Trap

[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

[00:00:26] visit the society's website at www.footcandle.org Hello and welcome to Footcandle Films here on the MESH.TV podcast network. Alan Jackson and Chris Fry with you here from the Footcandle Film Society and the annual Footcandle Film Festival.

[00:00:47] Chris, how's it going? It's going well. It's going well. Stuff with the festivals getting nailed down getting everything ready. So a lot going on but looking forward to it. But there's always time for movies. That's true. A lot's going on. Work's busy. Festival playing is going. But there's

[00:01:03] always time for movies. Of course. And we do have one to review and talk about today. I say anticipated although I say that about every M Night Shyamalan film in a way because it is an anticipatory process to see the latest Shyamalan film.

[00:01:19] That's what we'll be discussing and reviewing. It was one of my top ten most anticipated films for 2024. Alright, so M Night Shyamalan has a new film. I think I counted it as his 16th feature film, I believe. It is the

[00:01:35] film Trap starring Josh Hartnett and we're going to be reviewing that film here in just a moment. Following that, we have some news items and a couple of trailers to play of some films coming out soon. Chris, I'll go ahead and tease on the news. And I'm

[00:01:51] just going to have to voice it. I'm disappointed in you. I just learned about a film yesterday that's coming out in about six weeks. That is the perfect movie for me. And if you knew about it,

[00:02:07] if you knew about it and didn't tell me and I'm just now finding out about this this late in the game, that's what I'm disappointed by. So I'm hopeful that's not the case. I'm hopeful you didn't know about it.

[00:02:15] And maybe for whatever reason, you hadn't heard about it or maybe you had heard about it but for some reason decided not to tell me about it. I don't know. I want to get to the bottom of this but we're going to talk about it. There is a

[00:02:27] trailer for it I want to play and we'll talk about the film. I think you've got a trailer and a film or at least one trailer, maybe two to share. Yeah, we'll see how time goes and see how we do on that. And then do you have

[00:02:39] a recommendation to share with us today or are we going to pass on that this week? I do. I have a recommendation as well. So Chris will also be giving a recommendation at the end of the episode of a

[00:02:47] film he has recently caught up with that he thinks might be worth our time to do as well. But all that to say Chris, first we got to get to our review which is the latest M. Night Shyamalan thriller. It is called Trap.

[00:03:24] Chris, to me, when an M. Night Shyamalan film comes out, this to me has almost become like a research project. Of following Shyamalan's films and exploring the rise, the fall, everywhere in between of the different work that he's done. Like I said, he's had like I think 16

[00:03:57] feature films. He really started like you know he did two before he did The Sixth Sense. But The Sixth Sense is kind of what everybody knows. That's kind of where he became a name. This is wide release, had big acting

[00:04:09] names. Right. Yeah, got Oscar nominations. I mean it was a big deal. Yeah. Then it's just kind of been, I'm not even going to say it was a roller coaster ride because roller coaster indicates ups and downs like multiple times. His was a started up.

[00:04:25] He had kind of a notorious fall from Grace. I think about maybe four or five movies in when you've got like The Lady in the Water and The Happening. It kind of became a, he lost the magic

[00:04:37] a lot of people believe. Then there started to be a little bit of a swing back up just a little bit. He got involved in some TV projects and then he started releasing some smaller films that kind of leaned a little bit more into the thriller or

[00:04:53] sometimes scary films. You know, tried to get a little more niche with it I think. Instead of going broad like he did early on. And those films have been, I don't know what, hit or miss. I mean there's been some wins, some losses

[00:05:05] on those. But here we are with Trap. We are the latest film in his oeuvre. This one telling the story of a father and his teen daughter that attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event.

[00:05:21] Now that is the tagline from My MDB. It's about as generic as you can make it. If you've seen the trailer, they've already given you the premise of the entire film. Josh Hart and his character, this is not a spoiler, this is very clear

[00:05:33] in the trailer and really in the film in about 10 minutes as well. He is a murderer known as The Butcher but he has taken his daughter to this pop concert she's been eagerly anticipating only to find out once he's in there

[00:05:49] that this whole, the whole concert is being set up as a trap to find him. And so then we have a little bit of a cat and mouse game that goes on through the film of how does he, how does he make his way out of this?

[00:06:03] Does he make his way out of this? Do we want him as an audience to make his way out of this? And so forth and so on. People can obviously look at

[00:06:11] this film and think, alright is there going to be some sort of twist because it's a Shyamalan thing or whatever. And maybe you could argue it does, I don't know. But Chris, I do want to hear your thoughts on this film. I have some very

[00:06:27] strong opinions on this film that I'm anxious to get to but I'd like to turn it over to you first and see if you're going to temper my feelings in any way shape or form first. What did you think of Trap?

[00:06:43] So having come off Knock at the Cabin, which was his previous one, yeah. And I think we reviewed it here on the show I believe and neither one of us was as over the, not over the mean,

[00:06:55] but neither one of us I think was as positive as other critics have been. There was a general I think more accepting of it and I thought it had a great idea but then just somehow there wasn't much to it, kind of fell flat for me.

[00:07:07] With this film, yeah if you've seen the trailer, the premise is all there. So you kind of go in and kind of knowing what the setup was going to be, I just thought it was okay. There were some things about it that I feel

[00:07:23] like, you know scripts go through obviously, several drafts and I feel like if this script had gone through two or three more drafts somebody would have said, hey why don't we adjust this? Like I feel like there were a lot of

[00:07:39] let's say like the movie's a machine and there were a lot of screws that needed to be tightened down a little bit and they could have made it run much better. The one thing that I will say out of the gate, Josh Hartnett, he was in Oppenheimer,

[00:07:55] I at first didn't even know who he was, I was like oh that was the guy long time ago that was in Pearl Harbor which I never saw. But I remember he was kind of like a heartthrob whatever and then just for me at least

[00:08:07] completely disappeared. He was in Oppenheimer, I thought he did a great job and so when he was going to be the central person in this film I was like huh interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing it. I thought Hartnett

[00:08:19] did a good job. Specifically one of the things that they don't, I mean you can kind of guess in the trailer I guess a little bit maybe but it's this father daughter dynamic and I have a daughter, she's now 22, but you know I remember teenage years

[00:08:35] and getting in fights with friends and not getting along and feeling like an outsider. All those things that they touch on in the film and the father is struggling with

[00:08:43] this and he has to deal with other parents that come up to him and talk to him at the concert. I thought all of that was great, not expected because you're just expected to totally think this guy's a complete weirdo freak because yeah he's the butcher.

