Presence

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH. Footcandle Films. Film news and reviews from two guys who really like movies. This episode is brought to you by the Footcandle Film Society. For a schedule of upcoming screenings and membership information, visit the Society's website at www.footcandle.org.

[00:00:34] Hello, everyone, and welcome to Footcandle Films here on the MESH.TV podcast network. My name is Alan Jackson. With me, Chris Fry. We are both with the Footcandle Film Society and the annual Footcandle Film Festival. Chris, how's it going today? It is going well. Had a good, nice kind of semi-restful weekend. That's always good. Took in the film that we're about to discuss.

[00:00:59] So, yeah, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on when Mr. Soderbergh's kind of return to the cinema. Well, the film Chris is teasing us about the review for is the film Presence. It is the latest from director Steven Soderbergh, who was also the cinematographer for this film, I believe, as well. And we're going to be reviewing that film here in just a moment.

[00:01:24] After we review the film Presence, we're going to have a little short discussion about the Oscar Academy Award nominations that were just announced last week. Just not going to run down all of them. Just going to give a couple little quick reactions and some highlights of some interesting nominees. We have a trailer to share of a film coming up. Chris is going to surprise me with that trailer. I don't know which one he's going to play. Hey, Chris, you're taking over the range. You're controlling the media this week. Scary. I know.

[00:01:53] And you're also going to wrap up the show with us with a recommendation for us as well, I believe. So, man, you're just kind of taking a whole lot of load on this show. I'm going to kind of push it over to you in the latter half and let you run with it. That means I get the bigger paycheck from this show. You do. You do. We'll have to renegotiate your pay after this episode because of your extra duties this week. With that, Chris, how about let's go ahead and get into our review of the film Presence.

[00:02:26] What's it like? What's what like? Scary. And it goes on.

[00:02:50] The world cracks apart. Steven Soderbergh is a filmmaker with a wide-ranging career from indies like Sex, Lies & Videotape

[00:03:15] to star-studded action comedies like Ocean's Eleven to experimental works like Bubble and Unsane. With Presence, Soderbergh and writer David Koepp tell the story of a family who moves into a new home only to become convinced they are not alone. I recently mentioned the film as being one of my most anticipated for 2025. Before I get into my thoughts, Alan, I'm curious, how was your experience with the film? Um, yeah, so my experience with Presence.

[00:03:45] And we did get to see it in theater as opposed to online, which is past two films, I believe, have both been. Well, Magic Mike's Last Dance was actually Mr. Soderbergh's last theatrical release from in 2023. So, yes, before that, Kimmy was a digital release and No Sudden Move, I think, is another one you're thinking of. That was also a HBO Max release. Okay. Uh, Presence, it was nice seeing a film in the theater. Yes.

[00:04:13] That was a nice, nice change for Mr. Soderbergh here. For me, anyway, I haven't seen a film of his in the theater in a while because I did not see the last Magic Mike movie. I missed that as well. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, so with Presence, um, yeah. Yeah. It was, yeah. It was, it was okay. It was all right. Look. You seem to be among the majority of people that I've heard. Look, it was fine. It was a, it was a, it was a hour and a half. Kiss of death. It was an hour and a half at the movie theater.

[00:04:43] I like the conceit of the film. I, I like the setup of the film. I was a little, I wish the film could have done a little more with everything it had in front of it. Cause I think it had a lot of elements to play with that it didn't go with or didn't choose to implement or use.

[00:05:07] I felt the, I have a few qualms with the, with the ending, but I can't really talk about it without spoiling it. But I'm just going to say, I think the film was, I think the film was good and that I did enjoy myself watching it. Um, I will say this is another example of please people do not listen to Hollywood marketing because they are going to lie to you. This is not a horror movie. Okay. I'll just go ahead and lay that out there. And that's fine. It's a ghost. It's a ghost story, but it's not a horror film. No.

[00:05:36] And the marketing really tried to play this up as the scariest movie I've seen this year type of thing. And that's just, that's an unfair expectation to put on this film. This film does not need to be measured on that basis. So that being said, I think for what it was meant to be, I think it was, I think it was good. It was good. Chris, I got a feeling you, you're a bit higher on it than I am. Yes. Okay. You, you're picking, you're picking up what I'm putting down. Um, yes, I was pretty high on this film.

[00:06:05] Um, I, you and I, as a general rule, we do go see horror movies strictly for the most part for this podcast. Cause neither one of us are like, Oh yes, we're not horror movie fans. It's just not something that, you know, it's not a John Rhys seek out. No. And we do go see the ones for the podcast that we think there'll be something substantive to talk about other than like, Oh yeah, there were a lot of jump scares. Like that's not what gets us going. You know, um, for this film specifically, I was interested because of the demand behind, behind the camera.

[00:06:35] And also directing the camera actually one in the same this time, like you mentioned, um, because Soderbergh was doing it. And I was like, okay, him doing whatever it is that he, the premise of this film that got me interested. What would, even though, like you're saying, don't go in thinking it's going to have jump scares. It's a harmony because you're not going to get that. But what would his take on something spooky or a ghost story? What would his take on that material be? Um, and I was happy with what I got.

[00:07:05] Um, I've seen folks online a little frustrated with, and you know, this, if you've seen the trailer, not the one that just had the names that we did on the show, but the one that actually showed some camera movement through the house, um, it is all from the presences perspective. Yes. I can see how people could get irritated with that. Think it gets boring. Um, I get it. Uh, for me though, it maintained the conceit of the movie.

[00:07:34] So it's kind of a limitation, but it was a limitation that the filmmaker put on themselves and was aware of it. And for me, because you were able to not cheat, if we look back at something like here from last year where they cheated sometimes or kind of at the end of the film where they like flip the perspective and you weren't looking out the way you weren't looking from this set perspective, which the whole film had been set up on. I feel like this film does not cheat. No, it stays true to it.

[00:08:00] It stays trapped in the house because the presence is trapped in the house. It never gets to leave. You also don't get typical, uh, shot compositions because it doesn't cheat with that. Like you don't, with the exception of sometimes when the presence gets extremely close to people, you don't have closeups. You don't really have medium shots. You basically have wide shots. I mean, some of them, sometimes the presence does get a little closer.

[00:08:27] So you get a little close up on some characters, but for the most part you don't. Um, this could be considered to be, I guess, something that I usually am not that big of a fan of slow cinema. It's set up at the beginning and it kind of slowly, you know, builds a little bit and then you get the ending, which I liked. I can see that you, you don't. Well, I mean, there's two parts to the ending. I had an issue with one part, not the other. Actually, I thought the other ending was genius. Yeah.

[00:08:57] So, uh, yeah. Um, so I liked that because slow cinema for me often is frustrating because it's not only a slow cinema, but I don't feel like it's communicating a lot to me. For example, I don't believe we reviewed this on the show, but we did have a foot candle screening of it. And our members almost ran us out of town. Janet planet. Um, I consider that to be kind of slow cinema with some cinematography shots, but just, there wasn't a whole lot going on.

[00:09:22] It was slow to progress this because I had the conceit of this is a ghost story. Now, granted, like you're saying, wasn't scary. And I didn't expect Soderbergh to do that type of film. So I was kind of had that in mind, like marketing is probably misleading here. Probably not going to be the scariest film I've ever seen. Right. But because I had that conceit of like, okay, something mysterious is going on trying to figure out.

[00:09:46] I actually appreciated there was a little bit of misdirection on who the presence was, which we do get to find that out at the end of the film, which I was satisfied with. I liked that reveal, but there is some misdirection on who the presence might be. Yeah. And I like that. Yes.

[00:10:06] Um, I have seen the complaint, which I, I get, um, that there's the characters that we see the family. Um, basically we see the family, we see the realtor at the very beginning, selling the family, the house. And then we have a friend of, um, the son of the family. And that that's basically it. So we have like four or five people and that does the complaint that they're pretty shallow.

[00:10:35] There's not a lot of depth there. There's not a lot of advancing a story. I, I get that complaint. Um, however, when you only get to communicate what these people are saying and doing when they're in this house, unless you have them doing a lot of expository dialogue, that would seem really fake that they're saying like what they are. Like I kind of get because of the conceit, because like I said, I'm giving this film a lot of leeway and I know a lot of people aren't.

