ETI's review of F1: Featuring Director Marcus Baker

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
How's it?
I'm Alex McCauley.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Max.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Vosburgh, and this is Excuse the Intermission a
discussion show surroundingthings that go fast.
F1 is the latest summerblockbuster in entertaining not
only Formula One fans butmoviegoers of all kinds.
Joining us to speak about thefilm is our good buddy, Marcus
Baker, who will also beparticipating in a sports movie
character hall of fame ceremonywith us An exciting episode that

(00:28):
gets started on the other sideof this break.
All right, Marcus, welcome backto the show.
This is one that we've hadcircled on our collective
calendars for a long time.
So how are you doing today?
What's going on with you?

Speaker 3 (00:43):
yeah, no, I'm good, uh, things are good over here.
Things are uh uh busy as everwith the seattle film society
and with my own projects and youknow all all sorts of stuff
going on.
Um, so lots uh lots to catch upon and I'm excited to get into
it with uh, with you guys on f1and as well as a couple other,
some couple other points on someof your recent episodes.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
See, this is why when Marcus comes on and when any of
our good friends come on for aguest spot, it's really fun,
because I don't even have toreally worry about writing an
outline or sending anything toto Max before we go live,
because I know the conversationis just going to flow.
We're going to get called outon some stuff.
You always bring the hot takes.
Max and I were talking aboutthis earlier this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Um, so yeah, I'm pumped Max.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
how are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Uh, I'm I'm doing well, Got a nice little weekend
break, uh, from uh, the featureI'm working on and, um, yeah,
man, just, uh, just enjoying mytime at the movie theater.
Once again, Another weekend atthe movie theater.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Love to be there.
Yeah, this is not only becauseof F1, but Megan 2.0 came out
this week and now that movie isseverely underperforming,
especially in comparison to theoriginal.
But it is fun performing,especially in comparison to the
original, but it is fun we.
We do have a calendar chockfull of pretty major studio
releases happening over the nextmonth.
I would say really, um so, sogood times, good times to be at
the theater for sure.

(02:15):
Let's get into f1.
F1, the movie, this, this movie, I feel like, is coming at the
perfect time, right, because F1has gained enormous popularity,
I would say, within the last twoyears really.
And so, coming into this film,let's just kind of talk about
where we were with the sport ofFormula 1 racing.

(02:37):
Marcus, we'll start with you.
Was it anything to do with theactual F1 circuit itself that
had you excited for this film,or was it more so all of the
parts that come together to makethe movie?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, I mean I'm I actually don't follow F1 at all.
I had known that like there wasa big boom in popularity and it
was really interesting watchingthe movie.
Because it was clear that likethere were some people who were
in my theater because I went toa sold-out screening on friday.
Um, there were some people inmy audience that had been drawn

(03:16):
in by kind of that netflix showI think it's drive to survive
and all that kind of stuff.
Um, because there were likecheers when like certain people
would come on screen and I wouldlook down the aisle and I'd be
like, oh, I don't know who thisguy is, but most people must
love this guy.
Uh, so he must be like a bigfigure at f1.
Um, so I I I knew very littleabout f1.

(03:38):
Uh, going into this outside ofyou know it's racing and lew and
Lewis Hamilton and all thiskind of stuff.
I'm a big sports film aficionadoso like I make it a priority to
try and see a sports film whenthey're out in theaters and try
and support the genre.
So that was a lot of what drewme in.
Also, I mean obviously you knowBrad Pitt, jessica Kaczynski

(04:01):
with Top Gun, maververick, um,and I mean, all those kind of
parts like are really what drewme to seeing the film, um, and
also it just looked like I,those trailers are so great,
they're so like adrenalinepumping and they really like
draw you in and they really sellyou on the story, which is, you

(04:22):
know, I'm I'm a sucker for um,you know, a washed up, a washed
up driver like, or a washed uplike sports figure trying to
make good like.
I love that stuff, um, so thatwas really what a lot of drew me
.
That was a lot of what haddrawn me in to see, uh, this
film, uh, but I, I really wasunfamiliar with f1 and we'll

(04:42):
kind of get into that a bit more, as as we're kind of talking
about the film, How'd you comeinto it, max?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Uh, you know, I, I think I've watched one F1 race,
my in my life.
Um, and you know, alex, you andI, we, we have a couple of you
decided not for me.
Well, I, you know, I it's reallyearly in the morning, uh, which
is not really a problem, but uh, but then you got to find it on
a channel.
It's just another thing towatch.

(05:08):
I don't know I, I've never beena huge motor sports person in
general.
Um, you know, alex and I wehave a couple of buddies, I
think of Byron Poland, uh, who'sbeen on some podcasts on on the
network, and Blaine Glasgow,who's been on this podcast, um,
who are just huge F1 likediehards.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Um so I kinda in, in in Blaine's world.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, so I, I just kind of live vicariously through
them, uh, with F1.
Um, and you know I know some ofthe.
You know I know who Lewis Ithink it's Lewis Hamilton, who
is also a producer on this film.
He is the guy who like staresdown JP towards during the last
race or whatever.
I know there's also a guy whodrives for, I think, red Bull

(06:00):
named Max, and you know I alwayskeep tabs on, tabs on on other
maxes.
So uh, yeah, yeah yeah, we seeeach other at the monthly
meetings, but other than that,uh, yeah, you know I, I know
it's a huge thing.
You know I've I've neverwatched the drive to survive.
Um, like I said, I think I'vewatched one race before, um, and

(06:22):
, yeah, I, I was.
I was pretty, pretty new to it.
Uh, as far as as where myexperience level, uh, with the
actual sport is, I was.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
I was in the same boat as the two of you, but I
like that coming into, cominginto really any movie that I
feel like might that is tryingto show us like a peek behind
the curtain.
We always say when we'rewatching movies, like I want to
try to learn something, if Ifeel like there's an emphasis on
an, on a specific area of focus.
And I came out of this moviefeeling like I do know more

(06:57):
about the world of F1 racing nowand so right there I'm like
okay, mission accomplished.
Like I feel like this.
This film was made with a lotof intent and a lot of knowledge
surrounding its subject.
I think having someone likeLewis Hamilton on as a producer
helps a lot.
So, uh, as someone who iscompletely green coming into it,
um, I, I feel like and I'veseen a lot of people's letterbox

(07:19):
reviews that are near the topof the page say like well, I
guess I need to get into F1racing now because this movie
really sells the sport, which Ithink is really cool.
Okay, so we'll kind of go over afew of the news bulletins here.
To begin with.
We are recording this on Sundaymorning, so official box office
numbers I don't believe havebeen reported.
They may be getting reportedlike as we speak right now.

(07:40):
I did see that it was projectedto land somewhere around 60
million I think was like thehigh-end cap for domestic and
perhaps crack 100 millionworldwide at, uh, the box office
.
So that would be a reallystrong opening for the film.
It obviously is starring.
It stars brad pitt and then, uh, you have joseph uh kaczynski

(08:01):
behind the camera, which, whichTop Gun Maverick, as Marcus
already pointed out, you see alot of the filmmaking, um
techniques as far as like GoProcameras that we saw in Top Gun
Maverick used here in F1, themovie.
So a lot of cool craftsmanshipthat went in to this film.
And then the supporting castaside from, like, carrie Condon,

(08:22):
who I think has been in a fewother notable projects before,
is really in.
Javier Bardem is really made upof relatively fresh faces,
which I love in a sports movie.
Again, it doesn't take you outof the film when you see like,
oh, the team doctor is JamesWoods Like I can't take this guy

(08:43):
serious, you know, so I lovethat about it.
Team's, the team doctor isjames woods like I can't take
this guy serious, you know so,so I loved that about it.
What did you guys make of kindof some of the the lead
performances in in the choicesthat were made in putting this
film together?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
I mean I, I I'm always kind of fascinated by the
way that brad pitt is used infilms because he's I mean, he,
you know he looks like brad pitt, but he's kind of he's always
kind of better when he's offball, when he's kind of playing
more of a character actor, um,when he's kind of playing like
off center to a george clooneyin those oceans movies, those

(09:16):
kinds of things, um, or to likehe wins his academy award for as
a supporting actor, yeah, andit's the same thing for, like
even fight club, where like he'splaying supporting to Ed Norton
, but like what everyoneremembers is Brad Pitt like
leaning back and his abs arelike glistening.
That inspires, you know, ageneration of people to work out

(09:37):
.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
I say the same about Seven as well.
Exactly he's supporting theMorgan Freeman character, but
he's probably the more memorablerole in that film.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, yeah, and and I mean you can 12 monkeys, all
those kinds of things where Ithink he's kind of off center
and so I think, like this filmit's interesting because he is
kind of like guiding theensemble, but he does have a lot
of like interesting piecesaround him, obviously, with

(10:08):
javier bardem bardem's giving agreat performance.
Carrie condon is lights out inthis movie.
She's so good and I was soexcited to see her show up in
this after, um, uh, bansheesvenezuelan, which is, like you
know, such a different, butshe's still like steely and,
like you know, she's still likevery capable in the same way she

(10:28):
is in that movie.
So in in Damon Idris, I reallyI do really like he's got a.
He's got more of an arc than Ithink just about anyone else in
this movie.
Most of this movie is Brad Pittshowing up and be like we should
do it like this, and everyone'slike no, we shouldn't.
Oh wait, we should listen tothis guy and like that's kind of
the entire arc of the movie andI think, like, for what this

(10:52):
movie is, it's, I think it'sperfect.
I mean, that's really what Isaid on my Letterboxd review is
that it's no more and no less ofexactly what you want it to be.
And I mean that is a highcompliment because, like so
often, you go into a sportsmovie and like you don't get
like the action you want or youdon't get the melodrama you want

(11:12):
, and this movie has the perfectbalance of all of it.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, I will.
I will say Damson Idris is.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Is that his?

Speaker 2 (11:21):
name.
Yeah, I think he he is someoneto watch.
I was really impressed with himin this movie and you're going
toe-to-toe with Brad Pitt who,you know, for the better part of
the last 30 to 40 years, hasbeen an A-list movie star and I

(11:43):
thought he held his own really,really well.
Uh, carrie Condon was great.
I thought all the, all thepeople at the like, the little,
like control center uh werereally fun.
The redheaded kid was wasawesome.
The, the other, uh, the, the,the, the older guy who's like
the team captain.
Um, I thought he had somereally great moments.
And then Javier Bardem Bardem.

(12:07):
Javier Bardem right there.
I mean this is the best I'veseen him in a long time.
We're not underwater as theking of Atlantis, we're not
fucking doing other weird shitthat we've been doing, we're

(12:29):
just like in really nice suitswe're.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
I wrote down in my notes here we've never really
seen him in like aninspirational role, which I
thought was just like a new lookfor him.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
It was really fun I, I thought he was perfectly cast
and it's so funny that he andBrad are like.
You know they're racing likeconstituents, right, but like he
is off the track, right, andit's so interesting because
they're pretty much the same age.
Who knows, maybe in real lifeBrad might be even a little bit

(13:01):
older, but, um, I thought alsoTobias, uh, men Menzies, uh, who
I always get mixed up with,patty Constantine, uh was really
really great and like playedthe part of like some like weird
tech billionaire, really reallyperfectly.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Um, the guy with the incredible lines in his face,
insane lines that go from, likehis mouth up to his eyes.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, I thought he he did a good job, um, and
then also the mother of of uh,jp, I thought she was great too.
I everyone in this movie, Ithink, does exactly what they're
supposed to do, uh, which iswhy it's such a just a.
It feels like such a wellcrafted sports movie, and you
need that in sports movies,right?