[00:08:59] So I thought that was an interesting wrinkle that was in there. And I guess if I'm going to put my finger on two things that, one more so than the other, I'll say the first thing that just complete eye roll for me and I

[00:09:15] don't understand other than maybe it's like a feature length we can get the audience which I'm like okay but what was the ultimate point of it. Hailey Mills, if that name means anything to you, you may know that she was in The Parent Trap. I think I

[00:09:31] maybe saw that Disney family film a long time ago. Notice the word trap was in the title. Oh really? I don't know, you tell me. So Hailey Mills is in this film. She is working with the FBI. She's like a, what do you call it, they

[00:09:47] like a profiler. Profiler, yes. So she's helping them try to profile the butcher and find him. Okay I saw her name in the trailer and I was like Hailey Mills, wow that's crazy. I didn't know she was still

[00:09:59] practicing as an actress because she's older now. And they have her in the film but it was just so like okay. And it was for me because I knew kind of like who she was and stuff, it was really distracting and the whole film I kept helping, hoping.

[00:10:15] I was like well somehow there's going to be a Shyamalan twist or it's gonna make sense for me why Hailey Mills was in this film at all and it never did. No. And if it's a feature length winking at the audience, meta

[00:10:31] commentary on Hailey Mills was in parent trap. I didn't even think of that and now I'm actually madder. Something in your set up told me that you probably, I think you're probably going to be harsher on this film than I am. I thought it was okay. But that

[00:10:47] part really annoyed me. Now move onto the second part which I have an idea you are really not gonna like because I'm getting the vibes. The person who plays Lady Raven and I knew going into the film as well

[00:10:59] it's in like Shyamalan's daughter. And she you know performs songs and to me it was kind of like a riff on the Taylor Swift era's tour having watched that documentary concert film. You know it's like

[00:11:11] just the way they shoot the stage and some of the production stuff and kind of reminded me a lot of the grand things that Lady Gaga does as well which is odd because I feel like so many films are taking advantage of that right now.

[00:11:23] Smile 2, which I saw a trailer for beforehand has a very Lady Gaga-esque character so it's like everything is commenting on that before Lady Gaga gets to be on the screen with the Joker sequel later this year. We'll see what she does. But

[00:11:35] it just felt like, but I feel like if he had kept it at that and she was merely performing and doing these songs, fine. But he pulls her the singer Lady Raven played by his daughter into the

[00:11:51] story more and I was like I thought that was a mistake. And he, you know, in my Shyamalan is always cameoing in his own films and you know his cameo in this one as soon as I

[00:12:03] was like up. I kind of, but it didn't, I thought it was fine. I thought it was like he wasn't in it a lot. He did have a little bit of dialogue. He gets to interact with Josh Hartnett's The Butcher. But it was

[00:12:15] just very, he was a, it didn't bother me. It was just okay. So I will toss it to you who apparently really hated this. I really got mad at this movie. Okay. Because here's the reason. Look, I've seen bad movies.

[00:12:31] They're bad movies. Sasquatch Sunset. Sometimes they're bad movies that I enjoy because you kind of just know going in, alright, this is a bad movie. And by bad I'm like whether it's low production quality,

[00:12:43] whether it's kind of a dumb story, whether it's acting's not great, but you just kind of know it and you just kind of roll with it. And I always, I never want to fault anyone for making a movie because I think a movie,

[00:12:55] it's a big process. There's a lot of people involved. No one sets out to make a bad movie. Exactly. Right. But you take this film, I think I've just gotten to the point now where look, I don't think Game Night Shyamalan

[00:13:07] knows how to make a really good movie anymore. And I think he is somebody with incredible ideas. I think the concept behind this film is good. I like the setup of this film. But he was the writer-director, so it's all, yeah.

[00:13:23] I mean he's the only writer in all these movies other than the ones he did a couple films I think he did like The Last Airbender. I don't know if he, I mean obviously that was based off of other property. Right. Yeah, but he's

[00:13:35] pretty much a solo writer. So he has to take all responsibility for any plot machinations and dialogue and everything else. That's all him. The concept of his films are normally pretty good. Okay? They have been since the Sixth Sense.

[00:13:51] I mean he has had good setups of films. He knows, okay here's the premise, here's the idea, here's the concept. And I think in his head he's got some really good moments that he wants to hit in these stories. Okay? But I don't think he has an

[00:14:07] ability to stitch it together to where it makes for a good movie. Trap for the first half of the film is a good movie. I did enjoy it. I was actually kind of engaged with this film. I actually,

[00:14:23] you know, I was one kind of joking when the trailer came out for this film a few months ago and I could not understand how this premise was even going to work. It's like wait a minute, so they're going to try to search

[00:14:39] every guy in this stadium to see if he's the butcher. Okay, but no. They made it work. I'm like oh there's a profiler and they kind of have a little bit of an idea and they've narrowed it down to a few different demographic types.

[00:14:51] I'm like oh okay this is now starting to come together. I'm actually okay with this. I think this film just lost me and lost kind of my respect unfortunately. When it got to the point of changing venues. Changing

[00:15:07] well going, I would say going to the basement of the venue that they start in and the change in the role of Lady Raven from performer on stage. She's extremely, Shyamalan's daughter is extremely talented. Seeing her she sings, she wrote all the songs in this film. Very talented.