[00:11:01] Well, I, I, I, it didn't surprise me that I, and yes, I will say. I'm going to continue defending this to my death. Um, not, not that I think it's a perfect film, but I will say too, not a lot of development. And there is one major thing that has to do with the relationship. Basically what's going on with the mom who's played by, um, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. Yeah.

[00:11:26] Um, she has some things that are left or just left plot. There's their left, um, and relationship with her son versus her daughter. And then the relationship with her husband. And okay. Also here's, here's me just, you know, defending the film to the death. So Soderbergh, I will accept your check as well for this defense.

[00:11:48] Um, I feel like supposedly, I think you mentioned on a previous show with our anticipated films, black bag is another film by Mr. Soderbergh. That's coming out. Um, that film has Michael Fassbender, um, Kate Blanchett, Kim Blanchett as well. Okay. And I think some others. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a big cast. It's kind of a spy thriller, you know? Okay. Shot. I don't know how long it took to shoot it.

[00:12:17] This film, I think was shot a very short time, very small budget. Lucy Liu is the only actor I recognized in it. Um, and I think it was kind of one of those things, which that's why I kind of had the lead in. He does these big star studied movies. He also does these things that are more experimental and small budget. And I think maybe he got, had some little extra money hanging around from black bag and was like, I'm going to do this. It's like film for you, film for me, film for you, film for me.

[00:12:46] Um, and not all of his experimental things have worked for me. Um, but this one, this one really did. And I think it was just because it was something different. Um, and I, I, I appreciate it. No, I, I'll, I'll let you talk back. Yeah. No, I look, I, I, I appreciate what was being performed in this film. And as soon as, I mean, I kind of knew what the conceit was going to be going into the film. I think it had kind of been mentioned already that, you know, you're seeing this whole film

[00:13:15] from the viewpoint of the presence. So I kind of knew that. But even if you didn't know that within the first three to four minutes, it's kind of clued you in. It's like, you know what's going on. Okay. You know what's happening. Sure. I liked the general story involved, the broad story. I like the, I love the, the question of the presence itself and identity of the presence and that kind of being a driving force in the story. All that was great.

[00:13:41] I think where the film just kind of distanced me a little bit is in the thing that you were just talking about. It's those, uh, other, the family members in general where I really struggled trying to understand what, what, what they wanted us to take away from this family. Cause ultimately, and I'm, I'm going to, I'll do this again without spoiling.

[00:14:05] Ultimately the story has to do with two family members at the end of the day. Correct. Okay. Two family members that I think that is the crux of the story that we are by the end of the film. When the credits start to roll, we realize, Oh, okay. Anyway, this film was about these two people. There are two other people around them that a lot of time is spent with that I felt like

[00:14:35] was more infuriating than it was anything building to the story. It's like, I get it. This idea is, is we're watching a dysfunctional family. This family has a lot of dysfunction. There's, there's a, there's, there's issues with almost every connection point between two members of the family to some degree or something of interest with them. And the film, I set up some really interesting things that I'm thinking, okay, how, how is

[00:15:02] this, how is this going to build toward this story I'm watching about the presence? I mean, the whole title of the film. The more you're, the more you're saying what you didn't like, the more I'm liking the film. Okay. Well, you're not really giving me a chance to explain everything with that. I'm just saying. I'm just thinking like, wow. Okay. But I mean, but yeah, that, but I, but understand, I think this is where we as a movie going public are with this is that I'm watching this film and I'm watching this couple that has some real issues behind it.

[00:15:29] And by three quarters of the way through the film, those issues become non-existent and slash kind of unimportant to anything else. So then it's just a matter of, okay, so what, what, what did this mean? What did, what did this stand for? What, why is it that this ending of the film that did work for me, the second ending, I'm saying the ending, like the last scene of the film, last shot, the, uh, Coda scene.

[00:15:57] I'll just say the, the kind of the last, I'll just say the mirror shot. How about that? Okay. I'll say that. I thought that was genius. Okay. Perfect. Great. That's the end of the film. That's the end of the film. Love it. But it just left me also not quite understanding what I was supposed to take from the Lucy Lou character, the Chris Sullivan character, the couple there, their relationship, the mom and dad, the relationship there, what was also happening and transpiring there, which

[00:16:27] was also, I think they were trying to be very indirect about it by letting you only hear what the presence was basically hearing about their relationship, which is great. Keeping with the structure of the film. Um, ultimately, what did it, what did it, what was it there for? Uh, to make it a feature as opposed to a short film. See, and there again, okay, well then make it a short film. I, I didn't see the point of that. That was the whole thing. If that was the reason, Chris, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the misdirection. No, that's fine. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the misdirection.

[00:16:55] I thought it was, I don't want everything answered. Yes. I was curious as far as her job. Apparently she might've the mom, I'm talking about Lucy Lou's character, the mom here. She may have been doing some illegal things that may have been how they were able to afford this house. The father seems to be struggling with the marriage, but also with some anxiety and, um, something else we can talk about without spoiling things. Um, you'll have to help me, but I think I'm pretty clear on the specifics here.

[00:17:22] The daughter had a friend who I forget. Is it Naomi? Is that her name? I don't remember the names. Yeah. The daughter had a friend who died unexpectedly and it was very tragic and upset her. And the family has moved to this new location. I think because to try to kind of generate a fresh start, um, there are dynamics with the mom and the son that I alluded to where she seems to kind of play favorites with the

[00:17:51] son and the house is in a school district that is going to let the son, uh, maybe some sports things going on with the son that, that really benefit him. And that causes tension between the mother and father because he's like, Hey, you've got two kids here, you know, and he is more in tune with the suffering that the daughter has gone through with this loss of this friend.

[00:18:15] Um, and the daughter is the one for the majority of the film, I believe, um, has more of an experience with this presence. The rest of the family does eventually kind of come around like, okay, something they hire kind of like the poltergeist moment when the woman comes in and kind of says like she feels some things and stuff. So that happens as well. Um, my take on everything, which I think you're talking about, you know, both of us agree

[00:18:41] or both of us like the second ending you're saying, but the culminating big, what's not an action sequence, which is just how I have to refer to it, an action sequence that happens that is kind of an ending before that last ending. Um, what I took away from the film, that's how I can encapsulate it. What I took away from the film is that it was something, somebody trying to make something

[00:19:06] right because the, the daughter, the girl is endangered and ultimately is made safe of, let's see what her name is. Her name is Cece. Is that the daughter's name? No, Chloe. Chloe's the daughter. Chloe's the daughter. Cece's the realtor, I think. But so I can actually say names here, but Chloe, she's the one who's experiencing the presence for the most part of the film and then something is made right.

[00:19:36] Um, and it's just, I liked, and I liked the surprise kind of the circular thing. It was something that kind of seems like a six cent Shyamalan type thing. If you could still pull that type of thing off. Um, so I, I, uh, yeah, I just, I appreciated it. Okay. But I can see, I can see your frustration, others' frustration. Well, there again, I mean. Storylines and threads not going anywhere. Right.

[00:20:03] Because there again, everything that culminates at the end, which again, I thought the ending reveal was very effective. The mirror. And it worked. Right. Without any other of the family dynamics needing to be explored. That I felt like were explored. And I mean, I think you're right, Chris. I think they were there to pad the running time, which is never something I want a film to do because I don't feel like there was any other rationale for it.

[00:20:28] But so it just, it led me to, it almost felt like the film was trying to distract you, which is fine. And it was. But I didn't want to be distracted. I didn't need to be distracted. I wanted, I mean, I think, you know, if we're going to put time and energy into anything, I want to feel like there's some value to it and some rationale for it. And I don't feel like by the end, even, even the dynamics between the mother and the father, which I was generally interested in. I'm like, Ooh, what is going on here? This is, this is, this is really interesting because things are being handed at.

