48: Top 5 Films of 2021

Alex and Nick break down their favorite films from 2021. The guys discuss back-to-back rough movie years, empty movie theaters, audience expectations (again), studios abandoning their movies, and much more.
Alex ends the episode with a futile rant about how the Oscars can save themselves.
What was your favorite movie of 2021? Let us know on Twitter @WAYW_Podcast.
Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
Send us mailbag questions at whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

0:09

Hey, everyone, welcome to what are you watching? I'm Alex Withrow and I'm joined by my best man, Nick Dostal. How are you doing their pig? I see him is so easy to oof. I'm excited to be here. Yeah. 2021 in movies. Look, we're in Delaware. I mean, right? I mean, come on. It was let's we got to we're going to just be honest up front, it was a rough year for new movies. It was a rough year. If you like movies that aren't based on any previous intellectual property and we're, you know, we're revealing our hand a little bit early here because in most any other year, we would choose ten films to endorse and encourage people to see. But we're not stretching this year to ten because I kind of told you, like, I can't tell people that there were ten truly great movies that came out in 2021, because that simply wasn't my experience, and I see a lot of shit. So instead, we're going to do this a little different. We have already shared our top fives together because I didn't want to end up, you know, accidentally talking about the same exact movies, and we only have a few in common, which is fun. But I really like, appreciate and endorse the five movies I'm going to recommend. But 2021 in general, not the strongest year for film coming off a. Another very weak year 2020. I was going to say like, this is now, you know, two years into our podcast, we have been live for two of a couple of the worst movie years that have been around. Yeah, especially back to back. Can you remember a year that where you did not have a top ten of solid endorsements? Yeah, I remember. Do I've always done a top ten list on my blog at the end of every year and 2010 was incredibly difficult at the time to come up with ten really good ones that were five that were like unassailable black swan social network. Like those are in there. Those are somewhere good, good movies. But at the time in like January 2011, I had not seen ten truly great 2010 movies. But in the years that pass, I discover like foreign films that I may put into that that I may not have seen during the year. Or you see little indie gems and I'm like, Ah, shit, 2010. Like, actually a little better than I initially thought. I'll use 2020 as an example. Like I saw, I've seen so many 2020 movies during that year and since I've watched a few this year, and that was that was an extremely difficult list to come up with ten four and it remains extremely difficult. Yeah, I don't really know if there are ten truly great films that came out in 2020, and in my opinion, there weren't in 2021. But know this, we are back to back. These are the worst two new movie years of my lifetime, certainly. I mean, in terms of my movie fandom and funny that we started this podcast like touring during the pandemic, where there's not a lot of new movies coming up. But that is typically why we focus on, you know, somewhat older movies, even if it's like recent older movies like Shames from 2011. Yeah, I've done some mini episodes along the way, like reviewing some of these 2021 movies, and I'm going to mention, and that felt fun to do because I wasn't seeing a lot of good movies along the way this year. So when I did see one, I was like, Oh, I'll give 1520 minutes just to try to encourage people to stream it. Or, you know, God forbid, actually go to a movie theater and see it. But yeah, tough. Tough, man. Tough. And I think it's important to do that too, because, yeah, we do talk about older stuff. We definitely go to the past because that's kind of where our education with film lies, because we kind of have to live with what we have like. We have to stay like relevant. We have to not just as podcasters, but just as like film goers and filmmakers like we have to see like what's at the lay of the land, like what is coming at us, what are we, what are we being sold and what is actually coming out of this? This is good. It's a scary time for movies because everything's changed because of COVID. The movie theaters, the way we know them. This is not the way that movies make their money. The whole guard has changed, and it's really asking like what our audience is looking for. That leaves a lot up in the air in terms of the future of what kind of movies are being made. What was your experience like in the movie theaters throughout the course of a pandemic year? Did you get a lot of packed houses for movies that necessarily were not big blockbusters? So yeah, great question. To put this into context, like I go to the movie theater once a week. I follow all COVID protocols. I live in a slightly easier state than you do for all those protocols. So, you know, movie theaters have been open all of 2021. And I I go, whether I see, you know, a lot of theaters near me, even playing older movies, so I'll see those in it. Oh my God, I have so much fun. No. In general, new movies in 2021 were not crowded with a few very rare exceptions. Spider-Man was absolutely packed, sold out. I went the opening weekend because I'm like, If I'm going to see a movie like that, I want to be in there with all the nerds. That's a term I use endearingly. Trust me, but I want to be in there with people like the fandom. Yeah, that talking and with each other in there in there kind of. So I'm like, Oh, that's who that cameo is. Like the daredevil. Go, OK, I get it. I get it. Matrix was packed. Certainly Godzilla versus Kong. That was early in the year that was really packed. That's it. Godzilla was calling actually gave me hope because that premiered on HBO the same day. And when I saw that there were so many people in the theater, I'm like, Oh, this is great. People are still going to go to the movies. And even though they have the streaming option, and that just, you know, wasn't really the case, my dune screenings were not crowded. That's another one that premiered on HBO. That really surprised me. And then those are I'm just talking about the huge, huge, huge movies, but the movies that are going to be like on our top