[00:15:27] She's not a good actress. And for her role to play the part that it does in the second half of this film, A, it strains all credibility that this could ever even happen. I mean you really have to take some massive leaves of faith to think that this

[00:15:47] is in any way possible to ever happen the way it rolls out. And then to couch that with a not a good acting performance. It just fell apart. I mean it's to the point

[00:15:59] it got to that point about halfway through the film where now it's like oh here's everything that I can pick out everything that just does not make sense or is wrong about the story of this. And what could have been some good

[00:16:11] tense well structured dramatic moments. I'm thinking about a scene that takes place inside of a house, inside of a bathroom especially. That if structured better and if acted better and if it had different performances in place could have actually been a really good scene. Was not. Because

[00:16:31] the acting wasn't there and the writing wasn't there to support it and it just fell apart. The ending, we get to a whole I'm not even going to say third act because this is like the last 15 minutes of an hour and a half

[00:16:43] long movie completely changes where it's not even the same movie anymore. Now we're involved with a whole different character that had no bearing on the rest of the film almost at all. But now we're supposed to be completely invested in this dynamic between these final two people that

[00:16:59] made no sense. And even now I still question I don't understand how the story even came to be after hearing the final explanation from this other character that was supposed to clear it all up and it was a little bit of a minor little shaman twist. It's like

[00:17:15] oh well you know this is actually how this all came to be. It's like no that actually invalidates everything I've just seen in the last hour and a half. This now makes absolutely no sense to me. Then you cap it off Chris.

[00:17:27] Then you cap it off with a final moment Oh how to do without spoiling. Well a final moment. Well not even that I'm saying right before that. Before a certain character enters a certain vehicle. Okay. And I'll just say bicycle. Yeah.

[00:17:52] I can't do it without spoiling. It's just there is some plot machinations at the end that it had been referenced. It had been referenced in the film. What's that? Kickstand like leaving bike standing up. No no I understand

[00:18:08] that. I understand what he was doing and again that was a shaman little oh I got a clever idea. I'm going to drop this note earlier in the film and then we're going to reference this at the end and that's actually going to lead to this. But what

[00:18:20] FBI SWAT team would ever let any of these things happen the way they did. Okay that's what I'm talking about too. Well and I think if the film is not working that's when you You start finding everything that just doesn't work at all.

[00:18:36] We'll heighten it to a movie we mentioned recently Silence of Lambs. Which actually you can pretty much say this is cribbing off that last kind of scenes you're talking about there. You know Lecter gets hold of a pen and then later

[00:18:48] uses it. And you're like well why would anybody in this situation let that happen because they've got to be watching everything that happens with this person. But you and I both love that or talked about that film how much we liked it

[00:19:00] and those things don't bother us. But that's a sign of a film when other things are getting you to the head space where like this is crazy why this then it's not working for you. So I can see how like at that moment you're just like oh

[00:19:12] but it's like it's not that that doesn't happen in other films but you're already in the head space where nothing is working. You're right. And the things I'm bringing up are very minor not minor they are little plot points they're a little

[00:19:24] written bits of scenes that sure really fall flat and don't work because a they don't make sense there's no basis for reality to them. It takes huge leaps of faith with the audience to agree that this is going to happen. But you're right by that point I think

[00:19:40] the combination of the poor writing in the second half of the film poor acting and I'm sorry I really I hate kind of just pile on his daughter Shalika Shyamalan because again she's very very talented she's so good up on the stage performance

[00:19:56] stuff I totally bought her as a big international pop singer that people adore but then you change your role and you want her to play a different part and that part is not recognizable to me at all with what we've been already told about this person

[00:20:12] or what we're led to believe about this person. Sure. And it just falls apart and I mean but we have to you have to believe this character you have to believe this character is capable of the things that we're seeing in the last half of the film

[00:20:24] and I don't buy it and it just falls apart at that point. So good ideas good concepts could it have worked with a better actress playing the role in the second half of the film could it have worked with somebody coming

[00:20:40] in like you said and just kind of tinkering with the script a little bit like hey let's just tighten some things up let's make some things make a little more sense. It could have yes but I think in the end of the day Shyamalan just is no longer

[00:20:52] in my mind able to generate a fully top to bottom film. Whether he needs additional help on the writing whether he needs to collaborate more with something I don't know but it's not there. That all to say let me get positive I thought Josh Hartnett was great.

[00:21:08] Okay. I really did like his performance I honestly kind of feel bad that his performance kind of got saddled in the movie that we found at the latter half of this movie because it was a good performance

[00:21:20] he was really good. I liked his daughter's performance a Riley played by Ariel Donague I thought very good as well. Haley Mills do not understand why she's there and that was frustrating because. That was the thing for me that all along just really bothered me some of the

[00:21:36] the plot stuff you're talking about I think overall I kind of knew going in like okay how are they going to sustain a film. A I thought it was too long it's an hour 45 minutes could have been a breezy 85

[00:21:48] that would have worked better for me because some of the I feel like stretching it hurt it. The stuff in the arena stuff good but by the time they finally switched me I was like thank goodness because it was just it got to be so contrived and

[00:22:04] stagey to keep them there and for that I was like okay I got kind of bored which you never want to get in a thriller but yeah and at the end without spoiling anything because we don't want to do that I thought

[00:22:23] I had a question about the whole FBI being there and everything I kind of thought well okay but I don't understand how they got to that place to begin with and at least I felt like

[00:22:35] that was it was tried they did try to give an explanation and that was involved in the twist that Mr. Shyamalan gave us which you kind of go in unfortunately and always expect but you know it's but I thought well okay

[00:22:47] they tried to rationalize it but actually the explanation you get at the end actually causes even more questions for me that makes even the film even more frustrating frustrating and doesn't make sense I guess I appreciated that I'd had that nagging in

[00:23:03] my mind along with why is Hayley Mills in the film and then he did kind of answer it no was it completely satisfactory no but I'm glad they at least addressed it like okay here's how they knew that he was going to be here in the first place

[00:23:15] I will say in addition to some of the problems we've enumerated I think something else that maybe just for Mass Appeal I don't remember what Knock at the Cabin was rated but this was PG-13 and maybe he always

[00:23:31] does I don't know if you've ever I don't know if Split was an R or not or maybe he always kind of traffics in the PG-13 because he wants things to be exciting and thrilling but doesn't

[00:23:43] want to make a hard R I don't know where his thoughts lie but when you're making a film about a serial killer I think if we could have gotten more in the mind maybe of The Butcher and some of that stuff you know they allude