[00:20:59] But even by the end of the film, there's a dialogue between the father and the daughter where he's just like, yeah, you know, there's stuff going on, but I've just decided to like, let it not affect me and not be a big deal about it. I'm like, Oh, so that's how we as a viewer are supposed to be about it too. It's just like, eh, whatever. It's not a big deal. It's not important. So don't worry about it anymore. I am giving you the excuse viewer to forget everything in the past hour of the film that was brought up to intrigue you. And I just want you to focus on this.

[00:21:28] Like, okay. Had this been a huge budget film with big actors and they would have spent, you know, two months shooting or something, then I would probably be a lot more critical of the stuff you're bringing up because of kind of the experimental nature. And I was more long for, and I was forgiving because it worked. I agree. It is, you know, like I said, padding the film misdirection, but misdirection that I enjoyed being misdirected by.

[00:21:57] I enjoyed being directed by it until I realized that there was no point to being directed to it. And that's when it lost me at that point. Again, look, I'm coming right back out and saying, I like this film. I thought it was good. I, I, I, I would definitely bought in more on the conceit and the concept. Could it have been a 30 minute short film that would have been extremely effective? Oh my gosh. Yeah. That would have been great. And I'm great.

[00:22:25] Look, the writing time, it wasn't like a long, it was an hour 25, which is still very, very short by today's standards, which was great. Cause you know how I complained about that and I liked the length. Yeah. And I, I liked the fact that the film, uh, does change gears in a good way to where, yes, you are watching a ghost story, but it actually turns and becomes something even more dangerous. Thriller. Yeah. But I mean, that was the scariest part of the film for me.

[00:22:55] Um, is the part, anything not having to do with the presence that was happening inside between, uh, had it turned out boy and girl, I still would have liked the film, but I would have been really, really upset. No, it was a, it was a terrifying scene. That was seen as a terrifying scene. Yes. I will say this, the month of the movie yet, the movie is not a horror film in that sense that they're trying to market it. And from that standpoint, but, but the scene, uh, that we're discussing towards the end, the thriller scene was very scary. Yep.

[00:23:24] And then I will say the, the last shot, the, the mirror, the mirror scene shot. Yeah, it got me. So I'm like, okay, for those, for those two reasons alone. Yes. I'm saying the movie is good. I just, I just really question the choices made with, with other characters in the film. Um, yeah, because it's, it's just, it's frustrating as an audience member to, to be teased about

[00:23:52] things that are happening and then being basically told, eh, forget it. Don't worry about it. Not important. Focus on this instead. All this other stuff was just so we could make it in, uh, close to 90 minutes, uh, to get in some theaters. Um, that I, I didn't care for that, but, but otherwise I thought the rest of the movie was, was good. I, uh, I, I hear your misgivings. Um, I'll say too, if I'm going to, since I've just done nothing but praise the film,

[00:24:20] I will say, I think in a way there was moment that I saw that I'd have to watch it again to see specifically why it was done. Uh, the presence can affect things sometimes or does certain things. Sometimes, um, there was a moment where it kind of did what I felt like. And there again, maybe you can correct me and say, oh, well, this is the purpose it served. Um, it kind of had a haunted mansion moment where it like moves some books and stuff like that.

[00:24:49] And other than that, there was never anything that like obvious that it did. Um, well, I was kind of like, that was the first time we saw the presence kind of do something that would be noticed by other people. Yeah. And that to me felt a little, a little hokey. Maybe it was, it was a little hokey. Now, granted there was a whole closet shelves collapsing for that, which I was on board. Yeah, I was too. I'll admit there was a shot. Yes. That you see again from the presences viewpoint and something that it's doing, moving some things.

[00:25:19] And yeah, it looked, it looked kind of hokey. And I didn't understand. And maybe all the other things that the presence did or whatever effect in the film, I bought all that. Yeah. But that one thing I was like, was that just to kind of wake us up? Cause you're like, okay, this is a goose. I'm not, I think it was more of, it wanted to give something visual to the main character that, oh, Hey, somebody's here doing something. Right. Right. Right. And I didn't, I think there could have been a better way of doing that for sure than, than what they did. Okay.

[00:25:44] Um, and I will still, I will still question the last scene, the quote action scene, um, um, the thriller scene, the thriller scene, the action that the presence takes to remedy a situation involving, I think we're supposed to believe it's a, or we're supposed to believe in the film. It's a form of possession. It's a, I don't know.

[00:26:14] I'm still struggling with that. I don't think it was done very well. Yeah. Yeah. The presence doesn't know who it is. Right. Understood. Yeah. And so I think in the thriller sequence, the presence is able to get somebody to, the presence is, is able to get somebody to save somebody, but it doesn't know. All it knows is that it wants somebody to be saved. And the only reason, yeah.

[00:26:41] The reason it is able to do that because who it is. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I still, I'm just remember watching that last scene and it happens very quick. This is one of those films where, and I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I'm just saying this is one of those films that, uh, test the patience of people that have low, short attention spans. It's slow burn. It is one of those where you will watch a film for an hour and 20 minutes with slow movements, very little happening.

[00:27:09] Once it does happen, it's very quick and short and it just kind of keeps going. But then it builds to a one scene, one sequence, one shot. That's like within two or three minutes, like big. Oh yeah. And that's what this film is. Sure. And if you're okay with that, it works. I mean, cause there is that scene, there is that moment where it's like, okay, everything just heightened up and ramped up and now it's a big shot. And now that's the, that's how the film is going to end up. Um, I, I just, I feel like that sequence was, it was a little clunky, little, little tough.

[00:27:39] I just, I, I just watched it last night and I'm just like, uh, I just felt like that kind of got botched. Now I will say, man, I will say the following Coda scene again, the mirror scene at the end kind of helped make up for some of that where I felt like that shot in that scene was so effective. I was, I left the film with an overall good impression, but if it hadn't been for that last little scene, that last mirror scene would have been tough.

[00:28:07] I did not want the movie to end where I was afraid it was going to end, which is, I'm just going to say the presence looking out the window. If it had ended there, I would have been Chris Fry. I would have been pissed. Okay. Okay. But it gave me that ending shot, the ending sequence. And I'm like, okay, all right, movie, you worked. It worked for me. You did it. Good job, movie. Thank you. So I'll say, um, something else, not, not really a point of defense, but a point of reference for people.

[00:28:36] Um, cause we've talked about this, not being a horror movie, kind of being a ghost story, slow burn cinema. We've thrown all these terms out. Um, I can't remember. I'd have to get our intern to tell me whether or not you and I reviewed this. I guess I'll have to ask you if you've seen it. Uh, David Lowery is a ghost story. We did not review it. Okay. Have you seen it? No. Okay. Okay. So I've seen that film. Um, I liked, I liked it. Okay. It wasn't as much as I, it was kind of a very slow burn cinema, but if you've seen a ghost

[00:29:05] story, it's all about Casey Affleck wears a sheet. So you can't really tell it's him. And he's this ghost that inhabits this house. And it's very much a ghost story as the title would imply from the ghost perspective. Right. But instead of just seeing his viewpoint with camera angles and everything, you actually see a ghost with a sheet that nobody else does. That was an interesting exploration about. You know, souls being trapped somewhere or something.

[00:29:30] This kind of took that idea and a was a lot shorter and I think had a little bit more of kind of a, the thriller moment that you talk about. And then the ending just kind of, I prefer this over that. Plus that was, I think, uh, Rooney Mara was in that as well. So, you know, it was a little bit more of a hyped budget wise film and everything. But, um, if you liked that movie, um, you might really appreciate presence.

[00:29:57] Unfortunately, of the, the two 2025 Soderbergh films that come out, I imagine this one's going to do nothing. So funny. You shouldn't mention that. Um, I just, I'm doing a little plug. Okay. I started, I started another podcast, Chris. I'm not traitor. I'm not cheating on you. Okay. This is a complimentary podcast. It's under the foot candle umbrella. It is. And I'm not doing it with anybody else. So don't worry. There's no cohost jealousy to worry about, but I did start presence in the room. There's no presence. Well, I mean, there might be, I don't know.