fives here, I mean, there now, there's no one in the theater. There's no one. And I don't want to spoil our list. But basically, if I've done a mini sold so far, like there wasn't anyone in theater, I remember I told you we did our Don't Look Up episode. So when I saw Don't Look Up, it was hilarious because the movie theater was fucking packed because everyone was there to see Spider-Man . But my theater, my screen, I'm the only one in there at like 7:30 at night going, Wow, so no one's going to talk about this movie. But then that movie blows up on Netflix. So and one of the reasons why we say we're trying to, like, keep film alive is that I'm not mad at younger generations for not latching on to film as an art form, because if I was growing up now, like these new movies, I probably wouldn't be that interested in them. I probably wouldn't have fallen in love with the art for like I did. But when we were growing up, it's all these great movies of the nineties and early 2000 that, like, are really encouraging you to jump back in time. Like, I see Pulp Fiction. Well, what are those influences? So I'm going back in time. We just talked about scream. I scream. They're referencing so many great movies that I've never heard of when I'm eleven years old, so I jump back. And now that it's just not that way anymore, people. We went through this on our Paul Thomas Anderson podcast when we talked about lickers. Pizza people now more than ever really seem to want to go to a movie expecting something that they're going to get. And if they get that thing, there's I mean, it's this isn't a spoiler, but Spider-Man has, you know, brings back some people who were in previous Spider-Man films. I don't, you know, that's fine. That's what people wanted. That's what people kind of guessed was going to happen. It happened and people just flipped out and they loved it. That's why that movie is by far the highest grosser of this year. But I just don't know if these movies like Godzilla versus Kong Matrix for Spider-Man, whatever. Are these still going to be talked about like 20 years from now? Like if it's 2041 and we're doing a list of the best 2021 films like I read, do these movies stay in the cultural conversation? I don't know. I don't know if movies do anymore. I honestly don't know. Well, it's tough to say, you know, the the more interesting one is Godzilla versus Kong, because that's as popular as that was and is the Marvel Universe that's going to live on forever because it's already been exist in existence for over 20 years in the history of film, a 20 year long streak of a certain type of style. I mean, it's unprecedented what Marvel has done. They have made this whole entire comic book superhero movie world the most popular thing ever. How we're going to talk about those movies in terms of like the Oscars, how the Oscars talk about movies. Are we going to be looking at the first Iron Man in the same way that we look at? Oh my God, it feels I feel like we're so old. Like, Is Iron Man the new one Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? I don't know. I mean, will it? Because that was the one that started it all. You know that Iron Man in 2008 and I actually have you mentioned the Oscars? I actually have a little how to save the Oscars teaser that we cannot not teaser. It's just I'm going to inform the. Motion Picture Arts and sciences, how they can fix themselves as we go through this part of my kind of hypothesis of how to fix them is start bringing up like these big movies again, these big movies that are like, OK, like when a Best Picture winner would sweep, but it was like, OK, you know, go, all right. So Ellen didn't really go my way. But like, like, Braveheart is probably not the movie I would pick to win Best Picture and Director. But it did give it to Nicolas Cage for Best Actor, too, for leaving Las Vegas. Like, that's pretty fucking cool. And now, I mean, I don't I haven't heard anyone really talk about a movie that won an Oscar for 2020 like at all this year. Nomadland, The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Minari. I haven't heard anyone mention these movies in in a year. I don't. Oh, man, you know that's so fascinating because I never thought about that. We always held. Even if we didn't necessarily agree with the winner of an Academy Award, we couldn't deny the fact that, Oh, well, this is this is what won. This is a thing. And we held it to a certain not as standard, but a a certain level of attention that just needed to be addressed. So if you would just hear any actor first thing to a pop in their head, well, they won the Academy Award. Mm hmm. Now does it even matter? Like, does it because it? Oh, see, that's an ugly feeling. That's what I'm saying. Like people, I don't know if people just aren't, if they're seeing these movies and they just go out of the culture really quick. I don't know. That's what I mean. Like, movies are just not talked about by and large unless they're, you know, Spider-Man. But Spider-Man isn't going to be winning Oscars. I don't think maybe I'm no, no, maybe Brock. Maybe Andrew Garfield gets nominated. We don't know. I mean, the thing is is like, like, I remember when some of these awards that have just come out and I was thinking, Rebecca Ferguson. Mm-Hmm. I, if she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Dune, I would be like, Yeah, that's that's that's a good nomination for a big blockbuster movie to try to get into that Oscar conversation. That might be the only way that you could kind of give a shot in the arm of of the Oscars, because how else are they going to remain relevant? Because that's really what we're talking about here is relevancy. The Oscars, to your point, do not seem very relevant in the way that we used to regard them, and that is a very strange feeling that I don't know what to do with this right now. Yeah. Hold on to this Oscar conversation because even the way you're bringing up Dune, because I'm going to we're going to get into this at the end of the pod before we get into 2021. Briefly, I just want to touch on we've lost some real legends right in a row. I mean, we met Betty White on December 31st, a pop culture mainstay so late in life, which is so great. It's so fun to watch. Know Golden Girls Mary Tyler Moore Show January six We lose Peter Bogdanovich great celebrity figure. So much reverence for Old Hollywood the same day lose Sidney Poitier, arguably just one of the most iconic and legendary cinema figures