[00:23:59] to stuff and show news clippings and stuff but it's like I felt like maybe that was a little bit of a guard rail that hindered the movie from being a little bit obviously darker but it might have made it a little better

[00:24:11] because that way you get kind of more inside the mind which The Butcher is the interesting character Josh Hartnett is the interesting thing going on in this film and so for it to have that limitation of a serial killer being in a

[00:24:23] PG-13 movie that I think that could have Well it's a little tough and again I think Shyamalan had I knew the I could tell the idea he wanted to get to which is I want the audience to kind of be in the mind of this criminal this

[00:24:39] killer and in a way and there's nothing this is creative choices you know I want the audience to kind of pull for him a little bit and you do find yourself pulling for him a little bit because again you are put in his situation

[00:24:55] you're introduced to the relationship with his daughter you see all this they he does a pretty good job of making you not dwell on the fact that this guy is a mass murder. Right. Okay I mean there are some

[00:25:07] moments where it's kind of reminding you oh yeah by the way this guy's really bad this guy has done really bad things but it's still in the service of trying to keep you in his mindset and you ultimately kind of

[00:25:19] you kind of sort of want him to see him get away with it in a way I don't think It's interesting I never quite got to that point but that's interesting that you were able to Well I mean look it's kind of like

[00:25:31] Die Hard you know the Die Hard movie and that was one thing that film is always credited for is that they did such a great job of kind of in a way making you root for the bad guys sometimes like there's a moment when like they

[00:25:43] crack open the safe and they actually see the money and they find them and you're like oh yeah they did it they pulled it off it's a little bit of that you kind of like this idea of

[00:25:51] somebody pulling something off you know so like you're kind of with Cooper a little bit through part of the movie is like I see how is he going to do

[00:25:59] it I'm going to get out of the trap all right so is he is he going to do it okay and that's I think interesting but I think you're right in that it needed to spend we needed to know more about his inner

[00:26:11] workings as a character right because everything we got from him was still very surface and until the last ten minutes which I think it's too late by then so you know I think the last ten minutes

[00:26:23] it was kind of a Hail Mary to say oh yeah by the way we need to like really develop this character and tell you more it's like let's cram it into like a five minute scene here with somebody that

[00:26:31] just showed up at the end of the movie by the way to do this it's like I'm like ah you know it just didn't work so I actually forgave that a little more because the scene that had

[00:26:43] already derailed it by that it derailed it previously to that I think yes yes I think so you have to tell me whether or not it was before after but unfortunately it features Lady Raven and the butcher in a car having a conversation

[00:26:59] oh yeah and that I was and I feel like I'm not going to fault so Suleika Suleika Shama I'm not going to fault her who's playing Lady Raven because I think it was unfair to put her in this situation with Josh Hartnett

[00:27:15] where she has to do some heavy lifting and just it's unfair to ask her because it was like it doesn't work what Josh Hartnett is putting out and what he's trying to respond to it's like it just didn't work but you were supposed

[00:27:27] to be a really pivotal psychological moment unfortunately it was I don't buy that it came off as more comical which it shouldn't have which it should not have no that's why I'm saying that I don't think we got anywhere in his head effectively

[00:27:39] until maybe that last scene and I'm just going to say it's a scene Allison Pille plays a character Rachel in the film she's introduced kind of late in the film does end up playing a little more pivotal role but there's a confrontation between the two that

[00:27:55] I found interesting yeah and it's like I'm like this is almost too little too late it's like I needed some of this earlier to build more yeah right yeah but I thought it worked better than the scene in the car oh absolutely absolutely at least Allison Pille

[00:28:11] a really good actress and she was she I thought she did really good with her role so it's just god it's the reason I'm mad at this film Chris is I'm disappointed okay okay I can I can that shows you cared

[00:28:23] enough to be exactly engaged I cannot like a film and be fine and it doesn't affect me emotionally I'm like oh I didn't like that film that film didn't work for me sometimes I know going in yeah this is probably not a film I'm gonna like but whatever

[00:28:35] this is a film like no this had potential the potential it had the elements it had everything going for it's like just write a better script don't just rely on the idea and assume the hook

[00:28:47] and the idea is gonna keep people engaged you've gotta have a good solid script to it and it's gotta make sense it can't cause the audience to halfway through start wondering okay why did that happen again or why is this going this way

[00:28:59] no you shouldn't have audiences think thinking that way you should be able to like let them it's okay to misdirect them but they should never be wondering why did they do that that was that was dumb that should never be the answer

[00:29:15] you're seeing in the film and unfortunately it was just way too much of that in this film in the second half couch by I unfortunately just I feel bad for Salika Shyamalan being put in this role in general it's like you know

[00:29:31] because again I think she's very very talented and we saw that on the stage performance part of this film but she's she's not it's the whole Shyamalan yeah yes his cameo his little personal M. Night Shyamalan was fine it was an offensive it was whatever

[00:29:47] but I feel like he almost exaggerated it by bringing his daughter into the film and then turning her into such the pivotal character in that latter half yeah kind of like how he did with Lady in the Water if you remember that

[00:29:59] film Shyamalan had always had himself as a cameo in the film and then we got to Lady in the Water I'd forgotten Lady in the Water cast himself not only his character actually became the pivotal character in the film I'd forgotten that as a writer

[00:30:15] right in the film and that's why I think everybody was like okay dude that's too much I mean that's a little much and I feel like that's kind of what he's applied here to he's like no no no

[00:30:27] my daughter yeah she's she's gonna play this big pop singer but I'm also gonna make her this other role and that's important to me I'm like oh frustrating it is frustrating it was very very frustrating so that being said look Josh Hartnett's great though so I

[00:30:47] if you're a big Josh Hartnett fan or you just want to see what Josh Hartnett's been up to and what he looks like and how he acts nowadays sure go see Trap whatever just know that you're gonna have to turn your brain off

[00:30:59] and just not think about the mechanics of what's going on here but he might be enough of a reason to kind of maybe watch the film I don't know I feel like I'm mad at the film I'm sure people

[00:31:12] will probably find more enjoyment of it maybe not think as hard about it as I do and more power to you go and enjoy go enjoy it but it's a southern summer popcorn film for me and it yeah it's summer popcorn