[00:30:26] It's a, it's a box office podcast talking about box office. Cause again, I'm, I'm here with you to talk art and cinema and we talk films and we review, we talk about it from a very, uh, critical standpoint of art. But on the other podcasts, I get to talk about the money side because I am also interested in that. There's a side of my brain that loves that. I don't know how much money this movie. I do. This movie made, um, about $3 million, which is not a lot.

[00:30:57] However, the budget of this film was only $2 million. Okay. So you know what? Mr. Soderbergh, this is the lowest grossing, uh, release film that Soderbergh's ever done. Okay. Like in a wide release movie theater. Uh, he did a film called, is it un, un, unsane, unsane. Yeah. I mentioned it in the opening. Yeah. Yeah. That was like his lowest grossing film up to date. This one actually went lower, but it's also, I think one of his smallest budget wide release films. Gotcha. So, yeah. I mean, you know, nobody's hurting because of this.

[00:31:26] I mean, you know, and yes, I will, I do tend to give a film a little bit more leeway. It's like if I know it was done on a very low budget with very few or zero star power behind it. It's like, yeah. Yeah. If you can pull off an entertaining film that, that works for the most part, and that's a, that's a credit to the film. I'm all for it. But yeah. Um, but yeah, I, I will say the, uh, the teenage boys that were in the theater with me last night

[00:31:51] to see this film, uh, were not terribly impressed from what I could tell. They will not become Soderbergh fans. I don't think so. No, I don't. And again, I feel for them if they were bought into the marketing again, I think anytime you use, I mean, I'm looking at the movie poster right now and the quote on it says it terrifies you, then leaves your heart on the floor. I'm like, okay. I mean, maybe the one thriller scene does. But the word terrify and then other, other press quotes have said scariest.

[00:32:20] They're not doing, they're not doing the film anything. They're not helping at all. So, uh, yeah, that's where we are. Well, similarly, uh, I saw the film in a theater with one other person who was a film critic. So, so it was, it was, um, but that person appreciated the film. Um, Soderbergh fan, you know, film critics. So they, but they did comment. Yeah, this film's going to make no money. And I said, yep, I think you're probably right. I could not believe, did you see it in the big Dolby, big D cinema?

[00:32:49] I did not. I could not believe that it was being run. Is that where you saw it? No, I did not. But that was, that was my, it was an option I had last night. Okay. And, uh, to see it in the big D cinema, big Dolby cinema. And I'm like, what really? This film is getting put in the Dolby cinema. There might've been some sound things that it could have been. No, no. I think it would have been great in the Dolby cinema. I'm just saying from a theater business standpoint, really, you put this film in your biggest screening theater. Um, yeah. Mark Wahlberg's right there.

[00:33:20] We did not review flight risk. I, I, um, I don't think we're, I've seen the trailer. I think I've seen the movie, but yeah, I think we know what the deal is there. So, all right. Well, that's presence. It is, uh, uh, go run out and see it quickly if you want to go see it. Cause I don't think it's going to be around very long. But, um, and I think the shame of it is if like I, this movie at home on a TV, I don't think would be quite as effective on a big screen, like, you know, my home theater at

[00:33:48] home actually would have been a pretty good, it'd be a, it'd be a decent viewing experience. And maybe it would be creepy because it all takes place in a house and you're watching it in your house. Okay. Okay. How about it? So this is a film I actually think could work as long as you're not watching it on like a little old tube TV, uh, you know, or watching it on your iPad or something like that. It's like, yeah, your iPhone. Right. Yeah. Okay. That is presence. The latest from Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp. Uh, yeah.

[00:34:14] I mean, again, I'm warmly positive on it and Chris is very positive on it. So yeah. All right. Fair enough. Chris, let's take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk some Oscar nominations. We're going to talk, um, trailer of a new film coming out that we're going to criticize and talk about. And I think you have a recommendation to share as well. So we've got plenty more to do here on foot candle films. We'll be right back in just a moment.

[00:34:47] So the trailer that we can, if you want to pull it up, uh, will be one for Opus. Opus O P U S. Yes. Okay. All right. Not the camper company. Nope. Okay. This would be the, it's a 24. Yes. You got it. Got it. All right. Found it.

[00:35:16] Has IO a debris, the girl from the bear. Oh, right. Right. Right. I don't know how you say your name. Yes. Got it. Okay. Got it. All right. Well, let's come back. We'll just do a quick Oscar nomination chat. Sure. Here we come back then in three, two. Welcome back to foot candle films here on the mesh.tv podcast network.

[00:35:45] We had our review of the film presence on the first half of the show. So now let's turn our attention to some newsworthy items. Chris, the Academy Awards announced their Oscar nominations last week. So we have the nomination list for the 97th Academy Awards in front of us. We're not going to spend a lot of time on this because I know we'll be taught. We've already talked a lot about predictions of the nominees. And of course, we'll talk once the awards happen, we'll kind of recap those.

[00:36:14] But how about let's just kind of hit a couple of the bigger categories just really quick. And I just want you to tell me, Chris, were there any real surprises from your standpoint or happiness on any of the one that you didn't expect to be nominated that actually were? Okay. I'm just always curious to see where people fall on this. So let me start with actor in a leading role, best actor role. We had Adrian Brody for The Brutalist, Timothy Chalamet, A Complete Unknown,

[00:36:42] Coleman Domingo for Sing Sing, Ray Fines for Conclave, and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice. Any real surprises there for you? So Sebastian Stan with The Apprentice. Okay. I've seen The Apprentice. He's good in it. But I would have preferred him to maybe be recognized for a different man, which he's also really good in. We've talked about it on the show. But that is a surprise for me. All the other ones I feel like were Shewins.

[00:37:11] But Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice. Yeah, that's a surprise. I will say I don't know who they would have used to fill his slot, but I feel like A Complete Unknown has been beat up. Timothy Chalamet. Not his performance, per se, but the film, A Complete Unknown, I feel like, has been just run through the gauntlet. So not that I was surprised to see him get nominated because people haven't bashed his performance, but I was like, well, okay, they're at least going to give him a nomination.

[00:37:39] Like I say, I don't know who they would have swapped him out with. Yeah, I know. I was trying to look at my prediction list, and I did have Sebastian Stan for A Different Man as well. However, I saw The Apprentice this weekend. Okay. I had not seen it yet. Okay. Okay. Look, I mean, I'd absolutely love A Different Man. The movie is one of my favorites of the year. Very good movie. I think Sebastian Stan is really good in it.

[00:38:08] In my opinion, he might be just a tad better even than The Apprentice. Okay. Because I like A Different Man better, you know, as just an overall film. But I will agree with you because he's playing Donald Trump. Well, he's playing- And so you have that level of difficulty of not just, which, you know, you could talk about with Timmy C. Chalamet and Bob Dylan. He is representing a real person. Yeah. So everybody knows that goes to see the film, or whatever, I know who this real person is. Are you strictly just mimicking them?

[00:38:38] Or aping them? Or are you just doing a hairstyle? I didn't feel like he was. Or do you feel like there's- And yes, he gives a very layered- Yeah. I think there's a lot of layers to that performance. So I guess if you were doing difficulty, and you're saying like, okay, level of difficulty between A and B, then yeah, I could see you being a good dress. I mean, believe me, A Different Man is a much better movie. I did not think The Apprentice was a great movie, but I think his performance was probably a little more challenging, a little more award criteria worthy than his performance in A Different Man. So, yeah. Agreed.

[00:39:09] I'm still not the biggest fan of Chalamet's performance. I still- You don't need to beat up a complete on that anymore. I know. But I'm fine with all the others. I think everybody else is good. Now, Adrian Brody is going to be interesting. If you've heard all the hubbub about The Brutalist and the- But it's not about his performance, though. Well, I mean- It's not about AI being used. AI was used to help supplement some dialect for the lead actors. Oh. Is my understanding.

