Piece by Piece

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it.

[00:00:06] This is The MESH.

[00:00:10] Footcandle Films. Film news and reviews from two guys who really like movies.

[00:00:17] This episode is brought to you by the Footcandle Film Society.

[00:00:21] For a schedule of upcoming screenings and membership information,

[00:00:25] visit the Society's website at www.footcandle.org.

[00:00:35] Hello, everyone, and welcome to Footcandle Films here on the MESH.TV podcast network.

[00:00:40] My name is Alan Jackson. With me, Chris Fry,

[00:00:44] we of the Footcandle Film Society and the annual Footcandle Film Festival.

[00:00:49] Chris, how's it going?

[00:00:51] It is going well. I'm interested to see what you think about today's movie.

[00:00:56] Yeah, so we are going to be reviewing a film called Piece by Piece, which is a documentary.

[00:01:03] Interesting documentary. We'll get into the description of it with the review,

[00:01:06] but just to say that Lego has a little bit of a role to play in this film.

[00:01:10] But it is a documentary of the music producer and artist Pharrell Williams,

[00:01:16] directed by Morgan Neville, a famous documentarian,

[00:01:20] made a lot of great documentaries over the years, many of them in the musical field.

[00:01:24] This one, he jumps back into that field for this one,

[00:01:27] but with a twist, as we'll discuss in our review of Piece by Piece in a moment.

[00:01:32] After the review of Piece by Piece, we're going to go into some,

[00:01:36] a little bit of movie news, mainly hinging around some new trailers that have been released for

[00:01:40] movies coming out. We'll be discussing the latest from Adrian Brody that will be exploring that film.

[00:01:47] And then I've got one that I'm excited about, but I don't believe Chris is.

[00:01:51] So we'll see what his take on the trailer I'm going to share for a new horror movie,

[00:01:57] quote, horror movie coming out, I believe later this year.

[00:02:01] All the horror movies, Chris, are just not coming out in October that we won't.

[00:02:05] And that's, that's what all the, I mean, there have been some horror films released.

[00:02:08] I think Smile 2 came out this past weekend.

[00:02:11] But ones that you and I were really excited about any kind of horror films all seem to be coming out.

[00:02:16] Like they just can't quite coordinate their schedules to make them release in October,

[00:02:21] which is because we'll got Nosferatu is coming out later this year.

[00:02:24] It's like not Christmas.

[00:02:25] Yeah. Not an October release.

[00:02:27] This one I'm going to talk about not an October release.

[00:02:30] Anyway, it's just a disappointing Hollywood.

[00:02:33] Come on, get on it.

[00:02:34] Let's time all your horror releases to come out in the month of October.

[00:02:37] We'll be very happy with that.

[00:02:40] So Chris is going to have a recommendation of a film that he thinks we ought to check out.

[00:02:44] Chris is patented recommendations coming up at the end of the episode.

[00:02:48] So you want to stay tuned for that for sure.

[00:02:50] But in the meantime, Chris, let's go ahead and start building our review of the film piece by piece.

[00:02:59] Go ahead on the set.

[00:03:01] Hey, Pharrell.

[00:03:02] Hey, how you doing, man?

[00:03:03] You know, it'd be cool as if we told my story with Lego pieces.

[00:03:08] Seriously?

[00:03:09] Yes.

[00:03:10] Lego.

[00:03:11] Just be open.

[00:03:13] It might seem crazy what I'm about to say.

[00:03:16] When I was a kid, I knew I was different.

[00:03:20] And people would say, oh, that's an odd child.

[00:03:23] And that crushed my spirit.

[00:03:26] I loved music.

[00:03:28] It was mesmerizing to me.

[00:03:29] I would see beautiful hues of light cascading.

[00:03:33] I just thought that's what all black kids did.

[00:03:36] I stared into the speaker like, whoa.

[00:03:39] She's a fun night to the sun.

[00:03:41] Music was just coming.

[00:03:42] Director Morgan Neville is perhaps best known for his 2013 Oscar-winning music documentary,

[00:03:47] 20 Feet from Stardom, which told the stories of backup singers who often go unnoticed.

[00:03:52] His other recent documentaries include Won't You Be My Neighbor about children's television legend Fred Rogers,

[00:03:58] Roadrunner about celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and Steve! Martin.

[00:04:03] The Seas Martin, a documentary in two pieces.

[00:04:06] We talked about the trailer for today's film, Piece by Piece, on a recent episode,

[00:04:11] and mentioned that it had us intrigued to see how a documentary about the musician Pharrell told through Lego would work.

[00:04:18] Fresh from a screening last night, Alan, what did you think?

[00:04:23] Okay.

[00:04:24] So I want to just first off applaud the filmmakers and Pharrell Williams,

[00:04:30] because I got the impression this was kind of Pharrell Williams, a little bit of his idea too,

[00:04:34] or at least if we're to believe what we're hearing in the movie.

[00:04:37] And I don't think they would have made that up.

[00:04:39] I think that sounded like something very much in his spirit that he would want to do.

[00:04:42] Yes.

[00:04:43] So I'm applauding Pharrell Williams, and I'm applauding the filmmakers for taking the musical documentary,

[00:04:50] the musical biography documentary,

[00:04:52] and turning it on his head a little bit and giving us something very different and visually interesting to look at.

[00:04:59] I do think it was a fun movie to watch.

[00:05:04] Did it work as a documentary for me?

[00:05:07] Not really.

[00:05:08] And I've got some reasons for this.

[00:05:11] But I will say it made up for what I thought it was lacking in terms of a good documentary

[00:05:17] and a good story to tell about somebody that I generally was kind of curious about and interested in learning more about.

[00:05:25] It made up for that in visual flourish and style and presence.

[00:05:30] So it was definitely entertaining to watch.

[00:05:33] But if I measured up as a documentary,

[00:05:38] and this is nothing against Pharrell Williams.

[00:05:40] I think he's immensely talented and a very, very gifted performer and musician.

[00:05:45] I don't know if he warranted a full-length documentary.

[00:05:49] I just don't think there was a lot of meat on the bones for a story about him.

[00:05:54] It was a pretty by-the-numbers.

[00:05:57] He grows up.

[00:05:58] He gets interested in music.

[00:06:00] He's encouraged to get into music by a family member.

[00:06:03] And he becomes successful.

[00:06:06] And then he becomes more successful.

[00:06:08] Then he maybe steps back a little bit and not as successful.

[00:06:10] And then he becomes more successful again.

[00:06:12] And it's like, okay, I get it.

[00:06:14] And I don't feel like there was a lot of stakes.

[00:06:17] There wasn't a lot of drama.

[00:06:18] There wasn't a lot of anything that you would typically want to craft a full documentary out of.

[00:06:23] This movie didn't seem that interested in exploring.

[00:06:26] I even felt like the one moment where it tried to give some sense of drama

[00:06:30] having to do with a family member that was very instrumental in him getting into music

[00:06:35] felt very forced and almost like, well, we have to have some drama in here.

[00:06:39] So let's drop this in just to have a moment of that typical music biopic or biography drama

[00:06:46] and behind the music type of thing.

[00:06:49] And it just didn't work for me.

[00:06:50] So I thought it was fun.

[00:06:52] I thought it was very, very exciting to watch.

[00:06:56] I just wish it was a better documentary about a really talented performer that I was generally

[00:07:02] interested in.

[00:07:03] So, all right.

[00:07:04] So that's my take on it.

[00:07:06] Overall, positive.

[00:07:07] But I just, I wish it was a better documentary.

[00:07:11] It was a much better visual experience for me than anything.

[00:07:15] So, Chris, what's your take on piece by piece?

[00:07:18] So, okay.

[00:07:20] I've got a couple of different thoughts, but I'll start off with just kind of a general overall.

[00:07:25] I am a fan of Neville's work.

[00:07:27] I mentioned the different films in the intro and the most recent thing that he did right

[00:07:32] before this was that Steve Martin documentary in two pieces, which I recommended on a recent

[00:07:37] show.

[00:07:38] So obviously I'm a fan and I've seen the other, most of his other stuff and I like it.

[00:07:44] When we talked about the trailer, I was like, yeah, Pharrell Williams, I know who he is.

[00:07:48] I know the only thing I really know that song that he's done is Happy, which I'm over familiar

[00:07:54] with.

[00:07:55] I think most of the entire world is, which they mentioned that in the movie.

[00:07:59] But outside of that, I don't, nothing against Mr. Williams, but his particular genre, like

[00:08:04] pop genre music, I'm not that interested in.

