11-19-24 Interview - Christian Toto of Hollywood in Toto

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With our favorite entertainment critic, Christian Toto of Hollywood intoto
dot com and an excellent podcast of the same name,
which you can find on all of your podcast platforms. Christian,
welcome back to the show, my friend.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good to be back.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
So You've got three columns at Hollywood and Toto that
I want to talk about today, And the first one
is about or am I Racist? Which is the Matt
Walsh documentary who I mean Other than an Inconvenient Truth,
which has been the high watermark for a long time.
They made a crapload of money for a documentary and
now they did something unheard of and scandalous. They submitted

(00:40):
the film for Awards season. Hollywood is not responding kindly,
are they, Christian?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
No, when I say that, because that's what Variety magazine,
at least that was their response to the submission. There was,
you know, like being exposed to garlic if you're a vampire,
or you know it just truth if you're a journalist.
You know, they're freaking out, and in part because they
really want to keep Hollywood pure, and by pure I
mean is sort of a progressive bastion of thought and

(01:10):
ideas and stories and anyone trying to kind of crash
that party. They don't take kindly to it. So I
think the reaction was fascinating. You really have to read
the whole variety up ed on the subject. It's it's
just mean spirited, it's withering, it's snarky, it's sarcastic. But
at the end of the day, it's a very good
documentary and it made a lot of money, and it

(01:32):
should be in the conversation in that regard, and there's
nothing wrong with that. So being snippy about it, I
think is revealing.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Don't you think that Hollywood is starting And I say
starting because we're still in the year's long process of
making movies that are all woke and glamorizing all this nonsense.
We'll get to snow white at some point in this conversation,
But don't you think they're starting to get the message
that these films don't make money, they're giant losers, and
Americans just want to be entertained. So from that perspective,

(02:04):
wouldn't it go long way towards telling those people in
flyover Country that they've been ignoring for years or insulting
to directly for years. Hey, you know what we know
you love this film, we think it's good. We're going
to put it in the running just to send a message.
I guess.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think you're thinking logically and as a pragmatist, and
that doesn't really work with Hollywood sometimes. Now, in Hollywood's defense,
I think the message has partially gotten through. I think
in recent months we've seen a lot of eight political
films which have been fun, exciting and it made big
money at the box office, like Deadpool and Wolverine, Bad Boys,
Ride or Die. Inside Out Too really wasn't woke at all.

(02:45):
So I do think the message is starting to filter
through that if you avoid these sort of incendiary topics,
if you get off your high horse act, you could
make a lot of cash. And so I think that's important.
But there's still not all the way there yet. And
so they still see a rightly project like am I
Racist as a threat and they don't want conservatives at
the table. They want to keep them out. Matt Walsh

(03:07):
had a great tweet about it, saying they wanted to
keep us in the ghetto in a sense from the
kind of a separate, separate but equal, maybe you could
say from a creative point of view. Yeah, that's what
they want. I mean, it's the reason why Am I Racist?
Came out? It was very popular, it was certainly incendiary
in a way, and the vast majority of film critics
ignored it, aggressively ignored it. Just go to Rotten Tomatoes

(03:30):
you'll see a handful at best, but most platforms just said,
we're not going to even dain this a view. And
I think part of that was they sensed it was
pretty good and they didn't want to say so, and
they didn't want to admit it, and they didn't want
to share it with their readers. But that's another sign
that the Hollywood ecosystem, whether it's Variety magazine or film
critics in general, they just want to keep people out.

(03:52):
It's just the way it is.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
To that point, Christian, it seems like these right wing
films are not able to tap into the normal distribution channels,
and what they're showing is that they can work outside
the distribution channels and still be very very successful. So
it's I think maybe it's even more than just right
leaning ideology. It's more this is a fundamental threat to

(04:16):
the way our system is built, and if we allow
outsiders to have success and then we recognize them for
that success, then we are undermining everything about Hollywood. And
I think there's a level of fear there, don't you think.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, fear is the operative word. I think fear has
been part and parcel of the Hollywood for decades, even
more so now with all the cultural and digital upheaval.
But you're absolutely right. I mean what they did with
m I Racis is work around the system. You know,
Matt Walsh didn't pop up on Stephen Colbert's couch on
the Late Show, he didn't do the traditional interviews, he

(04:53):
wasn't featured in Vanity Fair. He worked around the system.
He went to a lot of different podcasts, US and
new media platforms and got the message out that way.
And there was a new company, a new distribution company
that came up just in weeks and they helped bring
the movie to theaters. So you have all these new technologies,
all these different new ways to get to the public,