[00:31:28] film I think it's not great but I think it's enjoyable enough Josh Hartnett yeah I thought he was good and fun in the role but I can see your disappointments so and it's a shame like I said really I feel like as you kind of alluded to

[00:31:44] another co-writer maybe kind of could have you know tweaked and steered some things to make it a much tighter film completely agree you know and I got no conversation after this film the other night how it's sad to think about it but there are two

[00:32:00] filmmakers that I feel like fall in the same camp right now where started out and they really put their stamp on cinema maybe not many even gonna say independent cinema but just cinema in general I'm curious who the other one is

[00:32:16] where they both had their niche they had their thing that they kind of excelled in and then they just nothing has really worked as well since then okay and it's a shame because unfortunately now there are such personalities as directors

[00:32:32] that you know they kind of have a stigma with their films now and unfortunately they just don't pay off anymore Kevin Smith okay I was worried I was I thought maybe you were gonna lead to Tim Burton

[00:32:44] no no no I'm not excited about Beetlejuice I'm not there with Tim Burton no Tim Burton I still think has some juice in him okay and I mean I'm anxious now if Beetlejuice 2 falls flat like okay maybe we need to talk about him but no I'm

[00:33:00] Kevin Smith looks like you know he had his thing he had his niche I mean I don't think Clark's is a good movie but it's an admirable movie for what he did okay I think Mallrats is actually pretty good

[00:33:12] I really like Chasing Amy I like Dogma and I like Dogma but since then it's kind of like okay nothing's really clicked and it is a writing situation for me I thought Red State was interesting

[00:33:24] yeah I never saw Red State that's the one I haven't seen especially now it'd be interesting because it was yeah I just don't feel like his writing's held up I think that's the problem is writing it's the writing of the film and he's someone who's also writer

[00:33:36] director he's like he's got to write and direct his own stuff for the most part Shyamalan I think same kind of trajectory it's like the guy still has ideas the guys still both of them still have ideas and concepts for

[00:33:48] movies I just don't think they know how to write good movies anymore so anyway okay all right that's my soapbox moment okay so that is Trap I know I'm bashing on this film and I really was disappointed with it and had some frustrations with it but like Chris

[00:34:04] said look if you're willing to go if you've heard me rant about it and you're like you know what I think I can overlook those kind of things and just go in for a fun popcorn thriller movie yeah you could do worse

[00:34:16] all right it's not will he escape will he not escape it's not horrible from that standpoint as long as you go into it with that frame of mind but I personally was disappointed and thought it was a poor poor storytelling exercise and got you disappointing from that standpoint

[00:34:32] fair enough okay are we done with that yes we shall escape the review of Trap I'm I'm I need something to kind of calm down a little bit and settle down a little bit so how about we take a little break I'm gonna go I don't know

[00:34:48] I don't know what I'm gonna do I can't fix a drink I'm at work I need something to kind of cool off a little bit but I'll find a way to do that we come back from the trailer

[00:34:56] or from the break we will do some news and get to Chris's recommendation by the end of the episode stay tuned you're listening to Foot Candle Films here on TheMesh.tv welcome back to Foot Candle Films here on TheMesh.tv

[00:35:10] podcast network we had our review of M Night Shyamalan's Trap in the first half of the show I have taken a breather I took a walk around around the building here Chris just to

[00:35:22] get some fresh air I feel better I'm ready to move on and let's talk about some other some other things in our news section here we like to talk about films that are coming up soon or maybe have had trailers released and that's

[00:35:34] what we're gonna do too right now if we're gonna play a couple trailers for a couple of films and Chris if it's okay I'd like to go first sure this is off my stress this is the one that if I'm aware of it I'm a bad

[00:35:46] co-host because I did not mention it to you yes okay so even if you were aware of it's probably in your best interest to like lie to me and pretend like you've never heard of this so there is a TV show

[00:35:58] a concept of a TV show that I have been a big fan of and I've been an admirer of for gosh really really really since I was a teenager Saturday Night Live okay I am a

[00:36:10] huge Saturday Night Live buff okay I watch it every week I'm aware of that yes you were aware of that yes I knew that you liked Saturday Night Live good you were aware of that you do know me that's good big fan of Saturday Night Live

[00:36:22] I love the I love not only just the performance I like the show but I like the behind the scenes of the show I love I read books on the making of Saturday Night Live behind the scenes stories of Saturday Night Live everything

[00:36:34] I love it I was a big fan of do you remember there was a TV show that came out that was oh who was it? It's a guy who did the West Wing it's his name writer big guy he's done movies since too Aaron Sorkin

[00:36:50] did a sunset strip I remember there was a behind the scenes TV show there was a TV show kind of like in a live comedy show thing and I loved that show it was fortunately it was like short lived it was like a season maybe yeah if that

[00:37:06] so I'm just a big fan of that whole concept so I'm scrolling yesterday as I do thinking okay well what news films may be coming out in the next several months do I need to be talking about in this podcast and lo and behold Jason

[00:37:22] Reitman Ivan Reitman's son Jason Reitman has done several movies up in the air which I liked did it too thank you for not smoking which I also liked he did Juno yep he did oh gosh what else he did the recent ghost not the latest ghostbusters

[00:37:42] but the ghostbusters after life yeah so we I like him as a director what was the one he did with Charlize Theron that was oh Sully Sully or Tully Tully not Sully is the airplane pilot guy pilot yeah right so anyway Jason Reitman

[00:38:02] Jason Reitman has a movie coming out in October Chris October I did not know about this called Saturday Night okay and it is recreating behind the scenes the making of the first Saturday and I live episode in 1975 okay

[00:38:22] alright so the trailer has come out now I'm going to go ahead and tell you before I get to the trailer in a minute the trailer has some I cannot find a clean version of the trailer oh so I don't know how we're going to handle

[00:38:34] that some naughty words there are a couple naughty words in it okay I don't know how we're going to deal with that I'm going to let our editor producer decide if those stay in or not I mean

[00:38:42] it's up to you can he get a collection of funny noises just drop over a couple I don't know like the little spring going boing yeah that might work for a car horn anyway I can't find a clean version there's only the one version

