February 16, 2025 • 38 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly plunge into the business end of showbiz. This week: in anticipation of the upcoming Academy Awards, Joe and the crew go over their individual favorite movies of 2024. Joe has been ranting and raving about Wild Robot since he saw it, so obviously, that's his pick for #1... Producer Nikki is all about The Substance. Engineer Sam picked Monkey Man as his favorite of 2024.
Joe ios excited about the upcoming Oscars, and is looking to rank the Best Picture nominees.
Joe ios excited about the upcoming Oscars, and is looking to rank the Best Picture nominees.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Joe Escalante live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean Burdbank.
This is two hours of the business business, end of
shoe business, every Sunday right here on k EIB eleven
fifty on your AM dial. And today we are We're
going for the top tens, Sam, the top ten top
(00:30):
ten movies of twenty twenty four in advance of the
lowest rated oscars in the history of television, which that's
just my prediction. Now, Sam, we have Nicki producer. Nicki
not be able to join us today, but she did
(00:52):
send her top ten. We'll get to that in a bit.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, and you do you have a top ten, Sam.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's a in top ten, but yes, I've got somewhat
of a top ten, I saw. Okay, did you want
me to get it started for you your top ten?
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Or did you want to just go into some news
and all the stuff that's happened during the week and
then jump into those stories.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I'm going to jump in. I'm going to start with
my top ten.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
All right, let's go for it, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Then we'll go to your top ten.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Then we'll go to Nikki's top ten by remote excellent, Okay,
and I didn't start my clock, so make sure you
get tell me when I got like a minute left
or something.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And then.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, how further ado. Number one in my top ten
is I'm gonna bring up my paper. Yeah, number one. Well,
so I do you number ten first? Yeah, I'll start
at ten. Yeah, okay. Number ten is I'm still here.
That's the Brazilian movie. It's nominated for. I think it's
(01:59):
nominated for Best Picture, isn't it. Oh no, it's not nominated.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah it is. It's nominated for Best Picture.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I also ranked all the nominations and get to that
later too, because I saw all of them.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So my number ten, I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's about this, like a Brazilian guy who used to
hang out with a bunch of communists, and does he
still hanging out with the communists?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
This is in some.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Right wing government has is controlling Brazil at this time,
and he is going to Yeah, he's just going about
his business, and then they kidnapped him and he never
came back. It's it was pretty good. I hesitated put
it in my top ten. But you're kind of waiting
(02:46):
for a plot twist or something, some action, but it
never really happens. It's just a straight story.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And they kidnapped our dead and they never came back.
It's just sad.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
It hard to make a good movie out of it.
But still really, I mean, really authentic Brazilian period piece
from that time period, So nineteen seventies, I think.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Anyway, you can tell I'm not that interested in my
number ten. Number nine. Number nine is Snackshack.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
You're talking about this one?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, it's a movie I saw in a plane by accident.
I think my mom's and my mom is Freudian slip.
My wife and my wife, my wife was laughing her
ass off at it, and I go, I'm gonna watch it.
And I watched it, and it's great. It's about these
kids who take over a snackshack at a community pool
(03:43):
and they make.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
They're trying to make money.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
They think it's they're just gonna make so much money,
you know, because they just can't believe, you know, that
they're getting this opportunity. And the funniest part in the
movie is they make One guy gets really mad and
he writes the F word in catchup on a hot
dog and gives it to like a nine year old
and then immediately another kid comes back and says, can
(04:09):
I have one of those F dogs? And he said,
and then he's like, all right, that's a dollar seventy five.
It's like seventy five cents more than a regular hot dog.
And then pretty soon all these kids start coming and
they all want F dogs. Little kids, you know, they
want an F dog. I mean, who among us wouldn't
want an F dog at and wouldn't pay a little
more for it at age nine? So I liked that movie.
(04:33):
And then number eight, The Brutalist nominated for a Best
Picture and a bunch of stuff like Academy Award for
Acting for Adrian.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Brody, which she could win. Number seven is Cabrini. This
is a little known film. It was.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It's about the saint in New York woman who started
some schools and saved a bunch of people. And I
put this on there, and not only is it a
good film, but there should be more films about saints
rather than films about heroin addicted brutalist architects. Okay, or
here's how about hey, here's my number seven? Number six
(05:14):
A Better Man, the Robbie Williams documentary. Okay, he's interesting,
but he's not a saint, sex, drug crazed youth gone
wild and he's portrayed as a monkey. And that's why
it was so interesting to me, like because he's the
only guy in the movie that's a monkey. So yeah,
(05:37):
so the Caprini, you go back to Caprini. I mean,
it's a really good movie about a saint, and that
inspires people. It's really good filmmaking, and why not more
movies about saints?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Number five a Nora.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
This is the Sean Baker film about Hooker's strippers in
Long Island and there Russian and that's a recipe for entertainment.
Number four Nickel Boys. It's a film I saw last night.
Nickel Boys is nominated for a Best Picture Award, but
(06:19):
it has not been released really in theaters. It's in
like one theater in the all of the Southland are
maybe two a handful. So, but you can buy it
on Amazon and YouTube. You know, at the twenty dollars
level when movies first come out and they're twenty dollars.
(06:40):
This is worth every penny. But you're gonna watch it twice.
It's about these two kids that are remembering their time
at an abusive reform school in Florida in the nineteen sixties.
And can you imagine an abusive reform school in Florida
in the nineteen sixties. First of all, it's segregated, so
(07:03):
you know, the whites are in the good part and
the blacks are in the in the bad part or
in the you know, less friendly accommodations. And then you
know it's it's based on a true story, and when
you look it up, it's like, wow, there was a
place that like this that had to be shut down.
(07:24):
They tried to shut it down several times, but it
lasted from like nineteen hundred to twenty eleven and always
like people complainings and we're going to shut it down
and they could never quite get it shut it down
until twenty eleven. And these boys, two black kids. It's
(07:44):
basically there's the there their memories, what memories, what spotty
and disjointed memories they have of growing up or spending
years in that reform school. And it's extremely avant garde filmmaking.
I think that's what catapulted it into the Best Picture
category because it's based on their memory. And at first
(08:07):
I didn't. It was irritating to me. I go, what's
going on here? Does this movie suck? Then after a
while you grasp it it's based on their memories, and
how are our memories? Like what if you went to
an abusive reform school. Let's see, I went to a
non abusive summer camp, not like the one Anthony Joselneck
describes as a camp for kids about to be molested,
(08:27):
Nothing like that. I went to a great summer camp.
But my memories, if I had to play them back
in my head, they're disjointed. Certain sentences I remember certain
people saying certain times at male call where maybe I
got embarrassed or something, my first dance, that kind of stuff.
I did get in trouble one time my first year there.
(08:51):
And I was there for eight years, so you know
that would be disjointed memories. Then you think of it
like that, And this movie is a very very very
clever way of exploring the memories of two people that
went to this abusive reform school.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And there's some acting in it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That is, there's one scene towards the end where the guy,
who one of the guys, runs into another guy at
a bar.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
He's grown up now.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
He runs into another guy at the bar and they
both had the same experience, and you see two damaged
individuals having a conversation in the dingy dive bar about
their memories and where they are today. And that was
the most powerful scene in the movie, and one of
the most powerful scenes I've.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Seen in any movie probably ever.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Anyway, we'll take a break and then we'll go to
the top three films of the year for Joe Ascalante
Live from Hollywood. Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood by Hollywood
you mean bird Bank? Okay, we're continuing with my top
ten films for the year of the Little recap here.
