Biosphere

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[00:02:34] We know that things happen, that we cannot explain.

[00:02:42] Do you want fast? We want slow, what are we feeling?

[00:02:47] You pick.

[00:02:49] In the not too distant future, the last two men on Earth must adapt and

[00:02:58] evolve to save humanity. That is the extremely brief synopsis that I am given on

[00:03:05] IMDB. It lets us know that this is written and directed by Mel Ezzlin, who also helped

[00:03:12] write or maybe she just produced the one I love, the one I love, which we discussed on the

[00:03:17] show a while back. That film also starred Mark II-plus, who is in biosphere.

[00:03:26] Also, as Alan mentioned in the introduction, Sterling K. Brown plays a character called

[00:03:32] Ray, Mark II-plus plays Billy.

[00:03:35] It is the two of these guys, that's it because it is the most famous cast list.

[00:03:42] Yeah, very short credits.

[00:03:43] Relatively speaking.

[00:03:44] Yeah.

[00:03:45] So what did you make of this film, Alan?

[00:03:50] Also, did you feel like you could tell it had some DNA shared with the one I love as

[00:03:57] far as kind of like using a science conceit but then kind of toying with things?

[00:04:02] Oh yeah.

[00:04:03] So, and did you feel like Mark II-plus also shares a writing credit.

[00:04:06] So, co-writers on this with Mel Ezzlin, director Mel Ezzlin, which this is her first feature as well.

[00:04:13] So, some interesting things in it there.

[00:04:15] Do you feel like it has the fingerprints of the DuPlaus production machine?

[00:04:20] Oh, absolutely. I mean, really you could have told me that the DuPlaus brothers directed this and I probably

[00:04:25] would have bought it.

[00:04:26] You know, there are films for those not as familiar with them.

[00:04:29] It's been a lot of time dealing with unique relationships between people.

[00:04:36] People faced with challenges in a relationship, shifting dynamics in a relationship.

[00:04:42] And their films are typically very dialogue heavy.

[00:04:45] I mean, they're not visual filmmakers.

[00:04:47] They are very much about the words and the interactions between key leads.

[00:04:54] And relatively short cast list too, I think it's been kind of something I've seen in a lot of their films.

[00:04:59] The one I love you mentioned earlier that Mark II-plus was in, not made by the DuPlaus brothers, right?

[00:05:05] Or was it?

[00:05:06] No.

[00:05:07] Yeah, so it's directed by somebody else.

[00:05:09] They hand in hand and production on that as well.

[00:05:12] That you're right, that was a very, very similar stuff film where we mainly were following two people in that movie.

[00:05:19] In this film, biosphere, we are truly just following two people.

[00:05:24] It is a sci-fi conceit around the film, although I would argue to say it's not the sci-fi conceit that you may be imagining, right?

[00:05:34] Because again, the premise of the film is it starts as you said.

[00:05:38] It's two men living in a biosphere, a sense of it.

[00:05:43] Out of necessity.

[00:05:45] If something you learn over the course of the film may be why, even though to some degree...

[00:05:51] Backstories are hinted at that you never ever...

[00:05:53] It had never explicitly given, which I admired.

[00:05:56] I actually liked that.

[00:05:57] I liked it being a little more mysterious.

[00:05:59] Sure.

[00:06:00] I like a lot of exposition to kind of sit there and roll it out and tell us exactly what happened.

[00:06:05] They gave us enough to make it interesting, but the actual conceit of the film is actually shifts into something very different.

[00:06:12] Still a quote, sci-fi fictiony kind of conceit, but a little different than I think what you may expect when you're getting into the film.

[00:06:21] I will say...

[00:06:23] Like I enjoyed this film.

[00:06:25] I thought it was fun.

[00:06:28] I thought it was interesting.

[00:06:30] I thought it prompted discussions with me and other people afterwards, even though I watched it by myself.

[00:06:38] I know, but I gave a two-minute synopsis of the film to somebody else close to,

[00:06:43] and just we talked about the concept of it.

[00:06:45] I don't think this is a film that a lot of people will enjoy because it is very...

[00:06:52] It's small, it's intimate.

[00:06:57] It relies on you really buying the relationship of these two characters,

[00:07:01] and then when it does go through a change, it's going to be uncomfortable for some people.

[00:07:07] I personally liked it because I liked the bigger questions the film is asking.

[00:07:11] Yeah, true.

[00:07:12] But it still made it uncomfortable.

[00:07:14] It was still...

[00:07:15] I watched it with my wife, and it was really bizarre to be doing that.

[00:07:20] I'm sure it was.

[00:07:21] So I did like this.

[00:07:23] I think mainly because I liked Sterling K. Brown.

[00:07:25] I think he's really good here.

[00:07:27] Mark DuPlaas is playing a Mark DuPlaas character.