(13:50):
Most sports movies are ensemblepieces and everyone plays a
certain role.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
And I thought it was pretty flawless more and kind of
get your read, both of yourreads on, when you started to
figure out what kind of arc hischaracter was going to have,
because the one thing that I atleast did know about f1 racing
is that you do have like atwo-car team in formula one, and
so you know that there's goingto be this natural competition,

(14:20):
obviously for the dramatics ofthe film.
There's going to have to be alittle rift between them at
times.
But, like I personally foundmyself very early on in the film
thinking you know a little bitof it is archetype and just
knowing how these films aregoing to play out, but also
thinking I'm going to reallylike this character, I think,
even if he turns heel, which hedoes at one moment um, there are

(14:42):
other times in the film whereyou are supposed to feel for
this character, and I really didso.
I don't know where did you guysland as far as attaching
yourself to his story.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
I mean he is the rooster, right, I mean he is the
hotshot, the young hotshot.
This movie is very much builtexactly like Top Gun Maverick,
like I mean from a structureperspective.
And you know, maybe he's amixture of Rooster and Glenn

(15:16):
Powell's character right FromTop Gun Maverick, and it's just
a passing of the baton.
And, yeah, the interestingthing about Formula One, which I
was talking to Blaine aboutthis this morning, is that even
though you are a two-man team,your biggest competitor is your
teammate, right, and so to havethat dynamic and then I thought

(15:40):
it worked really well and hedoes have the most complete arc
out of anyone I feel like, right, he's, he's very cocky, he's
very, uh, me, me, me and kind ofover time, learns to, learns
the way of the of the senseifrom from, uh, brad Pitt's
character, Sonny Hayes Throwsthe phone out, it's all, yeah,

(16:05):
right, it's all.
Noise, yeah, cash, I'm gonnaneed you to leave today yeah,
that guy was really great too,that guy was hilarious when he's
on the e like the e-scooterfollowing him.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
He's like he's a saboteur well, yeah, and I mean
I think it's it.
It's definitely I gotta agreethat it's built almost exactly a
top gun maverick, except insports cars.
But it's also think it'sdefinitely I got to agree that
it's built almost exactly likeTop Gun Maverick, except in
sports cars.
But it's also like it's doinglike kind of a classic, like
sports film thing of like theyoung hotshot has to learn craft

(16:35):
essentially.
I mean you think of like BullDurham, where you know you got
Nuke Lelouch and he's like he'sgot all the talent in the world
but he has no craft and it's thesame thing, color of money.
Um, I think of one of myfavorites, greatest game ever
played.
It's same deal.
Shia labeouf has all the talentin the world but he's got no

(16:58):
craft and it's it's.
That's like kind of like.
That's such a classic sportsfilm thing of like the young guy
who's good but he has to learnhow to like wield it in the
appropriate way.
And I mean that's like, that'slike the shit you sign up for
with a sports movie.
That's like why I go to sportsfilms, because they are

(17:19):
fundamentally films about craft.
You know how a film, how mostsports films are going to end
usually.
So it becomes about how theyget there and becomes about the
specificities of craft and howthey gain that craft and how
they learn those lessons and allthat kind of stuff.
Um, and I think, like to mekaczynski is such a good

(17:39):
director in how he shapes thosemoments.
Um, certainly that that majorcar crash and all that kind of
stuff, and like the way thatlike uh, what's his name?
Idris damon, idris, damson,damson, yeah, the way that he
like then goes back in the carand he's like replaying the

(18:03):
moment over and over again andhe's learning.
Oh, if I had just followed theway that brad pitt told me to do
this, then I would have like,then I would have won the race,
and it's just like it's justabout how tennis balls against
the wall, yeah, exactly yeah,and it's.
It's just like real simple oldschool craft stuff like that
that I, that I love, like that'sexactly why we go to sports

(18:25):
films and to you know, you'regoing to get some big
inspirational story about howthey won the big race.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, and in the montages which this film has,
the, the signature trainingmontages.
I do want to talk about thepace of the film, because I
found this really effective too.
This might be the fastest nopun intended two hour and 30
minute movie I've ever watched.
Uh, the pacing is justremarkable.
Like the movie starts with arace.
You know it's almost like whenyou're trying to build out a

(18:52):
great drama in and people alwayssay like you either start with
a wedding or start with afuneral.
You know, like a sports movieneeds to start with the game,
and so we get a race right awayand then 20 later it's like we
get another race.
Brad Pitt's there and he'sdoing the test run, and then 20
minutes later we're at like ourfirst Formula One race, and then
there's just like a 20 minutebreak of melodrama, of training

(19:17):
montages, and then another race.
20 minutes, 20 minutes, 20minutes.
I was keeping track of it, so Ithought the pacing was really,
really effective.
Effective in this.
How did the movie feel to youguys in terms of length?

Speaker 3 (19:29):
I.
I had some issues towards theend, because it does start to
feel a little, a little longright at the end.
Um, I will say this.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
I've written down in my notes also the las vegas
crash scene with brad pitt.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Stupid, yeah, I didn't necessarily feel like
that needed to happen.
I love the whole idea of himdriving angry, but then you
undercut the whole thing laterwith him, like with you know
he's just gonna come back yeahyeah, you know he's gonna come
back.
I just didn't feel like younecessarily need it.
Um, I understand, I understandwhy it's there from like, like a

(20:06):
script perspective, but I don'tthink you need it I.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
I kind of don't like I.
I hear what you're saying, butI also kind of don't like a.
I think a smarter script choicewould have been to just like
sure, have them drive angry orsomething, but let's place,
let's or p.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
They don't say place, let's go like let's p, p8 or p9
or something of that race youknow, that would have been more
surprising to me and not feel astropey yeah, well, and also
because you get the earliercrash, so like you lose the
impact of a second crash, and soI think, like having him having
his anger fail him would be amuch more, uh, impactful way of

(20:46):
approaching that story, um.
but yeah, I mean I I think like,for me, like that part, that
whole section, really doesn'tneed to be there or it could
have been approached in adifferent way, that I would have
made it more effective, um,because to me that really feels
like a 20 minute detour thatreally drags down like the punch
of the ending.
I think this movie couldprobably lose those, that 20

(21:08):
minute section, and be fine.
I wasn't mad about it, I justdon't think it was super
impactful.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
I will say this, and I want to get your thoughts on
the pacing to Max, but that thatLas Vegas crash too is coming
off of some incredible stuffbetween Brad Pitt and Carrie
Condon as well, and so we'relike on a real high, and then I
think that really brings themovie down.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Yeah.
The scene of her and JavierBardem at the door is really
fantastic.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
So good yeah, and it's something that she.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, he's here, he's on the balcony.
It's something that it's socliche and it's such a funny
little beat that you knowthey're going to hit it.
But the way that she plays itis what sells the whole thing.
She's just incredible in thismovie.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, yeah, I will say I'm getting a little tired
of the false endings inHollywood movies, like and you
know the Baja stuff.
I I don't need to know.
I I don't need to know that, Iknow that's where he's going, I
know that's why he's leaving thejuice, we get it yeah, right

(22:14):
and uh, um, but other than that,I mean, I I think this movie
really needs to be consideredfor, like awards in editing,
because the editing in this film, and it starts right off the
bat when, after the nascar race,which also shout out shay
wiggum for having a cup ofcoffee, I totally thought he was

(22:36):
going to come back and and,like you know, yeah, being the
pit crew, like I know how to be,I know how combat works, um,
but uh, the editing in thiscoach, cause actually my dad
knew you.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, uh, uh.
So the when when Brad Pittshows up to the F1 team, uh away
, like it's him, I think, theold guy, carrie's character,
Damson and Javier, and theediting there, it's like it's

(23:14):
jumping all around and I noticedit right away, but like it's
almost setting you up like thisis how it's going to feel
throughout the movie, like it'salmost like in a style of of how
they edit the race as well, um,and so I I just think I think a
lot of the editing is is reallyfantastic, uh, and and even

(23:34):
some like experimental stuff too, with like the found footage,
uh, like a memory of of his hisrace 30 years ago, with like the
crashing of the waves, uh,right at the beginning, I that
was super interesting.
I thought, uh, to open the filmlike that, Um?

Speaker 1 (23:55):
are you talking about my post-sex nightmare?

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that too, yeah, yeah, yeah, the
post-sex nightmare, which isinsane.
Uh, I, I did read your this isall my letterbox.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Is that you know how tortured a man must be to have a
post-sex nightmare?
That is some of the mostintense trauma.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah yeah I mean I will say when you see him like
laying on that track, like hisleg is not turned the right way,
not, that's like right.
You see the scar on his backwhich, like I, was like I saw
the movie with uh, previous etiguest, matt rush um and like,
when you see the scar on hisback, I, matt rush and I are

(24:42):
like fist pumping, like hellyeah, he's fucking injured.
He's gotta come back.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
He's a broken man.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
He's a broken man, yeah, and that's like again,
that's the shit you sign up for,but he does not look good on.
I mean, no one looks good inthe middle of you know, having
just had a major car accident,but he especially does not look
good well, I love too that they,we, we get to see that too.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Right like he is beat down and exhausted after every
single race he has to retreatback to, like his green room, if
you will, and basicallycollapse, um and can't
participate in any post-racefestivities.
And then it's still even.
You know that the nascar racethat we get at the beginning or
the stock car race with thatporsche that's awesome looking
porsche um is is really tellingtoo right like that opening

(25:31):
scene sets up his characterreally well, I think, and the
movie honestly, because when youI know you guys pay attention
to this stuff, but for anybodywho doesn't really know, like
when you hear a led zeppelinsong in a film, the movie means
business, because Led Zeppelindoes not license their music for
a lot of stuff and if they do,it's like a seven-figure amount.

(25:54):
Usually that's like what thereports are.
And so when the movie startsout with like him, I don't know
I was like this is how I need tostart getting ready for podcast
, marcus, before you go out andhost like sfs, this is how you
need to like go out just like,dunk the face in the sink full
of ice water shot of espressoright before you go out and just
fucking led zeppelin playing, Iwas like let's go, we're off,

(26:17):
but also you get.
It paints the picture of thisguy who's like this guy takes a
lot to get going, it takes a lotto get him going and then he
shuts down like he's broken.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah yeah, also on that music note, some of hans's
best stuff recently, right, Imean like he is doing an
impression of of resner and ross, but like from challengers, but
some of the synth stuff isfantastic.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Uh, on the score really it reminds it's, it's a
better version.
It's a very similar version,but it's a better version of his
score for rush, the oh, anothergreat racing movie.
That's my favorite racing movieof all time and and it's very
similar to his score there, butit is more.
I mean, rush is set in the 60sand 70s and and kind of spans a

(27:04):
few more decades after that.
But, um, you know, this is ofthe times.
This is really good and we geta good balance.
You know, I couldn't wait totalk to you guys about about
this music, either because, um,or the music choices, because we
got this last year in twistersand I think we were all a huge
fan of the original motionpicture soundtrack.
It makes your movie so muchbetter.

