137: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (1988/2024)

Alex reviews Tim Burton’s classic film, “Beetlejuice,” and its 36-years-later sequel, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Later, he lists his favorite Tim Burton films and highlights some new Oscar movies to look out for this fall.
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Transcript

0:21

Understand? Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Withrow, and I'm flying solo today. It's just me talking about Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice? Who's Beetlejuice, Tim Burton. We're going to have fun. We're going to cover a lot of ground today. See what I did there with the title Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Because I'm reviewing both movies. First, I'm going to actually first, first, I should explain why I'm doing this solo. I told Nick that I was really excited to see Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, the brand new movie that is a 36 years later sequel to Tim Burton's 1988 original film. Beetlejuice. And Nick kind of sheepishly said that he is not that big of a Tim Burton fan. I get it, I really do. He cited two movies of Burton's that he likes, and they are two that I don't like. So I just said, you know what? You don't really want to see the movie, the theater. It's all good. I'll see it. I'll go solo. And yeah, Tim Burton, he's been a tough one for me. I'm going to talk about Tim Burton as well, his filmography. First I'm going to do Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Quick review. No spoilers, no spoilers. Let me share some brief thoughts on the original, which I love. I'll talk a little bit about Tim Burton and then for What Are You Watching? Because I'm solo and because it's film festival time. Lot of film festival news. Venice, Telluride, Tiff is coming up. I'm going to do a quick, full movie preview. I'm not necessarily going to say what all these movies are about, because I don't even like to look up like movies that I really want to see. I'm not going to look up what they're about. A lot of the movies I'm going to list, there are already trailers for them that I have not watched. So these are just movies that I'm excited for. Nick is going to be excited for a number of them. We're going to talk about them on the podcast. Some of them, I'm sure, and then some of them I hope will be remembered come awards time we're going to see. I have no idea, but I just put a few together. Thought it it'd be fun to go through them. I'm not going to touch on the biggest movies necessarily, because those are kind of well known. I'm going to be talking about some ones that just ones the look out for the what are you watching? Fall movie preview. All right. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. The best selling point I can say is that if you like the original, you're really going to like this. It is not as good as the original. I don't think anyone should expect it to be as good or better, but I loved it. I loved every single minute with it. This, you know, this has been going on for well over ten years now bringing back this IP. No matter if the IP is Star Wars, like The Force Awakens, or if the IP is Beetlejuice, they're bringing it back to kind of tap into that nostalgia for things like Top Gun Maverick. It was a massive hit. We'll see how Beetlejuice Beetlejuice performs, but when they do this, when they bring something back, I think it's a very delicate balance of fan service, of giving, giving the fans what they want. But you don't want to give them too much. Like alien Romulus right now is being cut, you know, by diehard fans of Alien and aliens is getting kind of killed right now because it does a few things that are a little too fan service, a little too on the nose. So how do you achieve that balance? And then at the same time, you don't want to completely abandon the original and do some crazy ass new thing because that may alienate the original fans. So this achieved that balance perfectly. I thought, there's so many things that you just immediately dropped back into the world. The actors help a lot with this, because a lot of them seem like they never stopped playing these characters. They just fit back into them. So, so well. So yeah, I really, really liked it. I want everyone to go see it. It's in Imax. I saw it in Imax. It looked great. It's just such good timing for this movie because 36 years later. But you have certain Michael Keaton, he got a huge career pop with Birdman in 2014, which he should have won the Oscar for, and he's been in a really good career place since he's back as Beetlejuice, and it is like he never left. I loved him in this. If you liked him the first time he shot it just great. He falls back into it so well. You can really tell he is a blast playing this character. An absolute blast. Winona Ryder also got a huge career pop with Stranger Things in 2016, and her career has been in a great place since. She's back as Lydia Deetz again steps back into the character so well, just the whole her esthetic, the clothes. I, I loved her. Same goes for Catherine O'Hara, who had the biggest of career pops with Schitt's Creek beginning in 2015. She won all the awards for that Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG. She's back is Delia Deeds, Lydia's stepmother. And then we have some newcomers to the world of Beetlejuice here. Jenna