[00:07:30] He's very similar, but he's still enjoyable, and I think fun to watch.

[00:07:33] And I liked the questions it raised.

[00:07:36] There's not a lot of much else beyond that.

[00:07:39] It just gives you a relationship between these two men.

[00:07:44] It gives you a situation they're found in that it doesn't feel the need to go into a lot of detail on why and how.

[00:07:50] And then it changes that dynamic of the relationship for them,

[00:07:55] and you're left to see where that transpires in it.

[00:08:00] It's a simple film in a way, but yet just enough thought provoking to make it stick with you afterwards

[00:08:08] and give some conversation.

[00:08:09] Chris, that's kind of my take on it.

[00:08:11] I'd like to hear your take on biosphere.

[00:08:14] Did you feel the same way or do you feel differently?

[00:08:16] Well, I'll tell you.

[00:08:19] The basically, well, go ahead.

[00:08:22] We're not going to spoil anything, but we'll go ahead and say that what ends up happening?

[00:08:25] We'll kind of get into that because I kind of can't.

[00:08:28] I think we can.

[00:08:29] That leads me into how I feel.

[00:08:30] I don't consider this spoiler because it does happen about a quarter or a third of the way through the film.

[00:08:34] You kind of learn where this film is going.

[00:08:36] Sure.

[00:08:37] Yes, they are trapped in here.

[00:08:39] One of the first things they run up against is they notice that their fish,

[00:08:44] they've kind of been relying on for food or dying off.

[00:08:48] And such that I believe the last female has died.

[00:08:52] Yes, they're down to the last female and then it is on the verge of dying.

[00:08:57] Okay.

[00:08:58] And then something happens to the fish.

[00:09:01] Well, something happens to a male fish, one of the remaining male fish.

[00:09:05] Right, right.

[00:09:06] So the female is dead and so then they have two male fish and they're like, okay,

[00:09:09] and they see, you know, they're in lock in this biosphere.

[00:09:11] They're able to raise vegetables, but I guess as far as meat and so they're like, okay,

[00:09:16] this is bad.

[00:09:18] So one of the male fishes then kind of evolves to where it is now a female fish.

[00:09:25] And then they have eggs in the little aquarium thing.

[00:09:27] Yeah, the fish basically evolves, changes this gender, sexual organs and so forth to be

[00:09:33] able to have create life now.

[00:09:36] Right.

[00:09:37] So that's kind of the first thing that happens and then the thing that kind of sets up

[00:09:41] the then big point of the film is that happens to one of the two guys in the biosphere.

[00:09:50] It happens to, I keep, I get their character names mixed up.

[00:09:54] It happens to Mark II plus his character Billy.

[00:09:57] It happens to him and so then that changes the dynamic between him and Ray

[00:10:01] because from what little background we have, they apparently have known each other

[00:10:07] their entire well, maybe not entire lives but at least from like five or six years old

[00:10:12] all the way up until a car.

[00:10:13] For a good long time.

[00:10:14] They've been friends or they grew up together to some degree.

[00:10:17] Yeah.

[00:10:18] They worked together as well, apparently they're getting.

[00:10:25] And that was one of the things that kind of frustrated me about the film.

[00:10:28] You know, DuPlas movies like you talk about often have, I mean he's the one that's kind of

[00:10:34] somewhat credited with coming up with the whole mumble core movement where they kind of just ramble

[00:10:38] and go all over the place and it doesn't, it provides dialogue for the film but not necessarily

[00:10:45] narrative framework.

[00:10:46] It's just kind of all over the place.

[00:10:49] And with this one I have to say the ending which won't spoil,

[00:10:54] the ending saved this entire film for me, like really saved it because I was kind of frustrated

[00:11:03] when they revealed like old Mark DuPlas has now as female organs.

[00:11:08] What's that going to mean for the future of humanity?

[00:11:10] What's that going to mean for these two people stuck in a biosphere and the conversations

[00:11:15] they have about gender and about other things?

[00:11:17] Okay, but at some point I just kind of felt like they were,

[00:11:22] I felt like they, you know it could have been more of like a short film I guess than an hour and 45 minute feature film.

[00:11:28] I will say though, like I said the ending saved it but before we got there some of the dialogue conversations

[00:11:35] I felt to be of a higher quality maybe almost like kind of like you think of like a

[00:11:44] Tarantino conversation and pulp fiction at the diner or between

[00:11:48] John Travolta and Samuel K. Jackson, like the conversations they have there were

[00:11:53] that were like they furthered the character but they were also making pop culture references

[00:11:57] or very interesting.

[00:11:59] This film starts off with them talking about Mario and Luigi, the Mario Brothers characters.

[00:12:05] And you know you could just think it's a throw-off but then later on it comes back

[00:12:11] and the fact that it comes back and it makes you, there was more there than just kind of like a throw-off clever conversation.