ever and will always remain that way revolutionary. Yeah. And then three days later, the comedy scene is completely gutted by the tragic and unexpected loss of Bob Saget. So people are getting older. Are our heroes, our cinema heroes are getting older, and this is a thing that happens. But we just wanted to dedicate some time to all these legends. Legends lost. Wow. It's sad, man. And and and I hope that people that might not know it because we have not really talked extensively about too many. We brought up Sidney Poitier a few times, especially in our conversations in the John Cassavetes pod episode. But Peter Bogdanovich, I remember when I saw The Last Picture Show for the very first time. Oh man. And that was early on in my film watching. I remember like specifically asking myself out loud, who directed this? Yeah. And then I asked myself the same question when we were covering 1973, because one of my favorite movies from that year, I had put on my top ten list of Paper Moon. Yeah. And I remember I asked myself the same question when I was watching because I was loving it. I go, God, who directed this? As soon as I found out the answer, it linked to back to when I asked myself that was the last picture show. And now, yeah, sure, they're both black and white, but they couldn't be different movies. Mm-Hmm. What was it about both of those movies that made me feel something that only a filmmaker can make you feel in terms of what they're actually doing? Like, why is this the same? Like, what is it about what this person? Is doing that makes me ask who, who's touching this nerve that I am feeling with this movie and being like, Oh, that's why it's the same guy. That's a testament. Yeah, very unique with tone. Very confident director. And, like I said, a great celebrity figure. And what's so interesting about Bogdanovich is that he became. You know, the movies you're referencing are 17 movies, so he was of the age of Spellberg, Lucas, De Palma, Scorsese, Coppola. And he admitted pretty much up until his dying day that he never got along with those guys. He wasn't like in the party scene wasn't part of that, even though they were the same generation, he was latching himself on to Jimmy Stewart, John Ford, John Wayne, Orson Welles, Robert Mitchum. I mean, he's hanging out on sets with these guys. And and that came through in its work. He was like in his best movies. He was. There were those throwbacks to old Hollywood and in the best possible way. And you know, if you type his name into the Criterion Collection app, you're going to find so much great stuff, mostly of him introducing movies. And he was so good at trying to encourage you to watch this movie. Here's why you got to go check this out. You know, look at what Orson Welles did here. You mentioned the last picture show paper Moon. Those are great. What's up, doc? I watched recently for the first time. I love that they all laughed mask with Cher. And I want to give a little credit a little shout out to his acting skills because he played. I love his performance as Dr. Melfi therapist in The Sopranos. And it's got that giant bottle of water. It is just so like James Elliot. He's just so kind of cold level. Well, what's his gut? He was just, Oh, he's great. I mean, Sidney Poitier, we could. People have been doing since January six. People have been doing tons of podcast about him because you have I mean, you have no way out the defiant ones. A raisin in the sun. Lilies of the field. A patch of blue in the heat of the night. And guess who's coming to dinner? Both come out in 1967. That is crazy. Season two of the biggest like culture defining movies of their era and people our age may know him best from like sneakers such as a fun film from the desert and then his last film performance of exactly these last filled performances. A movie I absolutely love the Jackal. Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. I love Poitier. Not, but yeah, it's these are two massive legends, and Sidney Poitier was so influential for reasons that extend far outside of the Hollywood system. Oh, he's a complete revolutionary. I mean, he to be a black actor at the time when he was coming up. Fuck man. Yeah, go watch. No way out on on Criterion people, because he's a black doctor like who's forced to treat racist people is racist patients. It's and that's like 1950. You know, it's a very good movie, but he's I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been for him to just be like walking around town, let alone trying to. I can't imagine the amount of shit he'd have to take and the way he carried himself with such grace and poise. It's yeah, what a completely honorable man. My God. Bob Saget, God, he talked about using a little humor more than ever, I mean, that guy went something like this happens. Of course, it's awful, but just the outpouring of support is for what this guy was and what he meant to comedy. And he's just, you know, the nicest guy ever. Definitely a crass comedian, but he seemed very helpful and very giving within his community. I mean, I listen to Believers podcast and billboard I started had to catch himself to not break down once you know he was talking about Bob and how Bob had just passed away. And it's really it can't be easy for Bill Burr to break down into tears. So, yeah, I just wanted to mention him, not necessarily a movie star, but definitely someone who's really important in the entertainment industry. Oh, for sure. I mean, I remember as a kid, I like Saturday mornings watching America's Funniest Home videos. Yeah, to have that on, which is like the number one show. And then at night and then like Full House is also a number one show. I can't tell you when we were kids, everyone watch Bob Saget one way or another because someone in the House either had Full House on or the House either had America's funniest home videos or most likely, both. Oh yeah, and a lot of houses. And that was he was America's dad and apparently just worth gazillions because of this. And you never really he didn't carry himself that way. He was just really helpful to young comics. Yeah, that's a sad God. Well, on that late note, let's get to top five of 2021, which we may not even brighten things up now. All right. Let's try to brighten things up here. Talk about at least five good movies, each that we saw this year. We're going to get right into them. I'm going to go first because coincidentally, our number five is exactly the same, which I was very