes. Like he does like 70 takes, sometimes averaging per like scene. That's why some actors really don't like working with him or get really frustrated with him. I got high hopes for it, but I'm not coming with the highest expectations with Adventures of Cliff Booth, just because two very clashing, I think, personalities of film coming together. So who knows? Maybe it works really well, maybe it doesn't. Yeah. But cool. The first film that we're gonna do is Seven, came out in 1995, and Justin, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah. Uh I was very excited to watch this film this week. Uh, because I always see the memes, you know, what's what's in the box? That whole thing. I've always wanted to know what's in the box, so that's why I was happy to write about this one. Yeah. So, yeah, getting straight into the plot, uh, two detectives in search of a serial killer who seem to be the serial killers clearly, you know, making nods and references to the seven deadly sins. Morgan Morgan Freeman's character, Detective William Somerset, is on his final week of the force, but um, he feels like he's drawn back into this case. And at the same time, he's uh training Brad Pitt's character, uh David Mills, his very cocky, naive replacement in a hunt for the maniac. Um, I'm gonna talk about spoilers. Um, I thought it was really cool that it was Kevin Spacey. I mean, we've seen Kevin Spacey uh be a really good bad guy so many times, but yeah, really crazy plot, really, really throws you for a loop multiple times, but keeps you intrigued um throughout the whole the whole plot. And I don't want to say compare it to Gone Girl, but I like having it attached to the Seven Deadly Sins because you kind of know where you're at, right? By the third one, you're like, all right, they it's go time. Like if they don't start getting on this, it's gonna be bad for everybody, right? You're really involved in the plot. And so I give the plot a nine.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Yeah, I I really enjoyed this plot. You can see he directly talks about like a a couple of other films in the 60s being kind of inspirational for him with his film, but you can see a lot of films nowadays that are direct inspiration from Seven. Specific chat out to the Batman. Almost you could say like almost scene by scene is very similar to Seven.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Just like the tonal differences, the way that the clues are itself. Um, thought that was really interesting also. Um, I saw Seven a while back, I think right after I saw Girl Gone Girl, because I really liked Gone Girl, and then I was like, he also did this movie, let me check it out. And it was cool to re-watch it this time with understanding um a little bit more nuances to film, and I liked it even better than I liked it the first time. Yeah, the plot for me really whenever you pair like an old cop that wants to retire, but he's seeing like the most difficult case he's ever seen in his entire career with the naive cop that wants to just prove himself, but then becomes addicted to it, I feel like that's always a good combination. I think Kevin Spacey just fits the narrative of who John Doe is right away.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, I mean, getting into characters, I gave it a 10. I think these characters are so perfectly drawn out. Um, obviously, you can do that when you're really only focusing on three, four if you count his wife main characters, but yeah, so well done. I mean, having the kind of nihilistic old head cop training the the hot shot young naive cop while John Doe, Kevin Space's character is literally just toying with them, and they know that it's it's so interesting. And the the back and forth between the three. I mean, the the scene in the cop car felt like two hours, but just seeing all of that unfold um with those three in the car together. I mean, yeah, I couldn't imagine being on set that day, just being like, wow, this is magnificent to watch.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Yeah, it it interests me because when reading up on this, I couldn't see about like shooting, like was Dave Fenture starting off right away with doing a crazy amount of takes. But this film scene's like he was really learning his move, but also like letting scenes breathe out as a director. Certainly with the characters, Morgan Freeman's character, I think, is the most interesting to me. Because right at the beginning of the film, I mean it's a very unusual crime right at the beginning, like the gluttony one. Um he's just like, uh, it is what like that's really gross. But yeah. gluttony like the word at all right away. It's once they see greed that that he's like, hmm. And then he like really starts doing research and he's just like, wait a second. And then he finds it at the first one and then they bring it all together because Somerset is the one that finds it. And the whole the whole movie is also really careful of Mills because you can see Mills being really emotional about it rather than like strategic about it. And that's what ends up getting him at the end of the day his emotions and the reason why John Doe even goes after him in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Yeah, no, and I'm gonna skip to dialogue kind of, you know, talking about Morgan Freeman's character here. I gave it a 10. My favorite quote was when he said Ernest Hemingway once wrote the world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I agree with the second part. I thought that was a perfect description of his character. You know, he feels like he's constantly trying to roll the ball up the hill but it's n never going to reach the peak. You know, he's been there his whole life fighting for the city and he just knows that it's always crumbling down around him.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yeah. I also think that that font line itself feeds into Fenture as a director. I think that he really is nihilistic and looks at the world, the darker parts of the world and people itself but then he also shows character that have upside that are worth fighting for and that there is some upside in this world but there is very dark points as well. So yeah I think that's an interesting thing to point out.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yeah and um the scene too with uh Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow um especially talking about you know bringing a baby into this cruel world that was really really deep you know he wanted to you know motivate her and you know you could tell there was like an internal struggle with him. He wanted her to have the baby but he also knew that he would never do it himself because of how bad he feels about this world which is so interesting and so interesting to see him do have that internal struggle.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah. And then like the whole final scene like the first 30 minutes to me is like probably one of the perfect like thriller scenes of all time just because the tension is building up and you're like where are they going? Like what are they showing them to the music adds to it as well once we get into like how it adds to like the thrilling and like the eeriness of the film but like the back and forth between Mills and John Doe and you can see Mills is getting under his skin or uh or Doe is getting under his skin. Mills is trying to get under his skin but then Doe like just kind of reminds himself why he's doing it all because he thinks he's like the savior of sorts. But then Somerset has a good line in the film where he's like if we catch John Doe and he turns out to be the devil, I mean if he's Satan himself that might live up to our expectations but he's not the devil. He's just a man.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Yeah so that's so interesting to think about it that way too like because even us as the viewer you know half the movie we're waiting to see this guy and no matter what it is we're gonna be kind of disappointed right because it isn't the devil. It's not this big mysterious creature that's just doing this for no unknown reason. It's just a man with a motive.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