[00:12:19] So I appreciated that.

[00:12:21] There was some talking about what classifies as a B-treating which I thought was funny.

[00:12:26] And then the kind of icing on the cake that has a payoff is there's a birthday magic show story.

[00:12:35] And it's alluded to and then it's told at one point by Sterling K. Brown

[00:12:40] and then retold at the end of the film by Mark II-Plaus, kind of his spin I guess we could say on the birthday story.

[00:12:50] And that is what kind of I was like at the end I was like okay.

[00:12:55] And then kind of once the cut to black happens the discussion that happened afterwards

[00:13:00] between my wife and I like okay what do we think that means?

[00:13:04] Why do we think this happened?

[00:13:06] I don't know it got really interesting so yeah if you go into this film thinking it's going to be science fiction,

[00:13:12] I guess like you typically think.

[00:13:14] And there's in the trailer they kind of allude to there's a green light that is unexplainable

[00:13:20] that's outside the bio-done that seems to grow larger and seven you don't really know.

[00:13:25] And if you're looking for more of that type of aliens and kind of sci-fi,

[00:13:30] you're going to be more disappointed.

[00:13:32] Yeah it's not interested in that.

[00:13:34] The science fiction element is just a framework, a place for them to have,

[00:13:39] for them to be confined and to have to deal with evolution

[00:13:44] and survival of species and that's the science fiction route actually ends up going down.

[00:13:51] Not the round of biosphere for whatever reason.

[00:13:54] They never really explain it's because the earth got torched.

[00:13:58] I mean if they allude to the fact that Billy at one point was president of the United States

[00:14:02] and did something that doomed the whole world.

[00:14:05] Yes, I mean Ray, Sterling K. Brown, he was an advisor.

[00:14:09] Yeah.

[00:14:10] And yeah he kind of did something that wasn't smart.

[00:14:14] Right.

[00:14:15] Yeah, I mean it was just so it does pose some interesting questions.

[00:14:20] I mean these two being the two that are left of civilization if that's kind of really what the deal was,

[00:14:26] it's just the two of them left.

[00:14:28] If they were both kind of complicit and whatever calls this to happen but now they are the only two left remaining

[00:14:34] Right.

[00:14:35] The opportunity to possibly restart society or not.

[00:14:40] I mean there's just, it gets us some bigger questions than just there's a green light in the sky.

[00:14:45] We don't know what that is because that is something that kind of pushes them forward

[00:14:49] in dealing with things from a timing perspective but ultimately it's not important to the film.

[00:14:53] Did you find like I mentioned I had a little bit of frustration

[00:14:57] and not necessarily getting bored but kind of getting getting frustrated.

[00:15:00] It has a very three act play feeling because it is a limited setting.

[00:15:06] There's very little action and it's very dialogue heavy and you only have two characters.

[00:15:12] I don't know the production time of this film but I feel like it could very easily have been a COVID film

[00:15:18] because it is one location only two actors probably maybe a smaller crew because it is an independent film.

[00:15:25] So I wondered did you or was it were you invested in enough that you never found anything?

[00:15:31] No, no, I was engaged the whole way through.

[00:15:34] I thought it kept it just interesting enough all the way through.

[00:15:37] I think the fact that you never spelled out exactly what led into this situation

[00:15:43] is never like completely laid out what their past relationships been as explicitly.

[00:15:47] I think that actually worked for me and the fact that I found myself paying attention to every conversation they're having

[00:15:53] because I'm trying to, I want to understand the dynamics of why they're here.

[00:15:57] Right.

[00:15:58] But the film's not interested in that as much all it needs you to know is these guys or friends

[00:16:03] they kind of work together. They might have done something that actually impacted the rest of the world

[00:16:08] and now they're two, the two of them are left here to fin for themselves and to figure out what their role in life is going to be.

[00:16:15] That's it.

[00:16:16] I like the fact that it never laid out anything for us.

[00:16:19] We never got a backstory.

[00:16:21] We never got the big monologue where somebody's explaining exactly what happened.

[00:16:26] No, no, that's good.

[00:16:27] I didn't need that and actually it kept my interest the fact that I didn't get that.

[00:16:31] I found myself much, much more engaged with their conversations in general.

[00:16:35] I think Mark T. Bloss, I like him.

[00:16:38] I've seen a lot of his other films.

[00:16:40] I guess like you said, I'd seen Sterling K. Brown before and I saw him in that movie from last year,

[00:16:46] honk if you love Jesus.

[00:16:47] Which he was good at played like a preacher, a really like outsized ego, big preacher guy.

[00:16:55] And this he was good and I think but what the moments where he got to be angry,

[00:17:02] I don't think I'd ever want Sterling K. Brown mad at me because when he is mad he has can be very, very intense.