[00:08:06] So were it not for Morgan Neville's involvement, specifically the whole Lego angle, I probably

[00:08:13] would not have recommended that you and I go see it or talk about on the show because

[00:08:16] it wouldn't have really held my interest and I wouldn't probably have had that much to

[00:08:20] say.

[00:08:22] But like you, that being said, what kept me engaged in the film as much as I was, was the

[00:08:29] fact that it was done a Lego wise and something that, and this is, this is all on me, but I

[00:08:35] guess because it was PG and just the commercials and the trailers for it.

[00:08:42] I knew it was a documentary, but I guess in my head, somehow I did a switch where I was

[00:08:48] thinking it was actually going to be kind of a biopic instead of a true documentary.

[00:08:54] And what I mean by that, obviously, is when we talk about Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash

[00:08:59] biopic or Rocket Man or, you know, Bohemian Rhapsody, those are in a sense somewhat biopics

[00:09:05] because they talk about an individual and they have that story arc that you talk about.

[00:09:09] I knew Morgan Neville was the director, but something because it was going to be in the

[00:09:13] Lego world, I thought, yeah, there would be kind of like bookends or whatever framing it.

[00:09:19] But in general, once the movie kind of got going, we would switch to the Legos doing all the

[00:09:24] talking and there wouldn't be any voiceover.

[00:09:26] Right.

[00:09:28] But like you say, that is, that is not what we get.

[00:09:31] Like I am seemingly now, I don't know if this is the case, but because of the audio quality

[00:09:38] on some of the interviews, I think this was the case.

[00:09:41] They basically, I'm thinking they shot a bunch of interviews.

[00:09:45] I agree.

[00:09:45] And then instead of like rotoscoping, like, um, what's his name?

[00:09:49] What's the director?

[00:09:50] Linklater.

[00:09:51] Like Linklater has done with some stuff instead of rotoscoping.

[00:09:54] They Lego did.

[00:09:57] Well, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but like, I, for some reason,

[00:10:01] my brain, even though I knew it was a documentary, I thought I was like, oh yeah, this is going

[00:10:05] to be a biopic done with Legos.

[00:10:06] And no, it's, it is a documentary such that you have scenes of talking heads.

[00:10:11] Yeah.

[00:10:11] And Legos.

[00:10:12] Which is awesome.

[00:10:13] I think.

[00:10:14] But it's just like, it kind of, and I don't know why it threw me because I should have

[00:10:17] known that from the trailer, but it's just, so I had a little bit of struggle with that.

[00:10:21] That I think at first, but then complimenting a little bit of what you're saying, I like

[00:10:28] the film.

[00:10:28] I do admire the ambition or the, the idea to do it this way because yes, it is radically

[00:10:34] different than any documentary I've ever seen before.

[00:10:36] Sure.

[00:10:37] But because it didn't make that switch to biopic, which I know things are going to be alighted

[00:10:44] over or smoothed over.

[00:10:45] Or sometimes rough edges are going to be, you know, polished down so that it's very

[00:10:51] glossy.

[00:10:52] And you put this person up on a pedestal when I think, okay, you're sticking with documentary,

[00:10:57] true documentary on the fact it's all Lego.

[00:10:59] Then I expect there to be some rough edges and a little bit more of like digging into things.

[00:11:05] And there wasn't that.

[00:11:07] And that frustrated me because if it's a true documentary, I expect to come away with like,

[00:11:13] Oh, this is the information.

[00:11:15] This is this information.

[00:11:16] And I expect to have like, I can be like not a walking encyclopedia, but I expect to have

[00:11:21] a little bit more in-depth knowledge than I did going in.

[00:11:24] Yeah.

[00:11:25] So here, here's the thing with, with documentaries.

[00:11:27] I think we need to understand.

[00:11:28] And Chris, I can say this because firsthand I, I, you involved to have been involved in

[00:11:35] a project where it is being initiated by the performer.

[00:11:41] Like the performer themselves wants to have a film done about them.

[00:11:46] Right.

[00:11:47] That's kind of the impression I got about this is this like, it's a little bit of a Pharrell

[00:11:51] Williams wanted this story told, but it's also from all of his perspective.

[00:11:56] And it's also very glossy and it's very high level.

[00:12:01] And again, I'll tell you the part of this film I found the most enjoyable was the part

[00:12:06] where it really was a documentary.

[00:12:09] And that was the parts where, um, going through all of the relationships he had with different

[00:12:15] artists and songs and beats he was creating for them.

[00:12:19] It was still very glossy and positive about him, but at least it was interesting.

[00:12:24] It was informative.

[00:12:24] It was like, Oh wow.

[00:12:26] Okay.

[00:12:27] He then hooked up with this group and he created this beat.

[00:12:30] I didn't know he did that, that, uh, that beat from the Rex and effect song.

[00:12:34] You know, I, I didn't, I didn't know that.

[00:12:36] It's like, that's what the documentary really excelled.

[00:12:39] I'm impressed that you threw out the name of that.

[00:12:40] Yeah.

[00:12:40] Yeah.

[00:12:40] You're welcome.

[00:12:41] Um, you know, I was impressed by all that.

[00:12:43] There was like a section in the middle of the film where it's like, he's kind of getting

[00:12:46] into the industry and he's making all these connections that he's building all this music

[00:12:50] for people that was really well done because it was handled like a documentary just with

[00:12:56] Lego talking heads and clips from recreating music videos, you know, for some of these

[00:13:01] songs with Lego.

[00:13:02] It's like, great.

[00:13:02] That's, that's, that's what I needed to hear.

[00:13:05] The, and actually up to that point, I'm totally digging the film.

[00:13:09] It's the latter half where they're trying to weave it into a narrative, a typical musical

[00:13:17] biography where it's like, well, we got to have, again, we got to have some drama.

[00:13:20] We've got to have an ups and downs.

[00:13:21] I mean, we can't just show this guy being successful, successful, successful.

[00:13:25] And then he's like the biggest hit he's ever done at the end.

[00:13:28] And that's it.

[00:13:28] That's not an interesting documentary.

[00:13:30] That's not an interesting story.

[00:13:32] So I felt the filmmakers trying to force something into it that wasn't there.

[00:13:37] And it just made the whole, I think the latter half really just kind of weak and not interesting

[00:13:42] and kind of boring, you know, unfortunately, again, if it wasn't for the visual style and

[00:13:47] all the visual elements being weaved into this, um, yeah, I wouldn't have been terribly interested,

[00:13:53] but luckily it had that going for it.

[00:13:55] And that did keep my attention, uh, and make me still be end up positive on this film.

[00:14:00] But yeah, it just, it felt like, it felt like a puff piece in the latter half of the film.

[00:14:08] And it made me question, did we need a 90 minute documentary about for Williams?

[00:14:15] That's, that's kind of where I came up to it at the end.

[00:14:17] Yeah.

[00:14:17] Right.

[00:14:17] And I, I feel, I think I may be slightly more positive, but I think we do have the same

[00:14:22] misgivings and I think too, or I feel like the fact that it was a PG film held it back

[00:14:29] from maybe, and maybe that was done on purpose because it's Lego and they're thinking marketing

[00:14:34] wise, which the audience question is kind of a confusing thing to think about.

[00:14:40] Like, okay, you and I talked about it.

[00:14:42] We were enthusiastic about going to see it.

[00:14:44] So I guess we are the audience, but as far as what audience, who this was made for, um,

[00:14:51] I don't think children would be entertained by you.

[00:14:55] I saw it with you last night and we were, and my wife.

[00:14:58] So there were three people in the theater and it was empty.

[00:15:01] And actually as the movie got going, I was like, well, I see, because this is rated PG,

[00:15:05] which means, Hey, kids could see it.

[00:15:07] They see Legos and they're thinking, Oh, it's like a Lego movie.

[00:15:11] Yeah.

[00:15:11] But no, it's not.

[00:15:13] And so I don't like, it's not for kids.

[00:15:15] And then for adults, I don't see them being like seeing this as something.

[00:15:20] So I'm kind of curious.

[00:15:21] And then I guess it comes to, well, it's for Pharrell fans.

[00:15:25] It is for Pharrell fans.

[00:15:27] I can see that.

[00:15:27] And I think there's a little bit of a sub, a sub group of people that are

[00:15:33] creatives, musical creatives that, you know, the film does have some inspiration behind it.

[00:15:40] I think as somebody who is an artist who is looking for a little self, self motivation

[00:15:47] and a little self inspiration, I think you get some of that out of the films.