Number ten, I'm still here, the Brazilian movie number nine,
(10:00):
Shack You'll only only available in Planes. Number eight Brutalist
with Adrian Brody, Number seven Cabrini about the Saint, Number
six A Better Man about Robbi Williams, Number five and
Nora about excuse me, Russian strippers and prostitutes. And number
(10:25):
four Nickel Boys, which I just went over. Don't let
Nickel Boys.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Pass you by.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Will Nickel Boys win Best Picture? It's my highest rated
movie that's also nominated for Best Picture.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Will it win?
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I don't think it has the campaign because it takes
a campaign to really stir up interest. You do screenings,
you're getting votes, your your your, your, your, campaigning for
votes from the Academy, and it takes money that smoves,
not even in theaters. Hasn't made a Nickel I didn't
mean to say that, but Nickel Boys is a easily
(11:03):
the best movie that's nominated for an Oscar. Easily, But
is it going to win?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Be really hard. It'd be really hard, you know it, really?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I mean, they have all their you know, diversity requirements
and stuff, so they're obviously trying to elevate black filmmaking
to make sure that everybody, you know, that there's a
representation in the movies that are nominated and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So will that.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Overcome the hype and the campaigning that usually is required
to get a movie across the finish line to get
a Best Picture nominee.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
They should put their money where their mouth is. I
just don't think this.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I mean, it's too late for a campaign for this movie.
But maybe maybe maybe they're doing something. I don't know,
but Nicol Boyce certainly deserves the Oscar. Number three of
my top ten. This is't my top ten. I'm just
a regular guy. Doesn't you know, not a member of
the Academy. Flow this is a This is nominated for
Best Animated Picture. Flow is the story of a cat
(12:14):
in a post apocalyptic world.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It's a cartoon, you know. And none of the animals.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
The animals are just trying to get by the cat
and all the other animals hit a post apocalyptic world.
This seems like all the people have been killed, but
the animals are still alive. And none of them talk
because animals don't talk except my parrot Labaracci, who says
what you think all day long because he saw Liquor's
pizza and he loved it.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Number two Kneecap, the film about the Irish Rappers starring
Irish rappers. This is a monumental achievement to try to
get three rappers to write amazing songs in Gaelic and
then star in their own movie, their own Bible pic.
Come on, I didn't see Bob Dylan starring in A
Complain of did you? Robbie Williams was so afraid to
(13:02):
star in his movie he got a monkey to do it.
Kneecaps starred in their own biopick, not a documentary. They
starred in their own biopic.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And they are.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
A Belfast rap group but like Beastie Boytuch style, and
they are playing at Coachella this year, so make sure
you check them out.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I will.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I interviewed them on a previous episode of this show.
You can look back in the archives if you want
number one. Any guesses, Sam At what my number one is?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Oh, I know what your number one is. You've been
bragging about it ever since you saw it.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You said it was a life changing, monumental experience experience
for you and a moment in filmmaking history that can
never be duplicated.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Wow, you made all that up.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
But I did.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
My favorite movie I have to say was Wild Robot,
another cartoon. And I was speaking with my friend Brett Easton.
Ellis recently author and film critic, and he said the
He said he thought all the animated films this year
were better than the live action films, the ones that
(14:09):
are nominated.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I would agree.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
It.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Really.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I went through the list of all of the movies
and I didn't see that many this year. And of
the movies I saw the ones that when you look
at my top ten, listen, when we get to that
in a little bit, you'll notice how many of them
are animated or have quite a bit of CGI in it.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, like Despicable Me almost made my top ten, another
animated great one. But Wild Robot. Wild Robot is about
a it's a robot that he's well you did.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You see it?
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Is it wild?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It's a wild robot and it's being.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I want to get it.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I want to get a better description of wild Robot
that I can give Wild Robot.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And put it in the real time here film a lot.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Okay, thank you chat GBT for helping out with this one.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
The Wild Robot is a twenty twenty four American animated
science fiction film produced by DreamWorks, based on the novel
of the same name by Peter Brown And after a shipwreck,
an intelligent robot called ros is stranded on an uninhabited
island to survive the harsh environment. Rob Roz bonds with
(15:34):
the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose,
and that relationship between the robot and the orphaned baby.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Goose will tear at your heart. You will laugh, you
will cry, it will become a part of you.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Sam, I just really really liked it because we also
my wife and I rescued an abandoned baby parrot recently
and brought it, brought it into our home and had
to hand feed it and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So it was really, were you insured by this film
to adopt the parrot?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
No, it happened right about simultaneously as it was released.
And then I saw it and I goh, my gosh,
this is like my wife caring for the Liberaci.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But I mean, and then it's just a movie that
you can take anybody to see, and it just shows
you you can make a great movie with a great
story that doesn't offend anybody and is inspiring and has positive,
you know, morals, and there's no a gray area. It's
(16:44):
it's just this is good for everybody who doesn't like it.
Some of the voices in it are Lupita Nango, Pedro Pascal.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
And Mark Hamill.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Does this one have talking animals?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, Captain O'Hara and Matt Barry, who's awesome, and Ving
Raims very cool. So that one's that's my number one,
and I don't know, you know, if other people will agree,
(17:22):
but of course nobody agrees with anybody's top ten. And
also sometimes these top tens have to be modified in
the next couple of months. You see a twenty twenty
four movie that's better than the ones you put on
your list. That happens to me all the time. That's
why I never do it like January first. I'm not
doing it that day. I wait until I've seen at
least all the nominees for Best Picture, which I have seen.
And that wasn't easy too, because some of these ten movies,
(17:45):
and some of them they're just not playing places.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
But you got to run around and sometimes you got.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
To, you know, buy one on the internet, and none
of them are illegally bought.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Sam, I just want everybody to know. Okay, Sam, what
is your top ten?
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Let's get to that. After the break?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Is it break time again? Wow? Where does the time go? Sam?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
The ether?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Speaking of ether? Have you ever heard of Ethio Jazz?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
No, you can't tell me about it.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
After the break, I will Joe Scante live from Hollywood's
Scolante Live from Hollywood, Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You mean birthday? Okay?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Uh So we did the top ten for me and
uh I'm gonna recap it one more time. Number one,
Wild Robot number two, Recap number three, Flow number four,
Nickel Boys number five, on Nora, number six, A Better Man,
number seven, Cabrini number eight, The Brutalist, number nine, Snackshack,
(18:46):
and number ten I'm still here, Sam, What do you.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Got all right? At number ten?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
I gotta tell you this was my favorite film going
experience of the year.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
And the movie was not very good. It was Megalopolis.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
That right there was one of the most entertaining film
going experiences I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Was it because of the crowd making fun of it
or were you sitting in those bouncy seats or what?