(05:14):
and all these different companies are saying, hey, we could
buck the system and do it at a pretty good
price point and maybe make some cash along the way.
And that's what we saw. I think it made about
twelve million, which is not huge in the traditional sense.
But for documentaries, yeah, most of them make a fraction
of a fraction of a fraction.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
I mean, it's hard to make money. It's gotten better,
I think with the streaming platforms where you get a
little bit of play from Netflix or Amazon Prime or whatever. Yes,
but in the theaters it is unheard of for a
documentary to do as well as Ami Racists actually did,
which is why I think Hollywood is absolutely hating this
and will not necessarily give it a fair shake. But
WOY would be nice if it at least got nominated,

(05:54):
you know, just throw us a bone. That's how I
feel to see the Academy. I'm like, just throw us
a bone me, something that says you care about all
of these people that don't necessarily subscribe to your same
political views. So I also want to talk to you
about a couple other columns right now on the blog,
not the least of which is this one. The headline
says it all Now, it's okay to mock President Biden's

(06:16):
mental state. So I don't watch the late night shows.
You watch them for me. Christian, what are you seeing
on this front?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, listen, we've spent about almost four years now with
comedians essentially ignoring Joe Biden. They would throw in the oh,
he's pretty old jokes, which are a harmless and toothless
and don't really have much meaning because he is old,
and being old is okay. But being old and having
some sort of impairment where he can't speak, he can't think,

(06:45):
he can't share his thoughts in a way that we've
seen over the last four years is another matter. You know,
and I often preface this whole conversation with I would
never make fun of a person with dementia. That's a
cruel thing. But we're making fun of the fact that
that he's been told, that he's been presented as he's fine,
he's sharp as attack. The media and the Democratic gave
us that platform, gave us that brand of Joe Biden,

(07:09):
and it's false. So I always thought making fun of him,
honestly was was on board. It was it was, you know, agreeable.
I mean, I think the minute he says, listen, I'm
not feeling well. My doctor's say I need to step
down from office, I would say that's absolutely off limits.
But it hasn't been, but it has for late night TV.
But now that the election is over, and now that
he's stepped aside, now that he only has a few

(07:29):
more months left in office, suddenly we can notice the
fact that he goes to press conferences and wanders off
like a I don't know how to describe it.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Are you talking about the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon rainforest?
Press conference?

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Amazon rain I mean there have been other events.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
I'm sure, but the Amazon Rainforest. I didn't put that
on the blog because it just fell too mean to
pile on at this point. But if you haven't seen
that clip he gives he's having as it's on Christians story,
he's having a press conference in the middle of the
Amazon rainforest, which is already weird because they have the
presidential lectern there with a seal on it and everything,

(08:03):
and he's in the middle of the rainforest. Then he
gets done and instead of walking off like towards people,
he just turns around and walks into the rainforest, like
where are you going? What is happening? Somebody stopped the
elderly man before he gets eaten by a boa constrictor
or something. It was just super weird in a long
line of weird, and I guess that was enough to
get Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy fallon to notice it.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, by the way, the Telegraph said that he ambled
into Greener eg which I thought was rather say, yeah,
you know, but this is the same Jimmy Kimmel who
smirked about it last night. But just a few months ago,
Jimmy Kimmel was at a fundraiser for Biden, and Biden froze.
We all saw at the clip. He just froze and
had to have Barack Obama, the former president, come over

(08:48):
and gently lead him off. And Jimmy Kimmel lied to
everyone and said, no, that was he was perfectly fine.
There was nothing wrong, nothing happened, nothing was weird. That
wasn't what you thought you saw. That's what he was
doing several months ago when they keeping up the facade
that he's fine, but he's not fine. And it's really
a dereliction of duty, especially for a satirist to ignore that.
I mean, Jimmy Kimble should have been making fun of

(09:09):
mostly the media and partially the Democratic Party for putting
this over on us well at president of the United States,
who he's not well, and they pretended he was forever
and if he didn't malfunction during that June twenty seventh debate.
He might have lost the bid Trump or even one
to Trump. We don't know. Yeah, but that's what comedy
is supposed to do. That's what satire does, is speak

(09:31):
truth to power and hold people accountable.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
I think it's interesting that it's cruel to talk about
someone who is rapidly losing their mental capabilities. You can't
do that, but you can still let him run the country.
You know what I'm saying, Like, if he's good enough
to be president of the United States, then he should
be good enough to take some ribbing about his foibles.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah. You know, it's funny whenever I meet someone who
doubts my argument that the media's corrupted, I said, just
look at the president. He's clearly not well, and there's
no investigative stories or journalists or any sort of effort
to say what's going on? How did they hide this? What? Who?
Who's making the decisions behind the scenes. It's a real issue.
It's serious. I mean, you know, push put away the

(10:17):
late night stick. This is our country, you know who's
in charge?