happy to see Denny Villeneuve's Dune. This was an immensely enjoyable theatrical experience. Got to see an IMAX, but when I did, my mini sold on this, I kind of mentioned that I actually liked it more the second time at home when I knew what the hell everyone was talking about. And it's kind of a testament to Danny Villeneuve, his movies, no matter what they're about, to get better with subsequent viewings. But yeah, it's just a really good big swing movie that made me really excited for the next one. Yeah, who knew? For the most part, like, I'm not the biggest blockbuster guy. Yeah, same here. Same here. It's just it's just kind of my taste. But this I'm like, OK, this is really cool. Like, this is and it's in. It's really good. And I'm seeing also, you know, we talk about, you know, the attention span of audiences today. This movie is very long. This is this push in three hours, and it does not feel like it whatsoever. And I'm noticing throughout the movie that something really fresh and new is happening about every four to seven minutes. Something of note has changed or is about to happen. That just keeps you going, and it doesn't really ever stop. And it's like a social media like right old dopamine hit. Yeah, yeah, like something is just coming out. But that even being said, I just really, really enjoyed every second of this beautifully done big piece of art and knowing that this movie means a lot to Danny. Like you saw this movie out. Oh, yeah, something he was like looking for. Yeah, he was like obsessed with the material. And a lot of the things I liked most about it were the few things that people seemed to dislike like. It has this one to one hand combat ending. And people seem to be a little let down by that. I'm like, So you wanted to end with like another CGI massive battle clusterfuck. Like every other movie this size? I don't. But yes, it had those really cool big scenes. But then the way you could also get still with Charlotte Rampling and Timothee Chalamet in like a hand in a box, it was very effective, very eerie. So, yeah, I'm excited for part two, of course, but I'm going to mention Dune here before the end of the part is up, let me tell you. But since that was your number five, I'll go straight to my number four already did a mini song on it, but this is Pablo Larrain Spencer, which I really like this movie really, really love. The lead performance by Kristen Stewart, which did not get a Screen Actors Guild nomination last week and which all but ruins her chances of winning the Oscar. Hopefully, she'll still get nominated, but I just don't know what this is anymore. I don't know what's going on, but I I loved the tone of this movie. I loved her performance. So much so there that is was it's wild because I mean, you get all the film Twitter talk, you get. I mean, the rumor mill, the the the buzz, everything that goes around a performance. This was one that happened organically. Like, yeah, people weren't rushing to go see Spencer. But when it came out, it was across the board. You and Kristen Stewart, not to us. We love her, but a lot of people hate. On her. Yeah. And this was one where everyone was like, Wow, holy shit, she just gave an Oscar winning performance right there. Exactly. It still admits the film world. Do you like what? You've kind of got gold right here? Let's just not do anything with it. Oh, good. Let's go to Lady Gaga. Yeah, we'll see if Gaga somehow sneaks in there, I just think would be absolutely hysterical. I think it's Olivia Colman to lose for the last daughter at this point. Not mad about it, but I mean, Gaga would just be great. But anyway, on to your no for another good movie with some fantastic female performances. Oh, 100%. And this is something I was going to bring up when we were talking about our theater conversation about how packed were your movie going for these movies? And the next three on my list, I was one of probably at most four people in the theater. Yes, I know the movies you're about to talk about and there were literally like four or five people in every screening. And that sucks. Yep. My number four is Zola. Great film. Oh my god. Yeah. You talk about indie movies that are doing original stuff that are or cinematically unique and original and creative, and performances that are just really pushing boundaries and edges that they're funny. They're flawed, they're you can't take your eyes off of them. Riley Keough, how are you so good? There's a line that you texted me that I can't say because it's just not appropriate, but I used to watch the facts. Yes. Oh, it's great. And so I also know, like maybe two people who might not know this movie because, well, I mean, probably not a lot of people do. This was all based off of a real life experience that happened with the main character that tweeted about it on a giant thread. And so this whole entire movie's source material came from Twitter. I know, which is awesome. And that's what I love most about it is that so many of these technology based movies are so damn annoying. You have text bubbles, snap bubbles, all of a tweet bubbles popping up everywhere bubble, and you've got to read all over the screen with this. You hear that stuff all the time, you constantly hear in the notifications, but that just adds to the anxiety of now that we all live in, that so many people are like likes to reply replied this that, but they never show you that stuff, and they find really interesting ways to communicate those text messages or those social media messages to us, like talking directly to the screen, breaking the fourth wall. It just Geneseo. Bravo is the name of the director. What a strong directorial effort Taylor Page plays the title character Riley Keough, who you mentioned is great Nicholas Braun, old cousin Greg from Succession. He's fantastic. And then Colman Domingo, I've heard a little kind of tease that they're trying to push for maybe a supporting actor nomination for the Oscar, and I'm like, Bring it on, man. He's fantastic. Nicholas Braun, as of right now, I still have not seen everything from the year, but as of right now has my favorite acting moment of the entire year in this movie. So I'm not going to say what it is. OK, OK. Yeah, we will. We won't spoil everything just leading up to that moment. Like, like what's going on with him, his and then what he does like, Oh my God, that got me. But if that's any incentive to go see the movie alone, just go see it. It's you won't regret it, no matter