Ortega, who worked with Burton on the massively popular Netflix show Wednesday, which I have not seen, but, you know, I know all about it. So they're reuniting and I love her. I we've talked about her in scream five, scream six. Apparently she is in the new Trey Edward Schultz movie that has finished shooting. No idea when that's going to be out, but I loved her in this. She's playing Astrid Deetz. Lydia's daughter who happens to hate Lydia. Great dynamic between them. Justin Thoreau as Rory this is Lydia's current boyfriend. He plays a total tryhard idiot. I love JT, he's a Washington, DC boy. I've literally been following his career since he first appeared in I Shot Andy Warhol and Romeo and Michelle's high school reunion scene. Every performance he's given, big, big fan Monica Bellucci is great as Dolores, someone who has a sordid history with Beetlejuice. She gets a perfect character introduction. So good. She's not saying a lot, doing so much with her face. I love her, I love her. Willem Dafoe this guy just appears to accept every single acting assignment with the same amount of gusto, no matter the size of the role or how big or small the movie is. What the movie is about. He's never not good. He's so good in this, he's hamming it up. Always good for a laugh in this. I really, really loved it. And then, you know, there's from the original cast, there's still someone who is alive and they had a tough time with the Jeffrey Jones character, who played Charles in the original and in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. It's kind of like they write themselves into a corner. I don't know if they wrote themselves into a corner or if this was all on purpose, but I'm laughing because of how they treat his character in the sequel. The character is addressed in ways I won't talk about. Jeffrey Jones's 2024 face and 2024 likeness is not used, but there are pictures of him, so he may have been paid, but I again, I couldn't tell if it was like all a big joke they were having, or if it was a big fuck. You because Jeffrey Jones, is he still alive, but he is not acting because of some very, very troubling reasons. It is a tough Wikipedia page to go through. The principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off was a bad, bad dude in real life, that's all. So, again, I just didn't know if the if the movie was, like, making fun of the situation or putting their middle finger up at it. Maybe a bit of both. The movie cost $100 million. It's only an hour and 44 minutes. It cruised by. I was nervous about how the movie was going to look because, you know, I was I'm going to get to it. But I was raised on Tim Burton's gothic esthetic, and I honestly really rejected his style. Once he embraced digital photography and computer effects. And I just don't. I have not thought for several years that his movies have looked very good, but thankfully this one does. It does not rely on CGI, it uses it sparsely to enhance moments. Just as the first film did. The sequel actually has some really fun, very obvious flourishes in storytelling that I got a kick out of. They handled their flashbacks in a very, very fun way. Danny Elfman is back to do the score. It's really good. I talked to my dad, my dad and I saw it the exact same time, just in theaters, you know, several miles apart. And he loved it. As well. It was it was great. My screening was not that packed last night. I saw it on Thursday night, September 5th, and my Imax screening. There was maybe like half of the tickets were sold. That did surprise me. So I I'm interested to see how this does box office wise. I don't know I don't know. I definitely encourage people to go see it. If you liked the original, you'll like this. Michael Keaton is just I love Michael Keaton. I love him so much. It was so fun to see him inhabit this world some more. Because the original Beetlejuice 1988, Tim Burton's second movie ever, his second movie, made it for 15 million. It grossed 75 million. That's a lot in 1988. Like a whole lot. This movie will always be one of my all time favorites, because it introduced me to two things that became very important in my life Michael Keaton and Harry Belafonte. They did. They, like all made me want to go there. He said that, he said. Then they said, they said, they said they know they lied. Come find me one. Go. Work all night. Not drinker. Harry Belafonte, I kid you not, was the first musician I ever fell in love with. My mom said day. Oh, and jump in the line were the first songs I ever sang out loud. I cannot put into words how impactful the audio dinner scene is in this movie. It is one of my favorite movie scenes ever. I've seen Beetlejuice twice in the theater, once in 2020, like in October, right when they were opening theaters again, Alamo was showing movies like that. And then I saw it at the Alamo earlier this year because they were playing it. I love this movie. I love it, and that scene, it just gives me chills even thinking about it and then jump on the line in the end, the way Winona Ryder asks Alec Baldwin and Tina Davis like, is it okay? Like, I got a good grade, can I do it? And you know, she's able to do that. Oh God, I love it, I love it. Those two scenes, the whole movie. But those two scenes will live just in my heart forever. Harry Belafonte was my first concert. Like, genuinely. I loved his music. Just this little kid jamming out to Harry Belafonte, loved