Speaker 4 (19:13):
No. I was there with friends and all of us.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
If you went in there with the idea of you
were going to be seeing high art, then you were
going to go and kind of sniff your own farts
in it. And in this one, it was just me
and my friends and I were I can't remember what
scene it was, but I just started busting up laughing,
and there wasn't anybody else making any noise in the theater,
and I'm just giggling at this one scene and then
(19:39):
everybody you just see the slow giggle just take over
the movie because everybody realized how ridiculous what we were
watching was.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Well, you know, I I I it was highly anticipated.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I wanted to see it, and then when the reports
came in, I go, well, I put other things in
a higher priority and I never saw it.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
So that's a disservice to yourself. I wish you could
have seen this on the big screen. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Oh wait too, I'm sure it'll play at the Alamo
draft House sometime soon.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Yeah, for sure. Okay.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Number number nine for me was Despicable Me for I
went and saw It's fun experience, good way to kind
of put the bow on the series.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
It was good.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I had no great movie I would put it. I
would give it my honorable mention in my top ten.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yeah, let's see here.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I also have at number eight Dune Part two visually
very beautiful. I well, I was kind of dozing off
in the middle of it, but it was one of
those movies that's really it's an epic.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
So yeah, I'd give it an honorable mention in my
top ten.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Two.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, let's see. I believe I'm on number seven. I
have Final Fantasy seven Advent Children Complete. This is the
final version of a film that came out. I believe
in like two thousand and four, but had so many
holes in that and had like it seemed like the
budget was creeping up on them, so they just cut
(21:05):
a bunch of random stuff out that got rid of
a lot of the storyline that this version of it,
that's the complete version of it. It had everything, and
it came out in February or last February, and loved it,
thought it was great. Let's see, moving on, we got
Deadpool Versus Wolverine coming up next.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
For me, obviously, that was a fun one. That was
a crowd pleaser at fan service on that one. Let's
see after that, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, I almost put that on mine too.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah. I like that one.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Visually great movie, a lot of fun. Enjoyed watching it
in the theater.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'd say the.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Best, one of the best, the best of the New
Planet of the Apes for me, yeah, because I was
bored and all the other ones. And I was also
heartbroken that they changed the apes from from my old
childhood apes and then but this one, I I'm back,
I'm back in the Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, it brought back the damn apes, which is yes,
let's see after that, I have Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
I enjoyed the Oh yeah, that was sad of that one.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
So did the family. It was a great family film.
Number three, Inside Out Too. Absolutely loved it. The best
visual representation of anxiety that I've ever seen, ever captured
for film.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I just thought it was amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
You know. I didn't see it.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And bradyston Ellis mentioned that as his favorite film of
the year, or one of them, one of them that
he really really liked.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Inside Out to great movie, outstanding animated film.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Number two, and I struggled with this one.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I almost had it as my number one. Godzilla minus one.
It was origin story style Godzilla time and it went
right back to the good feeling Godzilla. This is probably
the scariest, most intimidating of all gods, which was great.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And there was two Godzillas that came out in the
in a row.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Yeah. One of them was I think Godzilla with Kong.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It was kind of a continuation of that storyline.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
But Godzilla minus one came out of Japan. It was
just and it came out.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It came out after Godzilla.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
The other one was was the second because I saw
the first one and then another one came out right
away and I didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, I'm not sure which one came out first, but
I know which one was best. And Godzilla Minus one
came out of Japan. It was subtitled, and I usually
I have no problem with movies that are subtitled, but
I do get annoyed that I miss a lot of
the on screen action just reading the balog.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
But at the this was one movie that I just
didn't mind at all.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
It was great and number one movie that I saw
this year is one that nobody's put on any of
their lists, and I'm disappointed in all of you.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Monkey Man Oh, I didn't see Monkey Man.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
It was so good.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
That was one of the best action films out there.
It was an incredible story. It had that same kind
of vibe. I got the same energy watching that as
I did watching early Tony Jaw movies like like on
Bach and stuff like that. This was beautiful movie, dirty,
grimy filmmaking and storyline was outstanding.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Is it like a foreign film?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
No, I mean somewhat.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
It takes us like it's an Indian director.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I believe it was.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Dev Patel was in it and he yeah, So it
was in English. It had it was an Oka, but
it was you know, filmed overseas.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So okay, well this is good because our audience and me,
uh can see Monkey Man.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, great film, highly underrated if you if you enjoy
good fighting movies and that have like actual good storylines,
this one is it?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Number one Monkey Man. Go through your list one more time,
just to just all right, just quickly.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
So brief sum up was number ten Megalopolis. Uh. Number
eight or number nine was Dune Part two.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Number eight was Final Fantasy, seven Advent Children Complete. Number
seven was Despicable of Me. Four six was Deadpool and
Wolverine five Beetle Juice. Beetle Juice. Four was uh, I'm sorry,
we have Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Number
three Inside Out Part two and number two Godzilla minus
(25:29):
one and number one Monkey Man.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Okay, so I'm just only confused about the Godzilla one
because I think I don't know. I'm gonna I'm gonna
solve that mystery pretty soon. That's what that. That's all
I'm gonna say, because I just didn't see the second
one and maybe I maybe I made made a mistake.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
But any case, the first one I saw it in Japanese.
Then that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I do remember because half the movies I see you're
in Japanese because I got that Criterion channel. You know,
you get the Pale Flower if you want to go to.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
That eight hour the old eight hour movie.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Nine hours nine Human Condition.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Yes, thank you, thank you for the reminder.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I have that on the list of ideas of movies
that I want to see.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Down the line, and that one, yeah, uh, it's one.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I'm guessing I'm gonna have to devote an entire week two.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Oh, I think I saw Godzilla versus Calm the New Empire,
and then the other one came out minus one and
I didn't see it.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Oh, that was the better one. It was great.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
It was like they put the genuine fear factor behind
Godzilla again, like the thing that like it kind of
lost its fear element and just became like, you know,
let's take the kids over and see this one, and
the kids enjoy it because it's just big monsters fighting.
This one was like, yeah, I'm not sure if I
would take my kid to see this one.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
It was it had a legit fear behind it. All.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Well, I'm sad because when I saw Godzilla Minus one
in the theaters.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It was it was great. It was great.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I mean it was like a Godzilla experience and the
monsters were huge and the theater was shaking. But I
want to see the Minus one in the theater, so
it's going to be hard to do, so I'll probably
have to watch it in my my living room where
my son's doesn't work. Okay, all right, I think we
can take a break and then we'll come back. We
(27:21):
got you know, we have some pretty good Hollywood stories
of our usual fair and Nikki's Top ten Joe Scale
Live from Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Joe as he's my lawyer. You don't want money?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
He does it all us Galante Live from Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Hey, guess what we're gonna hear from Nicky in just
a second. I wanted to get one story out of
the way. This is fascinating. There was a Prince documentary
Sam and it was going to be nine hours and
it was going to be on Netflix, and then something
happened and they screened it for the family and it
(28:25):
won't be on Netflix after all. After the family got
a load of it, Netflix and Prince's Estate, as you remember,
Princess of State is somewhat disarrayed. He had no will,
but you know, they got it together and there are
some people in control. And Netflix and the Estate jointly
announced a new agreement where the Estate will produce its
own the Estate, not Netflix, will produce its own documentary
(28:46):
using exclusive content from Prince's archives. This means the previously
planned Netflix film directed by Ezra Edelman, guy who did
like oj thing, It's off the table. Last year, The
New York Times reported that Edelman's documentary contained allegations of
physical and emotional abuse against Prince, including accounts from former partners,
(29:11):
one that evidently he.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Punched in the face.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
The estate previously responded that they want Prince's story to
be told accurately without stories about him punching people in
the face. And now they're taking control of the narrative
and promising fans access to previously unreleased material from Prince's vault.