[00:17:11] And that's something that I'm not used to in a duplocid.

[00:17:14] You like you explained a lot of the films are about relationships and something will shift

[00:17:19] and then how do they recover from that.

[00:17:21] And yes, so this is very much in that template but some of the conflicts they feel because they're two men,

[00:17:28] they've had this certain relationship and then things shift.

[00:17:31] And Sterling K. Brown kind of reacting manned.

[00:17:34] Well, when he reacts and I thought that was the most powerful part of the film

[00:17:39] where he reacts to a situation that's posed to him.

[00:17:42] But he's reacting in a very different way than how you've seen him up to this film.

[00:17:47] And then they discuss that he reacted.

[00:17:50] And I'm like, okay, that's really good because again, it's opening up some other doors.

[00:17:57] It's opening up some other dialogue.

[00:17:59] It's opening up some, you know, it's a little bit of a commentary on how kind of the nurture versus nature he's real,

[00:18:06] he reacted in a way that his, how he was raised and how he was grew up kind of came to the forefront where

[00:18:15] he had never been like that before.

[00:18:18] Never felt like he'd been like that before.

[00:18:20] But he was posed as such a situation that's so outside of what his comfort level would be

[00:18:26] and especially from his family's comfort level that he kind of exploded.

[00:18:30] And I think it was just, it was fascinating.

[00:18:32] I think it was a really interesting moment in seeing there.

[00:18:35] And they deal with, they do make, they deal with gender norms and then they deal with kind of religious backgrounds, family backgrounds.

[00:18:46] Things like, I mean, they kind of mentioned too, a little bit of politics because like the guy was president.

[00:18:51] And then if you kind of, from what you can pull from these people, they've had been friends but Mark II plus was, I guess Republican and Sterling K. Brown was Democrat.

[00:19:00] And he was in, I guess maybe his cabinet or something like that.

[00:19:04] So kind of like they kind of touch on all these different things about how different, different people working together that may not necessarily believe everything.

[00:19:14] Oh no, it was just very, I don't know.

[00:19:16] Well there was even a little bit of a sense of Sterling K. Brown's character of Ray.

[00:19:21] Kind of insinuating that he could have stopped Billy from doing whatever Billy did that calls the world to have such the problem it had.

[00:19:31] But he didn't and there may have been some politics involved in that. There may have been some, yeah, it got interesting.

[00:19:38] And again, I love the fact that it's not all spelled out.

[00:19:40] You kind of have to start puzzle piecing some things together but that's what keeps it an engaging film for me.

[00:19:47] Yeah. And then tying it all together at the end with the magic trick story.

[00:19:53] Yes. And the kind of the end beat we get at the end of the film. Yeah, it's, it's good.

[00:19:58] I'm very happy it didn't, I'm very happy it didn't try to just like a cow towel to what probably audience expectations were about where the film is going to go or how the film was going to end or not that.

[00:20:11] I like the way it didn't give any of that is like, nope, we're just going to this is all you need to know right here at the very end.

[00:20:16] That's all the story we need to tell you.

[00:20:18] That's it. And ended was it a completely satisfying ending? No, if you're looking for a narrative, a true narrative thing.

[00:20:26] No, it's not satisfying. It was satisfying for me because that's all I needed to hear at the end and I was happy with it.

[00:20:33] So would you say you found the ending hopeful at all?

[00:20:38] Yeah. I guess I did. Yeah, a little bit.

[00:20:44] Okay. Yes. I'm going to go on record with the S. I found the ending more hopeful than not hopeful.

[00:20:52] See, the interesting thing is I kind of, I kind of didn't know what to make of the ending for a little bit and then I had to kind of sit with it.

[00:21:01] And my wife and I actually went back in the film and replayed certain moments to kind of now that we knew where the film ended up.

[00:21:08] We're like, okay, let's listen to these guys talk again.

[00:21:11] Yeah. And we didn't were like, okay, see that is a sign of an effective film if you find yourself even if you're watching going back and trying to review parts of it to better comprehend it.

[00:21:22] That's fine, but you're still invested enough to want to go back and see it.

[00:21:26] Yeah, there's parts of this film. I'd actually, again, this is not a cinematic masterpiece.

[00:21:31] There's nothing visually interesting. There's nothing.

[00:21:34] I mean, I mean, I can't even really credit. I mean, cinematography is fine. It's just a very standard.

[00:21:41] It's just standard. You have a very limited space to work in. It is all about the dialogue.

[00:21:46] It's all about the communication between the two.

[00:21:48] And it looks very much like the inside of the vise which we never see the outside of the vise here.

[00:21:52] You are literally inside, trapped inside just like they are.

[00:21:55] I mean, you have like what three or four rooms to kind of explore within and that's it.

[00:21:59] It's open air too.