(27:25):
And F1 not only has a greatscore by Hans, but it has the
original motion picturesoundtrack with a lot of songs
used in the movie, and I'm nottalking about the jukebox needle
drops of.
Led Zeppelin, but a lot ofcurrent artists are on here, and
so I thought that that reallyhelped the production value as
well.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, kaylee had a comment after we got out of the
theater.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
She's like I don't think I've ever seen you dance
so much in your seat during amovie and I was like, yeah, I
was feeling it, man, I was, Iwas vibing and you touched on it
a little bit here, but I thinkthe whole idea of like him I

(28:08):
mean I love these kind of likeyou know, the old guy gets one
last shot at greatness I lovethose kinds of stories and
they're so prominent in sportsfilms in particular.
It is possibly, I willacknowledge, just because I'm
such a huge Paul Newman fan.
But there's so much of likeSlapshot in this movie with the

(28:30):
corporate element because thatlooms so big in Slapshot and
there's a lot of like.
To me it feels like there's alot of Paul Newman in this
performance where it's like thisold man kind of picking his
spots and getting one last shotat greatness, in the way that
like you feel that in the Colorof Money, you feel that in
Slapshot, you feel that in somany late-career Paul Newman
performances and I think it isinteresting that Kaczynski has

(28:54):
directed Maverick and this film,which are both very much like a
matinee idol getting one lastshot and proving, proving like
he can still do it, you know, orlike, and kind of mentoring the
next generation.
I think that that's something.
That's it's again, it's aclassic archetype that I think,

(29:15):
like is always appealing in someform.
But I love the way that thisfilm plays it and I love the way
that Brad is like kind ofallowing himself to be old on
screen.
In this film he's allowinghimself to be old on screen.
In this film he's allowinghimself to be, you know, a man
who's like in his fifties, a manwho's actually in real life I
think he just turned 60, butlike in the film he's playing in
his fifties, and that kind ofthing.

(29:36):
And I think, like, when a starallows themselves to be old on
screen, to me that's such a,that's a wonderful transition
point, because so often thesedays you see, like you know, 40
year olds playing, you know guysthat are in, still in their 30s
and still like toughing it out,and it's like, no, like, let
yourself be old, like it's okay,like.

(29:57):
I think like that bringsgravitas to performance, to the
performance.
It brings gravitas to the film,certainly, um, and I think it
really like it brings a lot tothe experience of um uh of of
the story and enjoying the filmreally well.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
I think it also it it allows pitt to use his best
feature as an actor, which isjust his, like natural given
charisma which which heweaponizes so well in this movie
, because his, his characterisn't necessarily written to
have a ton of charisma like,especially in in the first act.

(30:36):
I would say he's giving youknow like one word answers at
the pressers and he is being alittle bit of a curmudgeon.
He's got a sharp tongue and awitty sense of humor, right, but
it's not like we wrote him tobe his character from Ocean's
Eleven or something like that.
He's not coming in there asthis real hotshot, like retired

(30:58):
vet.
He has been humbled by hiscareer and the place that he's
at in life, like he understands,like I'm doing my laundry at a
24 7 uh laundromat here inflorida right now and and that's
kind of the energy that hemaintains throughout the film.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
So I thought that was really good too, because
obviously it's a charismaticperformance, but that's just
because it's brad pitt, so Ithought that was used really
well also yeah, it was verysteve mcqueen, uh, uh, when I
was, when I was watching, I mean, granted, you know they're both
blonde and blue eyed, but uh,even you know, I think about

(31:34):
Lamont, uh, which is anothergreat racing movie, uh, that
Steve McQueen did late in in hiscareer and, uh, I think a
little bit of the playbook fromthat was was pulled in here for
this character he alsodefinitely pulls from the vin
diesel.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Uh, for that 10 seconds I'm free speech, when he
literally says he's flying,flying I was like oh my god,
we've got it all here.
People, uh, that was that waskind of poorly written, that
speech, but still it was it'swhat you need.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
It's what you need, yeah, yeah well, yeah, because
you need to set that whole thingup at the end too, of like, if
it's again, it's it's kind of acraft question of like, if you
know he's gonna win, then whatis he gonna get from winning?

Speaker 1 (32:21):
and like and how can you make us still invested in
that moment?
How?

Speaker 3 (32:24):
can you still get us invested in that and when she's
like he's flying and he is?
Like and the camera's just lowto the ground just turned down
solid 30 seconds like oh my god,that shit rocks yeah, that was
that that part was really good,the payoff was great yeah, where
do you guys rank this in yourracing movies?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
canon?

Speaker 1 (32:47):
I mean, for whatever reason, I don't know what was
going on in my life in 2013 thatmade me just love and respond
and cherish still to this day.
Rush so much, but I still havelike if I didn't really give
this too much thought.
But I did think right away like, do I like this movie more than
rush?
The answer is no.
I think rush is like afive-star masterpiece, honestly
One of the best movies of the2010s.

(33:08):
But it's up there with I meanlike I kind of want to revisit
the Wachowskis Speed Racerbecause I've seen people talk
about that, Not really incomparison to this film, but
just as another race movie hererecently.
So I don't know.
I definitely liked it betterthan Gran Turismo from a couple
of years ago and I thought thatmovie was really strong.

(33:28):
So I don't know, it's in recentmemory for recent race films.
I think it's really reallysolid, really good.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Just out of curiosity , are we talking strictly car
racing or racing in general?

Speaker 2 (33:45):
I mean horse racing, dog racing, horse racing, we
could race.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
There's a lot of, there's a lot of racing, there's
bike racing.
I mean Senna's got to be upthere.
I love Senna.
I I would still put Rush aboveit, just because I think Rush is
doing.
I think Rush does the melodramaway better and to me that's
like that's always the key withsports films is that, like you

(34:14):
want to shoot the action capably, you want to tell the story
capably.
But it's like the degree towhich you lean into the
melodrama and this is justpersonal preference, the degree
to which you lean into themelodrama, that I think like
always sells it for me Icouldn't agree more.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
You are so invested in both daniel brule and chris.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Yeah, oh, my god, yeah yeah, and I think like
investing you in both characters, like that, is so hard to do,
um, so I mean I I would, Idefinitely put it below rush,
but I mean I'd put it up thereon my list.
Um, I'm just looking at my list.
We've gotten a couple of reallygood sports films the past
couple of years.
So, uh, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, I think, I think I I definitely need to
revisit rush.
I can't remember the last timeI watched that that film, uh,
but I mean, for my money, Ithink f1 is my hands down
favorite, uh, as far as thatgoes.
You know, ford and ferrari orford v ferrari is is really

(35:14):
really good and really fun.
And actually I was listening to, uh, a kaczynski interview.
He originally was tapped todirect that film with brad pitt
and tom cruise, uh, as as thedamon bale uh, characters which
would have been really, reallyinteresting.

(35:35):
Um, yeah, of course, that endsup falling apart and then he
goes and does maverick instead.
Uh, but kaczynski is just likelike yes, you know putting the
camera in the cockpit, he's doneit twice now.
Right, like we again like a lotof the same, like feel that you

(35:55):
get from watching maverick, yougot watching f1, but man, he is
, he's really thrown down thegauntlet as far as like just a
great big time blockbusterdirector.
Right, because I mean, even ifyou think about something like
Tron Legacy, which he did backin the day, and then Maverick

(36:19):
and this yeah right, when itcame out, people didn't love it.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Now I feel like it's really well regarded.
I'm so interested to see whathe does next um because he's a
really really good filmmaker,yeah right yeah, well, that that
was the thing, like there'slet's get him to do a.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Uh, can he do a meeks ?

Speaker 3 (36:40):
cut off and put a gopro in the covered wagon yeah,
there was an article on theringer this week that was like
which tony scott movie shouldjoseph kaczynski make a remake
next?
Yeah, and it's like valid,because I mean he's two for two.
He did top gun, he, and he didhis own days of thunder so I
mean I'd love and I think thatis kind of his like major skill

(37:03):
set is like he's really good atputting you in that sort of in
that experience of like a, inthat high octane experience with
like a, you know a, an agingmale star who's got one last
shot at greatness.
I mean you could you'd have tolook at it from a certain angle,

(37:23):
but you can make that argumentfor Tron too, because I mean you
got Jeff Bridges and that wasone of the first movies that
employed de-aging.
I remember that was a huge deal, and so I think like there is
like some element of that,that's like in his work that
he's just such, a, such anatural craftsman with that and
he's.
I really am excited to see whathe does next craftsman with

(37:47):
that and he's.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
I really am excited to see what he does next.
Um, okay, so are there anyother thoughts here on f1?
Before we get to our sportsmovie character discussion, I do
want to just shout out um, youknow, I don't think this movie
couldn't have been made three orfour years ago.
It could not have been apandemic production.
Based on the amount oflocations and the use of extras
that this film employs, Ithought that all the race stuff

(38:09):
looks so good because you cantell this is shot on site.
These are real pit crews, theseare real people in the crowd,
and I know they filmed at a lotof F1 events, I think from the
previous two seasons, compilingfootage.
So just shout out to old schoolmovie making in that regard.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
You love that, love to see it and, honestly, it
makes such a huge difference.
It makes such a huge differencewhen you are on the racetrack
and you know, like Marcus said,people cheering for different
drivers showing up Right, um,and it, it, just it, it really
really helps, like bring youinto that world, uh.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
So, yeah, uh, love, love, love, love that yeah, yeah
, I mean I I think it'sinteresting because I think this
movie is it.
Like I said, it's reallyeverything you want it to be, no
more, no less.
Um, and I think this movie Idefinitely feel I feel like this

(39:10):
movie is great.
It's never going to top mysports movie list, but I think
it is a solid fun time at themovies.
It's a great film to see intheaters specifically.
It's just such a big productionand it's a great film to see in
theaters specifically.
Um, it's just such a bigproduction and it's so involving
this, the sound design.
So, specifically, that'ssomething that we always talk

(39:32):
about with film is that, like,the real reason to go to the
theater isn't just like the bigimage but the sound design, and
the sound design in this film isincredible.
Um, and yeah, I mean I justthink it's a really, really
solid, really well-made moviewith, uh, you know, with actors
that we, that we like and uhwith with solid, uh, directing

(39:53):
and craftsmanship, and I I woulddefinitely recommend seeing it
in theaters if you can yeah,definitely it's.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's my second favorite movie of the year so
far.
Like it's in the top fivesinners okay, yeah but yeah, I
mean sinners in this are the twofive stars that I've seen this
year.
So in in my opinion, uh, Ithink it's, I think it's great.
I, I think f1 will.
It's gonna be interesting tosee what it looks like on it on

(40:21):
a tv at home.
But again, but again, bradPitt's just one of these guys
that I think their performanceis just going to age even better
and better and it's going tobecome a rewatchable movie that
you can crank out at any time.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah, yeah, alex, I want to ask what your favorites
are of the year before we moveon.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
So I've yet to actually see.
My sin this year is I have notseen sinners.
So I'm kind of like holdingspace for that in my top five
because I know I'm going toreally, really enjoy that.
That'll be part of my 4th ofJuly plans.
Once it comes to HBO Max, I Iflirted with putting this at my

(41:08):
number one spot and then I justhad to stay true to kind of the
genre sicko that I am and I Istill have.
Companion actually is myfavorite film of the year.
Um, and then gosh.
I don't know I'm I'm a littlerusty on my letterbox right now.
I'm not sure exactly what elseis hovering around the top five
there.
Um, but I I definitely wouldplace this, this movie in the

(41:30):
top three right now for me.
Um, and then it's just um, oh,okay, I have warfare.
And then also in my top five isa film I just watched um out of
can called um dangerous animals, watched um out of can called
um dangerous animals shark movie.
Okay, um, kind of like a serialkiller shark movie.
Two different things in one isthat is that the one with jai

(41:51):
courtney yeah, it is yes.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Oh man, I fuck with jai courtney hassey harrison is.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
The is the lead in that film and kind of a star
making performance for her aswell.
Um, a name to watch out for.
But yeah, I really, I reallylike that movie, yeah, yeah,
okay.
So let's get to the second halfof this conversation.
There was much deliberationsurrounding how we were going to
tie in a greater sports movieconversation with marcus.