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (10:21):
These are these are It's a fundamental question for every
journalists in the country. Who covers national politics and they're
not interested.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Uh this texter just said, Mandy, maybe Uncle Joe's just
one of us after all, then over fifty need to
empty their bladder more often, and any of us good
old boys. In the middle of a forest, that's just
where you go. So maybe you just had to wander
off and go potty. I don't know, but we are
not going to know the answer to that question. One
last story from hollywoodintoto dot com, which is the uh,

(10:50):
the the written version, and you can also hear Christian's
podcast on all of the podcast platforms. Hollywood in Toto
is the name of that as well. Can we just
have one more moment with justin Maman who is now
like this sort of like gen X hero for saying
the quiet part loud, which is thank God the last
four years are over and I can exhale. But man,

(11:11):
did she create a firestorm of activity?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
She sure did. My eighties crush is coming up huge,
and I think I have an intellectual crush on her
now in addition to the to the old version. Yeah, listen,
you know she's not been as famous as she once was.
She's doing directing, she's doing other projects, so she's still
active as a creative voice, but she's come out in
recent weeks and just said, hey, I think we can
all think again, we can all speak again, we can

(11:35):
all have a different approach to the culture. We can
have conversations. And for the last four years, she said,
I felt like I was walking eggshells, and I kind
of want to steer people to her Twitter feed to
some of the comments that she's written at length. She
had a great interview with The Free Press just a
year or two ago. And you know, she's not left,
she's not right, she's not conservative, she's not liberal. She's

(11:57):
just a common sense individual who is fascinating and smart
and well worth listening to. And what I mentioned on Twitter,
I said, you know, George Clooney and Tom Hanks and
Meryl Street, they haven't said a word or two about
free speech, about cancel culture, about this woke ideology. And
along comes this ex sitcom star who's crushing it and

(12:18):
God bless her, and that tweet went bananas. I've got
I think a half a million views at this point,
and that was just yesterday.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Just listen to one this one part, this one tweet
and a long tweet thread. Everyone should be able to
live their life the way they want to without infringing
on somebody else's ability to freely live their life the
way they want. And that's the whole thing. You follow
that within a society and your golden you know what
I mean. You can't fail common sense?

Speaker 3 (12:43):
You do?

Speaker 1 (12:44):
You all do me? Yeah, we'll all live in happy
you know, coexistence. That's why we're doing here. So I
just got a text her who said, just wondering how
Christian's review was for Wicked. Have you had a chance
to review this film yet? Are you still embargoed? What's
that situation? Because I got to tell you, Christian, I
really want to love this movie. I want to love it.

(13:04):
But if they made it to Hollywood instead of Broadway
like they destroyed Lemiz, I don't know if I can
handle that.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
I saw it Sunday, I'm about to write my review
officially for the website. I can say that I thought
it was terrific. I'm not a musical person. The broad
I saw the stage version of this a few years ago.
I enjoyed it immensely. I thought they mostly knocked us
out of the park. I think the two leads, their
voices are just spectacular, big and full of range. I

(13:34):
thought the colors, that the canvas, the performances, the humor. Again,
I'm not a musical person, so it's not my genre,
so it makes it a little harder for me to judge.
But I can't imagine how it could be better or
different or more evolved. There are a couple of minor hiccups.
They make Jeff Goldblum sing that's a bad idea, but
in every other way he's great, and I just thought

(13:54):
it was charming. That is just a quick warning. This
is part one and it's well over two hours, so
just knows what's going in part one.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Part one, so we just get to Defying Gravity and
it ends on that note, like a halftime at the theater.
That's unsatisfying.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I'm not gonna say where it ends, but I want
everyone to know that they're not really publicizing that directly.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
When does the second part come out?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Good question. I'm not sure they may have a street date.
It's certainly not tomorrow or the next day or the
next month. I don't even know if it's gonna be
twenty twenty five or not, but it's not anytime very soon.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Okay, Now, I'm annoyed. Now, I'm super annoyed. This has
now made me super annoyed to see this movie. I'm
tempted not to see it until the second part comes out.
I don't like waiting. I've been spoiled by Netflix streaming.
I mean, we all have. We don't like to wait
for anything. And I live through having to wait for
the Star Wars movies for three.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
And a half years.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Episode botom of the show.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Exactly exactly, all right, Christian, are you gonna stick around
for of the day.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
I'm afraid I am. I will lose, but I will
lose gracefully.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Somebody on the text line said, justin directorial tips for
the meltdown videos are priceless. I have to go back
and look at these. Apparently she's been getting these videos
where people are filming themselves crying and then putting on
the internet as if that's an aspirational thing to do.
And I guess giving them direction on what they should
do with that, and that is the kind of passive aggressiveness.