who you are. That movie yielding it? Yeah, and it's 90 minutes long. It's not going to take a lot of your time. My number three is a movie everyone can watch very easily on HBO right now. It's Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move. Steven Soderbergh keeps making these movies and releasing them on streaming services, and no one talks about them. This is a simple crime job gone very awry. Film set in fifties Detroit. Listen to this Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Brendan Fraser, Kieran Culkin, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Ray Liotta, Frankie Shaw, David Harbor, Julia Fox. This this cast is just watching these people talk in rooms is fun. Brendan Fraser is having a great time in this as a heavy as like a thug mob heavy. He's great. No one really saw this. No one talked about it. I love this movie. It's on HBO Max now. Soderbergh directed Shot it, edited it. It's if you like him and I'm he's one of my gods, then you'll love this. This is one of them. I think this is one of the better recent movies he's done. I absolutely love this movie. I got 20 minutes in. I can't believe I haven't finished yet because I loved every second of what I was watching. It's like looping you in with the style, right? Like, it's so it's just so much texture and style. But yeah, just I would. I'd recommend like, you know, when you get two hours, just, you know, I'd start it over and starting it right through it because it is a little complex. I mean, he's doing that intentionally. Like, there is a lot of threads to kind of go down. You're like, Oh, and that there's kind of the point, Yeah, it's a web. And I've watched it like four times and just had so much fun with it. Every time. It's great, you're number three. We've already talked about a little bit on episode 38, but why don't you tell us there is? There comes a time where there is just a certain movie that comes along that just has an unexplainable magic behind it, and that is the magic of a movie called Pig. Great film. I was so happy that I saw this in the movie theater because you wouldn't necessarily think that this is a jump out. Oh, I got to go see this on the big screen, and you don't. Movies to us will always be better in the confines of a movie theater. But there is something particularly lulling about the opening of this movie with the sound of water that just really kind of set a certain type of I don't know if it's like hypnotized tone of what this movie is and where it goes is so unexpected. It was so refreshing and every moment was so tenderly taken care of. This movie is, if you haven't seen it, it is not at all what it was marketed to be, which I loved. I'll say it when the trailer came out. This movie is petitioned to be John Wick with Nicolas Cage, right? And I don't know if it's a bad thing to then go. We're talking about expectations for audiences to kind of go into this movie thinking that they're going to get that and then come out getting with what you actually do get. It's an incredibly bad thing. I think I don't think I didn't like the way this movie was marketed. And when I saw it in the movie theater with the like five other people who are in there, they were not happy by the tone of this movie up the end because they were expecting John Wick in the woods with Nicolas Cage. And that is not what this is, and it's a 90 minute slow brew that deserves your patience anyway. And if you give it that to it, oh my God, you will not be disappointed it. It truly delivers in a way that I don't. I honestly don't know how. I don't know how that's done. Like that is a certain type of of filmmaking that just kind of transcends the art form in terms of when moments hit you. In that movie, they hit so wonderfully and Nicolas Cage, there's an Oscar nom god. I really hope he sneaks. Is that good? I really hope that good. Yeah, that'd be great. And he deserves it. He deserves it. He won't win, but he deserves to get in there and just know because he put. He puts everything into this performance, into this tiny movie made by a first time director, and I loved him and I loved his dedication. Adam Arkin also gives one hell of a supporting performance. It's like just dominion. Oh my god, I love him. I love the command he has in his stillness. Oh yeah, Michael's are also great. I can't wait to see what he does next. What's your number three? My number three is no sudden move. Thanks for paying attention. So I'm going to go on to my number two. You know, I tried so hard. I tried so hard to like feed you with like the next leg to move it along. And I was like, No, it's like if I did number three, he's got to be at number three. Podcast hosting is not for everyone. It's OK, I'm just joking. My number two, I've already teased this one with Minnesota. I absolutely love this movie. It's Ridley Scott's The Last All. This is definitely one of my kind of biggest surprises of the year, not in terms of me loving it, which I did, but in terms of it being completely rejected by not critics. Critics liked it, but audiences were like, Nah, I'm done with this. And some audiences went to see House of Gucci, like House of Gucci, is actually made for a non IP movie. Pretty decent money no one saw last. All people are just like Sia, and Ridley Scott was mad about it. Ben Affleck's given some really kind of cogent, good interviews about why he doesn't think the movie did well, and he's like, I think audiences are just, I don't think they want to go to the movies to see something like this anymore. I think now maybe the last dude does only appeal to people like our age. I don't think like Gen Z is into the last all and OK. But if you want a good like what you think of when you think of like an old school hand-to-hand Ridley Scott Flick set way back when this will live up to your expectations. I loved it. It has two very, very difficult scenes that I didn't enjoy watching. That's the point. But I mean, big movie, big scope killer ending. It's a damn shame no one's talking about it. It sucks. And even living in a city like Los Angeles. This movie was not in theaters for a long time, considering how big a movie it was. I mean, I want to say like, I mean, there were some theaters that like, were playing it,

you know, at the 3: 33:06