him. And then Michael Keaton. My God, I'm not. I'm not joking. I think there's part of my my sense of humor where I can inhabit some of this mania that he does as Beetlejuice. I don't know, I just I've been told that before. My wife Allie had never seen the movie, so I showed it to her. I bought the 4K looks gorgeous, the colors look stunning. Brand new 4K, totally worth it. We were watching that. She loved it. And she's like you definitely. You know, when you're intensely, like, flipping out in a goofy way, it can kind of, you know, be like this, you know, nice fucking model. I got I never, I never realized when I was young how much of a horn ball Beetlejuice is. I didn't know what all that stuff meant. I didn't figure that out until I got older. Still, every time I watch it, I'm like, there's a lot in here for a PG movie. Like, there's a lot. But Michael Keaton, I love him. He's an all timer actor for me, and this is one of the best characters he's ever given us. But Night Shift, Mr. Mom, Nick and I both love Mr. Mom, clean and sober. That was a really important movie for me. It's a it's a good movie. Clean and sober. Batman. Of course. Pacific Heights, my life. I think that was the first movie I ever cried to my life. Jackie Brown and out of sight. Desperate measures I love him. Desperate measures. Good little. He's a great little psycho. And desperate measures. His career got a little dicey in the early 2000s and then bam, Birdman, which he should have won the Oscar for. He's just, he was so good in that movie. He was really remarkable in that Hulu show. Dopesick. Thank God he actually won awards for that, won an Emmy. His SAG speech is so damn movingly dedicated to his nephew who lost the battle to drugs. But Beetlejuice, the original I love it. It's one of my favorite movies of the 80s. Everyone in it is so committed and they're still committed in this sequel. It's great. Sylvia Sydney is Juno, you know, the caseworker always smoking the smoke coming out of the huge gash in her neck. Her first credited screen role was in 1927. That's crazy. I love that movie. It's so fun. I love it so much, in fact, that I can say it's my favorite Tim Burton movie. It is. I love that number two is Edward Scissorhands kind of a toss up? It's always been a tossup, but I watched them back to back in preparation for this episode. And it just Beetlejuice just slightly edges it out. But I love Edward Scissorhands. All right, Tim Burton, let's briefly touch on all these movies. 20 feature films from Pee-Wee to Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice 1985 to 2024. Let's start at the top 1985 Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Oh my God, I love this movie. Had it on repeat as a kid. I think I still love breakfast so much because of this movie. That opening. Oh my god, the gum. I mean, the fight in the pool, co-written by Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman and Michael Hall. I don't know who that last guy is, but it felt rude not to mention him. Those giant dinosaurs, they're still there. I had no idea where they were actually located. I'd kind of forgotten about them, honestly, but when I lived in L.A., I was driving Palm Springs once and mother of God, there they were. Had to stop off and pay, visit remarkable tequila, great music sequence, and then a perfect cap with him running into that sign. His second film, Beetlejuice. Obviously. Love 1988. Great film. Next up, 1989 Batman. For people who don't know or don't remember, it was hugely controversial when Michael Keaton was cast in that film. The former comedian, the improv guy that's always on Letterman fucking Beetlejuice is playing Batman. It was a lot of that, a lot that makes me appreciate that performance so much more. And of course, Nicholson's great now, this is a great movie. One of the producers of that Batman was Jon Peters. That's the guy Bradley Cooper played in Licorice Pizza. Absolute lunatic. Edward Scissorhands. Yes, of course. Love, love this movie. 1990 I was definitely raised on this one as well. It was so scary when I was a kid. What scared me the most was that asshole Jim. I'm Anthony Michael Hall, I was I was never afraid of Edward. Edward's house was a little scary, but I thought Edward was, you know, a real cool guy. Remarkable. Vincent Price performance in this. He died just a few years after this movie. Such a loving tribute to him. I actually I just watch this with Tim Burton's commentary, and you can tell how much affection he had for price, both his work and him as a person. Great stuff. Batman Returns, widely considered one of the best sequels ever. I think this is actually gotten better in time. I think it's appreciation has grown in time. Is it appreciated even more than Burton's Batman could be? I just bought Batman and Batman Returns on 4K. I'm so excited to watch both. But I mean, you have Christopher Walken, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer. She should have been nominated for this. I'm not kidding. What a cast. Keaton comes back, kills it. Ed wood, 1994. Talk about a lovely tribute. This time to cult director Ed Wood and his ragtag team of creative misfits, including Bela Lugosi, the original Dracula. This is a fun movie. Johnny Depp is great in it. The black and white photography really suits the film, and Martin Landau is fine as Bela Lugosi. But I wonder if today this performance is best remembered for beating Samuel