[00:39:39] Okay. That I did not know. Some of the accent, some of the foreign language was being processed by AI. Huh. Okay. So it does kind of pose a question. I knew there were complaints about AI, but I thought it was like visuals. There was that, too. There was also a visual component late in the film with some drawings of different architectural drawings. That's what I'd heard about. Yeah. I hadn't heard the whole accent thing. Interesting. Now- Is any of it- Is any of it has been proven, or is it just accusations? No, I think it's-

[00:40:07] Yeah, I think it's absolutely proven stuff. But again, I don't personally have a problem with it, but I'm just curious if it's going to affect his chances. Huh. Because I think going into this, this is- I still think this is his to walk away with. Oh, his to- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got you. All right. So we'll see what happens there. I'm just going in the order that they've got them on the website. Sure. Actor in a Supporting Role. Yura Borisov with Anora. Kieran Culkin with A Real Pain. Ed Norton, a complete unknown. A little surprising there.

[00:40:37] Guy Pearce, the Brutalist. And Jeremy Strong, the Apprentice. And I'm trying to look back at my predictions on this. We didn't do a prediction on Supporting Actors. So I am overall good with these. I'm fine on these. Chris, are you? Yeah, I mean, I'm fine with whatever, you know. But I am surprised and pleased that Yura Borisov made it on there for Anora. Not surprised Kieran Culkin made it for The Real Pain. We talked about how, you know, a lot of people say it should be leading.

[00:41:07] But not surprised to see him here. Kind of for the same reason of Sebastian Stan with The Apprentice. I am surprised to see Jeremy Strong's performance. But good and really strong. But surprised that just the film is being recognized. Not his performance. But that, so, you know. Well, again, I think the Academy Awards are recognized in these two performances. Which I think are warranted. Because they are really, really good performances. Other people doing these roles, you can't imagine. Jeremy Strong does Roy.

[00:41:37] Is it Roy or Ray? Uh-oh. Cone. Cone. Cone's the last name. Roy Cone. Roy Cone. Okay. Yeah. I can't imagine somebody else doing that. Shoot. So good. He's so good. So it's funny. He's up against another succession person. Yeah, yeah. In the same role. That's been kind of a little bit of a joke there. Okay, yeah. You got, I forget their names from the show. But yes, the two brothers. Roman is Kieran Culkin. And then Kendall. Kendall. Kendall and Roman. Yeah. Going at it.

[00:42:06] No, I think this is a good category. I was a little surprised with Edward Norton's nomination. But I'm okay with it. I think he's good. Okay. Yeah. You never know because of like drama here. Ed Norton, I like him as an actor. If you believe some of the stuff that you hear, which never met the man, sometimes he can be kind of difficult to work with. And I feel like this is the most un-Ed Norton I've ever seen Ed Norton be. Yeah.

[00:42:36] And because it's playing this kind of low-key character. And, you know, I thought he was really good. Because he's, you know, he's playing Pete Seeger. And he's just this very, yeah, I don't know. It's just very, so I can see them kind of rewarding. And he is kind of an interesting counterpoint to Chalamet's Bob Dylan. I enjoyed every moment that Ed Norton's character, Pete Seeger, was on the screen. There.

[00:43:02] And so, yes, I think if that warrants a good performance, then that's the measurement I will use. And so I'm fine with that. I'm fine. Of the three acting nominations for A Complete Unknown. Oh, are you going to slam my Joan Baez? I'm not going to slam. She's good. But is it top five out of this? I don't know. But I think probably Ed Norton might be the best of the three performance-wise. Anyway. All right. Wow. Okay.

[00:43:32] I'm just throwing bums, controversies, and everything all over the place. You hate Non-Complete on that. I do not hate the film. Actually, I think I'll put it as one of my biggest surprises of the year. It was actually a bigger surprise for me. I liked it. But it's a lot of love for this film that is still at its root. It's still a pretty straightforward biopic. Yeah. Anyway. No disclaimer from me on that. Yeah. No pushback on that. Actress in a leading role. Okay.

[00:43:59] So I'm going to say, I think this is the category I've got the most issue with because, yeah. Okay. Actress in a leading role. We have Cynthia Urvio for Wicked. Carlos Sofia Gascon for Amelia Perez. Mikey Madison for Anora. Demi Moore for The Substance. And Fernanda Torres for I'm Still Here. Full disclosure, I have not seen I'm Still Here. So I cannot comment on Ms. Torres' performance. But, again, so that one I'm putting off to the side. Can't make a judgment on that.

[00:44:27] I will say that Mikey Madison for Anora was on my list. And actually, one I was kind of pulling for to say I think she's got a good chance of winning. So that one was great. Cynthia Urvio. So, yes, she was on my short list of like sixth or seventh on my list of best female performances. So I'm okay with that one. Carla Garcia Gascon. I wish I thought her performance was better in Amelia Perez.

[00:44:57] Again, I still feel like – I personally still feel like Zoe Saldana is a lead in that film. So I was more in favor of Zoe Saldana getting a nom. But I know she's been relegated to the supporting actress role. So, anyway, and then Demi Moore just – it was a daring performance. And I think it's a bonkers movie to get nominated. And I'm all for that.

[00:45:23] But I just don't think her performance was all – it's cracked up to be – I think it's a lot more of a recognition of career than it is a truly a good performance in this film. So that's where I am with it. Not that it's a bad performance. No. It's just not a standout performance. None of these are bad performances. It's just top five of the year. Gotcha. I mean, I'm sorry, but Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths is sitting right there next to you. It's like that one should have been there. Amy Adams for Night Bitch could have been in there. Julia Louise Dreyfuss for Tuesday could have been in there.

[00:45:53] I still say Nicole Kidman for Baby Girl could have been there. I mean, all of those are ones. Kirsten Dunst for Civil War. It's like we've talked about these good performances for the year. Alan, you need to be an Academy member. What's going on? Again, she was fine. In the movie, I didn't care for the movie that much, but she was good in it. But top five of the year, these performances, when we got such strong performances all around her, I don't know. Anyway, that's done. Rant over. Backslash rant. Done.

[00:46:22] So your thoughts, Chris? Anything? So I share your surprise that Demi Moore made it for The Substance. It's not a bad performance, but just top five? Interesting. Interesting. Fernando Torres, I've seen I'm Still Here. It is a good performance. One of the top five of the year? I don't know. And what surprised me as well is that the film I'm Still Here is nominated for International Feature. Yes.

[00:46:46] So trying to give recognition to the film, I thought, oh, not surprising that it's one of the five for International Feature. It's surprising that the actress snuck in for, not snuck in, but was nominated for a leading role. Surprised for that nomination, Demi Moore. Mikey Madison, not surprised because of all the critical love for that film. Sure. So not surprised she got nominated. Wicked, no, Cynthia, no, not surprised. Then there comes Emilia Perez.

[00:47:15] My feelings on that film have been documented. We reviewed it here on the show. Not a bad performance. I think I may actually be a little higher on Carlos Gascón's performance in Emilia Perez, but the film overall I'm not high on. So I'm surprised it got as many nominations as it did. It did get a lot of nominations. And like I was higher on the film than you were. I did find myself enjoying the film. Do I believe it's one of the best films of the year? Probably not.

[00:47:45] There are some other films I think got overlooked for it. But I think it's just hitting kind of culturally on a lot of hot spots and points of recognition. And I'm all for that. I think, you know, representation is great. I think films need to do even better with that. And the award nominations need to represent that as well. However, I mean, if we're going to boil it down to actual performances, what we see on the screen performance wise. Yeah. I don't think it was one of the top five. So that's just me on that.

[00:48:16] Again, I feel like there were just too many others warranted in this category. So I will say best actress. This is my most contentious category as far as I'm concerned. Fair enough. All right. Actress in a supporting role. We had Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown. Yay! Happy for you. She's good. I actually called her out in the review. I thought she was really good. Again, top five? I don't know. But that's fine.

[00:48:42] I can't come up with another alternative to replace her with. So she's fine to stay in there. I see. Okay. Ariana Grande for Wicked. I was in favor of that. I thought both she and Irvio were both good. And I'm happy with them getting some recognition. Felicity Jones for The Brutalist. Absolutely. Happy there. Isabella Rossellini for Conclave. Short role. But it did have an impact. And I think it was a good performance in a very limited amount of screen time. It's kind of the Judi Dench role. It is.