[00:15:51] There's maybe, it's a very small subset of people, but that is a specific audience for

[00:15:56] this.

[00:15:58] And I think people who like interesting takes on documentaries.

[00:16:01] I mean, this is, this is definitely out of the ordinary.

[00:16:03] Yeah.

[00:16:03] Yeah.

[00:16:04] But it's just, um, it was an odd film.

[00:16:07] I'm admiring that they made it.

[00:16:10] I like that they made it.

[00:16:11] I'm glad they made it.

[00:16:13] I feel like you probably could have gotten everything you need to get out of this in a 30 minute,

[00:16:19] 30 minute bit, just to understand who's Pharrell Williams.

[00:16:22] Give us a little bit of his backstory growing up and show us the kind of work he's done.

[00:16:28] And yeah, cool.

[00:16:29] Okay.

[00:16:30] Now we know who Pharrell Williams is a little bit more.

[00:16:32] That's great.

[00:16:33] Um, I just felt like the, the film just tried too hard to be a true, uh, music documentary,

[00:16:41] uh, a typical music documentary about a performer.

[00:16:44] And it just, just didn't work by, by the time it got to its end.

[00:16:48] Um, yeah, actually I felt like the whole ending was pretty weak.

[00:16:53] It just didn't, just didn't work at all.

[00:16:55] I mean, and I'm not spoiling anything by saying this.

[00:16:58] It's just, you know, the whole idea is I'm not even really sure there's supposed to be

[00:17:04] a point in this story where Pharrell Williams is on the downward slide on the roller coaster,

[00:17:10] the whole music career roller coaster that everybody that has a film made about them or story tends

[00:17:15] to have that ups and downs.

[00:17:17] And when you hit them at their low point, whether it's drugs, whether it's, you know,

[00:17:22] band breaking up, whatever, we didn't have that here.

[00:17:24] There was none of that.

[00:17:25] It seemed like it was really just, he just maybe didn't have as big a hit for a little

[00:17:31] while.

[00:17:32] And so that was kind of the low point.

[00:17:34] And I'm like, I don't, I mean, I didn't really get that.

[00:17:36] So that's kind of what, okay.

[00:17:37] So I was interested because the things, you know, a few things that we did learn and we

[00:17:43] did, we did learn some things like I didn't know that he was responsible for the,

[00:17:47] the McDonald's jingle.

[00:17:48] See, I love that part of it.

[00:17:50] That's great.

[00:17:50] That took me a little.

[00:17:51] I was like, and I liked the fact that it was his parents who were kind of doing the little

[00:17:55] talking head interviews.

[00:17:56] And the mom did it.

[00:17:57] Oh yeah.

[00:17:57] The dad did.

[00:17:58] He's like, Oh really?

[00:17:59] Yeah.

[00:18:00] That was cool.

[00:18:01] Yeah.

[00:18:01] So, okay.

[00:18:01] If you believe it, which, you know, I think with the structure of the film, we are supposed

[00:18:04] to believe that these were like, no, I believe everything in the film is true.

[00:18:08] Well, just anyway, maybe cost.

[00:18:11] So, um, with the structure of the film, one of the things that I was most curious about

[00:18:17] was his kind of starting out with Chad Hugo, a friend from high school and forming the

[00:18:24] Neptunes.

[00:18:24] Yeah.

[00:18:25] And seemingly, no, did they like work on beats, which they then like became famous for producing

[00:18:30] different albums and like handing those out to different musicians and getting it incorporated

[00:18:34] into their song, which made them lots of money.

[00:18:37] But I thought like, Oh, the Neptunes, like what's, did they actually make some music or

[00:18:43] like, because at one point they seemed to be kind of almost rock oriented early on.

[00:18:47] And I was like, Oh, well that, and that's the kind of music that I do like.

[00:18:50] And I was like, Oh, I would have never thought Pharrell Williams would be doing like rock type

[00:18:53] music.

[00:18:54] Um, so I dug into a little bit about Chad Hugo and the Neptunes.

[00:19:00] And here's the example of what I feel like the doc, the, the film, which was a documentary

[00:19:05] I can say a documentary kind of smoothed off the edges and then definitely at the end smoothed

[00:19:10] it so that it looked like there was a point where he wasn't having hits and the Neptunes

[00:19:15] broke up.

[00:19:16] Yeah.

[00:19:16] And so that did happen.

[00:19:18] Right.

[00:19:18] It kind of, he did.

[00:19:19] And then pulling him out of that, he gets married and then happy comes, then it's all

[00:19:26] okay.

[00:19:26] And then you, there's a scene where you see him like at a restaurant or something and he

[00:19:32] sees Chad Hugo and they start talking at that is complete, uh, doo doo.

[00:19:38] Really?

[00:19:39] And Chad no longer talk.

[00:19:42] Oh really?

[00:19:43] Yes.

[00:19:43] And actually there was something because they've gotten a big disagreement apparently about how

[00:19:50] the name, the Neptunes is used.

[00:19:52] So there's always like rights issues and like, I don't know, they have, they have parted ways,

[00:19:57] which then led me to think, huh?

[00:19:58] Well, that's interesting.

[00:19:59] This is all me trying to find out more about the Neptune.

[00:20:01] Sure.

[00:20:01] And I was like, huh?

[00:20:02] So I went on IMDB.

[00:20:03] I was like, who did the voice of Chad in the film?

[00:20:05] Uh, can't find that information.

[00:20:08] And then also makes kind of sense where you see Chad in the film, but he is never interviewed.

[00:20:17] Yeah.

[00:20:17] Whereas other people, his family, um, all the different musicians like Gwen Stefani, they're

[00:20:23] all interviewed.

[00:20:24] Sure.

[00:20:24] But interestingly enough, now that I think about it, Chad's never interviewed.

[00:20:29] So there again, it kind of, my reservation about the film, not being a biopic, but glossing,

[00:20:37] but being a documentary, I was a little, I'm a little disappointed that some of those

[00:20:40] asked because unfortunately, I guess it's kind of like watching a train wreck.

[00:20:44] You are interested when you had this good partnership and then things start to not work.

[00:20:49] Yeah.

[00:20:49] Why is that?

[00:20:50] And so it's like interesting that he's in this film and granted for else has nothing

[00:20:54] negative about him.

[00:20:58] It's just like we break up, but then you get the instance that they're back together or

[00:21:01] whatever.

[00:21:02] And the fact that his voice is in the film, you're thinking, Oh, but that's a little

[00:21:07] problematic.

[00:21:08] Um, something that I found interesting that I wish maybe would have dug a little bit more

[00:21:11] into, but then again, not interested in that.

[00:21:13] It's a PG film.

[00:21:15] Um, when his wife sits down for an interview, you hear, and you see a lot of Morgan Neville

[00:21:19] in the film is like a Lego figure, which is kind of funny.

[00:21:22] That's funny.

[00:21:22] And you hear him talking to her and then she like sits down on camera on the Lego version of

[00:21:27] this and he's like, yeah, I understand you don't, you know, you rarely, if ever have

[00:21:31] ever done interviews, but you're doing, you know, thanks for doing it.

[00:21:32] She's like, well, I understand that he wanted to make this, I guess a Lego movie.

[00:21:36] So, you know, whatever.

[00:21:37] And I was like, Oh, like digging more into that, how like she's not with fame and she's

[00:21:42] not hip with this.

[00:21:43] They have a family now they have at least two kids.

[00:21:46] I don't know how many kids they have.

[00:21:47] Um, but kind of her, and then it's hinted at in the film, they met and were like heavily

[00:21:54] boyfriend, girlfriend, but then he was not interested in getting married.

[00:21:58] Right.

[00:21:58] And she's like, okay.

[00:21:59] Even though he asked her the question of like, Oh, are you going to marry him when she

[00:22:04] was dating somebody else?

[00:22:05] She was like, well, no, he's like, well, then why are you with him?

[00:22:08] Then they get together and then he's not willing to get married.

[00:22:10] And so they kind of step away and then like I hinted, they get back together and like that.

[00:22:15] But like, so that's kind of like, I wish I could have gotten more of her.

[00:22:20] Well, and everything you just described all falls in that latter third of the film where

[00:22:25] I feel like the film kind of breaks down and just doesn't have anything interesting.

[00:22:30] There are hints at things that could be interesting.

[00:22:32] The relationship with his soon to be wife, the relationship with his partner.

[00:22:36] Those were very, very glossed over.