00 p.m., you know, the only screening of it. But I would say it had its height for about two weeks, not even. And that's not a lot of time for a movie like that, whereas House of Gucci is still playing on the regular. Right? All, all the time slots, you can imagine there's a there's a showing of how the Gucci, but you cannot see the last duel anywhere right now. Exactly. I was walking around like Target. I'm not even kidding. It was like three and a half, four weeks after I saw this movie in the theater and the Blu ray was just fucking sitting there and I went, Wait, what? I just saw this like three, huh? How was the last Blu ray right here? It just makes no I. I don't know, I don't get it, I don't know what these release strategies are. I don't know. It's so weird. Did the did the DVD have any, any special features? No, it's they rushed the Blu ray. There's no special features. I think there's like some shitty like behind the scenes, you know, making up that the studio would have film, but there's no commentary. Ridley Scott does amazing commentary, so there's just I'm like, So you just don't care. You're not even caring about like the marketing of the physical copy of this for nerds like me who would buy this because I like the movie and because I listen to a Ridley Scott commentary, no one cares. It just seems people just fucking move on what is happening. I'm talking to the people who pay for this shit. The studios don't care. That's the issue here. If you don't care who the hell or audience is supposed to care, if you pull this really good movie out of theaters after two weeks and then just dump it on target shelves two and a half weeks after that, like the fuck, do you think? Of course, no one's going to see it. Whatever. I love it. I love it. That was a good rant and a nice little coincidence. Your number two. Here is my share. No one surprising. No one, probably. Why don't you tell us what it is? Number two Licorice Pizza, My favorite film of the year without question, I liked. And for the record, the movies you've mentioned is all the pig and your number one. If I was making a top ten, they would be in there. I liked every movie we're talking about today, but yeah, liquors pizza just completely floored me, completely wowed me. I actually have a ticket to see it tonight in 70 millimeter film in D.C., so I'm fucking ecstatic. Yes, I am so excited that crisp, crisp film because he shot it on 35 millimeter and then they've there's only a few of these 70 millimeter copies running around, and I'm I'm just thrilled I'm not going to lie like, I'm bummed that that is the best representation of the year because I love this movie. I really love it. But it's like, Wow, there's nothing even that kind of came close to it for me. I hope it does well with Oscar nominations. I have no idea we will see. But yes, liquors, pizza. What a vibe. Great hang out movie pizza. Best Original Screenplay. Here we come, baby. Please, please. We definitely talked about it in the in our previous episode with Paul Thomas Anderson, so definitely listen to that to get a little bit more of our our unbridled joy and appreciation for this movie. Please go see it and try to go out without, you know, thinking, OK, I'm in your seats. Pizza's next. There will be blood. Just let whatever this movie does for you. Let it do it. Fall into it. You're going to be taking care of its pizza. He knows what he's doing. The performances are just across the board. Amazing, and we didn't talk about this in the last one. one of my favorite parts of this movie were all of the absolute knock homerun out of the park side performances that happened in just like, like one scene. Oh yeah, there are just a few times that this movie just has one actor in one scene, and they just completely steal the whole entire thing. I haven't laughed so hard. The movie is loaded with great, great moments like that, and it's must see. I actually I want them to release it on Blu ray and have like a who's who guide because apparently, like Steven Spielberg's daughters are in this. There's just so many little like cameos of like famous people's kids who were in this, and I don't really know what they look like and stuff. But but even the way like that Skyler Guy who plays Lance, I love him like his first scene on the plate. What do you dislike that leads out and he looks at Cooper. He's like, Yeah, yeah, it's love. It's like it's every choice that people are making. It really propels this very odd, weird thing, this weird vibe that's going on in 1973 San Fernando Valley. Oh man, that was my that was your number two, my number one. And now we move on to a film that we dedicated way back. Episode 26 The entirety of episode 26 was dedicated to the great Malcolm and Marie. Why is there no one? Well, for a lot of reasons, but one, I think this movie was just I needed to see it when it came, like when it came out , I needed to see a movie like this. Yeah, I needed to see a movie, do something so radically different and do it so uniquely and creatively and originally. It also it inspired me in a way that I see how you can do new things like like the art form is always changing and always growing. And I know a lot of people didn't like this movie. For what? All sorts of reasons. But for all of those reasons are the ones, the reasons that I loved it. And I remember thinking, I go, I don't think there's ever going to be a movie that's going to come out this year that's going to beat this for me. And Licorice Pizza Wolf, that was that was a very, very tough one to not. Take number one, but just on a personal level, Malcolm and Marie, to me, that is that Sun rises and sets for me with that one. Yeah. And what movie is that from? What did you just quote? I want to see if you know. You just quoted Val Kilmer in heat, and you didn't even know it. Bastard. I'm sure when he's talking about Ashley Judd, anyway, that's right. He does say that. Yep, he sure does. Yeah. Malcolm Marie is one that I mean, you and I were recommending it to friends who we, you know, we vibe with their movie tastes. They value with ours and they didn't like it. And I'm like, OK, you know, I know I get it. Yeah, I thought this was a big swing with just really like three principal people involved, and it worked so well. I really enjoyed it, and I love the style of it. I love its look. Oh, it's beautiful. And yeah, it counts. It's a 2021 movie. Yeah, it really is. It's really beautiful. So there we go. I'm going to run through them really quick. Your list was Dune, Zola Pig, Licorice Pizza and Malcolm and Marie. And I had Dune Spencer, no sudden move the last duel and licorice pizza. Some good movies there. I mean, not an overall