[00:49:11] Was it Shakespeare in Love where she was Queen Elizabeth for like five seconds? Yeah. That's, I mean, I feel like, and not that she did a bad job, just like his, but you talk about supporting. It's like, ooh, supporting, supporting. Yeah. Supporting the supporters. Right. Yeah. Right. Then Zoe Saldana for Amelia Perez, which, again, I thought it was a lead performance. Kind of disappointed it's relegated to a supporting role. But regardless, I think that was the best performance of the five. Me personally.

[00:49:38] Now there again, I'm not saying that the film is one of the best films of the year. Sure. But I think her performance is so good in this. Got you. I'm with her on this or Felicity Jones for the Brutalist. I feel like are the two, the two winners for me. Anyway, your thoughts on this category? Any takeaways? You know, not really. Other than surprised that I, Isabella Rosalini conclave. I kind of hinted, you know, I mean, but like you say, off the top of my head, I can't think of somebody to replace her.

[00:50:08] So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. And Zoe Saldana, I have the same reservation. It seems like she would have been in the leading category. She's the first character we see in the film. She has two or three musical numbers. Yeah, sure. We're following. It's her, her reaction and experience with everybody around her. I don't know. Right. I don't understand that. But anyway, whatever. I mean, I'm not saying that the film, the award is less prestigious because of supporting or lead. I don't believe that at all.

[00:50:36] I think supporting actors, actor, actresses roles are extremely important and award worthy performances. But I just, I felt like she needed to be in competition for lead. But anyway. Okay. Um, all right. Let's just hit a couple more categories. Uh, directing Chris. Uh, we had five directing nominations. We have Sean Baker for Anora, Brady Corbet for the brutalist, James Mangold for a complete unknown, Jacques Adiard for Amelia Perez and Coraline.

[00:51:05] Uh, I'll tell you, uh, three of these I thought were kind of no brainers. I expected, I expected Sean Baker for Anora. I expected Brady Corbet for the brutalist and I expected, uh, Jacques Adiard for Amelia Perez, even despite people not always buying into the film. I did think he was going to get a nomination for director. Gotcha. Um, lukewarm on James Mangold for a complete unknown because of all the things that the film

[00:51:33] could be called out for directing is not the thing that I would say needs to be awarded for it. Gotcha. And then Coralie Fergo, I thought was a real shock. I'm happy because I've like, I think you were the one Chris come in to me. I agree. It's, it's nice to see the Academy Awards kind of nominate a over the top bonkers, grotesque horror movie. And especially a female director directing it. I'm like, I'm all for it.

[00:52:02] I have all the things I will give the substance. I will give a directing nod to it because I do think, you know, shepherding that production. Yes. I think that was quite a feat and, uh, I'll give credit for that. So, um, anyway, your thoughts on the directing category. Surprised, surprised to see the substance nominated for directing. But like you say, for all the reasons you said, okay, I get, I get why, but just, just surprised just because I guess it's kind of the everything everywhere all at once.

[00:52:30] It's like, okay, let's put in something that's going to be a little more genre, a little more genre splitting, a little more, uh, you know, yeah. Edgy. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. And because of all the, uh, bandwagon hate for complete unknown, I was surprised that that made it on the list. But I like the film. I like the film more than others. So again, I walk out of that film and I'm thinking, all right, this film can get some recognition for some acting because I do think the performances are good.

[00:52:59] I think I could see, you know, obviously anything having to do with music and sound design and so forth in the film worked really well. Directing is not the thing I'd walk away from. Oh man, that was a, just a really great directed film. It's like, yeah, it was kind of a by the numbers directed film. So I don't know. I was a little disappointed with that. But, uh, the, the people I was disappointed that didn't get included. There are several of them. Ramel Ross for Nickel Boys. Yeah.

[00:53:28] Nickel Boys overall didn't, they got a little bit of love, but not a lot. Not as much as I thought. They got a Best Picture nom, we'll mention it in a little bit. And they got a adapted screenplay, but that was it. Nothing for Ramel Ross as the director. Mm-hmm. Robert Eggers for Nosferatu. Should have been a director. Okay. Uh, and then, oh, this one, this one hurts. This is the big. Challengers. Got nothing. Luca Guadagnino for Challengers. Man. Nothing. I mean, no acting, no directing, definitely no Best Picture.

[00:53:57] Not even soundtrack, which I mean, I thought that was a shoe in. Reznor and Ross have been kind of favorites of, of, of late. They've gotten a lot of, yeah, I will admit that overall, overall, other than Substance getting his main nominations, which that was an overall surprise. Challengers being shut out. I mean, because Nosferatu got something. They got like one nomination somewhere. Yeah. I'm more upset about Challengers than anything. It was a surprise.

[00:54:26] Nickel Boys, I was at least happy it got a Best Picture nomination. That, that made up a little bit for it. But, uh, man, I had predicted Brady Corbett for The Brutalist, Sean Baker for Enora, and then the other three I had predicted, none of them made it. So that was surprising. Um, all right. So Chris, just tell me really quick, because I, unfortunately, I'm not up to speed on the, uh, animated films or the documentary films. Okay. But are we pretty much all in agreement that, uh,

[00:54:56] it looks like Flo is going to win Best Animated Film? Is that the prediction right now or no? I, I don't know. What, uh, others. Because it's nominated for both International Feature Film and Animated Feature Film. Right. Which is interesting. Yeah. Um, and I have seen it. Um, I wouldn't think it would win for International Feature just because the subject matter of some of those other. Well, you have The Seed of the Sacred Fig. You've got Amelia Perez. You've got I'm Still Here. They're like all nominated for International Feature. Yeah. It's going to be one of those three.

[00:55:26] Right, right. Um, yeah. So I kind of doubt it's going to. Now, Animated Feature Film. Um, I don't know. It's going to be a really interesting category. Let me run through the nominees real quick. Sure, yeah. That will help discussion. So we do have Flo, Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, Wallace and Gromit, Vengeance Most Foul, and The Wild Robot. So I think critical love and audience love, well, I don't know, probably goes with Wild Robot.

[00:55:55] Audiences liked Inside Out 2. Um, but then critics were just kind of like, oh, it's a sequel. You know, so there's that whole thing. Um, so I would think, you know, normally if you're going that prediction wise, like what's the favorite, you would think it's between Inside Out 2 and Wild Robot. However, there has been a lot of critical love for Flo. Buzz is really high on Flo right now. Which is the animated, it's all, you know, obviously it's animated, but it centers around a cat trying to survive basically a flood.

[00:56:24] And, um, there are, there's, cause cats in this film, like in real life, there is no dialogue. They do not talk. There is no dialogue in the entire film. So, um, it is more of an unusual animated feature film. The thing that the key for me is, and who knows how Academy members vote? I don't know if they consider audience reaction, critical reaction, and then their reaction and kind of put those three factors and spit out a vote. Or is it just like, yeah, I saw it and I liked it or didn't like it. Like, I don't, I don't know.

[00:56:53] Um, because I don't have a great read on how audiences have responded to Flo. I know how critics have, and I have no idea how the Academy. So, you don't know. I think it'll be, it'll be interesting. I think it would be amazing if Flo does walk away with a win because it's not a major studio. Yeah. I think that's what's actually kind of got, it's got going for it right now.

[00:57:15] I think that I'm picking up a little bit of, on the animated side, a little bit of a pushback on not wanting to give awards to Inside Out 2. You know, A, it's Disney. B, it's a sequel. It's just, it's kind of the expected one. Right. You know, to go after. The Wild Robot to me is an interesting one in that it's not a franchise. It's not a... It's based on a book. Right. It's based on a book. It's not a known quantity going in. It's not a Disney production.

[00:57:42] It's, you know, so, yeah, it's got some good legs behind it. So, we'll see between those two. What about a documentary feature film, Chris? The five nominees there. Again, I've only seen one. So, I'm so bad on this. I have actually seen all but one. So, with that, we have Black Box Diaries, which is the one I have not seen. No Other Land, Porcelain War, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, and Sugarcane, which we actually brought for one of our foot candle showings, screenings. What's the favorite?