So they're saying, you're not really going to get the
whole dirt, but you're gonna get some stuff you haven't.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Seen in our vault. That it's a lot of double speak.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's a little bit concerning, because you're just not Any
time a documentary is made by the person that's being documented,
documented or their family.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You're not going to get the true story.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
We know that, but you might get a lie, or
you might get sensationalism, and they just don't want it.
And if they can control it, why not. That's what
I'm saying. Yeah, there were some you know stuff, There's
some ugly stuff. I mean, when you look at him,
he looks like a kind of a control freek and
he died of a fedyl overdose. So it's not He's
not that stable, you know, in any scenario by any measure.
(30:17):
But so obviously there's gonna be some weird stuff, and
you know, they don't want to they want to tell
their story. Okay, good for them. All right, Hey, let's
go to Nicki and listen to her top ten and
then we'll just let that take us to the break.
How's that, Sam?
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Sounds good?
Speaker 5 (30:35):
I'm Nicki on the Joe Escalante Show. We're going to
talk about the best films of twenty twenty four. This
is all my opinion, which is why they're correct answers
to this question. And I only saw, you know, when
I was looking at my like, there were some that
I saw. Yeah, I guess I should include all ten
films that I saw that were created in twenty twenty four.
(30:57):
I'm not saying I saw them all in this year,
but you know, I'm doing some catching up. But there
are ten films. I guess I'll include the last one.
I guess I feel kind of bad because I wasn't
even going to include. But let's start off with the
least favorite. We will start with Smile Too. I don't
even know where to start. Smile One was awesome if
(31:20):
you read it as a comedy, but there were still
some spooky elements. Smile Too had a vass Water sponsorship,
and if there's anything that makes a horror movie not scary,
it's sponsored bottled water. I think that the main character
was very out of touch, and a lot of her
behavior was not excusable. Even though it was understood that
(31:41):
she struggled with this kind of behavior, it wasn't really
scary in the way that a horror movie ought to be.
I can't recommend it to I think anyone next film.
I am just gonna tap this one in here. It's
The Watchers by m Night Shyamalan. This was actually, this
is not It's much better than Smile Too. In my opinion,
(32:02):
this one has one of the Fanning sisters. Don't ask
me which one. They're both great actresses, and it's a
spooky thriller. I think it's pretty good. I'm just gonna
keep going. Next up, you have at number eight, Better Man.
I think that Better Man should win Best Animation across
the board. It was amazing the monkey and the VFX
(32:24):
and the special effects was just fantastic. My roommate and
I watched a VFX react Like these guys who are
professionals with VFX, they did a breakdown of a lot
of the cool things that were done in Better Man.
So I highly recommend watching that if you're interested. It'll
make you appreciate the animation a whole lot more. In
that film, however, it's also just unrelenting in its horrible
(32:50):
things happening to poor Robbie Williams. Of course he's pretty
personally responsible for a lot of them. But my god,
if you want to watch a movie with we're just
two hours worth of horrible things happened to a monkey
with really no respite at all. That I think Better
Man's for you. Next up, You've got Baby Girl. I
(33:12):
liked this movie. Do I need to explain why. But
it's just, you know, not the favorite of the group.
I would watch it again. Some could say it's sort
of an educational film. But we'll continue next up, No Sfaratu.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
I like this a lot.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
I like a scary movie. I think that a lot
of the art direction was great. Sometimes I think that
things can be a little too crisp with modern filmmaking,
which is why I'm sort of an old head with
the films. But you know, it was beautiful, and all
of the candlelit shots I think were also just magnificent.
That is really my main highlight from that film. And
(33:53):
the acting and Lily Rose Depp. I mean, it's great.
I thought kut Orlock was hot. I was surprised that
this was not the common consensus. But again, we'll just
we'll continue, Okay. This is one that I already talked
about on the show. The Girl with the Needle, the
Danish entry to the I think Academy Awards also a
Polish co production. I loved the thriller element. I loved
(34:17):
the acting. Miison de Sen was great. I think they
had the most wretched looking individuals. It really sold the
whole World War One, Uh, you know, look, I don't
know what I'm talking about, but I think it was
really great. I think they were sometimes a little heavy
handed on the non Diegetics score, so that could have
(34:39):
been loosened up a bit, but still not the worst. Okay,
after that, we're in the top four. Now Kneecap. This
was a film that we got to see because we
actually interviewed the members of Kneecap back in the summer,
I think, and I got to see it in the
(35:00):
Dolby Cinema. I think it might have been the one
on since I got to see it in a screening
room with fantastic audio, so every song sounded amazing. The
actors are the band members themselves, so it was just
it was amazing to see that they could be so
multifaceted and talented. I think it was a great film,
great story, great pacing, and just a really fun watch.
(35:24):
And I learned a lot, learned a lot about Ireland. Okay,
now we're getting into my personal favorites. I'm just gonna
give you a spoiler. They're all horror movies. Let's start
with VHS. Beyond That is number three on my top
twenty twenty four movies. I love the VHS series. I
think some of their other films have not been so successful,
(35:46):
like the eighties and nineties one I really couldn't get into.
I think the eighties VHS nineteen eighty was a particularly
bad one, but VHS Beyond was great. I'm not huge
into like space horror, but I've been getting more into
sci fi these days. I liked the you know, other
(36:08):
worldly elements. I like the settings. I randomly saw one
of my friends from art school cast as a character
in this, which was a surprise that I really enjoyed.
And I thought that the collection of stories were freaky
and outlandish and it made for a great anthology. So
h just Beyond you get number three, number two, long Legs,
(36:30):
I mean, Mica Monroe, Nick Cage, beautiful, experimental, scary. I
liked the weird setting. I was also just anticipating it
so highly, so I was very ready for that film.
And it's sitting at number two in all the films
that were made in twenty twenty four for me personally,
(36:53):
and lastly at number one. I bet you could guess
it the substance. I've seen it now twice, loved it twice.
Very few critiques on that movie. Only thing I didn't
love was when they're transforming from Elizabeth to Sue and
they show like a sort of tacky heart flame VFX
(37:17):
image on screen and I know what they're doing. I mean,
they reference it again later in the film, but that
really could have been like any other thing. I think
that using like a shape motif was really tacky, but
but great acting, incredible art direction, and I think it's
a classic. So yeah, that's Nicky's Drubinski's top twenty twenty
(37:42):
four films for the Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood Show.