[00:22:39] It was kind of like, yes, this band, we broke up and now moving on.

[00:22:43] Now let's go on and talk about something else.

[00:22:44] It's like, no, wait a minute.

[00:22:45] That was, that was the whole crux of your film is that you found this partner that you

[00:22:51] creatively fueled you and you guys were doing all this together.

[00:22:53] It's like, how did this all of a sudden just change?

[00:22:56] Why?

[00:22:56] Like, I don't understand why.

[00:22:58] And then it was like a moment where supposedly he had fallen out of favor with the music industry.

[00:23:04] And again, I don't understand why it's like, I tell me why all I hear about is one

[00:23:08] album that didn't do very well.

[00:23:10] Well, they did.

[00:23:11] He got to corporate and the corporate people came in and kind of like told him how he needed

[00:23:16] to make his music.

[00:23:17] Yeah.

[00:23:17] But I, we never saw what that meant.

[00:23:20] Like, you know, because all his life he had been making music that was meant to sell records

[00:23:25] and be successful.

[00:23:27] So what changed?

[00:23:29] I don't understand.

[00:23:29] So that whole last, it just felt like it's like, oh, we have to hit these beats to make

[00:23:33] this a musician documentary.

[00:23:36] So here we go.

[00:23:37] Speaking of the beats, the visualization of the beats.

[00:23:41] Yes.

[00:23:41] Really cool.

[00:23:42] And it took me a little bit.

[00:23:43] That's very cool.

[00:23:43] I mean, I saw what they did early on, but he was like, you know, building beats and you

[00:23:46] would see him stack Lego blocks.

[00:23:47] Like Lego blocks.

[00:23:48] Yeah.

[00:23:48] At some point he would like present this to let's say Jay-Z and it would be just like this

[00:23:53] little pile of Legos, but that they would be like, you know, thumping in time with the

[00:23:57] beat.

[00:23:57] And that was kind of an interesting little concept that they did.

[00:24:02] Other things that I thought were kind of, you know, there were, I guess two, I was actually

[00:24:08] expecting, even though this is a documentary, but because it's just Lego and I'm still biased

[00:24:13] to how the very first Lego movie, which was, you know, not a biopic, which is just a comedy.

[00:24:17] Yeah.

[00:24:17] I thought there would maybe be more instances of comedy or like things that are funny.

[00:24:22] There were some.

[00:24:23] And I think my favorite was when they had Snoop Dogg and they were kind of doing some

[00:24:28] things on screen with the visuals of having an interview with Snoop Dogg, what you would

[00:24:31] imagine that environment would be.

[00:24:34] And then PG it up.

[00:24:36] Yeah.

[00:24:36] And I thought that was by spraying that looked like kind of smoke in the air, but it was meant

[00:24:41] to be the PG spray, which on all sides that I laughed out loud on that.

[00:24:47] That was very funny.

[00:24:48] So I agree with that.

[00:24:49] And there were some moments.

[00:24:50] And again, visually, I thought the film looked beautiful.

[00:24:53] It was great to watch.

[00:24:54] And again, I may have had my misgivings with the storytelling from the documentary standpoint

[00:25:00] and the choices they made in telling his story in the latter half.

[00:25:04] But visually, I was still totally wrapped up with what they were showing and doing.

[00:25:08] So I'm very happy with that.

[00:25:10] And even they did things like they would show what was supposed to look like, I'm assuming,

[00:25:18] found footage.

[00:25:19] But it would be Lego versions of found footage where you'd see like the little VHS lines.

[00:25:23] It was like a little shaky client cam.

[00:25:25] Right.

[00:25:25] And so it was like...

[00:25:26] It was shot very much like a documentary.

[00:25:28] There's actually a moment towards the end of the film where he's returning to his birthplace

[00:25:34] or his childhood home.

[00:25:36] And it shot very much...

[00:25:38] I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually shot real footage of him going back and just

[00:25:43] going back and Lego-ing it afterwards.

[00:25:45] You know, the question for me is like going back to what you initially said is, were all

[00:25:51] the interviews and all this footage shot before the decision to make Lego was done?

[00:25:57] Or were the interviews all shot with the clear understanding that they're all going to be

[00:26:01] Lego-ed up?

[00:26:02] So it's like, we're still going to film your interviews and we're still going to like

[00:26:05] have you sit down and talk with us.

[00:26:07] But just know your face will never...

[00:26:09] You will not be on the screen.

[00:26:11] It'll be a Lego version of you.

[00:26:12] So just understand that.

[00:26:13] But I'm curious about that more from just a filmmaking standpoint, kind of how that process

[00:26:17] worked.

[00:26:18] But as a film, I'll say again, ambitious.

[00:26:21] I liked it.

[00:26:22] I like any film that decides to do something a little different and provide something differently.

[00:26:26] I did feel like it was interesting enough about Pharrell Williams as a musician and as

[00:26:32] a performer.

[00:26:33] And visually, it kept my attention the entire time.

[00:26:36] I just feel like it was really stretching the credibility of being a documentary and

[00:26:43] an effective documentary where I feel like by the latter half, it had kind of lost that

[00:26:48] through line.

[00:26:49] So yeah, that's piece by piece.

[00:26:55] Overall, I think it's worth watching.

[00:26:57] I think it's worth people checking out if this sounds at all interesting, at least from

[00:27:02] a concept standpoint.

[00:27:05] And look, there's some good music in it.

[00:27:07] I'll tell you that too.

[00:27:08] I mean, if you are a fan of Pharrell Williams' music in any way, shape or form, yeah, it's

[00:27:14] great.

[00:27:15] I mean, yeah, you definitely get a lot of sampling of his music.

[00:27:17] There's a lot of music he was involved with.

[00:27:19] I had no idea.

[00:27:20] And it was kind of cool to see those pieces come together.

[00:27:23] Pieces.

[00:27:23] See?

[00:27:24] Keep dropping in these little hints.

[00:27:25] Can't help it.

[00:27:25] I can't help it.

[00:27:26] Block and block.

[00:27:27] And it's also, I mean, I feel like it was too long for the subject matter, but it is

[00:27:34] relatively a short film at an hour 33.

[00:27:37] So I'll give it that.

[00:27:39] But again, I felt like an hour 33 was still even stretching what this story really needed.

[00:27:44] And it really felt that in the last 20, 30 minutes where it's like, okay, all right,

[00:27:49] you're just kind of stretching this whole part out and I'm not really getting anything

[00:27:52] out of it.

[00:27:53] So anyway, you got anything else?

[00:27:56] Nope.

[00:27:56] Sounds like we're basically on the same page.

[00:27:58] I will say, because I went and was doing research and trying to figure out what the deal was

[00:28:02] with Chad Hugo and the Neptunes and all this kind of stuff.

[00:28:05] We're just kind of just closing up the next thing.

[00:28:08] I think we may have reported on this before in like a coming thing.

[00:28:11] Oh, that Morgan Neville's doing?

[00:28:12] Yeah.

[00:28:13] His next up.

[00:28:13] We did talk about it or we did?

[00:28:15] No.

[00:28:15] Okay.

[00:28:15] I can't remember.

[00:28:16] Maybe we did.

[00:28:17] But just now that you've seen piece by piece and the next thing that he's slated to do

[00:28:21] is a project documentary.

[00:28:23] Did not surprise, but not Lego.

[00:28:25] Oh no.

[00:28:25] We have talked about this.

[00:28:26] Yeah.

[00:28:27] Man on the Run.

[00:28:27] Man on the Run.

[00:28:28] Yeah.

[00:28:29] Which is Paul McCartney.

[00:28:30] Actually, I brought that up.

[00:28:30] Okay.

[00:28:30] Yeah.

[00:28:31] Paul McCartney.

[00:28:31] Paul McCartney, but during the Wings era.

[00:28:33] Correct.

[00:28:34] Yeah.

[00:28:34] Which is awesome.

[00:28:35] I cannot wait for that.

[00:28:36] Yeah.

[00:28:37] He's definitely got his footing in the music documentary world.

[00:28:40] He's done things on Anthony Bourdain and Steve Martin and stuff, but no, his music seems to

[00:28:46] be his big thing.

[00:28:47] Seems to be his thing.

[00:28:48] Sure.

[00:28:48] That's great.

[00:28:49] Oh no, I'm looking forward to that.

[00:28:51] Man on the Run sounds great.

[00:28:52] It's in pre-production right now still.

[00:28:54] So it still weighs off, but that sounds great.