[00:58:12] You know, hard to say. I think it's probably leaning towards No Other Land, which focuses on kind of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. That's the one I've heard the most about. So, yeah. Yeah. I think it would probably be that one. A close second. Could be, for a lot of the same reasons, Porcelain War, which is Ukraine, kind of structuring on that. So, but I feel like it would probably be No Other Land.

[00:58:41] That'd probably be the one that I would guess was going to win. I wish I'd seen Black Box Diaries because the theory behind that is someone who is seeking out justice for sexual abuse or misconduct. And that sounds fascinating, but I haven't been able to see it. Okay. Well, let's wrap this up with just Best Picture. Sure. I mean, there's a lot of other categories, and I don't mean to slight these other categories. It's just we have a running time to deal with here, and can't go into all of them. But I'm sure we'll be recapping a lot of them after the awards themselves.

[00:59:10] The Best Picture nominees, there are 10 of them. We have Anora, we have The Brutalist, we have A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune Part 2, Amelia Perez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked. So, I'll just give you my first blush on this. I'm surprised, not surprised that A Complete Unknown is nominated for Best Picture.

[00:59:38] I'm surprised, very surprised I'm Still Here is nominated for Best Picture. And I'm also very surprised that The Substance is nominated for Best Picture. I'm very disappointed that my challengers, my Sing Sing, a different man in Nosferatu, none of them getting the nod. And I felt like all four of them were worthy, more worthy than A Complete Unknown.

[01:00:05] I mean, and even Dune Part 2, it deserves to be in this list because it is quite a feat of a film. It didn't get a lot of love throughout the rest of the nominations. I think it got visual effects and some other things, but did not get director for, you know. I'm drawing a Denis Villeneuve. Yeah, Villeneuve. Otherwise known as you know. Yeah, yeah, you know that guy. So, anyway, I'm mixed on this list. I mean, I think 75% of it's right.

[01:00:36] There's a couple I'm... Again, I wasn't the biggest fan of The Substance. I admire the Academy for putting it on the list, but I'm just not... I just don't... That's a surprise that it's on the list. It's a surprise to me. I have not seen I'm Still Here. That is my one holdout, so can't comment on that yet. But... And to me... Yeah. Not saying it's not a good film. I'm not surprised it's on the international feature list. Am surprised... Yeah. ...that it's on the Best Picture list. I think a lot of people are taken back by both the Best Picture and the Best Actress nomination for that film. Okay.

[01:01:05] Yeah. But yeah, like I said, there's at least four films that I feel like should be on this list, and I'm disappointed or not. But A Different Man has gotten nothing, no love, no recognition. As far as The Academy is involved, they didn't even know this movie came out this year. It got one nomination for Makeup and Neer Starling. Oh, Makeup. Okay, Makeup. Yes. That makes sense. But at least it'll flash across the screen, and some people may be like, oh, that looks interesting. Yeah. Maybe.

[01:01:32] Sing Sing, disappointed it didn't get a Best Picture, because I do love that movie. It did get Coleman Domingo a Best Actor nomination. But we didn't get Supporting Actor for... Is it Macklin? Clarence Macklin? Yeah, Clarence Macklin. Yeah, that was a little disappointing. It got adapted. Oh, adapted screenplay as well. Yeah, yeah. Because it got a couple of nominations. Sure. Nosferatu just got visual production design, I think. And makeup and hairstyle. And makeup and hairstyle. Yeah. Right.

[01:02:02] All right. Your thoughts on the Best Picture nominees, Chris? Any surprises? Any regrets on this? No, I mean, it's hard to say regrets. I would have liked a different man to jump on there, but surprised by, yeah, the substance, and I'm still here. Both of those, I'm surprised, are on there. Yeah. But we'll see. Okay. And, you know, if I had to pick one film that I would definitely think there's no way it would be, when? Would be Doom Part 2. Yeah.

[01:02:29] For those to see, well, not that it's bad, but it's just like, you know. Well, I'll tell you where I think the, this is the theory going around the chatter right now around this, is that think about the Lord of the Rings trilogy with Peter Jackson. Oh, okay. It got, all three of the films got nominated for Best Picture. Oh. But it won for the third one, the final Return of the King. That got Best Director and Best Picture for that third film.

[01:02:57] Dela Neuve is working on a third final Dune film. It's like a trilogy. So they've made an HBO series. Yeah. That is like a prequel? Is that right? I think, I don't know the series, but there is a third movie. Okay, there is a third movie being made. The true third movie that Dela Neuve is doing. Okay. I think if anything, if he's going to get recognized for the Dune trilogy, it'll be with that third one. And that could be the one that, if it's good, if it keeps up the quality of the first two,

[01:03:23] it could be the one that gets him a little more recognition. Okay. Anyway, that's a little bit of the theory going around. Now that's assuming that there's not another film that just steamrolls it the year it comes out from the award side of things. But it's very possible. Give him the kudos once he finishes the trilogy and all three are really good films. So yeah, could be. Yeah. My prediction, the one I think is going to win is just the one I have not filled out my

[01:03:53] ballot yet. I will do that probably in another couple of weeks. I want to see. I'm still here. And a couple more I need to like just get on my list to make sure I've caught up with, but I will do my ballot soon. But right now, my first blush, my prediction for best picture is going to be, I still think it's going to be the brutalist. Yeah. That's where I am. Yeah. That is not, that's not a, that is both my hope, but I'm also saying, I think that's where the Academy is going to go. Want to win, will win. Gotcha. That's where I'm.

[01:04:20] Do you have a, you want to take a stab at an early one or do you want to wait and wait till we get closer to do your ballot? Oh yeah. I probably still, I've seen everything. Um, but I, it's so, I feel like it'll probably because the number of nominations, which I guess is kind of safe to go on to recommend for best picture. Yeah. Um, I think it will probably be either a Nora or the brutalist. Um, I'm not, I'm just afraid of Nora. It's just not going to do anything.

[01:04:49] I'm afraid. I'm saying that because I want it to do better, but I just don't think it is. So then I would say it's probably between if we're going to go, which I see that cause it's too small indie. Um, it would be between the brutalist and Amelia Perez. And I would think, uh, if I had to say want between those two, obviously I was higher on the brutalist. So what the brutalist went. Um, but I don't know, you and I talk off air sometimes often, and you said, you feel

[01:05:17] like whoever gets the first award between Amelia Perez and the brutalist, it's going to become an avalanche after that. I, my gut feeling is it's going to be one of those films or the other. Right. It won't be a matter of, you know, um, brutalist wins best director, but Amelia Perez wins best picture and all. No, it's like, no, they're head to head on several categories. Agreed. Uh, best actress. I think, uh, they both have a nominee and best, or no, supporting actress. They both have a supporting actress. Right. Um, they both have director nominations.

[01:05:47] They both have best picture. I think it's, it's going to be one or the other is going to kind of get all the ones that was winning are up for. So. Yeah. And I guess a lot of times supporting actresses, one of the first ones they do tip. Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes. I think the alternate is one of the two supporting actor actress. That could be a telltale. Um, yeah. So I think it will be either brutalist or Amelia Perez. And, uh, yeah. So you and I will be seated at our Oscar party on the March. Second. Second date.

[01:06:16] Um, and you and I, uh, we typically are, we, we let our reactions be known as the awards are being announced. I do think the first award that Amelia Perez gets, if it's early in the evening and it kind of sets the tone, I'm expecting to see kind of a. Eye roll. More eye rolling and downward looking face from you. I, I'll admit, I don't. How are you going to do? I don't think it should be winning. Are you doing your ballot based on what you think will win or what you want to win? That's the trap. I'm all about trying to win.

[01:06:45] So I'm going to put my ballot in on what I think is going to win. Now I may create a second ballot of what I want to win because I'd like to do a little analysis afterwards and say, all right, if I'd actually submitted my want to win, would I've done better than what I predicted was going to win? And, uh, yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Well, we will see March 2nd. Uh, we'll be reviewing a podcast shortly after that and we'll, uh, dissect all the results. But, um, I don't think we need to talk about Oscars anymore until March 2nd. Yeah.