(42:23):
Here we ultimately landed onyour Mount Rushmore of sports
movie characters.
So what that looks like is fourcharacters from sports movies
that each of us will be bringingto the table.
We have our own personal list.
It's not like we have to comeup with a consensus here or
anything.
Can't wait to see the directionthat you guys took with
compiling your list.

(42:43):
So how did you kind of go aboutfiguring out who was going to
make your shrine and who wasn'tMax?
I'll start with you actuallyhere.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Well, so I really wanted to try and touch as many
sports as possible, right?
So if there's a baseball playeron here, there won't be another
baseball player.
If there's, you know, uh, Ialso really want to, because
sports movies, you know, theyseem to they, they also have
like a wide sub genre, right,like there's romantic sports

(43:15):
movies, there's kids sportsmovies, there's comedy sports
movies, there's your, your, youknow drama sports movie.
Um, I did try to represent someof that.
And then also, like I also kindof thought of like who are the
four people that, like I want onmy team?
You know, uh, who's who's gonnaif, if I am the fifth member of

(43:40):
, of whatever team I'm puttingtogether here, like who you go
to war with, yeah, who do I goto war with who's going to make
me the best?
Yeah, sure, so yeah, that's kindof how I went.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Marcus.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
You know I came into this episode the least prepared
I've ever come into an ATIepisode.
I'm shooting from the hip on alot of these, but, that said,
I've still lot of these, but I,that said, I'm still.
I've still got my classic like.
I've got a couple of hot takesthat I'm, that I'm sitting on,
and these are just ones thatI've just been like.
You know what I love.
I love this character, I lovethis movie and I do think I do

(44:20):
kind of agree with Max and thatI I wanted to try and like give,
spread the love around.
You know, there's there's acouple like, there's at least
one classic in there, there's a.
There's a couple like, andthere's a couple that you you
might not expect or might nothave heard of, cause you know I
don't get much of a platform tolike, really like, express my,

(44:41):
the full range of my love oh,you just froze a little bit
there, alex yeah, here we go.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
I think I'm back, um, and so I think I caught the end
of what you were saying there,marcus.
But I'm I'm right there withyou guys where I tried to have
some variance to my list and Ialso have a deep roster of
honorable mentions, and so I dowant to.
I might pivot away from one ofmy guys if they are taken by
someone else here, because Ifeel pretty confident in

(45:17):
cementing five or six people upon this four-person mountain, if
you will.
Having said that, I will gofirst here because I do want to
make sure I get this person tosay that.
You know, either of you could,um, could not also have them,
but I'm, I'm going with myinspirational leader here first

(45:41):
on my team, and this was a nobrainer.
It was the first character thatI put down, because I don't
think I've ever been asemotionally affected by a
character in a sports film thanI have been by my man g, baby
and hardball oh, yeah, I love it, love it.

(46:01):
So g baby goes on the mountrushmore, because I think that
you could walk up to any gen xmillennial, anyone who has been
interested in the career ofKeanu Reeves and studied his
films, anybody, I mean, like toa person.
You ask them what's one of themost impactful deaths in any

(46:22):
movie ever, and you're not gonnahave to wait long to hear G
Baby's name be said um and so.
For that alone, right there,he's my inspirational leader,
cause a team has never ralliedaround a character more than
they have G baby, not only whenhe was alive, but then also, you
know, post-mortem,unfortunately.
And so I need, I need G baby onthe team, that whole squad,

(46:47):
really Like if we were pickingsports movie teams, I might have
to go after that entire littleleague team.
And so give me g baby on themount rushmore, love it yeah,
love it, love it.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Um, yeah, I can, I can go.
I mean, I gotta go uh with, uhwhat?
The guy who is at the center ofwhat I consider the greatest
sports film ever made, danielRudiger, from Rudy Rudy, is a
film that I returned to at leastonce a year.

(47:21):
It's a film that I've loved forpretty much as long as I can
remember and I just like youknow, I, I, I, the.
To me, the real joy of sportsfilms often is you know, I, I, I
, the.
To me, the real joy of sportsfilms often is you know, they're
very aspirational and that filmis it's.
You know he's got astraightforward goal and it's a

(47:41):
great little character study ofhim chasing this goal.
You know he's too small to playfor Notre Dame and he's, he
doesn't have the grades and allthis kind of stuff, and he works
hard and he works hard and heovercomes obstacle after
obstacle and all this kind ofstuff and he works hard and he
works hard and he overcomesobstacle after obstacle and then
he achieves his goal and likewho cares, he only plays like
four downs, like who gives ashit, like he plays for notre

(48:01):
dame, um, and I mean, you gottahe's, he's gotta be my main guy
on on my mount rushmore here.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
So love it, love it.
Uh, I need on my team.
I need an enforcer, I need aprotector, I need a hothead, uh.
And so I want to go with one ofthe most quotable sports movie
characters and it, for my money,the best sports comedy of all

(48:29):
time, and that's happy Gilmore.
Not to mention, he's a twosport player, uh, with hockey
and golf.
Uh, he's an athlete.
He's getting a legacy sequelhere, I believe this year, or
maybe next year it comes out, um, and yeah, man, give me, give
me Adam Sandler's happy Gilmoreall day.

(48:49):
Uh, I fucking love that movieand and love that character day.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Uh, I fucking love that movie and and love that
character.
I love the pick.
It segues beautifully into my,into my next selection and this
is a real body of work pick hereand and I'm taking, I'm taking
the one season where this guypopped off and averaged like a
double double and played 42minutes a game.
Um, I need howie ratner, I needadam sandler for uncut gems on

(49:22):
my sports movie character, hallof fame mountain.
Uh, resurrecting him from thedead.
Resurrecting him from the deadthere's two dead guys.
You've resurrected it is two,two, wow is my entire no, their
film.
Um, the zombie sports moviebracket.
I, I need my wild card.

(49:46):
Um, I I always like finding,you know, we we do little
wrinkles, we find little ways tosort of like cheat the list or
whatever.
But I think when you talk aboutsports movies, that's what
uncut gems is.
It's a sports gambling movie,but it is often overlooked, I
think, as being an extremelywell written, well researched

(50:07):
piece of film because of howmuch it knows about the gambling
world.
Like you you want to talk about, like learning a lot.
You learn so much when watchinguncut gems about the world of
sports gambling.
Um, the good and the bad,mostly the bad.
So so give me Howie Ratner,give me Adam Sandler as well,
and again kind of a body of work.
Pick here Um, appreciate thewater boy, appreciate everything

(50:30):
that he's done.
Um, but I think this is, youknow, not only a career apex for
him, but um really an apex andand kind of sports movies,
alternative sports movies, ifyou will.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Yeah, and I mean I'm I'm actually going to follow
your lead there, cause I, Ithink, um, my pick here is a
little bit of a body of work.
Pick Cause, um, I I love PaulNewman, newman, which I
mentioned earlier, so I I gottago fast.
Eddie felson uh, the hustler,color of money, um, and again,
like paul newman, in somethinglike slap shot, just like I, I

(51:04):
love all of those performances,um, but the the hustler is one
of.
To me, it's one of, if not thegreatest pool movies of all time
.
I mean it's just, I love thefive pool movies out there.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
I'm sure there's a few.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
I mean, I just love the pool player in my honorable
mention.
It's not necessarily a poolmovie, but I got you See.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Max, you don't know.
I got you See, Max, you don'tknow.
No, I mean I love Fast EddieFelsen in the Hustler, where
he's got you know, because it isreally like a perfect, like
Paul Newman sort of dichotomywhere, like early in his career
he's playing all these kind oflike young hot shots who like
need to be humbled, and thenlater in his career he's playing

(51:52):
the old man who's been humbledand has to pick his spots, but
like is wisened enough to knowwhere the exact right spot to
pick is.
Uh, which he does in color ofmoney, which also stars young
Tom Cruise, Um.
So yeah, I mean I gotta go fast.
Study Felson, he's gotta be onthere for me.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
I can't, can't, let my boy fall down me, I can't,
can't, let my boy fall down.
Uh, well then I'm next playeron my team or on my.
Mount rushmore is a youngphenom, uh, and again, like
we're jumping around subgenres,I think this is the greatest, or
if if not the greatest, in thetop two, top three.

(52:30):
Greatest like kids sportsmovies, right like the, the, the
young kid sports movies.
I'm taking benny the jet, rogeregus oh, I was gonna pick him.
Goddamn, of course, man, we, wegotta have that young kid.
He's, he's a good dude, he's agood ball player, uh, he's got

(52:52):
the, the PF flyers on, and hegrows up to play for the Dodgers
.
So love to have him up there.
The Sandlot, a movie that isjust very important to my
childhood and upbringing and onethat gets played right around

(53:12):
Fourth, right around 4th of Julyduring that time almost every
year, and just a fantasticbaseball movie.
And you know coming of age andnostalgia all over that, even
though I wasn't around in the60s, but it is very, you know,

(53:33):
backyard baseball kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Um, so, yeah, I got the jet.
I think somehow this movie,although it's it's set decades
before we were born, feels likea movie 90s, right yeah totally.
It's the age that we were whenwe came to it.
I do think that if you aregoing kids sports movies, this
is like the clear number oneoverall pick, probably movie to

(53:56):
draft from and character to takeas well, so, so good, yeah,
yeah, yeah, absolutely couldn'tagree more um, okay, so to my,
to my third pick.
Um, I'm gonna wait on the guy Iwas gonna go with next, because
I feel like something that Maxsort of teased in his
construction um speech there atthe beginning makes me think he

(54:18):
might go this route, and then Ican still pivot.
So I'm going to go, I'm goingto go to uh, jesus, shuttles
worth for my third Yep, and itwas on the list.
Take, take Ray Allen um from heon the list.
Take, take ray allen um from.
He got game mentally.
I don't think we've ever seen atougher sports movie character

(54:38):
than jesus shuttlesworth.
I mean, he's dealing with thedeath of his mother, his father
is incarcerated and out ofprison and if he doesn't pick
the right school, if he doesn'tpick a school he's gonna have to
go back to.
There's just, there's so muchon this on this kid's shoulders,
um, and and so not only for forwhat he can do between the ears