[00:38:54] so is this a red band trailer then I mean I guess it is because it does have a couple of vulgarities what's interesting though Jason Reitman yeah being you know a mainstream director it's not like he's Kevin Smith putting out a red band trailer

[00:39:10] which would actually make sense because like his movies so it's interesting it's interesting to me that there's not a clean that's actually really odd especially because you say it's coming out in October yeah wow I mean I couldn't find one I mean I did my internet sleuthing

[00:39:26] couldn't find one so I'll play this trailer in a second but let me just set up a little bit of the film so all of the characters all the actual actors from that 1975 first season of Saturday Night Live

[00:39:38] are portrayed in the film got you uh Lauren it's all it's all the original people with de-aging done to them right yes the Lauren Michaels who is executive producer of Saturday Night Live and still is to this day is played by Gabrielle LeBelle

[00:39:54] he played the young quote Steven Spielberg in The Fableman's oh wow okay cool okay I like him so he is Lauren Michaels okay here's some other names for you we have oh gosh hold on I've got the names here uh Dylan O'Brien who you'd recognize if you

[00:40:14] saw him he was kind of a younger teen actor he's been in some different like Maze Runner and stuff wouldn't he? He plays Dan Aykroyd I can see that okay Corey Michael Smith who the TV show Gotham he played the Riddler oh wow

[00:40:30] and what was the film he was in he was in uh May December he played uh Julianne Moore's character's son okay in that film okay he plays Chevy Chase yeah Rachel Sennett Rachel Sennett plays Rosie Schuster now where do I know her name from? She is a

[00:40:54] baby oh yeah okay she plays uh Rosie Schuster who's one of the I think writers on the show okay and uh Lamar Morris who was in the show New Girl again you'd recognize him plays uh Garrett Morris? Yeah he

[00:41:10] plays Garrett Morris. Is he related? I don't think he is okay yeah um I think I read that he's not okay Nicholas Braun who is uh cousin Greg on uh um secession oh oh you know cousin Greg big tall cousin Greg it took me a second

[00:41:32] as Nicholas Braun he plays two roles he plays Jim Henson because Jim Henson's puppets were actually in some of the early episodes of Shine Out Live. I don't think I was aware of that. He also plays uh a cameo of Andy Kaufman oh now that I could totally

[00:41:48] uh John Batiste is in it playing uh Billy Preston who is a musical guest on the show okay uh Finn Wolfhard plays an NBC page like in the film anyway I'm like

[00:42:00] reading this I'm like are you kidding me? Here's the thing I will say from what you're describing which can be a warning sign as well casting sounds like dead on and awesome however a lot of times when you hear these bigger names

[00:42:12] you're like it gets you excited and then uh it doesn't quite work. I know well I'm not even quite done there's a couple more to go around William DeFoe is in this movie oh playing David Tebba who honestly I don't know who that is

[00:42:24] but in the trailer he's in the trailer a good bit. Okay. J.K. Simmons plays Milton Berle because Milton Berle had a variety show going on at the same time and I think there's some reference to that. And it's

[00:42:36] not listed in this write up here in variety but I know for a fact that uh is it Cooper Hoffman? Is that um yeah um. Philip Seymour Hoffman's son. He plays Dick Urbasol who is an NBC executive. Sure. That was kind of in

[00:42:48] charge of like making the show happen. So all that to say Chris. I'm off the hook because I did not know about this. Alright you better be telling the truth on this because as soon as I read this yesterday I'm honestly like

[00:43:00] how did I not know about this film? How did I not know about this production? All these people involved Jason Leightman. Could be a bad sign but they don't usually dump films in October. Usually

[00:43:12] you would dump them already if you're gonna dump them. Anyway let's watch the trailer we'll have to make a decision on how it's gonna be handled for our audience you know We'll see. But just forewarning if we don't do any editing on this

[00:43:24] yeah there's some naughty words in here so just letting you know about that but here we go this is the trailer for Saturday Night. How the f*** do you pronounce this? You know I was thinking why don't we plan it?

[00:44:06] We should run the dress rehearsal and claw back a win next Saturday. We can't Dick it's a live show Alright so that's the trailer for Saturday Night. Thoughts Chris? Oh Alan I really hope this film is good

[00:44:22] because if not I feel like you're gonna I don't know what it's gonna take to bring you out of the slump if this film is not. I'm gonna be at trap level upsetness and disappointment and anger

[00:44:34] if this film is not good. It looks great. I'll kind of off mic in between when we took a break and Alan was trying to come out and said you know it's a shame because in Night Shaman

[00:44:42] really knows how to do trailers still. His trailers for his films are all very affected and you're like that's the thing cause he's all ideas. You know Jason Leightman can have some wonder maybe he cuts it himself can cut a good trailer cause that trailer looks

[00:44:54] amazing. It highlights all the cast, the tension it's got a great idea where they're not trying to tell us the history of Saturday Night Live. No it's focusing on one show. It's a limited

[00:45:06] time frame. Yeah I mean just. I mean I wonder if it's gonna be real time like they say 90 minutes till show time. I'm like that's a cool. That would be cool. Have a cool clock ticket. Amazing. I mean who knows but gosh such a good idea. Good cast

[00:45:22] good concept. Obviously the subject matter I'm a fan of so I'm excited but boy I tell you what somebody needs to come in and set my expectations very low and tell me something really bad about this film or the production to just get my expectations low

[00:45:38] cause right now they are not low. They are dangerously high and that's no good. So Saturday Night it is coming exclusively to movie theaters October 11th. I am very curious how much of a release this would get. Could you imagine

[00:45:54] this film playing in Hickory? Like our hometown you know our single AMC theater. Sure. That's the question I've got I don't know. Yeah it depends on people that have seen the film

[00:46:06] and know like how much of a hit cause then they'll be like oh we're gonna put in theaters cause it's gonna be such a huge thing. It is a known quantity Saturday Night lot like you know but if they can edit out the profanities and somehow make a

[00:46:18] commercial you can show on TV. I think there are enough people that like the show that would go see it because they would be interested in it. Yeah. I would assume and Jason Reitman is kind of a known quantity too. A little bit. Yeah.