[00:22:01] It is one big room but yet it is kind of sectioned off a little bit.

[00:22:05] Yeah.

[00:22:06] But yeah, I think, and that to me it bothered me a little bit but I got over it.

[00:22:11] I could just tell because you never see the outside. You never say it's like, yeah, this is so much a set.

[00:22:16] To me, it's like, yeah.

[00:22:18] But that's not what was important to the film.

[00:22:21] I liked it quite a bit.

[00:22:25] I like any film that caused you to have a dialogue afterwards.

[00:22:30] Sure.

[00:22:31] For better or for worse, for good or for bad, I still think that's a sign of an interesting film.

[00:22:36] And this had just enough going on with it to really keep my attention the whole time, keep me engaged.

[00:22:43] I like these two characters. I wanted to know more about them but I was happy I didn't get more so it was all good.

[00:22:49] I'm all good with it.

[00:22:50] When I think about it, I don't really have any complaints.

[00:22:52] That's good. See about it.

[00:22:53] Yeah.

[00:22:54] I don't have a complaint.

[00:22:55] I would say I guess a minor frustration was that I was, I felt like they were kind of circling around for a little bit and going for some of that not shocked out you.

[00:23:02] But just kind of the, oh, you know, the fact that he's a different gender now.

[00:23:07] Oh, okay. And like wanting you to really like rest with that.

[00:23:11] Like, okay. And like you know, I wonder to be more, I was just like, okay, but then like it worked.

[00:23:18] And I think what made it in-depth working like I said was kind of the end.

[00:23:21] I will say, I think this is a film that I see like an INDB. It has a 5.5 out of 10.

[00:23:28] And I feel like it's a film that not many, probably many people haven't seen.

[00:23:32] It didn't get like a theatrical release.

[00:23:34] But I feel like it has people that are really, really going to like it and then some people that really, really hate it.

[00:23:40] Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I like I said, I do not.

[00:23:43] I do not think this film is fair by you mentioned that I am D.B. rating fair enough.

[00:23:48] I will also call Shriver to Rotten Tomatoes.

[00:23:51] Okay. You want to use a tomato meter?

[00:23:52] The critics tomato meter is 79%, which is considered quote fresh.

[00:23:56] Fresh.

[00:23:57] So more people are getting it than not on critical side.

[00:24:02] Sure. Now audience is actually 72%.

[00:24:04] Well, you know, I'm kind of surprised by that.

[00:24:07] That might be a little lower on the audience side.

[00:24:09] But I do think the people who are seeking this film out, it's not general audiences yet.

[00:24:14] These are people that either know the actors, they know the filmmakers or they're into this type of film in general.

[00:24:22] And if you've been sold like, oh, it's an Indy sci-fi movie and you go and I think you're going to be, you know, you're going to be disappointed.

[00:24:30] There's something in one of the critics. I mean again, we don't need to bring up other critics on this show.

[00:24:35] We both are saying, yes. I like it quite a bit.

[00:24:38] I think it's worth checking out.

[00:24:39] You know, top critic from Mashable says it's the best 2023 movie you might just overlook.

[00:24:46] There are people who are on to it and then there's a, yeah, I'm reading if you were not.

[00:24:51] So I liked it. Look, it's, you know, couldn't have worked as a short film.

[00:24:58] Maybe, although I think you would have really short-changed getting to know these two characters as well as you did in a short film.

[00:25:04] You would have had to, yeah.

[00:25:05] You could have explored the premise. You could have explored the plot machinations in a short film.

[00:25:11] But I don't think you would have gotten quite that level of relationship that you needed to have between these two

[00:25:17] to make the ending and the whole last half work better.

[00:25:20] Well, I guess what I'm feeling like it could have been a tighter, you know, one of the comments I'll, you know, run time.

[00:25:25] I feel like it could have been 80 minutes.

[00:25:27] I do think it could have been shorter. I agree with you on that.

[00:25:30] I think it could have been, but that's maybe the only feedback I've got for you.

[00:25:35] Sure. I mean, I think it just seems so.

[00:25:37] It's not going to change the world. It's not going to make $100 million.

[00:25:41] It is just a good fun film to call you to talk and call you to think.

[00:25:48] It did that for me right away after a pun of first viewing.

[00:25:52] It did for me, especially like it just nailed the ending.

[00:25:56] Yeah. It's good.

[00:25:57] So yeah, so are we saying since I was the one who brought this film up as a suggestion.

[00:26:02] I would like to take credit for the fact that you know Alan Kay Jackson was the one who said, hey,

[00:26:06] we should we should bring we should review this film.

[00:26:09] I knew nothing about it. Let's just check it out.

[00:26:11] Yeah, I did and I'm pretty happy. I did because I was pretty pleased with it.

[00:26:14] So good. That is biosphere.