And if you want to see or hear about any
of my future movie reviews, I am Cherry Funfetti on
letterboxed C H E R R I f U N
F E T T I. You can find me there,
follow me back. I will follow you. We can look
at each other's movies.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Thank you, Thank you, Nikki.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
That was awesome hearing your top ten remotely and some
of those movies I never heard of, and like you're
Sam and I was going to rank the top ten
Oscar nominees. I will do that next time. Joe Scalante
Live from Hollywood, And now leave you with a just
a taste of the greatest song I ever written,
Joe Escalante live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean Burdbank.
This is two hours of the business business, end of
shoe business, every Sunday right here on k EIB eleven
fifty on your AM dial. And today we are We're
going for the top tens, Sam, the top ten top
(00:30):
ten movies of twenty twenty four in advance of the
lowest rated oscars in the history of television, which that's
just my prediction. Now, Sam, we have Nicki producer. Nicki
not be able to join us today, but she did
(00:52):
send her top ten. We'll get to that in a bit.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, and you do you have a top ten, Sam.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's a in top ten, but yes, I've got somewhat
of a top ten, I saw. Okay, did you want
me to get it started for you your top ten?
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Or did you want to just go into some news
and all the stuff that's happened during the week and
then jump into those stories.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I'm going to jump in. I'm going to start with
my top ten.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
All right, let's go for it, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Then we'll go to your top ten.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Then we'll go to Nikki's top ten by remote excellent, Okay,
and I didn't start my clock, so make sure you
get tell me when I got like a minute left
or something.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And then.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, how further ado. Number one in my top ten
is I'm gonna bring up my paper. Yeah, number one. Well,
so I do you number ten first? Yeah, I'll start
at ten. Yeah, okay. Number ten is I'm still here.
That's the Brazilian movie. It's nominated for. I think it's
(01:59):
nominated for Best Picture, isn't it. Oh no, it's not nominated.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah it is. It's nominated for Best Picture.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I also ranked all the nominations and get to that
later too, because I saw all of them.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So my number ten, I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's about this, like a Brazilian guy who used to
hang out with a bunch of communists, and does he
still hanging out with the communists?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
This is in some.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Right wing government has is controlling Brazil at this time,
and he is going to Yeah, he's just going about
his business, and then they kidnapped him and he never
came back. It's it was pretty good. I hesitated put
it in my top ten. But you're kind of waiting
(02:46):
for a plot twist or something, some action, but it
never really happens. It's just a straight story.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And they kidnapped our dead and they never came back.
It's just sad.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
It hard to make a good movie out of it.
But still really, I mean, really authentic Brazilian period piece
from that time period, So nineteen seventies, I think.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Anyway, you can tell I'm not that interested in my
number ten. Number nine. Number nine is Snackshack.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
You're talking about this one?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, it's a movie I saw in a plane by accident.
I think my mom's and my mom is Freudian slip.
My wife and my wife, my wife was laughing her
ass off at it, and I go, I'm gonna watch it.
And I watched it, and it's great. It's about these
kids who take over a snackshack at a community pool
(03:43):
and they make.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
They're trying to make money.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
They think it's they're just gonna make so much money,
you know, because they just can't believe, you know, that
they're getting this opportunity. And the funniest part in the
movie is they make One guy gets really mad and
he writes the F word in catchup on a hot
dog and gives it to like a nine year old
and then immediately another kid comes back and says, can
(04:09):
I have one of those F dogs? And he said,
and then he's like, all right, that's a dollar seventy five.
It's like seventy five cents more than a regular hot dog.
And then pretty soon all these kids start coming and
they all want F dogs. Little kids, you know, they
want an F dog. I mean, who among us wouldn't
want an F dog at and wouldn't pay a little
more for it at age nine? So I liked that movie.
(04:33):
And then number eight, The Brutalist nominated for a Best
Picture and a bunch of stuff like Academy Award for
Acting for Adrian.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Brody, which she could win. Number seven is Cabrini. This
is a little known film. It was.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It's about the saint in New York woman who started
some schools and saved a bunch of people. And I
put this on there, and not only is it a
good film, but there should be more films about saints
rather than films about heroin addicted brutalist architects. Okay, or
here's how about hey, here's my number seven? Number six
(05:14):
A Better Man, the Robbie Williams documentary. Okay, he's interesting,
but he's not a saint, sex, drug crazed youth gone
wild and he's portrayed as a monkey. And that's why
it was so interesting to me, like because he's the
only guy in the movie that's a monkey. So yeah,
(05:37):
so the Caprini, you go back to Caprini. I mean,
it's a really good movie about a saint, and that
inspires people. It's really good filmmaking, and why not more
movies about saints?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Number five a Nora.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
This is the Sean Baker film about Hooker's strippers in
Long Island and there Russian and that's a recipe for entertainment.
Number four Nickel Boys. It's a film I saw last night.
Nickel Boys is nominated for a Best Picture Award, but
(06:19):
it has not been released really in theaters. It's in
like one theater in the all of the Southland are
maybe two a handful. So, but you can buy it
on Amazon and YouTube. You know, at the twenty dollars
level when movies first come out and they're twenty dollars.
(06:40):
This is worth every penny. But you're gonna watch it twice.
It's about these two kids that are remembering their time
at an abusive reform school in Florida in the nineteen sixties.
And can you imagine an abusive reform school in Florida
in the nineteen sixties. First of all, it's segregated, so
(07:03):
you know, the whites are in the good part and
the blacks are in the in the bad part or
in the you know, less friendly accommodations. And then you
know it's it's based on a true story, and when
you look it up, it's like, wow, there was a
place that like this that had to be shut down.
(07:24):
They tried to shut it down several times, but it
lasted from like nineteen hundred to twenty eleven and always
like people complainings and we're going to shut it down
and they could never quite get it shut it down
until twenty eleven. And these boys, two black kids. It's
(07:44):
basically there's the there their memories, what memories, what spotty
and disjointed memories they have of growing up or spending
years in that reform school. And it's extremely avant garde filmmaking.
I think that's what catapulted it into the Best Picture
category because it's based on their memory. And at first
(08:07):
I didn't. It was irritating to me. I go, what's
going on here? Does this movie suck? Then after a
while you grasp it it's based on their memories, and
how are our memories? Like what if you went to
an abusive reform school. Let's see, I went to a
non abusive summer camp, not like the one Anthony Joselneck
describes as a camp for kids about to be molested,
(08:27):
Nothing like that. I went to a great summer camp.
But my memories, if I had to play them back
in my head, they're disjointed. Certain sentences I remember certain
people saying certain times at male call where maybe I
got embarrassed or something, my first dance, that kind of stuff.
I did get in trouble one time my first year there.
(08:51):
And I was there for eight years, so you know
that would be disjointed memories. Then you think of it
like that, And this movie is a very very very
clever way of exploring the memories of two people that
went to this abusive reform school.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And there's some acting in it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That is, there's one scene towards the end where the guy,
who one of the guys, runs into another guy at
a bar.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
He's grown up now.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
He runs into another guy at the bar and they
both had the same experience, and you see two damaged
individuals having a conversation in the dingy dive bar about
their memories and where they are today. And that was
the most powerful scene in the movie, and one of
the most powerful scenes I've.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Seen in any movie probably ever.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Anyway, we'll take a break and then we'll go to
the top three films of the year for Joe Ascalante
Live from Hollywood. Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood by Hollywood
you mean bird Bank? Okay, we're continuing with my top
ten films for the year of the Little recap here.