(55:01):
, but also between the lineswe're taking.
We're taking jesus here in thisspot, um, I also just.
There's some stories, uh, fromthe production that I've heard
spike lee tell before ininterviews.
Like that, the epic one-on-one.
You know there's actuallythere's not a ton of basketball
in this movie really, but that's, that's fine, that's kind of
like beside the point, um, butthe, the, the, of course, like

(55:24):
epic one-on-one scene betweendenzel and ray at the end of the
game or at the end of the movie, excuse me, um, is is such a,
it's such an impactful and andpowerful scene.
But it's also really funny tohear spike talk about because in
in the script I guess it waswritten for ray to to beat

(55:46):
denzel 11 and zero and andreally just kind of be like
you're nothing, old man, youknow, and he still gets to do
all those things that are in thescript.
However, denzel being denzel,and I guess you know young
denzel in the early 90s was likeno, like he got game, I got
game okay like I can still go atray a little bit here and so

(56:06):
the five, the five points thathe scores he actually scored on
ray allen and I guess ray'slooking over to spike like
offset and he's looking over atother people um on the
production team and being likewhat the fuck is happening right
now?
This isn't in the script.
Um and Denzel's just likecontinuing to check the ball up
and score on him and stuff, andand and again, a credit to spike

(56:28):
um, just let the cameras rolland capture it all because he's
like, yeah, this isn't in myscript, but this is so much
better for the movie, for popsto, for Jake, you know to, to
get some buckets and so anincredible scene, great stories.
And I need, I need a killer,someone who I can give the ball

(56:50):
to in the, in the final, youknow, minute of the game and,
and I think that's Jesus for mymoney.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
So, yeah, yeah, I love that.
Oh man, I God, I love it.
I love he got game so much.
Such a good movie.
Yeah, yeah, I mean I I got onethat I think Alex is actually
going to like I'm I'm diggingreal deep and I'm actually
crossing the Atlantic for thisone.
So I I'm going to, I'm going toexplain this a bit and then I'm

(57:15):
going to tell you who I'mpicking.
So there's I'm a big fan of withFrench sports movies in
particular, because the thingwith American sports movies is
often they're all about like howyou win the big game, and
French sports movies are kind ofthe opposite, where they're
like how do you stay in it?
How do you survive?
How do you stay in it?

(57:36):
How do you survive?
How do you like just keep going?
And there's this thing.
There's a couple of really greatones that I really love.
There's one called Sparring,which is about this like boxer,
who's like a he's a careersparring partner and he's never
won a match and all this kind ofstuff.
That's that's kind of on myhonorable mentions list.
That guy never won a match andall this kind of stuff.
That's that's kind of on myhonorable mentions list that guy

(57:56):
.
But the one that is going tomake my Mount Rushmore is this
character named Thomas J, thomasJ Edison, from this French
tennis movie called final set.
And this whole, the whole thingin this movie is this guy who's
been hanging around the edge ofthe sport.
He's been trying to, he's beentrying to break through.
He had one shot, he missed itand he's just trying to get back

(58:17):
into it and it's all about himlike getting that final shot and
making the most of it.
And this guy's just got driveand he sticks in it.
And there's this great recurringbit in the movie that I really
love, where he's like talking tosomeone and he's like basically
giving this monologue and thenlater in the film he's like
doing a press junket and he'sgiving the same monologue and

(58:41):
it's clear that like he was justlike he had this whole thing in
his head the entire time and heis just like carrying it over
into his now professional life.
Um, and he's, and as a tennisplayer, he, he's great, great,
he sticks with it, he, he digsout a match and I want someone
like that on my team.
Who's gonna, who's gonna stickthrough it when it's, when it's

(59:02):
hard, when it when the going isreally tough and it doesn't look
good.
I want someone's going to beable to dig it out and still see
that you know you can, that wecan come through the other side
of this.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Hmm, I love it Great reasoning yeah, my next pick is
a movie from 2023, which I thinkwas criminally underrated,
under seen, and that is from themovie iron claw, and I'm taking
Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich.
This is the wrestling filmabout the Von Erich family and

(59:41):
the tragedy that they wentthrough as pioneers of the
wrestling Worldwide WrestlingFederation Federation.
Just a fantastic, fantasticperformance from emotional
performance from Zac Efron, butalso like the physical

(01:00:02):
transformation he went throughfor this film is really really
insane and how big he is andagain, just kind of as as maybe
G baby is is Alex'sinspirational leader, I think.
I think Kevin Von Eric, someonewho you know lost four brothers
in a matter of 10 years uh, youknow, is our emotional and and

(01:00:28):
spiritual leader.
Um, just really, really loveiron claw.
I actually randomly threw it onthe TV like a couple of weeks
ago.
It's fucking.
It's an amazing movie from 2023that that never got enough love
, uh, when it came out.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Well, there you are, giving it some love.
All right, my fourth and finalpick and if this is on anyone
else's list, stop me right awayso that I can pivot without
doing a whole soliloquy but mynumber four Mount Rushmore
inductee is Jerry Maguire.
Oh yeah, so I have to have TomCruise represented on this list

(01:01:14):
somewhere, because, as someonewho I think has been much
maligned over his career fordoing athletic things in a very
non-athletic way in his movies,this is the perfect role for him
.
To just be in the sports world,though, because you can buy his
character as a sports agent andand not necessarily a player I

(01:01:38):
think that that casting is sogood, and so, once again, this
is kind of like the howie ratnerside of of the coin when it
comes to a sports movie and thebest character in a really good
film not necessarily someoneplaying an athlete.
So Jerry Maguire is going to bekind of the coach of my team
here.

(01:01:58):
Um, just a great arc for hischaracter in this movie.
Uh, learned so much.
And speaks to what Max wassaying about how the different
sub genres within a sports movie.
You know, this is a realromantic sports movie, but a
really effective sports movie.
Nonetheless, and when you'retalking about top five, top
seven, tom cruise performancesof his career, I think you have

(01:02:20):
to mention jerry mcguire.
So there's there's a lot ofmeat on the bone with this pick,
um, which I think ultimatelyhelped it sneak into my top four
, as opposed to other people whoare um at the center of a film
as the athlete.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
So jerry mcguire, final pick for me yeah, I,
before I get into this, I haveto know we're gonna do honorable
mentions here.
Yeah oh yeah okay, I just gottamake sure.
Uh, yeah, because I mean my, Ithink it's impossible to like, I
, I think it's impossible, notonly I think it's impossible,
not only impossible, I think itwould be a complete disservice

(01:02:56):
to the genre to not just throwKevin Costner on my, on my, on
my Mount Rushmore, and it could,you can, you can hide your pick
.
You got for the love of thegame, you got crash Davis and
Boulder, which is, to me, Ithink, his best sports movie.
A lot of people go to bat forfield of dreams.
I think that movie is weird asshit and no one acknowledges it.

(01:03:18):
um tin cup in there, you, youcan even go draft day like you
got a lot of you, got a lot ofwiggle room there uh, jessica
chastain's dead father inmolly's game, oh my god alex,
you should add them to your teamof ghosts yeah, yeah, actually,
I'll give them

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
to you, thanks, yeah, yeah, I mean, those five
minutes are unassailable oh mygod.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
Yeah, I mean I think you just gotta.
You gotta put the cause onthere and it could be.
It doesn't even need to be anyone performance.
If I have to go with one, I'dprobably pick him as crash Davis
, cause I that's like one of myfavorite sports movies in
general him and Susan Sarandonand nuclear Lush and all that
stuff.
Like I love all that.

(01:04:04):
But I got to put the cause onthere.
Got to put the cause I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
I feel like, yes, your, your list is really
helping give this entire episodetheme, our episode's, more
valid.
Now with Rudy, with Costner,with this representation.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Yeah, you got to have some Rudy on there, so you got
to have some representation forall the boys who cry watching.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Rudy, all the classics, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
Not me crying in my seventh grade college education
class.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Uh well, uh, much, much like Alex, I need a coach
uh on my Mount Rushmore Um,someone you know, a leader of
men uh, someone who we're goingto get up in the morning and
we're we're happy to be atpractice because we're being
coached by the great uh, denzelWashington coach Herman from

(01:05:02):
remember the Titans maybe thegreatest coach performance.
Um you know, in in a sportsmovie.
Um you know, I know a lot ofpeople love racism.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Huh, so he did solve racism in the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
Um, you know, I know a lot of people love racism.
Huh, so he did.
He solves racism in the South.
Uh, we get a history lessonabout Gettysburg and we know
that the left side is strongside.
Um so, oh my God, left side.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
So good.
Uh, first sports movies I eversaw.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
Yeah, remember the Titans again they kicked off my
love yeah.
Yeah, just another veryimportant sports movie.
Uh, to to me growing up.
Uh, again, if we were going forteams, I would definitely go
for the Titans team as probablymy my first pick.
Um, uh, a great cast ofcharacters throughout.
So, uh, and you know, maybe weget Coach Bill Yost as well as

(01:05:55):
the assistant on this team.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
But yeah, one of the great character actors too, yeah
.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Herman Boone has to be up there on my Mount Rushmore
.

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
Yeah, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Well, this might be the part that I'm looking
forward to, more than the actualamount are the honorable
mentions.
Um, I don't know, I think maybewe I mean, I have a list of 10
plus here, so I don't want tojust all of us chew up um a
bunch of airspace.
Maybe we just kind of ping pongback and forth.
I'll go.
I'll go with the top three thatI think were the most difficult

(01:06:30):
for me to keep off of my listhere.
Um, and, and that starts withNikki Lauda, daniel Brule from
rush, yeah, um was was the oddone out here.
Just just a tough beat forNikki.
Um, his career is full of them,though, but he persevered, and
so he's going to get throughthis as well.
And, and then I got sanaalathan, monica right oh yeah

(01:06:55):
yeah, I almost put her on mineanother really tough one to have
to cut.
And then I, you know we neverget to see him play.
But in terms of hype, give me,give me a four star, five star
recruit from the state of texasand let me get randall pink
floyd from days and confused.
Jason london, um, just I.

(01:07:17):
I think this kid could havebeen a generational talent if he
didn't hang around with a bunchof stoners and care about
aerosmith tickets.
I'm maybe of the mindset thecoach is right you're throwing
away your championship seasonhere, um, so so randall pink
floyd, big shout out.
Yeah, I don't think there'sanybody.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
Jason london and dazed and confused, maybe one of
the coolest people ever uh,yeah, I mean, before I get into
mine I do want to shout out uh,max, because the inclusion of
herman boone, we have to note,kicked off a whole run of like
sports movies, specificallyabout coaches because then you

(01:07:54):
get like you get like coachcarter, you get uh, what's the
one that the rock did?

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
god, I can't remember gridiron gang yeah you get all
sorts of like sports.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
It's a lot miracle, yeah, yeah and they're all
specifically about the coach andthey're not so much about, like
you know, playing the game.
It's all about like, and I, Ilove that.
Personally, I think I lovethose movies.
Um, I mean, if the tippy top ofmy honorable mentions is, uh,
francis, I can never say hislast name.