[00:26:17] That is currently available on Apple TV for rental.

[00:26:21] It's available on Amazon.

[00:26:23] Anywhere you can rent films is not available for subscription streaming yet anywhere.

[00:26:29] But right now you can certainly rent it or buy it on any of those.

[00:26:33] Those typical video services where you do get your movies.

[00:26:37] So all right, Chris, let's take a very, very short break when we come back.

[00:26:41] We're going to do recommendations.

[00:26:43] Chris and I both bring up a film.

[00:26:45] We think it's worth checking out giving a recommendation of something we caught up with recently.

[00:26:49] So stay tuned. We'll be right back with foot candle films in just a moment.

[00:26:53] This podcast is sponsored by Jackson Creative, a custom communication agency located in downtown Hickory, North Carolina,

[00:27:01] specializing in online content creation to learn more.

[00:27:06] Visit the Jackson creative dot com Jackson creative.

[00:27:10] We tell your story.

[00:27:12] Welcome back to foot candle films here on the mesh dot TV podcast network.

[00:27:17] Chris and I finished our review of biosphere in the first half of this episode, which we both like.

[00:27:25] There were questions posed.

[00:27:27] Chris maybe one day in our archives will release our like off camera conversation that we just had during the break.

[00:27:35] But that probably gives away too much of the details so we're going to hold off on that.

[00:27:39] So if anybody does have some comments or thoughts about the film biosphere, we'll give you an opportunity at the end of the episode of how you can reach out to us and discuss it with us.

[00:27:49] Because we'd love to hear some feedback from other people who might catch up with this film as well.

[00:27:54] But first Chris before we tell people how to contact us, let's go ahead and give them something else to chew on.

[00:27:58] And that is our recommendations.

[00:28:00] Chris and I get together every about every few episodes and try to bring a recommendation to the table, a film.

[00:28:08] The only stipulation is it has to be a film that you can actually watch online.

[00:28:11] So it's not one requiring you to go to the movie theaters, not one requiring you to go track down on a VHS copy of this film.

[00:28:19] This is something you could actually rent or queue up or stream online.

[00:28:23] That could be a new film could be an older film, something we just recently caught up with whatever it may be.

[00:28:29] Chris would you like to go first with your recommendation of this episode?

[00:28:32] Sure.

[00:28:33] So I'm going to recommend a documentary from 2022 that I actually did not catch up with recently.

[00:28:40] I actually saw it in 2022.

[00:28:42] I thought it was really good, but then all these other movies came along and I forgot about it.

[00:28:47] But what it is is the documentary Nothing compares and it's about a Shadado Connor.

[00:28:52] And she just, as you're probably aware of listening to this episode, she just recently died.

[00:28:57] And when she died, I immediately thought of this documentary because I'd watched it and learned a lot about who she was as a person, her career, what happened to her after the whole infamous tearing up the Pope photo.

[00:29:10] And it was really, the documentary was extremely well made.

[00:29:14] It's directed by Katherine Ferguson.

[00:29:16] And apparently she had been after Shadado Connor for a while.

[00:29:20] Hey, I really want to make this documentary. I'm a big fan.

[00:29:22] And she kind of was like, I'm not interested.

[00:29:25] I'm really not interested.

[00:29:27] And finally, she said, well, I feel like your story is an important one that needs to be told and I don't want anybody else telling it.

[00:29:34] And I don't want to tell it without you.

[00:29:36] And so she's like, you know what?

[00:29:38] Fine, but I'm not going to be on camera.

[00:29:41] And I don't believe there's actually a lot of new narration or stuff by Shadado Connor.

[00:29:48] I think a lot of it is taken from past interviews and basically just past interviews that she's done.

[00:29:55] I don't know if they actually got any new interviews done for the film, definitely nothing on camera.

[00:30:00] So it's really interesting because it shows like a lot of her childhood just, you know, like where she grew up

[00:30:06] and just it was, it was really fascinating.

[00:30:10] And she did live a very kind of tortured, tortured life.

[00:30:14] But what she how strong she was when the things happen with her tearing out the post picture

[00:30:19] and the aftermath and fall out from all that was really, you never remember it because I lived through it.

[00:30:23] But I didn't, you know, you don't know the kind of like behind the scenes and behind the headlines of what's going on.

[00:30:28] And how she continued to make music and didn't, you know, still had some fans and continue to put out albums afterwards.

[00:30:35] It was just really, really interesting.

[00:30:38] And the quote that I would have actually I reviewed it on letterbox because I really liked it at the time.

[00:30:43] But she said this thing that they broke my heart and they killed me but I didn't die.

[00:30:49] They tried to bury me. They didn't realize I was a seed.

[00:30:53] And that was kind of her whole thing which now in the days of, you know, the Me Too movement

[00:30:58] and also like the abuse of the Catholic church and all that stuff has come out with, you know, about how there was a lot of abuse going on.