And he's not this intimidating fig figure.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Another movie that we did usual suspects he's like the least intimidating guy in that film and yet he's the person that did it in both films as his least intimidating guy that just an everyday guy that wouldn't really stand out.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Yeah exactly getting into cinematography I gave it a nine I thought it was so well done and uh over the past two weeks I've talked about specifically gray movies. This is how you do a gray movie. You take the color gray and you add in certain colors I really noticed yellow was a big one especially in that end scene. The city really felt like Gotham and they really added that that gray navy blue black feel which was so interesting and I couldn't find anything on what the uh the actual I know they shot in LA but what the actual city was in the story I don't think there's intended to be an actual city but it just looked like a very grim um kind of down city regardless of where you were in in the city and the shots were were amazing because of that.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah again I just want to go back to like his whole like kind of all of his movies because I think a lot of his movies kind of look like this. Yeah. Obviously like the more advanced cameras the clearer it looks but even his other films are very not bright colored like Blade Runner or Spielberg D where it's like very fun looking but it's very gray with adding in colors and nuance very similar to prisoners I would say in the way that they they use gray effectively.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

And then yeah kind of rolling with that um set design very murky color palette um like we kind of talked about with the cinematography but the urban landscape was done really well I think of that scene when they they go to his apartment it felt very claustrophobic running around each corner um especially because you just see a guy come up the stairs and start firing you're like holy shit these he's not here to run he's here to kill yeah always raining it is pretty much gotham um but yeah I thought the the set design was pretty great and suggests a very long history of crime which kind of just put that in the viewer's mind from the very beginning right with Morgan Freeman's character but also just you never know what's around every corner in that city.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Yeah it's um quite interesting because yeah they it was mainly filmed in Los Angeles but it feels like Chicago vibes also Seattle because of all the rain.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Yeah very much Gotham like just another direct adaptation to where like I think the Batman like Mike like they just straight up like I wouldn't say copy but like huge inspiration from seven yeah dude like I didn't even put that together until you said it but I started thinking I was like oh Kevin Spacey as the riddler would be like really good. Yeah like that much that much I would argue like Paul Dano is the Kevin Spacey of like the 2010s and on like very similar kind of kind of actor yeah no that's completely fair and then I think the Batman is just a mix of David Mills and um I'm blanking Somerset as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

I think he's just a mix like yeah no yeah I mean Alfred's like very much like Somerset in that film.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

That's true. That's true too.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah Alfred's very much like that and then Pattinson and Brad Pitt are such similar actors now if you think about it like in their career where they go after these crazy roles and they're not like shuttled into being like these big franchise guys even though Pattinson's trying to get away from the Twilight fame of it all early in his career. Pitt also started with a with a vampire movie. Alright I don't want to get too much into it there's way too many there's way too many connections to both of these films.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Yeah I never noticed that I'll have to dig into that more after the show but getting into acting I think Brad Pitt really stood out here especially some of the some of the best scenes were were definitely the ones at the end with uh you seeing the emotions come out over him but also Morgan Freeman you know he wasn't his typical like father figure Morgan Freeman here he was definitely a nihilist who didn't want anything to do with this young guy um and you know slowly slowly came on to him and his wife but you know I thought they were really killed and then obviously Kevin Spacey's always super eerie.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Yeah. The acting was really good in this I gave it a 10 just because um I I guess like we were a little late obviously for the picture we mainly know Morgan Freeman for like older roles and then as well as narrating and then like as um Lucius in the Dark Knight films. I don't I didn't really see him a lot of but like this movie really showed me like oh wow I should probably check out some of his other filmography earlier or like in the 80s and 90s where he was like really cooking.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Yeah we should definitely do him one week I would be interested to see that.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Yeah. And getting into Brad Pitt I think he's just one of my favorite actors because again he doesn't like niche himself into like one category. He goes from seven and then he does Fight Club, Snatch, he does Ocean's Eleven, um, and then Troy and then did Mr. and Mrs. Smith um and then he also did like Sassation Jesse James and Glorious Bastards he plays like a totally different type of character. I think he's just such an interesting actor to me and every movie that I see him in I really enjoy pretty much it almost feels bad to like try to compare some of his roles.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

It's like you can't that's yeah like people say apples to oranges like they're just different roles like you can't like say one's better than the other because he's playing a completely different thing which is really cool. Yeah you don't see that a lot yeah I agree. Um and then directing yeah I gave it a nine I have really great psychological thriller I think obviously this is right up Venture's alley very signature dark and gritty. I I wouldn't have said this a couple months ago because all I knew venture was for Zodiac and Social Network but I see why people like those two movies of his a lot just because he really took that thriller aspect and applied them to like we said uh true stories in the real world which is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Yeah. No I really like the directing too talk about like a little bit of like the writing too even though he didn't write it um Andrew Kevin Walker wrote it. But I think it's cool that a lot of his earlier films were direct like original screenplays and then he became like more of an adapted kind of guy where he started adapting books more so it seemed like and other scripts. But yeah I think this is probably one of his more best directed movies and it makes sense why after this he starts like going way off because I bet after Alien 3 everybody like kind of put pushed him away and was like I don't know about this guy. And then he was like and then he just came back with like a big punch and it's like probably one of the bigger like second films of somebody's career to come back on.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Yeah and then getting into soundtrack they gave it a nine I thought it was a really good score very dark and atmospheric you had stuff like jazz playing but also kind of like a little bit of rock mixed in which was interesting kind of that to merge those two in the 90s definitely a lot of different kind of music going on in the 90s so that was pretty cool to see um what did you think of the soundtrack I thought I really enjoyed it. So I watched it at one of my coworkers that was letting me stay at his place um as I was like moving um and he had surround sound and so dude it just added to it um he has dogs like every time like there'd be a tense scene the dogs would just start barking so that would like scare me because I'd be like what the heck but it's just because I had it turned up pretty loud but it did it was such a intriguing like that added to like the tenseness of it all right yeah especially like the background while they're even talking like the background like sounds as they're in the car traveling was just like so eerie that added to the tenseness of it all I think of that um opening scene too when uh Freeman kind of walks downstairs and then you know Mills walks up on him like hey I'm your replacement this is me all the sounds going on in the street around I was like oh this movie's gonna be cool like it's not just gonna be like a typical detective movie. Yeah. Getting into theme obviously spoiler alert seven deadly sins but biggest one that I really took away was moral decay right we see Morgan Freeman's morality kind of shake and waver throughout this film but it's also understood that that's been his whole career there. And then seeing that kind of get passed on the city taking such a drain onto Detective Mills was such a big part of the movie and such a cool thing to see. And then obviously the nature of evil with uh John Doe is really interesting as well.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Yeah um I think some of the those themes that you hit on were definitely dehumanization another one but I think connect three movies of his seven Zodiac and Social Network it's themes of like pressure and obsession into something and they really dive deep into like obsession about like figuring something out or being good at something because that's really what Mills wants to do. He wants to solve the case but he also wants to show out because he's replacing this guy and he's like oh I'll take it I'll take it yeah being like the downfall yeah being the downfall of those main characters. So I think obsession is another key theme of this.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