L Jackson's work as Jules in Pulp Fiction for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year. If you go watch that clip on YouTube, Jackson's reaction to Landau winning is hysterical. Mars attacks 1996. Love this one as well. A love letter to B-movie creature features played it a lot as a kid. I still think it holds up today for all of its intentional schlock, and what I love is that a lot of these old school, cheaply made disaster films, they could not afford a bunch of actors, so they would just have people play multiple roles like they do in this movie. Yet there's still a huge cast. It's just hilarious. I don't know, it all feels like a big joke, but I think it all works. And then we go from that. That schlocky, intentional B-movie to the pretty hardcore, violent Sleepy Hollow, released in 1999. I haven't seen this in a few years, but I remember it being pretty brutal. This was Burton's first R-rated movie for violence and the violence is gnarly. It's it's a worthy take on Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman. Another great cast. Christopher Walken steals his scenes naturally. And then to me, there is a shift. Planet of the apes is 2001. I can admit that the makeup is great. Rick Baker did it. They didn't even nominated for the Best makeup Oscar. A Beautiful Mind got nominated over planet of the apes. That's rude, big fish. I know this movie has its passionate defenders. It's more of a taste preference, not a fault of the movie. It's just it's great to see Marion Cotillard in a small role, but fantasy drama is usually not a genre I go in for. But again, more of a personal taste issue. I know people who really love this movie. Nick is a big fan of the movie. It's one of the Burton movies. He actually likes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Is this better than the Timothy Charlemagne movie? Wonka from last year both felt really unnecessary when the original is so good. Corpse bride released the same year, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005. He actually shares directing credit with Mike Johnson on this. This is a good time to mention that Burton produced A Nightmare Before Christmas, but he did not actually direct it, so I don't count it as one of his movies. Sweeney Todd. Believe it or not, there was a two week period during this Oscar race when they tried to convince us that Johnny Depp may be Daniel Day-Lewis, and there Will be blood for Best Actor. Oh, can you imagine? And then things, things kind of fall apart for me. Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, Big Eyes, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Dumbo. None of those are really for me. Again, Nick likes Big Eyes. That's another one he enjoys. I know people who like that movie, but that brings us all the way to Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Overall, I think his career highs, those strong early films outweigh the stuff that came later. I will always love those earlier films and impressive career. No doubt that's about it for Beetlejuice. Tim Burton I don't mean to fly through everything. I don't want to give any spoilers for Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. It's if you're a fan of the original and you show up to this, it's going to be worth your time. It will be a lot of fun. What else have I been watching in the theater recently? Alien Romulus I mentioned I saw it twice, actually. It was oh my God, it was so much better in Imax. Like it looked great in Imax. That's how I saw it first. And then I kind of just wanted to go and see it again. It's not unusual for me to go see a movie a few times, even if I think it's, you know, I give it like a B or something like that. That's fine. You know, I mentioned before that some diehard fans maybe weren't the biggest fan of it, but but I thought it handled things well. There were some silly fan service things. There's one thing in particular, I mean, if you're interested in seeing it, you probably already know what it is by this recording. The movie's been out for a few weeks by now, and I don't want to say what it is here, but I totally get it. In fact, in both of my screenings, when a certain character was revealed, there were groans in the theater. I think probably from diehard fans who were like, oh, really? So I don't know me as just a casual fan of the franchise, I liked it. I like Prometheus, Alien Covenant. I think those are better than alien Romulus, but I don't know. I thought it was gnarly when it needed to be. I liked it. Agro drift do you all know this movie? The Harmony Korine movie shot entirely with infrared cameras. I've been wanting to see this for months because I've been hearing about it and seeing clips of it. You could just go on his website and buy it. I'd buy it for 1599 and I watched it. It's nuts. It's about, I don't know, a contract killer who is like, got to take down a bigger boss, like two assassins team up to take down a bigger boss. It was a little bit, unclear, but, a fun experiment all the same. If you're into, you know, Harmony Korine, did Gummo, Spring Breakers, the Beach Bum. So if you're into that vibe, Agro Drift is really something else. And then a quick plug, but I want to plug it. Noting that we are going to talk about this movie a little down the line because it deserves it. Strange, darling. Nick and I both loved this movie. I saw it first. I told him to go see it. He did. He