great year of film, but I really do like all those movies we just mentioned and, you know, as basically a top ten. And if we were going to round it out, I didn't know if you had any other like honorable mentions. It doesn't. This doesn't mean like this will be our five through ten. It does. I kind of like to use this as a way to just give a little shout out to kind of smaller, unseen work. You actually already teased one of mine when we were talking about PTA because you talked about Jim Cummings and the beta test. Yeah, it's a really, really fun 2021 movie that they made it for next to nothing. It's about, you know, cancel culture. Me too. It's just it's very out there. And I really love Jim Cummings. So do you. So I would absolutely recommend people check out the beta test, which you can find on various streaming platforms for a fee, but it is worth it. And the other honorable mention I have is the eyes of Tammy Faye. Good call. I wrote that movie really hard on our Jessica Chastain podcast. That is still, I think as of right now, my particular favorite running of the leading performance. I like that movie a lot. It'd be a lot of fun if people are like voters. That is or like Gaga. I don't know if this is the right performance for her. We just gave it to Olivia Colman a few years ago for the favorite. Chastain deserves it. So why don't we vote for her? That would be so awesome if she won that like it would just I don't know if it'll happen, but it would be so cool. She's so deserving. two documentaries I want to mention quickly NYC Epicenters that Spike Lee's doc on HBO really intense, really good. And then JFK revisited by Oliver Stone, which is on Showtime. If you're a fan of his 1991 movie JFK, he's revisiting a lot of the same material. It is nuts. He, you know, obviously, Oliver Stone is quite obsessed with that topic. Wow. So those are two others that I just wanted to give a shout out in the card counter. That was my first Minnesota. I liked Paul Schrader's movie a lot. Yeah, that was a good movie. And then I have a my main honorable mention, one that I really flipped out for that no one is talking about. I'm saving that for my What are you watching? So a little teaser there. And the only other really honorable mention I want to bring up is power of the dog. Yes, good call. Good. And it's streaming on Netflix for free. I mean, the man Benedict Cumberbatch is that guy. Great cast. This is. He's just another level. He's great. The whole cast. Everything Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons. Yeah, very patient movie. Jane Campion coming back to movies after a while. OK, good launching point because we've we've been skirting around the Oscars and like, do people still care about this stuff? I have a way to fix them. Yeah, I make this very simple picture in director dune Denis Villeneuve. You get that out of the way. That's not going to upset anyone. People are going to dig that. They're like, Oh, OK, cool. Nice. Villeneuve deserves it. Great actor Will Smith, King Richard, you just got to get that out of the way. You got to do it. The man wants it so bad. He's doing the press tour. He's going to every guild screening. He wrote the book. So you just got it, OK? Will Smith has an Oscar. Great actress. Kind of just touched on this. Colman or Gaga? I don't know Chastain. So actress is kind of a freebie. You guys can do with that one. What you want. I given you three good choices for yeah, Colman, Gaga, Chastain, Kristen Stewart, supporting actor. Here's another one take would take it whichever way you want. Kodi Smit-McPhee seems to have jumped up there for power. The dog who knew. I mean, that's cool. If Bradley Cooper gets nominated for Licorice Pizza and is somehow in the conversation to win for what is like, essentially an extended one scene, brilliant extended one scene performance, or even Ciaran and who's in Belfast, who's I've loved that guy since there will be blood. And so again, up in the air, that's a freebie. Supporting actress sounds like Ariana Dubbo's for West Side Story is kind of a lock. I'm cool with that. She's good in it. I saw that movie twice, actually. I enjoyed it. OK? Now we're going to get serious because Best Adapted Screenplay, you get to Jane Campion Power the dog. It's going to please a lot of people. And she deserves it. She's already won an Oscar. Give it to her again. She's come back to movies. Original screenplay. Don't fuck with me, PTA Licorice Pizza is going to please everyone. Everyone's going to be happy. The man with eight Oscar nominations finally has an Oscar. Good now. Production design, cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup, sound, visual effects and score. You award all of them to Dune that way. Dune wins ten Oscars total. No movie does that anymore. Dune sweeps the Oscars, but you have all this cool shit in the extra categories. Will Smith Check Colman Gaga. Check Arianna Dubbo's Check PTA. That is one hell of an enjoyable experience. How many people talk about Nomadland? It's fine. If you like the movie, that's fine. It's not a big enough movie to get people excited about movies and about watching the Oscars. But if Dune becomes this huge winner, then maybe more people will watch next year and will actually nominate, you know, great movies that deserve it. So that's all. That's my Oscar forecast. Some of that will happen. I think Will Smith win. I really think Arianna disposal when I think those are the only locks I mentioned. But I've been thinking a lot about this, that if you just do what I say, you'll get mass audiences more interested in the Oscars. Because a lot of people saw Dune. You'll just check, you'll check all the boxes and people will be happy. The nerds like me will be happy for to just do it. That's all I got. You know what? I love everything you just said, but I think there's one thing that's just not going to go your way, and it's the one thing that you really wants to go your way. Peter, that original screenplay, I would find it unbelievably cool if that one. But how is don't look up? Not going to take that. No. Because of the relevancy, because of X, Y and Z, it's so easy to award that one to it. I think that is going to be nominated because McKay gets nominated for these movies. There's no way he'll win, like he's got nominated for Vice. That's not going to he won't win, especially after the Big Short. I think it's bigger competition is Kenneth Brosnahan for Belfast, which is kind of his Roma. So