Um getting into editing I gave it a nine directed and edited by sorry directed by David Fincher edited by Richard Francis Bruce. Very intense motivated and subliminal uh very dark I read something about calling a bleach bypass visual style and obviously they used a lot of rapid cuts and you know those intense scenes but I think that bleach bypass style was what what I was kind of mentioning earlier how they used other colors over top of gray to really you know still get great cinematography but still make it that gritty gritty dark film that that we we see with a lot of venture movies.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yeah it's very well edited as well he also the editor edited Shaw Shank Redemption the year before this as well and then the Green Mile as well so these make sense to see other type of movies.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Yeah very similar kind of editing styles and then yeah overall score I gave it a 9.2 out of 10 or a 92 I really enjoyed this movie. Lived up to every expectation I had was sad to see what was in the box but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah that's crazy that we I literally have the same rating uh 9.2 out of 10 or 92 out of 100. Yeah I really enjoy this film. Anything above a 90 is a five star film for me. I feel like if you get above a 90 after all these categories of you deserve to be recognized for being a five star film. You can see it influences a lot of movies after it. Yeah. We didn't really even talk about Griffith Powthrow because she's she's low she's not really in the film all that much, but she's such a big name actress now where like you could spot her out um and it's just like the the saddest part of the movie by far where he like fits right into his plan.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Yeah and I mean it was pretty tragic that you know she really didn't want to be there but she was there like supporting him but also wanted to get on with their life you know have kids and everything like that and then yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Yeah. Especially like after like the whole scene with Morgan Freeman without that scene you don't really know anything about her or would really even care. But that like adds so much context to it all exactly. Okay. And then the second movie they did this week was Girl with the Dragon Tattoo this is a 2011 film a direct adaptation of the novel um by Steag Larsen um starring Daniel Craig as a journalist and Rudy Mara as the girl with the dragon tattoo but really it starts with these films on two opposite sides uh confus gets in trouble you could say pretty much needs to step away from a bit from being um a journalist and he gets hired by this uh really rich family trying to solve a 40 year mystery about where what he thinks is a murder of his niece and then from there he like goes down this rabbit hole trying to figure it out um while Bruni Mara is like this cyber expert really good on the computer pretty much but it follows but she then she's stuck into this contract set with money. She gets out of it in a certain way that we we could discuss um which is like one of the most disturbing scenes that you could see what happens to her but then also what she does back to him as just I mean he deserved it all. But yeah and then it kind of leads off into them finally meeting each other but they already know each other because he finds her because she's the one that screwed him over in the first place um hacking into his computer and showing stuff but then it leads into like pretty much them trying to find a serial killer. They find out who it is but it's not exactly what they expect. With that being said I gave the plot uh eight because for the first 30 minutes or 30 45 I was just kind of confused. So where are we? What's going on? I feel like this movie didn't give a lot of like exposition for you to like kind of like get used to the film.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

It was just like right from the jump like right getting into it where you're like wait a second what yeah it felt like it needed to slow down a little bit in the beginning you know we think just talking about seven you had two two cops you were getting into it you had a serial killer three things. This movie starts off with the girl doing the spying on Daniel Craig's character who was upset with another lawyer then you had the one the lady that he was cheating on well no he was yeah screwing but she was cheating on her husband with him it was just it became a mess really fast and it made the rest of the movie a little bit harder to track just because you came in so hot with that many things going on.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

I think the beginning of the movie was more complex than like the rest of it. Once they got to like the cabin or he got to the cabin and then like she got her way out of what she was in for me like I could track that film really well and I thought the second and third yeah the second and third parts of the film I actually really enjoyed. I think for me the plot was really just at the beginning just felt so rushed which makes sense because like this is already a two and a half hour movie so it's like if you try to slow it down and I'm sure like the book probably goes a little bit more in depth about the beginning where you can track it a little bit slower.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

But for a movie wise it was just so much like so right away thrown in your face of like I think I had a little bit of an issue with the ending too because it started harping back on the stuff that happened in the beginning and then the end was super rush too all of a sudden she's hacking into this guy's bank account stealing his illegal money because she knows that he can't do anything about it.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