[00:31:05] She like stood up for things way before anybody was kind of doing that kind of stuff.

[00:31:11] So unfortunately her life was cut short.

[00:31:16] She was 50 something I can't remember exactly how old she was but definitely a talent.

[00:31:21] The one new thing that they did show of her at the very end is she has a performance somewhere.

[00:31:27] And it's like I'm assuming a rather recent performance.

[00:31:30] And what was amazing to me too is she's always, I've always thought she had a really incredible voice and she still has it.

[00:31:38] Wow, that's even after all this time and everything she's still got just an incredible voice.

[00:31:43] So that's nothing compares to the documentary from 2022.

[00:31:48] I watched it on showtime but I think you can also somehow watch it on Hulu with a subscription or something.

[00:31:55] I don't know there's, and then I think you can also just rent it from VOD or whatever.

[00:32:00] But it's good.

[00:32:03] So I have nothing compares either on showtime or possibly just video on demand other services may have to look it up and see.

[00:32:11] Alright, well I'm going to continue the trend of talking about music based documentaries or documentaries about musicians.

[00:32:17] Okay.

[00:32:18] This is a documentary I know you caught up with as well.

[00:32:21] I'm going to give a recommendation too.

[00:32:25] I feel like it could have been a little stronger, a little better but I'm still liking it enough and felt like people who are interested in the subject matter will probably get a lot out of the documentary.

[00:32:35] It is WAM.

[00:32:37] It's on Netflix and Netflix original documentary.

[00:32:40] It is about the pop band WAM, George Michael and Andrew Ridgley.

[00:32:46] I'll go ahead and say out the front.

[00:32:48] I think my little bit disappointment with the film is I didn't feel like it went terribly deep.

[00:32:56] Only because I think it was also had produced in a lot of input from Andrew Ridgley who is still obviously with us alive.

[00:33:05] It was a fairly positive influence on the band in general.

[00:33:09] So the film was definitely very positive about the band.

[00:33:17] I'm sure it ends with the brand basically breaking up and that's it.

[00:33:22] So we admired the fact that it didn't feel the need to go further than that because after that is when I know George Michael had some complications in his own life and some hardships and things that led to his untimely death.

[00:33:34] So the film didn't go down that route and I admired for it.

[00:33:37] The film is called WAM.

[00:33:39] It's about the band.

[00:33:40] In the band ended they broke up.

[00:33:42] That's when the film ends.

[00:33:43] And it overall was a very nostalgic positive look back on this time.

[00:33:47] What I do think the film was good with and why I'm recommending it is...

[00:33:51] I knew these two guys were friends.

[00:33:55] I didn't understand the depth of the friendship and the dynamic of the friendship.

[00:33:59] And the movie made a very good case for that of how these two guys kind of fell in to each other, you know, kind of became the friends they became.

[00:34:09] I really loved the early stuff seeing them.

[00:34:12] I mean, I never would have thought that George Michael was someone that had a really funny, like a good sense of humor and like very playful and goofy and all but they were.

[00:34:23] And that was fun being that way early in their career and that was really, it was really great to see.

[00:34:28] Andrew Ridgley is always one of the guys that you never hear anything about.

[00:34:32] You don't think about because he was never the face.

[00:34:34] He was never the voice that George Michael was but you come to find out how much of WAM was based on Andrew Ridgley and his talent, his drive, his, you know, everything else.

[00:34:47] But then you started to see that dynamic shift to George Michael and George Michael started to become very popular and famous and became known for his voice.

[00:34:57] So it was just an interesting dynamic.

[00:34:59] Could it have gone a little further, especially in that whole shifting of where the attention was going from Andrew to George?

[00:35:05] Yeah, it absolutely could have.

[00:35:07] And I was a little disappointed it didn't explore that dynamic more because I really wanted to get inside Andrew Ridgley's head.

[00:35:13] I wanted to understand how did he really feel when this band he helped formed.

[00:35:18] He helped embrace George Michael and George Michael was a young young child that was from another country and came here and didn't know anybody and Andrew became his friend and helped them grow as a person to now see the band that they formed together kind of shift all the way over to it's all George Michael.

[00:35:36] Sure.

[00:35:37] I had to have been some interesting drama there to explore but the film wasn't really that interested.

[00:35:42] I think there was like one or two passing comments about it and it was like, no, but we're all good. Everybody's happy everybody's good.

[00:35:48] I think the documentary does work though because this got tons of archival footage tons of behind the scenes footage to go with tons of interviews of people.

[00:35:57] I don't think there's any current interviews. It's all past recorded interviews, right?

[00:36:02] It works and just the whole thing stitched together. And you got to love Andrew Ridgley's mom's scrapbooks.

[00:36:07] Absolutely.