[01:07:14] As far as I'm concerned, right? We're good. Put a pin in it. Put a pin in it. We're done with Oscar talk until after March 2nd. All right, Chris. Uh, we've got a little more time here in the show. You've got a trailer to share. I know you had several, we're going to kind of sprinkle them out over the next few weeks, but let's go ahead and hit one of these trailers of a film that is coming out soon. And I think you mentioned the film's name Opus to me. Yes. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Opus and I'll queue up the trailer so we can watch that.

[01:07:41] It is not about the penguin from the Bloom County, uh, comic strip. Yep. That is a really deep cut there, Chris, but good kudos to you. Some people may not have any idea what I'm talking about. No, no, I know what it is. I'm just shocked you went there, but that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. You know, um, but it is stars. I, uh, at a beer, uh, the actress that most people, that's where I know her from, uh, the bear, the show on FX. Um, she was also in the film bottoms. Yes.

[01:08:10] She was in bottom and a drama camp. There we go. So she was, she was in those. Um, she's in this plays kind of the female lead. Um, I'm just going to go ahead and say, uh, let's watch the trailer. Don't want to really say it's an A24 studios joint. I know nothing about this film. So I'm, I'm anxious to watch it now and we will see what happens here. Here we go. There's a rumor flying around that Loretty's back. Like Loretty, Loretty?

[01:08:38] After 30 years outside the public eye, Pop icon Loretty returns for an exclusive listening experience. He's bringing you a gift. This is for Ariel Ekton. It'll be an absolute honor to spend this weekend with you. Thank you. Yep. Namaste. Everybody meet Ariel. Some young blood from the magazine. This is Clara. The most hated sex symbol on TV.

[01:09:08] Thank you. How's print media treating you? Oh. Congratulations. Welcome to this once in a lifetime gathering. Moretti requires that everyone be shaven. So, how's the Lady Garden? Mr. Moretti will be playing the greatest album of modern times.

[01:09:40] Future times, all the times, really. And there is more to come. So much more. What is it that you guys do? Would you like to see? So, that's Opus. That looks good. Yeah. So, horror, maybe comedy. There definitely looks like there's some kind of comedy.

[01:10:09] Yeah, it looks like a very dark comedy. Dark comedy, definitely. Social satire, but with some horror elements thrown in. Horror elements, thriller elements, maybe. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, and satirizing, seemingly, fame. In this instance, not necessarily Hollywood, but musicians and rock stars and stuff. Celebrity culture. Celebrity culture, yeah. Malkovich being, looks like he's going full Malkovich, playing the rock star that has apparently been absent, but has made a huge return. Uh-huh.

[01:10:39] Yeah, I knew nothing about this film before I saw the trailer, and I'm like, yep, that looks like fun. Not familiar with the writer-director, either, whose film it is. Maybe his first film, not sure. Yeah, I was actually going to do a quick little search on that and just see, because now you have piqued my interest in this film. Um, we are looking at Mark Anthony Green as the writer-director. Um, yeah, he did a film called Trapeze USA back in 2017. Okay.

[01:11:08] And that is all I see. Okay. So yeah, we're being introduced to Mark Anthony Green. I look forward to the introduction. Yeah. Um, great. That's good. Actually, March 14th is the release date of this, I believe. Let's see. I just had it pulled up. Uh, March 14th. 14th. Is the release date for Opus. Going to theaters, I mean, I imagine it's going to be a smaller release.

[01:11:38] I would think so. They'll see this going wide, especially come March. Things will start to get a little more crowded by end of March. Sure. Uh, so yeah, we'll see. We'll see with that. That is good. Um, I know we're not doing any other trailers, Chris, but, um, can we put it on our list over the next couple of weeks to talk about and show the trailer? Cause you mentioned the film, I think is one of your anticipated films. Okay.

[01:12:04] And I didn't have it on my list cause I didn't really know much about it other than the title star and director's name. And that's it. Sure. But I did see part of a trailer for it and I'm very intrigued. Okay. And that is the new Ryan Coogler film. Uh, sinners sinners. Okay. So let's bring that up cause there's a trailer out for it and I'm very, my curiosity has been piqued with this film. Awesome. And I, it's on my list, but I actually haven't seen the trailer yet. Okay. So, well, yeah, we need to review that. We'll watch that in another episode. Sure.

[01:12:33] To talk about. So, okay. Great. Well, thank you for bringing that trailer to my attention, Chris. It is on my watch list. Now my ever expanding watch list that I will never make it all the way through. Uh, Chris, you have a recommendation though for us also. Yes. Of an actual film, not just a trailer, but a full film that you are going to recommend that, uh, we might want to check out. So what is your patented Chris Fry recommendation for this week on foot candle films? So I'm actually going to recommend not one, but two films. Oh my gosh.

[01:13:02] We have a double, we have a double, double trouble, double feature of Chris Fry. But don't worry because they're short films. Why am I recommending short films? Well, because one of them is a short film nominated for live action short film and the other is nominated for documentary short film. Oh, okay. Good. Both of these little flavor to both. That's right. And you can get your Oscar ballot set up cause you'll have more of a way to judge which films you think might win. They're available for free online at newyorker.com.

[01:13:32] The films are, there's a documentary short called incident. And then the live action short film is called I'm not a robot. And both of those are available for free online, newyorker.com. Um, I think they're both strong entries. Uh, I'm not a robot features the use of creep by radio head, which is interesting. If you listen to our review of heretic, it's like kind of, uh, yeah. So that's the buzzy song of the moment. Yes.

[01:13:59] And incident is all formulated with, uh, body cam footage from police and also security cam footage that unfortunately centers around a, uh, black gentleman who's gunned down. Um, and kind of how, what happened to make said incident occur. I happened in Chicago in 2018, I think. Okay. And through all body cam footage and footage that was released because of public information

[01:14:27] act by the police department, uh, this filmmaker has assembled it all. Um, doesn't have any other dialogue or anything. It's just like basically kind of found footage in a way assemblage, but it is, it is a tough watch. Um, but it's, it's when you think of what documentaries should be, you know, and really important film, this is like, yeah, this would, this would be one of them because it's just found footage. It's like, okay, this is a document of something that happened.

[01:14:57] So, um, interesting. Yeah. So both of those are available, like I said, for free online, new yorker.com. So if you want to try to get the edge on your Oscar ballot voting, then you might want to go check those out. Well, that definitely applies to me because I, I have to catch up on the short films. We, uh, we normally try to show those at our foot candle film society screening. Sure. It's kind of been a little bit of a tradition we've had. Unfortunately, because of the wildfires in Southern California, everything got delayed

[01:15:27] in our typical release of when we would have availability to get the short films for the Oscar nominations to screen them, uh, missed our deadline for our next screening. So unfortunately we're not gonna be able to bring those films. So now I've just got to do my homework and find a way to watch them on my own so I can be ready for the, be ready for the ballot. So, okay. But thank you for those two recommendations. Definitely ones we ought to check out and we'll be checking out very soon. All right, Chris. Well, I think that wraps it up.

[01:15:56] We have the review of presents. Yes. We talked about Oscar nominations. We played the trailer for Opus and you gave a recommendation of a couple of the Oscar nominated short films. Yeah. I think we're done. I think we did it. We completed the mission. All right, Chris, if anybody has any feedback for us, thoughts, questions, ideas, comments to share, how can they do so? You can send an email to info at foot candle.org. You can follow us on Facebook foot candle film society, Instagram threads foot candle film

[01:16:25] are on there. And we're also on blue sky. Alan and I tend to try to be on letterbox every once in a while where we try to track what we're seeing and leave quick takes. Do us a favor. If you enjoy the show, consider giving it a review or a star rating share with friends whatever service you receive your favorite podcasts on because it'll help us reach new listeners. We would appreciate it. All right. Well, that'll wrap it up for today. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll look forward to talking to everybody next time we get in front of the mics here on foot candle films. Take care.

[01:16:55] See you in the ticket line.

[01:17:37] Special thanks to Carpal Tuller for the show theme music. For more about Carpal Tuller, visit www.carpaltuller.com. You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community. All programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube.

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