That happens in like 10 minutes she's across all of Europe and I'm like what the hell just happened yeah well yeah she does like the side quest uh where she's just doing that for the last couple minutes.Feels a little bit rush but it also felt like the plan was to have a second movie that that's what it felt like it was leading up to David Fentcher is famous for not doing sequels. He doesn't do sequels of his movies he's a one he's a tour so he does his own movies. He doesn't do seconds of it he doesn't he doesn't do long standing things like some other directors. But I I mean this is like a three fit I think there's a bunch of books of this so I guess like you can adapt it but you can't stay too much off the script of when you adapt something as popular as a book because apparently this was like a best seller for like years. This is like one of the biggest movies or one of the biggest books in the world. But so he doesn't do sequels but he'll do other people's sequels yeah that that's hey net Netflix money apparently talks he needs to get out of Netflix. I feel like that's uh one of the bigger things that I want to bring out of this as well I think he needs to get out of the handholds of Netflix. I feel like that with most directors though that are stuck with them characters I gave it eight out of ten because the the lead to for me I mean Lisbeth Salander the girl with the dragon tattoo I don't I think they barely say her name in the film um one greatly acted but uh such an interesting character. Yeah she's kind of just like a badass. She is like the name title of the film but also she like doesn't let anybody control over her after like the whole thing goes down. Um it kind of sets off to be like this really like intimidating character. And then like this romanticness between them between her and Blondefist when he's like clearly like 20 something years older than her is quite interesting. It makes sense because they're like solving something and she can she went through his computer figured out that like she was doing it for a job but also figured out that he's actually not a bad person by any means. And she was like oh he's actually has good intentions and all this stuff and she felt comfortable with them. I just really like enjoyed the front two characters but everyone else for me were just not there for me other than Stelling Skarsgard.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Right when I saw his name on the film and walking into the film I was like yeah he's he's gonna be the villain well yeah I had a little bit of an issue with that too because I was like nobody else in this entire family it's a big family now is like a well-known actor you have the two main people and then you have him just randomly there I'm like there's no way he's not the bad guy.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

Yeah yeah that is it was either gonna be him or somehow be Christopher Plummer to the guy that brought him out there but I was like no way they would do that. Yeah but yeah I was just like it that's the problem with some of these films is like if it's a big name actor sometimes you're like alright it's it's definitely gonna be that like why would they make I I like if you're gonna bring him in you may as well make him do something. Like you got to make him do something big.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

I guess that's the beauty of Knives Out they just hire a bunch of big name actors and then you gotta figure it out after yeah because like a good example just from this year completely different type of film but the rip that's yeah I knew it was gonna be uh what's his name?

SPEAKER_00 43:22

Um Stephen Wynne no I say the lanterns guy yeah yeah yeah yeah Kyle Chandler once I saw Kyle Chandler I was like nobody else on that crew is a big name at all why would they just bring him on as a side character? I was like no he's gonna be the midland another good example just I could think of from this year. Yeah. Um that was my site problem with the characters other than that again I think Rooney Mara as the girl with the dragon tattoo is really cool character. Part of my review of this film was like they could make this film like every other year and like a different kind of like scene together or just revolved around her Interacting with things, then I'd probably watch it and I'd be locked in just because I think she's such an intriguing character. It's kind of just a badass. Very intriguing character. Uh cinematography, I gave it eight. Very similar cinematography to all of his films, to where you add like the snowiness to it because they're in like Norway. Sweden. Sweden. Yeah, one of those snowy ones. Yes, close enough. Um so overall I thought cinematography was good, but like nothing crazy special from him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

Yeah. I mean, yeah, you you really just make it that that snowy, kind of isolated town. I thought the shots of the bridge were cool, right? Because every time they go over that, you know, you don't know if they're coming back across it, right? That's a that's a big theme from the beginning. But yeah, other than that, it was it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

Yeah. I think one thing to shout out about it was like all the flashback scenes were very bright yellow, kind of showing like that's when like the family was the happiest, I guess. Or like when Plumber's character is and she is, um, and then the rest of the film's really dark.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Yeah, I think it's meant to lead us there, right? Like I feel like everything's okay, especially from um the main guy's perspective. Um, but really he just he was just oblivious to everything going on behind the scenes, and that's what kind of you know led to everything happening.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Yeah. Um, so dialogue I gave an eight out of ten, too. I think this adds to like the problem with the plot, where I think at the beginning there was just so much being said, and at the end, there's so much being like said through news coverage without actual characters talking to you're supposed to just like pick up on the plot where it's just like uh okay, there's a lot happening from beginning and end for the dialogue. Um it kind of for me I had to I had to take down some points just because just because of that, even though I think some parts in the middle of the film and specifically like between Scargar's character Martin was very well, like really good lines. Um the line where he's like, Let me ask you something, why don't people trust their instincts? When they sense something is wrong, someone is walking too close behind them. You knew something was wrong, but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I drag you in? No. All I had to do was offer you a drink. It's hard to believe that the fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain, but you know what? It is. And they always come willingly as he starts like bragging, and that kind of leads into him bragging about being able to kill all the people that he killed.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

All the women. A chilling scene that like you're like, I mean, he's not wrong. Like people sometimes don't trust their instincts, and that is how sadly a lot of murders are do happen, people not trusting like their basic instincts or gut feeling.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

Yeah, no, I mean he was uh really great, especially in that ending there. Um would have wished for like five more minutes of him being that that crazy psychopath. Um, and you could have taken out five minutes of the stuff that happened at the the beginning and the end, because I'm still, I'm not gonna lie, I'm still a little lost on what happened. I mean, I understand what happened, just like the order of events and why it happened. Um, yeah, it kind of sent me, but other than that, it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Acting, I gave a nine out of ten. Mainly just a shout out to Rooney Mara. I'm not really familiar with her all that much. I know she's at the beginning of Social Network and then barely in the film from then. And I really haven't seen anything else with her, and she was outstanding in this film. Like she is like the film, like um the standout. Daniel Craig's always really good at everything he is. I don't know how he finds these like such niche roles, but he's James Bond and then does this, and then now he's a knives out being like such like an out like outlandish character. He's probably one of the more slept-on, like big name actors, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Yeah, I was gonna say, like, I told Mad when we were watching it, I was like, damn, if I had a penny for every time he solved a murder mystery, I'd only have four, but it's just like odd that it happened way before like knives out was like a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