[00:36:08] She is the her scrapbooks she and the scrapbooks are like the stars she's never on camera, but they have all these scrapbooks that she kept of every single thing that went like was

[00:36:19] published about where all these photos and all this stuff. And it was really amazing so that kind of helped I agree, it kind of made it visually interesting

[00:36:28] because you have all these scrapbooks that the mom has put together.

[00:36:31] Yeah.

[00:36:32] It was a well-made documentary.

[00:36:34] I will say the director, Kate's you're not aware Chris Smith.

[00:36:38] A lot of documentaries this guy's done recently.

[00:36:42] He did the fire documentary about the fire festival. He did American movie back in 1999 as his first film.

[00:36:50] Jim and Andy the great beyond about early life.

[00:36:53] And he Kaufman.

[00:36:55] More recently he did Bad Vegan which was a series on I think on Netflix that kind of people were fans of the Branson TV series,

[00:37:05] about George Branson, a little mini documentary series.

[00:37:08] So yeah, this guy is all over kind of pop culture documentaries right now and doesn't good job with him.

[00:37:14] I am the ones I've seen. I've liked all of his works so that is why I'm it is on Netflix, part of your Netflix subscription if you are a subscriber.

[00:37:23] And I'm giving a recommendation look it's a music a music based group documentary.

[00:37:29] That's going to get my recommendation just about anytime I watch one Chris.

[00:37:32] It has pretty bad for me not to recommend a music based documentary but luckily for us we recommended two of them this week.

[00:37:41] There you go.

[00:37:42] Very nice.

[00:37:43] Yeah.

[00:37:44] So that is our recommendations for this episode Chris with nothing compares mine with WAM and both available online for viewing at anytime you wish or desire.

[00:37:55] So one added thing that I can't help but mention because I just remembered it's one reason.

[00:38:00] But you know the film is just called nothing compares so notice it's not called nothing compares to you.

[00:38:07] There's this whole thing and they mentioned the film how they couldn't get rights to use that song in the film at all which was a pretty big song in her career.

[00:38:17] But it was originally written by Prince and that all the state of his was very controlling and everything.

[00:38:25] And they wouldn't they wouldn't give credit to use it or really allowed to be using the film now.

[00:38:31] They couldn't even you of course they couldn't they showed out takes from the video shoot which was also a very famous video that made it so.

[00:38:39] Yeah, and they could show out takes but they couldn't use the videos really really fascinating.

[00:38:44] That's something that in the case is she struggled against like the church and against the music industry but then just the politics within my corporations of so again kind of kind of fascinating.

[00:38:55] So yeah, I just wanted to mention so it's nothing compares to you.

[00:38:58] Just nothing compares.

[00:39:00] So as you're typing in the name in your search bar don't feel any to add the to you at the end just stop it nothing compares and you'll find it.

[00:39:08] Alright, so that was our episode our review of biosphere and our recommendations of nothing compares and when.

[00:39:17] So Chris if anybody's got some feedback thoughts questions comments about anything we talked about what should they do you can send an email to info at foot candle dot org and tell us why biosphere is the single greatest new

[00:39:31] the ever made or why bio done with polyshore was much better you can that's true we didn't even bring up the comparisons and we did not basically because I've never seen bio

[00:39:41] them. You can follow us on Twitter or I guess it's called X now we're at foot candle film Facebook for candle films society we are on Instagram and threads just simply

[00:39:52] foot candle film Alan and I are also on letterbox where we try to track what we're seeing leaf quicker views sometimes do us a favor.

[00:40:00] I give us a star rating writer review share with friends or whatever service you listen to your favorite podcasts on it will help us reach new

[00:40:07] listeners we depreciate it last but not least the 2020 23 foot candle film festival coming up it's going to be September 15 through the 24th the run down the schedule of the

[00:40:19] festivals up on our website not foot candle dot org but foot candle film festival dot coms where you go for that information tells you all the different films we're showing gives you little synopsies you can buy tickets all that good stuff like I mentioned September 15 to

[00:40:34] the 24th Western North Carolina specifically in hickory North Carolina we'd love to have you come out and see some independent film.

[00:40:42] That's right we will look forward hopefully seeing some of you out there will be a good time as always this our ninth year yes with the film festival all right all that

[00:40:52] rep it up for today thanks everybody for listening and we will look forward to talking to you next week with new episode of foot candle films take care see in the ticket.

[00:41:12] We won't let anyone know where you are the bills that don't make it to call my cat the wall for ones that were famous when ground for watch films out of the reverence of the heritage of an art

[00:41:31] and watch the news and see you for kids.

[00:41:38] No film society special thanks to carpal taller for the show theme music for more about carpal taller visit www dot carpal taller dot com

[00:41:52] you've been listening to the mesh and online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts sports to entertainment music to community all

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