[00:46:30] I would assume it would but I don't know. Well here's hoping. Yeah. But I will drive I will drive a distance to see this if I have to. Fair enough. Alright.

[00:46:38] Chris that's my news and trailer I'm gonna turn it over to you. What do you have to share with us? You've got a trailer as well for a film right? I do. It's a new trailer for director Jeremy Saunay's new film Rebel Ridge.

[00:46:50] I have not seen it. I know nothing about it except for the fact that he's a director that I think I've seen most if not all of his films. He kind of got a start in 2007 with a film that was a comedy horror type thing. Murder Party

[00:47:06] which I liked. I think I recommended here on the show. Most people became familiar with them in 2013 with Blue Ruin that he went on to do Green Room and then his prior film to this one was 2018's Hold the Dark. And that was a Netflix original

[00:47:22] as well that came straight to Netflix didn't need to make anything in the theater. Had Jeffrey Wright and Alexander Skarsgard were in that. And it was interesting. Of his films it was probably my least favorite

[00:47:34] but I thought it was still interesting and had stuff going on so I'm curious to see. It's been since 2018. I'm curious to see what he's bringing to the screen this time. So just a small screen I guess.

[00:47:46] Let me just give the log line on this. Sure. It's coming to Netflix September 6 by the way so just like a month from now. Not long. Come to Netflix. A former Marine grapples his way through a web of small town corruption

[00:47:58] when an attempt to post bail for his cousin escalates into a violent standoff with the local police chief. He didn't start this fight but he will finish it. That is the log line for Rebel Ridge.

[00:48:10] So you want to go ahead and give it a shot? Let's watch it. Yeah let's do it. Here we go. Hey Mike! I'm posting bail. You stay low.

[00:48:21] You can fight for the money but that will take you most of the year and cost you twice what you're owed. And it's legal? It's law. May I at least see my cousin? I would love to sir just as soon as I get my money back.

[00:48:33] You do not stand in my station in front of my officers and set terms. You need to be very, very careful. Let's not do that. Chief! Alright so that was the trailer for Rebel Ridge. Chris you had not seen it before. I hadn't seen it before.

[00:48:50] Any thoughts on it from what you saw? It looks like a very different type of film than what I'm used to from him. I will say Green Room, which the whole concept behind that

[00:49:02] was these unknowing people that are in a band go to play this show and ends up being at a neo-Nazi type place. Obviously there's commentary on race and stuff and it turns into a very bad situation.

[00:49:14] They have to fight their way out of the club that they were going to play in. So that's Green Room. So it's not that the director or writer-director has never touched on elements of racism or anything like that.

[00:49:26] This one specifically looks like it's a battle between police and somebody who's been wrongly accused and there's some back and forth there. And it's the guy is black and the person accused is black and he's questioning the policemen and the cops of this local small town.

[00:49:42] So yeah, it looks very racially charged. I will say and also some action sequences because he's trying to get some bail money and things. If this were any other filmmaker I probably wouldn't be interested in it. It looks pretty generic. It does but I feel like the

[00:50:02] filmmaker is, he usually has more at play there. Don Johnson's in the film playing that and it looks like he's giving it his all, chewing scenery. But I think it could work. I will say what gives me a little bit

[00:50:18] of hope as well because otherwise I'd get very leery that they were going to be too like hand-fisted about the commentary they were trying to make even though racial tensions are a thing. I get it. It does show the fact that there is a black woman

[00:50:34] police officer and it does show some like okay so hopefully they're going to try to do some balance there and just kind of say I don't know. It looks interesting. Going straight to Netflix, I wonder if Netflix is just like whoa what have we got?

[00:50:50] We got a powder keg on our hands. I don't know. I'll be interested in it. Curious for me that I had not heard anything about it and you're saying it comes out in September. Well I mean you gotta admit

[00:51:02] it doesn't have a household name lead actor. That's true. That's one thing. If it was a you know if this was some other actor, if this was the guy playing Captain America this year. Oh sure. Anthony Mackie. If it was Anthony Mackie

[00:51:18] playing this role. Okay you would have been hearing about this a lot more sooner. So I think the fact that it is a little more unknown cast other than Don Johnson. Yeah I mean it still does concern me because

[00:51:30] again the trailer does make it look like it's pretty by the numbers revenge movie, kind of a payback movie with some racial overtones kind of mixed into it. I hope it's a little deeper than that. I hope it's a little more than that but we'll see.

[00:51:46] But I mean this guy has made some quote action, not action scenes but more you know has made good use of violence in other films he's done so maybe there's something to that. And that's the thing yeah. Which kind of calls to yeah his films can be very

[00:52:06] have some very brutal violence. Blue Ruin had that, Green Room definitely had that so yeah it's going to be one that definitely doesn't shy away from intense scenes. Probably not. But that is Rebel Ridge that is a Netflix

[00:52:18] original film or going to be premiering on Netflix. It'll be happening I think I said September 6th is the date for that. Directed by Jeremy Sauyenne. Alright Chris we got two films coming up in the next month or couple months from just those two

[00:52:34] trailers that we're excited to see and I'm sure we'll be talking about at least one of them. We'll see if we're talking about Rebel Ridge but I know we'll be talking about Saturday night at some capacity. I'll probably see Rebel Ridge just because it's on Netflix. Yeah good.

[00:52:50] Alright now we come to the final moment of the show this is when I turn it over to Chris and say Chris do you have a film that you'd like to recommend to us this has now become a solo Chris Fry thing because again

[00:53:02] I have fallen down the job. I do not, I am not keeping up my end of the bargain in doing recommendations but I trust Chris's recommendations immensely so that's why I'm going to just let him handle it what do you have to recommend for us this week Chris?