Number ten, I'm still here, the Brazilian movie number nine,
(10:00):
Shack You'll only only available in Planes. Number eight Brutalist
with Adrian Brody, Number seven Cabrini about the Saint, Number
six A Better Man about Robbi Williams, Number five and
Nora about excuse me, Russian strippers and prostitutes. And number
(10:25):
four Nickel Boys, which I just went over. Don't let
Nickel Boys.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Pass you by.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Will Nickel Boys win Best Picture? It's my highest rated
movie that's also nominated for Best Picture.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Will it win?
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I don't think it has the campaign because it takes
a campaign to really stir up interest. You do screenings,
you're getting votes, your your your, your, your, campaigning for
votes from the Academy, and it takes money that smoves,
not even in theaters. Hasn't made a Nickel I didn't
mean to say that, but Nickel Boys is a easily
(11:03):
the best movie that's nominated for an Oscar. Easily, But
is it going to win?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Be really hard. It'd be really hard, you know it, really?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I mean, they have all their you know, diversity requirements
and stuff, so they're obviously trying to elevate black filmmaking
to make sure that everybody, you know, that there's a
representation in the movies that are nominated and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So will that.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Overcome the hype and the campaigning that usually is required
to get a movie across the finish line to get
a Best Picture nominee.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
They should put their money where their mouth is. I
just don't think this.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I mean, it's too late for a campaign for this movie.
But maybe maybe maybe they're doing something. I don't know,
but Nicol Boyce certainly deserves the Oscar. Number three of
my top ten. This is't my top ten. I'm just
a regular guy. Doesn't you know, not a member of
the Academy. Flow this is a This is nominated for
Best Animated Picture. Flow is the story of a cat
(12:14):
in a post apocalyptic world.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It's a cartoon, you know. And none of the animals.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
The animals are just trying to get by the cat
and all the other animals hit a post apocalyptic world.
This seems like all the people have been killed, but
the animals are still alive. And none of them talk
because animals don't talk except my parrot Labaracci, who says
what you think all day long because he saw Liquor's
pizza and he loved it.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Number two Kneecap, the film about the Irish Rappers starring
Irish rappers. This is a monumental achievement to try to
get three rappers to write amazing songs in Gaelic and
then star in their own movie, their own Bible pic.
Come on, I didn't see Bob Dylan starring in A
Complain of did you? Robbie Williams was so afraid to
(13:02):
star in his movie he got a monkey to do it.
Kneecaps starred in their own biopick, not a documentary. They
starred in their own biopic.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And they are.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
A Belfast rap group but like Beastie Boytuch style, and
they are playing at Coachella this year, so make sure
you check them out.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I will.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I interviewed them on a previous episode of this show.
You can look back in the archives if you want
number one. Any guesses, Sam At what my number one is?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Oh, I know what your number one is. You've been
bragging about it ever since you saw it.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You said it was a life changing, monumental experience experience
for you and a moment in filmmaking history that can
never be duplicated.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Wow, you made all that up.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
But I did.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
My favorite movie I have to say was Wild Robot,
another cartoon. And I was speaking with my friend Brett Easton.
Ellis recently author and film critic, and he said the
He said he thought all the animated films this year
were better than the live action films, the ones that
(14:09):
are nominated.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I would agree.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
It.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Really.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I went through the list of all of the movies
and I didn't see that many this year. And of
the movies I saw the ones that when you look
at my top ten, listen, when we get to that
in a little bit, you'll notice how many of them
are animated or have quite a bit of CGI in it.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, like Despicable Me almost made my top ten, another
animated great one. But Wild Robot. Wild Robot is about
a it's a robot that he's well you did.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You see it?
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Is it wild?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It's a wild robot and it's being.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I want to get it.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I want to get a better description of wild Robot
that I can give Wild Robot.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And put it in the real time here film a lot.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Okay, thank you chat GBT for helping out with this one.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
The Wild Robot is a twenty twenty four American animated
science fiction film produced by DreamWorks, based on the novel
of the same name by Peter Brown And after a shipwreck,
an intelligent robot called ros is stranded on an uninhabited
island to survive the harsh environment. Rob Roz bonds with
(15:34):
the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose,
and that relationship between the robot and the orphaned baby.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Goose will tear at your heart. You will laugh, you
will cry, it will become a part of you.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Sam, I just really really liked it because we also
my wife and I rescued an abandoned baby parrot recently
and brought it, brought it into our home and had
to hand feed it and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So it was really, were you insured by this film
to adopt the parrot?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
No, it happened right about simultaneously as it was released.
And then I saw it and I goh, my gosh,
this is like my wife caring for the Liberaci.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But I mean, and then it's just a movie that
you can take anybody to see, and it just shows
you you can make a great movie with a great
story that doesn't offend anybody and is inspiring and has positive,
you know, morals, and there's no a gray area. It's
(16:44):
it's just this is good for everybody who doesn't like it.
Some of the voices in it are Lupita Nango, Pedro Pascal.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
And Mark Hamill.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Does this one have talking animals?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, Captain O'Hara and Matt Barry, who's awesome, and Ving
Raims very cool. So that one's that's my number one,
and I don't know, you know, if other people will agree,
(17:22):
but of course nobody agrees with anybody's top ten. And
also sometimes these top tens have to be modified in
the next couple of months. You see a twenty twenty
four movie that's better than the ones you put on
your list. That happens to me all the time. That's
why I never do it like January first. I'm not
doing it that day. I wait until I've seen at
least all the nominees for Best Picture, which I have seen.
And that wasn't easy too, because some of these ten movies,
(17:45):
and some of them they're just not playing places.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
But you got to run around and sometimes you got.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
To, you know, buy one on the internet, and none
of them are illegally bought.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Sam, I just want everybody to know. Okay, Sam, what
is your top ten?
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Let's get to that. After the break?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Is it break time again? Wow? Where does the time go? Sam?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
The ether?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Speaking of ether? Have you ever heard of Ethio Jazz?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
No, you can't tell me about it.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
After the break, I will Joe Scante live from Hollywood's
Scolante Live from Hollywood, Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You mean birthday? Okay?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Uh So we did the top ten for me and
uh I'm gonna recap it one more time. Number one,
Wild Robot number two, Recap number three, Flow number four,
Nickel Boys number five, on Nora, number six, A Better Man,
number seven, Cabrini number eight, The Brutalist, number nine, Snackshack,
(18:46):
and number ten I'm still here, Sam, What do you.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Got all right? At number ten?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
I gotta tell you this was my favorite film going
experience of the year.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
And the movie was not very good. It was Megalopolis.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
That right there was one of the most entertaining film
going experiences I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Was it because of the crowd making fun of it
or were you sitting in those bouncy seats or what?