And it depends on if you count the James Bond films as murder mysteries, because like sometimes they are. That one kind of is too. I guess he just like has that face of somebody that's gonna solve something.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

It felt like a like a knives out mystery movie, too. Like the guy takes him there, explains everything that happened, and he has to like go and investigate each individual character. I was like, okay, he must have really liked doing this movie because uh he's still doing it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

And then they come back and not uh because Christopher Palmer is also a knives out.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

Very similar circumstances. I mean, obviously Palmer's the one dead in the first knives out, but like still similar circumstances trying to solve something with that family, so kind of interesting that they're like in films that closely tied about mis murder mysteries. Yeah. But yeah, Rooney Morrow for me was a standout of the film by far. I um they came out with a sequel apparently in 2018 without her or Craig, and it was like a box office bomb and was horrible, apparently. I it's like 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I'm like, What why would you recast the the main girl? Like apparently she wanted to do it, but they but they gave it to someone else, and it's like, what? She got nominated for an Academy Award, and that you don't even give it back to her? Like, that's insane to me.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Yeah, it's nuts.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Sound effects, I gave a 7 out of 10. What was really cool about Seven and his movie Social Network, Zodiac, and Parts of Fight Club, I think are his like sound design in the films where I feel like this was not like a crucial part to the film and a standout to me necessarily compared to those films where they're big standouts.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, everything was like kind of average. I feel like the box office or sorry, the budget for this might have been a little bit smaller. Um, it just felt that way. Uh, you know, nothing too crazy when it came to explosions, the car chases, anything like that. So maybe, maybe that was just me, or maybe it went to the cast. But other than that, I think that was a big part of it as well.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Yeah, it just seems at this point like this was a movie that he he obviously cared about because he chose it and it was a direct adaptation. Compared to some of his other films where you f you feel the love a little a little bit more tense with it, um, compared to this one where I don't feel it as much. I will say that the the music is by the same guys that do um the social network as well, so that was quite interesting. They actually do a lot of films with him, I think. Let me look this up real quick to see what other films they've done. Yeah, so they did Social Network, Gone Girl, they also did with him. Uh mid 90s they did of it as well. So they did that movie. They did Mank, they did Soul as well. Uh Challengers, which has a really good score, and they're doing the adventures of Clint Booth. Maybe this film, just coming off the social network, not the same kind of uh energy, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 50:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

On set design, I gave it eight just because I mean it is a very icy town. Um, I think they filmed most of this in Sweden itself. Or actually, no, they filmed most of it in Germany, and then at the Stockholm like scr uh market, they actually like filmed a bunch of scenes there, so which is quite interesting.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

Yeah, I thought it I thought it looked pretty good. I mean, look like north north northern Europe, so Yep.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Awesome. I'm directing I gave it a nine out of ten to where I don't think many directors could like directly adaptate this well with how dark this film is. This kind of move this kind of like adaptation of a book seemed kind of made for him, and it makes sense why the second one wasn't very well, because man, he fits right into those dark themes. Um I mean showing on a screen, like it's rated R, but like, low key, like maybe this should have been NC17, because they straight up like show this very graphic movie, so like if you guys want to watch it, just know coming into it, like there's a straight up like rape scene, and then there's another rape scene with her raping him back, very graphic, shows at the end, like tattoos and all that. Yeah. The video, like all the pictures that they show of all the murder victims, as well as super graphic. Yeah. Again, I think that his most graphic film by far.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Yeah, I was not expecting it. And I mean the the first initial scene of rape, I was like, wow. I mean, it just it takes you back.

SPEAKER_00 52:30

Yeah, yeah. It's a hard watch. And again, talks to him about as a director where a lot of his films he's just not afraid to show you what you don't want to see if he thinks it adds something to it, because it does add something to her character. It explains why she is the way she is, how protective she is about herself, and really second guessing of any men in her life.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Yeah. And then that's why we I found it really interesting, like not how easy she was, but she was the one that came on to Daniel Craig's character. And it's because she knew everything about him already, right?

SPEAKER_00 53:03

So she didn't need to like solve something or be like not trust him. It's because she knew everything she could possibly know. There's nothing that he could hide. Um editing, I gave a seven out of ten. I think this adds up to like the same thing with the sound effects, where like nothing crazy special, especially for a guy where I think a lot of his editing is very special in his movies. It could be like the editor itself, a new work guy to work with, but she didn't seem like the same amount of care as a lot of his other films, editing-wise.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

Yeah, again, like I said, it feels like this movie is a little bit lower budget, too, maybe, or something like that. Just seemed a little bit less uh intense editing, I guess you could say.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Yeah. I think it was like 90 million budget for because I listened to like one podcast and they said this was like one of his blank check films after it was like this and the curious case of Benjamin Button were kind of films that they were film they're adaptations of like kind of famous books, and they were like, Oh, here you go, here's a lot of money, make it happen, kind of thing. Yeah. David Fenture. But yeah. Themes, I gave a seven out of ten. Um, you got themes of usual Fenture themes of like cynical of the world, dark themes, um, and then just a murder mystery kind of thing of like and then trust as well, where she starts to trust him, and then at the film she kind of breaks he kind of breaks that trust because he gets back with Robert Wright's character, and then she sees that and then throws away the present that she got him. Um and use family trauma and how it affects everything as well, was kind of explored. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