[00:28:57] Okay.

[00:28:58] Okay.

[00:28:58] Well, that is Piece by Piece, the Lego documentary about musician Pharrell Williams directed by

[00:29:05] Morgan Neville.

[00:29:06] Um, I don't expect it to be in theaters probably much beyond when we record this.

[00:29:12] It had his one run here, a one week run here and little Hickory North Carolina, which

[00:29:16] was surprising to me, but it did it.

[00:29:19] And, uh, so go catch it.

[00:29:20] If it's, if any of this review sounds intriguing to you, I think it's worth a watch.

[00:29:25] So I'll, I'll give it that much for sure.

[00:29:28] Just for the visual side of it, if nothing else.

[00:29:30] So, all right, Chris, let's take a quick little break.

[00:29:34] We come back.

[00:29:34] We've got a couple of trailers to play and dissect for you about some movies coming up

[00:29:39] soon and a little bit of rumor news to share about one of our favorite directors.

[00:29:44] And then Chris is going to have his recommendation for us.

[00:29:47] So stay tuned.

[00:29:48] You're listening to foot candle films.

[00:29:50] We will be right back.

[00:29:53] Welcome back to foot candle films here on the mesh dot TV podcast network.

[00:29:57] We had our review of the Morgan Neville documentary piece by piece about musician Pharrell Williams

[00:30:03] in the first half of the show, but let's move on.

[00:30:06] And talk about some trailers of some films that are slated to come out here in the very

[00:30:11] near future.

[00:30:13] Both of these trailers, Chris, we're going to look at our ones that are new to both of

[00:30:17] us.

[00:30:17] Okay.

[00:30:18] I don't think you've seen either of them.

[00:30:20] If I remember correctly, you brought one of them to the table.

[00:30:22] Yes.

[00:30:23] I'll be bringing in the other.

[00:30:24] Do you want to tell us a little bit about the first one, the brutalist, or do you want

[00:30:29] me to read off the description from online?

[00:30:31] What do you prefer?

[00:30:32] Go ahead and read off the description.

[00:30:33] I actually don't know what the film's about.

[00:30:35] I just know who it stars.

[00:30:37] Okay.

[00:30:37] So we have a film that will be coming out soon, December 20th in limited release.

[00:30:44] It is written and directed by Brady Corbett or Corbay, depending on how his last name is

[00:30:52] meant to be said.

[00:30:52] But it's a film called The Brutalist, and it's going to be starring Adrian Brody and

[00:30:58] Felicity Jones.

[00:30:59] And Guy Pearce.

[00:31:00] And Guy Pearce is in it also.

[00:31:02] Joe Alwyn, who I think Joe Alwyn, isn't he a musician?

[00:31:08] Maybe.

[00:31:09] Anyway.

[00:31:10] Yeah, and a few others.

[00:31:12] But here's the official log line according to Variety for this film.

[00:31:16] When visionary architect Laszlo Toth, played by Adrian Brody, and his wife Erzbet, played

[00:31:24] by Felicity Jones, flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the

[00:31:31] birth of modern America, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious and wealthy

[00:31:36] client.

[00:31:37] So historical drama taking place in post-war Europe.

[00:31:42] Let's see.

[00:31:43] It premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

[00:31:46] Okay.

[00:31:48] Variety's film critic described it as an ectomerican tale of immigration and ambition,

[00:31:55] of what it means to be an artist, but it's also a tale of what it means to be Jewish in

[00:31:59] a world that approaches Jews with supreme ambivalence.

[00:32:05] So basically, The Brutalist lets you feel that you're seeing a man's life pass before your

[00:32:09] eyes.

[00:32:09] That may be meaning enough to it.

[00:32:12] This is Corbett directed and co-wrote the script for this.

[00:32:16] Were you the one telling me that it's like super long?

[00:32:19] Okay.

[00:32:20] So that was kind of the buzz that like, I remember hearing the name of this film and kind of the

[00:32:24] buzz that was associated with it around festival time was A, it was supposed to be long and

[00:32:29] B, it was like very ambitious or something.

[00:32:33] And that's kind of, so I was like, oh, okay.

[00:32:35] So, and that was all I knew about it other than the stars.

[00:32:37] I didn't know what it was about.

[00:32:39] Three and a half hours.

[00:32:40] Okay.

[00:32:41] Three hours, 35 minutes is the duration of The Brutalist.

[00:32:44] As far as the version that played at Venice Film Festival, we're assuming that's what's

[00:32:48] going to be released.

[00:32:49] And that to me is long.

[00:32:50] Long.

[00:32:52] Yeah.

[00:32:52] It does seem, uh, does seem a little lengthy again.

[00:32:55] I'm not going to say, I'm not going to see it because of the length.

[00:32:59] I mean, some of the, some great movies we've had have been over three hours long and so

[00:33:04] be it.

[00:33:04] It's all good.

[00:33:05] But, uh, it does put a little more onus on the film to make sure it's got something

[00:33:09] to work for us.

[00:33:10] Usually when I hear about a film of that length, it's from somebody like Martin Scorsese or another

[00:33:16] filmmaker that Eric Christopher Nolan, where, you know, I kind of, I know what I'm getting

[00:33:20] into, but this is a completely unknown quantity because I'm not familiar with the director and

[00:33:26] it's really long.

[00:33:27] So that, that's kind of a, like you said, that's, that's a, that's a hard thing to get

[00:33:33] into.

[00:33:34] It's tough.

[00:33:34] It's very tough.

[00:33:34] Well, let's take a look at the trailer.

[00:33:36] Uh, the trailer is not three hours and 35 minutes.

[00:33:39] The trailer is only a minute 15.

[00:33:41] So we get like a small, small little fraction of this film in the trailer, but let's take

[00:33:46] a look at the trailer for the brutalist by studio a 24, which, you know, that helps a

[00:33:51] little bit too.

[00:33:52] Here we go.

[00:34:26] So definitely more of a teaser trailer than anything.

[00:34:30] It doesn't really give you a whole lot involved.

[00:34:32] Just some images, images, some visuals, some, uh, some sound bites, but, uh, interesting.

[00:34:39] Looks like it looks like here's the thing I think is just interesting.

[00:34:42] Cause this is a director that we don't know anything about kind of swinging for the fences

[00:34:47] on the film.

[00:34:49] Three and a half hours long.

[00:34:50] Looks to be a very sweeping epic, at least from what we can tell visually, but also looks

[00:34:54] to have some interesting choices being made in the storytelling from some of the visuals

[00:35:00] we saw too.

[00:35:01] So to me, it looks like if Terrence Malick made a movie about architecture.

[00:35:05] Yeah.

[00:35:05] That, that's a good way of summing it up now.

[00:35:07] Cause it'd be like some really interesting shots and like beautiful shots.

[00:35:12] And, um, I saw, which I'm not familiar with what this is, but it says like presented in

[00:35:18] Vista vision.

[00:35:19] So I don't know if this is something that he is pioneering or just like his way of like

[00:35:24] filming.

[00:35:24] I'm not sure what that means necessarily, but, uh, Vista vision.

[00:35:28] Chris, I'm going to do something.

[00:35:29] I very rarely do.

[00:35:31] I, I have kind of made, made sure in my life that I don't get swept up on comments on internet

[00:35:38] pages or on discussion boards or forums or anything.

[00:35:41] But this trailer that we just showed does have a series of comments underneath it.

[00:35:47] And just to, if it does nothing else to maybe confirm, maybe some of our thoughts on this

[00:35:52] thing.

[00:35:52] Um, according to existence on YouTube with a capital X in the middle, um, saw it at Toronto

[00:36:00] film festival, unbelievable film with magnificent scope and fantastic performances.

[00:36:04] They rarely make movies like this anymore demands to be seen in the biggest screen possible.

[00:36:09] Now existence may be the handle of the director going in.

[00:36:14] I don't know.

[00:36:14] Another one, uh, said a 24 acquired this movie shortly after the Venice film festival premiere

[00:36:18] for $10 million in a competitive situation.

[00:36:22] When a 24 spends all that money to buy this movie's rights, you know, it's going to be good

[00:36:27] or the biggest mistake they've ever made.

[00:36:29] That true.

[00:36:30] Yeah.

[00:36:30] So, um, you know, there's some thoughts online.

[00:36:35] I mean, again, we don't know where we are with that.

[00:36:37] You know, maybe a 24 really banking on Oscar buzz, which who knows?

[00:36:41] Yeah.

[00:36:41] Who knows?