Speaker 4 (19:13):
No. I was there with friends and all of us.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
If you went in there with the idea of you
were going to be seeing high art, then you were
going to go and kind of sniff your own farts
in it. And in this one, it was just me
and my friends and I were I can't remember what
scene it was, but I just started busting up laughing,
and there wasn't anybody else making any noise in the theater,
and I'm just giggling at this one scene and then
(19:39):
everybody you just see the slow giggle just take over
the movie because everybody realized how ridiculous what we were
watching was.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Well, you know, I I I it was highly anticipated.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I wanted to see it, and then when the reports
came in, I go, well, I put other things in
a higher priority and I never saw it.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
So that's a disservice to yourself. I wish you could
have seen this on the big screen. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Oh wait too, I'm sure it'll play at the Alamo
draft House sometime soon.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Yeah, for sure. Okay.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Number number nine for me was Despicable Me for I
went and saw It's fun experience, good way to kind
of put the bow on the series.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
It was good.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I had no great movie I would put it. I
would give it my honorable mention in my top ten.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yeah, let's see here.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I also have at number eight Dune Part two visually
very beautiful. I well, I was kind of dozing off
in the middle of it, but it was one of
those movies that's really it's an epic.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
So yeah, I'd give it an honorable mention in my
top ten.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Two.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, let's see. I believe I'm on number seven. I
have Final Fantasy seven Advent Children Complete. This is the
final version of a film that came out. I believe
in like two thousand and four, but had so many
holes in that and had like it seemed like the
budget was creeping up on them, so they just cut
(21:05):
a bunch of random stuff out that got rid of
a lot of the storyline that this version of it,
that's the complete version of it. It had everything, and
it came out in February or last February, and loved it,
thought it was great. Let's see, moving on, we got
Deadpool Versus Wolverine coming up next.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
For me, obviously, that was a fun one. That was
a crowd pleaser at fan service on that one. Let's
see after that, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, I almost put that on mine too.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah. I like that one.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Visually great movie, a lot of fun. Enjoyed watching it
in the theater.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'd say the.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Best, one of the best, the best of the New
Planet of the Apes for me, yeah, because I was
bored and all the other ones. And I was also
heartbroken that they changed the apes from from my old
childhood apes and then but this one, I I'm back,
I'm back in the Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, it brought back the damn apes, which is yes,
let's see after that, I have Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
I enjoyed the Oh yeah, that was sad of that one.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
So did the family. It was a great family film.
Number three, Inside Out Too. Absolutely loved it. The best
visual representation of anxiety that I've ever seen, ever captured
for film.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I just thought it was amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
You know. I didn't see it.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And bradyston Ellis mentioned that as his favorite film of
the year, or one of them, one of them that
he really really liked.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Inside Out to great movie, outstanding animated film.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Number two, and I struggled with this one.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I almost had it as my number one. Godzilla minus one.
It was origin story style Godzilla time and it went
right back to the good feeling Godzilla. This is probably
the scariest, most intimidating of all gods, which was great.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And there was two Godzillas that came out in the
in a row.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Yeah. One of them was I think Godzilla with Kong.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It was kind of a continuation of that storyline.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
But Godzilla minus one came out of Japan. It was
just and it came out.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It came out after Godzilla.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
The other one was was the second because I saw
the first one and then another one came out right
away and I didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, I'm not sure which one came out first, but
I know which one was best. And Godzilla Minus one
came out of Japan. It was subtitled, and I usually
I have no problem with movies that are subtitled, but
I do get annoyed that I miss a lot of
the on screen action just reading the balog.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
But at the this was one movie that I just
didn't mind at all.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
It was great and number one movie that I saw
this year is one that nobody's put on any of
their lists, and I'm disappointed in all of you.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Monkey Man Oh, I didn't see Monkey Man.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
It was so good.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
That was one of the best action films out there.
It was an incredible story. It had that same kind
of vibe. I got the same energy watching that as
I did watching early Tony Jaw movies like like on
Bach and stuff like that. This was beautiful movie, dirty,
grimy filmmaking and storyline was outstanding.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Is it like a foreign film?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
No, I mean somewhat.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
It takes us like it's an Indian director.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I believe it was.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Dev Patel was in it and he yeah, So it
was in English. It had it was an Oka, but
it was you know, filmed overseas.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So okay, well this is good because our audience and me,
uh can see Monkey Man.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, great film, highly underrated if you if you enjoy
good fighting movies and that have like actual good storylines,
this one is it?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Number one Monkey Man. Go through your list one more time,
just to just all right, just quickly.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
So brief sum up was number ten Megalopolis. Uh. Number
eight or number nine was Dune Part two.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Number eight was Final Fantasy, seven Advent Children Complete. Number
seven was Despicable of Me. Four six was Deadpool and
Wolverine five Beetle Juice. Beetle Juice. Four was uh, I'm sorry,
we have Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Number
three Inside Out Part two and number two Godzilla minus
(25:29):
one and number one Monkey Man.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Okay, so I'm just only confused about the Godzilla one
because I think I don't know. I'm gonna I'm gonna
solve that mystery pretty soon. That's what that. That's all
I'm gonna say, because I just didn't see the second
one and maybe I maybe I made made a mistake.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
But any case, the first one I saw it in Japanese.
Then that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I do remember because half the movies I see you're
in Japanese because I got that Criterion channel. You know,
you get the Pale Flower if you want to go to.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
That eight hour the old eight hour movie.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Nine hours nine Human Condition.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Yes, thank you, thank you for the reminder.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I have that on the list of ideas of movies
that I want to see.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Down the line, and that one, yeah, uh, it's one.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I'm guessing I'm gonna have to devote an entire week two.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Oh, I think I saw Godzilla versus Calm the New Empire,
and then the other one came out minus one and
I didn't see it.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Oh, that was the better one. It was great.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
It was like they put the genuine fear factor behind
Godzilla again, like the thing that like it kind of
lost its fear element and just became like, you know,
let's take the kids over and see this one, and
the kids enjoy it because it's just big monsters fighting.
This one was like, yeah, I'm not sure if I
would take my kid to see this one.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
It was it had a legit fear behind it. All.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Well, I'm sad because when I saw Godzilla Minus one
in the theaters.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It was it was great. It was great.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I mean it was like a Godzilla experience and the
monsters were huge and the theater was shaking. But I
want to see the Minus one in the theater, so
it's going to be hard to do, so I'll probably
have to watch it in my my living room where
my son's doesn't work. Okay, all right, I think we
can take a break and then we'll come back. We
(27:21):
got you know, we have some pretty good Hollywood stories
of our usual fair and Nikki's Top ten Joe Scale
Live from Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Joe as he's my lawyer. You don't want money?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
He does it all us Galante Live from Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Hey, guess what we're gonna hear from Nicky in just
a second. I wanted to get one story out of
the way. This is fascinating. There was a Prince documentary
Sam and it was going to be nine hours and
it was going to be on Netflix, and then something
happened and they screened it for the family and it
(28:25):
won't be on Netflix after all. After the family got
a load of it, Netflix and Prince's Estate, as you remember,
Princess of State is somewhat disarrayed. He had no will,
but you know, they got it together and there are
some people in control. And Netflix and the Estate jointly
announced a new agreement where the Estate will produce its
own the Estate, not Netflix, will produce its own documentary
(28:46):
using exclusive content from Prince's archives. This means the previously
planned Netflix film directed by Ezra Edelman, guy who did
like oj thing, It's off the table. Last year, The
New York Times reported that Edelman's documentary contained allegations of
physical and emotional abuse against Prince, including accounts from former partners,
(29:11):
one that evidently he.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Punched in the face.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
The estate previously responded that they want Prince's story to
be told accurately without stories about him punching people in
the face. And now they're taking control of the narrative
and promising fans access to previously unreleased material from Prince's vault.