Yeah, I mean, not like huge themes that stood out. It was definitely reliant on that murder mystery type feel. But yeah, like you said, especially with her character, the family trauma really came over her, and then the failure of public systems too, you know, like childcare, foster care that she had been through. We we could tell how much had gone through bad on that, but also the failure of the media, right? Which we see a lot in his movies. We didn't really talk about um N7, but it's a big thing in Gone Girl as well. Just kind of how the media interprets the the world around it and kind of paints a picture for what they want everybody to see.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

Now, that's interesting to bring up the media because I didn't really think about that. A lot of his films, media is a big part. Um I mean, think about Zodiac. Like, media is like the whole film, it's like coming from like the newspaper trying to figure it out and how media kind of fails him, maybe. If they don't release those letters, who knows if the Zodiac killer what what happens at that point, but they release it to the public. Um, social network, literally the entire film is based on like the uproot of social media. So I think media is another really interesting uh thing to look at in his filmmaking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The trailer with Adventures of Clint Booth started off with like a commercial. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

Also a source of media, so and then obviously Gone Girl, we see how the media can just kind of paint a picture for everything. Fight Club is not directly uh tied to the media, but it's about overthrowing the system and the media um and kind of doing that. But yeah, definitely he's a a rebel against the system, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

So overall, I gave it a 7.9 out of 10 or 79 out of 100. Seems like a lower score, but like it's just still a four-star film for me, a little lower four-star film, because I definitely enjoyed a lot of parts to this. I just think there's some like uh niche things to pick out and stuff that didn't like.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

I'm only laughing because I gave it an 8.0. We were literally 0.1 off. We've been doing this too much lately, dude, for like merging minds. Yeah, I I thought it was a really fun film. Definitely dark. I mean, when I say fun, I mean it was fun to like kind of follow the murder mystery. Fun to watch a lot of the scenes, but like like you said, he's not scared to do it. He's not scared to put something in that you don't want to see to make you feel that emotion of kind of resentment of even watching it, you know. But it was it was really good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:13

Well, awesome. Um, so yeah, that was like kind of wraps up like the David Fentcher talk of these two films. And we're gonna try to quickly get through like a ranking of eight of his films. I've seen eight, Justin's seen six, but yeah, we're gonna get through them. So first it's gonna be team A is one, three, five, seven, and eight, and then team B has picks two, four, and six. So less picks, but kind of more influential towards the top of it. Uh I'll do a random generator, and each team gets one veto. Okay, I get to go I get to pick which team. I'm gonna choose team A. Thank God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

I feel like I've seen his top six movies, so I didn't want to put them at seven and eight and be stuck.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

Yeah. And then yeah, and so then you'll be team B. Okay, so at number eight, I'm gonna go with the curious case of Benjamin Button. Before we start, we are not gonna rate or rank because we haven't seen them. The game, which other ones? Give me one second. The game, Alien Three, Mank, and the Killer. We haven't seen those four, so we're not gonna rank them. But cool. First one I'm gonna rate is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Another movie with Brad Pitt, where this feels like the most Hollywood type of movie, if that makes any sense. Like a very publicized, very popular movie, and looks more like a Spielberg movie. I feel like Spielberg, if he did this, would do a lot better with the type of themes of this movie because there's not really many dark themes. He's just reverse reverse aging. It's a baby that's born old that turns younger as he goes. So when he's 80, he's actually like a baby. That's like the whole plot. It just follows him. Interesting. It's it's interesting, but I just don't think it's his type of film if that makes sense. Yeah. Cool. And then number seven, I rewatched it this week as well, Panic Room. I think it's a fun watch, but there's just so many different wrong parts with this movie, in my opinion. Pretty good cast as like Jodie Foster and then young Christian Stewart and Force Whitaker, and then the man, the myth of legend, Jared Leto is also in it. It's just about like a home invasion. I think we're gonna do this in a couple weeks. I like it. I just think his other six films are that much better.

SPEAKER_01 59:33

Okay. Yeah. I still gave it a yeah, four stars. Cool. Alright. Number six, I'm taking Gone Girl here. Yeah. That's what I thought you would do. I'm gonna see if what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

Yeah, no, yeah, Gone Girl's fine here. Okay. Gone girl's fine here.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

Yeah, I I just wasn't a big fan of it, um, especially compared to the movies we watched this week. Really, I just like the girl with the dragon tattoo a lot more. Gone girl, I just felt like it kind of dragged in the middle, like I said. Um yeah, I just wasn't a fan of the overarching story, honestly, that much either. It didn't have me that intrigued throughout the middle of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:12

For number five, I'm gonna go with probably not popular pick, Fight Club.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Interesting. I'm gonna vetoed that one. Okay, that's what I thought. I'm a fan of that movie. I think it's really good. I think the twist is really good. Um, I know it's we can't really watch it again and have that experience for the first time, but I still really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Um okay, then from here I'm gonna go with the girl with a dragon tattoo. Yeah, I think that's right. Cool. Where are you going with number four?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

Number four, that's where I have Fight Club. Okay. I couldn't let you take that away, that one. It was just quite interesting that you wanted to be toy just for one spot. Yeah, I mean I have I have yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

I think you'll see why here in a minute.

unknown 1:01:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:02

Yeah, I like Fight Club. I only watched it a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, the twist was spoiled for me before, so I knew like what to keep an eye out for. Um yeah, spoiler alert, he's both guys. Yeah. It's in his head. And so, yeah, but I still thought the the main premise of the movie was really interesting. The idea of kind of uh having a fight club and then turning that into this kind of socioeconomic revolution was very interesting to me. Okay. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:33

Yeah, kind of for m for me, number three, I'm gonna go with Zodiac. I really like Zodiac. It feels like such a long film, though. Um, there's also like a big like time jump in the film, which makes sense because like the case is still unsolved to this day. I think really good performances, but for me, it just such a feels like such a long film compared to the other two that don't feel like long films but are just the same length.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