(01:08:28):
Oh, we met from a greatest gameever played the Shia LaBeouf
movie.
That movie is directed by BillPaxton and it's just like.
To me, it's one of the mosteffective uses of like.
It has some of the mosteffective like technical
filmmaking for sports films.
So he's up there for me.
God, I was going to put SanaaLathan Is that how you say her

(01:08:53):
name?
She, she almost made my list,so she's an honorable mention
for me.
Um, god, I, I love that none ofus put any boxing movies on our
lists.
I think that's really.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
that's really interesting problematic
characters can't have that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
Yeah, not it, yeah I'm just not a huge fan of the
rocky movies and I know you know, rocky is on every list,
usually as number one or two.
Um, but just not never been afan of those movies yeah, yeah,
very problematic, like veryproblematic guy yeah most boxing
movies are about how the boxersare bad people and they

(01:09:30):
overcome that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
Um, uh, I uh.
Not a lot of sports comedies onhere, so I gotta put ben
stiller and dodgeball.
That was one of the first uhpg-13 movies I ever saw.
To this day, I think that movieholds up.
That movie's great I, I had.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
I had peter lafer uh vince vaughn's character on my
honorable mention list yeah, um,I I got kind of a deep cut.

Speaker 3 (01:09:55):
North Dallas 40 has a great Nick Nolte performance.
He's playing Philip Elliott, soso good.
That movie's great.
Mira Nahr did Kinev Katwe,which is like a chess movie but
I'd call it a sports movie.
The main character in that,Finoa Muzzi.

(01:10:17):
She's amazing.
That performance is phenomenal.
And then final two here wegotta go Sidney Dean White Men
Can't Jump Wesley Snipes, sogood.
And then finally a real heartof the locker room Sidney Dean
White, man Can't Jump WesleySnipes, so good.
And then finally a real heartof the locker room, kind of

(01:10:41):
coach kind of thing.
We get Jack Cunningham, BenAffleck and the Way Back.
So, good, Also like an iconicmovie trailer.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
Hell yeah, other than , yeah, peter LaFleur from
dodgeball, I had randy the ram,uh.
Robinson from the wrestler uh,if I wasn't gonna be able to get
benny the jet, then I probablygo um the rookie.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
I'm trying to remember that character's name.
Oh my God, dennis Quaid and therookie man.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Oh yeah, dennis Quaid and the rookie, or even like
what is this other movie, arookie of the year from 1993.
Starring Thomas Ian Nichols isit was another great baseball
movie that just was importantduring childhood.
And then Shane Flacco from theReplacements Again just like a

(01:11:44):
great comeback story.
And then, honestly, I thoughtabout putting Sonny Hayes on
this list.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
I know it's too early to call, but that's how hyped
up I was coming out at f1 lastnight yeah, shane falco has the
uh, he has the most sightings ofa fictional character's jersey
that I've ever seen in real life.
Oh my god, I would say likeonce a year at the seahawks

(01:12:13):
games I spot somebody in a falcojersey, which is just
incredible work.
Um, okay, so I also have a benaffleck character on my list
here I'm going back to dazed andconfused.
And when he is in the emporiumand he's just clearing people
off again like dacent, confused,I quasi sports film and when he

(01:12:37):
is no, look, eight ballingshots saying it, it's an honor.
I even let you play at my table.
It is great, great stuff um Igotta give a shout out to willie
beeman a little bit of of acancer in the locker room, I
would say I can't have thatrunning around unchecked, um,

(01:12:57):
yeah, but.
But shout out to jamie fox.
Jamie fox, with two appearanceson on my honorable mentions
list also because god damn if Idon't want he and colin farrell
racing, go fast boats for me andmy yeah, yeah so jamie fox
comes on here twice.
Um, you know, I I need to give ashout out to a sport that we

(01:13:21):
don't recognize anymore, that wedon't practice anymore, and
that's for the better.
Um, you know, the world in 2025.
Who knows where we're headed,though?
But maximus aurelius, russell,crowe and gladiator at the time

(01:13:42):
it was a sport.
I used to say that it won't comeback.
So so russell crowe, um, fromgladiator, makes the list.
I'm kind of jumping around soI'm losing my space here.
I gotta give my girl, kiraKnightley, a shout out and bend
them like Beckham, her characterJules awesome Blake Lively,
also in the shallows.
If that would have been asurfing movie.

(01:14:02):
I think she rips it up for 90minutes.
Um, I need to get, I need toget my, I need to get.
Uh, makai Pfeiffer from O.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I thought for sure he was going to be on your map.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
I love that.
That's on your list.
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
You talked about a five-star recruit, a prospect
coming out of prep school there.
We've never seen anything likeOden James before, and then two
cameo appearances that Idefinitely needed more from.
I have to give my guy TipHarris TI some love and American
gangster.
Let's go out, he's gettingscouted by the Yankees, shows up

(01:14:44):
to the family reunion and it'sjust talking so much shit at
that table.
So so I love, I love TI as asjust a character again, not a
sports movie movie, but a sportscharacter.
And then, and then, maybe themaybe the best cameo of all time
guys, miles teller playingmiles teller in project x as a

(01:15:08):
baseball player.
Um, just great, great stuffwhen they're in the supermarket
and he's like my toe, what'scracking bro?
And then, and then they invitehim to the party and he goes,
we'll play catch, and miles saysno, so good it's so funny oh my

(01:15:32):
god, wait, wait, could I?

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
I gotta get in on the second round of honor, please
let me go go okay, so we gottastart up top with.
I can't believe this is theonly sports film performance.
Um, but ethan hawke in the inthe movie the phenom he I'm not
gonna deny he plays the abusivedad, but he's fucking great and

(01:15:55):
more people need to like.
Take ethan hawk and put him insports movies.
I have a long-term goal ofputting also ethan hawk and
training day apparently a strongsafety that that was highly
recruited coming out of highschool.
According to scott glenn, henever forgets alex has a brain

(01:16:16):
that I can only imagine what itlooks like on the inside.
Um, yeah, okay, so we got, wegot that.
Um, oh god, I just had like abunch.
Um, oh goodness, okay, we gottago math to go, matthew
McConaughey, and we Are Marshall.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
He's up there.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
Another like in the shadow of Remember the Titans,
another movie about a coachhelping a team overcome Gotta.
Make sure we're shouting outWill Ferrell in Talladega Nights
.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
That movie gotta be in there, gotta be in there.
I recently watched Karenkusama's girl fight uh,
incredible.
Michelle rodriguez performancein that movie uh, great, great,
uh early I think like 2000, yeah, 2000s, like uh boxing indie
movie, that movie's really greatnever seen that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
I've always wanted to , so you recommend it oh yeah,
absolutely, I know it's in thecollection and maybe it's time
for blind buy yeah, uh, thatone's great.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
Um, since alex is throwing out some weird ones,
I'm gonna shout out rhubarb ofthe cat from the movie from the
1951.
Uh, rhubarb, uh.
Movie about rhubarb the cat whosaves the baseball team.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
Rhubarb the cat gotta be in there well then, we gotta
put air bud in there too he'spulling shit from fucking
training day air bud was StephenCurry before Stephen Curry.
I mean, he's pulling up fromthe three point line constantly

(01:17:55):
yeah, we're gonna throw JohnnyKnoxville from the Ringer in
there.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
Wildly offensive Doesn't work at all.
He's funny in it.
One of the best movies I sawthis year Ephus I'm not even
going to name a person, butthat's currently at the top of
my 2025 list.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
I got to see that movie.
This film is your 2024, 2025version of hundreds of beavers,
where you're the one thatchampioning, championing this
movie, like relentlessly, andI'm going to see it because of
you, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:18:29):
The thing that's so great about Ephus is that it
like fully captures the joy oflike adult rec sports and it's
just.
It's literally just like a dayin the life of like, it's like a
slice of life, drama, or I'dsay even slice of comedy, really
about a baseball field that'sgoing to be closed down so

(01:18:53):
they're going to build a schoolwhere that field is, and it's
just these old guys playingtheir last game at the field.
It's like, it's fun, it's likevery low stakes and it's really
just like a day in the life andit's just like.
It's so great.
Carson Lund, great up andcoming director.
Ephus, one of the best filmsI've seen this year and will

(01:19:17):
definitely be on my year-endlist.
I won't pick a character, couldbe anyone from that movie.
Um, I'm a little surprised alexhasn't called out challengers
yet.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
I'm a little surprised, just I don't know who
I would do like tashi's, theone that that I think would
probably do the most for my team.

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
Um yeah, toshi is like she's up there with denzel
as a coach, as a coach right, um, but yeah, career cut short due
to injury, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
So that's a tough beat, yeah yeah um and then my
final, you've got two people whowere cut short because of death
.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
They're dead yeah, but it's the legacy, okay, it's
like the Pat Tillman award formy team yeah, it's like Pat
Tillman or Roberto Clemente yeah, bring them back.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
And then my girlfriend would be very upset
with me if I didn't includeHaley Graham.
I'm not even going to try andpronounce her last name, but
hayley graham from the moviestick it, which is a gymnastics
movie starring her and jeffbridges, and katie has seen it
twice and has loved it moreevery time and actually asks to

(01:20:30):
watch it pretty frequently.
Um so, gotta, gotta includestick it in there.

Speaker 1 (01:20:35):
That makes me I mean we got to give kiki dunst and
gabby union a shout out forbringing on oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
oh.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
And then I guess one more being hillary swank and
million dollar baby.
Uh, bringing that one back fromthe dead as well no, I can't
see a lot of shaking heads.
Look, it's not her fault.
Someone said someone else setthe chair there.
It's not her fault.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
She's biting her tongue off.
No, no, no, no hillary swank's.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
Great that movie that's some good stuff there in
the honorable mentions categoryum okay, so, so, before I I send
us off here, let's, let's hearsome of these grievances, some
of these hot takes that you needto get off your chest, marcus.
What, what have you been?

(01:21:25):
Uh, what have you been hearingus say recently?

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
I mean I, I wanna, I, I wanna re-litigate
materialists and Max's opinionthat it's fine.
I don't think it's fine.
I think it's got some real deepproblems.
I think, first off I believe itwas you, alex, that said that

(01:21:50):
you're excusing Dakota Johnson'sperformance.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
I think that's terrible.
I haven't seen the movie, but Ijust will already tell you that
I'm excusing her performance.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
And listen.
I'll say it again I've neverunderstood Dakota Johnson or how
she continues to get jobs.
She is not my flavor of icecream as far as acting goes, but
you didn't like hang dog chrisevans here's.

Speaker 3 (01:22:16):
Here's the thing about chris evans is that chris
evans's character is too clean.
He's his beard is way too close, way too close kemp, we and he.
He looks way too clean that ifhe's gonna be hang dog, that man
needs to be dirty as shit, thatman needs to have messy hair

(01:22:41):
and his life needs to be waymore messy.
A lot of my problem with thatmovie is I have problems with
the script and I have problemswith the casting.
Dakota Johnson is so wildlymiscast because she's so aloof.
There's like nothing there forher.
But and I will say like it is,some of that is in the writing,

(01:23:03):
but then the other part of thatbeing that, like chris heavens
doesn't have any kind of an arc.
He like doesn't do, like heliterally comes at her and is
like man, I would love to bewith you again, but I can't
change my life.
And then he doesn't change hislife and she's like I guess I'll
be with you and that's themovie and it's oh my god,
sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
Sometimes you know one partner can't change their
life and you, just you, you know, if they're that special, you
gotta just accept it god, chrisevans isn't that special, pedro
pascal's special, although I see, I I didn't like pedro in that
movie.
I thought he was doing weird,weird, weird choices as well oh

(01:23:45):
man I thought he was miscast I.

Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
I think dakota johnson's miscast.
I think Chris Evans is okay andI do agree with you that I like
Chris Evans when he's playingan asshole.
He should always be playing anasshole and I think he's just
playing like he's just too clean.
He just needs to be dirtier andmessier and his life needs to

(01:24:12):
be more of a wreck.
Um then I feel like we get fromhim.
But I feel like so much of myproblems with materialist does
kind of come back down, uh, tothe actual script of it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Um, yeah, it's like it's no past lives it's no past
lives.

Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
It's hard.
It's hard to talk past lives.
Yeah, I like that.
She's like moving the camera.
Celine Song's like moving thecamera and trying out some stuff
.
I think that's reallyinteresting.
I have some issues with that.
I have some issues with, like,the overall film.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Although, like I don't like Dakota's like
performance style, I think thatcharacter does need to be aloof.

Speaker 3 (01:24:54):
uh, to a certain degree if you're a matchmaker, I
think, if that's your careerchoice, you're you're kind of a
little bit of aloof in life youcan be aloof and like you can be
aloof like in your, in yourcareer, and also still care
about like, also still like careabout your personal life.

(01:25:16):
She just there's like nothinggoing on in there.
Dakota Johnson shouldn't everplay a poor person either.
That woman was raised by moneyand she shows it.
Um, that's like probably myprimary gripe.
Um, yeah, god, I had a, I had amore, but I didn't write them

(01:25:36):
down.
I'm sorry, guys, I'm lettingyou down by not coming in to
argue more.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
Well, you know, it just kind of dawned on me that
we could maybe take 10 minuteshere to talk about 28 years
later, because Max and I wereable to make that episode happen
last week.
Um, yeah, so you know, we cankind of curb all of our danny
boyle thoughts and still maybehave time to fit those in on a

(01:26:02):
on a bonus episode down the roadsomewhere.
But you saw that film right,marcus um did so yeah let's
let's maybe just spend a secondhere kind of talking about what
we thought worked and what wethought didn't work with that
movie.
Um, because the more I readabout it, I kind of am I'm
sensing that I'm on the outsidelooking in with this movie.

(01:26:24):
Um, people are saying it's likeone of you know.
People are saying it's one ofthe best of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:26:28):
I don't agree okay, yeah, I mean I, I really liked
it.
It's.
It's up there on my year-endlist.
I don't know if it'll, you know, make my my final list for the
year, but it definitely it.
It got me way more than Iexpected it to, to be sure.

Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
Um, all the jody comer stuff really snuck up on
me and if you listeners don'tknow that's, that's one of
mark's, is that's one of yourgirls right there I?

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
do have Jodie Comer.
Yeah, yeah, I looked.
I liked her in bike riders,which I know Max is a big fan of
.
He's smiling right now, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
I, I really, I really like the pandemic, the last
duel.

Speaker 3 (01:27:08):
Oh man, she's great.
When I first saw it Idefinitely felt like it's like
30 minutes too long.
But I also again just from ascreenwriting perspective I
understand why those 30 minutesneed to be there, because it's

(01:27:30):
reintroducing you to the worldas it is now.
The Aaron Taylor Johnson stuffis really is it kind of works
for me.
Another podcast I listened tokind of framed it as like Aaron
Taylor Johnson should alwaysappear as if he's two beers deep
and I think that tracks a lotin that movie.

(01:27:51):
I think he's.
He's really good with playingsomeone who's a little bit messy
and kind of a little not creepy, but he's a little bit like not
well kept.
I would say yeah, so I mean, Iliked 28 Years Later.
I'm not someone who necessarilywatches a lot of horror films
or a lot of zombie films, but Ifound it to be surprisingly

(01:28:15):
emotional.
All the Ralph Fiennes stuffreally really moved me.
I'm a little bit curious tohear what you guys think,
especially you, you, alex,because it sounds like you kind
of didn't vibe with it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
Max aaron tay, aaron taylor, johnson, in this movie,
uh, big box guy, I'll tell youoff.
Mike, I'll tell you.
He, mic, I'll tell you it isJust crazy, crazy work for them
to have a son witness that inthe alley.

(01:28:48):
Yeah, got to pack that up, dothat somewhere else.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't knowthese movies I think are in this
series.
I this isn't know these moviesI think are in this series.
This isn't really that fair tosay, but I think that, like, I'm

(01:29:09):
not going to say that they'reonly as strong as their opening
sequences, but so much of thesemovies really set the tone with
their opening sequence and Ithought that this one was pretty
weak.
So again, it's kind of thatreintroductory period, like
remember, this is where we areand this is what's happening,
and and then like and I put inmy letterbox review, I'm just

(01:29:30):
led, I'm I'm led down aninteresting road, but a road
that that presents so manyquestions that just aren't
answered.
Like I guess that the rest ofthe world has contained this
virus and we've just decidedthat, like we're not gonna drop

(01:29:50):
a nuke on north scotland orwherever we are, we're not gonna
just like send in some, somedrone strikes to take these guys
out, like I just I don't know.
I get it.
It's a movie you needed for the, for the dramatic element of it
, um, and that's fine.
But I also think just like kindof lazy writing by by Alex
Garland, and that's who I'veI've ultimately landed on, like.

(01:30:12):
The person that I'm most letdown by with this movie is
Garland.
Um, you know, he's always goingto have a problem writing
female characters feel like andthat's, and, and that's why, for
one, warfare worked really wellfor me, because he just like
abstained from from doing any ofthat.
And then civil war was, I think, more effective because of the

(01:30:35):
simplicity of of that narrativejust a road movie basically, um,
and even within there, you know, there's still some interesting
things that he does, with thekirsten dunst character in
particular.
But, um, so I thought thescript really wasn't there.
There was a lot of stuff that Idid like.
I mean some of the, the visionsequences I thought were really

(01:30:56):
cool.
I thought boyle was back in hisbag in a big way for some of it
.
Um, the, the framing of someshots, like this alpha zombie
that we get on the hill, reallyreminded me of like a scary
stories to tell in the darkillustration.
You remember those books thatyou would get from like your
elementary school library, likereally creepy stuff, um, yeah,

(01:31:16):
kind of littered throughout thismovie, but as, as far as like a
sustained fun time, um, I, Ijust didn't really have it like
from from wire to wire with thisone, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:29):
Yeah, the the, the more and more I think about this
movie.
I think, the more and more itstinks.
Uh it, uh, I, I love, I doreally love, like the, we're
taking this boy out to get hisfirst kill.
You know where we live in thisweird, like you know, amish

(01:31:51):
village that you know it's alike why, if you are this
isolated community, why are yourisking?

Speaker 1 (01:31:57):
future generations by having.
I get it.
Maybe you're looking for theseslug zombies that are just super
easy kills or whatever, butyou're putting future
generations at risk when I feellike that's not what you should
be doing.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
Well, because they all have to be able to defend
themselves right, yeah, that wasmy thought be able to defend
themselves, right?
Yeah, that was my thought, andthey go out to to get you know,
to forage for for food and andwood and and stuff like that.
Um, so I, I love that and I, butyeah, as alex mentioned, like I
hate the fact that, like theygo to like tell you that, like

(01:32:40):
the whole the rest of the worldis fine.
I hate that like what it should.
Like the whole, the rest of theworld is fine.
I hate that Like what it shouldbe.
The whole world should be likepost-apocalyptic or whatever.
And there are differentfactions of people all over the
world and and everyone's gotdifferent ways of of of
defending themselves or or youknow, uh, continuing their
communities.

(01:33:00):
Um, I liked Ralph Fiennes, butthe fact that Jodie Comer goes
all this way and then he's likeyou have cancer and now it's
time to burn you alive, Uh, justdid not wait, and she's like
okay, and she just gets up andgoes like does not work.
Does not work for me at all.

(01:33:20):
Um, I told Max.

Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
Marcus, that it's, it's.
It's giving a lot of lilygladstone killers of the flower
energy yeah, I could see that, Ithink like.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
One thing that I do like about that, though, is I I
think, like, thematically, thefilm is really interested in, um
, in how we approach death, andI like the idea of, like people
still dying in normal ways, eventhough there is this rage virus
and all this other kind ofstuff and try, and how we kind
of maintain our humanity in theface of you know something

(01:33:53):
terrible like a rage virus.
I like that aspect of it, andthat's what I think really
really has stuck with me, but Ican absolutely understand being
like.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
None of this makes sense, like logically well, yeah
, and then the, the baby and thepregnant rage, yeah, woman,
yeah the placenta the the powerof the placenta.
So but you know it'sinteresting because I was
thinking, you know, was sheinfected, like, was she pregnant
before she was infected?
Was she infected after she waspregnant?

(01:34:23):
Uh, how was she?
Yeah, who's the partner?

Speaker 1 (01:34:27):
whatever, I it just aaron taylor johnson after six a
lot, a lot of questions andthen and then the ending
sequence.

Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
The end sequence, it just feels like a completely
different movie and that thatcompletely didn't work for me
and I know it's setting up asequel right, yeah, totally yeah
, but like it, it just liketotally.
I don't know, it was just a anodd choice that left me with a
bad taste in my mouth as Iwalked out the out the theater.

(01:34:58):
So, yeah, this is one of myleast favorite movies of the
year.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
I did remember the other take that I was going to
come in with.
Yeah, I just looked up the textmessage threat that you sent me
, the text message threat thatMax followed up by sending me a
gif of Muhammad Ali dancing inthe ring.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
Yeah, ready to fight.
You did not like.

Speaker 3 (01:35:24):
Life of Chuck.
I don't think life of chuck.
I I feel like I'm in theminority on this and that I
think life of chuck actuallyworks best.
In the opposite direction, Ithink the third act is the best
oh, interesting, far and away.
It's only, it's the only actthat has, like, any clear
storytelling stakes to it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
Um, it's definitely the most complete of the three.
It's the most complete.
But, there's way too much MarkHamill in it for me.

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
I mean that seems to be most people's.
I don't care, give me a bath inthe river of ham.
Yeah, I mean I'm fine withHamill in the third act.
The third act feels like themost complete.
It does feel like it's tellinga complete story, whereas the
second act I'm just likewondering where we're even, how

(01:36:15):
we even got here.

Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
It's not even well, it's not even an act really,
it's really just a dancesequence even an act, really
it's.

Speaker 3 (01:36:25):
It's really just a dance sequence, really, yeah,
and then and then it's like youknow, thinking about the dance
sequence and the first act to me, what?
What drives me crazy is thatit's like the world is ending
and like no one's freaking out.
Everyone's like crazy.
The world's ending, man, crazyman.
It's crazy that all the powerwent out.

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
Crazy and like I think edger, for is, is freaking
out to a certain point, youknow no, hardly.

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
He's like sitting in his living room watching a
musical.

Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
He's like man what else would you rather?
What else are we gonna do?

Speaker 3 (01:36:59):
I don't know, but I wouldn't do that.
That's like a lot of my issuewith life.
I don't think it's like bad um,but I it just didn't quite work
for me as well.
I would say um, I think it islike it is like a nice, like
life-affirming forrest gumpstyle drama and I I like that we
get that and I like that it'sin theaters.