So they're saying, you're not really going to get the
whole dirt, but you're gonna get some stuff you haven't.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Seen in our vault. That it's a lot of double speak.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's a little bit concerning, because you're just not Any
time a documentary is made by the person that's being documented,
documented or their family.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You're not going to get the true story.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
We know that, but you might get a lie, or
you might get sensationalism, and they just don't want it.
And if they can control it, why not. That's what
I'm saying. Yeah, there were some you know stuff, There's
some ugly stuff. I mean, when you look at him,
he looks like a kind of a control freek and
he died of a fedyl overdose. So it's not He's
not that stable, you know, in any scenario by any measure.
(30:17):
But so obviously there's gonna be some weird stuff, and
you know, they don't want to they want to tell
their story. Okay, good for them. All right, Hey, let's
go to Nicki and listen to her top ten and
then we'll just let that take us to the break.
How's that, Sam?
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Sounds good?
Speaker 5 (30:35):
I'm Nicki on the Joe Escalante Show. We're going to
talk about the best films of twenty twenty four. This
is all my opinion, which is why they're correct answers
to this question. And I only saw, you know, when
I was looking at my like, there were some that
I saw. Yeah, I guess I should include all ten
films that I saw that were created in twenty twenty four.
(30:57):
I'm not saying I saw them all in this year,
but you know, I'm doing some catching up. But there
are ten films. I guess I'll include the last one.
I guess I feel kind of bad because I wasn't
even going to include. But let's start off with the
least favorite. We will start with Smile Too. I don't
even know where to start. Smile One was awesome if
(31:20):
you read it as a comedy, but there were still
some spooky elements. Smile Too had a vass Water sponsorship,
and if there's anything that makes a horror movie not scary,
it's sponsored bottled water. I think that the main character
was very out of touch, and a lot of her
behavior was not excusable. Even though it was understood that
(31:41):
she struggled with this kind of behavior, it wasn't really
scary in the way that a horror movie ought to be.
I can't recommend it to I think anyone next film.
I am just gonna tap this one in here. It's
The Watchers by m Night Shyamalan. This was actually, this
is not It's much better than Smile Too. In my opinion,
(32:02):
this one has one of the Fanning sisters. Don't ask
me which one. They're both great actresses, and it's a
spooky thriller. I think it's pretty good. I'm just gonna
keep going. Next up, you have at number eight, Better Man.
I think that Better Man should win Best Animation across
the board. It was amazing the monkey and the VFX
(32:24):
and the special effects was just fantastic. My roommate and
I watched a VFX react Like these guys who are
professionals with VFX, they did a breakdown of a lot
of the cool things that were done in Better Man.
So I highly recommend watching that if you're interested. It'll
make you appreciate the animation a whole lot more. In
that film, however, it's also just unrelenting in its horrible
(32:50):
things happening to poor Robbie Williams. Of course he's pretty
personally responsible for a lot of them. But my god,
if you want to watch a movie with we're just
two hours worth of horrible things happened to a monkey
with really no respite at all. That I think Better
Man's for you. Next up, You've got Baby Girl. I
(33:12):
liked this movie. Do I need to explain why. But
it's just, you know, not the favorite of the group.
I would watch it again. Some could say it's sort
of an educational film. But we'll continue next up, No Sfaratu.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
I like this a lot.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
I like a scary movie. I think that a lot
of the art direction was great. Sometimes I think that
things can be a little too crisp with modern filmmaking,
which is why I'm sort of an old head with
the films. But you know, it was beautiful, and all
of the candlelit shots I think were also just magnificent.
That is really my main highlight from that film. And
(33:53):
the acting and Lily Rose Depp. I mean, it's great.
I thought kut Orlock was hot. I was surprised that
this was not the common consensus. But again, we'll just
we'll continue, Okay. This is one that I already talked
about on the show. The Girl with the Needle, the
Danish entry to the I think Academy Awards also a
Polish co production. I loved the thriller element. I loved
(34:17):
the acting. Miison de Sen was great. I think they
had the most wretched looking individuals. It really sold the
whole World War One, Uh, you know, look, I don't
know what I'm talking about, but I think it was
really great. I think they were sometimes a little heavy
handed on the non Diegetics score, so that could have
(34:39):
been loosened up a bit, but still not the worst. Okay,
after that, we're in the top four. Now Kneecap. This
was a film that we got to see because we
actually interviewed the members of Kneecap back in the summer,
I think, and I got to see it in the
(35:00):
Dolby Cinema. I think it might have been the one
on since I got to see it in a screening
room with fantastic audio, so every song sounded amazing. The
actors are the band members themselves, so it was just
it was amazing to see that they could be so
multifaceted and talented. I think it was a great film,
great story, great pacing, and just a really fun watch.
(35:24):
And I learned a lot, learned a lot about Ireland. Okay,
now we're getting into my personal favorites. I'm just gonna
give you a spoiler. They're all horror movies. Let's start
with VHS. Beyond That is number three on my top
twenty twenty four movies. I love the VHS series. I
think some of their other films have not been so successful,
(35:46):
like the eighties and nineties one I really couldn't get into.
I think the eighties VHS nineteen eighty was a particularly
bad one, but VHS Beyond was great. I'm not huge
into like space horror, but I've been getting more into
sci fi these days. I liked the you know, other
(36:08):
worldly elements. I like the settings. I randomly saw one
of my friends from art school cast as a character
in this, which was a surprise that I really enjoyed.
And I thought that the collection of stories were freaky
and outlandish and it made for a great anthology. So
h just Beyond you get number three, number two, long Legs,
(36:30):
I mean, Mica Monroe, Nick Cage, beautiful, experimental, scary. I
liked the weird setting. I was also just anticipating it
so highly, so I was very ready for that film.
And it's sitting at number two in all the films
that were made in twenty twenty four for me personally,
(36:53):
and lastly at number one. I bet you could guess
it the substance. I've seen it now twice, loved it twice.
Very few critiques on that movie. Only thing I didn't
love was when they're transforming from Elizabeth to Sue and
they show like a sort of tacky heart flame VFX
(37:17):
image on screen and I know what they're doing. I mean,
they reference it again later in the film, but that
really could have been like any other thing. I think
that using like a shape motif was really tacky, but
but great acting, incredible art direction, and I think it's
a classic. So yeah, that's Nicky's Drubinski's top twenty twenty
(37:42):
four films for the Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood Show.
And if you want to see or hear about any
of my future movie reviews, I am Cherry Funfetti on
letterboxed C H E R R I f U N
F E T T I. You can find me there,
follow me back. I will follow you. We can look
at each other's movies.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Thank you, Thank you, Nikki.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
That was awesome hearing your top ten remotely and some
of those movies I never heard of, and like you're
Sam and I was going to rank the top ten
Oscar nominees. I will do that next time. Joe Scalante
Live from Hollywood, And now leave you with a just
a taste of the greatest song I ever written,
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