they could go, you know, I mean, licorice pizza is kind of pitas Roma like in a way, you know what I'm saying? So. And then you have Mike Mills for come on, come on, who's also been nominated and he's like, well-liked as well. So I don't think don't look up is going to be big in competition. I mean, Chris, you have Wes Anderson for The French Dispatch could sneak in there. That's true. Cinema, Liquors, Pizza deserves it. Give it to Paul Thomas Anderson. This is the only one I care about. Well, of course, like 2017, when the only one we cared about was best cinematography for Roger Deakins for Blade Runner, we were like the only way we care about that had happened. What a great day. What a great night. That was so much fun. Yeah, we fucking hugged. We were on our feet, of course. Well, that's 2021 in a nutshell for us. I mean, I think we kind of covered a lot, but we're going to wrap up here with what are you watching? It's a wild card. Could be anything you want. You're up first. What do you got for us? I want to recommend our favorite movie from last year of 2020. Which was Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock, which was a part of the small ax anthology that you can still find an Amazon Prime lover's rock was our favorite, but just wheat. We tried to get everyone to watch anything from that end. Yeah. And it's still one year later. It's still the best thing that you could ever see. There is there's nothing better than any five of those movies. If you want to just you're looking for something. Lovers Rock is our favorite, but really just find anything from from that. And that's that's what I'm recommending. Great call. Great call. Yeah, we did dedicate a lot. And actually that was kind of sneakily a top five of 2020 because the last one we chose, we're just, you know , small ax. But yeah, Lovers Rock is the highlight, and that's that's something it's like 50 minutes. Just put that thing on. Like, do some chores like, you know, I mean, men put that. Make sure your sound is up loud. Good vibes. Good, good vibes. Great call, great call. So it's kind of a tradition for me at the end of a year to start looking up top ten lists of like critics I respect or and what I'm looking for are movies looking for, like common threads, like there's a movie that's been mentioned a lot that I've never heard of, but it's popped up on like four of these lists. So let me do, I'll do a little digging. So make a list like five or six of those and watch them all. They're usually very small indies, the best of which I watched this last night. I watched it twice. It's a movie called Boiling Point. It is directed by Philip Bartone Knee, and it stars Stephen Graham. So Stephen Graham is Tommy from Snatch. He played Tony. Throw in The Irishman, Al Capone and Boardwalk Empire. Love Stephen Graham. Big, Big Fan Boiling Point is set over one night and a packed restaurant. Stephen Graham is the head chef. There's, you know, issues with diners, issues with the food, issues with anything you can think of. Here's the reason to see it the entire film is 92 minutes long and is captured in one beautiful shot. one flawless, miraculous shot. No bullshit. Not not Birdman. Shit were there. Not 1917 shit where they're stitching them together. This is one unbroken shot that never feels forced. Never feels tired. You're never like, Give me out here. And it maintains the tension. No bullshit until the final frame of the movie. This is not a movie that's like it has the denouement, right? Where there's like action after the climax. This is you just go right up until that screen cuts to black in this thing. You know what? I put it on. I love one. Take movies. They're good ones are hard to come by. Like the really famous one is Russian Ark. I like that it's a pretty slow, boring movie. This is just not boring and slow. The camera always goes where you want it to. You're introduced to side characters and you don't see them for 20 minutes and then, oh, they're still sitting at that table. Of course, they are boiling. Point cannot recommended highly enough had to rent it on YouTube for 699. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. You would. Oh man, you would like this. It just what a feat in cinematography, but never flashy, never flashy, never in-your-face. And Stephen Graham is like I had to watch with the subtitles on because his accent, he's going like deep, deep British accent. I couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying, but oh my god, it's so good. And he he's not in every single frame of the movie. He'll go away for like five minutes because he's got a, you know, it's got to go, got to do some over here. So we're going to hang out with the pregnant dishwasher who's unhappy or we're going to go hang out with the host to no one likes it. It's great boiling point. Please go check this out. Oh, that and that's so great that it's not flashy because it's not. Obviously, the movie knows it's trying to do something when it does a one take for the whole entire thing, but do not call attention to it just to let it breathe. Let it do its thing. You'll know, Oh yeah, you're as the audience member. Even you'll be like, Oh wow, this is all one. Take all this is really cool. So that's also shot at four times, and they use Take three, which I thought was cool. They plan to shoot it eight times, but they were filming this right when COVID was hitting in, like March 2020. And then they were like, We, I don't think we're going to get eight takes this. We got we got to do this in four and they use take three hits and it's great. It just works. And I love that it's not flashy. It doesn't call attention to itself. So there's a nice kind of really deep cut indie that I encourage people to check out. We, of course, encourage people to check out all the other movies we've mentioned. If you like something a lot from 2021 that we didn't talk about, let us know on Twitter at W AIW Underscore podcast. But as always, thanks for listening and happy watching. Oh, yeah. Hey, everyone, thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex Withrow dot com. Nicholas Dostal dot com is where you can find all of Nic's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching? Podcast at gmail.com. And we'll answer those on the show or find us on Twitter at WFYI W Underscore Podcast. Sadly, it's been eight years since we lost Philip Seymour Hoffman, and next time we're doing a big episode to talk about all of his film work. Stay tuned.