(15:19):
I can get behind what other movies real quick. And
we have like a minute a half left. I want
to know what we should be looking for for Christmas.
Are you starting to see Christmas in Oscar movies coming
your way?

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:31):
You know, I'm lucky enough I get screening links to
a lot of movies. I'm bombarred at this time of
the year, so I'm just trying to get through them.
I'm going to watch two today. I'm watching Gladiator too.
Tonight I'm going to watch Juror number two, probably in
an hour or two. So yeah, this is the season
where I just spend all my days watching movies.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Gladiator two Majori's out on that one for me because
the first movie was so perfect in so many ways.
It was so good and so entertaining, great cast. I'm
just gonna have to see how this one turns out.
I'm just not sure about that, Mandy. They've been talking
about hiring more people of color in Hollywood for years now.
They make this Wicked movie, pick a webman of color
for one of the main characters, and then they paint

(16:07):
her green. What's up with that? That is an integral
part of the story. She has to be green. That
is a huge part of the story. I'm just glad
they hired people that could sing, because if you go
back and look at the film version of Lem's rob
which is a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber that is
just absolutely incredible. They hired a bunch of actors who

(16:29):
can't sing, and I'm like, what are you doing? That
was my fear. But then when I saw Ariana Grande,
I was like, Okay, at least they got people who
can sing. So we'll check that. When does that movie
come out?

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, she belts it out. That's out off Friday.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay, so okay, good? Might I actually be able to
see that before we go? What now? It's time for
the most exciting segment on the radio of its kind
in the world of the day. All right, what is
our dad joke of the day, please?

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Anthony Mandy? Why are pigs bad drivers? Pigs bad drivers?

Speaker 1 (17:07):
I don't know, Christian, any idea?

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Help?

Speaker 1 (17:12):
You said nothing? They hog the road? Yeah? All right, yeah,
what's our word of the day? Please?

Speaker 3 (17:19):
The word of the day is a verbane fbi gn.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
That means to fake something. You feine hunger, you fane
passing out.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Pretty much, saying something is to pretend to feel or
be affected by it.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
There you go, you feign concern.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Oh, I know this one? Which Broadway musical dramatizes the
rise of the nineteen sixties rock and roll group The
Four Seasons. Do you know, Christian? It's so good. It's
one of my Yes, Jersey Boys is correct, it's one
of my absolute favorite shows. You can't not have fun
when you go to that show unless they hire someone
to play Frankie Valley. They can't sing. I've had that

(17:56):
experience once once. All Right, what you is our Jeopardy category?
And I, Christian, have to wait until the end of
the question, and you can jump in anytime because you're
on a bit of a delay because you're on zoom.
So here we go. What is our category?

Speaker 3 (18:11):
That's T B D, which means each correct response is
going to begin with.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
The letter T.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
It has a B and a D that come later
in you'll you'll catch on. Okay, a horse of pure stock.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Mandy, what is a thoroughbred? Direct?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
A sensational five column wide newspaper starts with a T.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Has a Christian tablet? Didn't We'll get it is considerable.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Bryan's yelling saying that a Russian thistle bouncing down an
old West street in the wind.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Manny, what is a tumbleweed? Correct? All added up?

Speaker 3 (18:59):
It means a changed in a systematic form.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
It starts with the T.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Has a being there and ends with a D is
the answer, Mandy, Mandy is tabulated correct?

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Look at you?

Speaker 2 (19:15):
I finally say I didn't think it was right.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
This in is found in the Canterbury Tales and Today
in Washington, d C. Where it's a favorite brunch spot.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
The blank in MM.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Starts with the ta has a being there.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
And Mandy the old Ebbott's grill wrong. Dang it?

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Anything Christian, because what's the score? Did you go back down? Okay?

Speaker 1 (19:43):
So mom, Christian, come on anything.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
He's got nothing, We got nothing.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's it's the tabird in the what the tabird? Tabbird?
I've never heard of that?

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Now you have?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Well, now I have. I have a new place to
put on my list in Washington, d C. Christian, good
to see you, my friend. What does the next podcast
come out? And now you got on it?

Speaker 2 (20:05):
It comes out tomorrow. I should have actor Matthew Marsden,
who's been in a lot of great films including Blackhawk Down. Yeah,
but you can also check out right now, I've got
a what movie Changed My Life video at the Hollywood
and Toto YouTube channel and that'll be on iTunes as
well later today.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Oh, I can't wait. I don't know if a newby
has ever changed my life. I'm gonna have to watch
that to see if you spark anything in me. Thank you,
Christian Toto. Good to see you, my friend, my pleasure,
all right, that is Christian Toto