[00:53:18] So this was a film that I originally watched for the show this year thinking we might review it and now it's like nope not interested pass so we never reviewed it. I was going to recommend it but I thought well

[00:53:30] I'll wait until it comes to a streaming service. Well that day has arrived Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now available for people to stream on Hulu and you can probably I guess rent it other places if you wanted to pay like

[00:53:42] a rental price but it's definitely streaming on Hulu. This is another in the series of the Planet of the Apes movies. The story picks up several years after the reign of Caesar who was played in the original films by

[00:53:54] Andy Serkis. Central protagonist in this one is Noah he's in Portrayed, voice motion captured by Owen Teague and he embarks on a journey that will kind of question everything he's been taught because at this point humans have really faded into the

[00:54:10] background and it's basically apes running around a lot kind of controlling things. I thought it was good. Now did I like it as well as some of the previous new installments? No but this is the third director in the

[00:54:22] third family so it's kind of like they're going through directors but I thought it was interesting enough. There's also some interesting commentary they do about weaponizing legacies meaning you take something that somebody holds dear and then you kind of twist it and make it your own

[00:54:42] for your own purposes. This is the, I'm sorry go ahead Chris I'll interrupt you. No it may be fourth I'm not sure how many there have been. Yeah this is the fourth one. Third director. Third director, fourth film. Right so Matt

[00:54:54] Reeve, this is Wes Ball. Matt Reeves did the first one the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Yeah the names are kind of confusing. I know there's Rise then there's War. There's Dawn as well. Okay Rise, Dawn, War

[00:55:10] and then this one's just Kingdom. Kingdom. So but yeah this is the fourth. And I think you know I really like the first one and the second one I was like well why the second really worked. And I just

[00:55:22] thought okay the third one's going to be complete garbage and it wasn't. It was still good even though they changed directors by that point because the first two were done by the same person. And this film there again is kind of like nobody was asking for another

[00:55:34] Planet of the Apes movie. Why are they doing this? But I thought it was good. Is it, and I'll give it credit to the humans, I'm not spoiling anything you see them in the trailer so you know they're going to play a part. But they wait

[00:55:50] an awful long time. I felt like a pretty good while before they bring them in which I thought was interesting. The effects are good as they've been. I was going to say with motion capture, I mean Andy Serkis is not involved

[00:56:02] in this. Not to my knowledge he's not now. And he was always with Caesar in those first three. Correct. That was kind of a standout performance. Right. But motion capture is still pretty good though in this one. I think it's, if you like those films

[00:56:14] I think this one's worth checking out. You will be seeing it on the small screen, I really enjoyed seeing it on the big screen. But yeah, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, it's streaming on Hulu so I recommend to check it out.

[00:56:30] Okay, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Yes. The naming of those films was so awkward. Confusing. Yeah, Rise of the Planet of the Apes War for the Planet, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This one especially.

[00:56:42] Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. And I will say again, I could be wrong, but the ending clearly leaves it open for them to continue the franchise. Sure. Which I am fearful of where it's going to go now because the

[00:56:58] film works but then kind of the notes they leave it on, I'm like, okay. This doesn't bode well. But you never know. When the series first started back in the late 60s, you know the original Planet of the Apes. Right.

[00:57:10] It started from the point where these films now are kind of all have all led up to. Right. Kind of right? Right. So it's like you could as a franchise. These are a bunch of prequels. Now basically take and go forward and kind of map just like

[00:57:26] all those other films did. And you can still keep going infinitely. Sure. If you really wanted to. Sure. We'll see if that's the direction they take. I mean this one made pretty good money. It did. So they could probably keep them going.

[00:57:38] So I'm leery of where it could go just because at this point, like the interesting thing I was saying in this film basically there's a character called Proximus Caesar and what he is doing is taking the legacy

[00:57:50] of Caesar and you know we liked Caesar in the early movies. And he's taking that and twisting it and totally using it for his own devices kind of rising to be a dictator type figure. So it's interesting meta commentary.

[00:58:02] The way things are set up for what could be another sequel it looks like now. No, no it doesn't look like there's going to be any thing clever. It'll look like just a kind of a rinse and repeat of the original

[00:58:14] 1960s movies. So that's like oh and some of the things they've been doing in these other movies have been kind of creatively commenting on things. And that looks like it may fall away but who knows? Who knows? So I'll be

[00:58:26] yeah I'll still probably see the next one just because I still thought this one was worth saying. So anyways. Kingdom of the Plan of the Apes. Streaming on Hulu.

[00:58:34] Alright good to know. Now that it's on Hulu I will probably check it out. Sorry I didn't make it to the theater to see it but I'll check it out on Hulu. Sure thing. That wraps us up for today. So Chris's recommendation of Kingdom of the Planet

[00:58:46] of the Land of the Village of the Apes. Yes something like that. Yeah. Our teasers and trailers for both Saturday Night and Rebel Ridge coming up over the next couple of months. And then our review of Trap at the first half

[00:59:02] of the show. So Chris there may be opinions floating out there. There may be other movies that are custom made for me that people are knowing that are in production and I am not being told about. And I'm giving listeners the opportunity to tell me about these films

[00:59:18] or tell me how I may be wrong on Trap or you know I'm open to ideas. I am open to conversation at any point. So how can they engage us in that? They can send an email to info

[00:59:30] at footcandle.org. You can follow us on Twitter at FootCandleFilm Facebook, FootCandleFilmSociety. Instagram and threads were just simply FootCandleFilm. Al and I are also on Letterboxx where we try to track what we're seeing

[00:59:42] and leave quick takes and reviews. Do us a favor. Consider giving us a star rating or write a review or share with friends whatever service you receive your favorite podcast on because it will help us reach new listeners. We'd appreciate it. We mentioned

[00:59:54] it a little bit at the top of the show because we would be derelict in our duties if we didn't. But the 2024 FootCandleFilm Festival is going to happen September 20th through the 29th. It's going to be a good one. It will be our 10th year. If you're

[01:00:06] going to be in western North Carolina we would strongly encourage you to come check it out. We think you'll have a good time. Alright, well that's the deal. So we hope to see you at the festival in September. The website

[01:00:18] is footcandlefilmfestival.com. Correct. Got to give you a way to get information about that. That's right. Footcandlefilmfestival.com is where you go to learn about the festival, see our schedules, see our films, get tickets, get passes all that good stuff. It will be a lot of fun. Alright

[01:00:34] thanks everybody for listening today and we will look forward to talking to everybody next time. Take care. See you in the ticket line. The FootCandle Special thanks to Carpal Tuller for the show theme music. For more about Carpal Tuller visit www.carpaltuller.com

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