Yeah. So I know what you're gonna have number one. I would say social network would be my two behind seven, but that's just me. I know you're really high on social network, so I'm gonna take seven at number two. Not gonna force your hand on the veto, just in the interest of time. Yes. I really like seven. Like I said, five-star movie for me. Really great acting, really everything we talked about was pretty amazing in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Yeah. Yeah, we already talked about seven a lot, really enjoyed it. And then number one, social network. Yeah, for me, it's just like I mean, you know how much I like it. It's like in my probably one of my four favorite films of all time. It's just so well edited. And somehow, like a film where you know everything that's gonna happen becomes like a thriller film where you don't you don't know what's gonna happen from scene to scene, which is like quite unique for what seems like a boring concept. Because a lot of other Steve Jobs films, which like you a lot of people compared Mike Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs very similar, to me are really boring. And then somehow Social Network is like not boring at all to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

Yeah. No, it is an interesting plot and you know, hope to see what they do here with the second one, but Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Same same writer, just uh he's the director too. No, no day uh no Fincher, so it'd be quite interesting. Yeah. Especially because it's gonna come out very similar time as the adventures of Cliff Booth. So it'll be interesting to see which one is more successful.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:21

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Um now we're gonna try something new. Um where we're gonna like look up ChatGPT to create us like a very basic thriller concept on the fly, and then we're gonna choose a director, lead actor, lead actress, three supporting actors, and the composer for the film to kind of fit into like this theme of like what we would want the film to look like, and it makes us kind of think on the fly. Thought this would be a fun idea just to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

Okay. We'll see who gets to go first because I think the way to do this is for one, there's so many actors, actresses, I don't think we're gonna s steal anybody's because it's such way different premises. Is that we just go choose one premise and then that person just gets to go down and choose what they want for each one and explain why rather than us going back and forth. Cool, cool. So, Justin, you get to go first. Let me just type into the prompt. Give me a premise with five characters. Film premise with five characters. So I just gave it a give me a four-sentence thriller film premise with five characters. That's all I typed out. Boop. Chat GPT. It's making me sign in for some reason. Technical difficulties. I'm working out at a hotel, so you gotta work with me here. Okay, so ready for this? Alright, a di disgraced cryptoograph cryptographer, a relentless investigative journalist, a retired intelligence officer, a runaway biotech engineer, and a mysterious courier all receive identical encrypted messages pointing to a train arriving at midnight. Each message reveals a different secret about a cash catastrophic event that hasn't happened yet, but will if the train reaches its destination. As they race through the city to intercept it, they realize the messages were sent by one of them. The problem? None of them remember sending it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

Okay. So So let me so you gotta disgrace cryptographer, whatever that means.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:29

I think it's a cryptographer. Yeah, cryptographer, sorry. So what I was thinking first off was director. Think when you said train, I automatically uh pictured like this like Western kind of thing. And so I'm gonna go Cohen Brothers.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:49

Mmm, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

I like that. Which is different, but I think if you really dive into the the Western feel of it, it could be interesting. Um now, does it say like which role? Is the lead role, or like I just kind of pick that based on the road?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:03

Because maybe you could do like all like five together. Um so you don't have to do like a lead or and then just do five in general.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:13

Yeah, I'll just do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

Okay. I kind of put down like jotted down some names of just my favorite actors to kind of roll with the punches here. So I'll see who I can fit into the role. I'm gonna go, yeah, list me the five and I'm gonna pick who I think could play that role. So go with the first one. A disgrace cartographer.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

Um meet Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal? Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

Be quite interesting just because he's uh he's had a kind of a bad run in the last three years, I would say, with some movies. Yeah. And it also bait by working with the Cohen brothers, who also haven't worked with each other in like five years. So I think that would be quite interesting. I would hope they come back together eventually. Yep. Um okay. And then Relentless Investigative No, I had to do it. Give me Margaret Quali.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:00

God deal. I knew it. Your girl. My girl. No, I think she'd be good in that role. Like she is kind of annoying in uh some of her roles, which is which is good. Like that that's the kind of character she could is good at playing. Okay, and then a retired intelligence officer. Retired. We're gonna get an old head. Give me this might seem like a pool, but I had him on the list for a reason. Give me Jeffrey Wright. Jeffrey Wright. Wow, that is a pool. I had him on my list for a reason. I knew I needed like an old head to go with all these these young guns.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:37

Hey man, shout out Hunger Games again, man. They always come back. Shout out, man. And then what was the next one? Runaway biotech engineer. Somebody that gives off smart vibes. I mean, all these guys give off, have to give off smart vibes.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:52

Give me give me like I want to do one, but I just know it doesn't fit. Give me like uh shit. Give me Josh O'Connor. Okay. I think he could do it. I think he's a very ver versatile actor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:07

I think Runaway means that they're probably pretty young. Yeah. Runaway means they were probably pretty young and they saw something they weren't supposed to see. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Alright, what was the last one? Mysterious Courier. Like uh like a male carrier? Yeah. Let me get the women involved here. If you do what I think you're about to do. Give me Emma Stone. Yeah, I knew it. Bass is gonna lose it on you. Alright, and then the composer is the last thing. I'm just gonna steal best uh composer. Give me give me my boy Ludwig. Specifically, though, I'm not just taking him for the best. I've seen the Western style he can do with something like the Mandalorian and with Siddhart's. So I think he would be a good fit if I'm really gonna lean into that western feel.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:53

Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Alright. Cool, cool. What do you think? I like it. I mean, would you go see this movie? I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

I think you'd have to pay most of your budget to the actors.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:07

Yeah, for sure. I mean, yes, because Stone and Gyllenhaal are the big burger reasons, but yeah. O'Connor's kind of becoming a big name. Jeffrey Wright is a big name, but he also like does his own like side thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

Yeah. Margaret Quali is not that big yet. Keyword yet. I feel like she's coming up to be big. But it's also the Cone Brothers, and I could see them doing something like this. I I had a different view on it. I didn't have a Western vibe to it. For me, I saw this as like a New York vibe.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:33