[00:36:42] Um, so I had, uh, Alessandro Nivola, which I really liked that actor.

[00:36:46] So I'm looking forward to seeing, and I didn't know that he was in it, so he could be an

[00:36:50] interesting.

[00:36:51] It's going to be one of those movies for me to commit three and a half hours.

[00:36:54] I've got at least here that there's something there and.

[00:36:58] You know, we'll get to that point soon.

[00:37:00] And I hope because, you know, not knowing a lot about it and release schedule, you say it's

[00:37:05] coming out in December, I hope that I do get a chance to see it on the big screen because

[00:37:10] a three and a half hour movie online is that's a really tough sell for me to keep me engaged.

[00:37:16] Sure.

[00:37:16] No, I agree.

[00:37:17] But you know, it's easier for me to just block off the time to go to a theater because in

[00:37:20] that way it's more immersive.

[00:37:21] So yeah, I mean, I tell you too, the title is just really foreboding for me as well because

[00:37:28] you title your movie, the brutalist.

[00:37:31] It doesn't make me think it's going to be an enjoyable sit.

[00:37:34] So it doesn't sound like it could be wrong, but it does not sound like it.

[00:37:38] Brutalist.

[00:37:39] All right.

[00:37:40] Um, I tell you what, let me just drop this nugget in before we go to the second trailer.

[00:37:45] Um, uh, our Christopher Nolan check in.

[00:37:48] Let's just check in on how Mr. Nolan's doing.

[00:37:50] Okay.

[00:37:51] Uh, for those maybe who have been doing fun, those who've not been listening or have been

[00:37:55] sleeping in a cave in the last several years, uh, his last film Oppenheimer, uh, it did

[00:38:01] pretty good.

[00:38:01] It did okay.

[00:38:03] Uh, broke some records for our rated movies box office wise and it, uh, won a lot of awards.

[00:38:08] Yes.

[00:38:09] So Christopher Nolan, uh, he's doing pretty good for himself and I think, you know, he's

[00:38:13] still on his run of films.

[00:38:15] He hasn't really had a clunker yet.

[00:38:16] Even tenant that you could say, I think people were.

[00:38:20] Maybe disappointed with it or it didn't quite live up to expectations.

[00:38:24] Plus it hit during pandemic times.

[00:38:25] It was like a weird release.

[00:38:27] It was maybe a little overcomplicated, but still people liked it.

[00:38:31] I, I like it.

[00:38:32] It's just, I just have a, my head hurts when I watch it.

[00:38:35] But other than that, I still like it.

[00:38:37] I need to see it again because my original take was it was too, like, too, too much.

[00:38:43] Well, no, too, too derivative of like, um, inception.

[00:38:47] Like, so yeah, I mean, it was very similar.

[00:38:50] Yeah.

[00:38:50] That bothered me.

[00:38:51] Format wise.

[00:38:51] All right.

[00:38:51] Well, the rumors are flying about his next movie.

[00:38:55] I'm curious to hear what they are.

[00:38:57] Okay.

[00:38:57] If they're not true, I'm still want to hear what they are.

[00:38:59] Oh, I hope these are true.

[00:39:02] Okay.

[00:39:02] Uh, we do know that universal studios has got his next film.

[00:39:06] So he's already locked in with universal, which has been, that's the studio that released

[00:39:10] Oppenheimer.

[00:39:11] And I think it, I don't know if it did tenant also, but it definitely did Oppenheimer.

[00:39:15] Gotcha.

[00:39:16] Uh, it already set for release July 17th, 2026.

[00:39:19] So we are a year and a half and some change from his next film.

[00:39:24] Okay.

[00:39:25] We only know at this time that Matt Damon is going to be starring in this film.

[00:39:31] He was in Oppenheimer.

[00:39:32] He was in Oppenheimer.

[00:39:33] He didn't have a huge role, but he was in Oppenheimer.

[00:39:35] And Tom Holland.

[00:39:37] Okay.

[00:39:38] Spider-Man.

[00:39:38] I can't remember if he was in Oppenheimer.

[00:39:41] No, he was not.

[00:39:42] Tom Holland was not.

[00:39:42] Okay.

[00:39:43] I mean, there were so many people in that film.

[00:39:45] It's kind of hard to keep up with who was in Oppenheimer.

[00:39:46] All right.

[00:39:47] Yeah.

[00:39:47] Okay.

[00:39:47] But here is the rumor.

[00:39:49] Now this is, I'm just saying, this is a rumor.

[00:39:51] Okay.

[00:39:52] This is from slashfilm.com.

[00:39:54] The rumor is being posted.

[00:39:56] Their slashfilm has got an article up about what his next movie could be.

[00:40:01] The word on the street is, and nothing has been officially released on this, is that it's

[00:40:07] going to be a horror film.

[00:40:10] And it's going to be about vampires in the 1920s.

[00:40:16] Yeah.

[00:40:17] Okay.

[00:40:19] Wow.

[00:40:20] So that is the current standing rumor.

[00:40:22] It's being reported by former slash film writer and current io9 writer, Jermaine Lussier, saying

[00:40:30] it is going to be a Christopher Nolan vampire movie set in the 1920s.

[00:40:35] Let's see.

[00:40:39] Let's see here.

[00:40:40] Yeah.

[00:40:41] I mean, that's what I've got.

[00:40:43] Huh.

[00:40:44] Well, I will say that, you know, typically it seems like he does alternate between historical

[00:40:50] pictures and I guess just complete made up stuff like, you know, Inception or Tenet, like

[00:40:58] you mentioned, or Memento.

[00:41:00] Like, you know, so it seems like since he just did Oppenheimer, which is historical base,

[00:41:04] it does seem like he's due to do something just completely, you know, narrative fiction,

[00:41:08] which is why it does surprise me.

[00:41:10] Horror doesn't surprise me because I could see him being like, I just want to do something

[00:41:12] completely different.

[00:41:13] So that doesn't.

[00:41:14] I mean, look, I'll say there were some moments in Oppenheimer that felt like we're pretty

[00:41:17] much in the horror genre.

[00:41:19] So, yeah.

[00:41:21] But vampires to me, specifically period vampires, seems kind of done and tired because we had

[00:41:30] the whole interview with the vampires type stuff.

[00:41:32] And then we had originally, you know, Bran Stover's Dracula.

[00:41:34] We're about to get Nosferatu from Robert Eggers, which, you know, interested in that.

[00:41:39] But then to have this one come out two years later, it's kind of like seemingly kind of

[00:41:44] focusing around the same time period.

[00:41:46] That could be a little concerning.

[00:41:47] And plus to, I mean, let's be honest.

[00:41:49] But I mean, I trust Nolan.

[00:41:51] Vampires, especially the kind of vampires that we've seen in media in recent, in the last

[00:41:55] couple of decades, especially from that older time period, Victorian time period or turn

[00:41:59] of the century.

[00:41:59] We just had Voyage of the Demeter that we reviewed on the show.

[00:42:03] There's always been a lot of sensuality involved in kind of the telling of vampires, especially

[00:42:08] from those time periods.

[00:42:09] Right.

[00:42:09] Not Nolan's thing.

[00:42:10] No.

[00:42:11] That's not his deal.

[00:42:12] And so that, now this writer does say that, you know, hey, but keep in mind,

[00:42:18] vampires, there's a lot of themes of time and passage of time and, you know, the fact that

[00:42:26] they're, they live longer, supposedly.

[00:42:28] I mean, could that be playing with the idea of time?

[00:42:30] Because Nolan does love to play with time.

[00:42:32] He loves to play with time.

[00:42:33] That would be a little bit more interesting.

[00:42:34] Kind of the only lovers left alive type.

[00:42:37] A little more of an intellectual take on kind of that.

[00:42:40] All right.

[00:42:40] That sounds interesting.

[00:42:42] And look, I'm, I'm on board no matter what he wants to do.

[00:42:45] I don't care.

[00:42:45] If anybody can make an interesting vampire film, I'm going to say it would be him.

[00:42:50] But again, let's just go.

[00:42:52] I'm just, normally I like to only report on things that are like officially announced

[00:42:55] by studios.

[00:42:56] This is a pure rumor.

[00:42:57] That is all it is.

[00:42:59] And he could come up tomorrow and just be, no, I'm doing a Albert Einstein biopic.

[00:43:04] It's like, okay, fine.

[00:43:05] Whatever.

[00:43:05] Or just, you know, we got to stay away from that.

[00:43:09] Again, if we're, yeah, I like Tom Holland.