loved it. I told Dan to go see it. Friend of the part Dan liked it. Directed by JT Molnar. Shot the cinematographer, shot by Giovanni Ribisi. Okay, didn't even know he was a DP. Shot the whole thing on 35mm. Film stars Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. I really, really liked it. It is a trippy psychological thriller that really surprised me. I liked it, but more on that. You know, whenever down the line and I are going to open it up and talk about it. But it's probably still in a few theaters, so strange darling, definitely recommend I'll do a 4K one I just watch. I just bought life in 4K life. Did anyone see or remember this movie released in 2017, directed by Daniel Espinosa, has Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds. The whole thing takes place in space. It's like an hour and 45 minutes. The 4K looks great. It's also on Netflix. I always really like this movie. It's a fun little sci fi horror flick. I think it came out right after Get Out and Get Out was a sensation. That was also right around when Logan came out Kong Skull Island, so I guess life just got buried. Life is also kind of a lame title. It's been used a lot. It costs 58 million to make and it only made 30 in the US. That's tough. I like that movie though. It looks good. I recommend it. All right, let's go to this fall movie preview and this will be quick. I don't have a lot of notes. I'm going to touch on about 20 movies. Do them in chronological order. Some of them are not dated yet, so. So hopefully they do come out by the end of the year. And again, I don't know if these are going to be good, but I'm going to see every movie I'm about to talk about, and I'm sure some of them will get mentioned before the year is up on the podcast, and then hopefully some will get mentioned come awards time. Okay, Rebel Ridge, I actually just watch this one. It's Jeremy Saunders new movie. It reminded me most of the movie of his I like the most Blue Ruin. I thought that movie was so strong, so good. He also did Green Room, a good movie, Hold the Dark with Riley Keough and Jeffrey Wright, Rebel Ridge I liked it, it isn't. I don't know if it needs to be as long as it is, but but it definitely held my attention. There are some great fighting scenes, sparse fighting, but great fighting scenes. Don Johnson is hamming it up. It's fun. Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola there. I don't know what the hell he's doing. We man, we are going to try to see that together and review it together. We will see. I don't know what Coppola is doing. It was just announced, I think, yesterday that they're previewing it in Imax for one night on September 23rd. That's that's the Monday before we were told it was going to be released, which was a wide release on Friday, September 27th. I don't know, I don't know what's going on, but we will see it and we will review it and I'm very excited. Will it be good? I have no idea. But he put his entire fortune on the line to make it so I'll show up for it. The substance looks really trippy. This is the one with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. Dennis Quaid is also in it looks really out there. Runtime is two hours and 20 minutes, but I'm I'm into that. I want to see it. That's supposed to come out on September 20th a Nora I've already brought this one up. This is Sean Baker's latest film. He did Tangerine, the movie that was fully shot on an iPhone. The Florida Project Red Rocket Starlet is my favorite from him. It's about a burgeoning porn star who becomes friends with an old lady. I actually really liked it. A Nora won the Con Palme d'Or. It stars Mikey, Madison, Nick and I are both really excited to see this. That is supposed to come out on October 17th. Steve McQueen has a new movie in theaters, not just on Amazon. This is called Blitz. It's about the London bombings during World War two starring Shia Sharon in and Harris Dickinson, the guy in Triangle of Sadness. It's Steve McQueen, one of my absolute favorites. His movies are so important to me, so I will be there. November 1st is when that is supposed to open conclave. Pay attention to conclave. This is Edward Burger's new film. He made all Quiet on the Western Front that won a bunch of Oscars a few years ago. This stars Ralph Fiennes as a priest, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow this is going to be a major Oscar movie. It has awards buzz all over it. I think Ralph Fiennes is going to be an early contender for Best Actor. I think he's going to be in the running. So, you know, he's never won. It's never won. So keep your eye on that. That trailer's already out. I actually did watch the trailer. Looks pretty good. That is supposed to come out on November 8th. Also on November 8th, Andrea Arnold's new film bird. The only thing I know about it is that it stars Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski. No idea what it's about, but I've seen all of her movies and I love her, so I'll be there. Bird November 8th. This sounds like a cool one. Amelia Perez. This is by Jack Odegaard, who did Rust and Bone. Oh my god, I love rust and Bone. Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone, one of my favorite acting performances ever. What a fucking movie. Rust and Bone Amelia Perez starred Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez, and it is evidently a musical about Mexican cartels. I'm there, I'm there. Rust and bone gets me to this guy's movies. I'll watch whatever he does that comes out on November 13th. Here's the trailer for this one. Just dropped Knight bitch. Wow. Night bitch, starring Amy Adams, directed by Marielle Heller. She did Can You Ever Forgive Me? And A Beautiful Day in the neighborhood with Tom Hanks, Amy Adams and bunch of dogs we're going to see that comes out on December 6th. Amy Adams, many a Oscar nominee, never a winner. We'll see Baby girl with Nicole Kidman getting a lot of buzz. It's supposed to be pretty steamy. This is Helena Raine's follow up to bodies, bodies, bodies. I really hope I pronounce her last name correctly. I probably did not judges. This is about Nicole Kidman having an affair with Harris Dickinson from Triangle of Sadness. So yeah, this this one like reviews for these are just spilling out now because they're premiering at festivals. So that one's being at least her performance is being reviewed very well. So we'll see. Really excited for this one. The brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet, whose film Vox Lux. Nick and I are really big fans of with Natalie Portman. This. I don't know anything about this. I know it's stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce. I know it's long, like maybe three hours and it's a post world War Two movie. That's all I know so far. And the reviews are, I mean, like literally just a week old and they are great. We're going to see Brady Corbet is I mean Vox Lux is out there. It takes some it takes some chances in its opening credits. You're like, oh, we're doing this. All right, here we go. And you know, he's he can be a challenging director. We like that, Nick and I like that. So I'm here for the brutalist love Adrien Brody. Here we go. Queer. The new Luca Guadagnino film starring Daniel Craig getting really solid reviews at festivals. That'll be out soon. Now, these last ones I just kind of have my eye on the ones I just mentioned I'm excited for. I'm going to see these next ones. I don't know. We're going to see how they go, I don't know. First up, Gia Coppola, part of the Coppola dynasty. Her latest movie is called The Last Showgirl and it stars Pamela Anderson. I'm interested. Kiernan Shipka from Mad Men, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Jason Schwartzman, Brenda Strong that's a cool cast. I'll show up for it. Who knows? Maria. Directed by Pablo The Rain, this stars Angelina Jolie as famed opera singer Maria Callas. We'll see if you liked Pablo Lorraine's other two biopics. Jackie, where Natalie Portman played Jackie Kennedy and Spencer were Kristen Stewart played Princess Diana. I really liked Spencer. I guess I was completely alone in that. Not a lot of people did. I thought Kristen Stewart was great. Thought the movie was good, but I don't. I think these performances, those these two performances have been better than the movies. We'll see. Angelina Jolie hasn't put up like, you know, an Oscar baity movie like this in quite a while, so we'll see how it goes. But it just premiered as well at festivals. Todd Phillips's Joker Folie I'll do what I want to know. That and Ridley Scott's Gladiator two. What I want to know. And what I am asking is, are these movies going to be nominated for Oscars for any Oscar? So, Joker, the original 2019, that was the most nominated film of that year, and that is a great movie year that got nominated for more awards than The Irishman, then parasite, then Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it won two. But but in terms of nominations, it swept that. It also made a shitload of money. I'm not really even interested in box office for these two. I really want to know if they're going to get nominated for anything. Joaquin Phoenix won best actor. Will he be nominated for this? I don't know. I don't know. Gladiator won best picture. It was nominated for seven awards. It won five, won best picture. Famously did not win best director. Ridley Scott has never won best director. Do they nominate him for it? Does he win? I don't think I don't think that. But will this get any nominations? I just I really have my eye on this stuff because it interests me. I don't know why. Actually. I could also throw James Mangold's a complete unknown into this is Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan going to be nominated for an Oscar. It seems really primed to. This has a Christmas Day release, and Mangold has directed Reese Witherspoon to an Oscar for Walk the Line. He directed Angelina Jolie to an Oscar for girl, interrupted. He got the best performance out of Sylvester Stallone ever. With Copland, he got nominated himself for an Oscar for writing Logan, which he also directed. Ford v Ferrari is awesome. I never thought a James Mangold Ferrari movie would be better than a Michael Mann Ferrari movie. Three tend to Uma's a solid remake. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny sucks. That's okay. Will a complete unknown be good? We'll see. Nick is a huge Bob Dylan fan, a huge Dylan fan, so I don't know if that's the type of movie where it's going to get its own episode, but we'll talk about it, we'll talk about it. We'll see if Timmy can pull it out. I mean, he got nominated for Call Me By Your Name. We'll see. And then lastly, Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers, his fourth film, beginning with The Witch The Lighthouse, The Northman, now Nosferatu. The teasers for this, I think, look really effective and creepy. This is also a Christmas Day release. I will definitely be seeing this one instead of a complete unknown if I make it to the movies on Christmas. But yeah, we're going to see how the fall turns out. You know, keep the strikes in mind. Those strikes, the Writers Guild strikes, the sag strikes. I know that's all old news now, but there aren't too many major massive movies happening. A lot of the ones I just listed, I'm not talking Joker two, Gladiator two. Those are big. I'm talking about the ones I started with, Substance and Nora Blitz. I don't know how big these movies are going to be. Bird, Amelia Perez These aren't going to be blockbuster flicks, the brutalist, so we'll see how they do. I don't know what kind of Oscar season it's going to be. There's nothing we could be venturing into an Oscar season where Dune two gets a shitload of gnomes. The most gnomes wins a bunch, I don't know. Does Denis Villeneuve get nominated? I don't know, does it get nominated for Best Picture by this point in the two years prior, I already knew or we largely knew where they were going. By this point last year it was Oppenheimer full steam. Even in September the year before that, I damn sure knew everything everywhere was going to do very well come awards time. We don't have anything like that right now. It's September. These festivals that have just happened are usually a really good template for that. When there isn't something big like in everything, everywhere. In Oppenheimer earlier in the year, the year before, everything, everywhere, when Coda won. No one was even talking about that movie until Oscar nomination day. So we'll see. We'll see how this goes. I don't know any big Best Picture, best director frontrunners. Now, I know they're going to try for both, for Ridley Scott, for Gladiator two, but I don't know. Sing. Sing is another movie that I want to see that's you can rent it like video on demand and that has Colman Domingo. I think you're going to see him again pop up for Best Actor. I really think they're going to put a lot of weight behind Ralph Fiennes for conclave. We'll see. But this is just kind of an early touch based on where things are headed. I'm eager to see all of that. Megalopolis. Wow. Here we go next time. It was supposed to be this episode, but I snuck Beetlejuice in here. The rules of Attraction is going to be our next podcast. And you know, that's, that was a movie that didn't age well. That was a movie that was never politically correct. It was not politically correct as soon as it was released in 2002. And it certainly isn't by 2024 standards. So we we had fun talking about the movie, but we just go down some roads based on the content of the film that we haven't necessarily gone down on the podcast before. Fun little preview for that. Stay tuned. And then I figured, since you're all here with me and you made it this far in a solo pod, I will tease that our next big director is David Lynch. So if you want to catch up on your David Lynch, we're going to have fun. I'm going to split it into two episodes. You'll see my Dune 4K arrived yesterday. David Lynch's Dune 4K arrived yesterday. So now I own all of his movies. We have known that we were doing this for months. We agreed on it actually on Oscar weekend that usually what I do is I take like a month before or three weeks before and kind of binge all the movies of a director. But this one, I've really been watching them over and over, because there were a few that I have always had trouble with, and a few or at least one that I still have trouble with, but as just a teaser, I never, quote unquote got Eraserhead until researching this episode. And I've watched it more than once to research, and I'm going to watch it 1 or 2 more times before we record. So that's a little teaser. David Lynch, that's it for me. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice was great. Go watch the original Beetlejuice. It's great as well. Never gets old. Strange darling gets the what are you watching recommendation for a movie currently in theaters. It's let us know where you're watching at Y w underscore podcast. Twitter Instagram, Letterboxd. We're out there. But as always, thanks for listening and happy watching. You. Hey everyone, thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex withrow.com Nicholas dose still.com is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and Letterboxd at WDW underscore podcast. Next time. Well, Roger Avery's The Rules of Attraction, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Oh, my. Stay tuned. Okay. I believe you jump in your life. That. Okay. I believe you jump in the line. Your body in time versus shake. Shake, shake, shake your body life. Shake shake shake shake, shake it all the time. Work, work work, Senora. Work your body. Line up. Work, work work, senora. Work it all the time. You can talk about Cha-Cha, tango, Walter de rumba, Senor. As dance has no title. You jump in the saddle to land to the bridal. Jump in the line. Tuck your body and time. Okay, I believe you jump in your life. Knock, knock your body time. Jump in your life. Knock the body back. Somebody help me! Jump in the line. Knock your body in time. Oh, shake, shake, shake, shake your body. Line up. Check, check check. Genera. Check it all the time. Good work. Work, Senhora. Work your body line. Good work. Senora. Work it all the time.