(01:37:20):
I like that like, I like thatthis exists and that's kind of
my feeling on any film like thatthat I that does make it to
theaters where I'm like you knowwhat?
I don't.
I don't love it, it's not forme, but I'm so glad this exists
because I know so many peoplewho do love it.
We, we have our mutual friendthat I think you saw it with

(01:37:41):
that.
I know he really likes it and Ihave a.
I have a couple of differentpeople that I have seen it with
it or I know that have seen it,and they have spoken very highly
of it.
So you know it's not, it's notnecessarily for me.
I have a lot of problems withthe first two sections of the
story, but I think that thirdact is wonderful two sections of

(01:38:02):
the story, but I think thatthird act is wonderful, um, and
I think it does very muchaccomplish what the story is
going for and telling this kindof nice life affirming story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah Cool.
Yeah, yeah, that's it.
No, no more problems.

Speaker 1 (01:38:20):
You guys are doing great.
Thank you, Marcus.
Um, okay, Well, while while wehave you here, I got a couple
questions for you.
I'm sure you can guess some ofthe kind of scripted ones that
I'm going to throw your way.
I do want to ask, though,because I saw you post about it
the other day when the 50% offBarnes Noble sale went live Are
you getting any new pieces ofphysical media from the

(01:38:42):
criterion collection?

Speaker 3 (01:38:43):
this go about you know I'm I do.
Yeah, I've got um right now.
I've got the before trilogy onthe way um I that had been on my
list for a long time andobviously those movies are
classics, um, but I mean thatthat's really it for me, this go
go around.
I've kind of been like I dohave a couple other movies on

(01:39:06):
the way, but they're notCriterion's.
I just bought After Yang, whichI just oh my God one of my
favorite movies.
I'm so excited for Big, bold,beautiful Journey too, with
Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell,and I love After Yang.
That movie is, I will say, nota great movie to watch after a

(01:39:27):
breakup.
That was the first time I sawit but it's a really, really
wonderful meditation on love andlife.
It's another verylife-affirming movie that's very
calming I find, and the otherone that I have on the way is
the Puffy Chair, the Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
Oh yeah, the.

Speaker 3 (01:39:45):
Duplass Brothers movie yeah, I think their first
feature film.
But no, nothing crazy this goaround.
I know they'll probably haveanother big 50% sale in the fall
or winter, and that's usuallywhen I really go all in.

Speaker 1 (01:40:03):
Got anything in the cart Max, anything you're
looking at.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
Uh, no, not, not, not at this moment.
Uh, I haven't.
I haven't had time to peruse,to be honest, Um, uh, but I did
recently clock, while I was outuh working, uh on location, I
clocked a giant used DVD,Blu-ray video store up in like

(01:40:32):
Burbank that I immediatelypinned on my maps and so one of
these days I'm going to, once Ifind some time, I'm going to run
up there and and I cannot waitto run, through that store.
It's just called used used DVDand it was just like this giant

(01:40:52):
yellow and black sign and it'sliterally like a it it was like
a warehouse, like it looked likean old Costco or something.

Speaker 1 (01:41:02):
That's awesome.
You also have Barnes Noblesdown there and Marcus you do as
well kind of in the centralPuget Sound area.
But down here are Barnes Noblesand the South Sound does not
carry physical media when itcomes to DVDs and Blu-rays.

Speaker 2 (01:41:24):
So if you're in the Tacoma area you of have to
participate with with this saleonline only, but you guys both
have the benefits of actuallygoing in store to see what's
available near you yeah, the,the grove has a barnes and noble
uh, which is like a shoppingcenter near, near my place and,
um, I, I, I, I, I went in there,gosh, I think in May, sometime
in May, but they've got like awhole wall of criterion and then

(01:41:48):
they've got a whole like fourwalls enclosed of just like
Blu-rays and DVDs.
So physical media is stillstill well and alive here.

Speaker 3 (01:41:59):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:42:00):
I went with two blind buys this sell or the sale and
I'm excited because they've bothbeen on my list forever.
I've never seen the new world,the Terrence Mollick film about,
you know, john Smith and andPocahontas, and so excited to
check that movie out, reallyexcited.
And then quite Dan, quite Don.

(01:42:23):
It's a 1964 japanese filmthat's kind of like an anthology
horror story, ghost story,mystery, um, that I usually see
a lot of people log aroundhalloween time.
So I'm excited for both ofthose to arrive here in the next
couple of days.
Okay, so, other than that,marcus, seattle Film Society,

(01:42:48):
anything else that you got inthe works this summer, now's
your time to plug away.

Speaker 3 (01:42:53):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean, the big thing withSeattle Film Society is that we
are looking for new boardmembers now.
We are looking for someone tojoin our board as an education
director.
We are also looking for someoneto join our board as a
treasurer.
We're looking to kind of buildout our education infrastructure

(01:43:13):
and our grants applicationinfrastructure and we've got
some big things in the worksthat I can't quite talk about
yet, but we're openly there's anopen call for those positions.
Our big thing is that, you know, when we started this, none of
us had any experience kind ofrunning an organization like
this, and that's we're extendingthat to the application process

(01:43:37):
no experience required.
If you're passionate aboutfilmmaking in the Seattle area,
we would love to hear from you.
We are really trying to buildthe future of filmmaking in
Seattle, and so that's probablyour biggest thing.
And then in July we have acouple of screening events that

(01:44:00):
we have launched really over thepast year.
We have our Truth to Fiction,that's a monthly documentary
screening, and this month we'redoing a free screening of the
film Carts of Darkness, which isabout a group of unhoused
people who have taken on bottlecollecting and shopping cart

(01:44:22):
racing as kind of a hobby.
So that's going to be takingplace on the July 10th at the
Northwest Film Forum and then onJuly 17th we're going to be
doing our In Focus DirectorShowcase on Tommy Heffernan.
He's a comedy filmmaker.
He's primarily made like48-hour films films and we're

(01:44:43):
going to be screening six of hisshorts.
They are so funny.
Um, I cry laughing watching hisfilms and uh, it's all.
It's going to be a great timeand we we definitely would
encourage people to uh, to comeon out and you know come say,
hey, I'll be at both of them.

Speaker 1 (01:44:58):
So so yeah, we've had .
We've had Tommy on the podbefore.
Tommy's a good guy.

Speaker 3 (01:45:02):
Tommy's great.
Yeah, I love Tommy, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:45:06):
And then tell people more about how they can
participate in, like the monthlydiscord film study sessions
that you guys have as well,because as someone who now has
two months ahead of me withnothing to do, I'm looking at,
you know, possibly jumping in onone of those so kind of explain
that side of the film societyyeah, yeah, so on, we have our

(01:45:28):
discord, um, and on our discordwe hold a a weekly film
discussion series, um, kind ofkind of like a book club sort of
thing, where you watch the filmand then you show up and talk
about it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:41):
It's every every Wednesday from 7pm to 8.30 on
our Discord channel.
And this July we're going to becovering the evolution of
Superman.
So we're going to be doing fivedifferent portrayals of
Superman, starting with 1978Superman, then Superman Returns,
then the animated film,superman vs the Elite, then

(01:46:03):
we'll be doing man of Steel, theelite.
Uh.
Then we'll be doing, uh, man ofsteel.
And then finally we'll be doing, uh, the new superman movie,
the james gunn directed one, andthat one will be a field trip
to a movie theater where we'llall watch the film and then
we'll all hang out and talkabout it afterwards.
Um, but that's, that's ourweekly film discussion series,
and every month we pick a newtheme or a new director and we,

(01:46:27):
we hang out and talk about it.
It's a great way to learn aboutfilms, it's a great way to
learn about filmmaking and kindof, uh, it's, it's honestly just
a great way to chat and meetnew friends as well.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
So it's like a podcast without hitting record.

Speaker 3 (01:46:42):
Exactly, exactly yeah .

Speaker 1 (01:46:45):
It's a great way to put it All right.
That's awesome.
Well, that'll do it for ourconversation on F1 today.
Marcus, as always, thank you somuch for taking some time out
of your busy schedule to sitdown and chat movies with us.

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
Yeah, thank you, marcus.

Speaker 3 (01:46:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:47:00):
Thank you.
I miss you guys both so muchbeing down here in LA and it's
so good to to be on the screenand see your, your, your faces.

Speaker 3 (01:47:08):
Yeah, I don't think about you at all.

Speaker 2 (01:47:11):
Mac and listeners go to so much.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
Go to Seattle film society events.
They're amazing, they're they.

Speaker 3 (01:47:23):
you know, know, I was going to all the events, or as
many as I could, while I was upthere, um and uh, yeah, yeah,
please go check them outabsolutely, yeah, max, we we
definitely miss having you atthe events, and you know, uh,
but it's good to be able to chatwith you here and, uh, you know
I love listening to the podstill, because it makes me feel
like you're still new.

Speaker 1 (01:47:45):
I thought you were about to hit him with.
We definitely miss you at theevents and we miss Kaylee more.

Speaker 3 (01:47:50):
I mean we do miss Kaylee.
Let me tell you that we do missKaylee.

Speaker 1 (01:47:56):
All right.
So as for what's next, here onthe pod, we have another major
blockbuster Jurassic WorldRebirth.
That will be 4th of Julyweekend.
I mean, we have an accomplisheddirector, a strong cast.
I think there's reason to beexcited for this one.
Marcus, I'll just kind of kickit to you one last time.
Are you looking forward to thismovie?

Speaker 3 (01:48:14):
Uh, you know, I I'm always cautiously optimistic for
the Jurassic world movies.
I mean, I think that, um, worldmovies, I mean smart, I think
that, um, I I think, like, as afranchise goes on, I I'm always
more inclined to like, uh, Iwant them to get weirder as they
go along.
And I think, like jurassicworld has kind of ridden that
line where sometimes it it's funweird, sometimes it's bad,

(01:48:38):
weird.
And I I'm curious to see whichone this one is.
I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:48:41):
Mean they've gone as weird as dinosaur slavery, so I
don't think we can get anyweirder yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:48:47):
I did.
I mean, I like, uh, what's the?
The second one in the lasttrilogy where they're like you
know, they're stuck in a housewith a bunch of dinosaurs.
That's great, I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:48:58):
Uh, I, I, I think it's going to be good.
I think the first movie in eachof these trilogies or at least
in the last two trilogies, right, jurassic Park, jurassic World
those first movies are usuallypretty good, even though this is
still called Jurassic World.
It's the start of a new trilogy, so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:49:23):
I have hopes.
You know, just going back tophysical media, I hate what this
does for prolonging the, thepurchase of a box set.
You know, like you think that afranchise is done and you can
finally pull the trigger on likea nice blu-ray box set, and
then they make more.
You know, like it's just, itkills me, it really hurts, um,

(01:49:45):
cause I want all these movies onphysical and I don't have any
of them on Blu-ray, even theoriginal Jurassic park, cause
I'm just you know, you gottawait annoying, but again I'm.
I'm also looking forward tothis, I think, with Mahershala
Ali, with Scarlett Johansson.
I think we're in good hands too, with Evans as the director, so
excited for it, excited forthat episode next week.

(01:50:05):
Until then, please followExcuse the Intermission on
Instagram and Seattle FilmSociety on Instagram, marcus on
his socials, if you can find him, the three of us on Letterboxd
to keep track of what we'rewatching between shows, and
we'll talk to you next time oneti, where movies still matter.

(01:50:25):
Thank you.

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