[00:43:11] I like Matt Damon.

[00:43:14] But considering it's the 1920s vampire aspect, and then you talk about maybe it does have

[00:43:19] to do a little bit with time.

[00:43:20] That would worry me that it would be nothing but kind of like a independently written interview

[00:43:25] with a vampire where you have a stat and you have his younger process.

[00:43:28] So Damon would be playing the older vampire.

[00:43:31] Holland would be playing the younger.

[00:43:32] Like, does worry.

[00:43:35] But I trust, like you said, it's only a rumor and I trust Nolan.

[00:43:39] I do too.

[00:43:40] Okay.

[00:43:41] Interesting though.

[00:43:41] That is, that is fascinating.

[00:43:43] All right.

[00:43:43] So we will see what happens with that.

[00:43:45] That again, July, 2026, we still got a ways off.

[00:43:48] I'm sure we'll be hearing more probably, you know, early, mid next year.

[00:43:52] We'll probably have a little more insight as to what the film's going to be.

[00:43:55] And go from there.

[00:43:56] Me, I hope it does kind of go the route of inception or to some extent, I guess, tenant, where

[00:44:04] it's like my, you're trying to figure out like what exactly is going on and like who

[00:44:08] is doing what and how this has influenced and vents over time.

[00:44:11] Like that would be awesome.

[00:44:13] Give me, give me a prestige, but with vampires.

[00:44:16] So that I'm on board with.

[00:44:17] Yeah.

[00:44:18] That would be amazing.

[00:44:18] Yeah.

[00:44:19] Agreed.

[00:44:20] Yeah.

[00:44:20] Prestige.

[00:44:21] Yeah.

[00:44:21] There you go.

[00:44:22] Prestige with vampires sold.

[00:44:24] Done and done.

[00:44:25] Right.

[00:44:25] My ticket is purchased.

[00:44:26] Right.

[00:44:27] Okay.

[00:44:28] Let me go on to our second and final bit of news.

[00:44:31] See a second trailer, final bit of news.

[00:44:32] Okay.

[00:44:33] And Chris, we walked right by the poster for this last night on the way out of the theater.

[00:44:38] I know you may not have paid attention to it because you've kind of already, you have

[00:44:43] seemed exasperated by the idea of this film even being made.

[00:44:46] Wow.

[00:44:47] But the next Garfield movie.

[00:44:49] No, I could have walked by that.

[00:44:51] Um, this is talking about horror films.

[00:44:52] Um, a new version of Wolfman.

[00:44:57] Oh, this is the Lee Whannell version after doing the invisible man, which was kind of a

[00:45:02] little bit of an interesting take on the classic invisible man story that was done a few years

[00:45:08] ago and starred for the pandemic and starred, um, her name.

[00:45:14] Oh man.

[00:45:15] From, uh, her smell and from mad men.

[00:45:17] Um, Elizabeth Moss.

[00:45:20] Elizabeth Moss.

[00:45:20] And that I like, and it was good.

[00:45:22] I liked that.

[00:45:22] I did too.

[00:45:23] One of the last ones I saw in the theater for the pandemic hit, but.

[00:45:26] It's the, I was excited when that film came out.

[00:45:28] Cause I'm like, okay, maybe they are starting to explore that old universal monster properties

[00:45:34] that they have, that they've had such a hard time finding any groove to work with, but giving

[00:45:39] us a very modern kind of updated take on each of them.

[00:45:42] I'm cool with that.

[00:45:43] So I really liked what he did with invisible man and kind of thought maybe that was starting

[00:45:48] something.

[00:45:48] Well, now we've got the version of Wolfman.

[00:45:51] It's not the Wolfman.

[00:45:53] It's just Wolfman.

[00:45:54] And, uh, the director of the invisible man, Lee Winnell and the producer of the black phone,

[00:46:00] uh, from Blumhouse studios.

[00:46:03] It is Wolfman.

[00:46:04] It is starring, uh, let's see here.

[00:46:07] Uh, Julia, uh, what's her name?

[00:46:10] Uh, where is it?

[00:46:11] Julia Gardner.

[00:46:12] Okay.

[00:46:13] Uh, Julia Gardner from Ozark, the TV show.

[00:46:15] And also she was in, um, what was the film about?

[00:46:18] She was the assistant.

[00:46:20] Yes.

[00:46:20] And I, I do like her.

[00:46:23] Yep.

[00:46:23] So her involvement, you know, it's like, okay.

[00:46:25] Cause I think she makes interesting choices and she doesn't need, I don't think she's doing

[00:46:30] like money grab type stuff.

[00:46:31] Yeah.

[00:46:31] So her involvement is, is interesting.

[00:46:35] And then we also have Christopher Abbott, um, who was in poor things.

[00:46:41] Uh, and also it comes at night.

[00:46:43] So he plays, uh, Blake, uh, San Francisco husband and father who inherits a remote childhood

[00:46:49] home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes.

[00:46:53] Then he's married to Charlotte played by Julia Gardner and Blake persuades Charlotte to take

[00:46:58] a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter in tow.

[00:47:01] And that's what we have as the setup.

[00:47:04] That summary combined with the trailer.

[00:47:10] It's like, yes, I've, I feel like I've seen the movie.

[00:47:14] So I don't know that there's anything there to offer me.

[00:47:16] I mean, I guess, you know, premises can be good, but I'm not, I, I am on a definitely

[00:47:22] wait and see if I hear it's really good.

[00:47:25] Then I'll be like, okay, I'll give it a shot.

[00:47:27] But other than that, I'm just, I don't know.

[00:47:30] I'm still hesitant.

[00:47:31] I am.

[00:47:32] I'm interested because again, I am, I'm a fan of the universal classic.

[00:47:36] The movie monsters had to settle in for a viewing of creature from the black lagoon the other

[00:47:42] night.

[00:47:42] Cause that's still one of my favorites from the old classic period.

[00:47:46] Sure.

[00:47:46] We'll be watching a lot more of them around Halloween time as we tend to do.

[00:47:50] So I'm all for giving us an updated take on these and let's see what you can do.

[00:47:54] Interesting with these characters, or at least the ideas, not necessarily the characters,

[00:47:58] but the concepts.

[00:48:00] So I liked the invisible band enough to say, all right, let's give a shot and see.

[00:48:04] So this is the trailer for Wolfman and this is coming out.

[00:48:10] Hmm.

[00:48:11] Hold tight.

[00:48:13] January 17th on theaters in theaters.

[00:48:17] So January 17th, we got Wolfman and here is the trailer.

[00:48:26] What was that thing like?

[00:48:27] It sounded like an animal, but I swear to God it was standing on two feet.

[00:48:36] Daddy, are we going to die?

[00:48:40] No, it's my job to protect you.

[00:48:45] What's wrong with daddy?

[00:48:48] He got sick.

[00:48:50] Please, dad, you're scaring me.

[00:48:56] All right.

[00:48:59] Well, that might've been a trailer.

[00:49:01] That might've been a trailer where, uh, I gave away too much of the story.

[00:49:04] So I'd seen a trailer, but it was clearly a teaser.

[00:49:08] Yeah.

[00:49:08] And the trailer we just watched was like more of a full trailer.

[00:49:10] Anyway, I'll say to the credit of, uh, Mr.

[00:49:14] Winau and company, it does seem that there was a little bit more going on than what I had thought originally.

[00:49:21] Unfortunately, maybe from the trailer now, a little bit more going on has been spoiled.

[00:49:26] Yeah.

[00:49:26] But it does look like it's a little bit more intricately plotted.

[00:49:31] Right.

[00:49:31] What I had assumed.

[00:49:32] So that's, that seems so.

[00:49:34] Well, and I, again, it seems to be kind of following up with what he did with invisible man,

[00:49:39] which was obviously modern day, just a little bit of a different take on it.

[00:49:44] I mean, it was the whole husband, wife and kind of a domestic abuse situation with the husband.

[00:49:51] I mean, it was just, it was different, a little bit different enough to kind of make it interesting.

[00:49:55] This might have just enough going on a little differently too, to kind of keep it interesting.

[00:49:59] Being this family kind of out in rural Oregon, kind of stranded, you know, a transformation possibly going on.

[00:50:06] And yeah, I think there could be some interesting things there.

[00:50:09] So I'm, I'm on board.

[00:50:10] I'm excited about it.

[00:50:12] I am.

[00:50:13] I need to be cautious.

[00:50:14] I am curious, whereas I was not really before.