Um you could even do something like a bullet, like a bullet train type thing in that movie. That was cool. Yeah, but interesting. Cool. Five strangers, a skeptical paramedic, and I'll read these through again. Uh, a disgraced priest, a true crime podcaster, a night shift motel clerk, and a runaway teenager are drawn to the same abandoned roadside motel after receiving calls from loved ones who died years ago. Inside the rooms rearrange themselves, and each hallway leads to a memory that they've spent their lives trying to bury. Very uh psychological thriller here. One by one, the motel forces them to relive the moment each of them caused someone else's death. By morning, they realize the motel isn't haunting them. It's waiting to see which one of them deserves to leave alive. Very shining vibes.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:29

Very it's just it straight up gives off Saul vibes. Like just straight up. Very dark.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:38

Chai GBC said, All right, you want a Saul film? Here you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:44

Yeah, but even then in my like I'm like forced to relive these like really like freaky things that happen to them. I'm getting like shining. I don't know, maybe that's just me.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:55

Yeah. We gotta do a live director as we can't do.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

Do some tomfoolery and be like, all right, Kubrick, come on back.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:06

Nah, man, go with what you feel here. So I'm gonna give you go ahead and pick a director. What vibe does this give you?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:15

One second. Director? This gives very much horror vibes, and I feel like it needs to be a horror movie. So give me a second. I was gonna say there's a low-hanging fruit here, too. Yeah, I know. Yeah, he he hasn't come up with an idea lately, and like he's one of my favorite horror directors, so I'm gonna go with Jordan Peel.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

Okay, there you go. Who are you? I was thinking I was thinking you could just get away with doing Fincher. I mean, his shit is really dark, but if you really want to dive into horror.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

Yeah, I wanted it to be a little scary, and I like I like Peel, and I think he could do something like this.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:50

I think I think he could do a pretty crazy one.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:55

Alright, and then who's who's your skeptical paramedic? Hmm. Alright. So I have a list also of actors and actresses.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:07

Paramedic. I don't know why. It just immediately goes to like an actress kind of figure. And I got like two names that are kind of in my head. But I'm gonna go with probably like one of my Yeah, I'm gonna go with the Queen Herself, Florence Pugh.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:22

Yep, that's good. I had her on my list too, but nothing really fit for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:28

Yeah, yeah. I think she would be good as like a paramedic kind of vibe, being spec skeptical about it as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:34

And then I have um a disgraced priest at Josh O'Connor's taken.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:40

Yeah, yeah. I'm thinking an older older kind of vibe for this one. Could take the other priest from that movie. No, I'm thinking I'm thinking somebody else. And I'm going with Ethan Hawke.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:54

The guy that's been in a lot of horror films. I really like Ethan Hawk as well. He's in First Reformed, which we haven't seen, but he's a priest in that. So run it right back.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

And then fun one here. You have a true crime podcaster, which you're a fan of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:10

Yeah. Okay. So it's Jordan Peel. So we did the two what the two white people in the film. All right. The rest of them, like Jordan Peel and Ryan Kugler, they're the biggest. So true crime podcaster, a thinking woman as well. Give me a second. Because there is another hate low-hanging fruit, but she just doesn't give off that kind of vibe. Because like I would say Zendaya, but she's not giving off that vibe. But you know who does and who's also worked with him before? Kiki Palmer.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:39

Yeah, I was gonna say that. I thought that was your low-hanging fruit, dude. She totally gives that vibe.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:45

Yeah. Kiki Palmer definitely would be good because she would like add like a comedic team to it as well. Yeah. Alright. We have a night shift motel clerk. They haven't worked together yet, and I feel like it's a match made in heaven. And I feel like this would show a different type of range for this actor that just won an Oscar, Michael B. Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:06

I was thinking like doesn't seem like a usual role of his, but yeah. I was thinking Daniel Clue at first, but I was like, he's already done a lot of movies, Jordan Peel. Another way too low hanging of a fruit.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:18

I was thinking somebody like Steven Wynne. Hmm. That would be interesting, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Michael B. Jordan's a cool one too. And then the last one, we have a runaway teenager. So shoot young here.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

Shoot play in 1516. Yeah. And I can't do like a Stranger Things thing where like they're actually like 23. Because I really had Caleb. I had Caleb, I had Caleb McLaughlin as like the first one, like because I really like him, but he looks he doesn't look like a teenager anymore, sadly. Not anymore. This is hard because I don't actually know many that young.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

I don't know how old she is, but I know you're a big fan of somebody, and I think you're gonna be mad if you forget about her.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:59

No. I I think I know who you're thinking about. He also doesn't look that young. Yeah, I think. Yeah, this is hard because it's like you want him to be actually like kind of young. How old is he? Oh yeah. There we go. He's 21, but he could still give off like an 18 vibe, 19, because it says teenager.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:19

Who is Miles Cat can. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:22

Yeah, yeah. He was in uh Sinners, yeah. Yeah, that'd be a good one. Yeah, awesome. And then the composer. I'm thinking horror vibes. So I'm going to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:35

So his name is Michael Ghiaccio.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:39

Yeah. And he did The Batman. He did Up, The Dawn of the Apes. And I feel like he could really do a really well horror movie. Like he already is kind of vibes.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:51

I think it's Italian. I think it's Ghiacciano. Giacciano, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:58

Try to spell that right. Awesome. So I went more for like a horror vibe while you were more Western.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:03

No, that was cool. Yeah. That was cool too. Just like a very basic prompt, and we kind of just immediately had ideas of what we thought it sounded like, even though it could have been interpreted like very different ways. Awesome. Well, that was fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:17

I would like to do that again sometime. Yeah, we definitely should. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you for listening this week. Uh we went over David Fentcher and did some uh fun exercises as well. Uh see you next week. See ya.