[00:50:16] So that it has made me curious.

[00:50:18] I just think with trailers, we need to be cautious.

[00:50:20] If the running time on the trailer is over two and a half minutes long, it's like, okay,

[00:50:23] it's going to tell us way too much about the story than we need to really see at that point.

[00:50:28] So note to studios, a minute, minute 30 tops.

[00:50:34] We get the idea.

[00:50:35] We get the visual.

[00:50:36] We get the impression of the film.

[00:50:37] It's all we need.

[00:50:38] Don't really need any more beats than that.

[00:50:40] So, okay.

[00:50:41] So that is Wolfman coming out.

[00:50:43] Like I said, January 17th in studios.

[00:50:47] I'm excited about it.

[00:50:48] We will see what comes up and see how it fares when it actually is released early, early next year.

[00:50:54] All right, Chris, we are done with news.

[00:50:57] So we are, I've got a trailer that I'm going to save till next time we get together.

[00:51:01] It's not burning down my desires for us to play, but I do think we ought to play it just

[00:51:06] so we can stay in the loop with new things and make sure we're on the cutting edge of all

[00:51:12] film related entertainment.

[00:51:13] But we'll do that next time.

[00:51:15] Let's go ahead and get to your recommendation for us.

[00:51:18] You have a film recommendation you'd like to make for this week.

[00:51:21] What have you seen recently, Chris, that you would like to recommend to our audience?

[00:51:24] So this is actually a film I watched.

[00:51:27] I don't actually remember when, but it was a couple of months ago and I think I got it

[00:51:31] through, okay, it was back in June.

[00:51:33] So it was a while ago, but I saw it through like a critics link and then it didn't make

[00:51:37] it to local theaters.

[00:51:38] And then I didn't know if at one point we would maybe bring it for our film society.

[00:51:41] So I never reviewed it, never talked about it here on the show.

[00:51:44] Well, now I see that it is available on max or what I just always call HBO, but it's not

[00:51:50] HBO max, but it's now just simply max, but it's available in that.

[00:51:54] It's Tuesday and the film is about a mother and her teenage daughter who must confront death

[00:52:00] because the daughter has cancer when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.

[00:52:06] That right there sounds kind of odd.

[00:52:08] I mean, it stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the mom and Lola Pettico as the daughter who I was

[00:52:14] unfamiliar with her.

[00:52:15] I think this is maybe one of her first films, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus, I mean, she's just

[00:52:21] been good in so many films.

[00:52:25] Enough said, and then You Hurt My Feelings, but we've talked about those on the show.

[00:52:31] And then she's now in this and she just is so good in this film.

[00:52:37] If it had been more widely seen, I think maybe there's a chance that she would get some Oscar

[00:52:41] attention, but because, you know, I don't think it has gotten any attention at all, but

[00:52:45] there are people that are out there that are specifically championing her performance and

[00:52:50] I add me to that list.

[00:52:52] So it is, it is a, you know, kind of a heavy film, but it is really, it's really, really

[00:52:58] well done and it sounds, it does have some, the fantastical element about, yes, this giant

[00:53:04] talking bird.

[00:53:06] The giant talking bird about death and bringing death.

[00:53:10] Yes.

[00:53:10] But it's, it's, I feel like it's really well done and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is amazing in

[00:53:15] it.

[00:53:15] And the director has only made short films.

[00:53:18] This is her feature film debut.

[00:53:20] She's from Croatia.

[00:53:21] She lives in London.

[00:53:23] So it's English speaking film.

[00:53:24] Um, her name, I tell you all that because I am not exactly sure how you pronounce this

[00:53:29] Croatian name.

[00:53:30] Maybe Diana Onuas Pusek.

[00:53:33] Who knows?

[00:53:34] Good attempt.

[00:53:34] Yeah.

[00:53:35] I think that works.

[00:53:36] And you know, maybe if this film gets more recognition, we'll find out how to say her

[00:53:39] name.

[00:53:39] Yeah.

[00:53:40] But anyways, it's a Tuesday.

[00:53:42] It's available on max.

[00:53:44] If you're looking for something a little different outside the norm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

[00:53:48] performance, maybe you're a big fan of hers.

[00:53:50] I say, check out Tuesday.

[00:53:53] Yeah.

[00:53:53] Yeah.

[00:53:53] And you know, I know it's still maybe a little early to be talking nominations for acting,

[00:54:00] but I have heard some rumblings for Julia Louis-Dreyfus performance in Tuesday.

[00:54:05] It's kind of made me want to seek it out.

[00:54:07] You're right.

[00:54:07] We did have that under consideration for bringing to our film society screening and it just

[00:54:12] never worked out time-wise or options-wise.

[00:54:14] So glad to hear you caught up with it and are recommending it.

[00:54:18] So that sounds really good.

[00:54:20] Sounds tough and depressing.

[00:54:22] So I need to be in the right mindset maybe?

[00:54:24] I mean, it is.

[00:54:25] I mean, the daughter is suffering from, you know, terminal case of cancer.

[00:54:28] So it is, it is heavy.

[00:54:30] I think that's where Dreyfus actually adds some, I mean, she adds something to every film,

[00:54:36] but in this, she is playing a grieving mother and she's struggling, but you know, she has little

[00:54:42] moments of kind of comedy and just the way she, and you can tell like, yeah, this is a very

[00:54:47] talented person.

[00:54:48] And she, her performance keeps it from just being a slog, you know, because she, the way

[00:54:54] she, you know, delivers lines and kind of her way at looking at things.

[00:54:58] So it's, it is heavy, but it's, it's, it's rewarding.

[00:55:02] Okay.

[00:55:02] Good.

[00:55:03] Good.

[00:55:03] Sounds great.

[00:55:04] Then that is Tuesday available on what was normally known as HBO is now max max.

[00:55:09] That is where you can see it online along with renting it through any typical VOD service

[00:55:15] as well.

[00:55:16] Yeah.

[00:55:16] Sure.

[00:55:17] All right, Chris.

[00:55:18] Well, I think that wraps us up for today.

[00:55:19] Our review of piece by piece, our teaser trailers for both the brutalist and Wolfman are a little

[00:55:26] bit of our Christopher Nolan update that will probably be completely invalidated by the time

[00:55:31] we finish recording on this.

[00:55:32] It's fun to think about between now and when we find out it's fun to have rumors.

[00:55:35] I'm curious to see how completely different it is from the rumor that we were.

[00:55:39] It's a romantic comedy.

[00:55:41] Yeah, exactly.

[00:55:42] And then Chris's recommendation of Tuesday.

[00:55:44] So Chris, anybody who has some thoughts, questions, feedback, ideas, suggestions, conversation,

[00:55:50] starters, nitpicks, whatever it may be.

[00:55:53] How can they send those to us?

[00:55:55] You can send an email to info at foot candle.org.

[00:55:58] You can also find us on Twitter at foot candle film, Facebook foot candle film society, Instagram

[00:56:03] and threads.

[00:56:04] We're just simply foot candle film.

[00:56:06] Alan and I are on letterbox where we try to track what we're seeing and leave quick takes

[00:56:10] sometimes do us a favor.

[00:56:12] If you like the show, consider writing a review, share with friends or whatever service you

[00:56:17] receive your favorite podcast on because it'll help us reach listeners and we'd appreciate

[00:56:20] that.

[00:56:22] 2025 foot candle film festival.

[00:56:24] It's already in the planning stages.

[00:56:26] The dates are way, way in September or September 19th through the 28th of 2025.

[00:56:32] So, you know, mark your calendar if you want.

[00:56:34] Also, if you are a filmmaker, we open up for submissions November 1st.

[00:56:39] So that is not far away.

[00:56:40] So consider submitting to our festival.

[00:56:43] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:56:43] It's not too, not too soon, not too early to be thinking about our festival for next

[00:56:47] year.

[00:56:48] And like you said, submissions opening up November 1st.

[00:56:51] So can be a feature length films, documentaries, narratives, short films, youth oriented films,

[00:56:58] anything in between.

[00:56:59] Please help submit after November 1st.

[00:57:02] And we'd love to see about considering your films for our festival and next September.

[00:57:07] It'd be great.

[00:57:08] All right, everybody.

[00:57:09] Thanks everybody for listening.

[00:57:11] And we look forward to talking to you all next time.

[00:57:14] See you in the ticket line.

[00:57:55] Special thanks to Carpal Tuller for the show theme music.

[00:57:58] For more about Carpal Tuller, visit www.carpaltuller.com.

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